You're holding in your hand an illegal, unauthorized bootleg with substandard video quality.
I'd be very surprised if the menus were indeed in Japanese, as Anime Cartoon only puts out Chinese bootlegs in Hong Kong. They usually include English and Chinese subtitles, and either the Japanese audio or the English audio.
Actually Japanese TVs use a lower black level (0 IRE as opposed to North America's 7.5 IRE, which isn't nearly so much of a problem), and the only color shifted Japanese R2 dvd was Spirited Away, which has a noticeably red tint on every set in Japan. There's actually a lawsuit regarding that very issue brought about by a few Japanese people (see this article at animenewsnetwork).
The Kinko's in my town doesn't appear to have cameras in the computer area. Each computer virtually has its own cubicle, and the window by the computer area is completely covered up. You don't need to provide any sort of ID. The only possible problem is that there are cameras aiming elsewhere in the building, and you do have to pay a clerk for the computer time.
In any case, counting on access regularly from the same place is a bad idea overall, especially from an internet cafe where a clerk will be more wary of that kind of thing. Just never visit the same place twice, and look and act like anyone else.
Using strings, less, or whatever you feel like, find the reference to a MOV. Use curl or wget or whatever's hot this week and download that. If you're not getting a sufficiently large file, repeat.
Also note that there are often references to higher-resolution versions (the switch ads have 480 vertical res versions. I have momoko kikuchi's.); make sure you're getting the largest one.
Oh, the laser in the ps2 can read burned cds. The hardware abstraction layer that the linux kit runs in won't let linux access any cd/dvd that's not a psx or ps2 official copy, though. Which is presumably to keep people from using the linux kit as a software mod (even though for $20 and one wire you can play everything except dvd-r copies of psx/ps2 games, anyway).
Actually, if you read the FAQ, there are detailed manuals included for the Graphics Synthesizer, the Emotion Engine, VU0 and VU1, the DMA controller, and the mpeg2 decoder. Which is pretty damn low-level.
They say you can compile a new kernel and put it in if you want to port it. The only thing the hardware abstraction layer keeps you from doing is reading anything other than a genuine PSX or PS2 CD or DVD. Which shouldn't be a big problem for anyone other than pirates, given that there's a 10/100 ethernet adaptor and a 40gb hard drive included. You can rip your own music and such on your pc, then transfer it over to the ps2.
While it's not completely open, I understand Sony's reasons for disabling access to the dvd drive if there's anything other than an official disc in there. It'd be very easy to program a linux software mod otherwise.
Well, Street Fighter didn't come out on CPS2. Not until Super Street Fighter II at least. Can't remember offhand what cocktail of CPUs the original Street Fighter was on, but SFII first came out for the Capcom Play System (1). Along with SFII CE, SFII Hyper FIghting, SFII Turbo, and the 12 or so hacks of it.
And incidentally, Famicom is short for 'Family Computer'. Famicon is short for nothing.
Note that Famicom and Famicon are equivalent in written Japanese. Going by the katakana charts, it's actually a Famicon. Going by general pronunciation, its Famicom.
They've announced a $50 rebate for users who register online between June 4 and August 31. Add this to a $200 rebate for signing up for a year of Sega.com internet services, and that's a free game and a free system.
Don't get me wrong though, I'm buying a PS2 before this time next year... there's no way I can miss out on Metal Gear Solid: Sons of Liberty
the US Dreamcast's intial game shipments included several defective GD-ROMs.
No, it didn't. Those discs worked perfectly well, just not in American systems. It was later found out that they were PAL versions of the games, IIRC That's not defective, that's a mix-up.
This all depends on the genre of the game, of course. The game I really want for my dreamcast (which is now nicely modded, by the nice people at NCS), Shenmue, would do no good for me to import. I'd be able to play it, sure, but it makes so much use of Japanese that I would have no idea what's going on, and that defeats the purpose of that entire genre. However,fighting games and such (Like the PS2's oddly anticipated Tekken Tag Tournament) are usually almost completely in English; or if they're not, there's no real Japanese in there, just English in katakana (or words everyone knows... ichi ni san shi etc). I dunno why companies put a territory lock on their machines; the Game Boy didn't have one, and NOA didn't go broke because no one in the USA bought Japan versions of games. Sega doesn't care about locks any more; SOA has said that they aren't going to bother trying to lock out mod chips for the Dreamcast in any way. Japanese software is generally much more expensive to import than to buy locally; most inports are between $10 to $40 more expensive than a local release is. Generally USA localized versions are released within 3 or 4 months anyway.
