Technofranki's blog

A new issue of Retro Gamer is available. This is some of the things you can read in issue 74 of Retro Gamer:

• Back to the Eighties – March 1983
• Back to the Ninteties – September 1992
• The Definitive Ghosts ‘n Goblins
• The Making of… Xor
• Retroinspection: Sam Coupe
• The making of… Spy vs Spy triology
• Controlling History
• Import Only: Aquales
• The Making of… Tapper
• The Classic Game: The Newzealand Story
• Coin-op Capers: Double Dragon
• The Making of Puggsy

Retro Gamer can be bought from ImagineShop.co.uk. You could also check out RetroGamer.net.

The Oscar (aka Academy Award) was held on Sunday March 7, 2010. The big winner was The Hurt Locker with six Awards.  Under you’ll se all the winners. List taken from Oscar.com:

Best Picture: The Hurt Locker

Actor in a Leading Role: Jeff Bridges – Crazy Heart

Actor in a Supporting Role: Christoph Waltz - Inglourious Basterds

Actress in a Leading Role: Sandra Bullock - The Blind Side

Actress in a Supporting Role: Mo’Nique - Precious

Animated Feature Film: UP

Art Direction: Avatar

Cinematography: Avatar

Costume Design: The Young Victoria - Sandy Powell

Directing: The Hurt Locker - Kathryn Bigelow

Documentary Feature: The Cove - Louie Psihoyos and Fisher Stevens

Documentary Short: Music by Prudence - Roger Ross Williams and Elinor Burkett

Film Editing: The Hurt Locker – Bob Murawski and Chris Innis

Foreign Language Film: The Secret in Their Eyes (El Secreto de Sus Ojos), Argentina

Makeup: Star Trek

Music (Original Score): Up

Music (Original Song):  Crazy Heart – “The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart)”

Short Film (Animated): Logorama – Nicolas Schmerkin

Short Film (Live Action): The New Tenants – Joachim Back and Tivi Magnusson

Sound Editing: The Hurt Locker – Paul N.J. Ottosson

Sound Mixing: The Hurt Locker – Paul N.J. Ottosson and Ray Beckett

Visual Effects: Avatar – Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham and Andrew R. Jones

Writing (Adapted Screenplay): Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire – Screenplay by Geoffrey Fletcher

Writing (Original Screenplay): The Hurt Locker – Written by Mark Boal

I think this will be a monthly post, to blog about some of the statistics for my blog. The blogpost is mostly for my self so I can compare from month to month how many visitors I have, but also so that you have someone to compare to.

I use Google Analytics for my blog statistics.

In February 2010, I had 729 visitors. They came from:

1. United States   30,45 %
2. United Kingdom   10,43 %
3. Norway    8,09 %
4. Canada    7,13 %
5. Germany    5,76 %
6. France    3,16 %
7. Netherlands    2,88 %
8. Poland    2,61 %
9. Australia    2,06 %
10. Denmark    1,92 %

To read my blog, they where using:

• Firefox    44,72 %
• Internet Explorer    28,12 %
• Chrome    11,52 %
• Opera    8,09 %
• Safari    5,08 %

People came from the following site to my blog:

• google (organic)  237  32,51 %
• (direct) ((none))  75  10,29 %
• gonintendo.com (referral)  68  9,33 %
• images.google.com (referral)  54  7,41 %
• yahoo (organic)  38  5,21 %

Google is the most used searchengine with 80.6% of the serach hits for my blog, followed by Yahoo with only 12.3%. The most used searchterms to find my blog:

• recording wii
• wii
• buy norwegian curling pants
• how to record video on xbox
• norwegian curling pants
• norwegian curling pants buy
• recording wii gameplay
• wii firmware update
• winter games c64
• 2010 norwegian curling pants

The most viewed articles on my blog:

• Winter Games review
• How to record video from Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii
• Technofranki blog (frontpage)
• Xbox 360: Backup your harddrive and memory unit
• Vancouver 2010: The Norwegian curling pants
• Posts Tagged ‘Mario’
• Bergensbanen in only 7 minutes and 14 seconds
• Xbox Originals: Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
• Posts Tagged ‘Animal Crossing’
• Review: Nintendo DSi – a good upgrade

A month to the next post.

The Norwegian Game Award – Gullstikka 2009 – was held in Oslo tonight. Under you will see all the nomenies, winners are marked in bold text.

