I am French (from France), and I understand that sour comments have to be taken with humour. I also understand sometimes people post on/. to anger others. And I also understand that often times you only hear from idiots online and not from reasonable people (who have better things to do that post on/. every 15 minutes).
I am also French Canadian (not from Quebec, but from New-Brunswick).
This guy is an embarassement! I'd rather not have him associated with France as the country already seems to be held in very low esteem in the U.S.
I'm sick of reading your posts! Yes, it's silly that the US calls themselves America when it is in fact the name of several continents. BUT, you're not helping because you're incoherent.
Nobody knows what Etats-Unians means unless they speak french also... and since this is an anglophone site very few people will understand you.
So, if you want to raise awareness about this misappropriation of a name, express yourself clearly to your target audience! Otherwise, you will not be taken seriously... and I know for a fact you're not taken seriously because I've seen your posts and their replies on/. before... In fact, I've replied to your nonsense in the past!
In conclusion: -you, stop making an ass of yourself -US, please notice calling yourself "America" basically takes that title away from Canadians and South Americans.
---
Side note, in many countries (my experience is in the continent of Africa) a lot of people don't know the difference between "North America" and "America," so the arrogance associated with the US is often applied to Canadians without reason.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not crying to you in the hopes a whole nation will read this post and change the way they address themselves. I don't give a shit what you guys call each other... it's just silly.
Am I the only person who thought Spirited Away created an insanely beautiful world? The dream world with its own set of laws and rules that, although seem totally absurd in our context, seem perfectly credible in their own context.
I was amazed at the work put in creating the universe. The animation was beautiful, but the storyline is what hooked me.
At my work we have a remote with delicate equipment, including an atomic clock, which needs constant temperature monitoring. The problem is that this is all in a mobile lab (in a modified truck, basically). So, our solution is simple enough: - have the AC kick in automatically when it's too hot, - have the heater kick in when it's too cold - if for some reason these systems don't kick in, a temperature sensor installed and monitored by the security systems sets off an alarms.
So, for us, the same security company that monitors movement and access also monitors temperature, and calls us at home (or on our cells) if for some reason the room temperature is out of control.
MIDI works by storing musical information such as note pitch, duration, location (in time), special effect, etc... Because of this, you can very closely reproduce a musical performance if you put enough work in your sequencing. A problem with MIDI, however, is that your bank of instruments changes from device to device, so unless you write a piece for keyboard X and only get it played through keyboard X it will sound different (and probably awful) otherwise.
You mentioned MIDI instruments and Square wave generators... MIDI instruments are simply samples (or in older cases, FM sounds) so they can only play a fixed, predetermined number of sounds on a given piece of hardware. A generator, on the other hand, can be thouroughly manipulated to affect the timber of it's output, creating a gamut of potential sounds. Also, a generated 'instrument' can cover a range of several octaves without quality loss. On the other hand, a sample will deteriorate under this pitch manipulation, which is why MIDI instruments often require several samples per instrument to cover a range of several octaves.
Both systems have their advantages and disadvantages, but my point is: If the music was composed for wave generators, then there is pretty much an infinite number of possible sounds that can be created (spanning all the games, not just one!). This means that if these sounds were to be accurately transfered to a MIDI based system, you would need either to download a sound bank for every game (inefficient) or have an infinitely big instrument bank.
You also need to consider the possibility of a game generating sounds on the fly. User input could modify pitch, duration, and temporal placement (like MIDI), but it could also affect timber through additive synthesis (combining the effects of 2 square channels, one triangle channel, and a sawtooth channel from Konami's own sound chip) or simple just create static noise or random sounds.
In the end, it would just be totally inefficient to port all of the game's soundtracks to midi just for some minor improvements in some games on some tracks. It will always come down to the fact that these pieces were not written for MIDI, and to convert them (and do them justice) would require A LOT of work.
Second, that's not necessariliy a good idea. Composers often write for the instrumentation they have, and changing the instrumentation afterwards can really harm a piece.
