Saturday, November 27, 2004

Bought Nintendo Dual Screen today

Bought Nintendo Dual Screen today
Date: 11/27/04 at 12:44PM

Firstly, I like to announce that I bought a silver Nintendo Dual Screen today with Super Mario 64 DS costing me a total of 195 dollars. The NDS package comes with a stylist (pen), AC adapter, thumb strap, handheld manual, free Metriod Prime Hunters demo, and a fully charged Nintendo DS out of the box. The NDS (official abbreviation) has a cool echo effect with its speakers. The size of the cartridge is roughly the size of the sticker of any Gameboy Advance game. As you can tell Super Mario 64 is no match for Super Mario 64 DS. You can fit 8 NDS flash cards to equal 1 N64 cartridge and the NDS shown that it holds as much if not more data as N64 games. I started up NDS and I started playing Yoshi. This came to no surprise since I read the reviews, and the writers all wrote that I start with Yoshi. I find it easier to use my thumb than the stylist. I drag my though across the screen as I would an analog stick – and it gives it the “analog stick effect”. I still can’t believe that Nintendo made NDS games this small and the maximum Nintendo is developing can carry 1 GB of data! Yes, developers can put FMV on the DS if they want too. The developers will use MPEG4 or something like that. A 3 minute FMV can be less than 40 MB! I made a dumb decision….. I ripped the box open. I was much more careful with my GBA boxes – but no, I had to rip the end open to get to the handheld! The box is not completely destroyed - just the edge of it is.



Super Mario 64 DS is confusing to me when I read many of the reviews. I knew that Super Mario 64 was going to be re-released but I thought it was on a bonus disc for Super Mario Sunshine not for Nintendo’s 64-bit handheld. The truth is it’s also the best launch title for the NDS just like it was for N64 percentage wise. I thought their 64-bit handheld would be another Gameboy Advance. Okay, it’s Mario, so therefore, it has to be above 9.0! IGN gave the game a 8.9 out of 10. That’s not a 9.0. They said that SM64DS could have better game play than it already has. The Nintendo 64 was designed for Super Mario 64. The SM64 development team and Nintendo 64 R&D3 team worked side by side. The result is one of the most famous Nintendo 64 games. Nintendo thought, “Maybe we can show SM64 on the DS since it is 64-bit.” It was truly an easy decision for Nintendo because the game was already made – the game just had to be ported and expansion. Super Mario 64 DS is really an expansion pack that allows wireless multi-player experience, and 30 more stars to add to the original 120 stars. Apparently if you find a Mario cap – Yoshi can change into Mario. If he finds a Luigi cap – he can change into Luigi and so on. Gaming sites are giving it above a 9.0, and as much as a 9.6 in some cases. We have never had a videogame that was a technical marvel 8 years before and still hold that in present day. SM64DS is definitely the first to do this.


DS cartridge is no bigger than a quarter!


Top games according to Gamerankings.com. I have 5 of the 10.

DS Features:

• One color – sliver
• Wireless chat (4 chat rooms)
• Backwards compatible with Gameboy Advance featuring slot in front
• Wireless LAN games
• 64-bit power
• Echoing sound effect
• 6 buttons including Start and Select
• Thumb strap – nice to keep the thumb prints off the screen with this thing.
• Don’t know if it can emulate Gameboy Color games or not – the handheld has a AMG 7 and a AMG 9.
• Very compact. Handheld – a well designed handheld.
• Keeps time and date with alarm!
• Comes with head phone jack
• Comes with that jack for GBA link cable? Maybe GBA games can now be ran wireless if all people have a Dual Screen.

Have you ever noticed?

8-bit Gameboy 1989 - 2000
32-bit Gameboy 2001 - 2004
64-bit DS 2004 - future
128-bit Gameboy 2008?

Now I am going to get into November 25th. I usually write big events the day they happen, but I was tired and went to bed at 11PM. Yesterday began when I woke up around 9AM and than went to my aunts for Thanksgiving dinner. I threw the gird iron football (just football in America) to Jim (who is Michael’s boyfriend) and we tossed the football back and forth before dinner. I can make good spirals believe it or not, but I keep dropping the ball once I catch it. Some of the throws Jim makes go over my head, I don’t go for those. I’m not usually the athletic type, but I drove for one football. Yes! It slips out my hands. I had the usual turkey and stuffing. The stuffing by the way was terrible. I didn’t say nothing – that would be mean if I have had done so. I have this Cousin Danny who I haven’t meet for a long time (since May), and I tried talking about computers with him, but he ignored me at the table. I ate more than said anything. I went down in the basement to hook up my Xbox which I brought over in hopes of multiplayer. I also brought a hub and straight-through cable in hopes that Brian brought his Xbox over. I’m the only computer person there. Everyone doesn’t find it fascinating. Ah…too bad. I fired up Guilty Gear X2 Reloaded on the old TV my Aunt and Uncle had. I love this game!!! I played this guy in red and won 12 duels in a role (there is two duels for each character unless the other character wins than there is three). It is one of those 2D fighters which there are no combos and you have to alternate and button mash your way through the levels. The opponent doesn’t hit you as much when you’re jumping and hitting X button three times and than the Y button. Y button does a forward slash. X button is a karate kick. A button does punches and B blocks. Brian was watching me who I wanted to play Halo 2, but he played upstairs.

I was actually the oldest gamer in the house. I was accompanied by three younger kids. I was playing slayer Halo 2 with them. I opened Halo 2 there with a nail. Halo 2 is awesome. I beat the little kids 4 – 1. Uli (Ulrike is his full name and it’s a common girl’s name in Germany….oops… it’s all good…who would know?), and Lars (nickname for Lawrence) don’t know how to throw plasma grenades. Hey, my name is popular in UK and Australia and my nickname is one letter, E. I asked Brian (who seemed to not pay any attention to the game) to play co-op with me. Co-op in Halo 2 is really fun. I died more times them him and this was on normal difficulty. We got to the part were the flood were attacking, and the aliens where using human weapons and vehicles for the first time. It’s a very interesting story. There is a Halo on Earth (which is a doomsday weapon), and first we’re sent to Australia oddly enough to do some fighting. I could tell because Master Chief flew down there from space after he disarmed a bomb just so he could arm it….rode it like a cowboy, and watch the mothership explode as he re-entered Earth’s atmosphere, and landed in Australia. I’m surprised he didn’t burn up in the process of re-entry. I know, I know it’s a videogame and there are few rules. The grunts called me names as I killed him. The covenant is having problems with the flood like we Marines are. Brian is having fun with his dual SCGs! He’s tearing up the place. I wonder if the humans are going to team up against the flood? The flood are those organisms that resurrect the dead after you kill them again and again. Halo 2 is heavily cut scene driven though which is cool – we watched all the cut-scenes. I must admit they have good graphics but the voice work needs a little work. Halo 2 has B movie rating in terms of acting. I’m not impressed with it at all. One problem with Halo 2 is the marines die too quickly, but not as nearly as quickly as the first game. The player gets reinforcements often in Halo 2. It makes me wonder exactly why there was a long line at Wal-mart the first day. Everyone wanted this game for some reason? Was it graphics or game play or both? Or is it because the Internet told them. Get this game – it’s awesome without telling them why. Since it is a better game than most videogames this year, and it’s coming to PC soon too that’s enough reason to buy the Xbox version so the PC version will be that much more exciting when Bungie announces it. Once you find the secrets in Halo 2, than you play it online for free via PC, and it’ll have better graphics than Halo 2 on the aging Xbox.

I brought Brian to my house so we could finish the game. I sold him Half-life 2, and he got me through the difficult part in the first level. I got shot by a helicopter gunner. He already saw me so I had no chance at escaping and died on the spot. Half-life is known for the famous red death screen. Brian was there so for long so we played Halo 2 once again. I offered him a Mountain Dew, but he rejected. We played for a good 3 hours when he left at 10:15. It was like when his brother came over a lot about a year ago. I’m seeing him this Christmas when he comes back from Japan. David isn’t much of a gamer. His brother, Brian however, is… It’s a lot of fun playing with someone who plays games on a regular bases like he does.

Last night I had a chance to play Halo 2 on the flat screen in the living room. It was really good. I was afraid of burn in, but I didn’t happen. I realized that I could play Playstation and N64 on it with no problems long time ago. My brain kept telling me, “Must play Halo 2 on high resolution display” I have an older TV model in my room which I play my games on. I think I will again tonight. My week off is almost over – I can not believe it! Only 3 more days including today! Then I have to take a CCNA Cisco test on Tuesday. I dread it. I need to pass it the first time which is going take some time aside from just normal reading IGN game reviews regularly or playing videogames No longer can I be read the fascinating message boards at PS3insider. Lots of information on it. I could look at it for a day and not read everything on it.

