601
Gaming / Size Comparison: GameCube, Revolution, PS2, PS3, Xbox, Xbox 360
« on: April 23, 2006, 12:55:04 pm »
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602
Gaming / Countdown To E3 2006
« on: April 23, 2006, 09:12:03 am »603
Maps Of The Month / 2006/04: Mega Man Solid X: Guns Of The Mavericks (GBA) - Various
« on: April 22, 2006, 09:28:55 am »
Mega Man Solid X: Guns Of The Mavericks
For this month's "Maps of the Month" featurette, I wish to draw your attention to our Mega Man Solid X: Guns Of The Mavericks (J) (GBA) maps.
Capcom is no stranger to cross-overs. There are several games where the title itself makes the cross-overs very evident, such as Marvel Vs. Capcom (and its sequel), Capcom Vs. SNK (and its sequel), SNK Vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos, SNK Vs. Capcom: Card Fighter's Clash (the two Neo-Geo Pocket Color games), and the Japanese game Namco X Capcom. Prior to Marvel Vs. Capcom, their Street Fighter series have also seen cross-overs with X-Men and other Marvel heroes, but the Mega Man series has its share as well, all with Konami. Capcom's Mega Man Battle Network 5 can be linked to Konami's Boktai 2: Solar Boy Django for a strange cross-over involving Shade Man - and who can forget Mega Man and Simon Belmont (of Konami's Castlevania) teaming up on Captain N: The Game Master?
Capcom's Mega Man (X) crosses over with a Konami property again here in Mega Man Solid X: Guns Of The Mavericks. The story is essentially a simplified version of Metal Gear Solid's, with Mega Man X in place of Solid Snake. The gameplay (much to the chagrin of MGS fans) is more closer to the Mega Man X series' blast-them-ups than MGS's stealthiness. The bosses are Capcom's take on MGS's FOXHOUND unit, if they were Maverick Reploids. After all, they share the same style of names (they're all named as "[descriptor] [animal]"), and this was probably the inspiration to even try to mix these two completely different games.
The Mega Man series has been a popular one here on VGMaps.com, and for this second VGMaps.com Atlas Project, a group effort of five people worked hard to map out a game...that isn't even available outside of Japan yet. Will we ever see a North American or European release? The official web site, http://solid-x.com still reads "Coming Soon to the Nintendo Game Boy Advance"...keep your fingers crossed, MG(S) and MM(X) fans...
So to recognize the team effort in making these maps, JonLeung's, bustin98's, Osrevad's, Grizzly's, and Revned's Mega Man Solid X: Guns Of The Mavericks maps will be known as VGMaps.com's Maps of the Month for April 2006.
604
Gaming / Obscure Nintendo Characters Quiz
« on: April 20, 2006, 05:59:27 pm »
1. He's not mistaken, but insists that he is.
Inty: Error, from Zelda II: The Adventure Of Link. He simply stands in a house and says "I am Error."
2. He wasn't published by Nintendo at first, but became a boss character in a Nintendo game. Now he's a good guy again, or at least when he was on TV, with a slightly different name.
Inty: Lolo / Lololo / Fololo, of the Adventure Of Lolo & Kirby series
3. This Koopaling's airship has no propellors.
Revned: Wendy O. Koopa, from Super Mario Bros. 3
4. In the very first mainstream console game to feature force feedback, a special way of defeating it resulted in the largest vibration possible in the game.
Inty: Mechbeth, who is diverted into an arms factory, or some other explosive building, from planet Macbeth in Star Fox 64
5. What is the name of the character who reports no problems at the beginning of the blatantly-named sixth area of a game?
Inty: Caiman, from "Area 6" of Star Fox 64
6. What is the name of Miyamoto's dog, both in real life and in a game?
Inty: Pik, as seen in Nintendogs, and Pikmin was named after it
7. There are actually more than 386 different species of Pok?mon. Name at least three Pok?mon that are not (or are not yet) numbered.
