Reicast - Dreamcast for your Android!

Reicast is an alpha release emulator for the Sega Dreamcast. It was released today to the Google Play Store. I can't believe how bad ass it is for being an early alpha. You can check it out on the Play Store by clicking here. The projects main website can be accessed by clicking here. I gotta say, i freaking love the dreamcast and a portable emulator is really awesome.

Below are quite a few screen shots for your consumption.

I like Fedora and I like Emulators!

I've been getting cozy with the Fedora 19 over the past week or so. I really am enjoying the stability, speed and looks of GNOME 3. One of the things I enjoy most are the amount of emulators available from the open source community. While they are not exclusive to Fedora, it was fairly easy to obtain and use them. Below is a small list of the emulated systems / emulators I play regularly. In no particular order.

Sony Playstation One - PCSX Reloaded
Of the PSX emulators I've tried I keep coming back to PCSXR. I like the interface, the configuration options and the way it makes Final Fantasy VIII look. It has a built in high level BIOS so no need to hunt down a SCPH1001 BIOS (but you can use it if you have one). I wasn't able to compile the newest release so I used the one from the RPMFusion repositories.

Sony Playstation Portable - PPSSPP
PPSSPP is an excellent emulator for playing Sony PSP games on. It's fast, looks great and now has full bgm and sound support. You can get the source from their home site and compile it. Or you can download pre-compiled 64bit binaries for Fedora 19/20 from here.

Sony Playstation 2 - PCSX2
PCSX2 is the premier PS2 emulator. As a matter of fact I think it might be the only PS2 emulator. It has good compatibility, great visual effects and is awesome :) The only downside is you need a beast of a machine to get good speed form games. You also need a PS2 BIOS. Please don't ask me where to get one, I haven't a clue. You can download fedora packages from here.

Nintendo DS / DSi - DeSmuME
DeSmuME is just plain awesome. Why is it awesome? One word.... Pokemon. Or any other DS / DSi game really. This emulator has great compatibility, supporting several screen layouts and display filters. Also has full sound. Only downside is you need a beefy computer to play games at full speed. I couldn't find a current RPM package for DeSmuME so you'll need to compile it from source. I have a howto right here.

Nintendo Gamecube / Wii - Dolphin Emu
This emulator is an awesome piece of work. It supports Nintendo Gamecube and the Nintendo Wii. It emulates with flying colors, but needs a very beefy machine to make it happen. With full 1080p resolutions and OpenGL support it's truly a sight to behold. Just make sure you have the horse power to run it. On Fedora I had to compile form source, which was really easy. I have a how to for version 3.5 here, it also works for Fedora 20 and version 4.x.

Nintendo SNES - SNES9x
It seems this is the only option for SNES emulators on Fedora. I would normally go with Bsnes as it's super exact in it's emulation, but the build in the repositories will not open ROMs. Or at least I couldn't figure it out.

Nintendo Famicom / NES - Nestopia Undead Edition
Nestopia is a great NES emulator. As far as I know it supports all the NES mappers. Has nice filters to smooth the graphics and supports GTK+3. It's available in the repositories for easy installation.

SEGA Swiss Army Knife Emulator - Kega Fusion
Kega Fusion emulates just about everything from SEGAs 8bit and 16bit days. It does Master System, GameGear, Genesis/MegaDrive, 32x and SEGA CD. It emulates all of them really well. An RPM of Kega Fusion can be downloaded from here (as well as a few other emulators for Fedora).

Sorry for the lack of pictures, after all the typing I just didn't have the energy to make a bunch of screen grabs.

PPSSPP daily compile for Fedora 19 / 20

Below is my little archive of precompiled binaries of the Playstation Portable (or PSP for short) emulator, PPSSPP. All binaries are compiled for Fedora 19 64bit with Intel i7 CPU optimizations. Your mileage may vary on other Linux distributions but it should work on any newer distro. Make sure you have libSDL installed.