I just want to say how PCs are better. They are more useful than any other platform and not just games – everything. It is the only console where online play is free. That’s right – no paying 120 dollars a year for Xbox Live or Play Online! Plus, publishers always come out with good games for it. You won’t see as many PC games as PS2 games, but at the same time – everything will work on it dating back to 1994. That’s perfect! Although I’m starting to believe that discussing which platform is better is pointless. The PC can emulate consoles eventually. The PS2 emulator, PCSX2, seems to be showing great process. Soon we’ll have the PC act as a common platform for many old consoles.

Tuesday, November 23, 2004

All Consoles



That's 14!

1997

December - Nintendo 64 $200

1999

September - Sega Dreamcast $200

2000

November - Sega Saturn version 1 $40

2001

March - Nintendo Gameboy Advance $100
September - Nintendo Gamecube $200
Ocober- Sega Dreamcast #2 $100

2002

February - Sony Playstation $30

2003

June - Microsoft Xbox $120
November - Sony Playstation 2 $120
December - Gameboy Advance SP $100

2004

January - Nintendo Entertainment System $40
January - Super Nintendo $30
January - Sega Saturn v2 #2 $30
June - Sega Dreamcast #3 $30
September - Sega Genesis $30
November - Nintendo 64 Black w/o expansion pack $20
November - Nintendo DS - $150

Total: $1540
+ $35.71 sales tax (5.5%)
----------------------
$1575.71

Monday, November 22, 2004

Oldschool games + controllers




NES (4 Game Cartridges, 6 playable games)

History of Ownership:

I bought the NES and SNES at the same time in January 2004. Since then I’ve collected 6 NES games and 12 SNES games. I wanted a NES so I could play the original authentic Super Mario Bros on an authentic NES. The game was free with the console along with the 2 controllers. I believe I bought both Super Mario 2 and 3 and Mega Man for 12 dollars each. I played the NES a lot for about a month, and than stopped playing it. I am a graphics enthusiast. I won’t put 100 dollars into a system that has been died for 12 years! I realize that some people do – but it’s my money and I rather spend it on current generation videogame consoles. I hardly have any money to spend on anything.

SNES is a slightly different story. I bought a SNES in January along with Super Mario World. When I got home, I remember Super Mario World did not work. I thought it was the console, but I found out that it was because the cartridge has never been cleaned with a swab and pure alcohol. When I cleaned the cartridge a lot of dark stuff came off of the cartridge feed! I clean all my cartridges now. All of them should play like new. The most expensive game I bought for SNES has to be Super Mario RPG for 50 dollars. When the game was new in 1996 -- I hear it was 70 dollars. That is way too much for a game. It is that much because it’s pretty rare used like it is. Not as rare as Mega Man X2 or Mega Man X3, but just as rare as Final Fantasy 2 and Final Fantasy 3. I am happy I had a chance of owning Super Mario RPG. It’s considered to be one of the best games and a 10 in the graphics department. SMRPG uses a decompression chip inside the cartridge called the SG-1 which decompresses data inside the cartridge amongst other things. It is said to be a cut-down version of the SNES main CPU which explains why it was more than average SNES games at the time. I knew exactly how it played because I collect Super NES ROMs and that game happened to be one I tested out with an emulator. I must have spent 200 dollars on SNES games. I don’t believe I’ll add any more. It’s a fine system, but I want games for other consoles too. Plus, wouldn’t you agree that 12 games is a healthy amount?

Sega Genesis I got 2 months ago for 40 dollars and I got Sonic 2 for free. Toyriffic had so many copies of Sonic and Sonic 2 that they just give them to new owners. It’s rarer for someone to buy a used old school console like Genesis at their store so they have a hard time selling them. Ironically, Game Stop had clear its inventory of Genesis games because they couldn’t make them sell. I bought a Genesis so I could play Contra Hard Corps on an authentic Genesis. It was fun but now it’s in a box. One thing that Toyriffic have done which didn’t cost me anything is they’ve cleaned the console feed and the console itself. When I got a Nintendo, Super Nintendo and Genesis – the console feeds were really clean from the start. Luckily, I got mine in good condition.

Total money spent on SNES : $250
Total money spent on SNES $70
Total money spent on Genesis $100

I almost thought twice about owning a Sega Genesis. The reason is I would have to buy games for it. I only spent 100 dollars total both on Genesis hardware and software. And if you’re thinking why don’t I spend money on a Sega Master’s System. My answer to you would be “No way Man!”

Nintendo Entertainment System

platform 3
shooting 1
action 1
sports 1
retro 6

1a.) Super Mario Bros.
1b.) Duck Hunt
1c.) Track and Field
2.) Super Mario Bros. 2
3.) Super Mario Bros. 3
4.) Mega Man 2

SNES (12 game cartridges /w 14 Playable games)

platform 8
shooters 3
racing 1
RPG 3
retro 15

1.) Super Mario World
2a.) Super Mario Bros. (Super Mario All Stars)
2b.) Super Mario Bros 2 (SMAS)
2c.) Super Mario Bros 3 (SMAS)
2d.) Super Mario Bros The Lost Worlds (SMAS exclusive)
3.) Super Mario Kart
4.) Legend of Zelda - Link to the Past
5.) Secret of Mana
6.) Donkey Kong Country
7.) Super Mario World 2 : Yoshi's Island
8.) Star Fox
9.) Super Metroid
10.) Donkey Kong Country 3
11.) Contra III - Alien Wars
12.) Super Mario RPG - Legend of the Seven Stars

Sega Genesis (2 cartridges)

platform 1
shooter 1

1.) Sonic the Hedgehog 2
2.) Contra Hard Corps

PSone/N64/Dreamcast Collections


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Playstation (30 Game Cases, 38 playable Games total)

History of Ownership:

Playstation:

I believe the reason I waited until 2002 to get a Sony PSone is that I was a loyal Nintendo fan. I bought a Nintendo 64, Dreamcast and Gamecube, and GBA before the PSone. I wanted the RPGs! I wanted to own all the Final Fantasys out for it! When I got 3/4s of the Final Fantasy games, I bought some other RPGs like Chrono Cross and Vagrant Story. Then I collected Castlevania Symphony of the Night because I hear that game was very well designed.

I finished Legend of Dragoon, Chrono Cross and Final Fantasy 8 before I really didn’t play it any longer. Now there are so many RPGs out for PS2 including Final Fantasy X (the reason why I bought a PS2). You can see my history of owning PS2 in that post. PSone was actually I rush to get as many good games for it at 11 to 30 dollars each. The most I ever paid for a PSone game was Final Fantasy Chronicles which was 50 dollars in 2002.

RPG 21
shooter 7
racing 3
platform 2
fighters 2
retro 6

1.) Colony Wars
2.) Colony Wars : Vengence
3.) Crash Bandicoot 2
4.) Crash Bandicoot - Warped
5.) Mega Man X6
6.) Mega Man X4
7.) Mega Man Legends II
8.) Metal Slug X
9.) Dino Crisis
10.) Dino Crisis 2
11a.) Final Fantasy V (Final Fantasy Chronicles)
11b.) Final Fantasy VI (Final Fantasy Chronicles)
12a.) Final Fantasy (Final Fantasy Origins)
12b.) Final Fantasy II (Final Fantasy Origins)
13a.) Chrono Trigger (Final Fantasy Athology)
13b.) Final Fantasy IV (Final Fantasy Athology)
14.) Final Fantasy 7
15.) Final Fantasy 8
16.) Final Fantasy 9
17.) Star Ocean - The Second Story
18.) Vagrent Story
19.) Tekken 2
20a.) R4: Ridge Racer Type 4
20b.) Ridge Racer
21.) Tale of Destiny
22.) Chrono Cross
23.) Xenogears
24.) Grand Theft Auto 2
25.) Gran Turismo 2
26.) Castlevania Sythphony of the Night
27.) Legend of Dragoon
28.) Legend of Mana
29a.) Arc the Lad (Arc the Lad Collection)
29b.) Arc the Lad II (AtLC)
29c.) Arc the Lad III (AtLC)
29d.) Arc the Lad Tournament (ATLC)
30.) The King of Fighters '99 Evolution



