Polo
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Posts posted by Polo
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The first OC ReMix I listened to back in '02 (when it was called "Bubbleman Soap and Water"), and it's still a blast. Panning, processing, filtering... everything sounds fun and well put together. The melodic extension of Bubble Man's theme feels natural and groovy. Even the aural lapses come in at just the right times to ease the listener's ears.
Also, that weird, warbly synth starting at 0:04 and appearing throughout... it sounds like electronic bubbly water or something. Whatever it is, I like it.
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In the Reviews and Judges Decisions forums, links to ReMixer profiles (and their labels) need updating. They're displayed like this:
instead of this:
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The two tones of this track - the minimal-with-sound-clips sections and the bulk - are both fun, but it's like they're in different worlds. Abruptly changing from one to the other rubs me the wrong way. I'm feeling more power and energy in the former (foreboding, Celebrity Deathmatch-like late-night entertainment) than the latter (sugar-high freestyle). So besides being longer like others have pointed out, I think smoother transitions would help this.
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Faces from MM3:
LT: Those are all kind of ugly looking. May not be the case, but are the MM1 faces actually too large to fit 32x32? Seems like the were cropped slightly, but I could be wrong.
I nicked the MM1 bosses and Roll from the Mega Man 3 ending. They're 32x32, but if you look closely, you can see their mugshots droop down past their black backdrops by one pixel, so I added an unobtrusive line of black on the bottom of each and cropped accordingly.
But hey, if they're ugly, they're ugly. I won't argue.
Anyway, a few more MM-related sprites before I forget 'em...
Roll (not her portrait this time)
Dr. Wily (surrendering)
Dr. Cossack (face)
Kalinka -
Overall, I like this. Listening closely, my reactions are a mixed bag. Examples:
0:07-0:13 - Huh. Sounds like a combination of Super Metroid and Out of this World.
0:32 - Odd little bit, but it doesn't stay too long, so no biggie.
0:45 - Yeah, we rockin'! BAM!
0:53 - Whoa, disappointing drop in intensity...
1:26 - Ew. The lead synth sounds cheesy when exposed like that.
1:47 - Now that's totally 80s right there. Awesome.
2:06 - Oo, sounds like an epic tale of reminiscence or something.
3:38 - It's the 80s all over again. Rejoice!
4:11 - Fitting ending, but could be more pronounced if the synths weren't so muddied together.
Basically, certain synth choices draw different levels of "WTF?" from me, but they aren't dealbreakers if I casually listen to this mix. Others (drums and bass particularly) are strategically placed as underlying mood intensifiers when transitioning to the next section. As said before, The Coop's arrangement prowess exceeds the production side of his mixes. I'm no expert on mixing/mastering/EQing and whatnot, but I think that for its time, this mix isn't that bad.
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Part of the introing static sounds like a walking leather boot to my ears, and I like it that way. Each added instrument is very tasteful, particularly the piano and the bells. The ambient breakdown halfway through is full of oxygen; i.e. it "breathes" a well-earned time-out after the first round of guitar shredding. It also evokes a sense of calm determination as I imagine myself ascending a 74-floor-tall skyscraper. Sweet stuff.
P.S. I miss the animated GIF that used to be on the ReMix page.
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I picture Quick Man's stage instead of Flash Man's whenever I listen to this because of how persistently reverb-laden the soundscape is. The volume lapses hint at instant-death beams and the need for heightened agility in those red/orange/blue corridors.
Maybe it's just me, but I have a habit of counting the quarter-note beats of the starting bass while the fluctuating synths roll in. Makes me feel like I'm riding a horse or something. I also like how the first four quips of Flash Man's theme use one lead synth, then another that echoes/fades into obscurity (which, like so much else in this mix, fuels the long-corridor imagery). 3:47 - 4:42 offers some pleasing note-timing variations when bridging the 2nd and 3rd measures. And all the while, it takes care never to alter the mood too jarringly.
Overall, this is beaterrific and enticing. As djp says more than once in his writeup, this goes places, man.
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Arek - Dafydd pretty much did what I would've done to that Magus sprite. That's about as "pretty" as it can get.
Also, I use Paint Shop Pro 5 (and sometimes Photoshop CS3).Dafydd -
And yes, there's two existing Magus sprites. Check the Square: Chrono category for them.SoloGamer - Like Dafydd said, the max dimensions are still 32x32, but bigger sprites can be added, sparingly, at Larry's discretion.
