Month: August 2007

If you are one of the many people who have been left unimpressed with Vista but like the look of some of its features, Vista Buttons is for you. It helps you create Vista/XP/Win98 and Mac style rollover buttons and drop down menus with relative ease. Normally you’d need a fair amount of Javascript or CSS knowledge to create such buttons for websites but Vista Buttons is based solely on a simple image editor. The choice of templates and bases is certainly impressive and the developers claim the program features more than 500 buttons, 100 sub-menu designs and 50 ready-made samples.

This is more than enough to create a really cool looking website menu or some swish desktop buttons although some of the designs are a bit dull. The styles available include Vista, XP, Win98, Mac, Aqua buttons, round, glossy, metallic, 3D styles, tab and drop-down menus. Obviously, the best thing is that the program is designed for complete novices. You don’t require any HTML, JavaScript or CSS skills to create some really professional looking results. Just make sure you refer to the developer website frequently for instructions on how to get started as the program is lacking in ‘wizards’ to help you get going.

Tis the season to be sporty, but if like me you can’t be bothered why not get physical with some heated competition in these summer games. First up is golf, and whether you like your birdie action stretched out over 18 immaculate holes or forced through colourful windmills we have the lot. Wacky mini golf is especially ‘wacky’ on the Mac and Pocket Mini Golf is a mini golf game that fits in your pocket. Where do they get these names from?

I’ve always thought of tennis as more of a dance than a sport which is why I’ve been drinking my barley water out on fantasy island where tennis is more Manga than MacEnroe. Fantasy Tennis is a great new take on the old game; imagine Sampras in Streetfighter and you get the idea.

If cricket is more your thing then Brian Lara is back for 2007, hooking a chinaman, marking his crease and tossing a googly, or whatever it is they all do for fun.

Lovers of nature and good fish can get out on the lake with Pocket Bass Angler on the Pocket PC and hook a monster from the deep. And for all of you who prefer garden games you might like fellow mobile friends: Lawn Darts (bowls-cum-darts with an octopus) and Hammer Heads, where you have to smash surfacing gnomes into little bits with a mallet. Now that’s what I call summer.

If you’re fan of the classic Dungeons and Dragons game then check out Clan Lord on the Mac. You’ve been exiled on a dangerous chain of islands and must tackle the unsavoury characters and restore political balance. Luckily, you’ll be able to call upon the magical powers which you develop over the course of the game. You can even team up with other warriors online.

Ever fancied yourself as king of the airwaves? Radiologik DJ is an exciting program that allows you to run your very own radio station directly from your PC. It consists of two program queue players, one independent/voiceover player, and one library player. The players operate in the same way as they would in a radio station environment by overlapping at your command although there’s strangely no cross-fader. This means your cueing has to be spot-on otherwise you’ll end up with the biggest crime in broadcasting – dead air!

You can configure custom start and stop fades for each track played and you can search directly in iTunes from the interface. In fact, the integration with iTunes is superb with tracks imported instantly and searches lightening quick. You can even just drag and drop from it. However, the program seems to be heavily oriented towards iTunes users – perhaps too much – at the exclusion of other media players. This makes it great for DJ’ing at parties although it’s a rather complicated solution for that kind of thing.

The downside of Radiologik DJ is that it certainly takes some time to get used to. Like any real radio studio, it’s a complex affair and only advisable for those serious about radio broadcasting.

Getting behind the wheel of a ship might not sound adrenalin packed but it’s certainly a thrill to take control of the Titanic. Ship Simulator is a realistic simulation game that puts players at the helm of some of the most diverse ships on the open seas including the once great cruise liner. And yes, there are icebergs to avoid although if you’re as bad as me at it, avoiding other ships will be your main concern.

I love 3D simulators that pay attention to detail with great graphics and that’s exactly what you get with in Ship Simulator. It’s a remarkably realistic experience although if you don’t know your port from your starboard, you’ll end up sinking faster than a ton of lead. If your navigation skills are also nil like mine, you’ll struggle to get out of the harbour on the big boats.

I managed to crash the Titanic straight into Southampton docks on her maiden voyage but taking control of the smaller boats is much more fun. You can take control of a wide range of ships – from massive cargo ships, cruise liners and ferries to speedboats, yachts and water taxis. The locations are equally varied too ranging from Southampton (including the Solent), to Marseille and San Francisco.

We all know that the Nintendo Wii is officially the best invention in the history of the world, but the console is not completely without its flaws. One of the irritating things about the gaming device is that it only allows you to play videos in MJPEG format. MotionJWii lets you convert any movie file on your Mac into the Motion JPEG format to play on the Wii’s Photo Channel.

If you like dancing and meeting new people, you’ve come to the right place. Create a character in Audition Online and start dancing to the rhythm of music. You can challenge yourself or dance along other players on an online competition, earning experience points and progressing through levels. Also, chat tools enable you to keep in touch with your buddies. Enjoy the music and make new friends!

I’ve just read about the rather grizzly demise of the Arizona man who performed an exorcism on his three-year-old granddaughter. So I decided to scare the living daylights out of myself by pulling down the shutters and downloading some of the most terrifying computer games I could find. Get hold of these and you won’t sleep for a week:

House of the Dead III – This shocking gorefest sees you slug it out with the undead in a maze of deep, dark caverns. The only way to escape the nightmare is to blast wave after wave of zombies as the storyline unravels. I want my mummy.

Land of the Dead: Road to Fiddler’s Green – Please, not more zombies! Based on the George A. Romero film, this game sees you assume the role of a peasant farmer and rid the tri-state area of all manner of deadbeat ghouls. Jeepers creepers.

Painkiller – Imagine getting killed in a car crash then emerging to find you’ve been denied access to heaven and must instead fight against hordes of demonic soldiers in order to save your soul. No thanks.

F.E.A.R. Extraction Point – With some spectacular graphics and sound effects that will make you shudder, F.E.A.R. Extraction Point is an incredible game where you need to take on Alma and her army of supernatural followers. Yikes.

Hypermaze – Anyone who has seen the film ‘The Cube’ won’t need telling how scary mazes can be. But what if you threw in a few monsters and had to navigate the dark labyrinth in 4D? Time for a new pair of pants methinks.