Messages

[could]

1151

Nintendo Gaming / Transferring save files... with carts.

« on: February 23, 2004, 06:38:23 PM »

My older brother (who moved out and lives elsewhere) was playing my younger brother's copy of Metroid Zero Mission earlier, and totally got hooked.

After a number of hours, he said "Crap, I really need to stop playing this. Because I really need to go get my own copy of it now. And I'm gonna be stuck replaying all these first levels again if I keep on going further."

Then he thought of something. "Hey, GBA games are all designed to link together, and you can play multiplayer games with only one cart, and stuff like that, right? So can you link two GameBoys together, and copy save files back and forth between them? Like, they always give you a number of save slots, and an option to copy one of them to another spot. If you linked the games, would it let you access the other game's save files? Then I wouldn't need to worry about whose cart is whose."

As an educated guess, I'd say that nobody is doing that. Although I suppose it could be done, if someone wanted.

So, why isn't it being done? Do you think they should make games that can do that?

I figured I'd ask this in this board, as a kind of "technology idea" for any possible cart-based future systems, but it could probably be implemented right away, on the GBA.

1152

Nintendo Gaming / RE:Nintendo: Out of Gamecubes?

« on: February 22, 2004, 11:17:02 PM »

I was at my local EB about a week ago, and a customer asked the clerk if GameCubes were still coming with free disks full of the classic Zelda games. The clerk said that he didn't know, because they've been completely sold out of GameCubes since back in December (two months ago), when Nintendo launched that promotion, and everybody snapped them up.

Nintendo supposedly sold a cool million units in December (the entire amount that the XBox was leading by in North America). But they sold out halfway through the month. Then the XBox coasted along with two prime weeks of no competition (from the other "PS2 alternative"), and sold another million hardware units of their own in December.

I saw some January hardware numbers in another forum. So I have no way of knowing if they're real, but...

PS2: 338,000
GBA: 299,000
Xbox: 192,000
GCN: 131,000

Back down to last place in America, again. Because they're still sold out. Now that's just sad. Nintendo is going to completely kill off their "momentum" by the time they get their butts back in gear.

Sure, we can say that Nintendo had "no choice" but to cut their production because their warehouses were full, but Iwata himself has said that they made a mistake, in that the drop to $99 was a clear part of their plans even earlier, but after the lackluster price cuts of E3 they decided to "play it safe" and grab for some extra profit by just including the GBP with the GameCube instead of a price drop.

Nintendo has needed to "get serious" with the GameCube since day 1. They should've played hardball. Your competitors are showing a weakness? Maybe they're holding something back? So what? Use overkill. You've got a reputation to rebuild, and you need to impress people.

Also, if Nintendo knew they had a "plan A" (price cut) to fall back on, since "plan B" (the GBP instead of a game) wasn't working, why didn't they have a little more faith in themselves? Rent some more warehouse space. They should've known that there was a possible sales surge coming (although I suppose the GameCube up until now hasn't really inspired a lot of confidence).

Sure, it seems impressive to think that their warehouses were completely "full", and now they're completely "empty", but when it comes right down to it, their plan for this winter was only to "do as well as the XBox".

Edit: The MagixBox also has the same numbers I mentioned. They also have the total North American sales.

PS2 - 22,596,000
GBA - 20,248,000
XBox - 7,983,000
GCN - 6,996,000

[is]

1153

Nintendo Gaming / RE:New Final Fantasy Rumors

« on: February 21, 2004, 11:01:47 PM »

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I haven't anything along these lines, but Square sucks at re-releases.  The only good one I've played is Final Fantasy IV on PlayStation.  The other games had big problems with load times and audio.

I found FF4 to be the second-worst one. It was buggy. The game locked up on me like three times in that Tower of Babel (or whatever it was called). About half the time, when I turned on the game, my PSone refused to believe that it was even a legit PSX game (and yes, it was a legit copy). FF4's only saving grace was it's overrated (but still cool) retranslation. It's nice to actually see, and know, why you won the fight on Mount Ordeals.

Crono Trigger sucked the most, because it's lack of a "battle screen" made it impossible for Square to hide the loading times behind a big swooshy fade. But, the load times were a problem because Square moved the games from carts to CDs. The GameCube is simply better than the PSX in every way (except for secondary L&R buttons).


