I suppose I’ll start out by saying that I really like my iPhone 4. It does nearly everything. It’s a phone. It’s data organizer. It’s a web browser. It’s a media center (music & movie). And it’s a gaming machine.

I’ve picked up a few titles here and there and really like them. Things like Angry Birds, Field Runners, Scrabble, Ragdoll Blasters and such. Most accommodate the touch screen interface nicely but the action is pretty light. A few months ago I noticed Street Fighter IV in the App Store. I imagined trying to play on the touch screen and cringed. It wasn’t until the game went on sale a week or so ago that I finally bought it (I was a Street Fighter junkie when I was a kid). I turned on the game expecting to be mildly entertained for a few minute. I was wrong.

Street Fighter IV has turned my iPhone 4 into a mini arcade. For lack of a better word the controls “feel” great. I’ve played other games where the “joystick” just didn’t feel right and the touch response was unmanageable. But Capcom got this one right. It’s not perfect, but control is very good and the game is a blast to play. I’m sure by this point I’ve logged a few hours. I can recommend this title to anyone (it also works very well on the older iPhones).

Around the same time I noticed a new app by Hudson. A TurboGrafx-16 emulator. I was floored. I got it right away and literally downloaded a fortune of nostalgia (you buy each game separately but they are contained within the app). I played Bonk’s Adevnture and Bomberman ’94 for awhile and found the emulator to be very enjoyable. The controls don’t “feel” quite as good as they do in Street Fighter IV (I especially found shooters to be hard to control) but again, the touch screen buttons are really pretty good.  I love having one device (iPhone) where I can just switch between games like these.

Anyway, this TG-16 emulator brought back so many good memories from my child hood that I wanted to blog about a few. I’ve always loved portable games. My Dad got me the first one I can remember. It was a mini Ms. Pac-Man game made by Coleco (this was in the early 1980’s). A few years later I discovered LCD games from Tiger and Nintendo (I still have some of these). I remember how amazing they seemed, but I bet you couldn’t get a kid today to play one for five mins (maybe I’ll give it a shot). At first everything was one dedicated game. And then…in the late 1980’s…

…you could buy portable video game systems that took cartridges! I don’t know how many existed (you can actually read a neat little portable video game history here) but I had a Nintendo Gameboy, an Atari Lynx, a Sega Game Gear and (my favorite) an NEC  Turbo Express (a hand held version of the TurboGrafx-16).  While I enjoyed playing the games I was almost as interested in the technology that powered them. I spent hours pouring over specifications, hand counting pixels and designing my own “perfect” machine (I used to make my own little magazines with game reviews and system comparisons). I fantasized about a device that would play all the games.

Just for kicks here are the resolution specifications of the early portable gaming systems: Gameboy resolution (monochrome): 160×144 pixels, 2.6″ diagonal | Lynx Resolution (color): 160 x 102, 3.5″ diagonal | Game Gear Resolution (color): 160 x 144, 3.2″ diagonal | Turbo Express Resolution (color): 400 x 270, 2.6″ diagonal. I remember being obsessed by the Turbo Express unit’s pixel density (go ahead, have a crack at it).  Compare this to the iPhones now:  iPhone4 (960 x 640, 3.5 ” diagonal) | iPhone3 (480 x 272, 4.3″ diagonal).

Many of these systems endured through the early and mid 90’s. Meanwhile PC gaming was becoming bigger, PCs were getting smaller (PDAs). Phones were getting more powerful too.

In the late 90’s and early 2000 a slew of cool new devices were released. The Compaq Ipaq (resolution 320 x 240, 3.8″),  HP Jornada (same resolution, smaller screen) and Motorola Razor (resolution 220 x 176, 2.2″) stand out in my memory. At that point no one had successfully combined a phone and a PDA into a single device. I remember having an iPaq and all I did was use it to take notes and play games. The touch screens back them were nothing like what we have now. In fact most PDAs supported only a single touch at one time. No virtual joysticks or buttons (well, none that worked). Portable PDA gaming had a long way to go.

As did Phone gaming. My Razor had Chessmaster and a Fast and Furious game (really bad, by the way). I could make calls, play simple games and kind of organize things. But a gaming “experience” on a phone or PDA was going to have to wait.

There was also Sony’s 2005 PSP entry. I picked one of these up with high hopes. It was a great system with some super games (Megaman X and the Street Fighter series).  The PSP allowed you to play games, watch movies, listed to music and surf the web. The 4.3″ screen (resolution: 480 x 272) was the defining characteristic of the front. However the unit was too large to be practically carried everywhere and was not a phone.

Around the same time companies began releasing PDA phone combos. There were some exiting models with a bit of  gaming promise. I was an avid fan of Sprint’s HTC line (check out my post about some of the Spring phones I’ve owned). But they just didn’t have the power to pull off any “real” games.