Here's a good (but probably nit-picky) example. In the original SMB3 the steel drum sample was of low sample rate and resolution. In the SNES version (and especially GBA) the higher sample rate and resolution sample wasn't equalized the same. The composer would have picked up on this, but saddly he had no part in the conversion. This may not seem like a big issue, but the end result was that the wrong harmonic(s) were heard, and the perceived pitch of the sample is incorrect (though the fundamental may still be correct).
Another, less acoustic, example is in Street Fighter 2010. One of the best tracks of that game is a serial piece using the square waves. It's totally freaky and practically made me crap myself as a kid. The NES sound hardware was perfect for it. (Poorly) Emulated (read sampled) square waves don't have the same feel... believe me, I transcribed the piece for MIDI, and it killed it.
MIDI is a great technology, but NES music doesn't translate well to it. This is because most of the great NES music works were written with the NES sound hardware in mind, and changing the instrumentation of a piece (any kind of piece) often takes away from the composer's original intent.
Take the Bayou Billy soundtrack.. it made wonderful use of the square wave channels to sound like funk rhythm (muted) guitar! This is something that can't be done in MIDI without special samples, and the number of samples required to correctly reproduce the effect would be immense!
You mentioned Zelda and Metroid, which both underwent wonderful musical transformations as the console sound technology improved.. But realize that these new tracks weren't simple transcriptions, but clever arrangements. That is exactly what made them so great! The composer/arrangers used what the SNES could offer as their new instrumentation and wrote/arranged around that.... Just like in the old days with the NES.
So, I return to my main point: Changing the instrumentation of a piece can be detrimental to the intended effect, ESPECIALLY in VG music where the hardware was often heavily considered (or even the inspiration) in the creative/compositional process.
Sadly, I can put very little time towards this project. I started it a long time ago using Allegro in DOS(I did say a LONG time ago). Anyway.. most of my old code is useless now as I was just learning how to code at the time. I'm starting from scratch using DirectX and once I have something to actually show I'll put up a site.
As for Mystical Ninja on N64, there were 2 of them. They both appeared entirely 3D but one of them played like a 2D side scroller (your movement was restricted to 2 dimensions).
Anyone else working on indie titles based on older games?
I'm working on a Blaster Master title (early in development) based on the first game (since the others sucked). I was just wondering how many people were into this... it's encouraging!
I'd like to see a dialogue heavy Zelda with a much more epic story line...
Sorry, but it doesn't actually seem like you're looking for a new Zelda title, but a new title with Zelda characters. A dialogue heavy Zelda has never really existed, and could be the reason why the series has done well.
Sheesh, at a gig like this one you're only selling your dignity, but in a strip joint you're also selling your body. That may not be a big deal to you, but for most people their body is sacred and private.
lol, I just did it again, and got stuck in the cage where the blob is caught.
Apparently all it takes is having a hole at the left-most edge of a screen and sliding into it from the right. I have the hole on the 3rd screen (day light area) and run in from the left. If anyone wants, I can send them a savestate. Or am I the only one who loves finding bugs in old VGs?
Once you're on Blobolonia, set a hole right on the right edge of the screen, then run towards the hole and turn around before hitting it. If done right, you skid into the hole at the same time you switch screens. You then fall into the 'end game' sequence. You move around on a platform and check out credits and pics and stuff. When I did it all the graphics would be garbled.. it was the only way I ever "finished" the game. I think you need to do this on the second or third screen to the right on blobolonia.
Conan O'Brien featured Ms. Pac-Man on his show tonight. She appeared as "Bulimic Ms. Pac-Man" in the reoccuring "New Characters" sketch. It was basically a clip of the gameplay in reverse...
HILARIOUS! It's cool to see the writers at Conan doing this kind of geek stuff.
AND THE RESTAURANT AT THE END OF THE UNIVERSE ISN'T AT THE FUCKING EDGE OF THE UNIVERSE
Well, it's not at the edge of the universe in terms of space, but it IS at the edge in terms of time. So, I propose that the edge of time is the same thing as the end of time, and therefore at the end of the universe. This seems to follow the Adams approach to discussing scientific concepts.
