Messages

401

Podcast Discussion / Re: Radio Free Nintendo: Episode 144

« on: May 06, 2009, 07:34:46 PM »

Thanks for the kind words everyone. The way our show is put together can present some significant challenges to getting it done in a timely fashion and thus keep a regular schedule (this episode being no exception), but as someone who listens to a lot of other podcasts I know how important it is for the show to come out on time consistently. It is something I've made a priority, and I find the appreciation for it very gratifying, so thanks again.

You guys are lucky in that you have a large pool of people to call on if one or two of your regulars can't make the show.

402

Podcast Discussion / Re: Radio Trivia: Podcast Edition - Episode 51

« on: May 06, 2009, 07:22:10 PM »

1. An interesting game. In addition to being the last NES game, it was the only one to have an ESRB rating. The one thing I didn't like is how you had to work so hard to set up chains.

2. The X cup was interesting, though occasionally you would end up with a course that caused most of the CPU characters (and possibly yourself) to suddenly fly off and die.

3. Naturally, I'm thrilled with the third game (you even pronounced my last name correctly), though I was a bit unsure of it at first, since the first two songs aren't played on my station due to shortness. One thing worth noting is that one of the songs in this game contains an instrumental version of"Mezase Pokemon Master", the original Japanese opening theme for the show (you played it during the part where you discuss the game). The GBA sequel also had rumble support on the Game Boy Player, and I think the music was copied over from Ruby/Sapphire rather than being rearranged.

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Podcast Discussion / Re: Radio Free Nintendo: Episode 143

« on: April 27, 2009, 08:55:40 PM »

Gotta sell those DVDs somehow, TJ.

One other possibility for the "mystery game"-I don't know if they could improve the controls enough from the WiiMote scheme, but a DS Smash Bros. game would certainly shake things up for the holiday season. Hey, I can dream, can't I?

By the way, it took 17 years for Nintendo to fix the Power Glove with the WiiMote, so we should have a working Virtual Boy successor in 2012.

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Podcast Discussion / Re: Radio Free Nintendo: Episode 142

« on: April 22, 2009, 08:29:21 PM »

One more comment, now that I'm about halfway done with the podcast - it's really distracting when someone is talking, and then in mid sentence, they fade out to music.  I mean, I like the Metroid Tunes as much as the next guy, but it's weird to have people interrupted like that.

Yes, I agree the segues could be better. As I mentioned before, I actually won my copy of this game off of Nintendo when they were on AOL. I had played the NES Metroid a little, but I liked this one a lot better and have played it at least a half-dozen times. I actually have beaten NES Metroid (as an unlockable in Prime), and the gameplay in Super Metroid just seems so much tighter and better laid out. One thing you forgot to mention about the weapons is that some enemies behave differently depending on the weapon used. For example, Phantoon behaves very differently depending on whether you use super missiles or the charge beam to attack, and Golden Torizo can actually grab your missiles and throw them back at you.

405

Podcast Discussion / Re: Radio Trivia: Podcast Edition - Episode 50

« on: April 19, 2009, 09:36:55 PM »

5 games isn't really enough to cover the GB portfolio in its entirity. I'm glad you discussed why it survived when so many other systems failed though. I recall back in the early 90's I read an articale in Zillions (a Kids' spin-off of Consumer Reports) where they compared the Game Boy, Game Gear, Tubo Express and Lynx, and somehow came to the conclusion that Game Boy wasn't the one to buy (I guess they didn't figure in battery life).

I actually think the iPhone/Touch may be the true adversary to the DS, though I have yet to buy any games for mine.

Also I was thinking-maybe you guys could do a Wizard retrospective later this year for the 20th anniversary of that (then again, maybe I'm biased because I helped get it on DVD).

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Podcast Discussion / Re: Radio Free Nintendo: Episode 140

« on: April 08, 2009, 10:52:29 PM »

A GB retrospective would be cool, particularly a discussion of why it fared so much better than the other contemporary handhelds (battery life, anyone?).
Also, for whatever reason I held my iPhone upside-down today and realized that if you keep the word order the same but reverse the order of letters in "Fun Park", you get...never mind.