Nintendo 64: First console of the videogame legacy

Nintendo 64 was what started my interest in 3D games or Nintendo games for that matter. When I got a N64 Super Mario 64 was still wanted. A year after it’s release – N64 games were 70 dollars! I bought Super Mario 64 for that amount. I also had Mario Kart 64 which soon to be the most played N64 game I had. Around the 6 or 7th game I got my first first person shooter and that game was Goldeneye. I must have had heard rumors in elementary school that Goldeneye was a great title to own. I heard right! It’s one of RAREWARE’s most famous games. My cousin and I played a lot of this game. Through out 1998 and 1999 I was a fan of the two Extreme G games. The fast paced action along with the techno in the game made the game cool. Remember, 64-bit graphics was really awesome in 1998. In 2000, my cousin and I played a Perfect Dark along with multiplayer Dreamcast games.

 photo n64collection.jpg Nintendo 64 (22 Games)

platform 5
shooter 7
RPG 2
racing 7
first person shooters 4

1.) Super Mario 64
2.) Mario Kart 64
3.) Donkey Kong 64
4.) Banjo and Kazooie
5.) Banjo and Tooie
6.) Conker's Bad Fur Day
7.) Wave Race 64
8.) Goldeneye 007
9.) Perfect Dark
10.) Duke Nukem 64
11.) Copper Attack
12.) Crusin USA
13.) Legend of Zelda Orcania of Time
14.) Legend of Zelda Majora's Mask
15.) Extreme G
16.) Extreme G 2
17.) Turok 2 - Seeds of Evil
18.) Star Wars - Shadows of the Empire
19.) Star Wars - Rogue Squadron
20.) Star Wars Episode 1 Racer
21.) Nascar '99
22.) Star Fox 64
23.) Castlevania 64


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The first console capable of high resolution graphics. I remember that Dreamcast on 9.9.99 was the only console capable of high resolution 3D in my house. I made a website on Gamecube and Dreamcast called NDX Productions. NDX stands for Nintendo Dolphin Xtreme News Page. I was about 14 years old at the time. I was pretty amazed at the Sonic Adventure game which I downloaded in Quicktime. I played Sonic Adventure and completed all the character’s story. My second game was Air Force Delta – a flight simulator that was very good. My 3rd game for Dreamcast was Speed Devils. My cousin and I played this game a lot. I was very fun. Then sometime last year Speed Devils stopped working because it has a big scratch in it. GDs are strange because you can’t bring in the game and remove the scratch. Dreamcast was a big leap forward because for once I had CD quality sound in my TV. PS gamers have already gone through this stage, but it took me until 1999 to hear what digital game CD quality audio sounds like. I was just amazed in 1999 at the quality of music. Again I went from the midi sounding N64 to the CD quality audio Dreamcast. I will never hear something that amazing again. Sound will not improve – to the human ear – Dreamcast sounds exactly like an Gamecube or Xbox sound wise.

I got into RPGs with Grandia 2. I completed Grandia 2 in 2000. It was an amazing experience. I have played RPGs before on PC like Diablo 2, but this was much higher resolution than Diablo 2. Dreamcast had a web browser and I downloaded game saves off Planetweb.com. With Action Replays allowing you to download updates via broadband connection – there is no need for a web browser. Although I wouldn’t be surprised if the British game code cracker Dattel (makers of Action Replay) won’t add it into Action Replay Evo Edition 2.0. I also enjoyed Soul Caliber in 1999 and was my first 3D fighting game and certainly wasn’t my last. That was very highly detailed game. It wowed me in 1999. I stopped supporting Dreamcast early this year. My last game is Record of Lacross War. RoLW is a Diablo clone.

Today I don’t play Dreamcast as much – but now I have 3 Dreamcasts. It is fun to know I supported Sega in it’s final years. Sega still exists – but it’s not the same. We were all confused why Sega wouldn’t speak after E3 2001. Little did I know – they became a 3rd party developer. I mean I heard the rumors, but I was shocked at first when I had red Sega’s statement at IGN. I was hoping for a Dreamcast 2. I underestimated the big hit at Sega due to piratcy. Now Sega is now "Sega Sammy Corperation".

Sega Dreamcast (3x consoles) (40 Games)

Platform 5
RPG 5
driving 13
shooters 5
military jet simulations 2
athletic sports 1
puzzle 1
fighters 5

1.) Sonic Adventure (2x)
2.) Sonic Adventure 2
3.) Daytona USA (Dreamcast Verison of Daytona USA 2)
4.) NFL 2K
5.) Grandia 2
6.) Skies of Arcadia
7.) Resident Evil 2
8.) Resident Evil 3
9.) Resident Evil Code Veronica
x.) Dreamcast Web Browser 2.0
10.) Crazy Taxi
11.) Crazy Taxi 2
12.) Marvel Vs Capcom
13.) The Next Tetris Online
14.) Record of Lacross War
15.) Marvel Vs Capcom 2
16.) Ecco the Dolphin Defender of the Future
17.) Rush 2049
18.) Soul Caliber
19.) F1 World Grand PRix
x.) Dreamcast Demo Disk
20.) Rayman 2
21.) Typing of the Dead
22.) F355 Challenge
23.) Tony Hawk Pro Skater
24.) SEga Rally 2
25.) Test Drive V-Rally
26.) Test Drive Le Mans
27.) Dead or Alive 2
28.) Fatal Fury Mark of the Wolves
29.) Speed Devils
30.) Vanishing Point
31.) Phantasy Star Online Episode 1
32.) Street Fighter 3 Alpha
33.) Hydro Thunder
34.) Shenmue
35.) Tomb Raider The Last Revelation
36.) Legency of Kain Soul Reaver
37.) AeroWings 2
38.) Toyko Extreme Racer
39.) Air Force Delta

PC Collection/GBA collection




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PC (66 games plus expansion packs)

RPG (without expansions) 14
first person shooters (without expansions) 24
Atheletic Sports 3
action (without expansions) 46

1.) Doom 3
2a.) Battlefield 1942
2b.) Battlefield 1942 - Road to Rome
2c.) Battlefield 1942 - Secret Weapons of World War II
3.) GTA Vice City
4.) Freelancer
5.) Sexy Beach II
6.) Yu-gi-sa card game
7.) No One Lives Forever 2
8.) Oni
9.) Giants - Citizen Kabuto
10.) Final Fantasy VII
11.) Star Trek - Elite Force II
12.) 007: Everything or Nothing
13a.) Neverwinter Nights
13b.) Neverwinter Nights Hordes of the Underdark
13c.) Neverwinter Nights Shadows of Idrenule
14.) Star Wars - Knights of the Old Republic
15.) Baldur's Gate
16.) Baldur's Gate 2
17.) Unreal 2
18.) Dungeon Siege
19a.) Diablo
19b.) Diablo Hellfire
20a.) Diablo 2
20b.) Diablo 2 - Lord of Destruction
21.) Warcraft 2 Battle Set Special Edition
22.) Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos
23a.) Anarchy Online
23b.) Anarchy Online Notum Wars
23c.) Anarchy ONline Shadowlands
24a.) Final Fantasy XI
24b.) Final Fantasy XI Rise of Zilart
25a.) Elder Scrolls 3 Morrowind
25b.) Elder Scrolls 3 Morrowind Expansion - Tribunal
25c.) Elder Scrolls 3 Morrowind Expansion - Bloodmoon
26.) Halo Combat Evolved
27.) Call of Duty
28a.) Metal of Honor Allied Assault
28b.) Metal of Honor Allied Assault Spearhead
29.) Return to Castle Wolfenstine
30.) Unreal Tournament Game of the Year Edition
31a.) The Sims Delux
31b.) The Sims Unleased
32.) Iceland Dale
33.) Iceland Dale 2
34.) Vampire Masquerade
35.) Max Payne
36.) America's Army v1.5, 2.0a
37.) Unreal Gold Edition
38.) Black and White
39.) Oregon Trail 2
40.) Microsoft's Combat Sim
41.) Falcon 4.0
42.) Unreal Tournament 2003
43.) Unreal Tournament 2004
44.) Simcity 2000
45.) Simcity 3000
46.) Simcity 4
47.) Hexen
48.) Duke Nukem 3D
49.) Dungeon Keeper
50.) Dungeon Keeper 2
51.) Quake 3
52.) American Mcgee's Alice
53.) Undying
54.) Need for Speed
55.) Need for Speed III
56.) Need for Speed Porshe Unleashed
57.) Need for Speed Underground
58.) Madden 2001
59.) Tiger Woods PGA Golf Tour 2001
60.) Triple Play 2001
61.) Spellforce: Order of the Dawn
62.) Sid Myers Alpha Centauri
63.) Soldier of Fortune Platinum Edition
64.) Deus Ex
65.) Theif
66.) The Sims 2 DVD Special Edition
67.) Half-Life 2 DVD edition

Gameboy Advance (5 playable games)

action 1
racing 1
platform 1
RPG 2
retro 1

1.) Super Mario Advance
2.) Mario Kart Super Circuit
3.) Fire Emblem Advance
4.) Golden Sun 2: The Lost Age
5.) Castlevania - Circle of the Moon

Sunday, November 21, 2004

I.Q.B. ver. 2.0.8 update | More VG Pictures!