I've been experimenting with combinations of software for security, and this is by far the best combination for general use:
FireFox (Browser)
Avast! Home Edition (Anti-virus)
Part of my experiment was to operate as an Administrator at all times. I've been running like this for several months now, and have not encountered a single problem!
No viruses, No Spy-ware/Mal-ware, no annoying restrictions (I'm not using SP2).
Anyone else use this combination? It is by far the strongest combination I've ever used.
I've had some malware manage to autoexecute from there. The last one was particularly surprising.
Also, permissions in the registry can cause a lot of problems.
This said, there is ALWAYS a way to remove malware.. WITHOUT having to cut the power dangerously. They key steps are always:
1) Close all of its running components. 2) Find and remove all of its files. 3) Find and remove all its mean of copying itself (often in the registry) 4) Reboot, login to all accounts, Repeat.
Should the administrator of the software already know where the log file is saved? If he/she wanted the application to create a log file, then he/she would have made sure it work before unleashing the application.
wait... are you saying Mario 1, 2, and 3 are very similar? As far as I can remember Sonic 1, 2, and 3 WERE very similar, but the first three Mario weren't.
Mario 2 US wasn't even originally a mario game! It's just an adaptation of Doki Doki Panic. And Mario 3 was one of the most innovative games in VG history! (Mario 2 Jap was not all that original, but had several changes over Mario 1. See the "Lost levels" game on "Mario All Stars")
Well, looking back at your post, you MUST mean that the first 3 Sonics were in fact dissimilar.. otherwise you, sir, are a MAD MAN!
Slashdot Mirror
Please!
/. to anger others. And I also understand that often times you only hear from idiots online and not from reasonable people (who have better things to do that post on /. every 15 minutes).
He's not French, he's French Canadian.
I am French (from France), and I understand that sour comments have to be taken with humour. I also understand sometimes people post on
I am also French Canadian (not from Quebec, but from New-Brunswick).
This guy is an embarassement! I'd rather not have him associated with France as the country already seems to be held in very low esteem in the U.S.
BTW , I am sure you mean Etats-Unians.
/. before... In fact, I've replied to your nonsense in the past!
I'm sick of reading your posts! Yes, it's silly that the US calls themselves America when it is in fact the name of several continents. BUT, you're not helping because you're incoherent.
Nobody knows what Etats-Unians means unless they speak french also... and since this is an anglophone site very few people will understand you.
So, if you want to raise awareness about this misappropriation of a name, express yourself clearly to your target audience! Otherwise, you will not be taken seriously... and I know for a fact you're not taken seriously because I've seen your posts and their replies on
In conclusion:
-you, stop making an ass of yourself
-US, please notice calling yourself "America" basically takes that title away from Canadians and South Americans.
---
Side note, in many countries (my experience is in the continent of Africa) a lot of people don't know the difference between "North America" and "America," so the arrogance associated with the US is often applied to Canadians without reason.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not crying to you in the hopes a whole nation will read this post and change the way they address themselves. I don't give a shit what you guys call each other... it's just silly.
Am I the only person who thought Spirited Away created an insanely beautiful world? The dream world with its own set of laws and rules that, although seem totally absurd in our context, seem perfectly credible in their own context.
I was amazed at the work put in creating the universe. The animation was beautiful, but the storyline is what hooked me.
This sucks. If they're going to let you download them for free they should let you redistribute them...as long as it's for free of course.
Why, though? Because you feel like it?
It is still their content, and so they decide... no matter how much it makes people whine that it's not absolutely free.
At my work we have a remote with delicate equipment, including an atomic clock, which needs constant temperature monitoring. The problem is that this is all in a mobile lab (in a modified truck, basically). So, our solution is simple enough:
- have the AC kick in automatically when it's too hot,
- have the heater kick in when it's too cold
- if for some reason these systems don't kick in, a temperature sensor installed and monitored by the security systems sets off an alarms.
So, for us, the same security company that monitors movement and access also monitors temperature, and calls us at home (or on our cells) if for some reason the room temperature is out of control.
Though this may be annoying, it works well.
I'm sorry, but I don't follow.
