The Coop

Why not ask a mod if you guys can put a notice in Gen Dis for a week? I've seen other projects have temp messages there, and more exposure might help in finding a replacement.

On the NeoGeo, there was a shmup released called Viewpoint. It's an isometric shmup, and it's hard a hell. A couple years later, the Genesis got a port of it, and though the music and graphics were toned down, the difficulty level was left fully intact. Now, there's really no easy part in this game. Partly because of bullets going everywhere, and partly because of the view. But on Stage 4 of this game, everything comes together to make for a big old fashion cluster fuck. See, at the end of the stage, there's a four faced rock... thing. Each face has a different attack. One face fires a bullet spread and charges at you, another fires bird-like things which fire at you, and another puts up a barricade of things that block your shots as they rotate around the rock creature. There's a fourth attack pattern, but in truth, it escapes me at the moment. Anyway, so here's a four phased pain in the ass, firing everywhere, moving around, and the only time you can hurt it is when it's mouth is open for a short time. So needless to say, this battle takes a while in terms of shmups battles. The viewing angle doesn't make dodging easy (watch your shadow), and being killed is like a slap in the face. Why? Because it sends you back into the stage by about a third of its length (check points anyone?). This make for a long, frustrating battle... over, and over, and over again. The game's not too bad up to this point, but this boss makes up for any ease you may have had in reaching it.

First they're not sharp enough, then they're too pixelly. So damned picky The problem with other head shots, is that there's not a lot of good production art. There's plenty of it, but the drawings are usually less than accurate to how they looked on the show. These head shots (gotten off of Cartoon Network's site for the show) are the best I've come across, as they're not making a stupid expression, and they're pretty accurate. Plus, with so many other sites using screengrab edits, I thought I'd use something that didn't seem to be common. Anyway, I know... blah blah blah. I tried to soften up the edges a bit, and made them a bit brighter. So, here's another attempt while I look for some head shots from various episodes... LT: Looking at the actual CN site, those source pictures aren't even a good enough quality to work with, IMO. Good try though, the originals were just low-quality to begin with.

Not sure, but here's the next version of the TT avatars... Better? Worse? WTF? LT: The images are too pixelated, i.e. they look like poo to begin with. Care to try with some other Teen Titan headshots?

I used to have several remixes from TF III on VGMix 1 and 2 before they went down. I remixed "Hunger Made Them Desparate" and "The Grubby Dark Blue", and I'm still tweaking a remix of "Present" (the Staff Roll tune). Edit: Got my ending theme names mixed up.

Fixed Actually, her thighs in the original SF2 concept art were quite the monstrocites. Also, nice sig variation there You should see them in Street Fighter III: Third Strike. Children have been known to run away from them crying.

Bump up the contrast a bit... like somewhere between +5 and +15, so that the green and black are separated more, making the face stand out better. Hopefully LT will swing by and let us know how this latest batch is.

I think we may need to get LT's attention. Someone make a judge hate comment. Updates... LT: Better to get images that aren't floating heads, and that are also sharp enough to look good.

I have the opportunity to play Armed Police Batrider not too long ago, and I ran across a boss who was maddeningly frustrating. This game is rather easy as you play through its first five stages. Not a lot around that can kill you by surprise. Seems like a breeze... until you reach Stage 6. It's here that this game gets a major hard on from making your ship go BOOM! After a rather tough stage, you reach a boss that pulls the single cheapest tactic known to man. It's a tactic that actually built into the NeoGeo's hardware, and this tactic, could also be called a "System limitation". See, the NeoGeo can only display so many sprites before things begin to happen... mean, vile things. When you reach the last part of this stage's boss, this tactic/limitation kicks in. After you reach a certain point, a small nozzle begins firing a large number of small mine-like objects that go up off the screen, and then float down as they fire a shot at you. Right as this nozzle is about to stop firing, guns along the side of the ship begin sending a massive amount of violet, pulsating shots that move away from you at first, but then come towards you as a good clip. And it's at this point, that the tactic/limitation becomes apparent. As the small mine-like shapes float down, and the pulsating shots come at you... THE SHOT BEGIN DISAPPEARING! Yes, these shots vanish. Why? Because there are too many sprites for the NeoGeo to handle. But the fun part is, the shots are still technically there, in that they can still collide with your ship and cause you to explode in what looks like an area free of shots. This is the only place this happens, and why the programmers felt the need to do this is a complete mystery. I mean, the level's hard enough, and the boss would be a good fight as it is. But getting blown up by literally invisible shots... well, that's just cruel.