Back to the main topic, I believe there should be some new announcement from Square, sometime soon.

FF:CC was made with Fund-Q. How Fund-Q is supposed to work is, Yamauchi made a giant pile of money. The game maker takes a bunch of the money, makes an essentially "free" game, then the first profits from the game go back to Yamauchi's money pile. Once the zero-interest loan is paid off, and the money pile is refilled, all the later profits go to the game maker, and they can take another dip in the money pile, assuming they're still a member of Yamauchi's exclusive club, and it loops around again.

Square (or rather "GDS") finished FF:CC. It pretty much has to have earned it's money back. So Square can probably start making their next free game anytime now (assuming the stuff we heard about Fund-Q is accurate).

There was an old rumor that Square was only making 2 GameCube-exclusive games, so that they would have permission to make all the SNES-ports on the GBA that they wanted. And this rumor seems to have picked up some serious weight with people. But I think it was just a rumor. Nothing more. Something Square fans (and IGN) made up to comfort themselves when Yamauchi first told Square to blow off, after they expressed interest in the GBA. Some "strategy" behind a "bad" (or just painful) decision. But there is a "strategy". A new one. It's called "Square's old president resigned" and "Fund-Q" and "free games".

[- NintendoFan -]

1154

TalkBack / RE:Student Fashions Bomb From Game Boy

« on: February 21, 2004, 10:15:21 PM »

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Originally posted by: - NintendoFan -
I am still wondering which Gameboy he decided to use......

Knowing how the mainstream media works, a GameGear, of course.

1155

General Gaming / RE:Beat Super Mario Bros. 3 in 11min 2sec

« on: February 16, 2004, 03:09:49 PM »

There are more of them.

Just to clarify what everone seems to know by now, these aren't videos of some superhuman gamers completely powning games. They're gamers using an emulator that records button pressings, so they play a game with slow-mo and retry with save-states to create one superhuman playthrough of a game that's "real", and could be performed by anyone, assuming you were good enough, and your controller didn't explode under the pressure.

I don't think Morimoto (the guy who kicked things off with his SMB3 playthrough) ever claimed that he was as good as the video, but his legend preceeded him, and was understandably overblown.

Anyways, the link above appears to be their homepage. The "fmv files" (records of the button-pressings) are stored there, as well as videos captured of the button-pressings in action. You'd need Bittorrent to download the videos.

I reccommend looking at the Gradius video. You can't do much about the speed in Gradius, so Morimoto just has fun with it. No powerups except "speed". You'd think the game would stop letting you get faster after some point. But it doesn't. I doubt that ths one could actually be replicated in person. The controller just can't be responsive enough for this stuff without slow-mo.

I also liked watching Castlevania, because the slower pace of the game makes it look completely possible. Except that I've never managed to take out Death. And this guy makes him look so simple. "Just use holy water." Yeah right. Y'know, I had never seen how similar Dracula is in the first game to the Dracula in Dracula X on the Turbo Duo (and the start of Symphony of the Night on the PSX). I wish they had let the ending run. Stupid motivation to make me go and get pointlessly killed by Death a few more times. Or just download the fmv-file and the right NES emulator and let it run longer...

Now, I'm off to watch the newly-added Zelda and Metroid playthroughs.

1156

TalkBack / RE:Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Review

« on: February 02, 2004, 12:31:23 PM »

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Pros:
DBZ universe is presented in an accurate and appropriate manner.

What? I thought it used the English voice actors?

Just kidding.

1157

Nintendo Gaming / RE:Fire Emblem. Is it doing well?

« on: January 31, 2004, 08:15:45 PM »

By the way, here's some extra info and wider comparison stuff.

FFTA came out on September 8. Fire Emblem was November 3. Sword of Mana was December 1.

Final Fantasy X-2 (which came out on November 18) sold 554,300 units (number 7 on the PS2 chart).


Need for Speed Underground sold 1,120,576 units, topping the PS2 chart.

The Grand Theft Auto Double Pack selling 402,201 units was the biggest game on the XBox.

EA's LotR: Return of the King, as well as a bunch of their sports games, dominated the rest of the PS2's lineup, along with Tony Hawk's Underground and Dragonball Z Budokai.

The Need for Speed Underground was also the #2 game on the XBox, with 308,989 units.

