onmode-ky
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Posts posted by onmode-ky
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C'mon Sony... you made me change my password. Couldn't you also WIPE OUT MY CC INFO AND MAKE ME RE-ENTER IT IF I DESIRE TO USE A CC FOR PURCHASES?????? Shouldn't entering new CC info be just as important for security as re-entering a new password??
I'm, uh, not sure I follow your reasoning. The credit card data is accessed via the password. That is, once you've changed your password, you've already reenabled security over your credit card data. What's the point in blanking it out? If credit card data was indeed taken in the attack, it's already been taken. Blanking it out now does not change anything, unless you're recommending they stop keeping credit card information permanently.
Plus its down again, guess they weren't expecting alot of people to be changing there passwords at once. not surprised though.
It is not down again. It was taken down for 30 minutes yesterday in order to allow for the queue of password reset requests (which generate e-mail traffic) to clear through ISPs. Sony has no control over ISPs' traffic throttling.
Of course, you are free to not believe the statements like this that Sony reports on their blog.
onmode-ky
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I've added a new page to my PnP Info website which I think will be of more use and of more interest to most AtariAge folks than a lot of the content on the main page. It's a page that compiles a large number of the various retro-gaming plug-n-play systems and lists all of the retro games included in each one. The only major manufacturer not represented is AtGames; they have released and continue to release many models of Sega game collections, with slightly different game lists for each, and I decided it was too much trouble to sort out which is which. Aside from them, I don't think I've missed any major makes.
My site's main page has also had a small update, the major changes being some additional information on the unreleased Midway TV Game, an entry on the unreleased TV Games conversion of Jr. Pac-Man, and a new background color for certain parts of tables.
onmode-ky
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That is not the Chinese remake. The most apparent clue is that it's in Japanese, not Chinese. I searched YouTube to see if I could find the actual Shenzhen Nanjing product, and
seems to be it. It looks and sounds completely different (and is thus much less similar to the PS1 FFVII). And as noted in the Wikipedia page, battles take a lot longer. The first battle in the clip I linked takes 1 minute 49 seconds instead of the 22 seconds in the above clip.Whatever it is that you linked above looks, sounds, and plays much more like the real FFVII than Shenzhen's. Perhaps it's a Japanese doujin project by fans.
onmode-ky
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the one table I found I hate the most... Jive Time
Hehe, yeah, join the club.
I've gotten over 100 mil on FunHouse, over 200 mil on Medieval Madness (180 mil last night), and I almost rolled the score twice on Space Shuttle.
Does that mean ~20 million on Space Shuttle? I can't quite remember where its counter stops. Killer Funhouse score, by the way.
Here are my high scores (the PS3 scores are from early 2010; the PS2 scores are, I think, from around mid-2008):
Gorgar
- PS3: 1,012,970
- PS2: 808,450
Firepower
- PS3: 1,877,660
- PS2: 2,003,430
Space Shuttle
- PS3: 9,074,330
- PS2: 14,184,460
Taxi
- PS3: 18,152,090
- PS2: 10,397,240
Whirlwind
- PS3: 39,362,440
- PS2: 116,409,920
Pin*Bot
- PS3: 7,774,560
- PS2: 7,236,990
Black Knight
- PS3: 3,212,080
- PS2: 4,341,840
Funhouse
- PS3: 41,253,770
- PS2: 25,906,280
Sorceror
- PS3: 9,559,020
Jive Time
- PS3: 218,460
Tales of the Arabian Nights
- PS3: 77,982,010
Medieval Madness
- PS3: 340,471,040
No Good Gofers
- PS3: 56,259,240
Williams Challenge
- PS3: 341
I've only played the Williams Challenge once; here are the component scores from that (real score, followed by normalized score for the summation):
- Gorgar 221,820 13 - Pin*Bot 1,501,990 12 - Black Knight 1,367,090 9 - Funhouse 29,597,490 54 - Space Shuttle 4,442,020 19 - Taxi 7,503,520 39 - Whirlwind 39,362,440 61 - Firepower 1,877,660 31 - Sorceror 3,881,190 37 - Arabian Nights 24,422,180 29 - Medieval Madness 62,619,210 20 - No Good Gofers 25,228,400 17
onmode-ky
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I do on my GameCube version of Gottleib Collection and I reckon it is because my C stick is wonky.
