Messages

1

General Gaming / Controller Evolution: Is It Necessary?

« on: May 29, 2003, 04:28:50 PM »

It's always interesting to compare different controllers. I remember ranting and raving about analog control sticks on controllers, since I couldn't imagine giving up my D-pad. However, I find that I like it for Dragon Warrior VII - it feels a lot more natural.

I think the dual shock is pretty good, but I like the Game Cube controller better. I didn't like it at first, but after an hour with it on Metroid Prime, I grew quite comfortable with it. I still don't really like the Z-button or the kidney bean X and Y - they look and feel kind of cheap to me,  but overall it's very comfortable (and I have large hands.)

2

Nintendo Gaming / Yahoo! Just beat my first Gamecube game (Metroid Prime SPOILERS) Questions...

« on: May 28, 2003, 06:35:48 AM »

What a game!
My girlfriend and I just finished Metroid Prime last night. Final completion: score, 74%, time, 30 hours and 44 minutes.
We were continually amazed by the polish and presentation of the game throughout, but now we find ourselves disappointed by the ending.

If you get 75% or higher, apparently you get a different ending. However, from what I read, it was just something silly like seeing Samus remove her helmet. or did it tell any more about the plot? Did it give us some much-needed epilogue on the final events on Tallon IV?

What happened to the Chozo? Are we to assume we finally granted them peace? I wouldn't think so, given the fact that Meta Ridle came along and blew the crap out of their spinning artifact temple centerpiece, and destroyed the rest of the artifacts during that final battle.

What happened to the space pirates? Sure, we destroyed Metroid Prime, but since we left most of the space pirates' experimental gear and stations intact, they'll just go back to work creating another metroid prime. I'm sure there's plenty of phazon left for further butcheries against Tallon IV. Or, are we to assume that impact crater destruction destroyed their facilities? And why, exactly, did it blow up?
Alternately, maybe the destruction of the phazon-creating metroid prime will cause the pirates to lose interest in Tallon IV - though that seems unlikely, given the amazing amount of research they managed to undertake so far on the planet.

What happened to Tallon IV? Did the phazon poison finish off the planet, poisoning and twisting the remaining organisms? With the source of the Phazon removed, did the planet slowly recover?

I wonder if they're trying to answer these questions in the sequel, or if they just rushed the ending.

Any thoughts?

3

Nintendo Gaming / the GBP/GC bundle to put the nail in xbox coffin?

« on: May 21, 2003, 05:12:09 PM »

Your fantasies are unlikely. But beautiful.

4

Nintendo Gaming / Sony data says XBox beating GC by almost 4 million worldwide.

« on: May 20, 2003, 09:20:40 AM »

When you buy a game system, you become in some ways a stockholder in that company. Your "dividends" are the selection of games that the company produces. If the company is not doing as well in retail, this will eventually influence the diversity of games available, and thus, potentially lower your dividends.

Just like bands, if a company does nothing but repackage its older material and "remaster it", you know there's trouble. That's why innovation is so important, and why it's great to see new directions, like Eternal Darkness and Metroid Prime.

If I sink $150 into a system (The gamecube is the first console I've purchased in 15 years), I like to keep up with the overall flow of the company - what to expect, the direction the company is heading. This is influenced by sales. I don't really care about profit margins and assets to liability ratios and core fiscal competencies and all of that hoopa-joopa, but I do care about the overall health of a company, which is often expressed by sales figures.  

5

Nintendo Gaming / Gameboy SP a waste of time?

« on: May 19, 2003, 07:58:32 PM »

Does anyone have any sales figures on the SP? I wonder how it sold/is selling compared to the original.

Also, if the headphone thing annoys you, I believe Mad Catz offers an accessory that allows the power cable and the headphones to be plugged in at the same time.

6

Nintendo Gaming / Gamecube to drop price on system on May 15th 2003?

« on: May 06, 2003, 04:17:29 PM »

>
Parents just aren't willing to buy a $150 game console for their kids anymore. Instead, they're just buying them GBAs because they're so cheap
>

Exactly, I see this time and time agian. Concerned (often Very Religious) Parents come into EB/Best Buy/etc...
XBOX - they see Halo with its amazing world, great engine, mature content... and also guns. Men with guns. Bad.
PS2 - they see the fabulous, esoteric RPGs with detailed stories, character development, and.. what's this? characters kissing and/or touching in the intro movie? no no, little Timmy might get the wrong idea that it's okay to kiss/touch someone of the opposite gender before marriage.
Gamecube - Well, there's happy, asexual, non-threatening smiling Mario with his giddy mushroom pals, and happy, asexual, non-threatening Zelda and his(her?) giddy cartoon friends... but, geez, $150...
GBA - Heck, Ham-ham heartbreak and a game boy advance in cool-sounding *arctic* color for less than $100? Sign me up!

7

Nintendo Gaming / Golden Sun Nintendo's Final Fantasy?

« on: May 01, 2003, 09:44:47 AM »

The thing that really clinched Golden Sun for me was the battle system; I never could stand any of the final fantasies after 2 because of the real time battle system (Well, active battle, I suppose they call it.) I love dragon warrior, earthbound, phantasy star, breath of fire, etc... and golden sun retains those delicious *true* turn based systems while enhancing it with djinns and the like.  

8

Nintendo Gaming / Gamecube memory card backup and questions...

« on: April 29, 2003, 04:34:41 PM »

This may be a naive question, but I wanted to make sure that I would not risk damaging my gamecube if I inserted or removed a card while the power was on. Being a PC gamer primarily, I'm paranoid about lost save files, so I generally make a backup after each gaming session. On the gamecube, I typically go to the memory card menu and do a copy to a backup card in slot B.