(XBox) Halo sold another 338,712 units.

(GCN) Mario Kart: Double Dash (November 17) sold 729,797 units.

(GCN) Smash Bros Melee sold 215,340 more units.

(GCN) Mario Sunshine sold 156,792 units.

(GCN) Metroid Prime sold 60,384 units.

(GCN) LoZ: The Wind Waker sold 89,744 units.

(GCN) StarFox Adventures sold 78,374 units.

(XBox) Grabbed by the Ghoulies sold 21,646 units.

Edit: Wait a minute. Halo sold more copies than NFSU, which was #2. It seems the games were ranked by "profit" not sales numbers.

Edit 2: Oh yeah and, Luigi's Mansion apparently sold 159,723 units. Beating Mario Sunshine...

1158

Nintendo Gaming / RE:Fire Emblem. Is it doing well?

« on: January 31, 2004, 06:19:09 PM »

I don't know about November, but I found a December mentioning in another forum. Supposedly, in December, in North America, Fire Emblem sold 111,728 units.

For some scale:
GBA 1 MARIO & LUIGI SAGA Nintendo $12,668,060 426,594
GBA 2 MARIO BROS 3: MARIO 4 Nintendo $10,077,220 333,971
GBA 3 YU-GI-OH! SACRED CARD Konami $8,246,533 279,213
GBA 4 SPONGEBOB: BATTLE THQ $7,510,482 265,340
GBA 5 POKEMON RUBY Nintendo $7,192,087 227,652
GBA 6 DRAGONBALL Z:TAIKETSU Atari $6,341,983 222,496
GBA 7 POKEMON SAPPHIRE Nintendo $6,109,894 188,616
GBA 8 DISNEY'S FINDING NEMO THQ $5,750,815 189,194
GBA 9 DONKEY KONG COUNTRY Nintendo $4,842,792 160,838
GBA 10 SUPER MARIO ADVANCE 2 Nintendo $4,137,547 131,856

Fire Emblem wasn't in the top ten, but I saw it in an alphabetical listing. Other NOA-published GBA games December sales would be:

GBA ADVANCE WARS $21,587 1,266
GBA ADVANCE WARS 2: BLACK $969,835 31,720
GBA DISNEYS MAGICAL QUEST $102,039 4,951
GBA DONKEY KONG COUNTRY $4,842,792 160,838
GBA F-ZERO MAX VELOCITY $48,493 2,067
GBA FINAL FANTASY TACTICS $3,773,851 112,388
GBA FIRE EMBLEM $3,577,391 111,728
GBA GAME & WATCH GALLERY4 $302,532 10,223
GBA GOLDEN SUN $58,779 2,994
GBA GOLDEN SUN: LOST AGE $1,118,466 36,535
GBA HAMTARO: HEARTBREAK $572,931 21,964
GBA KIRBY: NIGHTMARE $2,622,901 84,219
GBA MARIO & LUIGI SAGA $12,668,060 426,594
GBA MARIO BROS 3: MARIO 4 $10,077,220 333,971
GBA MARIO KART: CIRCUIT $3,693,416 117,960
GBA METROID FUSION $985,581 32,103
GBA POKEMON PINBALL: R&S $3,830,876 126,773
GBA POKEMON RUBY $7,192,087 227,652
GBA POKEMON SAPPHIRE $6,109,894 188,616
GBA SUPER MARIO ADVANCE $1,702,711 56,337
GBA SUPER MARIO ADVANCE 2 $4,137,547 131,856
GBA SWORD OF MANA $3,307,833 108,714
GBA WARIO LAND 4 $49,996 2,590
GBA WARIOWARE INC: MEGA $900,570 29,668
GBA YOSHI'S ISLAND:MARIO3 $2,133,532 67,927
GBA ZELDA: LINK TO PAST $2,728,272 90,064

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance (112,388), Fire Emblem (111,728), and Sword of Mana (108,714), all fall just a bit shy of ranking in the top ten GBA games in America (which doesn't seem like anything to sneeze at, if you ask me).

[not]

1159

TalkBack / RE:Killer7 No Longer GameCube Exclusive

« on: January 29, 2004, 08:37:55 PM »

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When Capcom basically stunned the gaming media and announced Viewtiful Joe, Dead Phoenix, PN03, Killer7 and Resident Evil 4 exclusively for the GameCube a while back, questions began to rise about just how exclusive these titles would be.

