Sunday, July 4th, 2004

The Viper M1 demo is up and running on the downloads page, in addition to a gallery I'm working on as a side project. I'll be adding the teleca cards to the gallery this week. Teleca cards are phone cards sold in Japan, which usually featured artwork from an anime or video game series. Right now they sell for a heft price on eBay(considering it's less than a penny's worth of paper), with some cards selling for as high as $25. On average they sell for $18, and many times feature exclusive art.


Lately I've been doubling my web master efforts by dedicating more time to both Hyperguy and Hyper Viper, and I hope it shows. This year I'll have had two years of amatuer web design experience under my belt, which is just what I'll be needing for my resume once I continue on to pursue a professional job in the field. I can honestly say that in these two years it's been a learning experience the whole time, and if there's any indication, I'll have a few more walls to run into before I shape up to be a web design megastar. =)

Monday, June 14th, 2004

After weeks of inactivity, I'm ready to get in the swing of updating Hyper Viper again. Now that I've settled into my new apartment and found a steady job I'll be updating on the weekends, and when possible during the week. Overall it's a quick turnaround for me, but a welcome one at that.



For this update I've added Karin and Saki to the characters page. Apparently Godzilla struck the East Coast during my scheduled update because the server hosting Hyper Viper and Hyperguy was down all weekend, which ironically was time I set aside for an update. That's why you're reading this now and not last Sunday.


Now that I'm back, I have my work cut out for me. This week I'm going to shoot for finishing up the downloads section, and if time permits will be adding some wallpapers and a Viper M1 demo. Also, I learned a few things about Sogna between updates, which I'll share in the General Info page once I'm able. As I write this, I'm getting ready for work. Hope you enjoy the update, as small as it is. Welcome back, Hyper Viper style.

Tuesday, April 1st, 2004

Finalized the format for the character's page. Carrera and Mercedes's bios are up, with other characters to follow. I also finished the links page, the about page, and some formatting errors throughout the site, and added a feather effect to the picture on the front page. I still haven't received my doujinshi in the mail, though I did get the Viper GTB movie book and Viper Doujinshi Volume 1-3. Collecting Viper merchandise is too cool, as rare as it is.



For the next update expect to see more Viper's Eye articles, including some character bios for some of the more common Viper characters. Speaking of which, I haven't forgot the games section, it's just that I play through each game from start to finish before writing the review, and that takes time. I still have no clue as to what the status of Sogna's company is, and am a bit worried that there won't be any more Viper games, though I hope at the very least that if they have went out of business that someone buys their company. Sogna's left a legacy in the hentai game industry, and it'd be sad to see them go without a fight. Speaking of fighting, I've been brain storming ideas on what a Viper fighting game would be like, which I'll include in a future article.



Well, that's all for now! I've got quite a bit of pages to put up. Thanks for reading. :)

Tuesday, April 1st, 2004

Added "The Viper's Eye", a new feature column in the character's section. Right now the character's section is looking a little sad without character bios, and I should have Carrera's up before the end of this week. I spent most of today scouring through my archives for pictures of Akira and Yuka, and am satisfied with the results. Now I just can't wait to get started on the Jun Kubota and Makoto article. All in all I have a lot of work lined up for me, and I'm up to the challenge.



I received a lot of help from John Watson in between updates, and John, if you're reading this, I want to say thank you again. Your efforts haven't gone unnoticed, and are both a contribution and a motivation. Here's hoping the site turns out into something we can be proud of. I've put this much work into it online and off already, and if there's any indication, I'll be working on content more in the coming weeks to ensure there's meat within the pretty layout. In case any of you out there were wondering, I was first inspired to go with a pink site after visiting Hentai Neko, but after going through some design trial and error threw in some additional colors to help it look more so like the color scheme used in Akira's dress. Akira's by far my favorite Viper character, though I do plan on being able to make style sheets later to change the theme of the site to Carrera's colors. All in good time. ^_^



A whole lot has happened since my last update. Over Spring Break I went through and wrote some sections and planning for the site in advance, and mostly did more research into what happened to Sogna. So far, it looks like they may have went out of business, which sucks to say the least. Nevertheless, if they did go under I'm hoping that at least another company will buy them out beforehand so we may see more Viper related products and games in the future. I received another Viper artbook in the mail recently, this time the Viper Series 3 Official Book. I missed out on buying Volume 2, and I hope it's relisted on eBay sometime soon. I still haven't received my doujinshi through the mail, though I'm going to remain patient before I start throwing stones at Japan. Besides, one artbook will be enough to keep my interest for a couple of months. :)

Tuesday, March 14th, 2004

Worked on my Viper V6 article over the weekend, added some pictures, the works. I still have to write up the section for Double Impact, which I'll do tonight. (I'm on vacation right now, and won't be updating until after March 29th.) Overall, a lot has happened since my last update. I picked up my Viper artbook from the post office yesterday and was astonished by the artwork contained within. All in all great stuff, but what I liked the most was the early character design sketches for Viper GTS. I'll be sure to add them to the characters gallery when the time comes. :)



I'm still waiting on that doujinshi I sent for, but as luck would have it, it'll come in by next week. As soon as I'm done with Viper V6 I'll be moving on to Viper V8, which I'm not too excited about since it's one of my more neglected titles in the series. Granted, the characters from Viper GTS and GTB are my favorites and I wouldn't mind skipping ahead some, I'm going to go ahead and get some of the older Viper games out of the way first. I also did a little bit of planning on how I'll release content for this site. Turns out I'll be adding characters as I work on providing synopses for the games they appear in. It's going to be a little tough to find information on some of the more obscure characters, like the blonde haired male demon from Viper GTS, though I'm up for it.