The archive should be updated daily as long as my computer is powered on :)

You can find the build archive Here.

Hey! Ho! Let's Go! Compiling Desmume 0.9.10 on Fedora 19 / 20

Hell-o again, Jeremy here. Today we are gonna try our hand at compiling the fabulous Nintendo DS/DSi emulator, Desmume. The target platform is Fedora Linux x86/x86-64 19 / 20 and version 0.9.10 (actually SVN) of Desmume. 

For this little jaunt we'll need to download the SVN source as the vanilla 0.9.10 source release would not compile under Fedora (at least not for me). It's easy to do, just follow the below commands. In addition you'll need your basic build environment such as c++ compilers, make and what not. 

Start off by installing Desmume's dependencies (one command):

sudo yum install svn SDL* gtk2-devel glade-devel soundtouch-devel mesa-libOSMesa-devel agg-devel gtkglext-devel lua-devel intltool

Next off we'll want to download the source from Desmume's SVN repository (one command):

svn co https://desmume.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/desmume/trunk/desmume desmume

 Now lets cd into the Desmume directory, which contains the source code (one command):

cd desmume

OK, still with me? This is the part where the magic happens... the compile! (3 commands):

./autogen.sh 

CXXFLAGS='-O2 -march=native -mfpmath=sse' ./configure --prefix=/usr

make

Once the make finishes you'll want to install your baby into it's final resting place. (one command):

sudo make install

 And there you have it. A fresh steaming pile of Nintendo DS emulator. Load up a game ROM (one you legally own, of course) and give it a shot!

Fedora 20 Enable Testing Repo for Updates

This morning I was trying to update my Fedora 20 install and it was playing all kinds of hell about missing dependencies. These were packages I knew were available in Fedora. After a little research I found the missing packages to still be in the testing repo. It looks as if some of the packages were released to updates while some were left behind in testing. All I had to do to fix it was enable the testing repo and *BAM* it updated fine.

The following command will enable the updates testing repository permanently

 yum-config-manager --enable updates-testing 

If you wish to disable it again, run the following command

 yum-config-manager --disable updates-testing 

If you'd rather not enable the updates-testing repository permanently but just use it on a case-by-case basis, you can do this with yum. The command:


yum update --enablerepo=updates-testing

The above info was found on the Official Fedora Q&A wiki located at

https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA:Updates_Testing

Max & Ruby's Christmas... Oh my!

Where the hell are Max & Ruby's parents?

Eye of the Beholder 256px PNG Icon - DOSBox

Crap quality icon I made for DOSBox running the game Eye of the Beholder.

Knights of Xentar 256px PNG Icon - DOSBox

Crap quality icon I made for DOSBox running the game Knights of Xentar.

Dolphin Wii & Gamecube Emulator for Fedora 20 Compile

Updated - 02.14.2015

Just as a heads up to myself for future use, below is a rough outline I found on the Dolphin-Emu Linux Compile FAQ. Thanks to the mystery chap who originally posted this.

Start off by installing the needed dependencies to compile (2 total commands, second one is really long).

sudo yum groupinstall "Development Tools" 

sudo yum install git cmake-fedora gcc-c++ wxGTK-devel SDL-devel Cg bluez-libs-devel readline-devel alsa-lib-devel pulseaudio-libs-devel libao-devel glib2-devel openal-soft-devel ffmpeg-devel glew-devel lzo-devel portaudio-devel pango-devel libusb-devel miniupnpc-devel polarssl-devel SFML-devel SDL2-devel SOIL-devel miniupnpc-devel polarssl-devel soundtouch-devel wxGTK3-devel

Next you'll want to make a directory to hold the source code. I made a directory in my home named Source. And don't forget to enter the directory you made (2 total commands).

mkdir ~/Source
cd ~/Source

Now we will download the source from google code's git server (1 total command).

git clone https://github.com/dolphin-emu/dolphin.git dolphin-emu

Time to dive into the source code directory (1 total command).