Inty: Bonsly, Munchlax, Lucario, various Japanese ones, from the most recent Pok?mon games and movies, also technically acceptable: the "glitch Pok?mon": Missingno. and
8. Adult import model Francine Dee has this creature tattooed near her nether regions.
bustin98: Mew, the original "secret Pok?mon"
9. Din is to Chattur'gha as Farore is to Xel'lotath and as Nayru is to?
Revned: Ulyaoth, from Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem - other names refer to Zelda goddesses/Oracles and the other Eternal Darkness "Ancients", corresponding by colour
10. This Hunter's name is half of the North American title of another Nintendo-published game for the same system.
Inty: Trace, from Metroid Prime: Hunters and the other game is Trace Memory, which has other names in other regions
No contest here. Inty got 7/10.
Inty: Error, from Zelda II: The Adventure Of Link. He simply stands in a house and says "I am Error."
2. He wasn't published by Nintendo at first, but became a boss character in a Nintendo game. Now he's a good guy again, or at least when he was on TV, with a slightly different name.
Inty: Lolo / Lololo / Fololo, of the Adventure Of Lolo & Kirby series
3. This Koopaling's airship has no propellors.
Revned: Wendy O. Koopa, from Super Mario Bros. 3
4. In the very first mainstream console game to feature force feedback, a special way of defeating it resulted in the largest vibration possible in the game.
Inty: Mechbeth, who is diverted into an arms factory, or some other explosive building, from planet Macbeth in Star Fox 64
5. What is the name of the character who reports no problems at the beginning of the blatantly-named sixth area of a game?
Inty: Caiman, from "Area 6" of Star Fox 64
6. What is the name of Miyamoto's dog, both in real life and in a game?
Inty: Pik, as seen in Nintendogs, and Pikmin was named after it
7. There are actually more than 386 different species of Pok?mon. Name at least three Pok?mon that are not (or are not yet) numbered.
Inty: Bonsly, Munchlax, Lucario, various Japanese ones, from the most recent Pok?mon games and movies, also technically acceptable: the "glitch Pok?mon": Missingno. and
8. Adult import model Francine Dee has this creature tattooed near her nether regions.
bustin98: Mew, the original "secret Pok?mon"
9. Din is to Chattur'gha as Farore is to Xel'lotath and as Nayru is to?
Revned: Ulyaoth, from Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem - other names refer to Zelda goddesses/Oracles and the other Eternal Darkness "Ancients", corresponding by colour
10. This Hunter's name is half of the North American title of another Nintendo-published game for the same system.
Inty: Trace, from Metroid Prime: Hunters and the other game is Trace Memory, which has other names in other regions
No contest here. Inty got 7/10.
605
VGMaps Social Board / Do the polls work?
« on: April 20, 2006, 07:33:57 am »
As in, periodically changing?
BTW, I didn't make today's poll. I think Final Fantasy VII is overrated, though I probably would put it on the poll, but I'd definitely use "VII" and not "7". Also, I'd put the period in "Bros." and fully write out "The Legend Of Zelda". And it's "Chrono", not "Crono".
BTW, I didn't make today's poll. I think Final Fantasy VII is overrated, though I probably would put it on the poll, but I'd definitely use "VII" and not "7". Also, I'd put the period in "Bros." and fully write out "The Legend Of Zelda". And it's "Chrono", not "Crono".
606
Message Board Announcements / 2006-04-19: Here's what happened to the boards.
« on: April 19, 2006, 07:14:30 pm »
The date is misleading, what happened mostly took place yesterday, at least in my part of the world.
Since Grizzly asked what had happened, I will go through this once more. The regulars have already heard what happened, or at least hints of what might have, so I think the best way will be to just lay it all out.
Now one thing I want you to know is that I think I've been harsh enough to Inty for all of us. What still hasn't been said, if anything, is likely to come from me. I don't need anyone hating on Inty in any topic. Any vents about the loss of old topics we'll keep in this topic if anyone still needs to. It's such a downer, which is why I don't need to hear about it everywhere, even if I'm the one doing the most complaining around here. Giving Inty the benefit of the doubt, I think I could be to blame as well, in a certain way. And I apologize for calling him a "saboteur" because he has given us the current forums, even if he has broken the last two that he has given us.
