Author: Link-NM

Link-NM is the administrator of N Masters, Makendo Central, and aspiring indie game developer at NovaFan Games. His favorite game franchises include Mega Man X, The Legend of Zelda, and Mario Kart.

A reminder and an update

First of all, just a quick reminder that most if not all of my gaming related articles will now be published over at N Masters. Here’s the link to the latest one where I go in depth over the differences between GBA Sky Garden in the original game and the new versions in Mario Kart Tour and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Booster Course Pass DLC.

And second, I think I’m pretty sure now of what I talked about earlier. I’ll be moving Makendo Central to a WordPress instance when I get back working on it. Also, I disabled its gallery since the gallery software was all broken after all the updates we had on our server. It will all be back once the new Makendo Central is up. I don’t think I can even update the current homepage to remove the link but I’ll see what I can do.

Maybe WordPress for Makendo Central after all?

After the successful relaunch of N Masters website and how easy it has been to manage it, I’m considering to simply change Makendo Central to a WordPress instance too. There’s also the benefit that it’s able to update automatically by itself and I’m already getting used to managing WordPress sites. Also, saves time by not having to code everything from scratch.

Anyway, just a thought I had and am considering.

Final update log before N Masters relaunch

As the title states, this will be the final update before relaunching N Masters website, which should be in the next 24 hours, if everything goes well. Here’s what has happened since the last update log, though.

First of all, the YouTube channel keeps getting updated but now that it’s technically marked as active again, I’ve slowed down on the uploads. I’ve started to focus more on finishing the website and design for social network services related accounts. You may have seen an updated banner for N Masters YouTube, Twitter, and Guilded accounts or server. The avatar for them has also been updated. And while it’s not the final design for them, it’s a design that matches more the new design for N Masters.

Additionally, the N Masters alliance in PSO2 also has flag now and can be searched for. A description for it has also been added. It’s in Ship 1, by the way.

So what’s missing for the N Masters website to be launched? Very small touches on the front page design and the new website icon. That’s pretty much it. That’s why I hope it will release in the next 24 hours if everything goes well.

I would also like to mention that once the website is launched, some of the content that was usually posted here will now be posted at N Masters. Things like “A Look At”, commentary about “First Play” videos, game guides, and other gaming related content will now just be shared over there. Computer stuff, drawings, or update logs about Makendo Central website and NovaFan Games will still be shared here, though.

N Masters update log (February 26, 2022)

Time for another update about stuff that’s been going on. The YouTube channel continues to get updates. There’s a lot material to be uploaded there, specially with the upcoming DLC pack for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. I know it’s been a lot of Mario Kart Tour stuff lately but I assure you there’s going to be a lot of other things too. It’s just that Mario Kart Tour stuff has been the easiest to cover lately.

Related to that, I also made the first video that involves a lot more complicated editing, a comparison between the original GBA Sky Garden and the new GBA Sky Garden that was just released in Tour. I made this also because this is almost certainly the version that will be in the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe DLC. You can check the video below:

But let’s get to the most important part of this update log. Let’s talk about the main thing that has been getting a lot of work behind the scenes: the N Masters website itself.

During the last few days, I’ve been working on updating all the old reviews and preparing them for the new system. Formatting, making sure images are working, a bit of spelling check on a few, etc. After a few days, that work has been completed now and all reviews are now ready. With that done, I then proceeded to work on the new design of the site. I’ve established what colors will be used and currently finishing up the site layout. There will also be a new logo for N Masters and all the banners around our social network accounts will finally be updated. Rie’s clothing will remain the same, by the way.

And that’s it for now. The initial launch version won’t have all the features but the main content and links will all be there. I hope to get the site done during the next few days and make it available for everyone.

Updates to N Masters (YouTube back in action)

As pointed out in the previous update log, the Card Generators are now gone. I’ve also now decided what I want to do with the forums. The old ones are going to remain in read-only mode for around a year and a new forum will be installed and enabled sometime soon. So if you need to back up or archive anything from the old forum, feel free to do so already. The URL will remain the same until the new forum takes its place. After that, a link to the old forum will be available from the new one.