cd dolphin-emu

Once inside the dolphin-emu directory you'll want to make another directory called build and enter it (2 total commands).

mkdir build
cd build

It is now time to make the magic happen through the wonder of compilation (2 total commands).

cmake .. -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX:PATH=/usr
make

And lastly we'll want to sudo to root and install the program to it's final resting place (1 total command).

sudo make install

Dolphin-emu 4.0-xxx git build on Fedora 20

Steam Crashing on Fedora 20 when Message Received

I found this on the Steam forums. I was having a problem with Steam under Fedora 20 crashing when I received a message from one of my friends. It's a selinux permissions problem with the sound that is played when you receive a message. Below is a copy and paste of the post.

This is really a bug with Steam that they need to fix. Having execheap is apparently bad and avoidable so hopefully with some pressure Valve should sort it out.

setsebool -P selinuxuser_execheap 1

Is a workaround in the meantime. Although you need to remember to set it back later when it's sorted.

Original Post

YO! Let's do this shit and compile some Desmume!

As of Ubuntu 13.04 there is an older version of the Nintendo DS emulator, Desmume, in the Software Center. You can install it using the following command (or by searching for Desmume in the Software Center).

sudo apt-get install desmume

Or if you're a bit more daring you can be a hero and compile from source.

To start off lets install some dependencies you'll be needing to make this happen.

sudo apt-get install libsdl1.2-dev libgtk2.0-dev libglade2-dev libosmesa6-dev libagg-dev intltool libgtkglext1-dev liblua5.1-0-dev libsoudtouch-dev

Next we'll need to get the source from the project's Sourceforge page. You can download it here.

Once you get the source you'll need to decompress it. You can double click the archive in your file manager and use the Archive Manage to do the job. Or if you like you can use the terminal command

tar zxfv desmume-0.9.9.tar.gz

Once you have the source in hand you can get ready to make the magic happen.  Use the following commands to configure, make, and install Desmume (4 total commands, one per line).

cd desmume-0.9.9
./configure --prefix=/usr
make
sudo make install 

Thanks to the nice person @ https://gist.github.com/chrisyco/1470676 for the original guide to compiling Desmume.

PPSSPP Daily Precompiled Binaries for Ubuntu Linux.

Below is my little archive of precompiled binaries of the Playstation Portable (or PSP for short) emulator, PPSSPP, for 64-bit Ubuntu Linux. All binaries are compiled on Ubuntu 13.04. Your mileage may vary on other Linux distributions although I have tested it on Fedora 19 64-bit (works fine). Make sure you have your distro's libSDL installed.

The archive should be updated daily as long as my computer is powered on :)

You can find the build archive Here.

BY CROM! Let us compile PPSSPP for Ubuntu!

This how to is outdated. MaiAT3PlusDecoder is no longer needed as an audio decoder is now rolled into FFMPEG. I do believe the rest of the how to should still work though.

PPSSPP is a Sony Playstation Portable (or PSP for short) Emulator. There is no version of PPSSPP in the Software Center under Ubuntu 13.04, so we need to compile it form source. Luckily it's pretty easy to compile. I use the below command to download the source and compile.

In addition, on MY nVidia setup I had to issue the following command to link the proper libGL.so and clear up the error "No rule to make target `/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libGL.so', needed by `PPSSPPSDL'.  Stop." Only use this command IF you are getting the before mentioned error while compiling.

sudo rm /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libGL.so && sudo ln -s /usr/lib/libGL.so.1 /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libGL.so 

With that out of the way continue on to compile PPSSSPP

git clone git://github.com/hrydgard/ppsspp.git && cd ppsspp && git submodule update -i && ./b.sh && cd build && strip PPSSPPSDL && mkdir ~/Desktop/PPSSPP && cp -a PPSSPPSDL assets ~/Desktop/PPSSPP

After it's finished compiling you can go to your Desktop folder and there should be a directory called PPSSPP. Protip: there is no installation for PPSSPP, just change to the directory and either double click on PPSSPPSDL from your file manager or execute PPSSPPSDL from the terminal.