MIDI works by storing musical information such as note pitch, duration, location (in time), special effect, etc... Because of this, you can very closely reproduce a musical performance if you put enough work in your sequencing. A problem with MIDI, however, is that your bank of instruments changes from device to device, so unless you write a piece for keyboard X and only get it played through keyboard X it will sound different (and probably awful) otherwise.
You mentioned MIDI instruments and Square wave generators... MIDI instruments are simply samples (or in older cases, FM sounds) so they can only play a fixed, predetermined number of sounds on a given piece of hardware. A generator, on the other hand, can be thouroughly manipulated to affect the timber of it's output, creating a gamut of potential sounds. Also, a generated 'instrument' can cover a range of several octaves without quality loss. On the other hand, a sample will deteriorate under this pitch manipulation, which is why MIDI instruments often require several samples per instrument to cover a range of several octaves.
Both systems have their advantages and disadvantages, but my point is: If the music was composed for wave generators, then there is pretty much an infinite number of possible sounds that can be created (spanning all the games, not just one!). This means that if these sounds were to be accurately transfered to a MIDI based system, you would need either to download a sound bank for every game (inefficient) or have an infinitely big instrument bank.
You also need to consider the possibility of a game generating sounds on the fly. User input could modify pitch, duration, and temporal placement (like MIDI), but it could also affect timber through additive synthesis (combining the effects of 2 square channels, one triangle channel, and a sawtooth channel from Konami's own sound chip) or simple just create static noise or random sounds.
In the end, it would just be totally inefficient to port all of the game's soundtracks to midi just for some minor improvements in some games on some tracks. It will always come down to the fact that these pieces were not written for MIDI, and to convert them (and do them justice) would require A LOT of work.
First off, the NES did NOT use midi.
NES Sound
Second, that's not necessariliy a good idea. Composers often write for the instrumentation they have, and changing the instrumentation afterwards can really harm a piece.
Here's a good (but probably nit-picky) example. In the original SMB3 the steel drum sample was of low sample rate and resolution. In the SNES version (and especially GBA) the higher sample rate and resolution sample wasn't equalized the same. The composer would have picked up on this, but saddly he had no part in the conversion. This may not seem like a big issue, but the end result was that the wrong harmonic(s) were heard, and the perceived pitch of the sample is incorrect (though the fundamental may still be correct).
Another, less acoustic, example is in Street Fighter 2010. One of the best tracks of that game is a serial piece using the square waves. It's totally freaky and practically made me crap myself as a kid. The NES sound hardware was perfect for it. (Poorly) Emulated (read sampled) square waves don't have the same feel... believe me, I transcribed the piece for MIDI, and it killed it.
MIDI is a great technology, but NES music doesn't translate well to it. This is because most of the great NES music works were written with the NES sound hardware in mind, and changing the instrumentation of a piece (any kind of piece) often takes away from the composer's original intent.
Take the Bayou Billy soundtrack.. it made wonderful use of the square wave channels to sound like funk rhythm (muted) guitar! This is something that can't be done in MIDI without special samples, and the number of samples required to correctly reproduce the effect would be immense!
You mentioned Zelda and Metroid, which both underwent wonderful musical transformations as the console sound technology improved.. But realize that these new tracks weren't simple transcriptions, but clever arrangements. That is exactly what made them so great! The composer/arrangers used what the SNES could offer as their new instrumentation and wrote/arranged around that.... Just like in the old days with the NES.
So, I return to my main point: Changing the instrumentation of a piece can be detrimental to the intended effect, ESPECIALLY in VG music where the hardware was often heavily considered (or even the inspiration) in the creative/compositional process.
I'm taking a stab at using my own engine... but like I mentioned earlier, I'm only just now learning how to use DirectX, so I may switch yet.
No, nothing yet.
Sadly, I can put very little time towards this project. I started it a long time ago using Allegro in DOS(I did say a LONG time ago). Anyway.. most of my old code is useless now as I was just learning how to code at the time. I'm starting from scratch using DirectX and once I have something to actually show I'll put up a site.
As for Mystical Ninja on N64, there were 2 of them. They both appeared entirely 3D but one of them played like a 2D side scroller (your movement was restricted to 2 dimensions).
