The Coop

My gaming really hasn't changed all that much in terms of how much I enjoy playing, it's just harder to find the time to sit down and play some games I really want to. Stuff like Dragon Quest VIII and Final Fantasy XII took forever to beat, since we're talking about investing scores of hours before you even start getting close to the end. When I was younger, I could always find the time to pump a few hours into games like them. But now? Now it's a struggle to get a free hour, let alone three or four, so RPGs get less attention than they did a while back. If something has changed, it's the amount of time playing newer games versus older ones on PC. Ever since discovering and becoming reasonably competent with DOSBox a couple years ago, I've been playing more older PC titles than newer ones. I mean sure, I'm playing through Quake IV again right now, but when I sit down to play on my PC for a bit, I'm more likely to fire up Powerslave, Wing Commander or The Immortal these days.

Now that would be interesting. Seeing people beat the shit out of each other over words like "tomato", "Caribbean", "grey/gray" and such.

Well, that's where we were until a short time ago.

Joker- "I just kill myself! AAHHHHHHHHHHHH HA HA HA HA HA HA HAAAAAAAAA!"

Actual poster, or a bot? You decide.

Low end cards can go both ways. A lot of them don't generate the same level of heat that the high-end cards do, so they can be found both with and without fans depending on the manufacturer. High end cards however, almost always have a fan attached to them, as they generate a lot more heat while they're doing their thing. Keep in mind however, that if a card doesn't come with a fan, it doesn't mean you need to buy one. It simply means that particular card was built in such a way that a cooling fan wasn't needed to keep it from overheating.

Well, it's a bit of a shake up, but hopefully the project will get moving forward again. Shame I can't be involved due to the audio quality being sought after, but seeing as this series is one of my favorites from the NES library, it's good to to see it's not going to be left idle.

It would be very wise to make sure your current power supply unit can handle the new card you want to get. While being certain that your PSU has the needed Watts output is good, it's quite important to check that your PSU has the AMPs needed for the new card. You'll want to see what your PSU puts out in its 12volt rail (it should say this on a pretty visible spot on the PSU itself inside the PC case). If your PSU can't put out the AMPs the card needs to function properly, you could run into problems.

Quistis of FFVIII anyone?

So I'm guessing this thread is no longer about personal experiences (of varying levels) and preferences with Mac and PC OSs, and is now about "You're stupid!"/"Nuh uh, you are!". Silent Mike- It's the computer version of the console wars argument. Happens every time.

Anyone who's paid that much for a home computer, please raise your hand. I wish to spend the next few months making fun of you

You know, I've come to expect certain things in life. The sun coming up, the moon being in the sky, and of course, SNK making bosses that are infuriating. In this case, a certain King Leo in Neo Geo Battle Coliseum. I wish I could say I own the game, but I can't. As such, most of my play time with this game as been at a friend's house. However, I've managed to chalk up a few hours with this interesting, and fought King Leo a good number of times. Here are my thoughts... Fuck!... Fuuuuuuuuuuck... Oh c'mon!... What the?!... Wait, he's healing himself?! FUCKIN'...! This boss is insane, and he's not even the main boss. As one would expect with SNK, his moves are fast, they do quite a bit of damage when they connect, they do damage when you block, and of course, hitting him with even good specials seems to do minimal damage to him. It's insane sitting there getting in a few good shots, only to see that his health bar's barely moved, and that it's refilling. I've yet to beat this guy, or even get him down to half a bar of health. And considering there are three other main bosses in the game, I fear to see what they do to you. I'll beat this boss yet. I can get into the low teens in wins without any time bonuses or anything, so I'm not doing that badly. I just have to find a vulnerability.

Alrighty. #s 3, 7, 8, and 9 as they were, and #s 1 and 6 with non-brown BG colors... http://www.geocities.com/arforfaborb/Bob1.gif http://www.geocities.com/arforfaborb/Bub1.gif http://www.geocities.com/arforfaborb/Mighta1.gif http://www.geocities.com/arforfaborb/Monsta1.gif http://www.geocities.com/arforfaborb/UnknownCat1.gif http://www.geocities.com/arforfaborb/WillyWhistle1.gif And here's a few color experiments with the other four. They've been trimmed to 30x30 or less... Thoughts? LT: The already approved are awesome; good to go! You're gonna hit me over the head with a plank of wood, but for the other ones, I'm definitely not feeling those BG colors. The contrast is always odd. I blame Taito! I dunno, they may be a lost cause. :'-(

I always liked that video. It's so true at times, and funny besides.