And those questions were answered. Shinji Mikami said that RE4 was exclusive, but none of the others were. Because Capcom broke the "spirit" of the RE contract he signed, and found a loophole allowing them to make RE games exclusively for Sony, despite Mikami's opposition, so Mikami apparently doesn't trust Capcom to honor anything he signs anymore.

However, Mikami said that these games were not going to appear on the PS2, ever, if he had anything at all to say about it. I believe he said they would have to cut his head off first.

I'm waiting to see what Mikami's reaction to this announcement is.

When we last heard from him, I believe he was saying publicly that he wanted to be put to work on a game licence that was 100% controlled by Nintendo, not Capcom, like Sega and Namco are doing with F-Zero and Starfox. This helped fuel some of those rumors that Dead Phoenix was being converted into a Kid Icarus series rebirth title.

I'm expecting that his next step is to quit Capcom in protest. And quite likely, go to work for Nintendo.

Sony can have a cheap port of Killer 7. Seriously. Nobody minds. We want Shinji Mikami now though. That's a fair trade, right?

1160

General Gaming / RE:Dumb PS2 sound question time

« on: January 27, 2004, 12:34:41 AM »

Here's how I know it, although I could be mistaken, because I'm not really an audiophile. I do have a "stereo", but it doesn't have remote volume control, and my brother just recently got a stereo TV, and it does have remote volume, so I usually don't even turn on the stereo. I just use the stereo TV speakers.

Apparently Dolby Digital has something like a two second lag time, which makes it almost useless as a videogame technology.

Sony recognized that, so they "disabled" access to the Dolby Digital aspects of the PS2 while it's in "game mode". Even so, Sony fanboys used to make fun of the fact that the GameCube wasn't designed for DD, and laughed at Factor 5's claim that they were making Dolby Pro Logic 2 as a "surround sound alternative" for the GameCube.

Some PS2 developers didn't believe that DD was totally useless to games though, and Microsoft was trying to push DD in games as an advantage, so Sony released some codes to developers that allowed them to temporarily go around the PS2's OS and "re-enable" DD in videogame mode.

They ran the background music as Dolby Digital, and ran the sound effects through Dolby Pro Logic 1.

Factor 5 finished Rouge Leader, and gave their new custom-modified version of DPL2 back to Dolby. And Dolby gave it to interested developers.

So now there are PS2 games appearing with DPL2 instead of DPL1, and sometimes some Dolby Digital mixed in.

I think there were also some other games claiming to be able to run everything in Dolby Digital. But for the most part, if games have DD or DPL2 in any capacity, they just list themselves as "having" that kind of sound, and don't say anything about how much of it they're really using.

So I don't know how many games actually used DD, but I think the number was small, and I think it was primarily something odd like "most EA sports games". I think DPL2 is being supported about as often on the PS2 as it is on the GameCube.

I'd say just skip the optical cable until you see "Dolby Digital" in the starting credits of enough games that you like to make you change your mind.

Unless you find the cable cheap somewhere (I'm a big fan of that).

1161

TalkBack / RE:Consoles Drive Game Sales

« on: January 26, 2004, 03:07:14 PM »

Quote
Imagine if they literally had no clue what they were buying.

I was in Toys R Us just yesterday. Some 20-ish guy picks up the Wind Waker. His girlfriend (or perhaps sister or something) said to him "You're getting him Zelda?" He says "Of course! Zelda rocks!" She says "But he has a PS2." He says "So?" She says "The PS2 doesn't play Nintendo games. You'd have to buy a Nintendo to play Zelda." He hangs his head and walks over to the PS2 rack.

I really wasn't sure what to think of it.

[backlighting]

1162

TalkBack / RE:Nintendo Reveals "Third Pillar"!

« on: January 21, 2004, 05:09:54 PM »

I think everyone's too hung up on whether or not this thing will "succeed".

I don't expect that this will replace the GBA, or fight off the PSP, or anything like that. IMO, Nintendo's just making a new toy. A continuation of what the Virtual Boy should've been, if anyone (including Nintendo) had allowed Nintendo to explore things that "aren't popular". And I don't think there's anything wrong with that.