And then in 2007 Apple released the iPhone. At first it was much like the other PDA phone combos. But I watched and waited. Eventually the iPhone games became pretty exciting. Explosive graphics, sound and the needed computing power to pull it off. No buttons though- that worried me. Well, here we are. 2011. I’m playing Street Fighter IV and the old TurboGrafx-16 games on my iPhone 4 with virtual buttons (yeah for multi-touch!).  While a touch screen can’t quite compare to the feedback of a real controller I’m pretty thrilled for the time being.  I wonder what the future will hold…

All I really wanted to say was that I’m impressed by the evolution of portable gaming. I enjoy downloading applications (as opposed to having cartridges). I love the power that comes in a package as small as the iPhone. I’m floored by the screen resolutions that we have now (PS- I hope there is a Street Fighter IV update that takes advantage of the iPhone 4’s incredible retina display). I’m amazed at how much one device can do and how seamlessly it can be accomplished. The future’s going to be cool. I’m going in.

Posted January 3rd, 2011 by Cam Hughes.

Depending on what source you look at, between 300 and 1300 movies were released this year. I try to get out (or stay in) and see a movie now and then. I don’t consider myself a movie buff, but I like to watch one or two movies each week. Below is a list of the movies I saw that came out in 2010. Just for the heck of it I rated them and jotted down a few thoughts.

Ghost Writer. 7/10. Clever and interesting. Mysteries seems to be more scarce these days.

Shutter Island. 8/10. I really enjoyed this movie. In some ways it’s been “done before” but this is a stand out.

How to Train Your Dragon. 7/10. Dreamworks movies tend to lack the magic of their Disney counterparts. While, not magical HTTYD was a nice distraction.

Clash of the Titans. 7/10. This movie got a lot of flack for bad 3D. I saw it 2D and liked it. It’s a little mindless, but I like Sam Worthington.

Date Night. 6/10. Enjoyable with a few very funny parts. A little exaggerated for my tastes.

Kick Ass. 6/10. This movie had a lot of promise. A little too much profanity for me and some of the violence was brutal. True to the comic, but it could have been a better movie.

Iron Man 2. 7/10. Not as good as the first (9/10). Good effects, good pace, but a little misdirected at times.

Prince of Persia. 8/10. This got bashed by critics, but I thought it was a blast.

The Karate Kid. 6/10. Solid as far as remakes go, but Will Smith’s son was just a touch too young (rap that). Jackie Chan was very good.

Toy Story 3: 8/10. Another great Pixar film. It made me cry (I feel strongly about my toys).

Knight and Day: 7/10. A fun action thriller. It’s got some nice twists and I think Tom Cruise did a great job.

Eclipse: 6/10. This one kind of dragged on. Not enough action for me. There were a lot of weird dialogue close ups too.

The Last Air Bender. 6/10. I haven’t seen much of the cartoon, so I won’t compare. Acting was off, but it was a fun film.

Predators: 6/10. Mindless fun. The plot is, for the most part, nonsense.

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice: 6/10. Excellent special effects. I didn’t connect with the Grand Merlinian.

Inception: 10/10. I really like Nolan’s work. This was excellent (effects, plot, acting). I watched this one a few times.

Salt: 7/10. I dig Jolie. A little silly at times, but very fun.

Dinner for Schmucks: 3/10. I found this film to be irritating and crass. The laughs were few and far between.

The Expendables: 7/10. It was fun to see a tough-guy-off. Paper thin plot w/ rock solid action. Good guy movie.

The Social Network: 8/10. Partly fiction, partly fact. Well acted, good pace. Makes you want to be a billionaire.

Red: 6/10. Old guys who still want to be tough. Works okay. Slow pace. Karl Urban is excellent.

Megamind: 8/10. I love the new anti-hero hero trends. Unexpectedly entertaining.

Unstoppable: 8/10. This literally had me on the edge of my seat. It’s really simply, but it’s a good nail biter.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows (Part 1). 5/10. This bored me to tears. Excellent cinematography but way too drawn out.

Faster: 7/10. Another fun guy movie. There’s more depth to this film than critics want to admit.

The Warrior’s Way: 5/10. Not what I was expecting (ninjas vs. cowboys). So ridiculous in parts I nearly choked to death on a Slurpee.

The Fighter: 8/10: Poignant, moving, well done. Underdog stories are always inspirational.

Tron. 8/10. Lots of fun. Good special effects, sound track, etc. There’s some uncanny valley going on, but it’s cool anyway.

True Grit: 8/10. Great humorous moments and an excellent pace. Good acting as well.

And here are a few movies from this year that I want to see, but that I missed somehow (I will try and do better in 2011).

Alice In Wonder Land, The Bounty Hunter, Diary of a Wimpy Kid,, Robin Hood, Tangled, Shrek: The Final Chapter, Grown Ups, Despicable Me, The Other Guys, Scott Pilgrim, Wallstreet: Money Never Sleeps, Black Swan. Anyone want to have a movie marathon (that should add up to about 26 hours).

