Our lovely friends over at Maemo.org have finally finished creating an application which helps you  setup  your own boot videos.

The application is called BootScreen. The main thread for this application is here.

A big thanks goes out to the creators:

Valerio Valerio aka(VDVsx)
Claes Norin aka(claesbas)

If you looking for more videos to use I found a few pretty good ones over on Symbian-Freak so check out thier thread too: Tutorial: How to Mod your Boot Screen , Please note that Most of thread is still talking about the old way off changing your boot screen, but there are links to some nice videos.

The application is accessed through the settings screen on the N900:

The thing I love about this app is that it is simple. There are not loads of settings/options/buttons that will confuse you.

All you do is pick if you want multiple videos on boot (having more than 3 is not recommended) , or if you want a random video.

You simply need to put the videos on your N900 and then browse for them and you are a go. (At the moment the application filters to only show avi files)

Ok lets start with my Post to the Forums

************************************************** **********************
But first GO and buy the Rovio expansion pack. Its much simpler if you do this first.

Then Download the file attached to your N900. How you do this is upto you.

BUT DO NOT COPY THE FILE TO THE ROOT OF THE DEVICE.
ITS BEST COPIED INTO YOUR HOME DIRECTORY

untaring the file in the root of the device will take up valuable space and MAY CAUSE PROBLEMS

THEN ALL AS ROOT.

run
tar xzf custom-release.gz
cd custom

sh setup-cust-AB
this sets up AB to be custom level compatible.

sh run-cust
this allows you to play custom levels

sh run-rovio
changes back to rovio levels;

these 2 commands used to switch back and forth as you effectively swap the game between custom and official levels

sh reset
should be run before upgrading OS or buying rovio levels(i think) but is otherwise not needed
*****************************

Ok so the First bit would be simple if it didnt keep disappearing from the online shop. But i cant stress this enough Rovios beer great help, and very generous allowing me to tinker around.

SO onto the Install

FIrst a Warning. You should really try to understand what your doing if you tinker. I am not responsible for any trouble you get into. But i will try to help you if you do.
Saying that this is fairly simple and i will try explain whats happening.

You will need to have root access so see else where for that. And take REAL note of the Warning. Having root access is great but can be dangerous.

there really 2 options Dowload on a different machine and copy to phone or download from phone

either is as good as the other as long as you end up with the tarred file is on you phone and NOT (listen up folks) NOT in the root area. There whole threads about the problems filling the root area up

So /home/user
seems a good and sensible place.

Ok now you have a tarred and zipped file but thats not use to man nor mouse , so we need to unzip and untar

enter
tar xzf custom-release.gz
at the command line

This does as i suggested. it unzips (z option) and unpacks (x option ) . But google is you friend so go find out more about tar.

This should create a Directory called custom.
If i need to explain
cd custom

then you should give up now, and go do something less boring instead

now onto the clever bit
sh setup-cust-AB
this sets up AB to be custom level compatible.

sh runs a shell script. Shell is a basic programming language.

This checks if AB is running and moans if it is
It then moves all the Rovio files aside and copys my levels to the AB structure.
It then sets up symbolic links (go google again) that point to the Angry bird levels and level info

The 2 other scripts
sh run-cust
sh run-rovio effectively just move the symbolic links to point to rovio or custom levels

the final part
sh reset
should return the setup to how it was on AB install.
a sensible move before upgrading AB or the OS.

Hope this helps
Craig

I want to thank Craig for taking the time to explain, some of you might find some of his words “harsh” but to be honest, if you don’t understand and you are getting stuck, please google and/or ask for help, because the last thing we want is for you guess and then end up damaging your phone.

So To Summarise:

1. Extract Files (tar xzf custom-release.gz)
2. Go to your new custom folder (cd custom)
3. Setup Angrybirds to be custom level compatible (sh setup-cust-AB)
4. Play custom levels(sh run-cust)
5. Play normal levels(sh run-rovio)
6. Reset everything to the way it was in the beginning(sh reset)

Here is a link to the orginal post that Craig refers to:
http://talk.maemo.org/showpost.php?p=547863&postcount=148

Fear not my little friends because a few of us over at Maemo.org have started a thread for a Level editor. Another great thing is that @Miika over at Maemo.org is also an employee of Rovio and has been good enough to get us clearance to create our own levels and begin work on a level editor, head over and see how things are getting on.

