The Coop

Why not ask DS himself? If he's no longer in charge of them, he should be able to tell you who is. Here's his page with contact info.

Vocals are always an interesting idea, even if there aren't actual words, and it's just someone basically "La la"-ing their way through. The hard part (usually) would be writing lyrics that aren't going to detract from the music. That would require a good amount of time and thought.

Should Sony throw a hissy fit and completely refuse to give these guys the Ghostbusters license, I'm sure the game will surface as an original IP. If it was far enough along to make videos, then chances are Zootfly would just redo the character models, replace all the Ghostbusters references with something else, and go from there. You know, a new game in the "spirit" of the Ghostbusters franchise... so to speak.

Don't you love bosses that at first seem defeated, only to come back in a far larger, and nastier form? I found just such a boss, in a PC game called The I of the Dragon. I can't remember this thing's name, partly because I missed the cinema mentioning it, and made a save after said cinema. But basically, it's a big evil looking thing (kind of like a Diablo knockoff) who terrorized the world before and came back to try it again. You fight him the first time in the final "normal" land of the game. You pound on him, your town pounds on him, and he goes down without too much trouble. Then you learn that he escaped to some other place, and to truly defeat him, you must follow him. So, off you go. At first, there's a battle cinema, and this completely decides how strong the boss is going to be. If his troops beat your troops, he won't be as strong as he would be if your troops won, and he had to kill them off. This battle is completely random, which make getting ready pretty tough... especially since if your troops win, he gets seriously stronger killing them off before turning on you. His attacks are semi-varied. One, is a projectile that follows you like a heat seeking missile. It does a lot of damage if it hits you, and it only takes about three to kill you. Another attack, is also a projectile, but this one explodes on contact, and bombards the area with lightning blasts for about ten seconds. These too, do a lot of damage. Another attack, involves him literally destroying any ground you might be hiding behind... which makes the concept of a safe spot impossible. If he has other attacks, I don't know. Those three are all he needed to kick my ass quickly. And if you try to summon troops or monsters to your aid, he kills them in about two hits as well, then returns to hunting you down. Oh, and I forgot to mention, he heals very quickly. But since you can't do any kind of steady attacks, this makes doing any real damage nearly impossible. Why? Because even if you hit him with a big spell, by the time you cast it, you're already nearly dead. This means you have to flee, heal, and come back... by which time, he's all better too. It basically looks like an impossible to win fight. His spells do serious damage, he heals quickly, and any shots you get in are basically inconsequential... especially if he had to beat your troops. Even SNK bosses seem fair compared to this.

Right here is all I could really find right off the bat. The one thing I found for $250 was a 2001 article, and the company seems to be gone now. It's pretty expensive with a 4 slot external set up being $799. I can't imagine that there aren't cheaper versions out there, but I didn't come across any with my first search.

So which format are you? PC or Mac?

I'm not certain, but with a little searching I found external PCI slots, but they were pretty expensive (one was $1,399). One would think that unless your motherboard was a type that had empty slots where PCI plugs once were, but were removed for a lower cost version of the board (thus making it so you could possibly add those missing slots yourself), adding PCI slots isn't going to be cheap. I found some things for a Mac that added a bunch of external things (PCI slots, USB ports, etc.) that was $250, but it didn't say how many slots it added. I have a feeling it's going to run you at least few hundred bucks.

Not to come off as sounding like a jerk, but I honestly couldn't care less about an online StarCraft. I don't usually play online games, let alone RPGs where you can only play it online while paying a monthly fee (that's why World of WarCraft has never interested me). Having to basically repeatedly pay for the game over and over just doesn't do it for me at all gaming-wise. And in truth, I'm just not all that interested in a sequel to SC. The original was fun, but I never shared the "be all end all of RTS games" attitude that many have applied to SC over the years. Frankly, I'd much rather have the long rumored Diablo III come to pass, or perhaps see WarCraft IV.

