TAG CUSTOMIZATION GUIDE

Finally! What you’ve been waiting and asking for: an ASTRO customization engine that enables you to customize and print your own designs directly on A40 and A30 Speaker Tags. We’re so stoked about the ASTRO Tag Customizer, that we’re inviting you to use our beta version. Sure it’s brand new and we are still working out some kinks, but we love what we’ve seen so far and want you to try it too!

Below is a quick guide to help you get the best results. We expect to learn from you, our loyal fans, through this process as well. Please check back for tips, tricks and cheats that we think improve the process of creating your personal tags.

STEP 1: CHOOSE YOUR BASE TAG

If you choose Pilot or Skull tags you’ll get to add custom text in step 2. Choosing the Camo or Blank Tags gets you full customization with our sweet clipart icons or the option to upload your own images.

STEP 2: CUSTOMIZE IT

OFFICIAL DISCLAIMER: PLEASE DON’T’ USE IMAGES YOU DON’T HAVE RIGHTS TO PRINT… like logos or art from Halo, WoW, MLG, Xbox, PlayStation, NFL, Nike, etc. YOUR SUBMISSION WILL BE LOOKED AT BY HUMANS, so if our legal dogs don’t like it, we’ll likely reject it and have to ask you to start over. We want you stoked, so save us the hassle, avoid inappropriate images/language and use ONLY what you are authorized to use.

A: ADDING TEXT

- Choose the BASE tag you want to add text to, over on the right
- Enter your custom text in one of the text boxes on the left. Each text box can hold two lines of text.
- Choose the font, size, and color with the controls surrounding that text box.
- Back over on the tag, drag the text box to the position you want it.
- Make any tweaks back over in the text boxes, and repeat until you’re happy.

B: ADDING CLIPART

- Choose the “artwork” tab underneath CUSTOMIZE IT in Step two.
- Browse the collections and use the scrollbar to see the different icons available. Click on an icon to PREVIEW it on your selected tag over to the right.
- All the icons are scalable. Drag the corners to size, and the others to stretch. Drag the image itself to place. You can also use the “zoom image” controls to keep the image centered while changing the size.
- If you get stuck, or can’t find the corners… grab the center of the image and move it until you can grab the corner, OR click the “reset image” button below the tags and try again.

C: ADDING CUSTOM IMAGES

- Choose the “Upload my own” radio button under the artwork tab.
- Use the BROWSE button to locate that perfect image on your computer. File types are limited to .eps, .jpg, .jpeg, .gif and .png and restricted to 5MB or less. Click upload to place it on the selected tag and in your image gallery.
- Drag the corners to size, and the others to stretch. Drag the image itself to place. You can also use the “zoom image” controls to keep the image centered while changing the size.
- Try to have images cover the entire tag surface for the best result. Tags are roughly 2 3/8” or 58mm “squircles” so try to use images already this size.
- For real editing wizardry, or if you want your artwork or logo to sit on a Tag, you’ll need to use an image editing program to remove any background for the Tag’s background finish to show through and save the file as a .eps, .png, or .gif.

FOR THE GRAPHICALLY SAVVY:
- Use .eps files and CMYK mode for the best possible print.
- Transparent images will reveal the base tag which is glossy, this is fine for white tags, but when choosing black tags, be careful when using transparencies in your artwork. There is a base layer of white paint that gets applied below your design, which can result in a thin white outline around your design on the black tags.
- Using a solid black background also applies to black tags when using any transparent gradients or drop shadows.

D: COPYING TAGS

- You’ve nailed that first Tag. Want Tags two and three the same? Select the first Tag and click “copy” right above it. Then click paste above the tags you want to apply it to. It copies everything. Done.

E: TAG THREE ISN’T LIKE THE OTHERS

- Don’t forget our third Speaker Tag has a hole in it for our sweet unidirectional mic. Adjust your Tag design with this in mind.
- If you always run your mic on a certain side, the mic body will block the front bottom corner of that tag a little. Tweak your design with this knowledge for bonus points.
- On the Pilot and Skull Tags you’re limited to a single line of text to keep things from getting messy.

F: BLURRY WARNING

- An error message, ‘Image may appear blurry when printed’ pops up when your image falls below 150 dpi, or more simply, when you’ve made it bigger than it should be for the quality of the image. You can solve this by making it smaller, or choosing a better quality image.
- If you’ve made your masterpiece in an editing program and are getting this message, check your workspace and source images dpi settings.

FINALLY: TWO THINGS

Please check back for updates and send us your own tips here customizer@astrogaming.com or the link at the bottom of the site. We’ll continually improve the ASTRO Tag Customizer with your help. We will try to get you exactly what you ordered… but since YOU are the creator, double and triple check your tag art before ordering. We can’t take it back and we want you to be happy gamers.

