I still use an ancient (released in 1986 I think) Commodore 1084S because it can sync to 15KHz horizontal refresh. This means that I can connect it to my PS2 (using a LM1881 to extract the horizontal and vertical sync signals from the composite signal). Graphics quality is much higher than with a TV.
On Mon, 24 Nov 2003 18:38:38 -0500, Van Halen - Black And Blue.mp3 wrote:
> http://www.gamespot.com/features/6084158/p-8.html > > FUCK THAT SHIT. > > Yes I am actually defending Crono Trigur. Anyway. > > Other things.
Random encounters are most definitely gay. Chrono Trigger is the best SNES RPG (although it takes a lot of suspension of disbelief to get past the timetravel illogic.)
"To this I counter that the RPG experience is inherently unrealistic. I'm not just talking about the swords-and-sorcery or science fiction settings either. When was the last time you put on your clothes with a menu system or used a floating hand to pick your target?"
Putting clothes on with a menu system is necessary. Any "realistic" method is either pornographic or looks extremely stupid.
Picking targets with a floating hands is a bad idea. Action RPGs > turn based.
"The truth of the matter is, controlling multiple characters is unrealistic"...but until we have true AI, necessary.
"Finally, to all of the advocates for "realism" in RPGs, note this: In Xenosaga, a single gnosis attacks me in the field. In the battle screen, there could be anywhere between one and five enemies on the screen. Where did the other four come from?"
General consensus is that Xenosaga sucks, so this is hardly a good argument.
"A more valid argument is that random battles "pad" gameplay. I'm not going to argue with this, but I am going to say that RPGs need that padding."
All the best games are short. Ico didn't have any padding.
"Plot is unquestionably the meat of these games, and my favorite part of any game. However, story development is inherently noninteractive."
I guess somebody never plays PC RPGs.
"While I hate excessive leveling-up as much as the next guy, I'd rather do that than spend $60 on a 10-hour game"
Game value is calculated by the amount of enjoyment you get for your money, not the amount of time wasted. I am quite capable of wasting time for free.
"Xenosaga and Chrono Cross are great games, but so are Final Fantasy and Xenogears."
One thing I don't understand is why some people play FPSs with low monitor refresh rates. If your monitor is retracing at 75Hz, it doesn't matter that your graphics card can render 300fps, you're only going to see 75 of them.
I play Quake 3 at 800x600, so my monitor can refresh at 160Hz. With everything at minimum detail I get about 200fps average, so my real fps is a solid 160fps (except in very crowded areas).
This makes a very big difference, especially in 1v1 with railguns. Here every few milliseconds count, so anyone with a lower framerate is at a big disadvantage.
ICO (for PS2) is another example of a game with excellent hand animated characters. Here it is very appropriate to use, because the game does not try to have totally realistic graphics.
Chronoicles and Anthology are inferior to the original SNES versions, with longer load times and lower frame rates. There is still a market for the SNES carts.
FF8 is the best in the series. The only reason people don't like it is because it is so different from the other FF games, and it wasn't what they were expecting. FF8 has the best gameplay (no leveling up required), and the best characters (which I define as most realistic, but some players just want "heroic" characters so they may think FF8 has the worst characters).
FFVII had a better story, and FFX has better graphics, but overall FFVIII is best.
After all the hype, Xenosaga episode 1 was a major disappointment. The combat system was boring and repetitive, and non-interactive parts took up far too much time. There's nothing wrong with having non-interactive parts, but if you're going to rely on them as much as Xenosaga does the story must be exceptionally good. Unfortuantly, Xenosaga's story is bad fanfic quality. Characters were cliched and predictable, and all the "deep" philosophical stuff wasn't. Xenogears did this type of game much better, and Xenogears is overrated itself.
"Here's something that Gamespot (and not me) said. Tell me if you think this seriously makes sense. They mention that the game, as it's been admitted by everyone who plays it, has extremely long cutscenes. Gamespot's 8.1 OMG GAME SO COOL ANIME RULEZ review says that they do occasionally get boring. So if the entire game is mostly cutscenes, and they get boring, wouldn't that just make the game plain old boring?"
Episode 1 was the biggest waste of money I spent on a PS2 game yet, I won't be making the same mistake with episode 2.
I had a really long comment ready to post, but Mozilla crashed when I tried to preview it. I'm not typing it all again, so here's a summary of the main points.
* FF9 should not be on the top 25 - horribly unoriginal, bad gameplay, bad characters.
* FF8 is best in the series.
* FF8 has best gameplay, no random encounters after getting Enc None (very early), no levelling up needed. Random encounters are bad, and an artifact of primitive technology of times past.
* FF8 has best characters. Squall much more realistic than others. Play Rameses (an IF game) using Frotz to understand his character better.
* FF6 is only good for the first half, gets very boring in World of Ruin. PC rpgs do no linearity better. FF6 should be ranked about 10th at best, not 1st.
* FFX is underrated, should be much higher. Excellent story, only FF7 has better (although FF7 is quite bad at everything else)
But mostly Descent because of lack of guide bot. Shoot the reactor then fly about in fear as you realize you can't find the mine exit, and you've got less than a minute until it explodes. There's nothing like escaping in the last few seconds as the mine explodes behind you.