Regarding nudging/tilting in Gottlieb Collection, I have it for the PS2, and when I got Williams Collection for the PS2, one of the improvements that I was delighted to see was the nudge control sensitivity. In Gottlieb, pushing the analog stick all the way to the edge would tilt the table; to nudge without tilting, you had to only move it lightly. This was difficult to manage under the conditions of intense play (and didn't mirror reality, since real pinball nudging does not depend on a soft left thumb). In Williams, you have to move the analog stick ferociously to have a tilt.
Anyone up for sharing high scores? Or would that be too off-topic? I mean for every table, not the occasional mention we've had thus far.
onmode-ky
P.S. Anyone else really liked the music in Williams Collection? Some of it was composed by a programmer at the developer (FarSight Studios) at the time, Chris Kline, AKA Vertexguy, who is known for a very well done electric guitar rendition of the Contra Level 1 theme. He toured with Video Games Live for a bit, I believe. In Williams Collection, his
is one of my favorite pieces in the soundtrack. -
I get what you're saying, and I agree, too. It would be awesome if my site had both an abundance of data and a killer presentation, with descriptions, pictures, and screenshots for everything, and all of it running on a relational database backend (after all, see my username). Something like IPDB.org or Arcade-Museum.com. However, my strength--aside from architecting and administering a hypothetical database--is in the researching and interviewing; I'm ill-equipped to go beyond basic HTML and even worse off as far as images. I'd be open to collaborating with someone else (with their own Web space) to cross-link with their resources, but building a nicer front end on my own site would be a bit of a stretch. So, yes, it would be nice to have a slick-looking one-stop shop serving all your plug-n-play content needs, but on my own, I'm only able to offer some shelves of specialty content you won't [easily] find anywhere else.
However, I'll see what I can do about adding descriptions, at least for the retro collections. I've had more than one occasion of trying to remember what classic games are in which plug-n-play systems, only to recall that I've never written any of that down in my materials. . . . Of course, this would only add to the wall-of-text effect.
By the way, the revision history is really only for my own benefit. I'm accustomed to writing verbose comments in source control environments. I just linked to it in my previous post because I was feeling too lazy to type out a summary here of all the new stuff.
onmode-ky
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Reserving this space for a video I just recorded... 188 mil on Whirlwind.
Damn, and I thought my 116 million was good.
I got the PS2 version back in 2008, and my enthusiasm for it sold a few copies (probably mostly for the Wii) to some others. Last year, after the PS3 version had a price drop, I picked it up, too. The leaderboards feature finally let me see just how good I was in comparison to other pinball players.
I don't really have favorite tables, though Funhouse and Whirlwind seem to mesh with my play style well. However, I do have a table I absolutely can't stand: Jive Time. Almost every drained ball on that table feels like highway robbery rather than a justified loss. Ironically, my score on that table put me really high on its leaderboard, within the top 15, back when I was playing.
Also, Pin*Bot's left outlane seems to be a ball magnet. That's my only issue with it, though. Medieval Madness gets repetitive when trying to do the whole battle (which I've come close to accomplishing but never have; it's one of the very few table goals I never reached in the whole collection).
onmode-ky
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I need to revise what I said earlier regarding the conflicting data concerning the unreleased second Capcom TV Game, having gotten some more data, which depicted it as a project that evolved quite a bit in its intended presentation:
The story behind the second Capcom TV Game seems to have been rather convoluted, as parts of it, including Gun.Smoke, may have originally been destined for the first Capcom TV Game, and it appears two separate studios worked on the component games in this project. At some point, it was spun off into a separate project, and it seems it may have been planned for release as a GameKey expansion cartridge (for which there is an ESRB rating) and as a standalone system at different times during its development. What is certain: plug-n-play versions, most likely running on the Sunplus PAC300, of Mega Man, Section Z, and Gun.Smoke were developed for the TV Games line but never saw release in any form factor.