My latest compiled html of Ian's Quintessential Blog is online. In this version, I made a new logo featuring Link and that girl from Final Fantasy 12 which I also had in Renegade Viking's Webpage 7.0. I fixed some color links. In 2.0.9 I will make small pings and force the fonts to get bigger. I can make them small enough where each png linking to a hyperlink is only 0.5 KB. That should be small enough for fast loading.


Ian's Quintessential Blog 2.0.8

Full list of features History.txt

- new logo (featuring Dark Link and that hot chick from Final Fantasy 12)
- better quality information graphics
- changed text on right side to blue instead of green



Updated Videogame collection post to 1.16!

Click Here

To see some updated pictures of my personal collection copy and Paste these URLs into your browser's address bar! I have added all my PC boxes and Gameboy Advance games.

http://www.angelfire.com/blog2/renegadeviking/gbacollection.jpg
http://www.angelfire.com/blog2/renegadeviking/pccollection1.jpg
http://www.angelfire.com/blog2/renegadeviking/pccollection2.jpg

The past week I’ve been scanning Catharton boards for a good conversation. There are others like me who just want to talk about videogames and videogame systems. It’s great because they don’t exclude anyone. The Administrator talks to me a lot and I wonder if this is his primary hobby. I have 80 posts on there and he has 18,500 posts. There is a slight difference there. He’s very educated about videogame culture. I learned he lives in Britain. He told me I had a brilliant avatar. He really is determined to promote his message board to other gamers around the world.

Few Internet updates are as follows.

1. I did update my videogame post. The number has now reached 340 games.
2. I.Q.B has now reached version 2.0.8. I changed the logo again. Updated some links. I took snap shots of my PC and GBA videogames. Plus after I come back from the game store – take a picture of some PS2/Xbox games as well. It’s been a month already.
3. added a few more “Gaming Links” to this blog, the newest is Catharton

I’ve been playing Star Ocean 3: Till the End of Time on Friday night into Saturday morning. I think I’m into chapter 2. There are about 6 chapters in the game. It’s fun to cheat via Action Replay, but cheating takes the fun out of spending 1 minute on every battle. With the level enhancing cheat – I can whoop ass in 25 seconds. I repeatedly hit the X button and the circle button to attack. The bonuses I get from the game add to my character’s damage.

Metriod Prime 2 Echoesis out and I plan to get it. My point is from owners prospective – Metriod Prime 2 Echoes reached the same score as Legend of Zelda the Wind Waker. Games just can not buy friends. Friends do not show up at my doorstep. My friend went deer hunting today. Humph. No fun at-tal. The story is about continues exactly after the first one finished. Samus is put into a planet with two alternate dimensions. The world is caught into a struggle between good and evil. At this point – the evil side is winning. The alternate dimension is where you get obtain weapons that do damage to evil characters in the good dimension. It looks great – I am going to get it.

I read Metal Gear Solid 3 Snake Eater for the first time and realized that it beat Metroid Prime 2 by one stinking point! However, MGS3 uses the PS2’s hardware to the limit while Metroid Prime 2 only got 9/10 in the visual department. I am hoping that the 9.0 of Metroid Prime two years ago isn’t the same quality as Metroid Prime 2. The site did say that Metriod Prime 2 has better texturing than Metroid Prime which is a big deal because no game can match the prequel’s quality of textures. It sounds cool because it has multiplayer in it. Maybe if Nintendo asks real nice – Konami will port Metal Gear Solid 3 to Gamecube. They’ve got Konami to port MGS and MGS2 to Gamecube didn’t they? That would be beeping awesome if they had. I already know Konami is in the works of a PC version. MGS2 was strange because it came too all platforms including PC and MAC.

Though I am more a Samus fan than a Solid Snake fan so it’d be easy for me to spend my dollars on a Samus game. I swear – why do all the highly anticipated games come out within 1 week of each other? I don’t know – it beats the hell outta me. I only got done with half way through Half-life 2. I haven’t opened Halo 2 yet.

Here is how IGN.com scores the games from greatest to least:

GTA San Andreas – 9.9 out of 10 [status: bought]
Half-life 2 - 9.7 out of 10 [status: bought]
Halo 2 - 9.7 out of 10 [status: bought]
Metal Gear Solid 3 - 9.6 out of 10 [status: anticipation high]
Metroid Prime 2 - 9.5 out of 10 [status: anticipation high]

This is Ian signing out.

Friday, November 19, 2004

Rayging Blue & Idinaloq: Excellent freeware games

Today is the first full day of Thanksgiving Break. I went to WITC around 2PM so that I could get some extra credit. Anyways I wanted to download some interesting shooting games that I found about at Gamehippo.com. I have been interested in Radiant Silvergun and Radiant Slivergun 2: Ikaruga that I wanted more of it. I played a freeware game long time ago called Dieslave. It is very similar to Ikaruga. You can see Radiant Silvergun 2 under Gamecube at my game collection entry. It is a 2D shooter

I found some pretty cool Japanese freeware games that do this as well The most awesome is a hard to find zip file – I found it though. It took me 40 minutes.

First I like to mention Rayging Blue. It supports as good of graphics as Radiant Silvergun. There is no option to raise to resolution. It supports loads of intense action . It comes with more than 3 levels. A midi soundtrack that is above average and control is simple. You use the arrows to control the ship and the Z and X button to use the primary and secondary weapon you obtain by collecting power ups that you get by shooting enemies.




I think the graphics are very good for a freeware game of this type. Easily a 32-bit game. Not a 16-bit game. The techno in the game takes some getting use too.

Graphics 9 (as good as it gets with a freeware game these days)
Sound 8
Gameplay 9.5
Replay Value 7

One last thing....Rayging Blue II is confirmed to be released in January 2005 and this address will have it when it is. Find this game at http://www.nifty.com/download/win/game/shoot/




The second is Idinaloq. It's developer is much like Treasure and it's name is Namikaze Project. The game was released in 2000 as shareware, however, now the game is free. It comes with an optional MPEG intro video and ending video (credits) I could not get the game to work if the movie was placed in the Mov folder in the game folder. The game is low-res 3D. The game has more detail than other freeware titles that do the same thing. This game looks 32-bit too. played it – it plays good. It looks slightly better than Rayging Blue Download address:

I do not think this is shall be compared to a retail game. This game doesn’t have the level of quality of graphics or the game play. The sound is a little tricky. It averages about the same as a typical SNES RPG.

Graphics 8.5
Sound 8
Gameplay 9.5
Replay Value 7

Find this game at http://www.gamehippo.com/download1/download1_707.shtml

I also have even stranger Japanese games. One is called Embodiment of Scarlet Devil. The other is Perfect Cherry Blossom. Both are so damn weird, that I won’t play them. Both games are translated into English from Japanese. Game play is at the level of Rayging Blue in terms of fun. It is made by Shanghai Alice, a shareware independent developer. If you're absolutely obsessed with shooting games – download these two.

To download these games:
1.) Go to Google.com
2.) Type in Shanghai Alice
3.) hit the top link but translate it with the translate option.

Thursday, November 18, 2004

NASA breaks the world speed record - again

NASA builds an aircraft that brakes world speed record. One aircraft that is famous for being 10 years ahead of it’s time is the SR-71 Blackbird which broke the last speed record of 3 MACH. The X43 is an unmanned rocket plane. Once the jet fuel was depleted, the aircraft crashed in the Pacific Ocean like it was suppose to. The future of this would be one that could land and be reusable. The SR-71 was great because it could be used as a reconnaissance plane. It is the successor of the U2 space craft which flown in the 60s for reconnaissance pictures over Russia in the cold war. It could fly so high that Russian SAMS could not shoot it down, but effectually the SAMS did. It must have scared the heck out of the Soviets. The U2 spy plane is still in service for NASA. It is the 2nd longest airplane in service except for the B52 Bomber. The SR-71 Blackhawk was in service for a long time too. Anyways, that super sonic aircraft that broke the world speed record was the X-43 (rocket plane) at Mach 7. NASA is also building the X-43A which is supposed to go MACH 10.

