The Pezman

I can't read any of this thread because of spoilers. No fun.

I have no earthly idea how I could have forgotten to mention this initially, but I think will ultimately be one of the greatest tragedies of video game history.

Funny, I just found this out the other day, but GBA games can be played on the DSi. And with a larger screen, they just might get a facelift in the process.

Do we have enough people to get this discount yet? If not, does this mean my friends (who aren't forumgoers) can participate as well, so we get our numbers up?

o hi there Johnny Lee. But seriously, that's fantastic. It's quite apparent we have cheap, reliable head tracking technology, and I don't understand why all our games aren't like this. Anyone thinking about the DSI XL? I have somehow managed to avoid getting a DS all this time, but at this point there are too many games not to. However, one reason I never did is because I recalled how difficult it was to read text on the GBA's small screen. In fact, once I went over to emulation, then looked at the same game on a GBA, I thought "I used to play on this thing?" Since I am a fan of large screens, I want to give the DSI XL a whirl. I'll probably do that at the Nintendo store when it comes out. Any other pieces of advice?

So some of you may have heard about demakes, where popular games from the Playstation era are recreated with NES-era graphics and music. It's "chiptuning" an entire game. Mega Man 9 isn't technically a demake of anything, but that kind of backwards progression is what signifies a demake. Perhaps the most infamous example is the Final Fantasy VII Chinese hack production. I've most of it. And though it's ridiculous in all sorts of ways, the articles about it said that making this game was a technical achievement for many reasons.Then I found . I honestly can't tell how legit it is... I think they've cheated on the chiptunes (I feel like that synth slide in the victory theme is taken right out of the original). But the graphics are both better and more accurate. Unfortunately, there are only three videos and once Bahamut shows up it seems to go to all sorts of what-the-fuckness.There are I've across, but I'm sure I'm missing a few. Remakes are obviously a bit rarer, as they are considerably harder and more time consuming to pull off. That's why the majority of them involve editing and tweaking game code and assets. Wouldn't you know it, though, here again. It's been hacked to death over at the qhimm forums. At this point I'm looking at whatever they can provide, especially since the likelihood of anything official is slim to none. I'm even a voice actor on a mod seeking to add voices.I also thought was fun.Finally, there are hacks, in which the game isn't remade or demade to any significant extent. Just new enemies or styles put in. does not take the cake here, but .One of these days I'm going to have to go through those mods to see which ones are good. But at any rate, discuss the mods, makes, and general aberrations which corrupt classics you know and love.

Waterflame is from Newgrounds. He made four or five of the tracks used in Castle Crashers.

Can you rent PS3s? If so, this'll be at the top of my "to do" list.

Actually, I have to disagree. I mean, I agree that NMH2 is more streamlined. But I like the menu option. It was obvious in the original that the open-world thing was not done very well, as you admit. You couldn't affect the environment around you, you couldn't observe anyone's routine, you couldn't do any of that. It was just a way to get from place to place. And since it sucked, they took it out in the sequel. The reason, I'd venture, why the sequel felt lacking is because there wasn't enough put in the open world's place. Travis is advertised as being at Rank 50, but [SPOILER] there are only a few more fights than in the first game. To me, this is terrible. It falls in line with Suda51's use of misdirection, but it felt more like a cheap cop out than anything else. If there had actually been 20 or 30-something bosses to fight, that would have been EPIC. And it would have more than made up for what they took out. Add to that the lack of a compelling plot (compared to the first) and a horrible final boss and I just wasn't feeling this game nearly as much as the first.

Yeah. I had wanted to mention something to this effect, but wasn't sure how it would go over. But Irwin's point is a good one. Therefore, I think everyone should be prepared to contribute a tutorial or assistance of some kind. Otherwise, it could easily turn into the same few people contributing knowledge, while others come just long enough to soak it up. This would also motivate members to potentially do some learning outside of the group in order to ensure they're competent in something to talk about. No matter how well the group functions, we will all probably need to do this in order to accomplish our goals. So we might as well be obligated to the group to do so.

Yeah, I had to use a strategy guide for that. I've since beaten him, but only because I also got lucky. So yes. Yes you were. And that was my point: luck should not be a decisive factor in a fight outcome. The whole ending of NMH2 from that boss onwards was just crap. I feel like they just wanted to finish the game at that point. Now Ryugi, THERE was a boss.

Any chance of the source code getting GPL'ed? I'd love an inside look at an emulator... in a language I know!

Oh, RE: Suggestions. We could use VNC (Windows/Linux - http://www.realvnc.com/) or iChat (Mac) to actually look at one another's desktop to get a clearer idea of production and DAW setups.

I don't have any dragon jokes. Can I still comment here?

I'd like to participate when my life is a little more stable. But I'm definitely down.

Where did you get your brass sounds? They're obviously not great but may be good enough for the judges.