Um, just a small nitpick: Gameshark did not edit savegames. Well, the more recent ones edit icons on savegames. But that isn't how it cheats. It modifies locations in the console's memory, which generally isn't encrypted.
Yes, the import gun was locked out of the USA version of HotD2. It's possible to import the Japanese game and gun and use that. However, that's not what I did.
I got the USA game and a third-party gun (as there is no first-party light gun), though it's the one from MadKatz, which is licensed by Sega and looks a lot like the Japanese Sega gun. God, if I had to play the game with the control pad I'd go crazy. It sucks a lot.
And $20 says it looks better on a monitor with my VGA box than it does rendered by your computer.
I noticed this... people forget that the dreamcast renders at higher than 640x480, it does either 800x600 or 1024x768 (I can never remember. Sue me.), and it looks a hell of a lot better connected to a monitor than to a TV. The VGA box is the single best peripheral available for the DC; it ups the viewable resolution a lot, and it makes every game (except Marvel Vs Capcom and SFA3... which dont look that good on a tv'anyway, having been made for a 320x224 arcade monitor) look a lot better than on a normal tv. I'm glad I have one. Though it won't be of much use for the next week or so, as I send my DC off to get modded.
Well... there are many great non-square offerings. Anything ported by Working Designs is generally nothing short of amazing. Look at Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete for playstation; absolutely amazing, even if the graphics are old-school. Lunar 2: Eternal Blue's remake should be coming out soon; that will be at least as amazing. Grandia is a pretty fun game, it's got a novel battle system that's better than Star Ocean 2's (another great game) whack-a-lot battle system. Tactics Ogre I liked better than FF Tactics. Wild Arms was pretty cool, even if a few of the puzzles (treasure chest & bookcases, anyone?) were impossible. Just look at what's out there; I haven't played many truly bad rpgs.
Okay... but let me ask you this: Can your computer run Crazy Taxi at 800x600 (or 1024x768, I can never remember) at 60fps, with perfect control? No? Didn't think so.
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You've just given me nightmares of using a web browser called "Moz-chan."
I hope you're happy.
From what I've read, XP Home allows the use of 2 virtual CPUs, just not two physical CPUs. So any HyperThreading procs would work just fine.
Luckily SPFIIT is being ported to the GBA (should be out next month). I have my money set aside for it.
You're holding in your hand an illegal, unauthorized bootleg with substandard video quality.
I'd be very surprised if the menus were indeed in Japanese, as Anime Cartoon only puts out Chinese bootlegs in Hong Kong. They usually include English and Chinese subtitles, and either the Japanese audio or the English audio.
Actually Japanese TVs use a lower black level (0 IRE as opposed to North America's 7.5 IRE, which isn't nearly so much of a problem), and the only color shifted Japanese R2 dvd was Spirited Away, which has a noticeably red tint on every set in Japan. There's actually a lawsuit regarding that very issue brought about by a few Japanese people (see this article at animenewsnetwork).
About Kinko's...
The Kinko's in my town doesn't appear to have cameras in the computer area. Each computer virtually has its own cubicle, and the window by the computer area is completely covered up. You don't need to provide any sort of ID. The only possible problem is that there are cameras aiming elsewhere in the building, and you do have to pay a clerk for the computer time.
In any case, counting on access regularly from the same place is a bad idea overall, especially from an internet cafe where a clerk will be more wary of that kind of thing. Just never visit the same place twice, and look and act like anyone else.
Well, you can get around that in a simple way.
Using strings, less, or whatever you feel like, find the reference to a MOV. Use curl or wget or whatever's hot this week and download that. If you're not getting a sufficiently large file, repeat.
Also note that there are often references to higher-resolution versions (the switch ads have 480 vertical res versions. I have momoko kikuchi's.); make sure you're getting the largest one.
Oh, the laser in the ps2 can read burned cds. The hardware abstraction layer that the linux kit runs in won't let linux access any cd/dvd that's not a psx or ps2 official copy, though. Which is presumably to keep people from using the linux kit as a software mod (even though for $20 and one wire you can play everything except dvd-r copies of psx/ps2 games, anyway).
Actually, if you read the FAQ, there are detailed manuals included for the Graphics Synthesizer, the Emotion Engine, VU0 and VU1, the DMA controller, and the mpeg2 decoder. Which is pretty damn low-level.
They say you can compile a new kernel and put it in if you want to port it. The only thing the hardware abstraction layer keeps you from doing is reading anything other than a genuine PSX or PS2 CD or DVD. Which shouldn't be a big problem for anyone other than pirates, given that there's a 10/100 ethernet adaptor and a 40gb hard drive included. You can rip your own music and such on your pc, then transfer it over to the ps2.