Doulifée - Actually, that particular Magus sprite was never subbed before, not even by Joyzilla or Nineko.
Liontamer - Could you edit the OP if you cut the image tags from all but 4 of Joyzilla's subs? You know, to add a note about the larger exceptions (and cut the bit about you moving
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Two nitpicks re User CP info...
1) Edit Avatar: It says they're "displayed under your username whenever you post"; everyone sees them on the left.
2) Edit Profile: Under Location, it says it's "linked up to Google Maps." This feature hasn't been active for a while. I don't know if this was unintentional (lost during djp's power outage, maybe?) or deliberate (a lot of people don't fill that space with a valid city/state/country), but if there are no plans to reinstate it, I feel it would be proper to cut "linked up to Google Maps" from the description.
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1) You know the fifth column on the torrent list? It's spelt transferred (two Rs).
2) Two Earthbound source tunes with "Giygas" in them misspell it "Gigyas."
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I like how the mood transitions from relaxing to bouncy and back again without dropping the space drifting vibe it has going for it. The synth fade-ins, fade-outs, and reverb are all lovingly polished. Add the percussion sprinkles and choir icing to the mix and this takes the cake. No lie.
Also, I don't care if DS has used it before; that's one sexy sax.
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I'm getting a really Earthbound-ish vibe from this, like from Summers or the Cliff That Time Forgot or the coffee break cutscene. It just feels so warm and reminiscent. Plus it makes me chuckle. No laughing gas necessary.
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so in the meantime for this to get coded, is the info anywhere where the curious can access it?
http://www.ocremix.org/info/Category:Mascots
On the About Us page, under Community and Site Projects.
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Right back at ya, Solo. I guess now's a good time to post some Mother 2 stuff I've been keeping on my hard drive.
Dr. Andonuts
Flying Man
Frank Fly
Mani Mani statueLT: Hahaha, Master Belch is pretty nasty, so I skipped him, but the rest are great. Danke.
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Most of the albums aren't numbered properly (url-wise); for example, Relics of the Chozo is 3 while Voices of the Lifestream is 1. Only Kong in Concert, Thieves of Fate, and Delta-Q-Delta are correct (2, 10, and 11).
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While we're on the subject of Mega Man, here's...
An E-Tank (MM2)
Dr. Cossack (MM4)
Beat (MM5)
Mr. X (MM6)
Sniper Joe (from the 8-bit remake of MM7)
LT: These are coo.
Faces from MM3:
LT: Those are all kind of ugly looking. May not be the case, but are the MM1 faces actually too large to fit 32x32? Seems like the were cropped slightly, but I could be wrong. In any case, most of them were ugly. :'-(
And if you don't mind two more literally over-the-top avatars, here's full sprites of Doc Robot (MM3) and Vile (MMX).
LT: Nah. Doc Robot's not a mission critical character, so I'll pass on the oversized one. Vile's too large on both dimensions rather than just the height.
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Wow Liontamer, that's quite the commitment adding a metric ton of Mega Man-related boss mugs (and a few others). No mislabels + all pure GIFs + Shadow Man and Storm Eagle portrait upgrades + classic/X category division = U R TEH NACHO MAN
LT: Props to Capcom for giving us that much avatar fodder. Not many franchises have sprites that work with our size requirements.
I also have questions/concerns/one new sub...
- Was kneeling Zero
deliberately removed in favor of the new standing Zero?LT: Yep. See ya.
- In the Misc. category, "Ogre Battle 64: Quass" and "Monkey Island 1" don't show up like the others. Selecting either as an avatar only shows the url path by the username. If they were lost somehow, here they are:
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d13/polo_83/ogrebattle64_quass3.gif
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d13/polo_83/monkeyisland1.gif
LT: Just needed to correct some filenames.
Tetris Attack - Little Yoshi:
LT: What's the root image of the yellow Yoshi? I'd rather have more of his head fitting into the space at the expense of the (cool) bubbles.
P: Like the other TA characters, that's how Little Yoshi's icon is cropped/presented in the game. I only upped the brightness and contrast, like what Nineko and The Coop did back then, since in-game they're kinda dark.
If you still want a better facial shot, can I interest you in a three-pixel-width custom edit?