Also, I've attached pnpgames_supplement.20110504.txt to the initial post of this topic (some data backfilling; no new products in this update of the file) and added some more processor data to that post as well. For a full accounting of what I'm updating, I'll refer readers to the revision history section of my PnP Info website (since the edits/additions are going into the site as well as here).
donssword, about the GameKeys being locked to specific models of TV Game only, that was a licensing issue; it was what the IP holders wanted. It does seem odd that Disney and Disney Princess ended up as separate branches, but I guess that was what Disney told Jakks Pacific to do.
onmode-ky
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I have a feeling the PS3 isn't going to be around much longer. Nintendo is showing off the Wii successor in June, it wouldn't surprise me if Sony announces the PS4 somewhere around then if not before.
My thoughts too. The way PSN was hacked is not something I want to stick with on the current PS3. They said Microsoft and Sony are planning for 2014 releases but I would think Sony might come around way earlier than that due to whats happening now.
I'm not sure I follow (either of you). How can Sony's data breach have an effect on the lifespan of the PS3? What were hacked into were servers on the network, not consoles; console-side security has nothing to do with server-side. Also, PS+ would presumably continue onto any PS3 successor, assuming Sony doesn't pull the plug on the service simply due to it not generating sufficient profit for the firm.
onmode-ky
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A few days ago, I played Exed Exes all the way to the end (Stage 16; it continues onward to Stage 17, but that's just the game looping back to 1) in Capcom Classics Collection. Not a very fun game, I think. The ship is hard to see on the screen, such that sometimes I revived and immediately died without ever knowing where I was. The ship is also really slow, and the whole thing with your shot range shrinking when moving backwards (i.e., toward the bottom of the screen) is a pain.
By the way, I discovered that autofire actually is available in Capcom Classics Collection . . . but it's pretty useless in 1942. Instead of a constant stream of bullets, you end up with rapid bursts of around 3 shots, but with significant pauses between bursts--during which someone crashes into you. I'd hoped maybe it could help me reach the end of the game so I could get the 10-million-point bonus; that would be the only way I could meet the 200,000-point requirement for one of the collection's unlockables.
onmode-ky
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I just thought of a related question. What do you call the things that turn the enemies blue, Power Pellets, Power Pills, or Energizers?
I've been trying to find the interview Toru Iwatani did with Namco during the 30th anniversary stuff last year, but I can't find it in English anymore. It's still there on the Japanese side of the PacMan.com site, though, and on page 2, Iwatani uses the term I was looking for, "power cookie" (English phrase transliterated into katakana, again).
However, of note, throughout this interview, Iwatani refers to the enemy characters as "ghosts" (once again, the English word in katakana). The word "monster" does not appear anywhere in the interview. Maybe he's changed what he calls them over the years.
Going back to the Japanese Wikipedia page, the term "power cookie" appears as well, but only in parentheses as an alternate for "power esa"; the latter word, pronounced like "essa," is the kanji 餌 written phonetically, and the word is a noun meaning "feed" or "bait," according to an online Japanese dictionary.
What to make of this? It looks like the game's original creator does not agree with the game's general audience on the terminology (assuming that the terms as used in the Wikipedia article were not written by one rogue editor whom no one bothered to correct).
onmode-ky
P.S. I have never known what the power items were supposed to be called in English. I think I have used all 3 of the terms BrianC listed, without preference.
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The sequel is for the PS3 and is already available for preorder at Amazon.co.jp, scheduled for release in August:
Hyperdimension Neptunia Mk2 Limited Edition at Amazon.co.jp
There's also a regular edition. Interestingly, the limited edition is currently the 13th best-selling video game product at Amazon.co.jp. Perhaps even more interesting, assorted models (colors) of PSP-3000 take up 4 of the top 10 best seller slots. Not sure if that's typical, but it's certainly impressive.
As for the original Neptunia, I haven't gotten any of the other goddesses in my party yet. Fun game, though, with a great sense of humor. "Road pugilists" and "People say I only do everything" come to mind. Oh, and the NepGaGaGa Trophy.
onmode-ky
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The ESRB ratings database turns out to contain a rare glimpse into the world of unreleased plug-n-play systems. Games that are rated by the ESRB are at least complete enough for the publisher to submit gameplay footage demonstrating the titles' "pertinent content," as defined by the ESRB. Therefore, any unreleased title appearing in the database is at least in a nearly complete state, or perhaps even entirely finished by the developer. However, the database's entries are not entirely reliable; at least, some of them contain information contrary to other sources or even, sometimes, other entries in the database itself (that is, I have seen duplicate entries, sometimes under slightly different names, and entries with names indicating alternate release strategies). Also, some of what the ESRB has in its plug-n-play category does not normally fall under that term, like games downloaded directly to a TV. Still, if you can find your way through the irrelevant data, then you can discover a few plug-n-play games that were produced but never saw the light of release day. As it turns out, the vast majority of these were entries in Jakks Pacific's GameKey expansion cartridge line, the sole exceptions being their Tecmo and Super Brain Surge TV Game systems. Obviously, Jakks was eager to push the GameKey concept, but they must have encountered resistance at retail.
