Topics

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Do you own a turbo-less PCE pad?]

speaks for itself. If you do, how did you acquire it?

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / How to impress?]

You have some Snerd or Genesissy friends over. They comment on your 'weird' TurboGrafx. Since everyone knows you never get a second chance to make a first impression, you only get one chance to impress them with Turbo Power.

What game do you pop in?

[Off-Topic / dumb drama question.]

Is Sarumaru, AKA DJ Medina, THAT Dave Medina? from New Jersey, that had fights with Sini all the time? Was he trolling all that time?

or am I creating resemblances where they don't exist?

[General Gaming / (XBLA) Bomberman Live vs. Bomberman Live: Battlefest]

I have both games for my 360. However, I've never managed to get into an online game on Battlefest; everyone plays the older game instead. Anyone know what's up with that?

[Off-Topic / A history of the Animaniacs]

http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/126115

That show was good stuff. There's a lot in this article I didn't know about 'em. Enjoy 

[Off-Topic / Nectarsis, stay away from Portland.]

http://boingboing.net/2012/04/28/portland-prosecutor-says-innoc.html

A Portland City attorney argued in court that a Portland police officer was justified in brutally tasing a non-violent man with no criminal record because it was later discovered that the man owned a classic kung fu film collection. The jury didn't agree, and the taxpayers now get to pay a $250,000 settlement. Naturally, Officer Benjamin J. Davidson remains on the force.

http://www.theagitator.com/2012/04/28/wrong-guy/

[General Gaming / The "Steam box"]

http://www.theverge.com/2012/3/2/2840932/exclusive-valve-steam-box-gaming-console

A few tantilizing quotes and a patent - but are they close enough to announce something at the Game Developers Conference, or even E3? what do you think?

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / PC Engine TAKE A CHANCE thread]

/martintwin.png

This thread is for asking about PC-Engine games you're unsure about buying, and can't find enough information on. Is the game fun? how high is the moon-language barrier? is it deep, or just eye-candy? Whatever the reason, if you're unsure about a PC-Engine game, ask about it here!

I'll start:

Color Wars. I know it's a puzzle game, but that's about it - can't find gameplay videos or reviews. One website is selling it for 7 bucks, plus shipping. Should I bite?

[Off-Topic / promise.tv]

http://www.promise.tv/

A PVR that doesn't record one channel, not 2 channels... but ALL THE CHANNELS AT ONCE. 

the 'lite' version, that can store 3 days worth of everything broadcast, costs 1,200£ (about $1,900); the 'promise 7' that records a weeks worth of TV at once, will set you back 1,998£($3,170).

Only works in the UK, though.

[Fighting Street / DRAFT NECTARSIS AND SINISTRON FOR MODERATORS]

So Ninny seems to think that if he convinces the mods that Nectarsis, Sinistron, et. al. are bad, he can get them banned. Let's crush that false hope utterly 

[Off-Topic / This man is...]

edit: I've cut it down to mere mortal size, but it looses quality. Here's the original: https://i.imgur.com/fEgPY.jpg

[General Gaming / Consolized game gear system]

Ho. Lee. Cow. 
http://www.smspower.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=13381

The pictures explain most of it. You can run it through google translate if you want more details. A later post also links to a howto.
 

[General Gaming / Soul Calibur 4 vs 5]

I think I like the new one better.

[General Gaming / Weird controllers]

Was browsing around the internet, and found a webpage with some controller pictures and info:http://www.syntaxerror.nu/joysticks.html

This one, in particular, caught my eye:

it's allegedly a wireless controller for NES and SNES and its receiver. In case that image goes away, it looks like a pretty typical SFC controller, with the Konami logo and a dark spot where I presume the IR emitter is. However, the receiver looks like a little black and grey satellite dish.

Anyone ever seen or played with this thing before? it's new to me.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Worst bug in a Turbo game?]