I personally think that the PSP will fall when it goes up against the one-two punch of the current GBA and then the upcoming GBA2. But Sony won't roll over and die like Nokia. Which is where this new NDS will step in and provide an entertaining contest. The PocketStation 2 versus the Virtual Boy 2! No holds barred!


Anyways, I'm more interested in the fact that the cart size is (up to) 1 gigabit (the GBA's max cart size was 256 megabits, until shortly before the launch of the GBA SP, when that spec was mysteriously removed from official GBA specs). And the fact that Nintendo now seems confident that they can offer backlighting on a GBA-sized screen, times two, in a portable, battery-powered (presumably) unit.

1163

TalkBack / RE:Nintendo Reveals "Third Pillar"!

« on: January 21, 2004, 01:26:29 AM »

IGN stole Louie's bit!!!

[MSX]

1164

TalkBack / RE:MGS Twin Snakes Bundle for Japan

« on: January 17, 2004, 02:34:58 PM »

Quote
...and a special disc which includes, among other things, the original NES version of Metal Gear.

That should actually be, "the NES version of the original Metal Gear."

The MSX was a type of personal computer available in Japan and a few other regions (not the USA) in the 80's, and was very popular as a videogame platform.

The original Metal Gear was made for the MSX in 1987, then quickly ported to the Famicom, and then quickly translated to the NES, all in the same year. People who have played the MSX version say that the NES version was severely watered down. And the English translation? Well, "the truck have started to move" is rather infamous in the videogame world.

But, it was still a good game, so it did really well on the NES (like just about everything else). So Konami made a sequel to it in the form of an action game called Snake's Revenge: Metal Gear 2, and published it under their "Ultra Games" label (the system where Nintendo was letting Konami make twice as many NES games as anyone else). As far as I know, Snake's Revenge is only available in America. It came out in 1990.

Also in 1990, Hideo Kojima finally came out with Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake on the MSX (or it may have been the MSX2, or something like that, but you get the idea). It's never been translated or ported.

In the 1990's, Kojima made Snatcher for a couple of systems that have never been popular in America. It was a mostly text-based futuristic detective novel kind of game. It set itself in the future of the Metal Gear world, but wasn't really a Metal Gear game though. It appeared in America on the Sega CD. I would recommend it extremely highly, but I wouldn't suggest you spend the kind of money that it demands on eBay.

Snatcher had a sequel called Policenauts. Even though it's supposed to be the future of the Metal Gear world, it was sneakily referred to a few times in Metal Gear Solid.

Kojima also released a funny/weird "super-deformed" (anime's big head, tiny body look) version of Snatcher on the MSX called SD Snatcher.

In 1998, Konami released Metal Gear Solid on the PlayStation (first in Japan, the the USA). It referred to the first two (Kojima-made) games, but it seems that most Americans didn't need to understand those parts to enjoy the game.

In 1999 Konami released Metal Gear Solid: Integral for the PlayStation in Japan. It featured a bunch of extras like a first-person shooting mode, being able to play through the game as the Ninja, and a huge pile of VR missions (Metal Gear-style puzzle challenges performed in a cyberspace training world).

Later in 99, they let Americans have just the added VR missions by releasing Metal Gear Solid: VR Missions over here.

In 2000, Kojima made Metal Gear: Ghost Babel for the GameBoy Color. It was just called "Metal Gear Solid" in the States. I haven't really had a chance to play it much. Supposedly it's a "real" part of the Metal Gear story, it just doesn't get referred to by the other games (except for like, an occasional poster on the walls in MGS2).

In 2001, they released Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty for the PS2. Kojima finally acknowleged that his games have performed far better in America than in Japan (so bring over the rest of them already!), so we got rewarded with the earlier, slightly more buggy version than Japan for once.

It's probably not a spoiler anymore to mention that Kojima introduced a new (and widely hated) character in this game. Supposedly when you were playing the expanded VR missions of Integral and VR Missions, you weren't playing them as Snake. Or as yourself. You were playing them as the new guy, preparing for his role in MGS2.

Microsoft was on the scene by now, and wanted to make an impact, so they paid Konami to give them a timed-exclusive on a superior version of MGS2. So, they released Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance in late 2002. This game clearly illustrated how bad it is to port to/from the PS2, and it was clearly inferior to the PS2 version in a number of areas. But it had some extra features. In early 2003, MGS2: Substance went back to the PS2, extras and all.