Agreed, but there is a difference in danger between alcohol and water. This doesn't mean it should be banned - I'm in favor of legalizing all drugs - but it does mean it is entirely logical for Google to ban alcohol adverts but not porn. They can chose to ban ads for substances which cause any level of harm they like, and porn causes less harm.
Final Fantasy FVIII is one of the best in the series, the only people who dislike it are the obsessive "old-school" gamers who think the cliched stories and repetitive battle systems of the old FF games were actually a good thing. It's a shame Square listened to their whining and produced the boring piece of shit that was FF9, but at least they learned their lesson from the poor sales and returned to the present for FFX.
Chrono Cross wasn't great, but neither was Chrono Trigger, another game worshipped by the old-school fanboys for no good reason.
There are many sequels made just to cash in on past success, but also many unfairly ignored by people who wanted an exact duplicate of the prequel. Don't let nostalgia remove your appreciation for progress.
RiscOS solved this problem years ago, with the right mouse button "adjust" selecting items without closing the menu. It had a great UI for it's time, better than Windows and Mac.
The censorship is wrong, but alcohol is much worse that porn. Alcohol causes real physical damage, addiction and death. Google is being entirely ethical here.
I have a basil plant growing in my kitchen. This is not intentional, I bought it for cooking a few months ago (very cheap) and surprisingly it didn't die. It's now about 4 times as big as it was when I bought it and still growing strong, although the roots are showing so it probably needs repotting.
As for gardening tips, if you remove the growing tip of the plant (just break off the very top of the plant with your fingernails) it will grow 2 more. Remove those to get 4, then 8, 16, 32... Of course, if you overdo it the plant dies.
I used to have a cactus but it wasn't getting enough light so now my sister is looking after it for me. It's about 2 years old, and is about 10 times the size of when I first got it. Cactus are easy to grow, just don't overwater them.
You do not need to mix marijuana with tobacco to make it burn properly. I live in the UK where mixing them is a common practice, but I never do it myself. Smoke in a pipe or bong instead of joints if you have problems burning it.
Download GBA Frotz and install it on a flash cart and you can play text adventures on the GBA. The interface isn't great, but it's usable. You can download many free games in the z-machine format at The Interactive Fiction Archive, and almost all the Infocom text adventures will work.
Slashdot Mirror
I still use an ancient (released in 1986 I think) Commodore 1084S because it can sync to 15KHz horizontal refresh. This means that I can connect it to my PS2 (using a LM1881 to extract the horizontal and vertical sync signals from the composite signal). Graphics quality is much higher than with a TV.
If you like it you are probably an "otaku" (and don't realize that it's an insult in Japanese).
Caltrops.com seems to be down now so here's the Google cache of the only Xenosaga review you need:
http://66.102.11.104/search?q=cache:On37B5AYF1kJ:
...I made in alt.games.final-fantasy:
...but until we have true AI, necessary.
On Mon, 24 Nov 2003 18:38:38 -0500, Van Halen - Black And Blue.mp3 wrote:
> http://www.gamespot.com/features/6084158/p-8.html
>
> FUCK THAT SHIT.
>
> Yes I am actually defending Crono Trigur. Anyway.
>
> Other things.
Random encounters are most definitely gay. Chrono Trigger is the best SNES RPG (although it takes a lot of suspension of disbelief to get past the timetravel illogic.)
"To this I counter that the RPG experience is inherently unrealistic. I'm not just talking about the swords-and-sorcery or science fiction settings
either. When was the last time you put on your clothes with a menu system or used a floating hand to pick your target?"
Putting clothes on with a menu system is necessary. Any "realistic" method is either pornographic or looks extremely stupid.
Picking targets with a floating hands is a bad idea. Action RPGs > turn based.
"The truth of the matter is, controlling multiple characters is unrealistic"
"Finally, to all of the advocates for "realism" in RPGs, note this: In Xenosaga, a single gnosis attacks me in the field. In the battle screen,
there could be anywhere between one and five enemies on the screen. Where did the other four come from?"
General consensus is that Xenosaga sucks, so this is hardly a good argument.
"A more valid argument is that random battles "pad" gameplay. I'm not going to argue with this, but I am going to say that RPGs need that padding."
All the best games are short. Ico didn't have any padding.
"Plot is unquestionably the meat of these games, and my favorite part of any game. However, story development is inherently noninteractive."
I guess somebody never plays PC RPGs.
"While I hate excessive leveling-up as much as the next guy, I'd rather do that than spend $60 on a 10-hour game"
Game value is calculated by the amount of enjoyment you get for your money, not the amount of time wasted. I am quite capable of wasting time for free.
"Xenosaga and Chrono Cross are great games, but so are Final Fantasy and Xenogears."
There goes the last remains of his credibility.
One thing I don't understand is why some people play FPSs with low monitor refresh rates. If your monitor is retracing at 75Hz, it doesn't matter that your graphics card can render 300fps, you're only going to see 75 of them.