407

Podcast Discussion / Re: Radio Free Nintendo: Episode 140

« on: April 05, 2009, 10:48:48 PM »

One thing I have heard about flash memory is that the computers that use it as a primary storage device use an algorithm to minimize the number of writes to each portion of the memory.

Glad to hear you're doing a Super Metroid special. I actually won my copy off of Nintendo back when they were on AOL, and somewhat interestingly I used that copy for a video VC review I did in 2007.

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Podcast Discussion / Re: Radio Free Nintendo: Episode 139

« on: April 03, 2009, 07:25:13 PM »

Allow me to clarify. What I was asking is if the DSi core processor can emulate GB/GBC (which is two generations below the DS hardware, presumably), why didn't they include that feature in the original DS (which I believe has the same core processor)?

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Podcast Discussion / Re: Radio Free Nintendo: Episode 139

« on: April 02, 2009, 10:29:24 PM »

I think it was more of a size issue. The DS would have been larger in size if they made it so you could play Game Boy and Game Boy Color games.

How so? Wouldn't they just stick out the bottom, like GBA games on the DS Lite?

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Podcast Discussion / Re: Radio Free Nintendo: Episode 139

« on: April 02, 2009, 08:35:48 PM »

Keep in mind that with emulation, you generally have to deduct one generation when comparing specs (for example, when the original PowerPC Macs came out in the mid-90's, they actually ran emulated 68k code slower than native 68k Macs for a while).

One thing that did occur to me, though is that if they could emulate GB/GBC on the DS, why wasn't that incorporated into the original DS? Is the DSi really that much more powerful that it becomes feasible?

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Podcast Discussion / Re: Radio Free Nintendo: Episode 139

« on: April 01, 2009, 07:59:54 PM »

Related to your discussion about Wii <-> DS VC interoperability, one thing Nintendo might do is if the same game were available on both the Wii VC and DSi VC is offer some sort of bundle where for a slightly reduced total price (say 100 points less than buying them seperately), you could get a package that would give you a version on each, similar to the DVD/Digital Copy distributions you see with movies. It would depend on what the cost/benefit differential would be, but it's more likely than them simply giving it away in my opinion.

412

Podcast Discussion / Re: RFN RetroActive Discussion - Game #4: Secret of Mana

« on: March 29, 2009, 09:36:55 AM »

One problem I have is that I keep forgetting you can't throw the boomerang diagonally. Also, it would be nice if the other characters didn't come in at level 1.

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Podcast Discussion / Re: RFN RetroActive Discussion - Game #4: Secret of Mana

« on: March 28, 2009, 12:28:24 PM »

I tried this out a few days ago. Did anyone else experience a graphical glitch where you couldn't see where the rocks were properly when fighting the plant boss in the dwarf village?

414

General Chat / Re: I hate iTunes

« on: March 27, 2009, 08:44:11 AM »

The main problem I have with iTunes is the shortcomings of its store search options. No negative keywords, no phrase searching, and some of its alternate spelling matches are just silly (polkadot for Polkamon?), though none are as strange as Amazon.com's suggestion of "bow hunting" when you search for Pokemon there.

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TalkBack / Re: The Wii SD Card Menu: A Walkthrough

« on: March 25, 2009, 11:03:53 PM »

I wonder if this means Nintendo will loosen up the WiiWare size restrictions due to this. Basically, this turns the SD card slot into a paging file for the Wii.

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TalkBack / Re: Nintendo DS Mandatory in Select Japanese Schools

« on: March 15, 2009, 10:55:19 AM »

It sounds cool, but the bad news is now they have to play Personal Trainer: Math.

Here in the US, a year or two ago the state of Texas signed an agreement with Pokemon Learning League.