More information

Above Top Secret

Here are some other strange American Aircraft and a paragraph about each

U2 Spy Plane



Famous for taking pictures of military zones in Russia. It had the ability to fly high and around the world. It’s interesting that it’s the 2nd longest commissioned plane in the world. Most facts about the plane is top secret. It does have the longest wings I’ve ever seen. It first went into service in 1951 (at the beginning of the cold war) when presently I survives to still be commissioned to this day. Upgraded of course with latest safety features and ejection seat. . It top seed is 478 miles per hour or MACH 0.58. Maximum altitude is 70,000 feet. That is the main purpose of the aircraft. Great for use in hurricane surveys. It can fly well above the hurricane to take pictures of wind speed which way it’s going. I wouldn’t doubt the United States Weather Service used this plane for this purpose. The wing span is very long 105 feet. You must have long wings to keep the plane from stalling at high altitude.

The U2 Spy Plane has one the highest mission completion rates in the U.S. Air Force despite the fact that the aircraft is the most difficult to fly due to its unusually challenging takeoff and landing characteristics. Due to its high-altitude mission, the pilot must wear a full pressure suit.

U2 II – SR71 Blackbird



Used in the 70s and 80s for the same exact purposes as U2. One interesting thing about this aircraft is it broke the world speed record in the 1980s. It could also go Mach 3 and used early stealth. The blackbird wasn’t used for any military purposes except in Operation Desert Storm in 1993. The US Government only unclassified that Stealth bombers were used in Operation Desert Storm, however, didn’t say if there was a reconnaissance plane involved or not. To some people – it remains the greatest aircraft ever made. The plane was very expensive (mostly because it had older technology that newer technology could do at a fraction of the cost.)

U2 III – Project: Aurora




A government project that is supposed to be in service presently in place of the SR71 Blackbird. There is no information that it does exist. Rumors are that it can go Mach 3 – Mach 7 or twice as fast as the Blackbird. Rest is classified. There was an article in Space and Technology Magazine which discussed Aurora in depth, but no one believed it apparently.

he name "Aurora" came about from a 1986 Pentagon Budget document and was slotted to receive a large sum of money. The project is suspected to contain two aircraft: a large SST that is the first stage of a two-stage aircraft/satellite launcher possibly developed following the Challenger explosion in 1986, and a smaller triangular HST that has been even more reported and speculated about. It is said to be the most remarkable flying machine ever built and is seen as the epitome of a century of aerospace development! I originally did this project for FS5 when I noticed an article in Popular Science in 1993 and later on bought the XR-7 Thunderdart plastic model kit (based on Aurora) by Testers Corp. Testers also made the SR-75 Penetrator model kit which is what my version is somewhat based upon. Since the true designations and confirmed existence are unknown, I used the same numbers as the kits since they make some sense, however those silly names will NOT be used. Since this is the largest project I have ever done, and all previous sims couldn't allow for the planes to be done properly it has taken several years of spare time to get to this point, therefore I have broken it down into several parts. The two main sections will deal with each aircraft:

Tuesday, November 16, 2004

"Half-life 2 aftermath"



I have bought this game and later today after school I will play to give a review. At Wal-mart there was a shelf full of 3 box art (same game) One was Gordan Freeman. Another was the girl, and the 3rd was "The Old Guy"

I waited a long time to get this game. There is also a Platium edition where you get Half-life 1 - Source. Counter Stirke - Source, Half-life 2, and a free T-shirt for 70 dollars. Best Buy has that deal. Actually I drove into Hudson and there were few cars out. I didn't hit any deer when I got back. You also see my "legal" copy of Halo 2! It is unopened. I didnt' buy it the first day like Half-life 2, like I said I got it at Game Stop the day after the store sold 500 copies the first day.

Shall I play the PC game or the Xbox game....decisions.....hmm.......

Monday, November 15, 2004

First 3 audio reviews | HL2 out in 11.5 hours

First of all I like to announce that I’ve experimented with compressed audio – and my first 3 audio reviews of PS2, Gamecube and Gameboy Advance are available. Don’t worry about download time as all 3 are less than 1 MB.

Copy and Paste these URLs in your browser's address bar:

http://iansblog.0catch.com/gamecubereview.ogg
http://iansblog.0catch.com/ps2review.ogg
http://iansblog.0catch.com/gameboyadvancereview.ogg


Official Half-life 2 Site
IGNPC's four page Preview

Half-life 2 comes out at midnight tonight at Wal-Mart and I'll be there when it is. I called ahead and know that there are copies in back-storage. I've been waiting all year for this one. HL2 the best selling PC game ever. Wasn’t the last one Diablo 2, my favorite game or was it The Sims - one of the two? It’s the highly anticipated first person shooter which is the sequel to the Half-life expansion Blue Shift. Half-life 2 is coming in DVD form with enhanced versions of Half-life and Counter Strike. IGN.com said that the game shipped today. I’m skipping out on Metriod Prime 2 for god’s sake so I could afford this ONE game. Sorry - Samus, but Gordon Freeman on my computer is much more important. I stuck a note on my monitor so I wouldn’t forget. With Half-life: Source packaged in – this package will not be short. Only problem is although the multi-play is FREE, I have a 56K modem. I mean I’ll try it out to see how well it plays over my slow connection – I doubt I will have a playable game. These games probably need a lot of bandwidth since there is a lot of action going on. I am expecting the retail version to be playable, but somewhat buggy. Valve will not be releasing patches like it was for Half-life. The full 1.0 - 1.11 patch for Half-life was a whopping 110 Megabytes – that is a lot larger than what it shall be now. Valve completed the game over 2 months ago. Valve should have a patch ready this week. I heard Valve gave select beta testers the retail version and the first patch. Back 6 months ago when Valve confirmed an Internet Link of the retail version – I looked on the pear2pear unities and shockingly, Half-life 2 was on them. The beta was leaked on Emule and Overnet.

I feel that Half-life 2 will have succeeded where ID Software failed in Doom 3. Quake 3 was great. Return to Castle Wolfenstine was great. Doom 3 wasn't so great. It was good - but not very good. Doom II is so old - like 1994 so it's 10 years older. I was 9 when Doom II came out. I was 19 when Doom 3 came out. Doom 3 has more Quake II in it than Doom II. Meanwhile - while I own Quake 3 and Doom 3 - I am not very clear on how Doom 3 could possibly be bad. I am a casual gamer - one whom plays periodically. Half-life 2 will probably play much tighter than Doom 3. Its difficulty will exceed Doom 3. Monsters hiding in the dark to feed on an un-expecting pray (me) will be twice as bad. Not to say Doom 3 on hard wasn't that way. Hard in Half-life 2 will bring Hard to a new meaning. Hardcore First person shooter fans will be stuck on normal in HL2 from what I hear on the forums.

I heard Valve favored ATI in development. That means my Radeon 9800 XT will be able to show most of the effects that Valve shown at E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo). I don't think I'll be able to show it off at 1600x1200, but I can try to get 1200x968 at 4x anti-analyzing with nSync on the game. Perhaps if I let the software acceleration take over - I can get it up to 1600x1200. My point is my computer was absolutely near top of the line at the end of last year and since than I've added 1 DVD-RW and 1024 MB of SDRAM. I guess you could have spent 1000 dollars on a videocard too. Games wouldn't need that kind of gigaflop performance anyways. My guess is I can do around 20 Gigaflops. Xbox is about 10 but it's max resolution is 1200x768.

I feel bad that I am not one of those people with high-speed Internet. For those who have it – it’s part of daily life. I do have access to a T1 line though. Kazaa Lite is a big problem for WITC. The technicians have problems of the servers maxing out at 1:30 AM once in a while. I found out a few months ago that Overnet works well on it. Overnet uses the eDonkey 2000 servers. It’s mostly made up of Class C IP addresses though some are class B IP addresses. It’s possible to get some of the smaller downloads through Overnet.

Class A - 1 – 126
127 – looping address
Class B – 128 – 191
Class C – 192 – 268
Class D - 269 and above (more private use)

My ISP looks like a Class A address. It starts with 69.58.xxx.xx. That’s probably because they service DSL to 100s of subscribers around my county.

This game will never be forgotten. - Until Half-life 3 comes out.... This game will never be forgotten. - Until Half-life 3 comes out and maybe then - because Half-life 3 will have upgrade versions of Half-life 1 and 2 packaged with it....

Friday, November 12, 2004

Interesting "Sega Xenon" Rumors



I read some rumors that Microsoft was going to buy Sega so that Microsoft Xenon could sell in countries where Xbox is 1%. Sega actually did better in these parts of the world than Microsoft did. These countries are also heavily pirate software areas of the world and it's hard to copy games for Xbox unlike Playstation 2. The idea is Sega will have their logo on the next generation console where Xbox wouldn't have a chance of selling. It goes way back when Atari was about to manufacture the NES under the name of "Atari Famicom" here in the US, but they didn't want too so it became the Nintendo Entertainment System. Big mistake for Atari. LOL Atari Jaguar was a big flop. No one remembers Jaguar. I've seen one though up close and touched the packaging box. :)

Sega was bought out by Sammy Corp of Japan as of 2003. Sammy makes a lot of arcade games. The most noticeable is Guilty Gear X. It's odd because although they are together, Sammy allows Sega to release all the North American and European games under SEGA. Microsoft would either have to buy Sammy Corporation or give them an offer they couldn't refuse.