I still haven't decided what to do with all of the extra Viper content I have. I'm sure the solution will present itself when the time comes, otherwise I'm not too worried about it. I just wish I had more time to work on it all. Though this is something I do as one of my hobbies, I wouldn't mind making some money web mastering professionally, so I'll see about getting a certification. Even with one, however, I'd like to keep my design fundamentals afterwards, because I've seen too many pretty sites on the web which lack utility. Now if I can just score a copy of Web Pages that Suck by Vincent Flanders before the end of this quarter, I'll see just where I'm lacking. Actually, this last bit has nothing to do with Viper, so I think I'm going to cut it there. Yeah, I see my audience reading me. ;)

Monday, March 8th, 2004

Got most of the Viper V6 article done and made a snazzy banner to go with it. I'm still unsatisfied with the layout so I'll doing some research on design in order make it look better. It feels like it's missing something, though I've got a feeling I'll be able to fix it in no time at all. Speaking of time, I'd say it's about time that artbook got here, or at the very least, its getting even closer to its expected date. Overall I feel excited to have the opportunity to access early Viper artwork from before the series became popular. Although Sogna's art always has had a special charm to it, the early Viper artwork shows us how the artbook could have been had they not chosen to adopt a more colorful streamlined style. Just a couple more days and we'll see...



Speaking of Viper merchandise, I also scored one of the newer doujinshi. Titled Viper: "Evolution", I really don't know what to expect from it, since as of this writing there's been no mention of the Evolution series or how it relates to the other series in the games. If anything, it looks to be new stories with some more familiar Viper characters, and I've yet to hear if they accompany a game or otherwise. I'm looking forward to it all the same. As far as the content I already do have that I need to put up, let's just say I want to do everything right the first time, so don't expect me to slap everything on there for the sake of having a gallery.



To those of you who've been checking regularly, I'd like to say a special thanks. I plan on updating once a week so if you'll continue to check periodically I'll continue motivated to make the best possible Viper site on the web. (Yeah, I know, the site's less than half finished, but if I don't shoot high, I can't shoot low.) Even though I've yet to post up an e-mail address or other forms of contact, rest assured I know you've been here. Oddly enough, I've been averaging in at 100 hits a day, which I must say is astounding for a half finished site. I can only fathom how it'll be once I get everything in place. Speaking of which, I'll be working on those banners so you can link to me when I'm through. Unfortunately for everyone, the official Sogna website went down not too long ago and information on Viper has gotten that much more scarce. I'm going to pull through see if I can't make something they'd be proud of, or at the very least, a site they wouldn't mind linking to. Now if only I was fluent in Japanese, then maybe they could hire me as their webmaster...

Monday, March 2nd, 2004

Took some time out today to work on the Games section. I should have a full article on Viper V6 done by the end of the week, along with finalizing some formats for that section. I really would rather just skip it and work on the characters section, though I have to finish this up before hand. Mainly because the site's not complete without it. No use in skipping to the good stuff. I'll just use it as a reward for all my hard work on the essential parts to this site.



I also went through some Viper doujinshi today and translated a couple of names. Besides finding out the exact romanji spelling for Briban's name (It's 'Buraiban'. Go figure.) I picked up quite a bit of extra info as far as stories and more obscure characters names go. That, and Satoshi Urushihara, the artist famous for Langrisser, Plastic Little, and Chirality, also worked on some Viper doujinshi back in the day.



Finally, I managed to score the first Viper Illustration book ever made off of eBay. Pretty crazy though. At first I always thought that the Viper games sprang up around 1996, when Viper V6 was released, but the illustration book predates to 1994. I've heard some sparse information that Viper games existed on an obscure brand of console games (the PC86000 or whatever) so that may be the case. In any case, V6 was still the first PC release, that is, until proven otherwise.

Sunday, March 1st, 2004

Worked on the main page today. Still working on format of everything. Overall I'm extremely happy to be working on this website. I've always been a fan of the Viper series of PC games and have always been frustrated at how difficult it is to find information for them. Hyper Viper is going to change that, by providing as much content, links, and information on Sogna and Viper as I'm able to collect and translate.



This website exists because despite the game's widespread popularity within the Anime and Hentai community few have stepped up to undertake the task of providing fans with a resource for the games, leading individuals such as myself to scour the net in search of whatever tidbit of information one could look up while having to dodge countless annoying porn and popup sites at every turn(which have turned Google into a wasteland).



Well, no more! Hyper Viper is here, ready to lay the smack down like only the mighty Briban can deliver with his super uppercut. If you don't know who Briban is, that's even more reason why if you're a Viper fan you need this site. Think about this site before you go to sleep at night and I assure you, all will be right with the world when you wake up, or at the very least you'll be entertained. Individual results may vary.