LT: No need for a custom job; when I see images like that, I just need to see context to know the cropping was optimal.
LT: Let's go ahead with the black. What game in the series is this Mia image from?
mia is from Phoenix Wright -Justice for all-Just a reminder, since I didn't see Mia in the Capcom category.
LT: I uploaded the file back in June and forgot to make it active, but it's set now, thanks.
And speaking of great justice, here's Zero Punctuation's Yahtzee:
LT: Excellent choice.
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Okay then, Resizes: Round 2...
Death Note: Kira Game (different sharpness levels and some manual smoothing out)
Dragon's Lair - Dirk
(darker lines, c/o the burn tool)FF7 - Vincent
(a little more contrast)
(same as above, plus more color saturation)Super Paper Mario - Mr. L
(green background)Oh yeah, and one more BMP that should be a GIF (Misc category):
LT: Bueno bueno.
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Polo- Thanks for working on those four from PB2. I would have chosen different ones from what LT did (I would have gone with the 1st vamp, 3rd chick and 2nd robot since they looked more visible overall), but they're included now, so kudos to ya
Glad to help.
By the way, do you still have those three Liquid Kids avatars from before (rock guy, slingshot-holding orb, and mummy)? I think your site went down before Larry could add them with transparent backgrounds...
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And cool new additions, LT! I never would've guessed the Super Mario Bros. 3 "Green Thing" (part of a hill cluster) would make it in. Ha!
Anyway, here's some overdue/supplemental quickies...
Tetris Attack - Little Yoshi:
Tetris - J Block:
And two child Rydias from FF4:
LT: Danke. I had the L and J reversed, so you actually provided an L. My spatial skills are clearly poop. What's the root image of the yellow Yoshi? I'd rather have more of his head fitting into the space at the expense of the (cool) bubbles.
P: Like the other TA characters, that's how Little Yoshi's icon is cropped/presented in the game. I only upped the brightness and contrast, like what Nineko and The Coop did back then, since in-game they're kinda dark.
And thanks for your detailed comments about my resizes; they're quite insightful and challenging. I'll post revisions in due time.
EDIT: And I was a bit perturbed to learn that several avatars aren't GIFs, but BMPs (and one JPG). So here's a list of GIF-transformation updates to:
Sammy
Anime/Manga
Azumanga Daioh: Yukari (somehow the bitmaps for this and Osaka were reinstated...)
Great Teacher Onizuka: Eikichi Onizuka
Movies/TV
LT: Many thanks. We push for GIFs not because other files don't work, but because of the filesize, so while a small detail, these are really helpful. Thanks very much!
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- On the torrents page, the Voices of the Lifestream torrent is mislabeled as a second Delta-Q-Delta.
- In the "Previously on OverClocked ReMix..." list on the front page, there's two spaces, not one, between the single quotation mark ' following the ReMix title and the word "by."
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Death Note: Kira Game
L
Light Yagami
Misa AmaneLT: A little too sharp/pixelated on the edges. Looking at the facial borders, especially for the first two, you can see there's not enough smoothness, even though the sharpness level seems good.
Dragon's Lair - Dirk the Daring
LT: Not your fault, but at this size, the contrast isn't strong enough. The lines of the face aren't distinct enough.
Duke Nukem 3D - Duke Nukem
LT: Nice.
FF7 - Vincent Valentine
LT: Not enough contrast for the image to stand out, but might be nothing you can do.
MegaRace - Lance Boyle
LT: Bad pic. Sorry, Lance.
And Arek's request, Mr. L from Super Paper Mario
LT: need it on a non-white background and we could roll with it.
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To partially fill the gap left by the Lufia avatars' migration, here are some Sunsoft avatars...
Wynn from Atlantis no Nazo; Batman (full sprite and title screen capture) from Batman (NES); Uncle Fester (in-game and intro) from Fester's Quest; Yumetarō (a stuffed animal) from Gimmick!; Gizmo from Gremlins 2: The New Batch; a blob or something (I couldn't find an appropriate enemy list) from Hebereke; Jay McCray (in-game and intro) from Journey to Silius; a title screen Lemming from Lemmings (SNES); and Lucia from Wing of Madoola.
Pick any winners from here.