However, it would save time if I could just pop in the other memory card for the final save of the night - will this damage anything if the power is on?
Thanks for advice.

9

Nintendo Gaming / Question about Zelda and the bonus disk

« on: April 28, 2003, 03:05:39 PM »

Hello everyone,

If you buy Zelda: Wind Waker, do you automatically get the bonus disk? I just wondered if there was a collector's edition (extra $$$) that you have to get, or if the bonus disk is included with every Wind Waker game. if so, is it in the box, or do you have to mail away for it?

Thanks!

10

Nintendo Gaming / Zelda: Oracle of Seasons? Death Toll? -or- which game has killed you the most?

« on: April 28, 2003, 06:30:26 AM »

Hi everyone;

I'm going through Metroid Prime now, but my girlfriend and I just finished Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons. We were going to start in on Ages, but it was just a bit too similar - needed a break for something different for a bit.

Anyway, I thought I'd see how many times you guys died beating Oracle of Seasons; I don't know if it was really tough, or if we were just pretty poor players. We died a total of 136 times. Whatever the case, it was a lot of fun. We may try Link's Awakening DX after we finish Prime.

Is there anyone in Prime to figure out how many times you have died? So far we're 04% of the way through the game with 2:42 showing on the clock... I have the feeling this is going to be a long game frought with many deaths!

Which game has caused you to perish the most? Metroid Fusion killed us quite a bit - I think we died about 20 times total just from the savage, hairly-legged blows of that irritating leaping-about spider spinny beast (the one that gives you the screw attack.)

11

Nintendo Gaming / Evolution World or Skies of Arcadia?

« on: April 26, 2003, 12:59:09 PM »

Well, now that I finally picked up a gamecube, I'm looking for a fun RPG. There don't seem to be many that I've run across yet, except for these two - any thoughts on them? (or other RPGs, if available.) If it helps, my favorite role playing games are Sega's Phantasy Star series, the Fallout series for the PC, and Nintendo's Dragon Warrior series + earthbound. Thanks!

12

Nintendo Gaming / Review of the Nextvision N4 (gamecube on monitor)

« on: April 26, 2003, 11:54:31 AM »

It's a 19 inch CRT.

13

Nintendo Gaming / Review of the Nextvision N4 (gamecube on monitor)

« on: April 26, 2003, 11:40:25 AM »

Hi everyone,

I picked up my gamecube (First new console system I've had in 15 years) on Thursday night, and it's now hooked to the nextvision N4 video professor (a device that's intended to use your monitor as a TV).

The gamecube is hooked up to the nextvision, as is the VCR (through RCA cables.)

I first tried the gamecube through the AV RCA cables, and wasn't too impressed. The text seemed kind of blurry, and the colors were off. Then, I hooked it up with an S-video cable; nice improvement in text clarity and colors. I would say this is a worthwhile investment if you have an S-video adapter - it's easily as good a picture as the TV now.

VCR to the TV using RCA - quality is okay, but nothing spectacular - not quite as good as a regular TV picture. It's good enough for what I used my TV for: watching old taped reruns of Mystery Science Theater 3000.

The Nextvision supposedly supports progressive scan, but I've yet to figure out how to get it to work.

Can you run progressive scan mode with an S-video cable, or do you have to use the Nintendo component cables?

14

Nintendo Gaming / Does anyone have a Gamecube connected to a computer monitor?

« on: April 22, 2003, 05:31:53 PM »

Hi Windwaker,

I'm heartened to hear that it's working well for you- I'm definitely considering one. Do you have your gamecube hooked in through the S-video connection?

15

Nintendo Gaming / Does anyone have a Gamecube connected to a computer monitor?

« on: April 22, 2003, 03:47:25 PM »

Here's a box that supposedly does progressive scan - it's about the same price as the vb50.

It's another one that I can't find any reviews for - has anyone seen this one?

Viewsonic N4

16

Nintendo Gaming / Does anyone have a Gamecube connected to a computer monitor?

« on: April 21, 2003, 07:51:05 PM »

Hi everyone,

From the way I understand it, the VB50 has an audio pass through, and accepts S-video and composite inputs. The way I was envisioning my connection:

Gamecube running through an S-video cable into the VB50, which runs into my 19 inch CRT.

Gamecube audio cables running into an RCA-to-minijack convertor, which runs into my Soundblaster Audigy, which is connected to Logitech speakers and subwoofer. Alternately, I guess I could run the speakers directly into the gamecube with the Rca-to-minijack connectors, since the speakers are amplified through the subwoofer.

The vb50 seems to have good reviews for image quality, from what I've read. However, I haven't read about anyone (Amazon, cnet, nextag reviews, etc.) trying it on a Gamecube yet.

17

Nintendo Gaming / Does anyone have a Gamecube connected to a computer monitor?

« on: April 21, 2003, 10:42:25 AM »

Hello everyone,

I'm considering a gamecube purchase, but, due to space limitations, it needs to be hooked into my 19 inch CRT monitor. I've done a lot of reading on the subject about the best way to go about this. I've seen VGA boxes, VGA cables, etc. Right now, I'm leaning toward the Viewsonic HB50HRTV, because it will let me plug my VCR in also.

My primary concern is image quality; I want the quality to be at least as good as a regular TV. Does anyone have any experience with the Viewsonic device? Comments on image and sound quality are especially welcome.

Some people recommend the VGA cable; however, a lot of the things I see (such as on Goldenshop) say that it is *only* for games that support progressive scan. Does that mean that non-progressive scan titles won't work at all?

If anyone has any screenshots of a gamecube running on a monitor, posting those would be nice.  

Does the Gamecube allow standard computer speakers to be plugged into it? I have the Logitech Z-560 speakers (4 satellites and a subwoofer.)
Thanks for any input!