These are the unreleased plug-n-play game systems recorded in the ESRB ratings database (presumably listed in chronological order, from oldest to most recent):
Rated Title --- Rating --- Content Descriptors || Other Notes
Midway Gamekeys - Joust/Sinistar --- E --- Mild Violence || This is listed at the ESRB as a GameKey, but there was never a Midway base unit into which GameKeys could be plugged. The contents of this and the other Midway GameKey listing were likely originally planned for a standalone unit, based on developer commentary.
Midway Gamekey - Defender/Toobin --- E --- Animated Blood, Mild Violence || This is listed at the ESRB as a GameKey, but there was never a Midway base unit into which GameKeys could be plugged. The contents of this and the other Midway GameKey listing were likely originally planned for a standalone unit, based on developer commentary.
Tecmo TV Games --- E --- No Descriptors
Batman TV Games GameKey --- E10+ --- Cartoon Violence
Star Wars GameKey-Catamaran Strike/Coruscant Fire Patrol --- E --- Fantasy Violence || Not to be confused with the released Star Wars GameKey.
Dragon Ball Z GameKey - Butoretsuden 2/Capsule Conquer --- E10+ --- Cartoon Violence
Fantastic Four Gamekey --- E --- Fantasy Violence
Wheel of Fortune TV Games Gamekey Refill I --- E --- No Descriptors
Wheel of Fortune TV Games Gamekey Refill II --- E --- No Descriptors
Jeopardy TV Games Gamekey Refill I --- E --- No Descriptors
Jeopardy TV Games Gamekey Refill II --- E --- No Descriptors
Nicktoons Gamekey - Creature Capture/Bumper Car Rally --- E --- Mild Cartoon Violence || Not to be confused with the released Nicktoons GameKey.
Dora the Explorer Activity GameKey --- EC --- No Descriptors || Not to be confused with the released, E-rated Dora the Explorer GameKey.
Star Wars Classic Key-Imperial Gunner/Escape from Cloud City --- E10+ --- Mild Fantasy Violence
Capcom GameKey-Gunsmoke/Mega Man --- E10+ --- Mild Violence || The games listed in this entry's title conflict with other data on what was to be in a subsequent Capcom TV Games product. Also, its being listed as a GameKey conflicts with data indicating it was to be a standalone system.
Star Wars Classic Gamekey-Red leader/ Battle of Endor --- E10+ --- Mild Fantasy Violence || The games listed in this entry's title were later included in the Star Wars Original Trilogy TV Game system.
Care Bears GameKey - Champ's Cloud Fishing / Cheer Bear's Umbrella Drop / Friend Bear's Castle Maze --- E --- No Descriptors
Winnie the Pooh GameKey --- E --- No Descriptors
Super Brain Surge - TV Game --- E --- No Descriptors
Note: this data might be easier to read once I add it in tabular form to my PnP Info website.
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Couple of days? You mean you restarted from scratch each day, or you left the Wii paused overnight? And if we're talking from scratch each day . . . do you mean you got there on one credit or with use of Continues? At best, I can only survive to somewhere in Stage 2 ("Last 31 Stage") on one credit in the PS2 1942 (the TV Game 1942 gives you 2 extra lives at game start, and the first credit can get me to Stage 4 in its Normal difficulty mode). . . .
On the PS2, it may have been the second Ayako boss where I got stuck, rather than the third. It was years ago, and I can't remember now. I seem to recall it being a small bit harder than the TV Game 1942, though.
onmode-ky
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At Pac-Man's Japanese Wikipedia page, the term used is "Monsters." I don't mean the Japanese word for "monster" (化け物, "bakemono") but rather the English word "monster" transliterated into katakana.
