Topics

76

Nintendo Gaming / I just rented Eternal Darkness

« on: April 14, 2003, 10:00:44 PM »

I own the game, but it's at my sister's house, and we aren't on speaking terms right now.  I would rather rent it than deal with her.  So I got Skies of Arcadia and Eternal Darkness from the local video store.  I intend to get the 3rd ending in Eternal Darkness once and for all.

I have been obsessing over this game for months.  I still pray to Xel'lotath before writing every exam, and there are runes and pentagrams drawn all over my notes from this last year.  I have numerous Eternal Darkness trailers and MP3s on my hard drive collected during my obsessive moments.  I even have artwork created when I was still enamored with this game.  It's been a long hard time without this game.

But this game is even better than I remember it, and I remember it as a perfect 10.  Being seperated from this game for 8 months... it's like meeting your girlfriend after she left on a trip without you for a long time.  She's more beautiful than ever, and you see absolutely no flaws.  I am still very much in love with this game, and time apart has only strengthened my love for this game.

If any of you haven't played the game yet (SHAME!), then I suggest you do so.  It's truly a game made by the gods themselves.  Somehow I don't think that playing this game once more will help with my obsessive compulsive tendencies, but it will truly make me happy for the week I have it.

77

NWR Feedback / Divx?

« on: April 09, 2003, 12:15:53 AM »

Ok, I just won't give this one up, as no staff member has told me why they aren't using Divx, I have gone ahead and converted the first Soul Calibur II movie to a Divx Movie.

I only have 10MB of webspace per account, and I have devoted this account entirely to serving this movie, but I had to cut a corner to do so.  The original movie for the conversion was the MPEG version of course, but the audio was too big.  As it stood, if I had kept the audio quality at the size it was, it would have taken 4MB, and I wasn't prepared to sacrifice THAT much video quality for a barely perceptible gain in audio.  I think the end result is fairly good considering that I don't have the original for the movie, and compression artificts exist for both the MPEG and Divx formats.  Nevertheless, I still think it's better than the WMV version, and if the audio was at full quality, it would be at about the same size.

Audio format:  128kBit/s, 44100 Hz Stereo.  2 channel MPEG Layer 3.
Video format:  380kBit/s, 352x240, 29.970fps, Divx 5.03.

Video was rendered at almost 60fps, total time being ~1:30 (that's 1 minute, 30 seconds) on an Athlon XP 1800+ at stock speeds.

Anyways, I hope I don't get into trouble for this, but I would appreciate staff comments.  I really think it would be a better solution that using WMV.

78

Nintendo Gaming / Soul Calibur II Sales

« on: April 04, 2003, 11:25:22 AM »

I think it's safe to say that the GCN version is currently the favorite in Japan.    The sales from the first week are in.

Soul Calibur II  PS2  62,400
Soul Calibur II  GCN  43,253

Considering the size of the userbase on the two consoles side by side, Nintendo wasted Sony in terms of sales per installed unit.

79

Nintendo Gaming / So what's up with Capcom?

« on: April 03, 2003, 07:53:24 PM »

I am personally inclined to say this is total BS, but I thought I would run it by here first.

http://gamers.com/news/1347106

Apparently, Capcom is reducing support for GameCube.  Given that this is the only place reporting this, I might disagree, especially since 2 more Capcom games have recently been rumored at IGN.

EDIT:  It's up on IGN now too.  This really sucks, although I think that it should be mentioned that Capcom themselves have not commented on it yet, and it's likely they will change their minds when sales skyrocket with the new Final Fantasy.

80

NWR Feedback / So now that the PGC Birthday contest is over....

« on: March 31, 2003, 08:01:06 PM »

Just curious what everyone submitted.  I am wondering if I have any shot whatsoever at that Panasonic Q, and the import Soul Calibur II.... *drool*  Anyways, a link to my slightly extended version of my essay and pictures of me can be found here.

I found it EXTREMELY hard to write anything worthwhile in 150 words or less.  How did you guys fare?

ooohh....  I almost forgot to add one more picture to that.  I should get right on that.

EDIT:  Added a pic of the 4 fingered salute.

81

Nintendo Gaming / Wind Waker is killing me.

« on: March 30, 2003, 02:31:50 PM »

I have been playing the game pretty much non-stop since Wednesday morning.  I realized last night when a friend came over that my health is seriously in trouble.

1)  I can barely walk
2)  I have trouble getting comprehendible speech out of my mouth
3)  I don't have the strength to do much
4)  I seem to be on the verge of throwing up almost constantly.
5)  I am so tired I can barely keep my eyes open.