I have a feeling that when Sega wanted to survive and went 3rd party - there might be a possibility that Nintendo will also go 3rd party and when they do - Microsoft can give them an offer again. Keep in mind - Sega wasn't making a profit and went bankrupt - declaring bankruptcy. Sammy bought out Sega one year after 'software only Sega' was officially started. Media companies merge all the time. Think AOL/Time Warner or Squaresoft and Enix.

Sega officially announcing the "SEGA Xbox Xenon" has a nice ring to it. ....with 80% of the software revenues going to Microsoft. It would be nice if we saw Virtua Fighter 5 or 6 on Xbox Xenon.

Lets say it were true. Microsoft contracts with Sammy Corp so it can be labeled Sega Xbox Xenon in Asia, Japan, Africa, and South America. Microsoft Xbox Xenon in North America, Europe, and Australia. All the little islands are contracted under the correct regions. It could go a step further calling the Sega versions "Dreamcast 2s" with an addition of a second laser in the dvd drive so it could read Dreamcast games. Dreamcast games are GDROMS but I techicially there could be dual lazers where one would read GDs and the other reads HD-DVDs, DVDs, CDs. I don't now if Dreamcast can be emulated or not. Chankast is supposed to do this on Windows XP so I guess it is possible. This way there would be nothing besides the software and the GD-ROM laser which would mechanically move 5 degrees that would be added to the Microsoft Xenon so it would be backwards compatible with Dreamcast games.

Check out http://Chanka.org and see what I mean.

Microsoft buying Sega is really dumb. Sega already made good games on Xbox. If Microsoft want's a particular game that badly, they can publish it. It's a hell a lot cheaper than buying Sega as a whole.

May I add one more thing about this.... IT WILL NOT HAPPEN!!! EVER!!!!

Thursday, November 11, 2004

Under the hood of Gamecube

Okay, we already know that this costs 100 dollars retail price right? I imagine it costs Nintendo 60 - 70 dollars more than 100 dollars. The profit is made on Games. Now if PS2 could ever look this good. Nintendo used every popular way to fit everything into a small box. So I did see a cooling fan on the right side checkered opening on the Gamecube. Xbox, PS2, and Dreamcast also have one. One thing I know from building PCs....you can extend the life of your hardware a lot by adding a system fan. Nintendo wanted to ensure that the Gamecube wouldn't overheat thus not freeze like Playstation. The guy who wrote the page admired the flip-top mini-disc drive! It looks like Gamecube was inspired by Dreamcast and that makes me wonder how much Dreamcast inspiration went into Gamecube? A lot. Nintendo's R&D3 also knew how they could excercise the graphics to the limit for 200 dollars. When Nintendo chose IBM and gave the silicon manufacture giant one billion dollars to make a 485 MHz CPU - they've got something pretty darn nice in return although that's not all..... they've brought Panasonic, ATI/ArtX and the less famous Factor 5 into the picture too to create "Project Dolphin". Remember, Gamecube was $179 at launch and the rest would be made up by selling software. We all found out what the expansion port was used for!



CPU heatseek of the Gamecube My server
Disc drive cable connecting to motherboard below My server
Gamecube motherboard bottom My server
Gamecube motherboard Top My server

Now the second part is a little difficult. Nintendo makes a special Gamecube called the "NPDP Gamecube" In place of the minidisc drive is a cartridge which developers can put their data on. It is rewritable too. This gamecube also comes with 48MB of RAM instead of the normal 24 MB. I think I heard on the site that the NPDP cartridge can hold 4 1.8 GB normal disc images. This is essentially only a developer's kit in case you were wondering.

NPDP Gamecube My server
NPDP cartridge My server

I finally found a picture of the Gameboy Player made by Intellegent Systems, a 2nd party of Nintendo. It allows Gameboy Advance to be played on the TV. This one is made for Nintendo 64.

Gameboy Advance hardware for N64 My server | 132 KB
Gameboy Advance hardware for N64 My server | 154 KB
Gameboy Advance hardware for N64 My server | 154 KB

Wednesday, November 10, 2004

I bought Halo 2 today | Halo for Mac?

Oh my god… I just found out that Halo was out for MAC and it’s published by Apple! Halo is on a non-Microsoft platform. That’s amazing. It can run on MAC OS 9 and 10. But Microsoft played the devil’s avocet when it came to giving Halo back to Mac. As for Halo 2…read below.

Today I just got a piece of history. A very, very, very small piece. Halo 2 sold 500 games at the Woodbury Game Stop the first day in preorders. It is a very profitable game. It’s by far the best selling videogame this year. Halo 2 has only been out for 2 days and already it sold 500,000 copies. That means in a week it will sell over a million. I found out that Halo 2 is much, much more anticipated than Metroid Prime 2: Echoes. I found out – it’s not really people dislike Samus. Some believe including me that Master Chief’s arch-nemesis is Samus Aran and vice versa. Game quality is hardly an issue here when comparing Halo 2 and Metroid Prime 2. Would you rather play as a marine that saves humanity or a bounty hunter that saves humanity? Some say Halo was better because it had multiplayer. Well boys and girls….Metriod Prime 2 has death match, capture the flag, team deathmatch, sniper area and it’s online. Nintendo did much better than you’d expect from a first attempt. They tried to put the “Goldeneye” into “Prime 2” and give Samus a fighting chance at sales.

By the way I found this paragraph really funny.

“Mere weeks after E3 rumors were quickly circulating around the Halo enthusiast community that the unthinkable had happened and Microsoft had purchased Bungie. Though this wasn’t that much of a surprise as Microsoft had the spare cash and had been waiting in the wings looking for something to spend this cash they’d found behind their sofa to help the launch of their furniture piece console, the X-Box.” – Gamegossip.com

We all knew Microsoft wanted to keep the best games for PC (x86 to you geeks out there). I think they felt sorry about MAC gamers, after all some MAC gamers are also loyal Xbox fans so they gave them back the game. Somehow, Apple (also called MACsoft) got the go-ahead to publish Halo on their platform. I also find it ironic that Microsoft is using the powerful PowerPC platform, the Xenon. Hmmm, there might be a connection with this. Bill Gates said, “We’ll trade you Halo for use of your PowerPC technology on Xenon?” In my opinion Apple had nothing to loose….after all the Xenon will not have an Apple logo on it? Who would care? For all I know there could be Apple technology under that black case of the Xbox. The only reason I know Xbox is in fact x86 is I happen to know it’s powered by a Pentium 3. Pentium 3s aren’t used in PowerPCs.

Retro Studios

Developer of Metroid Prime is Retro Studios – a fully funded 2nd party developer of Nintendo. It’s probably the single largest Nintendo faction in the United States in terms of employees besides Nintendo of America. Retro is located in Austin, Texas. Over 200 employees worked on Metroid Prime 2. The founder of Retro, Jeff Spangenberg, was the founder of the developer who made Turo:k Dinosaur Hunter for Nintendo 64. Turok 2 got a 9.2 out of 10 when IGN.com reviewed the game. It was also a favored version over the PC game of the same name. Last year he left Retro Studios to form Topheavy Studios.

Bungie

Bungie is a new developer whose first game was Halo. What most of you don’t know is Bungie was making Halo for Macintosh and the game was going to be published by Apple. On June 9th 2000, Bungie became a 2nd party developer of Microsoft Game Studios and developed Halo for PC and Xbox. Like Retro Studios, their project sold so well that they have the ability to work to develop on game and be able to pay all the employees from the sales. Remember, Halo is not a Microsoft trademark – it is a Bungie trademark. Obviously Halo 2 online feature will add to the replay value 10 fold. Although the PC version of Halo had online multiplayer and it sold less than the Xbox version. Go-figure. Remember the PC version? The drag was lag in the PC Halo multiplayer via Internet. Halo was released for MAC under Microsoft Game Studios (now ironic).It was a much better LAN game. Halo for PC seemed a bit rushed. I mean when the PC version came out – everyone bought the Xbox version or bought an Xbox too play the Xbox version. I feel I was the only one who bought Halo twice. Including today I spent a total of 150 dollars on all games. Now Halo for PC is only 20 bucks….if you can find it.