Hey, Brad, can you do me a favor and take my site off the main page? I haven't updated in a while and until I can, I don't want it to mislead anyone one way or the other. Not sure if it's worth the effort to add everything I have to it, though. Also, for anyone who may have contacted me about any particular item at any point: please do so again. I think the last time I was seriously investigating selling stuff was a year ago back in college, so I wound up dropping many balls. I have much more free time and much less money now, so you can be assured I will be trying to get rid of a lot of my things, as long as the price is fair. Check my edit on my original posting (on the first thread page).

What is this? Actionscript? Java?

In my experience, there are two distinct ways a boss may be difficult. One is that it has a set of moves which are difficult to counter or dodge, but can be. It may have high HP or a small attack window, but these bosses are difficult in a fun way. They provide a tangible challenge but it's clear that they can be beaten with enough work and persistence. And then there are stupid bosses with unpredictable moves that can't be read or countered. The boss isn't really hard, he can just do a bunch of ridiculous things which put you in a bad place very quickly. Guess which one inspired me to make this entry? The final boss of No Mores Heroes 2 has more cheap tricks than a prostitute. Let's go through them. For starters, he can instant kill you (by punching you out a window) if he hits you in the wrong part of the room relative to him. Boom. All of a sudden you've got to maneuver and keep yourself out of that line of sight. May be easy enough on its own, sure, but let's continue. About a third of the way through the battle, he starts up a teleportation attack. Okay, we've seen these before. Probably not so difficult to counter. But just you wait. He can teleport right behind you at any time and smack you. What does he do then? Teleport again and smack you again. And a third time for good measure. Oh, and he can do this three-teleportation attack three or even four times in a row. It cannot be reliably dodged or blocked because you can't see where he is in time. The interesting thing is that none of his attacks, individually, take off that much damage. It's almost like a taunt. "I dare you to beat me with more than half your health remaining." Given this, it still sounds plausible I can do it. I'm a patient guy, and I know his strategy for the most part. Even if he can sucker punch me at will and I dodge roll like crazy in the hopes of avoiding it, I'll just keep doing it til I knock him down enough. Of course, when he keeps teleporting around that becomes ass-kickingly hard to do. And the coup de grace. In the last third of the fight, he gets a new teleportation attack. "What could possibly be worse than getting sucker punched up to twelve consecutive times?", you ask? How about Tornado punched? Same attack, but now he tosses you across the room with the power of wind each time. And that can come before, after, or sandwiched between regular teleportation attacks. Picture this. You've persevered against the guy for a good while. You're about 2/3 down after using the health refill, but he's down for the count as well. Just maybe 10 or 12 more good hits... He comes at you with the teleportation. SHITSHITSHIT... wait! I dodged it! I'm dodging! Let me roll away... crap he tornado punched me! But where did I end up... fuck. Out the window. I haven't beaten him yet. Other bosses in this game prove Suda 51 knows how to make a great boss fight. One that's unique, challenging, and lets you have a fighting chance and not getting half your health knocked off by a random combination of attacks he may or may not perform. Considering the bosses are the focus of the game, I'm pretty pissed off they decided to end the game with such a lousy one. He's not hard. I faced previous bosses much harder. But it's completely up to chance (if he doesn't do certain moves or I'm lucky enough to dodge them) as to whether I can beat him. Ever.

Just found this one:

Does this thread have a compilation of Freewares I-V, or is this a FF-esque spiritual sequel?

So I imagine you may have heard of the FMyLife site. It provides accounts of possibly fictional stories which happen to people - sometimes just sad, but always hilarious. I thought it would be interesting to talk about similar moments when playing video games. They may not be life-fucking, but they sure as hell piss me off. Here's one: I was playing Mega Man 9, I was in Wily's Fortress, and I had come across a met hiding under an extra life decoy. I killed the Met then immediately switched to my weapons screen to select a new weapon to beat the next enemy in front of me. When I switched back out, I noticed the met was still there, hiding under the decoy. Figuring I must have missed, I decided I'd beat the next enemy in front of me then double back for it. I started to, only to watch the enemy fade away. It had actually dropped a real extra life when I killed it. FM(Extra)L.

Was it so bad it almost became good again?

http://www.penny-arcade.com/2010/1/15/

This is a little tricky since I haven't played ME1 or ME2 yet. But i think I've got some good ones. For all composers: How much specific direction and freedom did you have with any given piece of music? Did you come up with a lot of ideas yourself? In a similar vein, how does your knowledge about the location, character, or event you're writing music for impact your composition decisions? What kind of choices are you likely to make depending on the tone or current goal of the subject in question? For Jimmy: Most of the remixes you've done are based off discrete, specific melodies from older video games. Did it feel strange or different to write VG music which was more of a montage than a traditional themed song? How exactly did you get the gig in the first place? Were you approached, or did you approach Bioware/EA/Jack Wall?