So is this thing still functional, or is it on life support? I ask because Rexy hasn't posted in here for over nine months.

I've known a number of 'Macatics' as I call them (Mac fanatics). They swear up and down that Macs out do anything and everything a PC does, no matter what they're presented with. For them, Macs are better for image work, editing, gaming... you name it, and Macs are better to them. Me? I'm not impressed with Macs at all, and this comes from several years of having to work on them in various programs like Photoshop, Illustrator, Lightwave, and Final Cut Pro. They're every bit as crash/freeze prone as PCs, they're way more expensive, and their upgrade ability is not particularly good. But what puzzles me the most, is why anyone would find a one button mouse to be a good thing. Those things make me frustrated enough to punch a baby with how oversensitive that damned button is, but boy do Macatics praise that thing all to hell.

Sounds a lot like OCR. And like the art critiques I've sat through over the years.

Indeed. http://www.digitalfaq.com/media/dvdmedia.htm There's a guide for DVD/CD media. If your parents are using any manufacturer in the third or fourth group, get them to upgrade to something in the first group if possible.

Depends on how they want to save the video. If they're trying to put them on the DVDs so that they can be popped in and watched like any DVD movie, then don't go above two hours of video on each DVD. Once you go above that, the video quality starts taking a nose dive. With two hours at high quality, the videos should look good. Of course, it depends on what their program considers "High" quality. As an example, on my copy of Ulead VideoStudio 8SE, I can make a video file with these settings.... Video Type- MPEG Resolution- 640x480 Video Bitrate- 14,000 Sample Rate 44.1kHz Audio Bitrate- 224kb/s ... and have a 30 minute video file at 687MB. That leaves plenty of room for the other hour-and-a-half at a similar high quality, and the video is nice, big and quite clean for a tranfer. Just keep in mind that the worse the quality is of the original VHS video, the larger the video file will likely be (more movement in the video affects this area too). Video files are a lot like animated gifs in that area, as a fuzzy, dirty image that moves will take up more file space than a clean one. However, since we're dealing with home videos, sacrificing the time duration on a DVD shouldn't be an issue. You'll want these things to be as good as you can get them, and if that means you only get 1:30:00 on a DVD from time to time, so be it. If on the other hand, they want to just create a video file and save those files on DVDs like a data file, then you can get more than two hours on there without sacrificing video quality. As my example above shows, a half hour of video at those settings is less than 700MB. With DVDs holding 4GB of data, they can get 2.5 to 3 hours on there, and then just play the files on their PC (or burn them to 2 hour-long watchable DVDs later). Just keep in mind, that you should try not to go much over the 4GB line with a single-sided DVD. Sometimes what fills those last few hundred MBs on a DVD can become inaccessible, especially if they're on there as data files. So it's a safe bet to make sure those DVDs stay below 4GB for some cushion (even if it's 3.98GB). Anyway, hope that helps.

Anyway, all smartassedness aside, some game companies have really thin skin when it comes to websites or magazines reviewing their games that they feel are awesomeness on a disc. They get outraged that their baby is mediocre at best in someone's eyes... especially when those eyes have some form of press available to them. But while some game companies just move on, others like Capcom in the past (and now Midway and them), take another course... they throw a hissy fit, take their ball, and go home. I guess they figure it's some kind of punishment, but it's really a type of bad press that's worse than what their game just got. Of course, it's the same thing with artists/entertainers of any kind. Some can handle the negative reviews or commentary on what they feel (or have been told) is a masterpiece by them. Others can't, or won't. They forget that it's an opinion, and not everyone is going to have the same one. As such, just because other print and digital press rags say one thing, doesn't mean every last one of them will agree with it. After all, as the saying goes, you can't please everybody.

Midway's a part of this, and a banning of their games is being talked about? Oh yeah, The wingless should be here shortly to remind us all how he hates the gaming consumer, and cite this as one of the reasons