I think I am hungry, but I am not sure, as I am too malnourished and naseous to tell.  I am going to go make some tuna sandwiches, but I am not sure if I can keep them down.

To tell the truth, this gaming marathon has been going on longer than I expected.  Wind Waker is definately a good length.

Do I regret it?  Of course not.  This game is awesome.

82

General Chat / The Core

« on: March 27, 2003, 05:09:31 PM »

Is anyone else so incredibly sick of this movie that they will not go to see it just on general principles?  The flash ad is driving me insane.  It's one thing to have a popup window with music on it that you can just shut off, but putting that content into a banner is just crazy.

If I ever find out who designed that ad, I will personally spam them to death by forwarding them every chain letter/spam mail I get in my inbox.

I say we boycott the movie on general principles.

83

Nintendo Gaming / Is it just me?

« on: March 20, 2003, 09:36:24 PM »

Lately it seems that wherever I go on the internet, people are talking about GameCube, and almost never in a negative way.  Maybe I just hang out with the hardcore gamers too much, but it seems to me that Nintendo is really regaining their acceptance in the marketplace.  Is this just me, or is it really true?

84

NWR Feedback / Ok, what's up with the server?

« on: March 10, 2003, 08:31:10 PM »

I know it had a little too much to drink the other night, but this is getting ridiculous.  It takes me like 2 minutes to load the front page.  I don't mean to be bitchy or anything, but I just have to ask, as this has been going on for a while now.

85

Nintendo Gaming / Cute Asian Schoolgirls

« on: March 07, 2003, 03:42:16 PM »

And some Made in Wario footage too.    The Magic Box just posted some TV commercials and screenshots of the game in action.

http://www.the-magicbox.com/game030703b.htm

86

General Chat / Hacking Linux Mandrake

« on: February 28, 2003, 09:41:24 PM »

Well, I have gotten myself in quite a bind.  My Windows partition crashed earlier tonight when I tried installing the new SB Live! drivers available on Creative Asia's website.  I now have corrupted system files, and I can't even boot in safe mode.  Windows XP doesn't crash often, but when it does, it does it with enough power to blow a hole in the side of your computer.  I cannot restore my ghost images or reinstall the OS at the moment as my discs are over at a friends house, from when her hard drive failed, and I was trying to get it back up and running.  I will try to get them back off of her after the weekend.  Until then, I am stuck with plan B.

My Linux Mandrake partition mainly goes unused, as I am horrible at maintaining it.  I basically installed it a while back, got my favorite browser running on it, attempted to install a media player, got bored, wanted to play some America's Army, and went back to Windows.  I have since then forgotten my root password.  It's totally unlike me, as I only have a limited number of passwords I actually use.  I have no idea why none of them work now, which is why I am here begging for help on how I can possibly get my password back.

I have thought of 2 solutions.
1)  Re-install Linux  (Takes a while, and I am kind of pressed for time this weekend as it is.  Nevertheless, it is no doubt what I will be doing.)
2)  Write a shell script to recover the password by brute force.  (I am lousy at writing shell scripts, and I am sure it would take all day to run it anyway.  Easier just to re-install).

If anyone knows any tricks to recover it, I would be most grateful.  I am going to bed about now though.  This day has gone on far too long as it is.

PS:  If any moderators think this is illegal, or my reasons are untrue, feel free to delete this topic.  I AM telling the truth though, sad as it may seem, and I don't THINK I am asking for anything illegal.  (But If I am, again, feel free to make this vanish.)

87

General Chat / Penny Arcade

« on: February 28, 2003, 11:31:20 AM »

Alright, I am really getting sick of the badly done MS advertisements on their site in the form of comics.  I have stomached 5 out of every 10 strips of theirs being about some Xbox game or another, but today's is about Nintendo.  This is where I simply draw the line.  They can say that they are not bought out by MS all they like, but when they keep getting invited to MS events, and actually get free games from them, you have to know that something is up.  This cartoon is just the final word on it I think.

Tycho and Gabe can claim that they are not bought out all they want, but really, one good look at their latest comics speak volumes.

88

Nintendo Gaming / Glass Rose?

« on: February 21, 2003, 10:52:11 AM »

I'm just kind of curious.  Glass Rose was reported long ago for GameCube, but now that it is officially announced, only the PS2 version is reported.  Is the GameCube version cancelled completely or just on hold.  Any staff members wish to comment on this?    If not, we can just have a discussion about the game, and why it should come to GameCube.  

It looks a lot like Shadow of Destiny to me.  It was a Konami PS2/PC game that featured a time travelling man who had to solve his own murder.

89

General Chat / English to AOL Translator

« on: February 11, 2003, 09:33:25 PM »

This is hilarious.  It's a translator to translate English as any of us might use, into something that your average AOL user might say.
Go here for the translator

For example, here's the latest news report on the main page in AOL speak.