Since I've mentioned practically everything else, I should mention that Kojima has also made Zone of the Enders for the PS2 (a too-short flying-mech-combat game which probably owes more than half of it's sales to the playable MGS2 demo that came with it), and a sequel to it (which I haven't played), also on the PS2, and Boktai, the sun-powered vampire hunting game on the GameBoy Advance. I think that's all of them. Aside from the Twin Snakes, which we should already have known about, if we're reading this thread.  

[you're]

1165

NWR Feedback / RE:PGC, what the heck is up with the ads?

« on: January 14, 2004, 01:32:37 AM »

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Everytime I come to your page, or go to other pages, stupid adds, like this half clothed chick comes up every time, and it says "do you want to meet this slut?" (well not the slut part). And they track your IP address to find out where you live, so they say are you single in <insert location>

I've seen that ad. A dating ad from Match.com. There's also another one for Classmates.com, where supposedly you can look up your old high-school buddies.

They appear to just check your IP address to see where you live. They seem harmless, except that AdAware doesn't seem to like the cookies that they give you (yes, I was bored).

Quote
I swear, Johnny or Bloodworth or Ty or someone needs to just delete any thread about ads, or at least make an official topic- if I hear one more lazy person bitching about pop-ups or banners, I'm gonna go crazy.

Or just put a line on the top of the main page saying:

"PGC assumes that all visitors to this site are running pop-up blockers, and recommends them to any people that happen to not be using them, so although we do try to get good ads for this site, we can't be held responsible for anything that may happen to you or your computer because of our ads. Besides, you're the one visiting our site, so stop yer bitchin."

By the way, you do know that you don't have to read every thread on the boards, right?

1166

TalkBack / RE:Konami's 2004 Yu-Gi-Oh! Line-up

« on: January 12, 2004, 02:31:09 PM »

I was just commenting to someone the other day about Konami not making, or having made, anything noteworthy for the GameCube, except for the Twin Snakes, which they're not even making.

I mentioned this after seeing a report of Konami saying they hope to be able to support the PocketStation2 (PSP) with launch titles, because systems like the PS2, GBA, and the GameCube have "too many games" available for them... and then Konami went on to announce about a dozen more PS2-exclusive games.

He mentioned "Well, at least they did give us a Yu-Gi-Oh game, and didn't "disclude" us with a multiplatform Ninja Turtles game."

And now they're giving a Yu-Gi-Oh to the XBox.

Konami is seriously the single worst third party out there in terms of GameCube support. What is their freaking problem?

PS: The only way The Twin Snakes is going to even come close to making up for the cold shoulder we've gotten from Konami is if it includes English port-translations of the MSX versions of Metal Gear 1&2 as bonus unlockables. One single enhanced remake just isn't going to be enough to win me over anymore. Sure, I'm looking forward to the game, and Hideo Kojima wins points with me by actually being involved in the game, but the rest of Konami in general doesn't.

Konami = Suxxorzi!

[if]

1167

TalkBack / RE:GameCube Sales on Target

« on: January 11, 2004, 03:22:31 PM »

Quote
While I hope they reach the target the rumours of a PS2 price cut could potentially change that. The low price point would become less significant is Sony lowered their price.

That's if Sony lowers their price anytime soon. The PS2 is still selling like hotcakes. Sony doesn't really have a reason to drop the price, unless they have a good reason to believe they'll sell so many more units with a lower price, that it'll offset the loss of a major chunk of their profit margin. Or if they just want to take a shot at the GameCube, regardless of the costs to themselves.

Personally, all of the PS2 price drop rumors that I've seen can be attributed to wishful thinking by hopeful soon-to-be PS2 owners, since the PS2 is so very overpriced at this point, or PS2 fanboys threatened by the idea of Nintendo doing well, and hoping Sony does something to stop Nintendo, whatever the costs, before their carefully-constructed world view comes crashing down around their heads.

Quote
We should also remember Chrystal Chronicles was made primarily so Square-Enix could make GBA games...

I actually doubt that one. It was always just a rumor, and the rumor said that Square needed to make two GameCube-exclusive games before they were allowed to start making GBA games.