Gearbox Software

Gearbox received their fame by being the co-developing the PC and MAC version of Halo. The graphics are better than Xboxes. The PC version had good reviews – mostly in the 8.5 – 9.5 range according to many Internet gaming sites. Now their next project is making Brothers of Arms which is really “Band of Brothers: The Game”. Brothers of Arms is coming out for PC/Gamecube/PS2/Xbox.

Tuesday, November 09, 2004

Do you like my new logo? Vote the poll

I was afraid it's too big. Samus is acting like "Superman". I thought it looked cool but that's just me. This is to celebrate the release of Metroid Prime 2 Echoes coming out on November 15, 2004.



I downloaded Paint Shop Pro 9 and it was well worth the 98MB download. The user interface looks exactly the same as PSP 8.0, but graphics codecs compress PNG, JPEG2000, GIF better than they did in PSP 8.0. I know because I did a test on some of other bloggers logos. The results were from 5KB - 12 KB difference. I have enough skill to use the magic wand and crop images out of desktop wallpaper and such to make logos such the one above and the one I just made.

Saturday, November 06, 2004

I bought GTA San Andreas bought yesterday!

Yep! I finally got the 5th Grand Theft Auto game for PS2 two days ago. Its full name doesn’t need introducing. I haven’t played it yet though. It’s supposed to surpass GTA: Vice City in all levels including city size. I used my birthday money on it. This makes 53 PS2 game cases. The 53rd game I bought yesterday. No one can come over so I can have a partner to share it with. I am all alone in my room. Then you ask, “Why don’t you do something else?” It’s very hard too if there isn’t anybody around here that you’d really know after high school which makes life in the basement a little crazier.


You control mouse "In Air"

I found out some interesting news everyone about next generation of mice. Gyration has this patented technology with mice that you hold and move, not move on the desk. The user holds the mouse and it uses wireless technology (radio frequency) to transmit the single off the TV back to it so the pointer on the screen moves as much as how far you move the “dual-axis consumer gyroscope.” Yes, it’s a mouse “in air™” – also called a gyroscope. Now Nintendo is going to use some type of gyroscope in the controller for the “NES5” or Nintendo Revolution. The NES4 was Nintendo Dolphin and soon changed its name to Nintendo Gamecube. I could picture a gyroscope being used in place of one joystick in my head, but all controllers with the current consoles have 2. It’s extremely hard to picture it as a game controller. The “Ultra GT Mouse” manufactured by Gyration uses a low-cost Gyroscope called the “MicroGyro 100”, and retails for 80 dollars. That’s cheap for this technology, but game controllers shouldn’t be any more than 30 dollars.

Here are some names I thought up for Revolution

Game-sphere
Gamecube 2 or GC2 or Cube2
Virtual-Sphere
Nintendo 256 or N256
Nintendo Dolphin? AKA also Gamecube’s code name
Nintendo isphere

This just in Revolution games will use Blu-ray mini-discs, but will also feature a normal dvd drive. This feature came straight out of the Panasonic Q which is a DVD/videogame machine in Japan that plays all Gamecube software.

If you haven’t noticed – there is basically the same stuff on all message boards that have the same topic – little originality. Few times – you’ll get something that hasn’t been said before. It’s really not my thing. And if the content is more right than someone else, it doesn’t take long for the new true content to hit other forums. I only added one comment on IGN Boards, which has some of the largest gaming boards on the Internet, next to Gamespy.com and Gamefaqs.com.

I had this hilarious conversation on IRC chat at ICQ.com. At first no ones talking okay because nobody was driving the conversation until I come along.

No one is talking about games on the #games channel until:
I start saying, “Xbox sucks”
Then someone replies, “No it doesn’t.”
Then I say, “Yes it does”
Then someone says Xbox has the best graphics.
I say, “No it doesn’t.
Then, I start saying, “Microsoft sucks”
Then someone says, “I like Microsoft”
Then I say “Windows 3.1 sucks. Windows 95 sucks. Windows 98 sucks. Windows 2000 sucks. Windows XP sucks” so Microsoft sucks.
They tell me to shut up.
Then I bring out the big guns and say, “PS2 rules because it has San Andreas and Devil May Cry and Gran Turismo 3!”
Then someone says, “I agree with you – “Xbox sucks”
Then I say, “Good”
The conversation than died.

This discussion turned out positive because I truly made the choices before in earlier forums, and I know what I’m talking about – plus most gamers who read the forums knows San Andreas is the most highly anticipated game for PS2. I was thinking that the game is too anticipated, but it’s hyped up because it’s nearly perfect on every level. I can’t believe that people want to run a small gang in the early 90s. The game soundtrack has real artists like 2Pac, Guns and Roses, Aerosmith, Coolio. 2Pac’s most popular track was “Changes” which is in the game. I am not a big rap fan, but in high school a lot of people loved 2PAC. My old friend, Chuck, liked him too. He was shot down by a moving car while walking on the street in real life in 1996. The game manual has a lot of naughty stuff in it too.

I just got Guilty Gear X CD at Game Stop yesterday. Rip off yes, but where around here am I going to have another chance at owning Guilty Gear X? I sort-a solved the problem by printing out the front and back covers from a website. At, Gamestop, the store person said it was very hard to come by. Guilty Gear X2 is even harder to come by. The reason why is the game is very nice high resolution 2D fighter with solid game play mechanics. The Xbox version was released mid-September and is by far the most abundant version of Guilty Gear X2. Guilty Gear X series has the best graphics of any 2D fighter out which is why it stands out. The textures are crisp unlike 32-bit version of Street Fighter or King of Fighters. The DC version of Guilty Gear X also was above the rest – prettier than Street Fighter Alpha 3 on Dreamcast. The Dreamcast version of the Guilty Gear X is harder to find than the PS2 version. I own the PS2 version. I am sure that my next PS2 game will be Guilty Gear Isuka.

Wednesday, November 03, 2004

Play NES or SNES games on N64? It's possible!


New Nintendo Spokesman | Debuted E3 2004 | crowd loved him?

Here is Nintendo’s new superstar I just found out today…..his name is Reginald Fils-Aime or “Reggie” and he’s Nintendo of America’s new male figure that shows that Nintendo is listening to what the gamers want, not what 3rd party developers are willing to put on Gamecube, and adds to that grown-up feeling Nintendo only recently showed at their press conferences. Anyways, at this year’s E3 2004, Reggie was the main reason Nintendo was a hit with some help of the unrevealing of their new handheld. The truth is Gamecube is lagging behind the Playstation 2 at a 3-1 ratio. Personally – I don’t regret buying any of current generation consoles. One reason is Xbox, GCN, PS2 have exceptional games. Xbox has Halo, Gamecube has Zelda: Wind Waker and PS2 has a couple. They also have a share of top selling games gone multiplatform. A good one is Metal Gear Solid 2 which has gone multi-platform even though it is most successful on Sony’s console.

Today’s conversation is about the Tri-Star 64, but first I had to mention how I love my new Gameboy Player! It’s been 4 days since I had a Gameboy Player and it has brought life into my Gameboy cartridges once again. I have two RPGs for GBA which I can play on my TV and there is no visible difference between Fire Emblem Advance and the SNES version of Chrono Trigger. Fire Emblems also benefits by having 32-bit graphics instead of 16-bit. I remember back in December 2003 when Gameboy Player was 50 dollars and SP was 100 dollars. I had to have a backlit screen, but I feel stupid now because after I bought a Gameboy Player I can’t tell you how much better playing with a joystick feels. I am one of those gamers who can not play games on the go and always play at home. Nintendo sells more games for Gameboy Advance than Sony sells PS2 games. In other words I am surprised that many people, whether age 8 or 28, still trust their old school games developed on a Nintendo platform. You know what this means, don’t you? This means there is a total of 2000 Gameboy games that can be played on TV. Already hate the Gamecube controller? Fear not! With the Gameboy Link Cable, the Gameboy Player allows you to use your GBA to control the game. Two Gameboy Advance link cables are sold new for $12 US at department stores, and used at Game Stop or Toyriffic for only $7! Then again, some videogames cost $20, but if you really hate the Gamecube controller it’s a very small price to pay - yea know?

So how could Gameboy games be played on TV before July 2003? Well - IGN.com answered this complex question for me! Intelligent Systems makes an adapter that connects GBA to a RCA or SVGA external source. The 3rd party peripheral cost more than 400 dollars. Gameboy Player came along and cost 50 dollars last year…. Now that is the solution for Gameboy owners and developers a like. It’s about 450% cheaper.

