Messages

166

Gaming / Re: Sent in my 3DS to Nintendo for repairs...

« on: March 21, 2012, 10:36:57 pm »

I've had a few cases of electronics breaking unusually quickly, one case in particular being ridiculously so.

I had bought an external hard drive case once so I could transfer recovered files to my desktop computer. However, after a week or two, the device just all of a sudden stopped working, right in the middle of me using it. I at first thought it was a problem with the hard drive itself, but having experienced a genuine hard drive failure once before (those dreaded clicking sounds...) I knew that wasn't it. It was the external case, something you'd expect would last a little longer than two weeks...

But Nintendo is indeed pretty damned good with providing quality hardware. It wouldn't make sense for their business to do that. My being able to play Japanese games on my SNES (with a slight hardware modification) even 20 years after first getting it, is I think a great testament to that. A Wii or a 3DS certainly can't be equated with a light bulb (a product that has certainly for decades been designed to fail sooner than it should).

I definitely agree that greater complexity can lead to a greater propensity for failures, and I see that as the more likely reason in this case. But them simply replacing the units instead of addressing the actual problem is something that bugs me though.

167

Gaming / Re: Sent in my 3DS to Nintendo for repairs...

« on: March 21, 2012, 01:05:11 pm »

...but is the quality of electronics declining?

My first thought was planned obsolescence, but that'd be a little silly for something like a console to break down in such a short span of time (like within one year). But even so, I wouldn't put it past Nintendo if they indeed designed their hardware to break down quicker nowadays.

168

Maps In Progress / Re: Final Fantasy VI (SNES)

« on: February 15, 2012, 12:25:29 am »

Instead of what I thought of earlier (with all paths open), I actually kind of like how all the rooms are separated like that. So I think I may just go with that for when I arrange my map (and add a note about the nature of that room).

The way this dungeon works is you step on those grey pressure plates to get teleported around. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to them, it's just totally random where you end up. And it's the same with the walls as well.

I use a walk-thru-walls code to help me move around which is how I completed those first two iterations (though its usefulness is rather limited). I don't think I'll need help with this cave. I just need to encounter the rooms in isolation as I'm playing and I should be good. Thanks for showing me what you came up with!

169

Maps In Progress / Re: Final Fantasy VI (SNES)

« on: February 14, 2012, 01:05:11 am »

I was working on Ebot's Rock a little bit ago and discovered that, apart from the start and end of the cave, the coral gathering areas are based off of one layout which simply changes which pathways are blocked off and which are open. I've included an image of what I've mapped. Some iterations are complete while I rearranged the incomplete ones to fit the basic configuration.

As for what to do now, I was thinking of maybe mapping this bit with all the paths open, to at least acknowledge the existence of this part of the cave. Or perhaps not bother with it at all. Not really sure what to do.

170

Maps In Progress / Re: Final Fantasy VI (SNES)

« on: February 08, 2012, 08:44:34 pm »

Yes, it looks like they do. The only obvious difference is the colours are brighter with the GBA version, which actually helps with distinguishing between the two maps as I'm filling in the holes.

Thanks for that! I'll keep you in mind if I run into a brick wall so to speak.

171

Maps In Progress / Re: Final Fantasy VI (SNES)

« on: February 08, 2012, 04:56:13 pm »

I got back into mapping FF6 last week, and I'm getting real close to completing the entire game. Since the update this past weekend, I've completed Umaro's Cave, the Phoenix Cave, and the Fanatics' Tower. All that's left to do is the Lete River, Cyan's Soul, Ebot's Rock, and Kefka's Tower.

Lete River: Still a pain in the neck, lol. I've tried using the remote viewing code that I found, but it's pretty much useless when riding the raft because it messes up a lot of the tiles on screen. But I've decided to use Troy Lundin's Lete River map as a template to fill in the extra areas that I can't reach.

Cyan's Soul: I've got it mostly mapped out. Just need to work on the mountain side areas where you're in the Magitek armor, and the interior areas of Doma Castle. I'm not going to bother mapping the castle exterior, because it doesn't relate at all to the scenario at hand.

Ebot's Rock: A very cumbersome area. Pretty much have to capture it all via save states since the visible area in game is very limited (and which cannot be remedied by toggling layers).

Kefka's Tower: Haven't touched it yet. I'm going to leave it until the above three maps are done. Looking forward to working on it!

