Not sure how the GBA development is going really. I keep hitting brick walls, and not sure if I am getting over them before hitting the next. Since I don't know C well enough, I have just been searching round and round for code and tools and solutions to problems before I start. I think I have all I need now in order to carry on. I just need to dig through a load of source code in order to find out if I really do have solutions, then put them all together. The way I am thinking at the moment, however, is that this will end up being a self contained title, with instructions on how to create similar titles (i.e. this could be a title teaching the Rules of Sports again, but could explain the process so that a Learn Spanish title could be made for example.)
Going to visit Halls and the rest of the UEA crew next week, at last! Been saying I would for 2 years! Should be a good laugh. May as well do it now while the pressure isn't on so much. Got plenty of work to be getting on with though, so guess I should be getting back to it.

Hey hey, busy day! I've just watched Kill Bill vol.1 and have to say it was comical in the way it portrayed it's violence. At least that's what I thought. My brother said he was nearly sick... Nice little twist at the end. I hope there actually will be a second. After that I finished Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne on PC. I enjoyed playing that. It may have even restored some of my faith in games before I lost it again. It hasn't changed much from the original, which can be seen as a good thing. The only gripe I had was that max didn't seem as flexible as the first game, (unless I'm remembering through some rose-tints.) Just a quick-to-get-into, very stylish game that was FUN to play, (its only been out 3 or 4 days I think and I've finished it!) Bit shorter than I thought It would be, but that isn't too bad since I'm looking for quicker thrills now with my games. My interest is waning with Paper Mario, Splinter Cell and Eternal Darkness. I'm not sure which game to pick up after I've finished these (if I do indeed finish them.) Probably F-Zero GX and Soul Calibur 2. Two very different games that are quick action but should hold some interest.

I've been a little slack at times this week. Despite this, I have submitted a proposal for my final year project now (for a second time since I didn't read the brief the first time!) and have begun reading eBooks to teach myself things I need to know. I'm starting with C/C++ in 5 Days since I need that for a few modules and the project, then I'll go on to DirectX probably. The Multimedia Entertainment Systems module is coming along quite well. We have already set out a proposal. I just need to work on some visuals over the weekend. I also have an idea for either Advanced Scripting or Programming for Entertainment Systems which is a multiplayer helicopter battle game in 3D space. Hopefully I can use the same idea for both. I'll have to ask Nigel...

Going home for the weekend today. Just going to view some of last years final year projects before I go. Spoke to Dan Livingstone about my idea for a GameBoy Advance Media Player and he was positive about it, as long as there was a good critical context for it, giving some examples. He also said a working alpha may be enough in terms of GBA coding, which works to my advantage in many ways. I also tried to contact some authors of GBA video codecs which are floating around on the web. They couldn't help much since both are now in the process of selling / licensing their work, but it was worth a shot, and I did get a little bit of info.

Hello there. The first week back is over. Looks like I'm going to have lots of work to do. For my final year project I'm looking at making a media player for GameBoy Advance. I've been researching this for the past few days and I'm still not sure how do-able it is. I'm not sure of the computational power needed to decode an MP3 for example since the processor is only 17MHz... More later.