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

Close...

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…

Stan
With Blizzcon going on this weekend and two my roommates attending, I get to hold down the fort and only read about all the awesome stuff happening. Blizzard just announced the new Diablo III Monk class and it is making me very nostalgic for some hack n’ slash action. Wonder if Battle.net still has my Diablo II character from last year…

Thanks to everyone’s positive remarks about Shadow Complex on our Twitter! It definitely helped in making the game an easy purchase. Apparently Shadow Complex is based off one of Orson Scott Card’s books so it gives this side-scroller some good story and the voice acting is better than most triple-A titles. Personally, I just want to jump around and blow up bad guys all Metroid/Castlevania style.

Gotta get in as much as I can as next week is gonna be pretty hectic. You know, MLG Dallas and all.

Noah
Because Chrono Trigger DS has been sitting in a UPS warehouse only a few miles for the last 2 days, and won’t be delivered until Monday (Ugh!), I’ll be playing a couple games this weekend, because 1 game is almost never enough to keep my ADD in check.

I’ll be shooting from world to world through space as I make an honest effort (or at least an effort) to finish Mario Galaxy before the sequel arrives. I’ll also be hitting up the final Fallout 3 expansion, Mothership Zeta, which takes place on a giant Spaceship. This is of course after I hit up the sneak preview of James Cameron’s Avatar tonight, set on an alien planet, in space. There’s a theme here somewhere…

Close...

Man, you missed QuakeCon, didn’t you? With all of the kick-ass exclusives, mind-blowing game demonstrations, hotter than hot QuakeCon girls, and epic final matches, this has been hailed as the biggest and best QuakeCon ever. Continue on to see what other crazy stuff happened!

Splash Damage, the guys behind ET:QW and RTCW: ET were showing off their upcoming team shooter known as Brink. It’s another one of your “Earth gone to sh*t” games where you can pick one of two sides fighting over a last refuge of humanity. Don’t let my sarcasm dissuade you from his game as it’s got some crazy new mechanics like on-the-fly class customization and the ninja-like ability to climb up or slide under whatever is nearby. Think Mirror’s Edge meets Quake Wars.

RAGE is id’s new baby is going a similar route with the post-apocalyptic atmosphere with the new Tech 5 engine which will blow your radioactively mutated mind. You get to have fun with RC controlled bombs, walking sentries, and Mad Max-esque racing, the list goes on. Because comparisons are so much fun, think of RAGE as a combination of GTA4 and Fallout 3.

Don’t forget all the fun little things like mountains of free t-shirts, playing the new Wolfentsein game, Doom Resurrection on the iPhone for $2.99 (which genius me missed too), or getting Quake Live to run on Macs and Linux.

The last and best part of QuakeCon are the uber-mega-ultra-ludicrous tournament finals in the main event hall. Because id is so cool, they provided free chili dogs for all attending the finals, only adding to the rocket launching awesomeness. Congrats go to Team EG for winning the Quake Live CTF, Team Dynamic’s Flysher for winning the Quake Live Open, and sk rapha for winning the Quake Live Masters!

For some unofficial recaps of the CTF and Masters finals, go here!

So yeah, it’s official: QuakeCon 2009 rocked. Who knows, we just might be there next year in a slightly more official capacity…

Close...

As Josh pointed out, yes, I’m here in Dallas, TX rockin’ out at QuakeCon! For 13 years, QuakeCon has stood proudly over the corpses of other LAN events in the US because it’s fun, absolutely ginormous, and FREE. QuakeCon brings more to than your typical LAN party: the parent company, id Software, stuffs a big-ass vendor hall to the rafters with all of our favorite hardware manufacturers (like Antec, Patriot, Intel, AMD/ATI, NVIDIA, etc), and serves up incredible tournaments with thousands of dollars up for grabs. Keep reading, there’s more!

id Software’s technical genius-rocket-scientist director John Carmack highlights the event with his annual talk. In case you don’t know who this veritable programming bad-ass is, John Carmack towers behind landmark games like Wolfenstein 3D, Commander Keen, DOOM, and Quake. Basically, we worship the ground he walks on. But genius me, I flew in right as his talk was ending and I missed it. Next year, right?

Love to LAN? The BYOC (Bring-Your-Own-Computer) section bursts out of control with 2,132 low-pinging LAN attendees ready to Rail Gun your face off. What sucks is when Team Fortress 2 gets an update last night and you have to share half of a T1 with thousands of other gamers also trying to update. I was wondering why everyone was trying to tether their 3G phones all day today…

Naturally, being Quake Con, the event focus rests with id games, like Quake Live, Rage, and Wolfenstein. This year, the tournaments will all be Quake Live with prizes for Masters 1v1, Open 1v1, and CTF. The prizes are $14K for 1st place in the Masters, $1.5K for the Open, and $12K for CTF. Not a bad time to be a pro-gamer, right?