The big winner was Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 with five awards.

Best Racing game:

• Colin McRae Dirt 2
• Forza Motorsport 3
• Need For Speed Shift
• Need For Speed Nitro

Best Sports game:

• FIFA 10
• Football Manager 2010
• NHL 10
• Wii Sports Resort

Best Action game:

• Assassins Creed 2
• Batman: Arkham Asylum
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
• Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Best Adventure/RPG:

• Borderlands
• Dragon Age: Origins
• Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story
• Sherlock Holmes vs Jack The Ripper

Open Class:

• Guitar Hero: Metallica
• The Sims 3
• Street Fighter IV
• Tekken 6

Best Platformer:

• Lego Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues
• Little Big Planet
• New Super Mario Bros. Wii
• Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time

Best Childrens game:

• Knerten Spillet
• Lego Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues
• Mini Ninjas
• New Super Mario Bros Wii

Best game with Norwegian language:

• Buzz Norgesmester
• Little Big Planet PSP
• Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time
• The Sims 3

Critics Award:

• Batman Arkham Asylum
• Dragon Age Origins
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
• Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Best PC game:

• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
• Dragon Age Origins
• Left 4 Dead 2
• Sims 3

Best Console game:

• Assassins Creed 2
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
• New Super Mario Bros Wii
• Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Best Handheld game:

• Gran Turismo PSP
• GTA: Chinatown Wars
• Little Big Planet PSP
• The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks

Game of the Year:

• Assassins Creed 2
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
• Dragon Age Origins
• Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Best Online site:

• Gamer.no
• Gamereactor.no
• Spill.no
• Spillmagasinet.no

Årets Ildsjel:

• Bernt Erik Sandnes
• Kim «Iterium» Uri (MW2.no)
• Petter Røisland (FM Norge)
• Vegard Skjefstad (The Gathering)

Best Retailer:

• Gamestop Karl Johan
• Gamezone Kristiansand
• Spaceworld Megastore Oslo
• Spaceworld Strømmen

Best Downloable game:

• Battlefield 1943
• Shadow Complex
• Tales of Monkey Island
• Trials HD

Best Strategy:

• Anno 1404
• Empire Total War
• Halo Wars
• Warhammer 40 000: Dawn of War II

Best Multiplayer game:

• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
• FIFA 10
• Left 4 Dead 2
• New Super Mario Bros wii

Best Cellphone game:

• Beneath A Steel Sky (iPhone)
• Flight Control (IPhone)
• Modern Combat: Sandstorm (iPhone)
• Secret of Monkey Island SE (iPhone)

Gullstikka translates to something like The Golden Stick.

The Vancouver Olympics was great. I guess I’ve watch a bit too much on television, but it was a great watch. The Norwegian broadcaste NRK (Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation) went HD on February the 12th, the same day as the Olympics startet. So it’s have been great to watch everyting in HD.

The Olympics started tragically with the death of Nodar Kumaritashvili in luge training.

In the eyes of us Norwegians, it was a great Olympics. It started a bit slow, but in the end we got 9 gold medals, 8 silver and 6 bronze medals. That’s a total of 23 medals, only surpassed USA, Germany and Canada.

For everything Olympics, go to Vancouver2010.com.

On March 3rd, Japanese Nintendo DSi owner can download the DSiWare game Rittai Kakushi e Attakoreda (立体かくし絵　アッタコレダ). I don’t know what the games about, but I do love the 3D interface. It’s use the middle camera between the two DSi screens to track you eyes and use that information to display the right angel of th content on the screen. Watch the video bellow to see how it works. If you move your eyes or your DSi, the objects in the game moves. Pretty cool.

Source: Gizmodo.com

I find curling very fascinating and I’m following the Norwegian team which do very well at the moment. They lost the opening match against Canada. But have since won against USA, Germany, Switzerland and China.

But what interessting, is all the buzz the Norwegian team have got over their crazy pants, also referred to as clown pants. The Facebook group The Norwegian Olympic Curling Team’s Pants have at the time of writting 182 000 followers. I quess Loudmouthgolf.com have had some extra hits this week. You can also buy similar pants on eBay.

It’s not only Norwegian press that have written about the curling pants. Msnbc.msn.com and usatoday.com are some of the international ones. The Today Show have also covered the new fashion, which you can watch bellow.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Small update: The Facebook group is past 254 000 followers (at 11:20 PM CET, February 21st)

Photo: NRK1