Although we can say that the real reason Square made FF:CC is that it's practically free for them, thanks to Hiroshi Yamauchi, so they're free to take risks with it.

1168

Nintendo Gaming / RE:Question about Baten Kaito

« on: December 31, 2003, 06:27:12 PM »

Namco's being pretty good about keeping things even on a multiplatform level.

Games like Soul Calibur and Ridge Racer get ported to all consoles. Sony wants the Xenosaga series to be Sony-exclusive, so they make a new series that they're supposedly putting on the exact same level as Xenosaga, and make it Nintendo-exclusive. Sony wants the "Tales of Destiny" games (which were on the PlayStation) to stay Sony-exclusive, so Namco revives the old "Tales of Phantasia" series (which was on the SNES in Japan), and makes it Nintendo-exclusive.

1169

General Chat / RE:Get your custom title here

« on: December 30, 2003, 08:13:44 PM »

Moderator!

Or umm... if you can't do that... how about "Obsessive Sailormoon Fanatic"?

And the purple Grey Ninja used looks cool. ("<font color=#990099>title here</font>", if that's how it works)

1170

TalkBack / RE:GameSaves for GameCube

« on: December 30, 2003, 04:44:35 PM »

These things are also great for "RPG Maker" games.

In case anyone didn't know, with RPG Maker you can design/write/draw your own RPGs (within certain boundries), and save them to a memory card (or at least that's how it was with the PSX version). With one of these devices, you can trade and play homemade RPGs with any similarly-equipped fans of the game on the internet. Of course, I don't think there's an RPG Maker game available for the Cube at this time.

Personally, I don't like pre-loaded saves unless they offer something special. Which usually means hacked. Like playing Castlevania SoTN starting with something like the Crissagrim instead of that stupid Short Sword. It's kind of fun sometimes. But, I doubt that Nintendo's made it very easy for anyone to try and hack the gamesaves.

So basically this thing's just good for a nearly-infinite storage space memory card, and an enhanced way to show off/share accomplishments with your friends. Well, that's plenty cool enough by me.

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It's not entirely new, though- there was the Dex Drive for the N64.

I got one of them for $0.99

I just can't find many uses for it, since almost nobody used the memory card.

[great]

1171

Nintendo Gaming / RE:Cartridge cases

« on: December 21, 2003, 04:57:29 PM »

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What does everyone use to protect their cartridges?

I've found that Fererro Rocher boxes work great for holding GameBoy Color games. The clear plastic ones you get with the 8-piece ones. They might do okay for GameBoy Advance games.

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TalkBack / RE:Advance Game Port Now Available

« on: December 19, 2003, 02:22:44 PM »

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Not playing old Gameboy games makes it a piece of crap in my opinion...why the heck couldn't they add that feature?

The GameBoy Advance doesn't actually play GameBoy Color (or black-and-white) games.

There's a little spring-loaded switch inside a GBA's cart slot, and GBA games have a notch in them so they can't come in contact with it. When that switch is pressed, the GBA becomes a GameBoy Color (although it's a slightly newer model, so it can access things like the so-called "Advance" store in the Zelda Oracle games).

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General Gaming / RE:PS2 error help

« on: December 14, 2003, 01:11:32 PM »

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Does anyone know why they break?

Here's how I've always heard it.

A DVD drive is technically supposed to be able to read CD media, but it's not very good at it. It can play a normal audio CD, but that's about it. When you see a DVD player that advertises that it plays CDR, CDRW, MP3, VCD, and all that kind of stuff, it typically means that the hardware makers sprung for the extra cash to add a second laser to the DVD unit, one designed solely as a CD player.

Right before the PS2 came out, Sony thought they had fixed that problem. They came up with a way to refocus the lens on the laser, so it can "switch" between being a DVD laser, or a CD laser.

They wanted the PS2 to play DVD-based games, but they also wanted it to play those black-bottomed PSOne CDs, which are an "abnormal" variant of CDs, and not readily played by a DVD drive. And, they didn't want to pay the extra $1 (or however much it costs) per-unit for the CD laser, times the tens of millions of units they intended to sell, so they used their almost-untested new "refocusing" laser in the PS2.

It's turned out that it's way too delicate, so the focusing mechanisim is almost always the first thing to break in a PS2, leaving you without the ability to play CD based games, DVD based games, or both.