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Podcast Discussion / Re: Radio Trivia: Podcast Edition - Episode 49

« on: March 07, 2009, 09:38:48 PM »

As soon as the first song for ame 4 came in, I started to go into a panic-I know I had heard it, and it was a SNES game, and it was a Mario game, but I still couldn't place it. Sad, I know.

Nice bloopers.

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Podcast Discussion / Re: Radio Trivia: Podcast Edition - Episode 48

« on: February 23, 2009, 10:20:48 PM »

Johnny, let me get this straight: You knew a girl, who liked Nintendo, and had wealthy parents. What went wrong? 

Loved how you used the secret tune for game 4. For the record, both Conker and Banjo were removed for the DS version (replaced with other DK characters with the same racing stats, I believe).

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TalkBack / Re: Aussie Animal Crossing for Wii Can't Link to Wild World

« on: December 07, 2008, 09:25:16 PM »

So in other words, something is "just nawt roit" with the Australian version of AC.

(Sorry, I've been holding onto that one since the last Radio Trivia-congratulations if you got the joke)

If I understand this correctly, when you say region locked, you mean the Wii disc is meant for an Ausisie Wii, but it's expecting a US DS game. Weird.

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TalkBack / Re: PODCAST: Radio Free Nintendo: Episode 118

« on: October 22, 2008, 08:15:21 PM »

I thought I read somewhere Nintendo was switching from an encryption-based system for VC/WiiWare to a DRM-based system-from what I understood this would yield a massive increase in transfer speed.

Also, I was wondering if they were removing the GBA-era processor from the DSi-that might sound like a given, but they might use it to run GBA games via DSWare (The DSi should have enough horsepower to emulate 8-bit GB/GBC/NES games on its own, but newer ones might need the other processor).

I also have one idea that's so crazy it just might happen-what if they put the original Pokemon games on DSWare and Stadium on the VC, then let you interface the two?

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TalkBack / Re: PODCAST: Radio Trivia: Podcast Edition - Episode 40

« on: October 17, 2008, 09:28:25 PM »

First one was pretty easy, game two I was able to narrow it down to a couple (though I did have the trivia question right off the bat), I'm somewhat ashamed I had to think about the third one, I've heard of the fourth one, fifth one totally stumped me.

422

TalkBack / Re: REVIEWS: Wario Land: Shake It!

« on: October 03, 2008, 09:42:11 PM »

This game is really great, even surpassing my favorite Wario Game, Wario Land for VB.

I really wish that game would be ported to something playable.

Hey, they made the Power Glove work with the Wiimote, maybe they can make VB work too!

(Actually, a 3-D Wario Ware Game would be pretty crazy, come to think about it)

I played the first world. Certainly better than Wario World, though I don't think it'll be as good as WL3 (hopefully coming to DSi).

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TalkBack / Re: PREVIEWS: Cave Story

« on: October 03, 2008, 09:25:51 PM »

I've played the game on the PC. I wasn't very good though-I couldn't even get to the bad ending.

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TalkBack / Re: PODCAST: Radio Free Nintendo: Episode 116

« on: October 02, 2008, 10:56:14 PM »

The problem with using the skype feed is twofold.

One, skype recording is a bit intensive.  Audacity is fragile, and we dare not anger it.

The second is quality.  There is a sufficent lag in skype that it could be an issue.  There are also level imbalances (for example on my end Jon is always very quiet), and background noise I couldn't edit out or reduce like I can with individual audio tracks.

Been there. Still, at least you could use it as a last resort where the loss of quality outweiged the loss of content. On a side note, do you use any dynamic range compression on the final audio? I sometimes have a problem when I play the podcast on my FM adapter where it doesn't matter how high I turn it up because the signal:noise isn't high enough for some parts.

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TalkBack / Re: NPD Comparison of Madden's Year-to-Year Wii Sales

« on: October 02, 2008, 08:00:31 PM »

Actually, it kinda makes sense. The people the game is targeted towards don't generally pour over release dates like Madden's regular fans, so we might see more of a "Carnival Games Curve". You also have to consider that people who are targeted by this might not be interested in buying a football game every year.