Quote
R3TALEARS HAEV HAD TH3M FOR DAYS111!! WTF LOL W3B R3TALEARS LIEK 3BWORLDCOM!!!11!! OMG AND GMES2PCOM!!1! LOL HAEV ALREADY SHIPED
WEVE11!!!1 OMG LOL RECAIEVD AN INT3RNAL E-MALE FROM A WEL KNOWN RETALE CHANE AMPLOYE TAHT GAEV THEM TEH GREN LIGHT 2 DISTRIBUTE TEH DISCS NOW
S2RAS1!!!11 OMG IN ON DA DAAL R CUR3NTLY BREAKNG TEH REL3AES DAET FOR TEH Z3LDA BONUS DISC!1!! CAL UR LOCAL R3TALEAR 2 SE IF U CAN GET UR PR3-ORDER BONUS EARLY1!11 OMG WTF LOL

 

90

General Chat / 3DMark03

« on: February 11, 2003, 08:50:12 PM »

Ok, it's killing me.  Chances that there are many hardcore PC gamers in this forum is pretty slight, but I thought I would post it here anyways, as it's the only forum I visit these days.  (I am not a hardcore PC Gamer myself, I just like to tweak my hardware).

I got over 800 points today when I ran the benchmark for the first time.
http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k3=17049

I promptly started overclocking everything in my computer after that, and got my score a few points shy of 1100, but unfortunately the futuremark servers were too busy for me to upload at that time.    I did save the scores though, thinking I could load them and submit them later.  HAH!  It's a feature that is missing from the free version, although the manual says no such thing.  (Yeah, I am a little ticked off about that).

Anyways, I am also having some huge problems with the demo in this version.  The first test runs fine, but the second part of the demo either crashes at the start or midway through.  It's really bothering me, as I love what I saw so far, and I would like to see the whole thing.  Has anyone else had this problem?

Hell, even if you haven't, post your score, no matter how pathetic.    I am curious what people around here have to show.

EDIT:  Managed to upload a new score.  200 points better than the one above.
http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k3=35529  

91

Nintendo Gaming / Eternal Darkness Request

« on: February 10, 2003, 03:24:30 PM »

I am thinking about making a small tribute to one of my favorite games of all time.  I was just wondering if one of you would help me out a little.  I own a copy of the game, but the problem lies in the fact that my sister has my copy of the game, and she lives a very far way away from me.  (And my copy of Rogue Leader too.  )  Anyways, I was wondering if one of you kind people would be willing to give me reasonably high quality MP3s of the Magikal Attack spell in all alignments.  I don't know how I would repay you, but I am sure we could work something out.

If it's a lot of bother, either Ulyaoth or Xel'lotath would be fine too.

PS:  I would prefer either a 3 pointed circle, or a 5 pointed circle.

92

Nintendo Gaming / A Question for Canucks

« on: February 05, 2003, 05:11:27 PM »

Man, what a sorry state we are in these days when we have to import games from the US to get our gaming fix.

Anyways, for any Canadians who might be here, I have a question.  Since the February 16th deadline is fast approaching, I want to get my copy of Zelda pre-ordered quite soon, and my local Toys R' Us employs morons who don't know what is going on.  Half of them haven't heard of the new Zelda, and the other half don't have anything useful to say about the bonus disc.  I want it real bad, so it seems that I would have to order it online from the US.  I also want to pick up a copy of Skies of Arcadia while I am at it, as I have a little extra money at the moment, and it doesn't seem to be released in Canada yet.

So, any recommendations on where I can get both of these?  My first thought was EBWorld, but they don't ship Zelda to Canada, and my next thought was VideoGameAdvantage (PGC's sponsor), but they don't appear to have Zelda listed, so I am forced to go elsewhere.  Any ideas?

93

NWR Feedback / PlanetGameCubeSuccessor?

« on: February 02, 2003, 06:02:47 PM »

I am just curious if the staff here is going to be continuing on with Nintendo's next console.  Without a question this is the greatest Nintendo fan site ever, and I would really like to see a continuation of this when GameCube is replaced.  I realize that I am way too early once again, but I would still like to know the staff's thoughts on this, because ironically.... a fansite has fans too.  

94

General Gaming / E3 2003 Floor Space?

« on: February 01, 2003, 11:52:07 PM »

I just searched through the maze of a website that the E3 website is, and I can't find any info on how much floor space each developer has this year.  IIRC, Nintendo had the most last year, and I am curious if it's the same this year.  Does anyone have any maps of the LA Convention Center for this year yet, or is it too early?