Defend- OCR has a simple mission- if it's on the site, it's "good". By "good", that means it passed the written (and any unwritten) standards of the site in terms of arrangement, production, etc. (or at least, balances those areas out). There are no 10s or 1s here, no ratings, no "favorites" play lists... just remixes that passed judgment. And really, that's all the OCR higher-ups want it to be from what I've gathered. Of course, that doesn't mean you'll like the genre chosen, or even where the remixer went with it, as that's going to be opinion-based. But favorite "remix/remixer" threads do exactly what this site doesn't... it divides up the remixes into rated groups. If the people running this site don't want this, why would they let the posters do it? If folks want to break up this site's remixes into personalized "bad" and "good" sections, people can do that on their playlists. If they want to say how much they love a remix or remixer, they're more than able to do so via PM or in the given remix's thread. It's not about keeping people from saying how much they like a tune or person's style, but rather about keeping the site from becoming a mass of threads talking about nothing but. Plus, one of the things about favorites threads is that frankly, they've been done to death. Unless the topic is about a movie, game or what have you that just came out, the same points come up every single time (and the same insults too). And when you're dealing with OCR remixes and remixers, the same people and songs come up over and over and over. And as somewhat unlikely as it may sound, after a while, these kinds of threads may even lead to people ignoring any remixes that weren't mentioned in any of the "OMG BESTEST" lists... and that pretty much defeats what the whole judging thing's about. Basically, it keeps the bullshit to a minimum. No one's being silenced, or told to not say what remixes they like. They're just being told to put those comments where they belong. That's all

Open Office Microsoft Word costs a nice chunk of change to use, doesn't it? That's a lot of cash to fork out to be able to type up your paper for college, or whatever else you'd do. But there's hope. Open Office is a freeware program that gives you many features... too many to try and list. But if you need a free, "fully-featured office suite", here ya go. It's quite good. It's available for Windows, Linux, Mac OS, Solaris, and a few others OSes. Be warned though, it's pretty big at 93MB to 121MB (depending on the one you need). The Elder Scrolls: Arena Here's a nifty bit of old gaming. Bethesda made their old DOS game freely available on their website. Since it's a DOS game, running it on modern systems it pretty tough. So unless you have an old version of DOS on your PC, you'll need this next bit of freeware... DOSBox So, how many remember those classic PC games of old? Wing Commander, Doom, the many Dungeons & Dragons games... stuff that not all got to play, but a good number may remember. Well, here's a chance to play them again. DOSBox is a DOS emulator. By that I mean, it creates a DOS environment for running older programs that require a DOS environment. It's a quite good, and depending on your PC, can run some of the more demanding DOS games well. For a little help on how to get DOSBox set up, head over here for a guide I put together.

Thus far, the buttons are showing up for me, so I don't think any code was changed (at least not drastically anyway).

Right now, things look fine. But I have seen the occasional instance where a different looking button pops up (a previous version perhaps? One from another skin?).

Much like the last Nice Work thread, the previous Freeware thread got the axe only a short week after being made. But, since Off Topic is here, it's time to avenge the premature death of "Freeware V", and continue. So let's get back to sharing those great freeware games and programs... The Ur-Quan Masters This little game, is basically Star Control II. Toys for Bob, who made SC II, released the source code for the 3DO version of the game, and a group of fans began working on porting it to the PC, since the PC versions' code had been lost. Right now, the game is basically complete. All the graphics, voice, music, sound effects and gameplay are intact. It's also huge at 300MB. But trust me, it's worth it. These guys did a great job of bringing an old classic back to life again. Doom Absolution This is a total conversion for Doom II. Basically, it's Doom 64 for the PC. These guys did one hell of a job bringing it over, right down to the last secret. The graphics, the sounds, the music, it's all right on the money. You do need to own the full version of Doom II to play it though (you need the WAD file). Castlevania Quest and Dracula's Shadow These are two homebrewed Castlevania games by Archimedes & Soleiyu. I kid you not when I say these games look and play like they were taken from some forgotten vault of Konami games. The graphics are straight out of the NES, and the gameplay is too. The music is actually a bit better than what the NES could do (some samples that were used are beyond the NES' capabilities), and each game is put together very professionally. If you loved the NES games, you need to get these. Typhoon 2001 Remember Tempest 2000 for the Jaguar? Here's a "remake" of it, though the intent is to simply recapture what made that Jaguar game so fun. The trippy graphics and such all seem to be intact thus far, and thankfully, the author upped the difficulty over previous releases. So go grab it, and see what the handful of Jaguar owners got to enjoy.

My sig gif? About 30 hours.

Correction to the correction- "DJPing" is moving your head forward/left/right at a roughly 45 degree downward angle, then back to the starting point. pixplzkthx- Pictures please, Okay? Thanks.

Actually, the issue may not have been Daemon Tools. I thought that program had screwed up my PC once too, only to find out after doing a destructive restore (pre-made PC here), that my PC had the same problem again six months later... without having Daemon Tools installed. agp440.sys Right there, is the driver that was giving me a serious issue. It's a driver (video?) that from time to time, simply craps out during the boot up sequence, and results in a similar issue when trying to boot up your PC. Suzu, try starting in Safe Mode, and see if your PC hangs on the agp440.sys driver as it's booting up. If it does, try this... http://support.microsoft.com/kb/324764 It may help.