Posted December 30, 2010 by Cam Hughes

Own your domain name. Register it. Otherwise someone else will and you may not like what they put on it. I finally got mine: camhughes.com. I’ve wanted to get this domain for years, but it was owned by another party. It finally dropped and I guess good things come to those who wait. I’ve also had my eye on cameronhughes.com but it was also already owned (and is now squatted by Network Solutions). Cameron Hughes is also a wine maker with a fairly large Internet footprint so there’s some potential competition there. And to be fair, I’m really “Cam” more than I’m “Cameron” these days, so camhughes.com is my first pick. Go ahead- type www.camhughes.com into your browser. Ah yeah- it goes right back here.

Even though she doesn’t really care I picked up my wife’s domain name (www.francoisehughes.com) and redirected it to her blog. Interestingly franhughes.com is taken, but since Francoise  prefers her full name things worked out just fine.

You know what I want? I want to be the first result for me- for “Cam Hughes”. Right now I’m not. I’m in the top ten, but that doesn’t quite cut it. Also, much to my chagrin I share “Cam” with some girls (sweet girls who tweet). The women can share “Cameron” but “Cam” is clearly a guy’s name. It’s a freaking car part. Nothing feminine about that. “Pass me the cam so I can massacre this guy when we race.” Yes. Not “Pass me the cam so I can rest me tea cup on it.” Hell no. Luckily I’ve learned a few things about domaining and SEO in the past couple years. Mark my words people. When you type “Cam Hughes” into Google- yeah, all seven of you- the first result will be me.

On a separate, but not unrelated note, domains names are a blast. I’ve been actively engaged in building a portfolio (nothing to sell, just stuff to use). Some of it’s for business, but some of it’s just for fun. For example, I just picked up camshq (dot) com.  Some of my businesses end in “HQ” so I figured that I could have my personal headquarters at Cam’s HQ. For now it’s just a redirect- I already have way to many blogs set up. Yes… too many blogs.  But I know there’s one more coming for sure. More on that later though. I often wish I could go back in time and pick up some great domains names. Digital real estate is cool.

Oct 24, 2014: I recently sold the aforementioned domain name. I see they have turned it into a porn site. Awesome. That’s one thing that I don’t enjoy about my nickname. To many unsavory things are linked to the term “Cam.” Ah well.

February 24, 2015: The guys I sold the domain name to apparently left my personal contact information on the domain. Now if you do a search for my email address it looks like I run a porn website. Geez. Awkward. I got them to change it, but it could be a long time before Google alters their results.

Posted on December 19, 2010 by Cam Hughes (<– Oh! SEO keyword!)

I really wanted to get our store finished before Cyber Monday hit. No such luck. Despite our bet efforts we didn’t quite make it. But I’m really excited about our progress!

We pushed our counters up closer to the door to make a more normal size store. This makes the area feel less intimidating and it keeps customers in the right area (believe me- if you don’t corral them they wander off to restricted areas and grope the products without shame).

We also started building out more shelves. There will  be about five times as much storage space  in the store once we’re done (we basically turned two thirds of it into a “classy” warehouse). Figuring the design took a long time and then building the shelves is taking even longer. I want to give a shout out to everyone at work who helped on this- I couldn’t have done it without you guys!

We’ve made some more progress that I will post in the upcoming days. I’m afraid that actually finishing the store will have to wait until there is a holiday lull. Or, possibly until next year. I hate waiting.

Posted November 29th, 2010

While I was in Disney Land I found this sweet  picture of Donald Duck as Boba Fett. Some things are just made to go together. Chocolate and peanut butter, milk and cookies and Star Wars and Disney. Anyone familiar with my hobbies will know that I collect “art” (for lack of a better word). The store at Disney Land wanted too much for the print so I got it on eBay and then had it re-framed. I have nowhere to put it, but I thought I should share the awesomeness.

A couple of months ago  I decided I should start reading again. It had been nearly a year since I polished off any books (the Twilight series was the last thing I read).  I decided to to start with  William Goldman’s “The Princess Bride.” I enjoyed the book. It fleshed out a lot of areas I felt the movie skimped on. Goldman’s humor is hit and miss, but works for the most part. The story is not quite the fairy tale the movie makes it out to be. Worth a read for sure.

The second book I read was Orson Scott Card’s “Pastwatch.” I’d had my eye on this book for a couple of years, but had never made the time. It’s a very well written account of what is essentially an alternate history. Some parts of the book are very intellectually disturbing and I enjoyed the way Card challenges our current complacency with acts of horror buried in the past. Another book I’d recommend (I generally enjoy Card’s work).

I’m current reading Tony Hsieh’s book “Delivery Happiness.” It’s an entertaining a history of his involvement with Zappos and the the creation of their well regarded business culture. So far so good.

I’ve also got my eye on a couple more business books but with the holidays coming up I’m afraid my reading time will be pretty limited. Still, I’m going to try to find time to squeeze in something. I had forgotten how much fun reading can be.

Posted November 20th, 2010