So in case you missed all the cool stuff that happened already, here are a few links so you can catch up:

QuakeCon News
Kotaku — id Working on Three Lines of iPhone Games, One Potentially Rage-Themed
Kotaku — The John Carmack Keynote: Liveblogging QuakeCon
Kotaku — An Apocalyptic Look At id’s Rage
Kotaku — Wolfenstein: The Launch Trailer

Stay tuned for a recap on the tournaments and all the other awesome stuff going on this coming Monday!

Thanks to QuakeCon photographers entone and prognar for the awesome shots!

Close...

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!

Close...

Let’s just admit it: licensed content usually sucks. Usually borne out of some boardroom desk jockey’s genius plan to synergize content across the global market, and you’ve got a recipe for epic fail that may or may not involve Uwe Boll.

Today marks a momentous day in history: the upcoming comic book tie-in game Batman: Arkham Asylum demo will drop like a hammer on PSN and Xbox Live. Why is this awesome? Because this comic/movie franchise game probably won’t suck.

The story behind Arkham Asylum is written by Paul Dini, who produced and wrote various DC comics and a boatload of award-winning animated shows like Batman: and Superman: The Animated Series. The guy even consulted on ABC’s LOST so I’m sold on the game’s writing (as long as it was during the first two seasons).

Taking a page from the multimedia master illustrator Dave McKean the dreary and frightening psych ward/prison combo trembles with colorful characters ready to blast out of their cage. My personal fave would have to be Harley Quinn in her hot little pseudo goth outfit. Dayum.

Arkham Asylum‘s ridiculous gameplay variety sucks me in like a black hole. After watching this walk-through from this past GDC, you get to see Batman work his magic with explosive gel, batarangs, cape glide takedowns, and detective mode. The inmates/bad guys all react dynamically to every situation and no two scenarios are the same.

Arkham Asylum‘s story comes from the comic-book mythos rather than the movies, but less so from Grant Morrison’s eponymous enigmatic masterpiece than Frank Miller’s action-crammed beat-em-ups. Pissed off villains from the long-standing comic book series line up for revenge against our caped crusader like some high school reunion gone wrong. Some of my favorites include Joker, Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn (<3), The Croc, and Bane.

For our final exhibit, I present: kick-ass voice acting. Kevin Conroy will be voicing Batman (Batman’s voice actor from the Emmy Award-winning Batman: the Animated Series) and Mark Hamill (yep, Luke-I-am-your-father-Skywalker) will be voicing the Joker. In case you think these guys don’t have cred, they’ve both been voicing their respective roles for 17 friggin’ years.

We all know movie tie-in games have a notorious tendency to suck. Thankfully, this game looks like complete and utter fan service and I’m frothing at the mouth to give it a go. Until then, I’ll be watching the Batman: Arkham Asylum trailers and grabbing the demo later today.

Close...

It seems that every other day an ASTRO employee’s heart breaks over yet another video game delay. First, it was BioShock 2 that sent me reeling and crying like a baby. All those love letters to 2K Games went unanswered, further delaying my opportunity to blow #$%* up as a Big Daddy.

Then Sam Fisher went on indefinite hiatus putting Ubisoft’s Splinter Cell: Conviction on delay until 2010. Our Producer, Josh, took the news especially hard–not everyone can handle that kind of distance. He’s dealing with it the best he can, puttering about the office in his Night Vision Goggles with incomprehensible mutters about ‘polish, smolish’. But we know he’s hurting bad on the inside.

Mass Effect 2‘s launch day was going to be something special for our military-minded Noah. When you spend enough time on the battlefield to gain the coveted 60th level, you get close–maybe too close. He had everything planned for the reunion: roses, champagne, fancy dinner, you name it. Noah just couldn’t handle the uncertainty: “the end of 2009″ or, “early 2010.” Lately he’s been talking about this Scribblenauts game an awful lot, but that ain’t gonna get his ring back.

Walter, our Customer Relations Manager, seems to have the best approach: “Yeah, I don’t give a crap. You can quote me on that.” While being an avid gamer, his laid back attitude towards game releases keeps him out of harm’s way. We had to believe him until we spotted him during his lunch hour blowing a heartbreaking tune into his iPhone Ocarina, Googling fruitlessly for a Battlefield 3 launch date.

In all seriousness, we’re definitely looking forward to a lot of great games coming out soon, and we know that the extra time is sometimes needed to make good games great. STALKER, Team Fortress 2, and Duke Nukem Forever all come out eventually–er, well… two out of three ain’t bad.

Close...