Anyway, Inty, who has been the sole coder of the last two iterations of the forums, has the Easter week off. So he thought he'd fix up the boards. I wanted him to fix the EXP (which seemed to be working again, but increased every day, instead of every day with posts - a key difference) and the annoying red block beneath everyone's user info on large posts. He confessed to me that punBB (or whatever those forums were based on) confused him and that he was sure he could transfer everything (users and posts) to the GameFAQS++ code, which is what the current forums are based on. He's more comfortable with this code, meaning that if I keep him around as my forums coder, we could see more and better features if we wanted them.
Now here I am, trying to find out why my host is so slow getting back to me about a hosting plan upgrade, which is the key obstacle in my enormous maps backlog, while trying to deal with a number of other real-life issues less related to VGMaps.com, including preparations to go to E3 (you heard me, I got approved). The last thing I needed was one more thing to worry about. My gut instinct said NO. I really should've trusted it. Unfortunately, I know that Inty isn't always available to fix things, so I said yes...on ONE CONDITION...that users and posts would be kept intact. We know what happened there.
Now Inty would be the one to ask what went wrong if you want the specifics. Something about how my host's cPanel went down while he was doing some work - unfortunately (though fortunately for Inty's sake), I can confirm that it has expired, and I hope it's not related to my push for a subscription upgrade - and/or how the character set isn't recognized by something or other and so the conversion process totally messed up.
I've already kicked Inty for not having a backup. I'm also kicking myself for never having learned how to properly back up the forums. I had always assumed that all the forums were all locally stored together in the www.vgmaps.com/forums folder, and that was what I periodically copied to my hard drive. I really don't get why it's not all there, or why I never noticed that the files were small and didn't change (except for the avatars which I did salvage) but nonetheless, Inty is going to teach me where the actual user data and posts of the forums are, so that I can make periodic and proper backups myself, i.e., as long as I am around to maintain VGMaps.com itself, the forums should also be intact.
All that I could say to Inty has been said...if it was totally his fault, I'd wished that he was actually a paid employee so that I could sue him for damages. That he was no different from a saboteur (again, I'm sorry for calling him that). That he was making a fool out of myself and my site. That it was unprofessional, especially frustrating coming from Inty, one of my largest critics of professionalism.
I don't like how this had to happen during the month of the April Fools' joke (no one really responded to Mega Man Solid X: Guns Of The Mavericks, but this doesn't help matters), or that it is during other VGMaps.com issues. I really miss certain topics, such as Revned's/TerraEsperZ's team effort on the Zelda Oracle games or Grizzly's/Geminiman's Wily Wars teamwork - and especially saddening is the loss of the SMB3 and MMSX:GOTM topics. These all captured the essence and usefulness of the forums...while me and TerraEsperZ and bustin98 could bicker about Transformers until the end of time, topics from something specific to that time that actually resulted in an accomplishment can never be restored.
Oh, I'm sure I may edit this post. Yeah, I was once told I like to be tragic, so this is my last big "dwelling on the past". But essentially, that's the situation, drama and whines and finger-pointing and hair-pulling and all. Good intentions failed, that's really what it is.
What we have now are new forums, that our coder is more comfortable with. If not for the inconvenience of the loss of the posts, we'd be absolutely elated right now. But looking forward, things can only get better. Sounds preachy, but hey, it's not going to get worse.
Regardless of how much it may have seemed to be Inty's fault, he is still our coder, so you will treat him with enough respect. Please limit your negative feelings. If you have to vent, that's what this topic is for - nowhere else, so that we can move forward more positively.
Since Grizzly asked what had happened, I will go through this once more. The regulars have already heard what happened, or at least hints of what might have, so I think the best way will be to just lay it all out.
