Vote!

One of our very own users and FFR coders (R1 continued development) Danny
Miller has been nominated for an award at Macromedia. He has been nominated
under the Interactive Media category for his game Psychopath, which I think you
all know by now. We are asking that if you like Psychopath and want to help
Danny win, take 15 seconds out of your lives and go vote for his game

HERE as we would, I am sure he will appreciate it. Danny will also be
working with us on some "secret" projects in the near future (DON’T ASK!!). So
keep an eye out for his name.

again, you can vote at

http://macromedia.com/resources/student/innovation/gallery/2005fall/ Under Interactive Media

Cheers,
Synthlight

 

Time For Me To Do My Part

I have been so worried lately about paying the bills for the
servers and trying to grow FFR. And… then.. hurricane Katrinia happened. I
have been watching quite a bit of news and really cannot imagine what it must be
like to be stuck in a city during the sweltering heat, not a place to go,
nothing to eat and ontop of all that, lose everything I worked my entire life
for. Can you imagine? I mean, can you really imagine? What would you do? Forget
going back to work, work doesn’t even exist for those people anymore. By the
time this is over with, I am sure we are going to see thousands dead and
hundreds of thousands homeless.

I must say that this has hit me pretty hard and I would like to announce that I
will (for atleast the next month) be donating all profits from the FFR Store
sales (that includes everything) to the American Red Cross.. Yes, 100% of profits
will be donated directly to the American Red Cross on behalf of
FlashFlashRevolution and all the people who support it.

I do my part around here every month and provide a fun game for everyone and
think it is about time that I think about something other than my hobby. I will
also be donating any donations made to FFR (via the donate button on the bottom
left) directly to the American Red Cross. I believe these people need the money
way more than I do. If you are able to donate or purchase anything, thank you
very much. I will be posting the names and websites on the main page in 30 days
of everyone who makes a purchase or donates. This will drive traffic to your
site and show people your generosity.

By clicking on the logo below, you can donate to FFR and 100%
of that money will be sent to the American Red Cross.

My thoughts go out to everyone affected by Katrina.. Good luck
to them all and thank you to everyone who donates.

Raising Money for Development & Server Costs.

T-shirts and stickers are officially on sale! We are using this money to pay for our outstanding server costs and speed up development of certain features. If you would like to help us out (I beg of you!) please click on the FFRSTUFF link above and purchase a t-shirt or vinyl sticker. We have taken steps to ensure that these products are of the highest quality and you won’t be dissapointed. I will be posting photo examples of the 6×6 vinyl stickers later on tonight.

As always, we use 100% of the profits to pay for our ever growing FFR server costs and further the development of the game. I never personally profit from any of this.

So go buy something now and support FFR before I make you feel guilty!

NOTE: Shipping on the stickers will start next week, while the t-shirts might be 2-3 weeks.

Cheers,

Synthlight

Yikes! My Pants!

Omg.. Omg.. Omgwtfbbqamazinggrace… There is so much going on, where do I
start?

Well, lets start this off by formally introducing a new and permanent
addition to the FFR menu called IIR, or Internet Independent Ranking. The
purpose of IIR is to provide a spot for you to keep track of your
accomplishments on Dance Dance Revolution. The current version is still in beta
and only supports the arcade version of DDR Extreme. We will be adding support
for the home versions, arcade versions of DDR and other dance games in the near
future.

To get started on IIR, you’ll need to activate your account. To do this, click
on the link provided at the top of any IIR page which directs you to activate.
From that screen, you’ll be prompted for a scoretag. What is a scoretag you ask?
A scoretag is the 4-letter code you use to enter your name in high score lists
in many Bemani games. In later versions of IIDX, this was changed to 6 letters,
but we like to keep it as the original 4, since that’s supported by all current
versions of Bemani. Once you’ve activated your account, you can start submitting
your scores that you achieve in the arcade. You can leave comments such as what
speed mods you might have used, or arrow modifications. You can also link a
picture and or video which shows proof of your accomplishment. In the future we
will support uploading of pictures and video directly to the IIR server. Images
and videos will help back up the claim of the scores you enter. You might be
saying "This is so easy to cheat on", well it’s quite obvious to us that if you
submit 100 AAA’s without a single picture, that we will question your
accomplishment. Soon, a reporting system will be implemented so you can in a
sense call "BS" on someone for their accomplishments and affect their "legit"
rating. Also, when you submit a picture or video and it’s verified by our staff,
you’ll gain "legit" points, which basically says that you aren’t lying when
submitting your scores.

Below are some screenshots to wet your appetite.

Enjoy, and let us know of any problems you might encounter!