There will be not background music or voice in certain PSP games on Ubuntu unless you have the mystical audio decoder library. You can find one that MIGHT work here. To install it use the below command after decompressing it. Or place it in the same directory as the PPSSPPSDL binary.

sudo mv ../output/libat3plusdecoder.so ~/Desktop/PPSSPP

If the downloaded decoder library doesn't work you can easily compile your own. To do so download the source and issue the following command.

The source for the audio decoder library can be found here. After the source finishes downloading you will want to decompress the archive and cd into the 'MaiAT3PlusDecoder' directory (do this while in the terminal). Run the following command to compile and install the library.

cd src && make && sudo mv ../output/libat3plusdecoder.so ~/Desktop/PPSSPP

HEY! Let's compile Mednafen emulator for Ubuntu!

First things first we need to get the latest source from the Mednafen Forums. Usually the top post, no account needed to download.

Click here for the official Mednafen forums.

Now we'll want to Install some dependencies for compiling.

sudo apt-get install build-essential pkg-config libasound2-dev libcdio-dev libsdl1.2-dev libsdl-net1.2-dev libsndfile1-dev zlib1g-dev  

Next we'll decompress the source. Don't forget to enter the directory the archive decompresses to before you run the compile command.

tar vxfj mednafen-<version>-wip.tar.bz2

And then compile the Mednafen source

./configure && make && sudo make install

After it finishes compiling and installing it's binaries you can fire it up by opening a terminal (yes, its a terminal based program. NO built in GUI) and typing in 'mednafen <rom name>'. The list of supported systems is staggering. Refer to the Mednafen homepage for the run down on what all it can do.

Don't Like the terminal? There are several GUI frontends for Mednafen. The one I recommend is called MFE, it can be found here. Note that while MFE is a great front end it's known to have a little bugger in it's syntax with versions of mednafen above 0.9.11. It's really easy to fix, info about it can be found here.

Screenie of MFE and Mednafen running the NES legend, Duck Tales.

libat3plusdecoder.so for PPSSPP on 64bit Linux

Excelsior, True Believer!

nVidia Drivers for Fedora Linux 19 64-bit

To keep myself from searching every time I install or re-install Fedora 19 64-bit I made a little cheat sheet. Below are the steps I use to install the nVidia Drivers for my GeForce 660 Ti. This should work with most other nVidia cards which are of the 8xxx variety or newer (maybe others too but the oldest I've tested is a 8800).

First you'll need to make sure you have the RPMFusion repository enabled. To do so use the below command (1 long command)

sudo yum localinstall --nogpgcheck http://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpm http://download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpm

then you'll want to fully update your system and reboot when it's finished (2 commands, 1 on each line). You might want to bookmark this page so you can come back and get the final few commands :)

sudo yum upgrade
sudo reboot -n

next command... the magic happens. In addition to the graphics driver the 32-bit OpenGL libraries are installed so most my games work. (1 long command)

sudo yum install akmod-nvidia kmod-nvidia xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-libs vdpauinfo libva-vdpau-driver libva-utils xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-libs.i686 kernel-devel

After the drivers install reboot your system one final time.

sudo reboot -n

The above pretty much sums up how I install my graphic card drivers. It may look like a lot of crap to go through but it's not that bad. And more importantly, it works.

Handbrake for Fedora 19

I was looking for handbrake for my Fedora 19 install and was having a dickens of a time. I stumbled upon this repo with it and a few other apps of interest. It's owned by a chap called Slaanesh, so all thanks goes out to them. Original information source from here.

First add the repo to your system

sudo wget http://negativo17.org/repos/fedora-handbrake.repo -O /etc/yum.repos.d/fedora-handbrake.repo

Then install Handbrake

yum install HandBrake-gui

Thanks again, Slaanesh!

