No, this isn't an attempt to sell something, but it is an attempt to let you guys know just how inexpensive the Xbox 360 is becoming. The retail price is still $300, but that's for the Elite, which has a 120gb hard drive. If you want to keep expenses very low, you could go with the lesser value, regular Xbox 360 Arcade for $200. Then, you could go on eBay for a cheap hard drive. The 120gb hard drive sells for around $40-60 on eBay. Therefore, if you really want the 120gb package, you could potentially save $60 by buying the Arcade edition and adding the hard drive separately.

Obviously, you want to buy the console retail to have the warranty, in case it breaks, which has quite a big chance of happening, I'm afraid. You can buy all your extra accessories through eBay, because they aren't covered by the warranty, anyway, and if they break, they're cheap and easy to replace.

Now, for my Xbox 360, I bought a broken one off eBay for $35. I then spent $20 on cords, $20 on a controller, and $20 on a replacement dvd drive. The price is rounded down a bit, because I can't recall the exact price right now, but overall, I spent $120, and that includes Fable 2 with a strategy guide. I got all this from eBay. The bad thing about mine is I had to fix it myself, and it came broken, also, it had no warranty, so i couldn't just send it into microsoft for repairs/replacement.

My Xbox 360 now works about 99% of the time, so if you're tech savvy and are low on cash, fixing up a broken 360 might actually be a nice project, but I would strongly suggest staying away from the 360 if you don't want it to break. The Nintendo Wii might actually be the only console (out of PS3, 360, and itself) to have a functional design.

My portfolio is online at work.getlives.com, and it looks pretty good, so far.

My arcade site (getlives.net) is getting about 3 players per day. That's a good start, however, I was hoping it could get a lot more traffic than it does. The site is completely free to use, just go there and pick a game to play!

Go here to read up on the goals and what I'm looking for and benefits and so on. Also, if you're interested, use the forum topic or send a PM or even an e-mail. I don't check my profile often, so leaving a comment here won't guarantee a speedy response.

Anyway, I'm putting together a game development team. That's a team that makes games. We will start with Flash projects, but I hope to slowly shift us over to 3d development after our first few projects. We will use NG ads in our first game, but if that doesn't seem to help us, we can always switch to Mochi. I have two games on Mochi already.

Again, go HERE for more info.

Until the GetLives crew is assembled, we already have an arcade:
http://tempupload.ngfiles.com/2031690_
getlivesarcade_logo.jpg

I posted what was done of my personal animation project at http://www.fantasyjam.net/flash/fj-sho w-3-wip

I hope you like how it's coming, but I know I can't please most people. :( Post your opinion.

I played Space Invaders randomly about a week ago. Then, I felt a spark of inspiration and thought, "I never see any new Space Invaders games. I should look for some." After two minutes of tiring Google-ing, I determined that I had the chance to make something original.

I started working on this game: E A R T H I N V A D E R S !

Earth Invaders is a bit unfun at the moment, I think, but I may be able to edit it as time goes by and add enough features that it becomes slightly fun. The music's catchy, too!

I plan to submit Earth Invaders to the NG portal tomorrow morning. Until then, it's in the quality assurance stage at MochiAds, and I want to wait so I can actually earn some money from this submission. Money is good. Srsly.

Wow, NG just downgraded itself.
I like the colors, but damn, the moods are uniform and I can't even use the forums.

Check out the engine at http://www.fantasyjam.net/flash/exampl e/as3rpg

Plans for next few versions...
0.0.6: add dying animation and game over screen, add sound effects for getting hurt and dying, add diagonal walking animations and standing poses, fix collision for diagonal movement.
0.0.7: add area outside town, add bad guys to fight, tweak collision system for moving objects.
0.0.8: add NPCs to talk to, add dialogue system.
0.0.9: add shop to buy sword, add slashing animations and sound effects for slashing.
0.1.0: have a complete demo worth playing, including a simple story.

No set dates, no promises, all open-source.
(I'm just hoping you'll still credit me if you use it.)

You can check out my RPG engine's latest version at http://www.fantasyjam.net/flash/exampl e/as3rpg

I just uploaded version 0.0.3, which has a complete collision detection engine. I may have to tweak it for multiple characters to be on-screen, but that's about it. You can show the collision detection by checking the box in the top right corner labeled "Show Collision Boxes", but the real cool thing is all the collision boxes are the same object. That's right. You only have to open a single symbol and draw in it to tell Flash where the character can't go. You don't even have to worry about transparency, because the code hides it automatically.

Feel free to test the engine and post your opinion.

You can check it out at http://www.fantasyjam.net/flash/exampl e/as3rpg

I'm not really going to post about it when I update it. You'll just have to check that page every week or so. I'm going to use this engine to make a Zelda 3 style RPG, but you can already tell there are no tiles. I prefer to draw everything. It's just easier.

Now, I'm waiting for two collabs to get uploaded. Walk! was uploaded a couple days ago, though. You should check it out. I'm in the preloader. Ha.

I may be taking part in the Dance! collab, too, but I don't feel like animating a dance just yet. I'll wait a day or two. Then, we'll see if I have inspiration. On that note, I felt like drawing some cutesy animals...