Related to the Card Generators and like I said in the last update log, there’s currently a very small chance they may come back but not in the same way at all. Whenever that moment arrives I will share the details first here. For now, I will just say that if they return, it would be a in a more static way and no more leveling up.

Besides that, you may have noticed a lot of updates already going on in other areas. N Masters YouTube channels is now active again and quite a bit. Similarly, the Twitter account is sharing the related updates too and is back to being active. That’s just the beginning to get things moving once again. The main website is also getting some work on so hopefully the new design and website will go live soon in the next days.

That’s pretty much it for now. For now, you can also join the N Masters server at Guilded which is already set up and ready. (It’s like Discord but for the modern era/more features)

PSO2NGS Winter 2022 Mischief Symbols Guide

Update: Video added to the post. (February 6, 2022)

Here’s a quick guide I published on my Guilded server for the Winter 2022 Mischief Symbols in Phantasy Star Online 2 New Genesis. I may make a video version of it later today and just update this post with it too.

https://www.guilded.gg/N-Masters/groups/MDq6ANBd/channels/102478d1-55c9-4abe-a76a-a8ba4463b47d/docs/297376

First, use the mini-map on the top-left of each screenshot to find the general position. Then use the main screen to find the exact location. If you need extra help, here’s a video too.

Completing this small seasonal task will give you a Title but it will only be available until next week on February 8th 2022. So make sure you do it before then or you will miss out.

Update to status of projects (Feb 1, 2022)

Like I said in the previous post, here’s a new update about what’s going on with all three of projects I’m publicly handling: N Masters, Makendo Central, and NovaFan Games (or its games, to be more exact).

Similar to last time, here’s he short version first: All three things are still active and a work in progress. N Masters is the one that’s seen the most activity recently on the social aspects like Twitch channel and Guilded server. Makendo Central hasn’t seen much activity except for a quick name change and things behind the scenes. NovaFan Games or game development hasn’t really changed since last time.

Alright, let’s get into detail about the plans for each thing then.

About N Masters

The main idea for N Masters hasn’t changed much for the most part. The new website will now focus more on game reviews and other community aspects. Chat and galleries are now available at our Guilded server, which you can preview here before joining. Not all channels are available to preview but you can at least see something of how it works before joining (unlike certain other service). As to why I am now using Guilded? That is something I will explain later in a quick review blog post about the application. All I can say for now is that it offers much more than the other one.

Anyway, that’s for the main website. As for content, it’s possible it may expand to content outside of Nintendo stuff. The focus will still be mainly Nintendo stuff but there may also be content that is just from general gaming. It won’t be much, though, just really specific things. One easy example is just the alliance in PSO2. Maybe some reviews from games that are not really in Nintendo consoles, specially if they are planned to be released later on a Nintendo console. Or reviews of games that are on Nintendo consoles but were played on a different console, of course specifying it was played on a different console than a Nintendo one.

I don’t know exactly what to do with the forums. I’m considering just restarting them using a different software. The current one is an SMF installation but they barely update it anymore. It feels very stuck in the past. It really sucks for mobile users unless you find a theme for it, for example. So it’s probable that I may just leave it archived and in read-only mode and install a whole new forum and better organized.

And related to that, there’s the current card generator feature. I’ll be honest, I have not checked it lately at all. I don’t know if it still works or not. I know one of them requires a log in from the forum and the plan was to upgrade all of them to that better log in system. But as I explained before, I think I’ll just get rid of the old forums overall. You can’t even register to them since a while ago. I’m not even sure if keeping the old forums online is a good idea since I would still need to give it maintenance from time to time. So with that said, I am also announcing in this post that I will be completely disabling the Card Generators. At the same time, I will be deleting all the current saved cards. This will all happen in one week, February 8th. So please remember to back up your card or card profile if you want to keep it or keep showing it off. There may be something in the future that replaces and it’s more global but I am not sure of it yet or when it will even happen.

Besides this, the only other thing I can add related to N Masters is to expect more updates on other services such as YouTube and Twitch. To keep up with everything, please join the Guilded server which I already linked above.