Dolphin Emulator Build in Fedora 19 Repository

I ran into a configuration error when trying to compile the Dolphin Emulator on my fresh install Fedora 19 box. I couldn't figure it out so I decided to check the default repository and see what version they have for installation. To my surprise the one in the repo was compiled about a week ago, this is totally acceptable :) I normally try to compile what I can myself so I have the latest and greatest, but in a case where something won't compile it's nice to have a fairly recent build to easily install.

Thank you Fedora 19 Dolphin Emulator repository maintainer!

Compiling PCSX2 Playstation 2 Emulator on Fedora Linux 19

Welcome to my quick and dirty guide to compiling the PCSX2 Playstation 2 emulator under Fedora 19.

First install the massive list of dependencies

yum install cmake bzip2-devel.i686 glew-devel.i686 mesa-libGL.i686 mesa-libGL-devel.i686 mesa-libGLU.i686 mesa-libGLU-devel.i686 mesa-libGLw.i686 mesa-libGLw-devel.i686 mesa-libOSMesa.i686 mesa-libOSMesa-devel.i686 alsa-lib.i686 alsa-lib-devel.i686 Cg libXxf86vm.i686 libXxf86vm-devel.i686 xorg-x11-proto-devel libX11.i686 libX11-devel.i686 xorg-x11-xtrans-devel libCg.i686 SDL.i686 SDL-devel.i686 sparsehash-devel freetype.i686 freetype-devel.i686 gtk2.i686 gtk2-devel.i686 zlib.i686 zlib-devel.i686 libjpeg-devel libjpeg wxGTK-devel.i686 portaudio.i686 portaudio-devel.i686 glib2-devel.i686 gdk-pixbuf2-devel.i686 atk-devel.i686 pango-devel.i686 cairo-devel.i686 libjpeg-turbo.i686 libjpeg-turbo-devel.i686 glibc-devel glibc-devel.i686 svn gcc-c++ libaio-devel libaio-devel.i686 mesa-libEGL-devel mesa-libEGL-devel.i686 mesa-libGLES-devel.i686 mesa-libGLES-devel glibc-devel.i686 glibc-devel

Next download the source from github

git clone https://github.com/PCSX2/pcsx2.git

Now its time to issue a few commands to set up our build directory

cd pcsx2-read-only && mkdir build && cd build

Time for cmake to get the ball rolling

cmake ../CMakeLists.txt -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release && cd ..

Compile and install time, go get some coffee

make && make install

After PCSX2 finishes compiling and installing you can find it in the bin directory in the source directory. You can move the bin directory where ever you want for it's final resting place. Once you have it where you want it double click on the pcsx2 binary to start it up. This is what it should look like.

Or if you prefer there is a precompiled RPM for Fedora 19 on the official PCSX2 forums for download. The RPM and install directions can be found here. It's the latest release (1.1.0 as of this writing) where as compiling it from source will give you the latest and greatest bleeding edge features (or errors).

Ubuntu 13.04 Saucy & PCSX2

My memory isn't so good anymore. So as a note to myself below is the Ubuntu PPA and install commands for the excellent Playstation 2 emulator, PCSX2. I installed it under 13.10 (saucy), but I had to lie to the sources file and say I was 13.04 (raring). PCSX2 is written for 32-bit systems but when you install it on 64-bit it downloads and installs the 32-bit libraries needed to run it.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gregory-hainaut/pcsx2.official.ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install pcsx2-unstable

PPSSPP v0.8.1-861-g408499c for Ubuntu Linux 13.10

I compiled up a build of PPSSPP version 0.8.1-861-g408499c for Ubuntu 13.10. All you need to do is decompress the tar.gz archive and run the PPSSPPSDL executable. It *SHOULD* fire up and just work. Note there is no audio decoder plugin for linux, so sorry I don't have one.