What’s more interesting is something called the Tri-Star 64 allowing someone to play NES or SNES games on N64? Neat-O! I even know how Tri-star came to be….Tristar is what Nintendo called the 3 triangle symbol in Legend of Zelda and Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time. I also believe there is a Tri-Star somewhere in Legend of Zelda - The Wind Waker. I had no idea it was possible until a few hours ago. It could be possible. Nintendo should have sold a N64 that had the ability to play SNES and NES games. Instead they’ve released something already compatible with older versions – Gameboy Advance. By taking this route – Nintendo could sell games on newly released videogames. Like everything else the company that made the add-on got sued for not legally obtaining the rights to play copyrighted software specifically developed for N64. What’s next - a 3rd party Nintendo 64 peripheral for Gamecube?

Here is a short FAQ I copied off this link explaining how to use the TriStar 64:



1) Like the original Tri-Star, it's mostly plastic.

2) It needs an external power source (not included); a Sega Master
System power supply works great. The box says "DC in" on the plug picture, so that excludes the NES power supply. The SNES and Genesis ones do not fit.

3) It has 3 slots: one for the N64, one for the SNES/Super Famicom and one for the Famicom. You need a 60-72 pin converter to play NES games on it. The converter is installed such that its front faces the front of the N64, but NES carts are inserted towards the back of the console.

4) It's composite only. No S-video here.

5) Some games don't work. Famicom Dragonsquest is one (it works on the
original Tri-Star, natch).

6) The picture quality is fair/good, at best.

7) The silly thing will not work if an N64 cart is not plugged into the N64 slot.

Like UFO’s CD64 I talked about in another post, Tristar 64 is a one of those weird things that came out during the 32/64-bit generation. Nintendo has a long history of getting “weird” peripherals. It looks like the user has to manually take the top cover off his/her N64 and place the new cover along with the hardware attachments to it. It says how far intelligent programmers went to get pass the NES5 encryption, and the SNES encryption to recreate hardware that runs original software of two older consoles. I strongly agree that console emulation took the next step and brought the old games to the majority of Internet users. It’s highly preferred over playing the original cartridges on the original systems and has no legal entanglements. Whoever did this would have been better off just creating a stand-alone console that did both with RCA connections and controllers. One thing is clear – this company did not want Nintendo involved when they’ve released this product.

Today I had a discussion about the future at WITC. The school will allow me to take part of their program for a third time if I take part in their job program. If I work for an employer who is in the computer industry than I get to stay at WITC even if I don’t succeed in getting 70% in both classes. The weird thing about it is I fail most of my first CCNA tests, but I get 80% or higher on all my retakes. It takes a man to go through with the school’s alternative program with will happen. My last retake was a 93% - well above the norm, but the two averages to about a 67%.

Tomorrow I’m getting Grand Theft Auto San Andreas. I feel like I’m getting the game because everyone else is getting it. Other then that I want to get 2 GBA games, Metroid Fusion and Metroid Zero Mission. Then Half-life 2 and Halo 2 are coming out the same day, November 16th. I don’t know what I’m going to do? Buy all of them. HL2 is a must have – Halo 2 can wait a month or two. I won’t have a chance to play one game more than 3 hours a week and maybe 6 hours on the weekend. I hear Halo 2 has better textures than Halo and reduced polygon count.

On a personal note – there hasn’t been any updated next generation console news so my blog has been same old, same old. I do my best to keep it interesting. Come back soon.

Monday, November 01, 2004

I'm officially 20!

Woke up at 11 am and my cousin had his confirmation which I’d skipped. I slept in for a long time until 12:30. Then I went down in my ‘other’ room and did the usual. Then I stayed up until 1am watching John Carpenter’s The Thing, Halloween, and Van Heising. I was very surprised that Mom wanted 4 movies instead of one. Mom also bought got Independence Day and The Exorcist. I picked Independence Day because I liked that movie. The Thing remake was probably the scariest movie ever made, but when you’d played all 5 Resident Evil games - you’re a little more used to the gore thus being less scared when certain scenes pop up. The scariest scene had to be at the beginning when the mutant husky was really an alien spider, and (like Alien) it came out of the dog’s body in a gory way – testacies, blood, mutant guts. Near the end of the film, there was a head within head scene – they’ve been doing that forever. It’s not very original now-a-days although this film has been made 20 years ago and didn’t keep it from scaring me at the beginning – before I was expecting testicles to shoot out of the dog’s body and the dog to turn into a monster… The other John Carpenter film, Halloween, was less scary. Van Heising is as much a fantasy as a horror film – did not anticipate and it was PG-13 so nothing about it was scary unlike Halloween and The Thing.

What changed between last year and this year? Well, I have a more powerful pc, new Xbox, a slightly used PS2, a slightly used Genesis, slightly used SNES, slightly used NES and more importantly added approximately 100 games in my collection. During this time, I haven’t bought 1 music album. I successfully completed 4 college courses towards my degree in “CNAA Industrial Networking”. I kept the same number of friends for 2 years – no more, no less. My MP3 collection grown to 11 Gigabytes! The MP3 player I got 2 years ago recorded Music Choice stations off DirecTV and contributed about 8% of that. Most importantly I am the happiest I ever was in 2 years.

My black cat got sick and started puking up mucus on Saturday. Onyx is 16 years old. The vet’s office was closed. I was hoping that it wasn’t his last days with us. Our dog, Ruby, is 10 and she’s got arthritis in her hip and it’s hard to go up and down the stairs. I just shoved down a puke pill down the cat’s throat, and hoping it makes him feel better. Amimal’s die sooner or later….although Onyx was the first cat our family had which wasn’t mean. Boo was an angry cat with a temper that hissed at Mom and Dad. Never remember him since I was 2 at the time. My family doesn’t miss him one bit. I don’t remember him at all because he died in 1986. I’m 20 today and that cat’s still hanging around – amazing isn’t it? I was trying to get Iris to be a lap cat, but she’s still too anxious. Her brother, Ambrious, is a much better lap cat. He plays with his water dish and splashes water all over. He’s also very hungry cat – stealing food at the first opportunity. That really pisses my mom off. The two kittens got “fixed” today. They are always together and Iris more than likely would have kittens soon. Don’t tell me how we got Ambrious….his name should have been Garfield. LOL

I bought a Gameboy Player for the Gamecube two days ago. I have 5 GBA games and I don’t play them, so it adds GBA functionality to the Gamecube. I thought it was a emulator too, but it’s actual Gameboy Advance hardware that uses Gamecube’s RCA input adapter and Gamecube controller to play. I almost regret buying it, though I wish I had found my copy of Mario Kart Super Circuit – that was my favorite GBA game. Would have had been a blast to play on the TV. Mario Kart Super Circuit had all the Super Mario Kart tracks after I’ve beaten all the tricks on all settings in 1st place. It’s fun shooting Nintendo characters with shells. I need to get a new RCA adapter since the old one is showing lines and it would be nice to get rid of them.

Nintendo Dual Screen comes out at the end of this month. No doubt in my mind, Nintendo will soon release a Gamecube peripheral that replaces the Gameboy Player. Perhaps the new peripheral will be called DS player? It’s confirmed that DS will be backwards compatible with GBA games, but not GBC games. In a sense, Nintendo has 6 products out: Gamecube, Dual Screen, GBA, GBA SP, Gameboy Player, and those new Pokemon Game&Watches. So I have 4 of the 6. Shall I buy a Dual screen or not? Nope. However, I might buy a DS Player when it comes out for Gamecube.

You know, I can’t really seem to figure out how to make my blog more interesting. My blog is very opinionated I know. I don’t see my blog as being so negative. Every reader should enjoy reading videogames. It’s not only a kid’s play thing like it used to be so come on. Remember back on those three “Generations 1985 – 2001” posts. I mean I wrote 22 pages in word for that. Part 1 is a refined version of my “Console Wars” page. Those did very well getting over 140 views each.

Most popular posts are:

1.) “I have 335 videogames v1.15” (updated regularly)
2.) “Action Replay Max is the way to go if you own PS2”
3.) “I was running Dreamcast on my PC today”
4.) I'm downloading DIVX codec for the first time
5.) My PC had the crash of the century. Read more....
6.) “CD64 & DV64: The only 2 N64 CD-ROM add-ons”
7.) I'm getting a Fluke Meter, they are fun.
8.) PC is the Winner of Best Gaming Platform Read more
9.) And I thought N64 was dead
10.) “Half-life 2 uses triangular pixel maps”
11.) I had my Saturn emulator running Daytona USA!!!
12.) “Had my PSone Emulator working | with Bios”

At 8:30 pm, my dad finally got home and I got $220 spending cash in an envelope. I don’t know what I want to spend it on though. I am going to try to stay away from videogames. It would be enough to buy a Nintendo DS. I probably will wait and see if my PS2 is going break so than I can buy a new one right away! I much rather use the money next year on a next generation console.