So me and a friend were having a discussion of the merits of Computer games vs. Console games. One of the points I tried to make is that, since there is a company in charge of a console's releases, they can keep out the really bad games. (hopefully.) He brought up the infamous 7800 Impossible Mission, which actually is impossible.

Which got me to thinking - what was the worst bug that made it into a released TG16 game? Given that virtually all of them were released in Japan, and 'playtested' for us there first, there shouldn't be many.

[General Gaming / on cartridge battery life]

http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/193374-battery-life-of-old-game-cartridges/

So this guy over at Atariage is claiming that, according to his calculations (which he doesn't 'show his work' for), NES carts' battery backup should last 60-80 years (so they'd start dying around, say, 2047) but that certain Gameboy carts will start losing saves in the next few years.

The conventional wisdom, back in the day, was that they'd last 12 years. It's been twice that now, depending on the game, and I've yet to see a cart with a dead battery.

So I thought I should point this out to our more electronically savvy people, and see what they think. How long do you think it will be before people have to start replacing batteries in old game carts?

[General Gaming / Retrode]

http://www.retrode.com/

it's a combination ROM dumper/controller connector for PCs. I'm tempted, even though it only takes SNES and Genny carts and controllers.

according to the instructions, you can't use a multitap or light guns with it. the latter is understandable, but what's up with no multitap?

I wonder if a Power Base Converter would let you dump SMS games.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / The official pop of Bravoman/Turbografx?]

https://i.imgur.com/cuvkF.jpg

[Off-Topic / Stupid association thread]

DERP

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Did the TG16 have too many shmups?]

So, looking at the Turbo Magazine archive, I noticed a "top 10" list of games for the TG16 as of June, 1990.
https://archives.tg-16.com/archive-one/TP-02-07.jpg
They were, in order:

Bonk's Adventure(platformer)
Double Dungeon(RPG)
Legendary Axe(platformer)
Taking it to the hoop(sports)
Cyber Core(shmup)
Neutopia(adventure)
King of Casino(gambling)
Dungeon Explorer(adventure)
World Class Baseball(sports)
Millitary Madness(strategy)

Note that only one of those is a shmup.

From that list, we can tell that the tastes of early turbo fans were highly questionable (taking it to the hoop? king of casino? seriously?) But we can also see that they wanted platformers, adventure games, and RPGs.

Given this, did NEC/TTi spend too much time on Shmups, when they should have been porting RPGs?

[General Gaming / Playstation Network PWNED]

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2011/04/sony-admits-utter-psn-failure-your-personal-data-has-been-stolen.ars

Sony has finally come clean about the "external intrusion" that has caused the company to take down the PlayStation Network service, and the news is almost as bad as it can possibly get. The hackers have all your personal information, although Sony is still unsure about whether your credit card data is safe. Everything else on file when it comes to your account is in the hands of the hackers.

In other words, Sony's security has failed in a spectacular fashion, and we're just now finding out about it. In both practical and PR terms, this is a worst-case scenario.
What did they get?

Here is the data that Sony is sure has been compromised if you have a PlayStation Network Account:

    Your name
    Your address (city, state, and zip)
    Country
    E-mail address
    Birthday
    PSN password and login name

"It is also possible that your profile data, including purchase history and billing address (city, state, zip), and your PlayStation Network/Qriocity password security answers may have been obtained. If you have authorized a sub-account for your dependent, the same data with respect to your dependent may have been obtained," Sony announced. While the company claims that there is "no evidence" that credit card information has been compromised, it won't rule out the possibility.

Their advice is to be safe, rather than sorry. "If you have provided your credit card data through PlayStation Network or Qriocity, out of an abundance of caution we are advising you that your credit card number (excluding security code) and expiration date may have been obtained."
What can you do?

You are warned to keep watch over your accounts, and to be aware of your heightened risk of fraud due to the security breach. "For your security, we encourage you to be especially aware of e-mail, telephone, and postal mail scams that ask for personal or sensitive information," the company said. "Sony will not contact you in any way, including by email, asking for your credit card number, social security number or other personally identifiable information."