Download Here

NOTE: I compiled this on a 64-bit system. So it should be a 64-bit executable.

Marvel - War of Heroes v1.4.1 APK for Android

For those who have an "unsupported device" (like the nexus 7) here is the Marvel - War of Heroes v1.4.1 apk for Android. Just download and install.

Download APK

Final Fantasy XIV Beta and Wine

It look like Final Fantasy XIV A Realm Reborn Beta does not work under Wine (or Crossover). It installs from the downloaded installer fine but when it tries to open the launchpad it bombs out.

Crossover Wine Steam Nvidia Fedora 19 x64 Helper Post

On my Fedora 19 x64 system I needed to install a few extra i686 (or 32-bit) packages to get my gaming softwares to work. To do so I used the below yum command (it's a LONG one).

yum install isdn4k-utils.i686 cups-libs.i686 dbus-libs.i686 fontconfig.i686 mesa-libGLU.i686 gstreamer-plugins-base.i686 gstreamer.i686 gnutls.i686 libgphoto2.i686 gsm.i686 libjpeg-turbo.i686 openldap.i686 lcms-libs.i686 libmpg123.i686 openal-soft.i686 libpng.i686 sane-backends-libs.i686 libv4l.i686 libXcomposite.i686 libXcursor.i686 libXinerama.i686 libxml2.i686 libxslt.i686 openssl-libs.i686 nss-mdns.i686 gnupg:i686 gnupg xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-libs.i686

The gaming apps in question were Wine, Crossover and Steam. I suppose it'd apply to any other 32-bit game or OpenGL app.

Pithos Pandora Client in Fedora 19 / 20

I had a dickens of a time trying to find Pithos packages for Fedora 19. At a loss for answers I figured I'd build it myself. After searching Google for a bit I came up with

http://blog.seventhmoon.info/blog/2012/07/31/getting-pithos-to-work-in-fedora-16-17/12/07/31/getting-pithos-to-work-in-fedora-16-17/

It's for Fedora 16 and 17 but it worked for Fedora 19 just fine. Below is a rehash of the steps needed to download and compile Pithos.

Step 1 - Input this command to add the rpmfusion repositories. One long command.

yum localinstall --nogpgcheck http://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-stable.noarch.rpm http://download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-stable.noarch.rpm

Step 2 - Input this yum command to install dependencies for Pithos. One long command.

yum install python pyxdg pygobject2 pylast gstreamer-python notify-python gtk2-python dbus-python gstreamer-plugins-good gstreamer-plugins-bad gstreamer-plugins-ugly python-distutils-extra git python-setuptools

Step 3 - Where the magic happens. We download the source, compile and install. Three seperate commands, one on each line.

git clone https://github.com/kevinmehall/pithos.git
cd pithos
sudo python setup.py install --prefix=/usr

Also, I think the original author sums it up best with...

Due to the nature of this software, one might suggest getting the paid version of Pandora (the plan sans ads) to make yourself feel better when using this.  (Pithos has infinite skips and no ads…)

Dolphin Emulator 3.5 Fedora 19 Build Instructions

This little ditty is based on the official Dolphin Emulator Linux build guide located at https://code.google.com/p/dolphin-emu/wiki/Linux_Build . The official guide is for Debian, Ubuntu and variants. This one is NOT, it's for Fedora 19.

Introduction

Dolphin Emulator runs on 32 and 64 bit Fedora 19 installs. The below instructions explain how to build Dolphin Emulator on Fedora 19 using the cmake system.

Setting up to Build

First you'll need to install the libraries to compile Dolphin Emu. Use the below yum commmand to install all of them.

yum install git cmake-fedora gcc-c++ wxGTK-devel SDL-devel Cg bluez-libs-devel readline-devel alsa-lib-devel pulseaudio-libs-devel libao-devel glib2-devel openal-soft-devel ffmpeg-devel glew-devel lzo-devel portaudio-devel pango-devel

Next you'll want to pull down the source.

git clone https://code.google.com/p/dolphin-emu/ dolphin-emu

Next you'll want to change into the created directory:

cd dolphin-emu

Later if you want to update your local source issue the command:

git pull origin

Building

Create a build subdirectory, and change into it:

mkdir Build && cd Build

Configure the build:

cmake ..