Now one thing I want you to know is that I think I've been harsh enough to Inty for all of us. What still hasn't been said, if anything, is likely to come from me. I don't need anyone hating on Inty in any topic. Any vents about the loss of old topics we'll keep in this topic if anyone still needs to. It's such a downer, which is why I don't need to hear about it everywhere, even if I'm the one doing the most complaining around here. Giving Inty the benefit of the doubt, I think I could be to blame as well, in a certain way. And I apologize for calling him a "saboteur" because he has given us the current forums, even if he has broken the last two that he has given us.
Anyway, Inty, who has been the sole coder of the last two iterations of the forums, has the Easter week off. So he thought he'd fix up the boards. I wanted him to fix the EXP (which seemed to be working again, but increased every day, instead of every day with posts - a key difference) and the annoying red block beneath everyone's user info on large posts. He confessed to me that punBB (or whatever those forums were based on) confused him and that he was sure he could transfer everything (users and posts) to the GameFAQS++ code, which is what the current forums are based on. He's more comfortable with this code, meaning that if I keep him around as my forums coder, we could see more and better features if we wanted them.
Now here I am, trying to find out why my host is so slow getting back to me about a hosting plan upgrade, which is the key obstacle in my enormous maps backlog, while trying to deal with a number of other real-life issues less related to VGMaps.com, including preparations to go to E3 (you heard me, I got approved). The last thing I needed was one more thing to worry about. My gut instinct said NO. I really should've trusted it. Unfortunately, I know that Inty isn't always available to fix things, so I said yes...on ONE CONDITION...that users and posts would be kept intact. We know what happened there.
Now Inty would be the one to ask what went wrong if you want the specifics. Something about how my host's cPanel went down while he was doing some work - unfortunately (though fortunately for Inty's sake), I can confirm that it has expired, and I hope it's not related to my push for a subscription upgrade - and/or how the character set isn't recognized by something or other and so the conversion process totally messed up.
I've already kicked Inty for not having a backup. I'm also kicking myself for never having learned how to properly back up the forums. I had always assumed that all the forums were all locally stored together in the www.vgmaps.com/forums folder, and that was what I periodically copied to my hard drive. I really don't get why it's not all there, or why I never noticed that the files were small and didn't change (except for the avatars which I did salvage) but nonetheless, Inty is going to teach me where the actual user data and posts of the forums are, so that I can make periodic and proper backups myself, i.e., as long as I am around to maintain VGMaps.com itself, the forums should also be intact.
All that I could say to Inty has been said...if it was totally his fault, I'd wished that he was actually a paid employee so that I could sue him for damages. That he was no different from a saboteur (again, I'm sorry for calling him that). That he was making a fool out of myself and my site. That it was unprofessional, especially frustrating coming from Inty, one of my largest critics of professionalism.
I don't like how this had to happen during the month of the April Fools' joke (no one really responded to Mega Man Solid X: Guns Of The Mavericks, but this doesn't help matters), or that it is during other VGMaps.com issues. I really miss certain topics, such as Revned's/TerraEsperZ's team effort on the Zelda Oracle games or Grizzly's/Geminiman's Wily Wars teamwork - and especially saddening is the loss of the SMB3 and MMSX:GOTM topics. These all captured the essence and usefulness of the forums...while me and TerraEsperZ and bustin98 could bicker about Transformers until the end of time, topics from something specific to that time that actually resulted in an accomplishment can never be restored.
Oh, I'm sure I may edit this post. Yeah, I was once told I like to be tragic, so this is my last big "dwelling on the past". But essentially, that's the situation, drama and whines and finger-pointing and hair-pulling and all. Good intentions failed, that's really what it is.
What we have now are new forums, that our coder is more comfortable with. If not for the inconvenience of the loss of the posts, we'd be absolutely elated right now. But looking forward, things can only get better. Sounds preachy, but hey, it's not going to get worse.
Regardless of how much it may have seemed to be Inty's fault, he is still our coder, so you will treat him with enough respect. Please limit your negative feelings. If you have to vent, that's what this topic is for - nowhere else, so that we can move forward more positively.
607
Gaming / Tomb Raider: Legend
« on: April 19, 2006, 01:06:25 pm »
I'll make a Gaming Board category and move this into it.