I’ve also added a post to Maemo-freak here.
Quote from @Miika

First of all, wow! We anticipated requests for level editor but didn’t quite expect the users to put effort to reverse engineer their own. It’s very nice to see the level of interest Angry Birds has received from the Maemo community.
As for any possible legal issues no worries, go for it!

So while the level editor is being worked on, myself and @cgarvie have created some levels for you to spent your time on.
I must say that all credit goes to @cgarvie, for all his help on teaching us how to make levels and edit files etc.

He has now release a level pack of 10 custom levels:
up and over (@cgarvie)                        3 little pigs (@cgarvie)
through the wall (@cgarvie)                mind the steps (@stobbsc)
drop (@cgarvie)                                        pyramid (@cgarvie)
oh piggy where art thou (@cgarvie) bounce left right (@stobbsc)
roll over miss piggy (@cgarvie)            birdhouse of my soul (@cgarvie)

There is a video below of the levels in action:

Here are the instructions of how you can go ahead and install these levels:
First you need to download the attached file:HERE
You can either use WinRAR to extra the file on your PC or Type the following in your N900 terminal if you download it directly to your device:

root
tar xfz /home/user/MyDocs/cag_level_pack.tar.gz

This will extra a mypack folder. Copy this folder to the internal memory of the N900 if you unpacked in windows.
Then open X-Terminal (you will need rootsh) on the N900 an type in the following:

root
mkdir /home/opt/rovio/angrybirds/data/levels/pack2
cp /home/user/MyDocs/mypack/* -R /home/opt/rovio/angrybirds/data/levels/pack2

So a big thanks to everyone over at Maemo.org and to Rovio. now lets get playing.

How did it all start you may ask. Well if you head over the official thread you’ll find it’s pretty cool little story:

Lcuk and I came up with an idea for a simple acclerometer game on the bus to Barcelona Airport. Unfortunately we got to terminal 2 before we got to the coding..

The concept is simple. You have a field of sheep, with a few pens. You rock and tip the device to get the sheep into the pens. Then as you go through the levels, the game develops complications. You are the ‘sheepdog’ rounding up the sheep. Once a sheep has been penned, it becomes inert (and therefore cannot be bounced or scared out of its pen)

Level 1: Pup

Six sheep, two pens. You must get three sheep in each pen. Responsiveness relatively slow. If user takes too long, the sheep get a bit bored and occasionally stop to eat flowers: they can only be dislodged with a ‘bounce/flick’ of the device. This will also move any other unpenned sheep.

Level 2: Training dog

Twelve sheep, three pens. Four sheep in each pen (you can’t put more than 4 in any one pen). Medium responsiveness. If you are slow the sheep will stop and eat flowers, or lift their tails and poop. Bounce/flick to dislodge them. This will also move any unpenned sheep. Introduction of ‘wolf’ concept: wolf icon appears from one side of the screen and all unpenned sheep scatter in the opposite direction. Repeat if the game taks too long.

Level 3: Man’s best friend

Twenty sheep, four pens. Five sheep in each pen (and only five). Responsiveness maximum. Sheep occasionally stop to eat flowers and poop and need to be bounced. Wolves may enter from all sides and scatter the sheep. Wolf may move across the field, scattering unpenned sheep in all directions away from it.

When all sheep have been penned, game over screen shows a bone and “Well done, good dog!”

This is what we can expect to see in the future

The reason I love this story so much is that it truly highlights, the enthusiasm of the Maemo community and it also shows that anything is possible.

Now as the project has moved through the various phases of brainstorm to graphic requests to development etc, I’ve found myself following the thread and updates So I’m sure you can guess how excited I was when on the 4th Jan @Hopbeat posted the following comment:

Anyone care to gather some sounds together? I have basic baaah (or whatever the English sheep do) when they are penned. It would be nice to have some various quiet baahs that could play randomly in the background. mp3 preferred (any others formats I will simply convert).

So being the crazy geek that I am I took it upon myself to spend a week-end practising in the shower. Last night I final managed to record a few demo sheep sounds just to give the developers a taste of my vocal talents.

Before are a few examples:

Download

Download

Download

Download

Download

Let me know what you think and who knows you may here my sounds in future releases of the game.(holding thumbs)

I do hope to record more over time.

