The Coop

I already put this in the Off Topic thread, but... I get the feeling, the folks and friends got together and made themselves a little plan, as there was a distinct theme running through most of the things I received this year. As some of you know, I've gotten back into writing rather heavily the last few months. The people who bought my presents also know this, and they know that in two of the stories I've been working on (one short, one quite long), both have a main character I've been developing for some time that's a... well, see if you can guess... Gave: Shirts, movies, nice pants, earrings. Got: Dragon Age: Origins (PC), The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning (PS2), The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night (PS2), The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon (PS2), "The Book of the Dragon" by H. G. Ciruelo Cabral (holy shit... the illustrations... *drool*). And just for something different, Pink Floyd's "The Wall". Oh yes, someone was planning. And what wonderful planning it was

The dickheads put it on an even bigger sale barely 48 hours after I bought it

Neither have I. It makes no sense whatsoever, and that's part of what's driving me nuts about it. But, thanks for the link to SP3. No idea why MS' site's down (or at least, inaccessible on my end).

Thanks

So here's my little problem. After having to do a complete destructive restore on my PC thanks to things going absolutely bat shit crazy in it, I'm left with a strange issue. I have a number of blank DVD+R discs that I want to use. They're Memorex, and they worked fine up until this problem. That problem? Whenever I put one of them into my DVD drive to burn it, the drive changes from "DVD-RW Drive" to "CD Drive". Early this morning, before this all happened, I burned two blank DVD+Rs. They completed with no verification errors. Now, when I put those two DVD+Rs into the drive, nothing comes up. It goes from "DVD-RW Drive" to "CD Drive", and acts like the discs are empty. But if I pop them in Nero, that program shows that the files are indeed on the disc. Anyone know what the hell's going on? It just started happening out of the blue. Older burned DVD+Rs from a month or so ago are still coming up normally, and I can still pop in movies and games and have them be read by the drive just fine. But this bizarre problem is really starting to get on my nerves. Some handy info... XP Home SP2 Lite-On SOHW 1693S (up to date firmware) Nero 6 Oh, and on a more minor note, can anyone access Microsoft's website? I need SP3 for XP, but everything results in a "Server Not Found" error.

I splurged and got Torchlight and Serious Sam HD (I got tired of waiting for a physical disc release). SSHD is as expected, fun with ridiculous amounts of shit to shoot. Some of the textures don't look HD (they look like the original textures blown up... they're rather fuzzy), but the game itself plays like I remember with the original game. Torchlight is just pure Diablo goodness (sans the brand name). I now know why people have been speaking well of the game. Love the pet addition.

'Twas the night before Christmas and all through the site, posters sat quiet in their monitor's light. Time was almost up. The big day was near. And posters waited to get their new gear. Games, books, and movies were sure to be had. Some will be quite grand. Others will be bad. Clothing of course is sure to be there to. Probably underwear, but what can you do? Trinkets and bobbles and some bricabrac. And surely some stuff that we'll take right back. As fun as that is it pales in contrast, to spending time with people from our past. Friends that we enjoy, and loved family. We'll talk, smile and laugh by a Christmas tree. And when the night ends, we'll be of good cheer. Some cuz they're happy... some cuz of the beer. But either way spirits will be running high, as we all wait for that jolly fat guy. So to OCR I raise up my glass. Happy Hanukkah, and Merry Christmas. I hope you all have a wonderful night. And that Christmas day for you will be bright.

For me, it was the Sony and Nintendo fanboys (especially the "Big N" around these parts) that were the most vocal. Dear God... if you said one disparaging thing against a Nintendo system, they'd come out of the wood work to jump up your ass about it. It's like a big "N" was flashed in the sky ala Batman-like spotlight, to call them together

Great job everyone. Thanks for doing this yet again Dyne, and a hearty "Nice Work" to everyone for their music tracks For those curious, here's the song I remixed... http://two.xthost.info/thecoop/Necromancer_Title.zip It's from an Atari XEGS game called Necromancer. I know not many people here owned the system, let alone heard music from it, so I thought I'd post the original tune just for reference.

What you just said basically applies to the fanboys and fanatics of each company/system though. It's not like XBox owners had the market cornered when it came to being over sensitive, maniacal nut cases when someone said a bad thing about their beloved system.

Oh I know it hasn't. But it's not nearly as prevalent as it once was back when the XSux, Lamecube and PoS2 were up against each other. ... Dear God I can't believe I still remember those system name manipulations By the way Toadofsky. I wasn't implying that you had been a Halo-bashing fanboy who was getting his comeuppance or anything. I was only saying what your post reminded me of from that time period. Nothing more

But... but that... ... **starts sobbing**

I feel like I'm having deja vu. I know I've read that exact kind of statement back when hating on Halo was all the rage, and it was the Sony and Nintendo fanboys doing a healthy chunk of the bashing. I seem to recall reading about how Halo was just another entry in the FPSs genre, and didn't add anything new... that it didn't have the kind of epicness or cinematic quality/story telling of the Zeldas, Final Fantasies and whatnot. That they just couldn't see what was so much fun about playing what felt like a step backward for the genre. All this, while some of those who liked it said that it's just about being fun, and that the "haters" were all just hopping on the bandwagon because it was the cool thing to do to get attention. I'm not trying to start a fight Toadofsky, but it just hit me how similar your post was to what people who enjoyed Halo were saying to the so-called "haters" who weren't system fanboys, and to the Sony and Nintendo fanboys who were determined to belittle Halo and those who played it. Sure, PC gamers bashed the game as well, but the Sony/Nintendo crowd certainly got their licks in. My, how history repeats itself in interesting ways, eh?

Brushfire and Level 99, please check your PM boxes.

Holiday 2009

Sent you a small update to my song, Dyne.

Ooooo... that Atari collection with the 10+ old arcade games for $5.09 sure looks nice.

My track's been sent, along with the finalized front cover, Dyne.

I believe I know what's throwing people off with the hips. The character is raising her shoulders, making them scrunch up a bit. This makes her hips seem wider, because the mind is still comparing the shoulders and hips as if the shoulders weren't raised and drawn in a bit with the pose. If she was standing "normally", her shoulders would be lower and wider, and that would make things look differently than they do now proportionally.

I'd say get it, and enjoy it. I've owned the game for a long time now, and I still pop that CD in for listening. Even the worst track on there is still quite listenable. That said, I do appreciate what was being hinted at

Well, all the current submissions are in place on the back, and I finally finished writing my remix. Now I can start the whole mixing process (assuming you call what I do "mixing" ). I should definitely have it in your PM Box/e-mail inbox between 11 p.m. Dec. 22nd, and 2 a.m. Dec. 23rd, Dyne

Hey Dyne, could you send me the info on the tracks you've gotten so far? Namely, artist, title and duration? I figure I can get that info in place now, so that I don't have to hurry up as much when the time comes to send you the final back cover with all the info. I know you've yet to organize it in terms of which song is what track, but it's easy to quickly shuffle the layers.

Everyone on that list just got reeeeaaaaaal quiet