Well... I won't be sleeping now.

Not sure if this is going to be read after Syl's post, but... But how is that the fault of anyone in UnMod? If you look around the Web, the notion of having a bigger post count to fit in is not an UnMod or OCR trait. It's everywhere. Every site forum at some point has had someone make a sarcastic remark regarding a person's post count, and how it wasn't big enough to make that poster be taken seriously. It's been going on since before OCR was ever started, and it'll continue long after OCR vanishes. UnMod posters are not at fault for that mind set, because even if a newbie took that remark completely seriously, there were scores of posts elsewhere on OCR and in UnMod that stated the exact opposite. I don't see how the inability to take a joke, is something that could be used in what you described. Regarding the mob mentality you mentioned, I don't think you really understood what was going on when those fad threads were created... Fad threads had nothing to do with fitting in, nor did they come about from running out of thread ideas. When fad threads were made, they were made in an attempt to be funny. Some succeeded, some didn't. After a while, they were almost expected to show up, and both regulars and newbies alike made them over time. If you made one, you weren't part of the group, nor were you desperate to find a thread idea. All you were, was someone who made a fad thread in an attempt to get/give a quick laugh. In fact, more often than not, people were trying to keep posters from making fad threads. There were quite a few posts within the fad threads that stated they'd grown tiresome, and that people should stop making them. Some said this politely, some not so polite. But basically, to a decent number of people, they'd run their course quite some time ago. But in the end, they were a source of short lived amusement, and little more. This isn't intended as any kind of insult Pixie, but I honestly believe that you have a good number of misconceptions about what went on in UnMod, and why it went on.

Actually Pixie, from the things I watched, join dates and post counts weren't the source of all that much. Post count increases were more of a joke than anything else. People with large post counts were being called postwhores and told "You have no life", as opposed to being considered people to look up to, or "the elite". There's a reason the phrase "You're not your post count" has been floating around UnMod for a long, long time. And really, even join dates were used more in a sarcastic way than as a legit weapon. When someone from say 2004 would comment, "UnMod sucks compared to how it was when I joined", that's when someone from 2003, 2002 or earlier would comment along the lines of "How would you know? You joined after it was already shitty". Perhaps in the beginning, post counts and join dates were used against people with real intent. But by the time 2005 was over, anyone referencing post counts and join dates as a means to discount someone's comment was making a joke, and not being serious. Sure, some of the newbies took the comments seriously and got offended or upset, but that was more a result of not being able to detect the sarcasm, than actual intended maliciousness. Yes, there were exceptions, but they were just that... exceptions. Not the rule. There were plenty of newbies who got respect for how they posted and did things, and there are plenty of regulars who still catch shit to this day, despite how long they've been here or how much they've posted. How a given newbie (or poster in general) acted was the main source of potential flaming and put downs over the years. Not post counts, and not join dates. Of course, that's just my opinion based on my own experiences.

But see, "HI" wasn't a "+1" thread... it was a random thread (to me at least). While SSAtPWPBY was undoubtedly a "+1" thread with its nearly constant, quick and similar posts, the "HI" thread had conversations of all types going on within it (something the subtitle of the thread regularly reflected). I'm not fond of the whole "+1" idea either, but when it's contained within a designated thread, I don't see the harm in them. If people show some self restraint, their inclusion in Off Topic shouldn't be an issue. Think about it... when UnMod wasn't moderated, there were really only about three types of threads like this. One was SSAtPWPBY, another was a version of "What are you listening to?", and the last was AIMMS (yes, that thread was a "+1" thread at heart, but one with a much better and uplifting purpose than the typical "+1" thread). Occasionally, you'd get a fourth one, and that one generally changed each time topically and died off after a short while. There weren't entire forum page-filling floods of them. Now we're talking about a new moderated forum. It's not going to explode into a "+1"-fest unless some folks decide to try and cause problems. And really, that will only get them warned/banned for their troubles, and their thread, deleted. In the end, whether "+1" threads stay or go doesn't affect me. As I said, I didn't take part in many of them beyond the AIMMS thread. But I'd like to see such threads at least be given a shot in Off Topic. If it doesn't work out, or things get out of hand, then they'll be gotten rid of obviously. But I'd rather see them tried out and fail, than not given a shot at all. As for the image threads, I fail to see how a thread with images of elfgirls and the like is going to drive people away with their mere presence. I just can't imagine posters doing anything more than rolling their eyes and going to the next thread. Plus, if we start using some kind of warning for such threads, or even combine ones that are similar (like what happened with the Catgirl/Angelgirl/Devilgirl threads), they won't be everywhere, and they'd be clearly labeled. If such a thing drives people away, then in truth, where does the problem reside... with the person who's disgusted just by the idea of such threads being there, or with the site that has those threads marked, labeled, and kept in check so people know what to expect? They may not be to everyone's liking, but there's a lot that's not to everyone's liking. Sometimes you just have to take the good with bad, and roll with it. If the image threads don't get out of control and over done (elfgirl, elfguy, elfdickgirl, elfthis, elfthat, etc.), I'm just not seeing a reason to get rid of them. I'm not trying to bash you for your opinion, Eulogic. It differs from my own, and I'm fine with that. I can respect it. But I honestly don't see how the presence of a few image threads like "A catgirl a day", "Elf Chicks", "Original Artwork" and such is going to keep folks from posting and listening to the remixes.

