Tuesday, July 13, 2004

Find out why this is the longest summer break ever

Hello again. This Summer Break has been harsh. I really can’t go anywhere. But Doom III is coming out on August 03, 2004! I am going to beat it the first week! This is one of the big games on my list. I have 100 dollars saved up for Zodiac. I am unsure whether or not I’ll buy the less powerful 32-bit version or the 128-bit version. The 32-bit version costs 300 dollars plus tax and the 128-bit version costs 100 dollars more!



Today’s topic is what I did on Sunday. While I was hoping that Bob would come over and play Unreal Tournament with me, I got the impression that he was busy, so I instead invited my cousin, Brian, and his little brother, Chris. I last met Brian at Easter which I believe I have an entry on him. Christopher is only 8. Brian and I have one thing in common, we both play Diablo 2. He plays all the time while I not so much. The shortest route to his house was closed due to construction. So I went through New Richmond, pass WITC, towards Somerset. Unfortunately, New Richmond had a parade that day. Police were directing us out of town. I pick up Brain and Chris which 2 hours later we make it to my house. We had a detour. I won’t explain. Once at my house, I got Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction loaded on the Compaq Presario. The Compaq did connect to my LAN network. However, my Custom PC did not. I found this out water I reset my network connection to WORKGROUP. I found out my NIC on my custom PC is inoperative. We stopped playing Diablo 2 since that would take time, we wouldn’t even get pass ACT 1. He was nice about it, his kid brother was imitating my questions, and all around pain in the butt. Those are kids for ya. Not thinking, but always talking. He does know how to play Diablo 2 a little bit though. Doesn’t everyone? Chris didn’t know how to upgrade his character stats neither, but he’s only 8, and I had to remember that. He wanted to come along. Brain and I got tired of getting around the UT 2004 issue so we played Halo on XBOX. We played on Blood Glinch in Multiplayer. I liked stealing tanks so I can blast him to pieces with my cannon. However, he can snipe me out. I look at his screen. So when my guy pops out on the hill, I just move backwards out of sight. I took him home around 6 PM.



Next day I went to pick up a NIC at Target. Target didn’t carry cable based network cards anymore. Too obsolete! I needed one though. I have a complete cable network with my computers. So I got out of Target, didn’t want to argue with his point of view. His point of view probably is wireless or 802.11G is better than CAT V NICs, but I didn’t need to spend 150 dollars to get 3 brand new wireless NICs. I have a fully operative network that runs two computers at home. And the fact also being that NIC on the motherboard blew out. I really want the ones that plug into the USB port – those can be unplugged and reused without the hassle of opening up ones PC and taking the NIC out manually with more risk of ESDing the motherboard. Anyhow, USB NICs weren’t there – I see that Target and Wal-mart want to limit their selection forcing people like me to buy 1 product. Either that or there is only one NIC Wal-mart and Target can make their money on.



As for the gamestore, I bought two used games, Super Mario Kart, and the rare Legend of Zelda Promotional Disc for Gamecube. I wanted to own a legal copy of Legend of Zelda and Legend of Zelda II – Link’s Adventure. The originals are very rare finds at the game store I go too all the time. It’s sort of a bad deal – but in one way it’s a good deal. The original copy of the promotional disc came packaged with the Gamecube unit last year for free. This mean’s Gamecube owners of that time got a playable demo of Wind Waker, complete versions of Legend of Zelda 1 and 2, and both N64 Zeldas free. I had to pay 40 dollars for it because it had Legend of Zelda in it, and it was more or less an interactive game. But that’s what it costs to have a genuine original copy of Legend of Zelda on the TV. The other way is to have Legend of Zelda Game Boy cartridge inserted into the Gameboy Player. The Gamecube controller joystick works any game on the disc. I have played the original, and sequel plus both N64 games through PC emulation. It would allow me to insert Gameshark codes, and see the ending. I did see the ending which I forgot seeing last time I played Ocarina of Time. I’m surprised. Link had to be sent back to this real childhood time, not his alternate time (which 99% of the game took place in). This all makes sense now, maybe the new Legend of Zelda Gamecube game appearing in 2005 will be an epic tale in Link’s adult hood when he grew up after Zelda sent him back in time at the end of Ocarina of Time Master Quest? Could this be a possibility? The sword and shield design in the screenshots looked very familiar to me.



Today, I was enjoying the Legend of Zelda on my TV. Remember, I have never played this game on my TV in my life. I didn’t make it very far. I still needed a shield, and I died sooner than I could get 50 repees get buy one. Then I got tired of this stupid outdated Zelda game (because I suck at it), and played a saved game in Legend of Zelda - The Wind Waker. I can’t get back on the boat after I completed the Bird City quest. I had cheats on, but it didn’t seem to prevent me from getting in the boat. Anyways, I tried activated the Mega Jump with Action Replay so Link can jump and land onto the boat – only Link jumps vertically unless he has a starting run at it. The game doesn’t want me to run, jump and land on the talking boat – so I end up landing in the water near it! I might have to start the game over and hope this problem doesn’t occur when I play that part of it. Actually, I’m almost there. This was what I did instead of playing Diablo 2 with Brian over the Internet.



Another very interesting thing I found out is with both the Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time Promotional Disc and Ocarina of Time Bonus Disc. You can play these games without the disc! The whole game is loaded into the Gamecube’s internal memory! Ocarina of Time will not freeze up either. If Bob gets a Gamecube, he really wants to own The Wind Waker, I can give him Ocarina of Time, and he’ll have to leave his Gamecube on. At least until he shut’s it off.



