HalcyonSpirit

The link on the Alpha: m page for Metal Slug 2: Super Vehicle - 001/II gives a 404 error.

Ho-ly crap. I want this so badly. It reminds me of Chrono Trigger so much, and I loved that game. ... Now I have to find myself a DS...

Regarding the difficulty-consistency issue: Personally, I like games that have some variety with the difficulty. It brings more atmosphere into the game; it seems more "realistic" that way. The enemy can't keep being equally difficult all the time, it don't work that way. Have the enemy focus on defending critical areas, have them make surprise strikes on you. There can't be enemies everywhere all the time. I again point to Freespace 2 (mind you, this game is from 1999). The enemy AI isn't the greatest, but it was good for the time. And to be honest, the game's difficulty came from both being able to manage a space battle with other fighters and cruisers all battling each other at the same time, and also from not knowing what was going to happen next (on your first time through, anyhow). At some points, you could be taking on a relatively easy mission, beating them down without much difficulty... and then an enemy cruiser with 3 wings of fighters and bombers exits subspace only a few kilometers from where you are and begins to beat down on you. In that first minute when you're taken by surprise, whether you and the craft you are responsible for survive depends on whether you have the presence of mind to recognize and target the enemy's most important advantages first (just like in a real battle). If you don't, you may survive, but your wingmates and perhaps the cruiser or freighter you were protecting may not. And depending on the mission, that may or may not change the outcome of the battle. Some missions you can lose the ship and still move on, other times it's game over. I like that kind of gameplay and difficulty.

I agree with the notion that games these days are, in general, too easy. I prefer games that challenge me in one way or another. Good example: Freespace 2. Been playing that lately. Now that's a game where, if you don't stay on top of things for each mission, you're going to fail. But if you do stay on top of things, you can still fail. Not only from your own little mistakes adding up, but also from not paying attention to a little thing that doesn't seem important at the time or ordering your wingmates to do something at the wrong time, or something else entirely. That game honestly feels like I'm in an actual firefight. Love the game, wish there were more games like it.

I have. But it took approximately 50 tries to do so. I believe I finally got it with Ganondorf. That was one punishing challenge.

I'll probably vote this weekend. Too many tests tomorrow to do it now.

Well, with KToon, I've heard it's decent, but it only works for UNIX operating systems (does that apply to Linux?). Also, it only exports in the .swf format, it doesn't use it for the program itself (probably because they've agreed to a licensing agreement with Adobe to only export in the format, not play it). As for SWiSH... well, it's almost 6 times cheaper than Adobe Flash. Probably doesn't have quite as many features as Adobe Flash, but hey, it's 6 times cheaper! It looks like there's a few free alternatives in development based on the Wiki page, but they all seem to be in their infancy and lack the functionality of the real thing.

If you're thinking about using it for a professional webpage, animation or something of that nature, I'd personally recommend that you just buy the program. I have it; it's worth the cost if you're going to use it for more than just a hobby (and for some, it'd be worth it even if it was just a hobby). Unlike some programs that practically become obsolete when a new version comes out, you can typically get away with not upgrading Flash for a few generations, so in the long run it doesn't cost quite as much.

Not that I know of. Probably because, if I understand it correctly, anyone who tried to do so could get their arses sued to hell. GIMP can get away with it because picture editing isn't a specific filetype or type of program. Flash, however, is. It's specific to that filetype and that program; no other program can edit it. I believe Adobe has the rights to the Flash filetype, and thus using their program is the only way to go.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! ... Damnit... Not enough time in a day...

*continues to tap furiously on the keyboard* Must... finish... before... deadline!

Hey, I'm not complaining. I've been running some ideas through my head, but all these exams have been destroying my will to write (as if I had the time, HA!). An extra week might just be enough for me to get something out there.

Probably wouldn't be a very good tactic. If it's anything like I believe it to be, there's probably going to be a slight delay between when you hit the command to when the pokémon is recalled, during which you are vulnerable to attack.

A little confident there, eh? I might have to spend a few sleepless nights writing something just to challenge you for that.

Man, midterms are coming at a horrible time this semester...

I think what he means is that you either have to have both HDs in the same computer or in separate computers; in other words, have access to both drives at the same time to do the copy. Which, unfortunately, can't be done when dealing with Dell tech support. They take the old parts with them when they leave, and they won't stick around for you to do the copy while they're there. Besides which, my laptop only has room for one drive at a time and I don't have any other computers to use here, so that's out of the question. I do know that there are programs that allow you to make an image file you can store like any other file on a drive and restore it whenever you like, but all the ones I've found so far aren't free (or are of not-so-good reliability). Phill, your Linux method would probably work. However, I don't have any experience with Linux, and I'd rather not have a crash course in it when trying to save my computer's information in one piece. By the way, tech support called back; they're coming on Monday. So I don't have a whole lot of time left.

I'm also at college, but I can download the torrents. The problem? I can't upload them. Virginia Tech has a daily upload limit set in place, and exceeding that limit is met with consequences. For the first time, your bandwidth is cut for a day to practically nothing (I'm talking slower than dial-up speeds here). Further times result in more serious disciplinary action. Suffice to say, I would love to seed the project, but just to download it requires me to cut my upload speed to 5 kb/s or less. And even with that, I had to stop my download at only 46% completion because I was getting too close to the upload limit...

I require recommendations for programs that will allow me to make a complete copy of my current hard drive, Windows and all, and be able to put it on new drive. It would be nice if the program is free as well, since I probably won't be using it after this one time. Essentially, what happened is this: I called up Dell tech support to tell them that there is a likely short in the connection between my headphone jack and the motherboard on my laptop. Although I had already established that the motherboard needed to be replaced, I'm sure the tech guy had to go through normal procedure and run a startup diagnostic on my laptop. Well, as it turns out, that was a good thing, as it caught an error with my hard drive. So long story short, they're replacing both my motherboard and hard drive in one go about a week from now. I obviously need to backup my files, but I would like to do without the hassle of reinstalling everything back onto my laptop. Imaging the drive seems like the obvious choice for that, though if anyone has other suggestions or advice, it would be appreciated.

I know how you feel, man... Well, at least she made it in as an assist trophy. It's something.

I was going to protest that MEGAS wasn't on there, but then I realized that there appear to only be robots with AI on that list. So in that case, I have to protest that Glitch isn't on the list. As much as I'd like to vote for Mega Man or R2-D2, my vote goes to... GIR! He's just that awesome.

You mean to ask whether you should slave the drive off of your new computer? If so, then that's fine. As long as you can slave it temporarily (just get the stuff of the drive), it's fine.

Yeah, my nVidia GeForce Go 6800 supports it as well. I can have it scale to the main resolution, scale at a fixed aspect ratio, or center on the screen with no scaling. It isn't hard to do, either. All I do is go into Display Properties --> Settings tab --> select the monitor and hit Advanced --> the video card's tab --> Display Settings --> Device Settings and then select the option I want. I'm surprised other video cards can't do this.

Memtest. I find the bootable floppy disk option the easiest to use. Of course, if your computer doesn't have a floppy drive, that might be an issue. There are other bootable options as well, if that's the case.

If you can do it, I would slave it first. That way you're not trying to run anything off of it, so there's less likely to be an issue.

OK, well... #1 looks like Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, like Dervish said. #2 looks a bit like Katamari Damacy, but since I've never played it, I can't possibly recognize anything in the image if it is. #3 looks a little like Shadow of the Colossus, based on the person in the image. However, others are saying Ico, so I'm probably wrong here. By the way, all the images look like their colors have been heavily distorted, like it was a badly-made GIF at one point.