I play Quake 3 at 800x600, so my monitor can refresh at 160Hz. With everything at minimum detail I get about 200fps average, so my real fps is a solid 160fps (except in very crowded areas).
This makes a very big difference, especially in 1v1 with railguns. Here every few milliseconds count, so anyone with a lower framerate is at a big disadvantage.
ICO (for PS2) is another example of a game with excellent hand animated characters. Here it is very appropriate to use, because the game does not try to have totally realistic graphics.
Chronoicles and Anthology are inferior to the original SNES versions, with longer load times and lower frame rates. There is still a market for the SNES carts.
Draw is mostly useless when you get refine abilities.
Casting magic is useless because physical attacks do more damage.
Summoning is ALWAYS useless, because limit breaks are much more powerful.
You didn't like FF8 because you tried to play it like a normal FF game.
FF8 is the best in the series. The only reason people don't like it is because it is so different from the other FF games, and it wasn't what they were expecting. FF8 has the best gameplay (no leveling up required), and the best characters (which I define as most realistic, but some players just want "heroic" characters so they may think FF8 has the worst characters).
FFVII had a better story, and FFX has better graphics, but overall FFVIII is best.
Here's a quote from the caltrops.com review of Xenosaga ep. 1:
Episode 1 was the biggest waste of money I spent on a PS2 game yet, I won't be making the same mistake with episode 2.
And http://rhodium.ws for information on the chemistry and synthesis of drugs.
I don't think the OpenGL API allows easy arbitrary distortions. Maybe have a look at the source for the various distortion plugins for the GIMP.
FF7 is very annoying to play now because of the lack of analog controller support. The D-pad hurts your thumb if you use it too long.
Another word for you: Refine
Xine has working DVD navigation, MPlayer doesn't.
* FF9 should not be on the top 25 - horribly unoriginal, bad gameplay, bad characters.
* FF8 is best in the series.
* FF8 has best gameplay, no random encounters after getting Enc None (very early), no levelling up needed. Random encounters are bad, and an artifact of primitive technology of times past.
* FF8 has best characters. Squall much more realistic than others. Play Rameses (an IF game) using Frotz to understand his character better.
* FF6 is only good for the first half, gets very boring in World of Ruin. PC rpgs do no linearity better. FF6 should be ranked about 10th at best, not 1st.
* FFX is underrated, should be much higher. Excellent story, only FF7 has better (although FF7 is quite bad at everything else)
* Chrono Trigger is also overrated.
But mostly Descent because of lack of guide bot. Shoot the reactor then fly about in fear as you realize you can't find the mine exit, and you've got less than a minute until it explodes. There's nothing like escaping in the last few seconds as the mine explodes behind you.
Agreed, but there is a difference in danger between alcohol and water. This doesn't mean it should be banned - I'm in favor of legalizing all drugs - but it does mean it is entirely logical for Google to ban alcohol adverts but not porn. They can chose to ban ads for substances which cause any level of harm they like, and porn causes less harm.
Final Fantasy FVIII is one of the best in the series, the only people who dislike it are the obsessive "old-school" gamers who think the cliched stories and repetitive battle systems of the old FF games were actually a good thing. It's a shame Square listened to their whining and produced the boring piece of shit that was FF9, but at least they learned their lesson from the poor sales and returned to the present for FFX.
Chrono Cross wasn't great, but neither was Chrono Trigger, another game worshipped by the old-school fanboys for no good reason.
There are many sequels made just to cash in on past success, but also many unfairly ignored by people who wanted an exact duplicate of the prequel. Don't let nostalgia remove your appreciation for progress.
RiscOS solved this problem years ago, with the right mouse button "adjust" selecting items without closing the menu. It had a great UI for it's time, better than Windows and Mac.
The censorship is wrong, but alcohol is much worse that porn. Alcohol causes real physical damage, addiction and death. Google is being entirely ethical here.
I have a basil plant growing in my kitchen. This is not intentional, I bought it for cooking a few months ago (very cheap) and surprisingly it didn't die. It's now about 4 times as big as it was when I bought it and still growing strong, although the roots are showing so it probably needs repotting.
As for gardening tips, if you remove the growing tip of the plant (just break off the very top of the plant with your fingernails) it will grow 2 more. Remove those to get 4, then 8, 16, 32... Of course, if you overdo it the plant dies.
I used to have a cactus but it wasn't getting enough light so now my sister is looking after it for me. It's about 2 years old, and is about 10 times the size of when I first got it. Cactus are easy to grow, just don't overwater them.
Assuming it contains alcohol, your homebrew defintely IS carcinogenic.l co.pdf
http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/roc/tenth/profiles/s007a
Xine 1.0.0beta6 works. Probably some earlier versions also.
You do not need to mix marijuana with tobacco to make it burn properly. I live in the UK where mixing them is a common practice, but I never do it myself. Smoke in a pipe or bong instead of joints if you have problems burning it.
http://www.ukcia.org/activism/tokepure.htm
Download GBA Frotz and install it on a flash cart and you can play text adventures on the GBA. The interface isn't great, but it's usable. You can download many free games in the z-machine format at The Interactive Fiction Archive, and almost all the Infocom text adventures will work.