Monopoly - House Rules For Kids

 

My memories of playing Monopoly was one of marathon sessions lasting 4+ hours where we haggled, bribed, and negotiated our way to a hard fought victory.  More often than not it ended when one or more family members stormed off in a disgruntled rage.

Now that my six year old daughter want’s to play Monopoly I have been forced to invent some rules of conduct to supress my more ruthless tendencies while retaining the fun for both of us.

Properties can only be exchanged with another player if it will complete a set for both.  The difference in purchase price will be made up in cash by the player with the cheaper property. This is important because It enforces equality in trades thereby nullifying most negotiating tactics that would give an adult a clear advantage.

I also purchase houses and hotels for both of us. This requires a me to do my best to screw myself over but the more advanced tactics are still beyond my daughters reach.

Games of Monopoly are now fun for both of us and its a better use of our time than watching Barbie movies.

Pocket Academy And Other Stories

The boys and girls at Kairosoft have improved on their hit Game Dev Story with another time management game which seems to be using the same isometric engine.

Pocket Academy has you building and managing a new school with all the charm but more depth than its predecessor.

I would certainly recommend this to people who have exactly the same tastes as me.

Free Your Podcast Subscriptions From iTunes

I have a PC.  I have an iPhone.  I listen to podcasts. If these three sentences apply to you then welcome brothers and sisters for I share your pain.

It’s a rare day indeed when Apple force me to use their software syncing abomination.  I never escape unscathed from an encounter with the beast and so discretion is the order of the day, and no podcast subscriptions is the cost – or so I thought.

In my hour of desperation an angel appeared unto me and its name was Podcaster.  No longer did I have to wrestle with the beast to free my podcast subscriptions, for my enlightened benefactor delivered unto me auto downloading of new episodes.

Heed me brothers and sisters for those who listen to the dissimulator, for he who sayeth that iOS5 be unbound from the computer doth miss-represent himself in these podcasting matters.

Beelzebub (The Anime)

Quick Synopsis: A demon lord’s baby is being raised by a high school delinquent during which episodic hilarity ensues.

Watch this in 25 minute bites and forget about it on the 26th because at no time does it plumb the metaphorical depths that keep you questioning your place in the universe.  It makes up for this with silly entertaining fun.

You can catch this on Crunchy Roll if its been licensed in your region (don't get me started).

Google Time

Need to organise an online session of Borderlands with me but don't know the time in Auckland.  Just type time in auckland into any Google search box and Bamb!

Life is simple.

Cooking with Flo

On a whim I picked up the Cooking Dash iPhone game by PlayFirst as it was recently going free to a good home.  This was my first outing with the whole “Dash” series of games - of which there are legion - and before I knew it I’d burned 30 minutes of my precious free time micro managing  my way to culinary success.

If you just want to take this game for a spin then there is a lite version available and I can only imagine this game being much easier on my non-existent iPad.  So for me -  right now - it hits the mindless fun slot dead centre.

Raptor Rage Released - Finally!

Yes it's here - and in Steve Job's cash cow AppStore so run out and buy it now.  

I've been impressed by the Raptor Rage team as they struggled through a porting exercise because of a last minute  memory leak in Adobe's iPhone Packager - unable to be fixed as of AIR 2.6.  Their solution was to use Monkey as a cross-platform solution with the added props that it was home grown in New Zealand.

I can easily recommend this game - especially if you liked the old classic Pea Shooting Pete.  So as always if you have exactly the same taste as me - go get it.