– The ASTRO Crew

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Our intrepid community manager Stan is off this weekend to Dallas for the biggest LAN in North America: QuakeCon! This LAN is not only the biggest LAN on the continent, but it’s also FREE — as long as you sign up before the seats are filled. As you might have guessed, we signed up too late — but instead of seething with jealousy, we’re going to throw a LAN of our own. To kick things off, we ginned up this little guide to help you get your own party started.

LAN parties are the perfect way to spend a rainy weekend with friends — all it takes is a little planning to make sure that things go smoothly.

Whether you are planning a PC or console-oriented LAN party, getting the right mix of gear together is the first and most crucial step. Console players have it a little easier, since the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 are much more portable than their full-sized PC counterparts. However, don’t forget that you’ll need extra monitors, game titles, LAN cables, and a hub/switch big enough to handle as many consoles that you need to connect everyone. Having a buddy with a 16- or 24-port switch is always handy; but an older 10/100 switch is all you need. Spending hundreds on a Gigabit-grade switch is overkill.

What to bring?

When you tell your buddies what to bring to a console LAN party, don’t forget to tell them to haul along their monitor, correct video cables, game titles, wired controller, and networking cable. The A40 Audio System is the ideal solution for a console LAN, so don’t forget your audio gear, even if your friends don’t have ASTRO equipment yet. If your buddies have an extra network cable and wired controller, have them bring those too (after they’ve marked them with initials). Someone is bound to forget theirs. Remember that a wired controller is required — more than four wireless controllers are going to interfere with one other unless you are a fair distance away, which takes away from the fun.

The same advice for a PC LAN applies, with the addition of needing a place to put computers, monitors, and mouse pads — in addition to a spot for everyone’s butt. Beg and borrow every card table, picnic table and folding chair that you can scrounge from relatives, neighbors and friends.

Lastly, whether you go the PC or console route, don’t forget to sort out the power situation well beforehand — using industrial grade extension cords to draw power from multiple circuits in your house is a smart way to go. Nothing is a bigger drag than blowing a fuse or tripping a circuit breaker mid-match. Having your buddies bring their own power strips with surge protectors is always a smart idea.

What to play?

This is the all-important question, and one that will make or break your party. Start with your friends: what games do you usually play? This game — whatever it may be — will be the game that gets the most mileage during your party. Being all together will certainly open up new strategies and new wrinkles to whatever you are playing (if only the ‘in yer face!’ factor of in-person versus play), in addition to the tactical advantages of having a ‘Lag-free’ connection that is only possible when you are on a LAN.

If you have another game that people might enjoy, but haven’t necessarily played yet (or perhaps not for a long time), this can be a welcome break from the main attraction. Mix and match your genres as well: If everyone got together to play an intense first-person PC shooter like Counter-strike or Battlefield, be sure to take it down a notch by starting a friendly pickup game of an RTS classic like WarCraft III or Dawn of War. If you’ve got newer gear and newer game collections, Dawn of War II and Supreme Commander are incredibly fun. Most RTS titles have 2v2 (or even 3v3!) modes that enable you to put noobies with more experienced players, and advanced controls that enable you to balance things to a fine degree — guaranteeing that everyone is enjoying fun and challenging games.

If you are gearing your LAN toward PC play, take a break by firing up a fun, tried-and-true console game. Sure, everybody knows Halo can be a great way to blow off some steam, but after playing PC shooters, a console FPS will seem like it is in “slow motion”. It’s better to fire up Mario Kart, Bomberman, or Boom Blox (try it, seriously!) if you have a GameCube or Wii. If you have an Xbox 360 handy, the Xbox Live Arcade selection should have something for everyone: old school multiplayer titles like Gauntlet and Joust are a riot, while new school faves like Geometry Wars are extremely entertaining just to watch. And of course, fighting games like Super Smash Brothers, Street Fighter, and Soul Caliber are perfect for a quick player-versus-player fix.

For console centric LAN parties, taking a break from the controller is the way to go. If you have a couple of laptops handy, try loading up the LAN party gold standard: Unreal Tournament 2004. 2k4 is a stellar run-and-gun action title that is 10lbs of fun in a 5lb bag — even if you are playing for the very first time. It’s also an older title that even low-spec laptops will be able to handle nicely, and available dirt cheap in most stores’ bargain bins, or downloadable from Steam, at: www.steampowered.com

Once you’ve attended or held a few LAN parties, you’ll start noticing games in the bargain bin that will be ideally suited to a LAN, especially those “forgotten” shooters. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. has an amazing deathmatch mode that is wildly popular in places like Russia, but if you live in the West, you’ll need to create a local server — and a LAN party is the perfect opportunity. Likewise, Prey is an ideal PC LAN game if your group is on the small side — this console-centric shooter fared poorly since it was too claustrophobic for 16-32 player servers, but is ideal for 4-8 friends at a LAN.