You may also want to change the install prefix by adding "-D CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/new/path". Note that this path does not need to be absolute. cmake will complete it to its absolute equivalent. The default prefix is "/usr". This means that the executable will be installed as "/usr/bin/dolphin-emu", the plugins will be installed into "/usr/lib/dolphin-emu", and the shared data files will be installed into "/usr/share/dolphin-emu".

From here build and install in the standard make way:

make && make install

Note that you may need superuser privileges for the last command.

Running Dolphin

You can run dolphin from anywhere by typing:

dolphin-emu

If you changed the prefix and $prefix/bin is not in your path, then you will have to precede this with the path to the executable.

Quick word for sub Tier 1 freshness (DC Universe Online)

Just a little heads up for the fresh level 30's in the house. If you are free to play and can afford the $9.99 you really should purchase the Battle for Earth DLC. This DLC gives you access to the South Gotham Union daily quests which yield about 20 Triumph marks a day. Purchasing a DLC also upgrades your account from Free to Premium which has it's own benifets.

Tier 1 iconic sets cost between 26 to 39 marks each, so in theory you can get a piece of Tier 1 gear every two days without doing anything else besides the South Gotham Union quests. If this isn't fast enough for you then throw in the weekly solo challenges, there are 5 of them, and you'll be able to get an extra piece of Tier 1 per week. If you are completely lazy like me you can have full T1 in a maximum of14 days if you do all your solo chalenges once per week. This may seem like a long time but keep in mind any duos or alerts you complete will also yield Triumph marks. The more triumphs you compile the faster you'll get to Tier 1.

What I did when my hero hit 30 was head to the PvP vendor and purchase two DPS rings, the DPS neck piece, a DPS trinket, a DPS mask and a DPS PvP weapon. The above items will not contribute to your combat rating at all. What it will do is keep you alive while you earn Marks of Triumph to purchase the rest of your gear. I do not recommend using a full PvP gear set for PvE questing, PvP gear has toughness on it and no defense. Enemies will cut thru you like wet paper when you have no defense to protect yourself. So avoid the tempting and affordable full PvP set for questing. Be mindful this is for a DPS (damage) set, you can focus on your speciality role when you actually start to purchase your Tier 1 gear (or stick with DPS if you like).

Next I chose to run a couple of solo challenges. I picked the solo challenge based on what renown I needed to get cooperative with. After I finished the challenges I used the renown tokens and was deemed cooperative with the sentinels of magic (the faction I chose). I then high tailed it to the Magic Wing of the JLA Watchtower to purchase CR34 gear form the Sentinels vendor. The full set of CR34 gear cost 8 triumph marks and some cash. Using the CR34 gear and PvP accessories as a foundation I was able to easily complete South Gotham and the rest of the solo challenges.

On a side note DO NOT throw away any gear you get from solos, duos or alerts. Put them in your bank as they can positively affect your CR. Once you purchase a Tier 1 gear piece you can sell the duplicate slot items from your inventory.

Side note #2: If you get any purple "integrate on equip" items form solo or duos do not equip them. They are inferior quality to Tier 1 gear and usually sell/trade for a fairly good amount to people looking for their styles. Just because it's a purple doesn't make it good gear. Think profit!

Marvel - War of Heroes v1.4.0 APK for Android

For those who have an "unsupported device" here is the Marvel - War of Heroes v1.4.0 apk for Android. Just download and install.

Download APK

Hosting back on Google's Blogger

After using Godaddy's hosting for a little over a year I'm bringing my blog back to Google's Blogger hosting. Who'd have thought $8.99 a month would break the bank :)