172

Map Gab / Re: Sword of Mana (GBA)

« on: October 23, 2011, 10:40:12 pm »

No, it's all Japanese. Since Japanese writing mainly uses three different scripts (kanji, hiragana, katakana), there is a lot of freedom in how one can write words and phrases.

The first screen shot happened to use kanji and hiragana while the second used solely hiragana instead. The last line of the second shot where it says "Square Enix" had be baffled for a little bit, since that would normally be written as スクウェア・エニックス using katakana.

Japanese writing can be a little crazy at times, but once you get a handle on it, it can be lots of fun.

173

Map Gab / Re: Sword of Mana (GBA)

« on: October 23, 2011, 09:21:35 pm »

To translate those screen shots...

The first says:

Sword of Mana
On sale August 29th!
Let's meet in the Gameboy Advance!

And the second:

Sword of Mana
Now officially on sale~
Square Enix

A little strange having advertising for the game you're already playing, don't you think?

174

Maps In Progress / Re: Final Fantasy VI (SNES)

« on: September 24, 2011, 04:58:27 pm »

There's one thing I'd like to get an opinion or two on. With regards to the towns in the World of Ruin, I'm undecided about whether or not to include all the building interiors that were already shown in the World of Balance maps. On one hand, I find that they're a little redundant, especially if there's no new treasures to point out, but on the other, the maps might not seem as complete if they're not included. Any thoughts?

I've included two examples of towns without the already seen interiors.

175

Maps In Progress / Re: Final Fantasy VI (SNES)

« on: September 04, 2011, 01:11:38 pm »

Hey~ I'm nearly finished with mapping everything in the World of Balance, save for 3 areas: Lete River, Phantom Forest, and the Phantom Train.

The Lete River is coming along, though it does take a lot of time and several passes through the area to capture everything. But at least now it's not impossible to do.

Finishing off the Phantom Forest depends upon finishing the Phantom Train area, and the main problem with that area is not being able to separate the train from the background/black space. But just now, I think I found a solution to this problem (using vSNES), so I'll give that program a shot.

Aside from that, I've started working on the World of Ruin. I have no idea how many maps there'll be (it's been years since I last played this game to completion), but I'll just do them as they come.

176

Gaming / The Mario Marathon

« on: August 13, 2011, 05:22:44 pm »

Hey guys. Just thought I'd let you know about a Super Mario gaming marathon going on right now by Penguins Productions. The marathon is to help raise funds for Big Brothers Big Sisters in St. Catherines, Ontario, Canada.

I donated a painting as an auction prize (which is part of the reason I'm bringing this up at all, heheh) which you can see on the Prizes page of their website. It's the 12 x 18" acrylic painting just below the Bowser chair.

So far they've raised a little over $800. All info, like what games they'll be playing, prizes, etc. is over at their site. The marathon's gonna span over the next 4-5 days, so if you can, go on and check out what they're up to. And donate if you're able to do that too.

177

Maps In Progress / Re: Final Fantasy VI (SNES)

« on: March 27, 2011, 11:45:52 pm »

Topic revival after who knows how many months...!

Got around to completing the map layout and patchwork for Mt. Kolts, so that's finally done with. And also got the items for Returners' Hideout labeled as well. It's not much, but at least it's something.

I don't think I'll get much else done in the coming weeks. I'll be busy drawing pages for a few comic books that I'm preparing for an upcoming convention. So the ever-dreaded mapping of the Lete River can happily wait for now, heheh.

178

Maps In Progress / Re: Speaking of raw parts

« on: March 27, 2011, 11:27:16 pm »

I must've not read that e-mail clearly when you sent it or I might've come up to the plate sooner.

I think I'll take Brain Lord. I really like that game.

179

Map Gab / Re: Duck Tales (NES) Moon lifted from my site?

« on: January 20, 2011, 02:39:57 pm »

Updates usually only happen on the weekends, so you'll need to wait a day or two before it changes on the site.

180

Map Gab / Re: Final Fantasy 2 (NES)

« on: January 17, 2011, 01:14:36 pm »

Because there is no one definitive way of translating proper names that were originally written in katakana into English. The original Japanese term is フィン, which can be transliterated to "fin". Whether it is written as Fin, Phin, or Fynn, it is still pronounced the same way. You can blame English for having irregular spelling. And another factor would be aesthetics.