Moodle, IT and me

(1 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)

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In this word game you have to make a word from a list of random letters. All letters must be next to each other to form a word. When you find a word, the letters disappears, and new ones fall from the top of the screen. Sometimes a falling letter is on fire. If ever this letter reach the bottom of the screen, game over.

The game gives you enough time to find a word, and a dictionary explains some of them. As English is not my mother tongue, it is good to me. Some of the three letters words seems a bit strange to me, and from AppStore reviews you can understand that some four letters words are not recognized but majority of people seems happy. I find this game quite relaxing.

Fun :  

I spent about three hours on it. I didn’t go very far but I like to replay a game every 3 months. I still keep it on my iPhone. At this right moment, I would pay 4 dollars for it, not more.

Time :  

(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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This game is the definition of addictive. I gave it to my sister, she played a hour on it. Her boyfriend complained that it looked stupid. He took the iPhone and spent the night on it, singing the Ode of joy every-time he finished a level. The goal of this game is to hit all the orange peggles with 10 balls. Once done, the level is finished. Hitting a green ball gives you super power to make easier hits. Very simple rules, and very accurate shots make the play enjoyable. You will surprise yourself to try to do long shot rewarding great points. Fun, fun, fun…

Fun :  

I spent countless hours of Peggle. I finished it straight in a week or two. Then I played the challenges which are lots harder. I’m still playing them time to time, maybe once every 40 days. Easily in the top three apps I would replay. At this right moment, I would pay AU$8 bucks for it, maybe more.

Time :  

PS3 version trailer, just a bit better than the iPhone version but you got the idea!

(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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This game version is an improvement of a Nintendo DS game. It’s an action/racing game. You see your character/car from the sky. Your goal is to finish many missions as killing people, or selling drugs. Moral put on the side, it’s quite entertaining and it performs well on an iPhone 3G.
I liked the soundtracks and the fact that I could add my own soundtracks. I also could feel that programmers spent a lot of time on details to make the city alive.

Fun :  

With more than 8 hours played with it, it’s definitively one of the game I played the most on my iPhone. However since I bought a PS3, I didn’t replay it that much. At this right moment, I would pay AU$8 for it, not more.

Time :  

It’s not that easy to find a ISO 3166-2 country region code file. After some Google searches, I ended up on a Debian page with the ISO codes. The thing requires Git. As I will install it soon or later on my Mac OSX, I decided it was the good moment and I installed Git with an installer. I’m not that much a command line guy

Then I retrieved the git repository of the Debian page:

git clone git://git.debian.org/git/iso-codes/iso-codes.git

After 10 minutes, I got all the stuff, and found a file of 300Ko (iso-codes/iso_3166_2/iso_3166_2.xml). Note that they also have different translation for it, they did a good job at Debian.

Finally I just needed a little PHP script. I quickly found one about the country codes and modified it to support regions:

<?php
$filecontent = file_get_contents('iso_3166_2.xml');
$xml = new SimpleXMLElement($filecontent);

$out = "<?php
$regions = array();
";

foreach ($xml->iso_3166_country as $country)
{
    foreach ($country->iso_3166_subset as $regions) {
       foreach ($regions->iso_3166_2_entry as $region) { 
          $out .= "\$regions['".$country->attributes()->code."']['".$region->attributes()->code."']='"
                  .addslashes($region->attributes()->name)."';";

       }
   }
}

file_put_contents('isoregionnames.php', $out);