I'm working on some Teen Titans avatars. They're still a WIP, but I'd like your thoughts on where to go with them LT. More sharpening? Make each background differently colored (I was thinking like the colors used behind each character from the shows opening... Robin = Red, Starfire = Orange, etc.)? Turn up the contrast a bit? LT: Disembodied heads? Pass. The res is pretty bad anyway.

Boy did this thread die off quick. again: it doesn't work when linking to off-site avatars. Actually, it can work. I've seen sites in the past that refuse to allow an image to be hotlinked because it exceeded the specific file size that was allowed (it may have used a kind of "check" code to make sure it met the requirements). I've also seen images get drastically squished because it was bigger than the coded dimensions for the avatar space (I've done this by accident a few time with my site, by replacing an image, but not updating the html code to the new size). It can likely be done, but it's a moot point when talking about OCR and avatars.

Beautiful tirade. Really. Self-important, tangential...only remotely on-topic at all. Next time I care to know why GLL thinks he wouldnt be a good judge, I'll subscribe to his newsletter. You can stop PMSing now, they have a real female on the board. Guess you can also return that pink dress. http://www.unmod.org They moved. Don't know where to, but they moved.

I went and found the potentially final versions of the shortened bios I wrote Linearity. I would have posted these links in my previous post, but... I uh, I forgot too ... http://www.ocremix.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=2421605#2421605 - Jon Talbain http://www.ocremix.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=2450323#2450323 - Lilith Aenslaed http://www.ocremix.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=2450329#2450329 - Lord Raptor http://www.ocremix.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=2450334#2450334 - Morrigan Aenslaed http://www.ocremix.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=2462972#2462972 - Bishamon http://www.ocremix.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=2462975#2462975 - Jedah http://www.ocremix.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=2474521#2474521 - Hsien-Ko http://www.ocremix.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=2542961#2542961 - "What is" description

Sweet Jesus... we gotta get these damned E-mail notifications back up and running again. I never addressed this before: I didn't mention that I had done some DS bios because I wanted not to discourage you from writing bios. I also figured that with your much broader experience with Darkstalkers, you'd write better ones. What did you decide to do? I see several versions of the Darkstalkers bios. Should I use the second versions? Also, did you use any of my work? Because if you did not, then I'll write just you in as the author in the proofread lump file. Anyway Lin, basically what happened was, after I wrote the long bios, it was decided that they revealed too much of the plot and such. So, I had to go back and rewrite them sans the spoilers (thus, the shorter ones). From my understanding, what's to happen is that at the end of my shorter bios, there's to be a link to the longer ones with something akin to "If you'd like to know more about this character's history, click here. Be aware that there are spoilers within.", with "here" linking to the longer, spoiler filled bios I wrote. Make sure you proof the last version of each one. I had to do more than one revision on a few (v3 and v4 type stuff). Oh, and I didn't use any of what you wrote. Did you post them in this thread somewhere? I ask because I've never seen them, so your question kind of confused me. I hope that helps

Best of luck to you Gray. Hopefully you won't vanish completely from OCR. But, should your visits be few and far between, thanks for all the shit shooting on AIM back in the day, and the critiques on my older mixes.

Good to see the VGM format's included with the ChipAmp pack. As good as GYM files are, there are a lot Genesis game tunes that it can't emulate well at all, that VGM can handle just fine (like basically anything from Technosoft, or Phantasy Star IV). Edit: I've been running into a problem when I click the word "here" after making a post (the "Click here to view your message" one). Instead of the completed page, I'm taken to a white page with all the text that makes up the code for the page. And it happened again just now making this edit.

Interesting setup. Now, about that sidebar...

And a long overdue response... I'm currently about to go to the Dark Ruins. I haven't played the game since I made that post you asked about, but I'm hoping to get in a few hours this evening. Still contemplating going up another level before I encounter new territory and the monsters there-in.

Darkstalkers "What is", take two... What is Darkstalkers? To put it simply, it's a series from Japanese game makers Capcom, where fantastical characters that were touched by “darkness” either at birth, or later in life, fight one another. But these characters aren't your average run of the mill stock. Among the numerous characters in the series, there's a werewolf (Jon Talbain), a pair of succubi (Morrigan and Lilith Aenslaed), a cursed samurai (Bishamon), an undead rocker (Lord Raptor), a Chinese ghost (Hsein-ko), and a self appointed dark messiah (Jedah). Some of the characters in the series (like Victor, who isn't pictured here) are based off of classic literature monsters (in Victor's case, "Frankenstein"), while others are original takes on well established types of monsters. Regardless of each character's source, it's a colorful cast of characters to be sure, and each one has a specific reason for confronting (or being confronted by) the other Darkstalkers. Some are good, some are evil, and a few even walk the thin line between the two sides. But no matter their alignment or reasonings behind it, a pair of commonalities is shared among them... they're all searching for something, and their searches will inevitably bring them all face to face. But in the end, only one can claim what it is they're after. The question is, just who will it be?