Click to enter IIR

_______________________

The next order of business? Well that would be FFR R1 3rd Style. A completely
new and redisgned R1. This project started way back many many moons ago when I
Chardish kept approaching me about changing the look and feel of the current FFR.
He had some ideas and started to form them. I have to admit that I was somewhat
of a hard ass and very picky about what I wanted and what I thought did or
didn’t jive. I mean, this current interface has worked for 670,000+ members and
it is something you don’t want to tamper with much. But… in the end he came up
with the basic comps and new structural ideas for many of the new sections and I
was very pleased with what we had ended up with. Now we have started work
breaking down and animating the entire interface with Bemaniruler. Bemaniruler
really is the god of animating interfaces. Once the animation is done, we
will integrate it back into the existing FFR and change FFR where need be in
order to accomodate new features. I promise a more easy to navigate and easier
to read FFR once this is all finished. If that isn’t exciting enough, we have
also secured the amazing artist Yukon Makoto to create all new characters for
FFR. And sticking with the theme of the night, I will leak some blurred
screenshots for ya’ll.

The estimated release of this new version is sometime this fall and will
include many of the features that people have been requesting for the past 6
months but I cannot say what we will or will not include until I have finished
them.
_______________________

The last order of business.. We have designed (thanks to Spigumus) and are
ready official FFR T-shirts which will go on sale in the next few days. The only
problem is that we have 3 designs and will only be able to afford an initial
batch of 2 designs. So I will put up a poll which will let you guys decide which
designs you like the best. The first batch will be ordered this coming week and
we will start delivery (via lightdarkness) 1 month later after they get printed
and shipped to him. If you ask nicely, dreamy LD might even sign your shirt.
Below are the designs 1-3 and they will come in these sizes: X-Large, Large,
Medium, Small.

 

 We will also be producing true vinyl cut FFR stickers based on these
designs for your car windows or whatever you see fit to put them on. These are
not printed on but true cut and hand weeded vinyl stickers in the shape of the
designs above. The first prototypes of these stickers are being printed now and
I will be checking them over the weekend for quality. If they look good then
they will go on sale.

It is important to remember that ALL SALES are NON-PROFIT.. Any money
generated is used to go towards my hosting bills and any additional outside help
that we cannot do ourselves. Lets just say that our bills are more than people
pay in rent for most apartments. I keep FFR free and have done so for 3 years
now. I appreciate any and all support that we get.
_______________________

Well, that’s about it for now. I am sure that I missed something and will
have to edit it in during the next few days. I almost mentioned something about
R2 but we aren’t close enough to mention that yet..

Stay Tuned!

Cheers,
Synthlight

*EDIT SYNTHLIGHT* Looks like the middle design and the design on the right have won the t-shirt contest and will now be going on sale along with all 3 versions of the designs in the form of vinyl stickers. We will be producing t-shirt design #1 on the second or third batch so that we will eventually have all 3 for sale.

Here is the link:

Official FFR T-Shirts & Vinyl Cut Stickers Are On Sale!

Don’t forget that you are supporting a community effort when you purchase products from FFR. We never profit from the sales and use 100% of the money to pay for server costs and further develop FFR.

Wild Weekend of Radio

A few weeks ago I did a show… and gave something away. I said to everyone listening, “This is pathetic. There is 6 people listening to my show. GET ME LISTENERS!”

10 minutes go by and I still have 6 people. I proceeded to mock those 6… and I dropped to 4. So I took matters into my own hands. I went through my list of FFR Buddies and my list of Recent Buddies (60+ FFR Members who have contacted me over the past month or so) and messaged every single one with the link to the radio. Of course, the expected happened. I shot to 20 listeners. But I said to myself again, “Tass… you deserve more people to listen to your show! 20 is still pathetic!”

So I went one step further. I used bribery. I told those 20 loyal people (er, 4 loyal + 16 who I nagged) that I would send $10 US Cash money to 1 lucky listener if we hit 40 listeners before my show ended.

I honestly didn’t expect my greedy fan base to double my listener count, but after about 20 minutes of jumping between 25-35 listeners, we peaked at FORTY FIVE. I did a random drawing of those listening and sent a shiny piece of paper with Alexander Hamilton’s face on it to a lucky guy from Maine by the name of Jim.

Now, with that lovely piece of nostalgic history behind us, let me move to the future. I want to get 100 listeners to my show on Thursday, August 11th starting at 8pm EDT.

Now, to motivate you money grubbing devils, not only will I be playing AMAZING music all night long, I will be giving away money and CDs. My show will be entirely full length albums. And not just any albums… my favorite albums of all time. Albums that are so good I have listened to each one at least 50 times. So with that in mind, this is what you can win from me by listening to my show:

50 Listeners: $5 + 1 CD of your choice from what I play to 1 person
75 Listeners: $10 + 1 CD of your choice to 1 person AND 1 CD to a 2nd person
100+ Listeners: $25 + 2 CDs of your choice to 1 person AND 1 CD to 2 other people.