This is what I typed at Gaming Horizon’s Revolution Message Board today:





“Actually,



I am a little old to be researching Nintendo and Microsoft, but the fact remains, I'm going to buy a next gen console, and I want to know who will make the best games. Although I am sure Nintendo wants it's Revolution priced at $150 bucks just like last time with Gamecube.



Nintendo is fine the way they are. They are partnering with NEC and ATI which will make a great chip that will require the new N5 to be as small as Gamecube. I hear the R&D is porting "Super Mario 128" to it.



As for SPECS, I hope they scrap the 512 MB aspect, and worry how much video RAM is in the thing. Remember, Gamecube does it's graphics with 24 MB SDRAM and 64 MB of video memory. I don't know how Nintendo got High Resolution out of 24 MB of RAM, but they did. Just like Xbox got high resolution out of 64 MB of RAM. I really believe the ATI card needs to be 256 MB of RAM for the console to compete.



PS - We already know Nintendo (being smart) already having a head start on the first Revolution Legend of Zelda title we know nothing about. Nintendo did say they were working on this new Legend of Zelda we all saw at E3 last month for 2 1/2 years fully staffed. I am sure they're making a new Super Smash Bros. game, and also a new Mario Kart for Revolution the day this was posted.



So that's 4 titles we know about



- Super Mario 128 TBA 2006(for sure)

- Mario Kart TBA 2006 (tentative)

- Super Smash Bros. TBA 2006 (tentative)

- Legend of Zelda Revolution TBA 2007 (tentative)



Visit my webpage at http://ian1984.modblog.com





Next Gen consoles much harder to hack? Maybe. First lets talk about what hacking allows a console owner to do. Console hacking is almost always related to MOD-CHIPS. The earlier mod-chips had to be soldiered (or hot glued) to the motherboard connected to a jumper on the motherboard. The new ones just need to be inserted onto a jumper on the motherboard, and booted with a CD-ROM to reset the console’s BIOS. To simply put, a mod-chip gives access to anything developed for that console, commercial or not. Again, I have never modded my Xbox or Playstation 2 so I am really in the dark on this topic. The Xenon, which I heard off Spong.com, is going to take the next step to prevent this, it’s going to have color dye on the parts of the motherboard that would be exposed to mod-chips which make it harder for mod-chips to be implanted onto the motherboard. Mod-chips give a console access to game copies, special programs including emulators, and freeware games plus MP3 and DivX media players. Gamecube discs have this special bar code on underneath the inner part of the mini-DVD so homebrew discs won’t be readable, except for Gamesharks and Action Replays. This technology will be used on all next generation consoles. The biggest throw-back of this generation is Gamecube, PS2, Xbox, and Dreamcast are really hard to emulate because computers aren’t powerful enough. Most emulators have trouble showing graphics in real-time unless the game is a anthology thus using 1/10 of the PS2 CPU power. Those games have proven easier to emulate



I truly thing the opposite is true in console business. More and more people are used games. Yes they may buy a new console like a Playstation 2, but they also think about owning an old console such as Genesis or NES or Dreamcast. Dreamcast’s are still technically this generation, and the consoles only cost 30 bucks at game merchant stores. At least that’s what I thought. There are plenty of people who still own old consoles. N64 is a great example. It is true that people still love to play the original Legend of Zelda and the only way to do so is to play it on a NES.



Here is a great Nintendo vs. competition forum. http://forum.pcvscon...php?tid=11426&page=9



You know how hard it is to express ones feeling’s every 2 – 3 days? I about said everything there is to be said in everything I can think of unless something is life-altering, I’ll probably talk about how much better computers and software are going to get for the rest of my life on this Earth. Computers are going to one day rule us all! It was just 100 years ago we created something so revolutionary, we still use it today, and it’s commonly known as the vehicle! It made 2/3 of Americans obese. We’ll still use this revolutionary invention until someone invents molecule replication chambers, like the ones you see in Star Trek – we’ll see it in year 2360 or something like that. Heck, we’ll have vehicles as long as we live amongst each other as a species.



For some non technical news in my life. Today, I walked the dog ½ of a mile because I wanted too. Yet drivers don’t wave at me. There is something screwy going on in my town. These people know me too. I must know something they do not wish for me to know. They want me to know that my neighbors agree with some kids my age, just not me. And there is Anne, Matt, and James who are in the same age as I am who haven’t spoken a word to me for years. What do you think about that! It’s a good thing none of the neighbors know what’s on this blog. Hahaha! No one knows I share information over the Internet.



I downloaded a solitaire program called SolSuite 2004 and installed it. I want to play King’s Corner and Golf Solitaire. I am better at golf solitaire than Klondike solitaire. But I’m not a real fan of Solitaire. I also found a video poker program that was free – poker mania 2.2. I first set a small bet for 10 dollars than I hold the 8 of spades and 9 of spades. I got two Queens in the next deal and I won. Perhaps in the first game, the program always makes it easy for you. Then I also downloaded Joker’s Wild Video Poker 3.1. It’s a shareware program, but I think I may be a better program.



So I end this in saying I am very tired, and I need sleep because frankly, I was awake since 6:30AM.



Free Game of the Week:



OMFG, it’s retro Link in Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time 2D! You must see this!



Download the soon to be freeware game - http://www.oot2d.com

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