2D Side scroller with 3D elements. Remember Mystical Ninja for N64?
Anyone else working on indie titles based on older games?
I'm working on a Blaster Master title (early in development) based on the first game (since the others sucked). I was just wondering how many people were into this... it's encouraging!
I'd like to see a dialogue heavy Zelda with a much more epic story line...
Sorry, but it doesn't actually seem like you're looking for a new Zelda title, but a new title with Zelda characters. A dialogue heavy Zelda has never really existed, and could be the reason why the series has done well.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it?
Probably because of the NUDITY.
Sheesh, at a gig like this one you're only selling your dignity, but in a strip joint you're also selling your body. That may not be a big deal to you, but for most people their body is sacred and private.
I'm sure the comments on this story will be incredibly insightful.
Aren't they all?
I learned to type by playing MUDs. I was taking a very poor typing class at school but found it wasn't enough to secure the skill, so, my solution was
diamondgate.com:4000
I admit, though, that I spent HOURS each day playing.
lol, I just did it again, and got stuck in the cage where the blob is caught.
Apparently all it takes is having a hole at the left-most edge of a screen and sliding into it from the right. I have the hole on the 3rd screen (day light area) and run in from the left. If anyone wants, I can send them a savestate. Or am I the only one who loves finding bugs in old VGs?
Did anyone else use the Punch Bean Bug?
Once you're on Blobolonia, set a hole right on the right edge of the screen, then run towards the hole and turn around before hitting it. If done right, you skid into the hole at the same time you switch screens. You then fall into the 'end game' sequence. You move around on a platform and check out credits and pics and stuff. When I did it all the graphics would be garbled.. it was the only way I ever "finished" the game. I think you need to do this on the second or third screen to the right on blobolonia.
Just thought you guys would like this..
Conan O'Brien featured Ms. Pac-Man on his show tonight. She appeared as "Bulimic Ms. Pac-Man" in the reoccuring "New Characters" sketch. It was basically a clip of the gameplay in reverse...
HILARIOUS! It's cool to see the writers at Conan doing this kind of geek stuff.
AND THE RESTAURANT AT THE END OF THE UNIVERSE ISN'T AT THE FUCKING EDGE OF THE UNIVERSE
Well, it's not at the edge of the universe in terms of space, but it IS at the edge in terms of time. So, I propose that the edge of time is the same thing as the end of time, and therefore at the end of the universe. This seems to follow the Adams approach to discussing scientific concepts.
I've been experimenting with combinations of software for security, and this is by far the best combination for general use:
FireFox (Browser)
Avast! Home Edition (Anti-virus)
Part of my experiment was to operate as an Administrator at all times. I've been running like this for several months now, and have not encountered a single problem!
No viruses, No Spy-ware/Mal-ware, no annoying restrictions (I'm not using SP2).
Anyone else use this combination? It is by far the strongest combination I've ever used.
Also, permissions in the registry can cause a lot of problems.
This said, there is ALWAYS a way to remove malware.. WITHOUT having to cut the power dangerously. They key steps are always:
1) Close all of its running components.
2) Find and remove all of its files.
3) Find and remove all its mean of copying itself (often in the registry)
4) Reboot, login to all accounts, Repeat.
Should the administrator of the software already know where the log file is saved? If he/she wanted the application to create a log file, then he/she would have made sure it work before unleashing the application.
Organizing MP3s and Other File Collections?
Don't be coy Roy. Just admit you have a pr0n collection.
Who is Alfred Noble??
see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_Prize
I trust wikipedia over ~pshapiro anyday.
wait... are you saying Mario 1, 2, and 3 are very similar? As far as I can remember Sonic 1, 2, and 3 WERE very similar, but the first three Mario weren't.
Mario 2 US wasn't even originally a mario game! It's just an adaptation of Doki Doki Panic. And Mario 3 was one of the most innovative games in VG history! (Mario 2 Jap was not all that original, but had several changes over Mario 1. See the "Lost levels" game on "Mario All Stars")
Well, looking back at your post, you MUST mean that the first 3 Sonics were in fact dissimilar.. otherwise you, sir, are a MAD MAN!