Personally, I always called them "ghosts," not because I played the 2600 port but because they looked like (colorful) ghosts. It was not until many years later that I ever saw the intermission with the ripped sheet.
Incidentally, those segments in the game that we call "intermissions" in English are called "coffee breaks" in Japanese (as demonstrated in that Wikipedia page). Once again, it is the English phrase "coffee break" rendered in katakana.
onmode-ky
P.S. I don't see anything wrong with edible ghosts, AtariLeaf.
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Ah, yes, I've had autofire interfere with game-external operations before. In Irem Arcade Hits, their implementation of autofire made all my name entries in certain games "AAA." Anyway, congrats on finding out the cause.
Autofire in my 1942 would have been nice. It's not available in either the PS2 Capcom collection or the Capcom TV Game. Instead, I just played until my hands couldn't take the pain anymore! Even better, I got different kinds of pain between the two systems.
I recently took another shot at reaching the end of the game on the TV Game. Again, I got stuck at the end of Stage 23, but switching the difficulty down from Normal to Easy finally let me reach the end of the game for my first time ever.
By the way, what you do in 1942 is a loop, not a barrel roll.
onmode-ky
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After a few runs, 61,310. I've never participated in a HSC event before, but I noticed it was a Gradius title this week. However, I'm not quite sure how valid my score is, given that I occasionally encountered some very noticeable slowdown.
I could definitely do better, most obviously because in the game where I got this score, I crashed into the ceiling while I had full shields up.
D'oh!onmode-ky
P.S. I'm not aware of continues being available in any Gradius title aside from Gradius V (PS2). As for III being unsatisfying, well, it is often cited as being abnormally difficult, more so than its well refined immediate predecessor, in what I've read on the Web. Something like it being unfair, I guess. Note that 10 years passed by before Gradius IV was made.
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I own I through III, but I've never gotten very far into any of them. For the first two, I just went through maybe the first hour or two before putting them on the back burner (basically, they were additions to the already substantial backlog right at time of purchase, and I was just sampling them). The same was the case with III until a week or so ago, when I popped it in initially just to rewatch the intro. I ended up rather fascinated by the vaguely comprehensible story (mind you, I chose not to read the on-disc summaries and database information about what happened in the first two episodes) and played for roughly 15 hours, only quitting when I finally drew the line because I fully intend to play this game with clear data from I and II.
So, I've had a disjointed experience with the story, but I really enjoyed what I did see. I've always liked the series' visual style (and the music is quite good, too; I have some of the soundtracks on CD), and it was a treat to see it with story actually going on. I don't see it happening, but I would love to get an HD collection of all three episodes on the PS3 (although, given that each non-HD game is already bigger than a single-layer DVD, an HD collection might have to be 2 BDs). This is a more cohesive trilogy than many of the HD-ified game collections out now.
onmode-ky
P.S. If you do decide to tackle another multi-game series, how about the .hack or .hack//G.U. RPGs? The former is 4 PS2 games, and the latter is 3; I think each one is rather a fair bit shorter than each Xenosaga episode, though.
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To be quite honest, I think this forum is not the best place to ask about PS+. That's a program designed pretty much for people who are very big (current) PlayStation fans, people who already buy a lot of PS3 games all the time. In my experience reading the AtariAge forum, I have not seen anyone fitting that description. I've actually been rather surprised at how much of this PS3 subforum's discussion content ends up negative toward the system and its parent company. When I first entered the Wii subforum, I expected to see mostly people who were happy with their Wii, and that was indeed what I saw. When I first entered the PS3 subforum, I expected to see mostly people who were happy with their PS3, but that wasn't what I saw. It's not always undeserved, of course, but in most other video gaming communities I have seen, the scale is more balanced. If you base your impressions of modern video gaming in general on what you see here, it looks like the PS3 is really not very popular. However, if you look at other online gaming communities, that's not necessarily the perception you'll get (granted, the PS3 trails the Wii and XBox 360 in American installed base, but it's not exactly doing Mattel Hyperscan sales).