About Makendo Central

The first change with Makendo Central, as you may have already noticed, it’s the name of the website. The reason why I’m doing this name change is because this is actually the closest way the Makeruna! Makendo franchise has ever been localized. You can see this on the English version of the studio that did the OVA and more officially on the title screen for Makeruna! Makendo 2. So from now on, all references to the games or the franchise will use this spelling instead of “ou” that I used before (which is still technically correct but not localized, just a literal translation from “ō”).

Plans for the site are still the visual redesign while still hosting the same content. I just need to look into what tools to use to apply this update. Like I said before, this will also probably be practice for N Masters.

The other ideas I have for Makendo Central are actually setting up a wiki and fixing up the gallery system that is already installed. These will be the main things being worked on for now. A few other things may come up later and will probably be announced here, in this blog, before being released or worked.

Related to the wiki idea, it’s likely I will be using the default MediaWiki software. I have looked into alternatives or something that feels more modern but I really don’t see any other good option. If you have a suggestion, though, please let me know in the comments section.

About NovaFan Games

NovaFan Games is probably the most forgotten website of the three, I’ll admit that. But well, it’s updates are more about game development and projects than anything else. Like I said the last time, NovaFan Games website will be getting a redesign, first of all. I need to find what exact look I want for it based on the type of website that it is. It’s probably going to remain being a WordPress install to make everything easier.

On the actual game projects, I will first need to reorganize all the game development ideas I had before deciding on what project to actually tackle next. It will probably be something small to start getting used to game development and programming again since it’s been a while. But I can tell that it is something that I am looking forward to and hope to share with everyone soon enough. My current set up is getting old and it does make it hard to work on some things, specially 3D projects. But it is still enough for 2D game development which is what I will be starting with.

I will also definitely go and check every social profile that I had done for NovaFan Games and give them a clean up and updating. Because I can tell you for sure that I haven’t really touched up or checked on my Itch.io or GameJolt profiles in the last few years.

And that’s pretty much it about the three projects or websites. As for this blog, I’ll be updating it with several types of content such interesting downloads I find (like the Nintendo LINE wallpapers I used to share), commentary about gaming news, reviews or quick reviews for computer things and services or games, specially if they don’t fit in N Masters. Guides, like the recent PSO2 ones, may be shared too. Other content may be just drawings I make and fun or interesting gaming things I may encounter while playing. And of course, update logs related to the status of my projects.

Like I said in the last PSO2 Guide post I made and how I mentioned it here in the NovaFan Games update plans, my current work set up is becoming a bit old. So if it’s possible and you enjoy the content I have been making and want to support me to keep going on, please consider giving me a tip through the following methods. I would appreciate a lot and assure you it won’t go to waste.

  • Paypal (StreamElements): https://streamelements.com/linknm/tip
  • Bitcoin: 1PaqtezA6btuEYzdhYW1DsaFaqgkTUEU7A
  • Nano: nano_3amim7ew6gpxj6j6uepmwrsomutm9q1mno6jh7sio8j4bkwch8w4omt5zmw3
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Additionally or alternatively, you could also subscribe to my Twitch channel.

How search works in PSO2 Player Shops

Welp, it’s been a while since I last published something here even though I said I would start doing the opposite. But it’s time to fix that.

First of all, going to post this quick guide related to PSO2 and its player or personal shop system. More specifically, how to search in it to find your favorite cosmetic, weapon, or item. It’s a guide I’ve been thinking of making since a while ago. There is also stuff going on with overall N Masters, Makendo Central, and game development things but I’ll share that in a post after this one.

Anyway, let’s start with this quick guide which you can find inside this post.

Continue reading “How search works in PSO2 Player Shops”

Kinopio-kun graduated, no more Nintendo LINE wallpapers

As you may have noticed, I haven’t published another LINE calendar wallpaper from mobile lately, specifically one for this month. That’s because Kinopio-kun has now “graduated”. In other words, he has retired from the Nintendo LINE account.

Unfortunately, that means that the Nintendo LINE account is now just a generic contact providing general social network posts and news, similar to their Twitter account. So there’ll be no more monthly wallpaper calendars from Nintendo as well.