And here's three more characters from Guilty Gear Petit 2:
Baiken
Dizzy
VenomLT: Most of 'em were oogly (not your fault, clearly), but I grabbed the Batman intro pic, Jay intro and Lemming, plus the GGP2 ones. Thanks!
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Glad to see Yotsuba and 4-tan made it in by your hands, Larry. (Clever choice cropping 4-tan closer like that.) I also like the surprise additions like Metroid 2 Samus, the Dragon Quest enemies (facilitating the Enix category), and the Shatterhand hero. Really freshens things up.
LT: The Yotsuba one turned out aight, but I'm pissed I couldn't get the 4-tan any sharper without it looking messed up. Not what I would have preferred, but couldn't crop any closer. Glad you saw the others; I did those a little ways back. I added some more this morning, coincidentally. Not a host of them, but maybe 10 spread across several categories. Some only got 1, but they're in Hudson Soft, Konami, Nintendo, Nintendo ~ Mario (most of 'em), Sammy, SNK, and misc.
Some refinements...
Capcom ~ Fighters
· There's actually no "h" in Jon Talbain's name. Like Jon Arbuckle.
· The Card Fighters 2 Cammy is missing her native background, so here's a fix-up:
Capcom ~ Mega Man
· Mega Man: Mega Man (portrait 2) is from Rockman 2: The Power Fighters (his health bar icon).
· Mega Man: Frog is named "Croacker" according to the Mega Man 2 instruction manual (that extra 'c' must've been a typo, though).
· Mega Man V: Gyro is named Power Massler.
Nintendo ~ Mario
· Yoshi's Island: Snowman is named Huffin Puffin.
Sega ~ Sonic
· Sonic the Hedgehog: Piranha is named Chopper.
Square ~ Final Fantasy
· Final Fantasy IV: Imp (green) - Part of his hat is missing, plus its extension was ICO when I saved it, so here's a pure-GIF replacement:
Sunsoft
· The Lufia 1 and 2 avatars belong in the Taito category, since they first published those games. (I know this category would be left with just three avatars, but still.)
Other
· That other 4-tan is also by blackmyst, in case you want to add it (in parentheses).
Castlevania 3 figures and weapons:
LT: Skeleton with a bone whip? Sure.
I assume you changed your mind because his feet cut off. Care for a foot job?
LT: Thanks for all the fixes. Gonna have to find some more Sunsoft stuff!
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Let's do the 3rd vamp, 1st chick, and 2nd robot! Awesome, we finally got a great fit. Thanks for trying so hard, bro. And The Coop will be pleased.
Super. Here they are then:
LT: Bueno. How did you get the names for these characters; I couldn't verify them anyhwere I was looking.
P: I used two sources to find their names:
1) The Spriters Resource pages have names for some of the characters, but not all of them. Fortunately...
2) ...the Japanese Wiki article on the game does, under the Character section (キャラクター). I can read and approximate hiragana and katakana with no problems (ちゅんちゅん = Chun Chun, ドラキュラのキャラクター = "Dracula character" under Drabo/どらぼー, etc.) They also have "stage #" (ステージ#) in their descriptions, no doubt telling me when they appear. My first source notes level appearances as well, so I matched up the info and filled in the blanks.
I also watched a playthrough on Youtube, but only to count off levels and check when each character appears.
(And yes, Willy Whistle is named Drunk (どらんく) in the Japanese Bubble Bobble games.)
As for the resizes, do these look any smoother?
Sakaki (Azumanga Daioh)
Kyon (The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya)
Yotsuba (Yotsuba&!)
OCR 4-tan, of courseLT: First two are better, so they're in. The others too still look too sharp. What are the source images for those. Maybe I can take a stab at it?
P: Sure, if you'd like. Here are the sources for Yotsuba and 4-tan. If you're curious, I used these crops to color replace/downsize/sharpen. If you change your mind, lemme know and I'll tackle these two again.
OCR00456 - Super Mario World 2 & 1, Super Mario Bros. 1 & 3 "What the Funk?"
in ReMix Reviews & Comments
Posted
Even in so short a mix, there's so many smile-worthy highlights including, but not limited to:
- the drums' rapid-fire beats
- the way the trumpet quotes the main theme at 0:59
- the slap bass during Mario's pasta dreams
- Mario's screams at 0:13 and 1:46 (I always get a chuckle out of those)
- the ending
Pure, unadulterated homage. What more could you ask for?