Well, since Bahamut suggested posting ideas here, I think I'll do just that... -No Porn? WTF?!- This topic doesn't seem to have been given a clear yay or nay thus far. Early posts suggested it was completely off limits, while later ones made it seem like it had yet to be decided upon. So for now, I'm going to treat this as a “worst case scenario”, and reply as if porn was not going to be allowed in Off Topic at all. The thing here, is just what is going to be defined as "porn"? I personally don't see simple nudity (be it real or drawn) as porn. Whether it's a catgirl in her bra and panties while sitting in a sexual pose with hardened nipples, an elfgirl standing there topless in the wind, or a real woman in full frontal nudity, those things just don't come off as porn to me. What does, is anything with actual penetration... two people having sex, a woman using a dildo, stuff like that. So in my opinion, I don't see an issue with people posting nude women or men if they choose to, especially since this was generally done in designated picture threads. This would make threads like “Holy Hot Asian Girls Batman!”, “A catgirl a day...”, “Elf girls: Still Reducing Your Chances of Scoring”, and their ilk very doable in Off Topic, which would likely make some people rather happy. Now, we get to images with someone cumming... the "money shot" stuff. While there's no penetration involved, it falls into a strange area. The same can be said regarding images of a nude guy about to climb on top of (or enter in general) a nude woman, or a woman about to jam a nine inch dildo into herself. It's not penetration, but it's as close as you can get to the moment of (be it before or after). So really, I'm not sure how to feel about it. I've personally never been a fan of the "splooge" or "here I come!" images, so I wouldn't miss them if they were kept out. But, again, since there's no real penetration happening, I know others may not see these types of images as porn. So I'll leave that area alone. While I was typing this, I was thinking about something. What if there was a requirement for image threads to have a "May Contain Nudity" disclaimer in their title, or a symbol of some kind that means just that? Perhaps even a simple “Not Work Safe”? Then when threads are created that have the distinct possibility of having nudity in them, people would know in advance before going into those threads, and wouldn't have a reason to complain. You'd know what's there, and you'd know what may be within the thread. It would be plenty of warning for everyone. This way, if someone goes into a thread with that disclaimer, and is upset by what they saw, they'd have no grounds to make a complaint, because they were warned. As far as the random nude image goes, I don't think it would be unreasonable to ask people to keep the nude images in the respective threads. If you're running through the "... and it made me smile" thread, and you suddenly slam head long into a nude woman/guy photo or drawing, I can understand why someone would see that as being inappropriate for the thread. If a thread that's not listed as possibly have nudity in it, suddenly gets images of nude people or characters, then those viewing the site from someplace other than the privacy of their home would have a case in regards to making a complaint. I know the argument about not browsing websites while you're at work exists, and in truth, it's a very valid argument to be made. But not everyone has a computer at home, or in their room. Some go to school computer labs and post, or the library, or perhaps even their parent's bedroom. And of course, there are the artist threads. Over the years, people have posted images of nude characters they've drawn. Considering “Original Artwork” threads have regularly cropped up, I don't feel it would be right to tell people not to post their work there. Again, some kind of disclaimer could be used, and this way, the threads would still give people the creative freedom they've had up to this point, while letting others know that there might be nudity contained within. So really, I don't see any problem with having nudity in Off Topic. I understand the need to make OCR more “work safe” for some forum browsers, but I don't think it should be taken to extremes. As long as it's kept in threads that give the forum users a warning about what to expect in said threads, there really shouldn't be an issue beyond the occasional poster who feels the need to randomly drop a pair a breasts or a guy's penis into an unsuspecting thread. Nudity isn't illegal (usually, with loli and bestiality being exceptions), so I see no reason for it to be outlawed. -What nonsense- Oh, we all remember these threads. “Exactly how many lords of the boards are there?”, “The Official Spork thread”, the “Hi” thread, the brainfuck thread... they're threads that are random, and seem to have either no real topic, or some damn odd ones. Or, perhaps they became so convoluted, that the original topic got lost along the way. Some people called them slow AIM chatrooms, others called them “wastes of server space”,. but I also know there were plenty of people who took part in them. I don't don't see the harm in letting these kinds of threads be made. If they're interesting, or interesting conversations begin in them, they take off and lead to all sorts of fun things. If they're boring, they die off quickly and vanish from sight. Unless there's a flame war going on, or the thread's getting bombed with goatse or something, these things are harmless bits of chatter in my opinion. And in truth, there's no real reason to keep them out of Off Topic. Then there are the many types of contest threads. Speedruns, UPC (UnMod Pissing Contest) score runs, caption contests... these were always fun. Not allowing these in Off Topic would make no sense at all. Of course, then there are the mock threads (a thread with the same name as another one, but is completely random or nonsensical inside... like “I saw God today”, and then the first post is an image of a taco and nothing else). To be honest, I'm not sure how to feel about these. In a way, they're fad threads mixed with gibberish, but in another way, they're still basically harmless. I didn't post in these very much, and they rarely got to be multi-page threads before they died off. So in truth, whether they stay or go, it doesn't bother me either way. Then we come to the fad threads. Having been guilty of making two or three of these, it may seem a bit hypocritical for me to say this, but... I think they shouldn't be a part of Off Topic. Sure, some of them were funny, and a few even became their own legitimate topics. But generally, they only get a few posts and just clutter up the front page. Yes, they can be good for a laugh if someone tries hard enough, but it more often than not ends up a mass of dead threads within a few hours, and then everyone has to go back and dig up the more popular and useful threads again. So in the end, I just don't see them doing much for Off Topic. Finally, what some called the "+1" threads. "Say something about the person above you", "What are you listening to now?", "What are you eating now?"... the types of threads that have always been accused of simply being an excuse to up your post count. As strange as it may seem to say it, these are harmless. They grow quickly, yes. But they consist of simple answers and quick replies. The only time one of these became a problem, usually centered around the ones that ask you comment on a previous poster. Once in while, bickering would break out, but it usually got buried under subsequent posts before it could ever get anywhere really hostile. And besides... if there's still the 3000 reply limit, then you know these kinds of threads be deleted soon enough, and respawned with a "v2". They won't be able to grow out of control, because there'd be a set limit to how big they could get. So really, beyond irking the folks who demand nothing but substance in each thread, and as long as they don't spawn too many fad threads of themselves (What are you eating?, What are you drinking? What are you watching? What are you reading? Etc.), what's the harm? These kinds of "+1" threads are usually self contained, so I don't see an issue with them being allowed. But, I think they should have an eye kept on them so that we don't end up with fifty of them at once. Sorry for the length, but I was trying to give my thoughts on a good number of things.