Um, Dafydd? Any thoughts on the "Who are" Darkstalkers explanation I posted?

Warmech- Thus far, my main character is level 32, and I'm about to go to the island after the whole Casino murder deal. I've still got a ways to go I'd wager. And yes, you're both right that Omega Boost is a cool game. But that doesn't change the fact that the tunnel stage kicks my ass every time

Congrats again on bringing down the evil jester, Warmech. Now, have you ever had a game where after so many tries, you questioned what it was exactly that made you buy it? I had just such a moment two days ago while playing the questionable in quality Playstation game Jupiter Strike. Sure, it was $2 and complete at Funcoland long ago, and curiosity made me grab it, but... Basically, what this game tries to do, is be like an updated version of the Sega classic, Galaxy Force II. Graphically, it's alright. Musically, it's pretty rough. Control-wise, it could benefit from a good tightening up. It's not even really a hard game... up until your reach the boss of stage 6. Then the game decides it hates you like the Jewish community hates Mel Gibson. The boss is really just a funky looking polygonal wasp-like creature. It has a few attacks, with one being a string of homing lasers that fire, come out from the boss, and then one by one, home in on you. That's not the attack that gets you. It's the one where the boss "births" smaller versions of itself, and these smaller wasp-like bastards proceed to bounce around, and fire a homing missile at you. I believe they also charge you shortly after firing. I say "believe" because I'm too busy watching explosions and dodging like mad to be 100% sure, even after getting my ass kicked repeatedly there. I have burned off so many continues there, you'd think this boss was designed by SNK. How many stages are in Jupiter Strike? I honestly don't know. I know there are at least six though, as I always get to that sixth stage whenever I get the urge to try see if I can get by this boss once again. I will find a way to beat this boss, you can be sure of that. I know the game's rough in just about ever aspect of its programming, but much like the final boss of MechAssault that took me a long time to finally beat, and that stage in Omega Boost that kills my character as it flies backwards down a tunnel, I will get by this wasp-like monstrosity, and at least see the next stage if nothing else. It's basically a matter of principle now.

Just hop on over to this or this thread, and request one there. Someone will most likely make one for you. Be sure to have some sort of idea to give them though, as it'll help speed the process along.

Alrighty David. Here's my first attempt at giving a general overview of the Darkstalkers series and the characters within it. Lemme know what's good, bad and ugly... What is Darkstalkers? To put it simply, it's a series from Japanese game makers Capcom, where fantastical characters that were touched by “darkness” either at birth, or later in life, fight one another. But these characters aren't your average run of the mill stock. In the series, there's a werewolf (Jon Talbain), a pair of succubi (Morrigan and Lilith Aenslaed), a vampire (Demitri Maximoff), a catgirl (Felicia), a mummy (Anakaris), a cursed samurai (Bishamon), an undead rocker (Lord Raptor), a merman (Rikuo), an abominable snowman (Sasquatch), a bee woman (Queen Bee), a Frankensteinian monster (Victor von Gerdenheim), an Aztec robot (Huitzil), an energy-based alien (Pyron), a bounty hunter (Baby Bonnie Hood), a Chinese ghost (Hsein-ko), a self appointed dark messiah (Jedah) and a vampire hunter (Donovan Baine). Some of the characters in the series, like Victor, are based off of classic literature monsters (in Victor's case, "Frankenstein"), while others are original takes on well established types of monsters. Regardless of each character's source, it's a colorful cast of characters to be sure, and each one has a specific reason for confronting (or being confronted by) the other Darkstalkers. Some are good, some are evil, and a few even walk the thin line between the two sides. But they all share a pair of commonalities... they're all searching for something, and their searches will inevitably bring them all face to face. But in the end, only one of them can claim what it is they're after. The question is, just who will it be?

I still have to write the "What are" guide to the Darkstalkers sieres. I've been a bit busy with other things, but I'll try my best to get it done and posted before this week is over. If you want to add my long bios, why not just add a line at the end, below all the game data and such. Something like... "If you'd like to read a more indepth history of **name**, follow this link. Be aware that there are spoilers contained within it."