Sony has also provided a wealth of sources for data and protection against identity theft.

    You may wish to visit the web site of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission at www.consumer.gov/idtheft or reach the FTC at 1-877-382-4357 or 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20580 for further information about how to protect yourself from identity theft. Your state Attorney General may also have advice on preventing identity theft, and you should report instances of known or suspected identity theft to law enforcement, your State Attorney General, and the FTC. For North Carolina residents, the Attorney General can be contacted at 9001 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699-9001; telephone (877) 566-7226; or www.ncdoj.gov. For Maryland residents, the Attorney General can be contacted at 200 St. Paul Place, 16th Floor, Baltimore, MD 21202; telephone: (888) 743-0023; or www.oag.state.md.us.

To be fair, Sony does apologize for the inconvenience. There is still no update on when service will be restored, but that is the least of your concerns if you have a PlayStation Network account. It's time to change your passwords, at the very least, and if you're like to be completely safe it's not a bad idea to cancel your credit or debit cards and request replacements.

We'll continue to follow this story as it develops.

emphasis mine.

[General Gaming / The new Mortal Kombat]

Have you played it, or seen it played? What do you think of it?

Personally, I think it's pretty good. Better than most of the MK games, at least.

[Fighting Street / ATTN Aaron: an evil scheme.]

Would it be possible to add a step to the user signup process?

a step that said something like:
"By clicking this checkbox I certify that I am not Dave Medina of (whatever city) New Jersey; And that if I am, I shall be held liable for administration costs in the amount of 100 US dollars per post, private message, or shout."

you could make a pretty penny this way, methinks

[General Gaming / Jerry Lawson dies]

http://www.1up.com/news/video-game-pioneer-jerry-lawson-dies

Engineer, inventor and video game pioneer Jerry Lawson passed away Saturday of unknown causes.

Lawson was among the earliest video game engineers. His first arcade title, Chicago Coins' Demolition Derby, was developed in his garage in the early 1970s.

Lawson is remembered as the inventor of Fairchild Semiconductor's home video game console, the Channel F. Released in 1976, the Channel F is the first console with programmable game cartridges; before it, home video game systems only played the games that were built into them.

Until recently, Lawson's name was not very well known, even amongst the video game community. Fortunately, Lawson was honored by the International Game Developers Association's Minority Special Interest Group at the Game Developers Conference just last month.

[General Gaming / The evolution of game controllers]

http://popchartlab.com/index.php/poster_detail/the_evolution_of_video_game_controllers/

while I have a few issues with how they relate what to what, it's still a pretty awesome poster.

[Off-Topic / ascii store WTF]

http://ascii-store.jp/p/4959380971072/

a) is this the same ascii we know and love?
b) if so, what the fuck are they doing selling sleeping bags, much less bizzarro ones?

[General Gaming / Guitar Hero is done.]

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2011/02/activision-disbands-guitar-hero-business-cancels-latest-true-crime.ars

"...Due to continued declines in the music genre, the company will disband Activision Publishing's Guitar Hero business unit and discontinue development on its Guitar Hero game for 2011," the company announced in its lasted earnings report.

...

This is a big move, but it's not particularly shocking. Sales of music games have been decreasing steadily, and last year's Guitar Hero 5: Warriors of Rock was a purely mediocre product. The company had not innovated the series in some time, nor has the franchise displayed the earning potential that Activision prizes.

[Off-Topic / Wizard magazine is dead]

Could have sworn I posted this ages ago, but:

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2011/01/24/wizard-magazine-to-close-immediately/

Wizard: The Guide To Comics, the magazine that covered the mainstream comics industry for twenty years and created all manner of careers in the process has closed, effective immediately. Or at least the print version has.

Almost all Wizard magazine staff have been laid off, and all freelance engagements cancelled.

Good riddance, I say. Wizard magazine was the avatar of everything that was wrong with comics in the 1990s.

[Off-Topic / The Turbo Dinner @ Midwest gaming classic]

pick whichever time works better for you, and use the rest of your votes to pick your favorite restaurants.