Basically, you’ll want to listen… because I’m giving away free stuff. GOOD free stuff… and playing amazing music to boot.

Also, in case you are wondering how I’ll know you are listening… I’ll do what I did last time… say something over the air like “IM me and tell me ‘LD is sooooo sexy’” . I’ll take everyone who IMs me, write their name down, and use random.org to get a winner(s).

If anyone has any questions about this…. well, you shouldn’t. And I’ll be at work all day, so I won’t be able to answer them anyway.

To join the mIRC radio chat and to listen to the radio:

Join us in #ffrradio on IRC. Don’t have IRC? Get IRC! Go to www.mirc.com to get the client, then connect to the server irc.othersideirc.net (after picking a nickname, type “/server irc.othersideirc.net” into the main command bar) then join #ffrradio (two f’s, two r’s.)

To listen: Links are on the lefthand side, or http://www.ffrradio.com:8000/listen.pls

Lastly, aperson will be mixing another set Friday night. Check chit-chat for more details.

Much love to all of you,
Tass

Multiplayer Chat Moderators: Update!

Thanks for the great initial response we got for the Multiplayer Chat Moderator positions! We got over 70 PMs from people interested in the job. We are no longer accepting submissions, thanks for the great response.

After reading your PMs, we have decided to reply to about half of you with a more formal, interview-style application so we can get to know you and your moderating style better.

Some of your introductory PMs were so impressive that we felt immediately confident in your abilities, however, in the interest of fairness, we must send a formal application to interview everyone being considered. Please fill out and return these interviews to us by Saturday at 6 PM Eastern.

We wish we could send a “callback” to everyone, but due to the sheer number, it was necessary to narrowit down. Thank you for applying, but please do not contact staff members asking why you are not being considered. If you have already sent in an application and have been turned down, you will not be reconsidered if you re-apply. We strongly believe that everyone who applied is truly dedicated to FFR.

There will be more opportunities in the future for people of all talents to help out with FFR, so don’t lose hope! Keep mashing the arrow keys…

-Chardish

Multiplayer Moderators

We are in the process of implementing moderator functions for the Multiplayer Chat lobby. We will be actively looking for people interested in spending a couple hours a day in multiplayer in order to take care of spammers, cheaters and that sort of thing.

If you are interested, please PM lightdarkness or Chardish and leave them a detailed message as to why you think you would make a good moderator.

Do not leave them a message like “yo I wuld kick tha buts u want go FFR wtfbbqroflcoptrsamzinggrayce”. Use a spellchecker and proper grammar. Any message like that will immediately be disregarded.

Moderators of course will have influence over the direction of FFR and will have access to the moderator sections in the forums.

Thanks!

Cheers,

Synthlight

SERVER SWITCH!! :)

We just finished imaging our drives and will be switching to a larger, more powerful server tonight. I expect maybe an hour downtime and the database may be rolled back to 6pm Central time once the new server is completely functional.

Thanks for your patience.

Btw.. new stuff is on it’s way to FFR. I will explain in the next few days.

Cheers,

Synthlight

UPDATE: 7/29

The site will be staying on the main server and we are splitting the database off onto another dedicated machine where it will be completely cached in memory. The database machine will be an athlon64 based server with 4gb of ram and a direct connection to the main FFR server.

LD EDIT: Song of the week… and perhaps a little more later tonight

Hey! Hey! Hey!

FFR is home to songs by many very talented artists, but it is indeed a notable occasion when we can welcome a professional, for-hire musician willing to freely share his work with our project. Today, thankfully, is one such day. Kyle “KeeL” Ward joins us this week, and FFR couldn’t be more grateful to have such a prominent artist on our site. KeeL releases music under many project names, including KaW, Inspector K, and Smiley. Under the Smiley pseudonym, he shares his song “Delirium” with us this week, adding some much-needed happy hardcore to FFR’s music selection. I’ve enjoyed listening to Delirium for almost a year now and couldn’t be happier that it’s being added to FFR.

Delirium (Dance section of FFR) is not an easy song. It’s a low 6 on a 6-point scale of difficulty. (I keep hinting at this 6-point scale for a reason, people ) I’d say the long 16th runs are slightly easier than Uber Rave’s, but not by much. The steps don’t really let up too much.

You can listen to Delirium, along with a bunch of other music by KeeL, at www.ampcast.com/kaw . (This is also a really good idea if you can’t clear the song, because the song itself is amazing.)

Steps by Moogy, with minor edits by me (Chardish.) Background by me.

Enjoy!

BTW: We are aware that Dance is now 4 pages long. We realize that this is inordinately long and are currently investigating ways to remedy this.