While it's not completely open, I understand Sony's reasons for disabling access to the dvd drive if there's anything other than an official disc in there. It'd be very easy to program a linux software mod otherwise.
This actually means you're putting in the second Cowboy Bebop soundtrack, not a DVD ;-)
Wrong. Amano did some sketches of the FFIX characters after the design was completed; Tetsuya Nomura did the actual character designs.
Almost every foreign movie released in Japan is subtitled. Terminator 2, Titanic, etc. This will almost certainly be the same.
It doesn't have a territory lockout, so no worries about imports.
Only thing remaining is backups. Which I never saw the need for BTW, I've never had a disc break that I didn't intentionally do myself.
Well, Street Fighter didn't come out on CPS2. Not until Super Street Fighter II at least. Can't remember offhand what cocktail of CPUs the original Street Fighter was on, but SFII first came out for the Capcom Play System (1). Along with SFII CE, SFII Hyper FIghting, SFII Turbo, and the 12 or so hacks of it.
So, who's gonna join me in moving to Japan for the next four years?
Osaka, Tokyo? Any of those sound good?
Note that Famicom and Famicon are equivalent in written Japanese. Going by the katakana charts, it's actually a Famicon. Going by general pronunciation, its Famicom.
Either is correct
Don't get me wrong though, I'm buying a PS2 before this time next year... there's no way I can miss out on Metal Gear Solid: Sons of Liberty
No, it didn't. Those discs worked perfectly well, just not in American systems. It was later found out that they were PAL versions of the games, IIRC That's not defective, that's a mix-up.
This all depends on the genre of the game, of course. The game I really want for my dreamcast (which is now nicely modded, by the nice people at NCS), Shenmue, would do no good for me to import. I'd be able to play it, sure, but it makes so much use of Japanese that I would have no idea what's going on, and that defeats the purpose of that entire genre. However ,fighting games and such (Like the PS2's oddly anticipated Tekken Tag Tournament) are usually almost completely in English; or if they're not, there's no real Japanese in there, just English in katakana (or words everyone knows... ichi ni san shi etc).
I dunno why companies put a territory lock on their machines; the Game Boy didn't have one, and NOA didn't go broke because no one in the USA bought Japan versions of games. Sega doesn't care about locks any more; SOA has said that they aren't going to bother trying to lock out mod chips for the Dreamcast in any way. Japanese software is generally much more expensive to import than to buy locally; most inports are between $10 to $40 more expensive than a local release is. Generally USA localized versions are released within 3 or 4 months anyway.
Um, just a small nitpick: Gameshark did not edit savegames. Well, the more recent ones edit icons on savegames. But that isn't how it cheats. It modifies locations in the console's memory, which generally isn't encrypted.
USB Device Class Specifications
(USB-IF member username and password required)
That sounds to me as though it was rather intentional.
I got the USA game and a third-party gun (as there is no first-party light gun), though it's the one from MadKatz, which is licensed by Sega and looks a lot like the Japanese Sega gun. God, if I had to play the game with the control pad I'd go crazy. It sucks a lot.
I noticed this... people forget that the dreamcast renders at higher than 640x480, it does either 800x600 or 1024x768 (I can never remember. Sue me.), and it looks a hell of a lot better connected to a monitor than to a TV. The VGA box is the single best peripheral available for the DC; it ups the viewable resolution a lot, and it makes every game (except Marvel Vs Capcom and SFA3... which dont look that good on a tv'anyway, having been made for a 320x224 arcade monitor) look a lot better than on a normal tv. I'm glad I have one. Though it won't be of much use for the next week or so, as I send my DC off to get modded.
Well... there are many great non-square offerings. Anything ported by Working Designs is generally nothing short of amazing. Look at Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete for playstation; absolutely amazing, even if the graphics are old-school. Lunar 2: Eternal Blue's remake should be coming out soon; that will be at least as amazing.
Grandia is a pretty fun game, it's got a novel battle system that's better than Star Ocean 2's (another great game) whack-a-lot battle system. Tactics Ogre I liked better than FF Tactics. Wild Arms was pretty cool, even if a few of the puzzles (treasure chest & bookcases, anyone?) were impossible.
Just look at what's out there; I haven't played many truly bad rpgs.
Okay... but let me ask you this: Can your computer run Crazy Taxi at 800x600 (or 1024x768, I can never remember) at 60fps, with perfect control? No? Didn't think so.