I did a google maps search for restaraunts near the convention center. I left out ones I know don't serve meals (cinnabon and such like), fast food places, and Hooters (some are bringing their kids). If you're local and you know about these places, please let us know.

I'll make reservations (if it's that sort of place) the week before. I'll need to know who's going by then, so we don't overwhelm them with a crowd, and so we can get tables together.

just in case anyone is unclear: we're all paying our own way. I ain't buying dinner for you losers! 

[Off-Topic / Roger Ebert and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]

http://gammasquad.uproxx.com/2011/01/roger-ebert-went-ninja-turtle-crazy

Kotaku dug up a clip from Siskel and Ebert's 1989 Holiday Gift Guide, where Ebert confesses his obsession with the badly rendered ninja turtles, saying:

    I got one of these sets (The Nintendo Entertainment System) at home, and I started playing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with it. And after a while, after a week of this, I'd find that every time I had a spare moment and every time I came home, I was in front of the set playing with these mutant turtles. It got to the point where it was making me quite unhappy, because I was so obsessed with it, and I finally unplugged the machine and said, "That's it for Nintendo."

He gets a NES and the first game he falls for is TMNT?

Poor guy. No wonder he thinks vidyagames aren't art.

[Off-Topic / Kill Screen magazine]

http://www.killscreenmagazine.com/

Anybody read it? It looks interesting.

[Off-Topic / Speak of the devil...]

Guy starts thread about meeting a celebrity - and how much of a dick he is.

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=23&t=933047&mid=0&i=0&nmt=Just%20met%20Jason%20Plato...&mid=0

after 8 pages of being told off, however...

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=23&t=933047&mid=0&i=140&nmt=Just%20met%20Jason%20Plato...&mid=0

 

[Off-Topic / Have you heard the good word of The Gord?]

http://www.actsofgord.com/

I stayed up way past my bedtime last night reading this, and still am. it's nonstop lulz for misanthropes like me 

[Fighting Street / Should Guyjin be shot?]

 

[Fighting Street / Joe Redifer should be shot.]

that or close the fighting street before he locks every thread. 

[Off-Topic / The next best thing to Console wars... Smartphone wars!]

Smartphones are like consoles you carry in your pocket. but they do more than just games. Therefore, which one is successful should be more important to you than life itself! FIGHT!

[Off-Topic / Hey Tats!]

something you (and and maybe others) may enjoy hearing:

http://themovieblog.com/2010/07/dreamworks-to-adapt-fall-guy-to-the-big-screen

DreamWorks is hard at work on a reboot of the Lee Major stuntman series The Fall Guy.

    The series was created by Glen A. Larson, the man behind such series as Magnum P.I., Knight Rider, and the original Battlestar Galactica. Majors starred as Hollywood stuntman/bounty hunter Colt Seavers, who did all the cool things you would expect a stuntman/bounty hunter to do.

[General Gaming / Why don't you have "protect me knight" (aka まもって騎士)?]

Seriously. If you have an Xbox 360, download this game.

[Off-Topic / Nintega: still crazy after all these years (now with added Nazis!)]

this motherfucker just does not give up. Just got a message from him on my Facebook. I blocked him, of course, but I'm kind of proud that, even though I have done absolutely nothing to him lately, he is still so very, very angry at me. And two other people who, I'm sure, know who they are.

[Feedback / Tapatalk]

https://www.tapatalk.com/

Something you might think about. I know I'm not the only one here with an Android/iphone/blackberry.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / laseractive/pac-n1 questions]

a couple of dumb questions about the Laseractive:

1) does the pac-n1 have an external system card like most combo units, or is it built in like a Duo's?
2) would it accept a normal system card, or can it only use its own? If you gave it an Arcade Card, would it work only with a pro, or a duo?