Anyway, I'm not a PS+ subscriber, but I have seen comments (elsewhere) from subscribers who are very satisfied with their participation in the program. Essentially, it depends entirely on how voracious a PS3 gamer you are. If you were already spending a lot of money on PS3 content, then chances are PS+ would be both a good value and a satisfactory purchase for you. If not, then you would be wasting your money signing up. The program does seem to be popular with those for whom it was designed.
onmode-ky
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One of my favorite flicks of all time time is Warriors of the Wind (AKA : (風の谷のナウシカ, Kaze no Tani no Naushika (Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind) I think that movie kicks ass!! (Even if most anime fans don't)
Have you seen the unedited Nausicaä? I don't think any anime fan thinks poorly of it; it's the edits made for Warriors of the Wind that fans object to. Nausicaä happens to be my favorite Miyazaki film, and that was even before Patrick Stewart was in it.
Anyway. I like anime as well but not the Fruits Basket type stuff.
Do you mean that you don't like anime comedies or that you don't like, well, material targeted at girls? The latter would be fairly common for males, I'd imagine.
onmode-ky
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I have not played it, nor do I even own a DS, but the game is made by WayForward, of Shantae and Contra 4 fame. You can probably use that as an indicator of quality.
onmode-ky
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The coverage in that issue looks very attractive. Can anyone provide an estimate for how much shipping would cost to the US (East Coast)? I don't want to open an account at the online shop just to find out it's measured in pounds . . . of gold.
onmode-ky
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I've been assuming that the stages in the game are counted down from 32 in everything I've written so far, yes. I hope it makes more sense then?
Yes, mind now unboggled. I don't think the stages are actually referred to with the "Last" numbers, though, unless one specifically includes the word "Last" in the reference (e.g., "the 'Last 29' stage," which would be the fourth stage of the game, rather than calling it "Stage 29"). It would be like referring to the year 529 BC without the "BC" part. Granted, I'm not part of any hardcore 1942 community, so I can't say for sure how most players name the stages.
And regardless from the count order, pressing 'continue' only works a few times for me. The 3rd or 4th time I press it the game starts from the beginning again.
Well, I don't have anything useful to say about that, other than that maybe there's a setting somewhere for number of continues allowed. I don't recall messing with anything like that on my ports of the game, though.
onmode-ky
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I've experienced it twice now, that pressing the required continue buttons bumped me back to stage 32
I'm a little confused by what you wrote. 1942 only has 32 stages, so it should have ended rather than letting you progress to a position where you could go back to Stage 32.
You got me exactly. It counts down the continue timer, but if you actually try to continue it starts over from the beginning instead. I need to observe it more carefully, but it seems the game only allows three or four continues.
. . . Huh? Now I'm really confused. You're saying it bumps you back to Stage 32 (from where?) or back to the beginning of the game? I think I may have completely misunderstood your original question. Actually, I have no idea anymore what you were asking, especially given the below.
It does sound like you're better at it than I, though.I've only played the Wii version for maybe an hour so far. I did play it on MAME some time ago though. I think I did make it past the first "boss" plane at least once
Er, wha . . . ? With only ~1 hour of play, is it even possible to reach Stage 32? Does not compute--(A)bort, ®etry, (F)ail?
I may no longer have any clue what issue you're trying to describe with the Wii 1942, but I can tell you that on my TV Game and PS2 renditions of the game, you can continue as many times as you want. I was stuck for hours upon hours at the same end-of-level point, retrying and dying repeatedly. After checking a strategy guide, it looks like it was either the third or fourth of the four Ayakos, at Stage 23 or 31.
. . .
Wait a minute. When you said, "stage 32," in your original question, did you mean the "Last 32 Stage" message that appears at the first stage? Or were you talking about the final stage of the game, as I have been assuming?
onmode-ky
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Welcome Back Package contents
in Sony Playstation 3
Posted
I've been wondering about that myself, so I did a Google search for "ps3 deactivate video." That brought up a few forum discussions about the topic, and it seems you can just call Sony customer support and get it done that way, pretty painlessly. E-mailing Sony seems to have a poor track record for this, but calling looks like it should work fine.
Incidentally, since you have a PSP, you could also get and watch video content on either it or a PC (activated via Media Go). If you can connect one of those to your TV, then you're as well off as with a PS3, though only for SD video.
Might save you some dollars, at least. Maybe Wizardry will have a PS+ discount.
onmode-ky