One last thing: unless you are getting your Guild together for some in-person raid action, it would be wise to ban World of Warcraft during the weekend. WoW has a tendency to divide your group into ever-smaller chunks, and really takes away from the mano-a-mano spirit of a LAN.

Good luck–and save us a slice of pizza!

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The ASTRO Gaming crew doesn’t just sit around making awesome gaming equipment, sometimes we actually have time to game! Wanna join us? Here’s what we are playing…

Josh
Mass Effect still holds center stage on the big screen — checking off all of the achievements turned out to be a much bigger commitment than I’d anticipated. Sort of like that time I signed up for the French Foreign Legion after being promised free haircuts and all-you-can-eat croissants. Long story.

Anyways, a couple more hours of Geth-mashing for my C-U-next-tuesday protagonist and I’ll be fully prepped for the sequel. The promise of porting my badass character to the next game is extremely compelling, but fraught with plot-twisting peril. If anyone can pull this off, it’s got to be BioWare.

Switching gears a bit, I’m just about to go off to camp — that is, in the Harry Potter IMAX 3D queue. I have to admit that I’m looking forward to hanging out in line with my new DSi since it will give me a chance to continue playing one of the best games I’ve picked up this year: The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass.

Yeah, yeah, super hardcore, I know–AND late to the party. But this little Zelda game has everything: intricate puzzles, great characters, high seas adventure, endless exploration, genuine humor…and at times, pure and simple joy. I really didn’t think that I could ever get back the wonderful feeling of triumph that I had when I was a little kid playing with Link for the very first time.

I was wrong. Dead wrong. Gonna have to wrap my Gryffindor scarf really tight tonight to hide the uncontrollable smiles.

XBL GT: PA Stormy

Walter
Things never happen as planned, especially many of my weekends. This means that my quest for combing through NYC in Prototype finding little glowing orbs didn’t get checked off the “to do” list. I’m planning on hammering out some more of that this weekend for sure.

After that, I’m not entirely sure what I’m going to play. As I mentioned last week, I purchased Battlefield: Bad Company and Battlefield 1943 two weeks ago. I also picked up Mass Effect (since *everyone* at ASTRO won’t pipe down about it) and Assassin’s Creed as well. I figured I should play through both of those before the sequels come out. I’ve also been meaning to finish up Fable II, Gears 2, replay Fight Night Round 3, and finally crack the seal on my copy of Fight Night Round 4 that has been sitting on my shelf all shiny and new. To make matters worse, I started playing Halo 3 again last night.

Too many choices, so little time… I think I’ll load up on Rockstar Fruit Punch, not sleep this weekend, and just do it all.

XBL GT: ASTRO Xarion

Noah
This weekend I’ll be knee deep in Americas Army – The Real Deal. When I get done with that for the evening, I plan on diving face-first into Sega’s The Conduit, for Wii. I’m anxious to see if the much-hyped controls really rival the innovative Metroid Prime 3 – Corruption. After all, someone in the office has to represent Nintendo’s little white love box. I’ll surely get in some Fallout 3 as well, as I’ve still got a quite a bit of ground to cover in the downloadable content, with more coming on Monday.

I largely have Bethesda to thank for my lack of a tan this summer.

XBL GT: ASTRO Sarge

Stan
I may have narrowly escaped the Nerd Flu during PDXLAN and Comic-Con, but something nasty hit me today. My recipe for getting over a cold? Overdosing with the usual: vitamin C, tea, chicken soup, and video games.

Finally, I can get around to a game based off of one of my favorite cartoons and movies as a kid: Ghostbusters. I hear it’s quick, so once that’s done, I’ll be ripping through Mass Effect once more with the difficulty set to “Insanity”. Should be a fun weekend bustin’ ghosts and Geth.

I can do all that in 48 hours… right?

XBL GT: on3nightstan

Corey
Because Friday night is brew night, it will probably contain intermittent
games of Halo 3 or Resident Evil 5 while waiting for the various stages of beer-making to take place. Afterward, I predict a heated round of Streets of Rage 2 will take place until someone passes out or the game is beaten.

Saturday and Sunday will be tough to fit games in, got other stuff going on. However, if you do see me on Xbox Live, it will be a game-time decision between COD 4: WaW, Battlefield 1943, or Bad Company.