[Off-Topic / Wayne and Garth are a long way from Chicago]

http://googlesightseeing.com/maps?tw=1006&p=&c=&t=h&hl=en&ll=50.378683,-4.134657&z=16&layer=c&cbll=50.378691,-4.134783&cbp=12,274.96,,2,0.86

 

[Fighting Street / 'ašhadu 'al-lā ilāha illā-llāhu wa 'ašhadu 'anna muħammadan rasūlu-llāh]

I was so impressed with Keranu and co. at the MGC that I have decided to convert to Islam.

Allah hu ackbar!

[Off-Topic / High Fructose Corn Syrup may be making you fat.]

http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S26/91/22K07/

A Princeton University research team has demonstrated that all sweeteners are not equal when it comes to weight gain: Rats with access to high-fructose corn syrup gained significantly more weight than those with access to table sugar, even when their overall caloric intake was the same.

In addition to causing significant weight gain in lab animals, long-term consumption of high-fructose corn syrup also led to abnormal increases in body fat, especially in the abdomen, and a rise in circulating blood fats called triglycerides. The researchers say the work sheds light on the factors contributing to obesity trends in the United States.

[Fighting Street / Bitches.]

http://www.andiamnotlying.com/2010/types-of-bitches/
90 types of bitches. Which ones have you seen? Gotta catch 'em all!

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Strategy games for the PCE]

Nectaris can't be the only one. What other strategy games are there for the PCE, and which ones are good?

[Off-Topic / The most influential SF movie never made]

http://www.squaremans.com/?p=118

Dan O'Bannon died yesterday. I knew this was coming, I'd been reading about the guy a lot recently and in interviews with him I thought, "This is not a dude long for this world."

I've reading about him as research for a book I'm working on called Magnificent Failure: The Most Influential Science Fiction Movie Never Made. O'Bannon was one of a team of 5 artists and designers brought together by a visionary director to work on a movie that was never finished, never really begun, in spite of months of preproduction. That team would go on, together and seperately, to define the look and feel, the themes of Science Fiction films over the last 30 years more than any of the directors we associate with those films. Lucas, Spielberg, Ridley Scott, these guys didn't create the worlds they presented to us. They hired these 5 artists to create those worlds for them.

Dan O'Bannon would become known primarily as the screenwriter for Alien. But his first gig was as an artist, a special effects designer, at USC's Film School with his exact contemporary John Carpenter. The two of them wrote and designed the 1974 cult classic Dark Star. A very weird little movie that has a lot to recommend it, especially if you view it as a student film, which it was, and watch it stoned, which I think most of them were at one point or another.

Based off the quirky, rough vision of Dark Star, O'Bannon came to the attention of another director. Along with 4 other artists and designers, he was hired by Alejandro Jodorowsky for Jodorowsky's impossible, insane, psychedelic, Jungian, mind-altering adaptation of Frank Herbert's Dune.

Probably he knew it would never get made. There had to be a feeling, a nagging twinge in the back of his mind. Pink Floyd doing the soundtrack. Jean Giraurd the art. Orson Wells as the Baron Vladimir Harkonnen and Salvador Dali as the Emperor of the Known Universe. It was simply too grand, too ambitious. Too many wishes were coming true for it to all hold together. Jodorowsky must have sensed even from the beginning that this movie could only exist as an ideal.

To make it, Jodorowsky simply asked everyone he thought was awesome to come with him. When he met with the guys at EMI records in London about which artists might be interested in doing the soundtrack, they listed off a bunch of their mid-range talent. Jodorowsky said "Well hang on. You represent Pink Floyd. What about them?" Their reaction was "Oh they're too expensive. You can't afford them."

HJean Giraud's vision for Duke Letoe thought that was crap. This was a creative endeavor and the guys in the Floyd were obviously creative guys. What did money matter? So he called them up and asked them if they'd be interested in contributing a song. These were guys who'd read Dune and seen Jodorowski's El Topo. They flew to Paris, where Jodorowsky was based, and after a meeting agreed to do the whole soundtrack for the film, releasing a 2-disc album of music afterward called DUNE. For a brief period in the 1970s, there was going to be a Pink Floyd double-album called DUNE.