If you get a "disk read error" (DRE), you should probably call a customer service phone number at Sony, and ask them about it. Tell then that you've heard about DRE's, and that you've heard that they're a "factory defect", and weren't caused by anything you did.

Sony's official policy is that the PS2 is "good enough", and that they won't do a thing about DRE's, but a lot of people have reported that customer service will often just waive the repair charges, just because they can. Actually, since Sony came out with the newer 50001 model (with progressive scan support, a much quieter fan, and full piracy support through DVDR's), a lot of people have reported success in getting a free 50001 model from customer service, by simply claiming that their PS2 was starting to suffer from DRE's. However, if Sony refuses to give you a new PS2 (because the guy on the phone is having a bad day or something), nothing you can say will change their mind. Because Sony's official policy just says "Screw you! Sure, we get yet another unit added to our 'installed base' if we give you a free replacement, but we'll get that if you PAY US too!"

By the way, if you send in your PS2 for repair (because they ask you or something), make sure you clarify that they're fixing it for free, because some people have reported sending in their PS2's, and then getting it back with a surprise $100-200 repair bill from Sony.

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NWR Feedback / RE:PlanetGamecube Pop-Ups

« on: December 10, 2003, 06:51:11 PM »

I was actually thinking of starting one of these threads myself.

It was about three or four days ago. I hit PGC and saw a pop-up starting to launch, and suddenly it expanded to cover my entire monitor, including the taskbar, and left no option to close it.

It said something to the effect of "If you're capable of seeing this message, and it's covering your taskbar, then odds are you have spyware on your system. Please click on this link to download and install our anti-spyware programs." I'm not that stupid, so I just nuked Internet Explorer entirely with a quick control-alt-delete.

When I opened IE again later in the day, that same stupid pop-up got in my face. I control-alt-deleted just the pop-up, and saw that my home page had been changed. This website looked almost the same, but it said something to the effect of "If you're tired of people hijacking your homepage, then you probably have spyware on your system. Please click on this link to download and install our anti-spyware programs."

I changed my homepage back to normal, and for the heck of it I ran Lavasoft AdAware (which I already had installed, and use on occasion), and performed a full Norton virus-scan. I got the clean bills of health that I always get.

I'm guessing that one of your advertisers is (or was, or was hacked into) using some simple internet parlour tricks to try and scare PGC users into thinking they need whatever new software these guys are selling. I don't think it has anything to do with spyware.

I suppose it wouldn't hurt to have a more secure internet browser, but I've never seen the need for one, as I have pretty good judgement (usually), and don't frequent the kind of sites that make this sort of thing a problem. This one harmlessly annoying incedent actually puts PGC slightly ahead of anywhere else I go on the "problem meter". And I have some respect for the advertisers who keep sites like PGC alive, so I don't really want to turn on a pop-up blocker. And PGC actually has the best, most interesting advertisements (since they're almost all videogame-related) of all the sites I know of.

Anyways, I'm not sure if this is still a problem, since I just hopped straight into the forums today without hitting the main site, nor do I know how to fix it (have a talk with whoever gets you your ads, I guess?), but I figured I should let you know that it's happened to more than one person.

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Nintendo Gaming / RE:Metroid Manga in US?!?

« on: November 14, 2003, 09:26:26 PM »

I couldn't see anything in Tokyopop's press releases on their website about them picking up a Metroid manga, but according to people on the AnimeOnDVD forums, some retail outlets are aware of it, and say it's "coming soon". It's most likely just that Tokyopop licences so much stuff that they don't really bother telling anyone about most of them until it's close enough to the release date so that any hype generated won't wear off (unless they really *need* to announce it to stop people from fan-translating it).

Someone speculated that it's probably a Metroid manga that's been running in "Magazine V" since Prime and Fusion came out, dealing with Samus's early history (which seems similar to the web-manga version Josh mentioned), because Tokyopop has apparently been getting a lot of Magazine V's titles lately.

Other options would've been the old American comics that appeared in Nintendo Power when Super Metroid came out, or the new ones made for Nintendo Power by Dreamwave (the guys making the new Transformers Armada comics). And neither of those really seems likely (nor are they technically manga, but that's never stopped Stu Levy before).

Or there are the unknown myriad of smaller mangas you can sometimes encounter in Japan.
*RO points to his cute icon*