After finishing Silent Hill 3 this weekend, I took on Tomb Raider: Legend. (Hey, I'm allowed to play games when I really can't update the site!) Since Lara Croft was never on a Nintendo system (except for the Game Boy Color game), and I wasn't interested in the past games while they were new or didn't have a decent computer then or whatever other reasons I'm not sure about, this is the only Tomb Raider game I've truly played.
The main game took me eight and a half hours on normal difficulty. I still have many secrets yet to go back and find. Shorter than I had hoped, thank goodness for the replay value.
The game was decent, but if you've played the recent Prince Of Persia games (I'm recalling Sands Of Time, as that's the only one I've played so far), you'd find the mechanics more than similar. Hanging on to ledges, jumping onto and swinging from horizontal and vertical poles, etc. (I know the GBC Tomb Raider game is similar to the 2D Prince Of Persia games, but I don't know how similar the previous "main" Tomb Raider games are to Prince Of Persia, so I don't know if I should be surprised or not, actually.)
The story was supposed to be epic, and it is in the world-spanning and discovering-something-that-ties-back-to-Lara's-past sense, but as I said, way too short.
There are scenes with something similar to "Quick-Time Events" in Shenmue, or like Dragon's Lair, where you push a direction or button at the right time to avoid death. The PC version, which I played, was limited to just directions. I deliberately failed these over and over to see the often painful-looking deaths. As the game is rated T, they look about as painful as you can get without spilling blood, but it's still a little crazy to see Lara get smashed repeatedly by a train or bending backwards farther than he spine should allow.
Apparently most Tomb Raider games have "Croft Manor", this one is no exception. Too bad it was easy for me to find everything hidden within without having to consult a walkthrough.
Fun game for a first-time Tomb Raider. Nice "reboot" of the series otherwise, I heard the recent games before this were going downhill.
Has anyone else played it?
After finishing Silent Hill 3 this weekend, I took on Tomb Raider: Legend. (Hey, I'm allowed to play games when I really can't update the site!) Since Lara Croft was never on a Nintendo system (except for the Game Boy Color game), and I wasn't interested in the past games while they were new or didn't have a decent computer then or whatever other reasons I'm not sure about, this is the only Tomb Raider game I've truly played.
The main game took me eight and a half hours on normal difficulty. I still have many secrets yet to go back and find. Shorter than I had hoped, thank goodness for the replay value.
The game was decent, but if you've played the recent Prince Of Persia games (I'm recalling Sands Of Time, as that's the only one I've played so far), you'd find the mechanics more than similar. Hanging on to ledges, jumping onto and swinging from horizontal and vertical poles, etc. (I know the GBC Tomb Raider game is similar to the 2D Prince Of Persia games, but I don't know how similar the previous "main" Tomb Raider games are to Prince Of Persia, so I don't know if I should be surprised or not, actually.)
The story was supposed to be epic, and it is in the world-spanning and discovering-something-that-ties-back-to-Lara's-past sense, but as I said, way too short.
There are scenes with something similar to "Quick-Time Events" in Shenmue, or like Dragon's Lair, where you push a direction or button at the right time to avoid death. The PC version, which I played, was limited to just directions. I deliberately failed these over and over to see the often painful-looking deaths. As the game is rated T, they look about as painful as you can get without spilling blood, but it's still a little crazy to see Lara get smashed repeatedly by a train or bending backwards farther than he spine should allow.
Apparently most Tomb Raider games have "Croft Manor", this one is no exception. Too bad it was easy for me to find everything hidden within without having to consult a walkthrough.
Fun game for a first-time Tomb Raider. Nice "reboot" of the series otherwise, I heard the recent games before this were going downhill.
Has anyone else played it?
608
VGMaps Social Board / Why so many names, Intanos VI/Inty/Chris/ResR?
« on: April 19, 2006, 12:48:09 pm »
I'd guess that "Chris" is your real name, and that "Inty" might be short for "Intanos VI", but who or what is "Intanos VI" and "ResR"?
I have no originality in my name...
I have no originality in my name...