Thanks for taking the time to respond, but I do have to disagree with the advice you were given. Some of what was said in other threads regarding the abrupt deletion, centered around not being able to save the things that people wanted to... to archive the various threads, images, etc. Another part, was indeed the suddenness. One second it was there, the next, it was gone. For some, that came off as a considerable lack of respect towards the folks posting in UnMod. These things, coupled with the "retrobans" that were going on, and the on-going process of people trying to find out why they were banned (and possibly get unbanned) just fueled the reaction. It was like dumping lighter fluid on the fire that was still burning from the bans over the previous few weeks. I can honesty say, I don't believe there would have been nearly the reaction there was, if people had just been given warning. Everyone knew it was going to be changed, so its eventual disappearance wasn't a hidden truth. I feel some of the folks there underestimated us. Of course, I guess it's a dead issue now. As for Off Topic, I share your hopes of making it a good place. While there's still a lot of blanks left in terms of what can and can't take place there (image threads like "Holy Hot Asian Girls Batman!" and "Boobies", nudity in general, nonsensical threads like "What are you eating now?", etc.), I'm hoping a lot of what made UnMod fun to read and take part in will still be retained. I know thread breaks, Image Bombs, ROM links, loli, torrents of music that's for sale, and their ilk aren't allowed. But right now, I believe there are a lot of people waiting to see what will be allowed. I know I'll still be here, but others are sitting on the fence waiting for that info.

This dark skin's getting snazzier each time it's updated. Nice work thus far, Rama.

Can't imagine why it would be taken seriously, considering it makes it appear everyone involved was just having a big laugh over what would undoubtedly upset and anger a lot of people on OCR... especially considering who posted them. I have to admit to feeling a good amount of disappointment in, and lessened respect for, those cheery looking folks when I saw it.

Are those people OCR staff members?