That's how he did everything. He was seen at the time as a brilliant, visionary director and this was going to be a massive commercial enterprise privately funded outside the studio system. So there would be no compromise. It was a perfect storm. He was hot, he was a creative genius, and he had tons of cash. That's how he got all these people to come onboard.

Jodorowsky wanted each of the worlds the story takes place on, each of the factions in the movie, to have its own distinct visual design. To that end he hired five artists and spent almost 2 million dollars, roughly 1/5th of the film's entire budget, on art and design in preproduction. Looking back, it seems clear that he was perfectly happy spending his budget in creating, rather than on a creation. The process was the goal, not a finished movie. The artists he assembled in Paris worked for months and produced hundreds of pieces of concept art, including ships and weapons and costumes. Five guys, working in a Paris studio for months, were secretly creating the future of the future in film.

Chris Foss's vision of ArakeenDan O'Bannon, based off his Dark Star experience. Jean Giraurd only shortly after starting Metal Hurlant, the influential French magazine that would launch him into world-wide recognition as Mobius. Chris Foss, a British Illustrator noted for his covers of SF novels in Britain. Ron Cobb, a former Disney artist and at the time an illustrator for a radical, underground newspaper in Los Angeles, and co-conspirator with Dan O'Bannon on Dark Star. And finally, H. R. Giger. Also not yet famous, because this was several years before Alien.

That's them. Jodorowsky's dream team of designers and illustrators. None of them had done much yet. Jodorowsky was not, I don't think, recruiting relative unknowns because he lacked influence or capital, but because there was no commercial SF scene the way there is now. He was laying the foundation for that scene.

Who knows what would have happened, had the movie ever been made. It's hard to imagine such a weird book, made vastly more weird by Jodorowsky, becoming a commercial hit. But looking at the vision of the future it would go on to produce by proxy in the form of these five artists, it clear he was onto something. The worlds those five guys would later create became huge. Influential some of them, and box office smashes, others.

Here's a list of the movies those five artists would work on, together or separately. Each of these movies owes a visual debt to a movie that was never made.

    * Star Wars
    * Alien (the entire team would go on to work on this film)
    * Blade Runner
    * Tron
    * The Abyss
    * The Fifth Element
    * Heavy Metal
    * Conan the Barbarian
    * The Last Starfighter
    * Back to the Future
    * The Abyss
    * Aliens
    * Total Recall

It's crazy, when I think of it, that no one has done a book or a thing on this before. Of the five artists and Jodorowsky, O'Bannon is the first to die and at 63, I think early.  Time's a wastin'.

To give you a clear idea of the influence of these artists, here's a panel from The Long Tomorrow, a story in Metal Hurlant written by O'Bannon and illustrated by Jen Giraurd, next to a concept pice from Blade Runner.

This page contains only a few images, a tiny fraction of the total, created for Dune. A full assessment of the impact these five artists had on SF would take...well, it would take a whole book.

When Jodorowsky's Dune finally ground to a halt, it left behind it a group of writers and artists who didn't feel as though they'd failed. They'd been paid well to produce some astonishing work and formed creative relationships that would see them through the next ten years. The fact that no movie came of it had to seem incidental. The dream was the process. The process was the project. The journey was the destination.

When you look back at the team Jodorowski assembled, and what they-in groups and alone-went on to produce, it seems reasonable to conclude that the never completed Alexander Jodorowsky version of Dune is the most influential science fiction film of all time. The fact that it was never finished is beside the point.

[General Gaming / Best Wizards & Warriors game?]

What was the best game in the series?
IMHO, the Original had the best gameplay, but the 2nd had awesome graphics and sound.

[General Gaming / What's your ultima 4 class/virtue?]

http://www.gotoquiz.com/what_type_of_ultima_iv_character_are_you

When I was a kid, I would end up as either the Druid or the Sheperd depending on my final choice, but now it seems I'm the Bard. (or maybe Tinker.)

[Fighting Street / late night wars!]

Fight!