Wow! It is Query Time

For the past week we have been struggling to figure out why the database queries have been taking so long to execute for this site. Well.. We finally found our culprit. We have been logging referer info and have failed to limit it.. What this means in short is that everytime you loaded a page, it had to search atleast 500,000 records in the database. Needless to say, this slowed things down quite a bit and we sometimes had to lock people out of the site.

You should notice a HUGE increase in access time on this site from this point on. Sorry to slow everyone down for the past few weeks. We are back to normal now.

*EDIT*.. even faster now.. Added certain indexes into the database to speed up search requests.. On a mission to optimize.

Time For a Little Change .50 beta

Well.. I officially released Beta .50 tonight. I figured it was time to change a few things.

1. I changed the way the score screen looks by just a little bit. I have started pulling in more database elements. For example there is a score that shows your previous best and the best score on FFR. *NOTE* the FFR highscore is based on the database and not the old score text files. So 2 may differ.

2. I updated the background of the game. Nothing exciting and I may go back to the old one but just needed something different to look at. The orange and yellow was burning my eyes.

3. Added characters that you can choose from. These characters will also become icons in the new database based highscore list that will be available in the next beta update. They will also be represented on the actual game screen in the future. For now they are more of a novelty than anything else. All these characters came from BladerJayne. A few of you may remember her from the old forums. She has been generous enough to contribute original artwork for FFR and R2. (thanks again!).

4. Announcer GONE.. maybe not for good.. but for now as per the request of millions of people.

*NOTE* i noticed that the characters are not sticking and FFR doesnt remember which one you picked when you come back to ffr. I will work on fixing that tomorrow. It is almost 5am and I have been working on this stuff sooo much today.

And now for something completely out of the ordinary. I promised Arch0wl that I would mention his Kings of Chaos game and that I would provide a link for it. After this, I don’t want to see anymore KOC whoring around the forums.

http://www.kingsofchaos.com/page.php?id=259538

Arch0wl also wants you to know: “After signing up(same entrys as you would fill out to sign up for a message board/forum) at the link previously shown, you will have a link which you can send to friends and such, to increase your army size as well.”

Submitting Songs

Seems Synth hasn’t made an announcement on this yet, so I needed to let you people know…

Well remember how we heard about the “Excluded” info? How your songs can go on FFR? Well here’s how you should do it. Once you’ve got your song nicely recorded as an MP3, head over to the forums. Scroll to the bottom and go into the song submission. You can upload your songs here and only the admins will be able to download ‘em. Of course, doing this gives FFR the full rights to use them but you also retain the rights to your own song. Also… you can go to .dwi submission and submit your stepfiles for a song, but you must have the rights to use the song in the first place before you submit them! Well hopefully we’ve got some potentional bands here, give it a shot guys. Here’s your big chance for a claim to fame!

Arch… Owee.. That Hurts!

A week ago I promised everyone a song that would give Hyrogashi’s “Caprice” a run for it’s money. Well… Indeed we have come through with such a piece. A piece that honestly is so difficult that I won’t even attempt to play it for fear of complete humiliation. A piece so difficult that I doubt many will even get a positive score while playing. A piece so crazy that only the guy who was previously banned from this site could have thought up such a devilish brew of steps.

Please, if you wish to live another day do not attempt song #4 “Evolutionary Etude” in the classical section. It will most definately send you gasping for air but also send you to the mental ward….. and for those of you are already nuts, enjoy!

And now for some boring info:

Clear your cache and reload if you dont see the song.
This song may run very slow on slower computers because of the high arrow release rate.

Thank Heaven for Seven 11

Today is a joyous day… Why you ask? Because everyone can post comments again and read extended text in the news! Some of you may have noticed that trying to use these features over the last week and half has resulted in a blank page being displayed, this will happen no longer.

On a side note. We now have 4 FFR Songs/Raps for your enjoyment and will start making them available today or tomorrow.

Don’t think that we forgot about Arch0wl’s stepfile either! That is still slated for delivery this week. My god help you all.

Cheers,

SynthlightWHEE!!! Extended text again!

Real life sucks

Well, some of you have probably been wondering where I have been and what has been going on. For me, I’ve had a couple of family deaths, a lot has been going on with personnel changes at work, summer classes are getting very close and I decided I haven’t been spending enough time with my girlfriend recently, so I got tied up in a bunch of things that kept me off of the Internet. However, I am back again and I plan to get some things done.
First, I’m sure you’ve noticed, I made Jewpin a moderator on the forums. I was away for a while and I know Synth is busy with some things as well, so I needed someone to watch the forums. I’m not leaving the forums, but it’s good to have someone there when we can’t be.
Secondly, we are sprucing up a bunch of things on the site, as you may have noticed with the beta updates and site/forum layouts. Yes, the wait for Remix has been long and full of turmoil, so we’re doing some things to help pass the time along.
Third, all the real life stuff has put me mega-behind on secret project #2. However, I plan to continue work on it starting tomorrow. Currently the progress on the project is as such: Step 3 of 5 (60%); Step 3 Progress: 0%.
Fourth, secret project #3 has finished planning stages and if people are interested in helping me with it may be able to participate… If you know how to make stepfiles and are interested, pm me on the forums.
That’s it for now. I’ll let you know more as I near the end of step 3 on project #2.

HyrOOOHHHHMYLORD I Can’t Believe It!

Yup… You were all waiting.. All expecting.. All wondering when the next ego-inflating Hyrogashi FFR level was going to be released.

The answer is…. IT’S UP!

I have to say that this is one of the most insane levels that has crossed FFR yet. I did my best at conversion but had to take out the first 2 arrows of the file in order for it to run properly in FFR. You won’t miss them, you are going to be seeing arrows when you close your eyes after playing this level.

There are LOTS of arrows. So this level might not be suitable for slower machines.. or… slower brains. Yes, I must give out the obligatory “If you are new to FFR, please don’t try this level!”. It is indeed THAT difficult. Don’t forget to clear your cache and the reload the page if you cannot see it.

Have fun! —> Level 3 in the Classical section. Song name: Caprice

P.S. There will be another new release this week by the infamous Arch0wl. His release will give Caprice a run for it’s money.

Upgrades Upgrades Upgrades

Just wanted to give everyone a little update on the status of the site. We went through a bunch of hardware/software upgrades today on the server and you may have noticed some downtime while we rebooted and reconfigured the server.

We updated the forum software to the latest and greatest version while adding a new look to the forum. It matches the rest of a site a little better. It will also allow for attachments and other goodies that I have yet to unleash.

You can get to the forum by clicking here
Make yourself at home and say hello to everyone while you are in there.. Arch0wl and Hyrogashi don’t bit… much… well… ummm..

Cheers,

Synthlight

P.S. You will be unable to respond to this news article until tomorrow (upgrading modules)

Somewhat of an Offbeat Comment

Flash Flash Revolution was obviously created to give you something to do while bored out of your mind at night or in class. Ya, it does a damn fine job of that but FFR was also created to help unknown artists get exposure in ways that we have never seen on the net before. We are happy that we have been able to find a way to help promote bands that would get lost among the millions of other bands across the net. Excluded just so happens to be one of those bands. Excluded is literally just 4 highschool freshman (Matt Hall, Jason Godfrey, Sean Smith, and Cameron Miller) that like to play music together. There is always something entertaining and fresh about bands that have no agenda, young bands that play for the hell of it. We were proud to make a small band like this a level in FFR and do our part to give them their 15 minutes.

If you have a chance, drop by their website: http://www.excludedtheband.com and say hello or download some of their other tracks. I even heard rumors they were making a song about FFR… hmmmmm….