Before I start please note that at the time of writing this game is in extras-testing, please check out my games/app page to see the current state of the game. (Game moved to Extras as stable this morning)

If you didn’t already know PrBoom is a port of the brilliant old school game Doom created by id software. To get this working on your N900 you will need to do the following:

1. Install PrBoom
2. Get your IWAD or Doom data files (you can get free IWAD files from here)
3. Copy the above files to this location on your N900 /opt/doom/wad
4. Go to the application manager and click on PrBoom

This game has now been released so check out this link try this link.

I have found that the game runs very very smoothly, I’ve yet to have any problems. Without the use of a mouse it will take some time to get used to the controls. If however you are not happy with the default controls you customise the controls as you see fit.

The default keys are as follows:

Key	Function
ctrl	fire
q	fist
w	pistol
e	shotgun
r	chaingun
t	rocket
y	plasma
u	afg
i	chainsaw
o	ssg
backspace	back
enter	enter
left arrow	turn left
right arrow	turn right
up arrow	move forward
down arrow	move backwards
.	best weapon
shift	strafe left
z	strafe right
fn	using in combination with arrows to run
m	map
p	Pause

The only problem that I have noticed so far with the game, is when I try and close the window without using the quit, I get a message saying this application has stopped responding do you want to close…

If you have any issues or comments you’d like to share with the testing and or developer’s here is the official PrBoom thread in Maemo.org

I give this game an over rating of 4 stars.

So what are you waiting for get this game installed and get playing…

If you have an N900 and you don’t have this game, you NEEEEED to head over to the ovi store and get it now.

The game is described in ovi store as:

“Angry Birds – Free The survival of the Angry Birds is at stake. Dish out revenge on the green pigs who stole the Birds ’ eggs. Use the unique destructive powers of the Angry Birds to lay waste to the pigs’ fortified castles. Angry Birds features hours of gameplay, challenging physics-based castle demolition, and lots of replay value. Each of the 21 levels requires logic, skill, and brute force to crush the enem y. Protect wildlife, or play Angry Birds!”

The game was created by a company called Rovio the same company that introduced us to the graphically brilliant Bounce on the N900

When playing the game the further you advance, your’ll find that new birds get thrown into your armoury for the various levels.

The Red Bird – Is just a normal bird to shoot at targets.

The Tiny Blue Bird – Splits into 3 birds when the screen is touch (while the bird is flying)

The White Bird - Drops an Egg bomb when the screen is touch (while the bird is flying)

The Yellow Bird – Speeds up like a nitro bird when the screen is touch (while the bird is flying)

The Black Bird – Will explode when the screen is touch.

The aim of the game is to shoot your various birds through the air and kill all the little green monsters on the screen.

Sounds easy does it? Well with Stone, Wood and Glass walls in your way you may find it trickier that you first thought…

At the moment the game has 3 worlds, the 1st of which is free and then for £3 you will get the remaining two words. £3 seems a lot when you compare it to the 59p the iPhone users paid for the same game, but trust me it’s worth it.

Now even though I have finished all the levels in each world, the fun is still not over. I am now faced with the challenge of trying to get 3 stars for each level.

Stars are given to you for each level based on how many points you get while finishing the level.

So how far are you in this game?

This widget will display and auto scroll through the lyrics of the song that is currently playing on your device, and highlight the words that are currently being sung, mmmm could this be used as a Karaoke application with TV out?!?!

I’ve tested this app myself and it does work very well. However your songs will need to tagged well enough for the widget to find the online lyrics

Enjoy and don’t be shy about singing your views on this app.

Hopefully you’ve read the bolg post that I made 2 weeks ago about my first N900 posting, if not let me bring you up to speed.

Using MaStory to blog from the N900 is very easy. You upload photo’s embed videos, use html or plan text. You edit delete and create new posts.

Basically you can do almost anything you want to and all from you handset.

Watch this space as I plan to do a full review of the MaStory application very soon.

I’m not very happy with the built in RSS feed/reader on the N900 for various reason.

The application needs to be open to refresh the feed. The UI is not very finger friendly at all and of coarse there is no offline reading. Have a look below and let me know what you think?

If you interested in changing and getting a different RSS reader check out this thread over at talk.Maemo.org created by Chris or Chrisexaport as most people know him  from Maemo-Freak.

I’ve also taken the time to send some messegers to George Kibardin who is the author of a great RSS app built for the N800 called Feed Circuit.

I asked him if he had plans to port this over to the N900 and here is what he said:

Sure. I’m going to start porting it to Maemo 5 soon. I just want to ensure I have enough time because I suspect with N900 I’ll get wider audience and, therefore, more bugs and suggestions.

So hold thumbs we get this soon