Necropolis Labs

The Wolfman

Terrormaster — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 16:59:00 +0000

All Win, ZERO Fail.

Typically I LOATH remakes with a huge purple Barney passion. But from the beginning something just felt “RIGHT” about this production overall. I avoided pretty much all spoilers (which is unusual for me) and all of the juicy soap that was apparently going on during the production – I did not want to taint the experience I knew was to come with any negativity.

I went in expecting to be entertained. I was disappointed we didn’t get in to the Director’s Hall (has nice comfy high back seats and armrests that lift so you can scoot closer to that special someone) and apparently Showcase stopped carrying Sour Skittles – I was a bit annoyed. The trailers that ran were all a bit lackluster except the Iron Man 2 preview which I had already seen a billion times – it’s on my radar. Then the lights went down completely, the Universal logo rolled, and I became absorbed and damn nearly forgot about the rest of the world. Sour Skittles? Didn’t need em, didn’t even touch my drink the entire time.

What rolled on screen was simply and utterly the best damn horror movie I’ve seen in the last 20+ years. The atmosphere was perfect. The transformation sequences were breathtakingly astounding even for CGI effects (bite me Avatar). The acting was spot on and I was never once taken out of the moment. The way the carnage unfolded was awesome – blood, guts, heads, and limbs go flying without seeing much more than a hairy arm or tiny glimpse of the wolven fangs – the beast was FAST! DAMN FAST! And never once did I feel slighted by not seeing it until midway through the movie. And much like the original Alien, keeping the beast in the shadows just to the edge of your vision, getting maybe a tiny glimpse of it only after it was too late for the victim worked extraordinarily well. It definitely increased the tension and fear. Something I haven’t seen done right in ages.

I did notice maybe on two occasions that the music somewhat reminded me of Dracula. But I really didn’t pay much mind to it and hardly noticed the film even HAD a soundtrack because I was that absorbed into what was happening visually. And I for one think that’s a good thing. Music typically mentally cues me to when they’re gonna try and hit me with a cheap scare (and there are a couple of those) and that never once happened, I pretty much jumped in all the right spots they wanted me to jump. Being a bit jaded to horror tactics, that my friends hasn’t happened to me in a couple decades.

I left the theater and honestly felt like I underpaid for this movie. Maybe I’m a sucker for werewolves but it was that good. It was nice to see Hollywood and Universal go back their roots, away from the posh vampires and werewolves (I’m looking at you Twilight and New Moon). They dug deep pulling out a lot of classic film techniques yet giving it a gritty and violent 21st century touch. A perfect one-two punch.

Please Hollywood, give us more horror like this one!

Halloween Countdown Widget (COMPLETE)

Terrormaster — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 04:02:59 +0000

Alrighty haunters and ghouls, the Halloween Countdown Widget is complete and available for free from the Android App Store. As you can see in the screenshot that I’ve taken a completely different approach from where I was going the first time. Battery tests show that updating every second did put a noticeable strain on the battery. I decided that if I was dump the seconds off the display that the really only important thing at that point is the number of days.

So I completely revisited the design and put together something that I feel is far better than what I had before. Something that’s not simply a knock of all the other countdowns out there (although I couldn’t find any Halloween related countdowns out there for Android). There’s a candle in the display that melts away a little each month the closer it gets to Halloween then starts over on November 1. If I can find a way to animate the candle flame without impacting performance or battery life I will add it in a future version.

Also of note is the skull being interactive meaning that if you tap it you’ll get one of four random Halloween sound effects. This is where I met my biggest challenge being new to Android development. It took hours of research to find a working sample of how to implement a button on a widget, especially one that doesn’t open a separate app.

Overall I’m extremely pleased with the final outcome. My daughter loves touching the skull to make it play sounds (wait till she sees my next project muhahaha, I might never get my phone back).

The Halloween Countdown Widget is up on the Google Android App store and can be picked up freely there, just search for “Necropolis Labs” and you’ll find it. Or just hit the QR Code below using a barcode reader from your Android phone.

Enjoy and keep your eyes peeled for more Android goodies from Necropolis Labs.

Halloween Countdown Android Widget

Terrormaster — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 05:32:26 +0000

My first ever Android app – A Halloween Countdown Widget is up and running on my phone. I haven’t put the APK up on the Android market yet. Running some battery tests to see if the widget updating every second puts a drain on the battery.

I’m not certain about the pumpkin on the left or the blood font at the top. Open to criticism and suggestions.

Manoi Go – Break Dancing Robot

Terrormaster — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 04:50:55 +0000

Wow, this is a pretty cool little fella. No one can argue that the Japanese have the market cornered on cool robotics. Now if I could only see the mechanical interworkings underneath I could pick up on some useful animatronic tricks. Hey maybe us Haunters can pool some duckies together and buy one for the soul purpose of reverse-engineering with Halloween in mind.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010 – BRING IT BIATCH!

Terrormaster — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 03:10:33 +0000

Lunae Illuminatus

Terrormaster — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 00:28:23 +0000

Merry Christmas!

Terrormaster — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 03:43:51 +0000

No related posts.

A Little Holiday Fun With The Faegoria Team

Terrormaster — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 03:48:01 +0000

No related posts.

Clash of the Titans (2010) – Trailer 2 OMFG

Terrormaster — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 14:52:43 +0000

OMFG! Medusa! Kraken! Pegasus! DROOOOOOOLZZZZ… This movie is gonna roxxerz our boxxerz! By Zeus please not let those be the only money shots. Only thing missing from this trailer was Bubo the owl (are they even doing him? If not then I wonder how Perseus gets the Eye from the witches?) Did I say DAMN!?!!!

SPOILER WARNING: If you do not want to see what any of these creatures are gonna look like do NOT watch the trailer.

Adventure Creation Kit

Terrormaster — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 21:56:34 +0000

While researching for a new gaming project (yeah, like I don’t have enough on my plate) I ran across a nice little gem called Adventure Creation Kit. While being a far cry from Enterbrain’s RPG Maker series in terms of building RPGs it’s not really the point of this game creation utility. It’s not really geared to build jRPGs like RPG Maker but instead it’s intentionally designed to build games in the tradition of the classic Ultima series, more specifically Ultima 4 and 5.

Granted it’s been around for a couple years or more and I may have even stumbled across it before. But something this time struck a chord with me. Perhaps its been that desire of late to see more games from this era. I do so miss the simplicity of RPGs of the time and IMHO were more fun to play. I remember playing the Ultima series days on end with little to no sleep and barely leaving the room for food and drink. All the while being on a 3-way call with two other friends questing at the same time and sharing finds and clues. This was LONG LONG before the day where MMORPGs like WoW and Everquest were consuming the lives of its players.

I’ll be downloading this when I get home this evening and tinkering with it over the weekend as time permits. I may start building Ultima Obscura or Skara Brae with it. Heck, if I like it enough I may actually build Elendaria with it – afterall Elendaria WAS originally inspired by Ultima 5 during its original conception and would be nice to come full circle.