Sunday, October 30, 2005

The Greatest Videogames list | Konqueror GUI for Windows??????

List of the greatest PC or videogames

1.) Half-life 2 (PC)
2.) Unreal Tournament 2004 (PC)
3.) Final Fantasy X (PS2)
4.) Unreal Tournament (PC)
5.) Super Mario Bros. (NES)
6.) Goldeneye (N64)
7.) Super Mario 64 (N64)
8.) Forza Motorsport (Xbox)
9.) Halo (Xbox, PC)
10.) Metal Gear Solid 2 (PS2, Xbox)
11.) Gran Turismo 4 (PS2)
12.) Chrono Trigger (SNES, PS)
13.) Final Fantasy VII (PS)
14.) Grandia (Saturn, PS)
15.) Star Ocean 3 (PS2)
16.) Xenogears (PS)
17.) Lunar 2 (SegaCD, Saturn, Playstation)
18.) Lunar (SegaCD, Saturn, Playstation)
19.) Vagrant Story (Playstation)
20.) Metal Gear Solid 3 Snake Eater (PS2)

I found Konqueror 3.4 is coming to Windows sometime before WinVista. I modified a png to show what it may look like when downloadable. So far the project’s only developer is using the web browser and not the folder explorer function. It might use GTK++ so it can run. The Gimp is the best known program using GTK++. Konqueror for Windows could be dead too, but I doubt it otherwise the site would’ve let us know about it!


Enlarge image



Konqueror for Windows homepage

On Halloween I want to dress up as Master Chief (Halo protangious) except there is no party for me to go too. DRATS! I haven’t been able to use my new birthday present after that test drive around the 4 mile block when cops weren’t around to pull me over! It’s illegal to drive without license plates anywhere. I did it anyways because I really wanted to drive it! It’s where there are a lot of hills with thousands of box elders with 10% Blue Spouses (pine tree) and red oaks mixed in.

My mom had a Halloween party and all my aunts and aunt’s friends wanted to see it, but I didn’t right away. I feared they ask me if I owned it (and my Aunt Diane did ask) that’s awfully a strange question because it’s a present according to mom and dad except I don’t have ownership yet. I gained $55 for Xbox 360. I’m unemployed as of now, and wouldn’t want to pay for car insurance. My uncle who lives rurally likes to buy and sell things on Ebay so I gave him Knoppix 4.0. He’ll probably get frustrated and throw the DVD a way.

Games I would’ve eventually had if weren’t for the fact I’m saving it up for Xbox 360.

Civilization IV – will be my first Civilization game and second Sid Meier game
Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow – it’s castlevania and it historically has been quite good in hack ‘n slash genre.
Soul Caliber III – Just because I own the first two Soul Calibers
Fatal Frame III The Tormented - I own Fatal Frame 1 and 2 for Xbox, and two for Playstation 2. I could use this survival horror exclusive. You’re only armed /w a camera and use it to stun your foe and run away before it kills you. No guns in this game.
Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis – umm, I own five anime based strategy RPGs for PS2 from Atlus and Nippion Ichi.

Friday, October 28, 2005

My Birthday present weighed two metric tons!

I am not going to get money for my birthday. Now it’ll be tiny bit harder to buy an Xbox 360. Although I did get a vehicle instead! A gold 2000 Jeep XJ Sport! Yesterday, I was tricked into thinking I was getting my jeep winterized and my father drove me so I couldn’t look at the oil dial and figure it out. He was actually bringing me to my birthday gift! Easily the most expensive one I ever had.

The other one was 11 yrs old and although it had few problems, problems would soon emerge. So now that’s outta my hands, that one will be sold to a new owner.

The 2000 Jeep XJ for an early Birthday present. Turning 21 Nov. 1st. It looks like the one on the front page except its gold instead of white. The inside is digital instead of analog. In the white '95 Cherokee all the engine dials were analog except for the radio. It has 59,000 miles on it. Smells like new which is one trick of the trade of selling an used vehicle.

Because it's newer, the brakes and acceleration grab twice as quickly. Before i got it the washer fluid, engine oil, brake fluids were changed at the Chrysler dealership. The previous owner just happened to be the wife of the dealership president in Hudson, WI. I can’t own it, but I can drive easily. By the time I got off my street, I had the acceleration figured out.

The vehicle has a KENWOOD (nice and expensive) Serris/MP3/WMA/CD/FM/AM radio that reads data CDs and sounds better than before /w build in speakers. I burnt a cd of some rock and trance mp3s to play in it. It must be a 2002 model because it's not on the Kenwood website.

Engine: Chrysler 4.0 L Power Tech I6, 190 hp

We got a good price on it.

About the Engine

The 4.0 L (3956 cc) EPH straight-6 was an evolution of the 258 and 2.5 and appeared in 1987. It had the same 3.88 (98.4 mm) bore as the 2.5 with a longer 3.41 in (86.7 mm) stroke.

Chrysler made an enlarged throttle body, and redesigned the cylinder head for higher flow. The Intake an Exhaust manifolds were also changed for more efficiency, and the fuel injectors were once again replaced with higher flowing units. The camshaft was also changed to a higher lift one. The net result of all these changes was an engine that made 190hp and 225 lbs-ft. of torque. The 4.0 was kept the same until the 1995 model year when small changes were made to the cylinder head. In 1996, the engine block was redesigned, and a new strengthened unit was used. The new block made use of more webbing cast into the block, and a stud girdle for the crankshaft main bearings.

The Cylinder head was also again changed in about 1998, to a lower flowing, but more emissions friendly head.

Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us
My 2000 XJ (3/2013) photo DSC_0046_zps40f85ea4.jpg The saying goes a Jeep grill is instantly identifiable by people across the world. The most identifiable was Mickey Mouse.

A kenwood MP3 player!
My 2000 XJ (3/2013) photo DSC_0047_zps86d64730.jpgMy 2000 XJ (3/2013) photo DSC_0045_zpsa56f01fd.jpgMy 2000 XJ (3/2013) photo DSC_0044_zps4d0000b8.jpgMy 2000 XJ (3/2013) photo DSC_0043_zpsb1fa1a3c.jpg
Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us
My 2000 XJ (3/2013) photo DSC_0042_zps5b86c463.jpgMy 2000 XJ (3/2013) photo DSC_0041_zps20ef23ab.jpg
 Goes 100 MPH instead of 85 MPH in the last Jeep.
  photo OldwhiteXJ_zpsde944b63.jpg
My first car. 1995 White XJ

Adult Toys: videogames and electronics!

Well aren't I the lucky one. The TV on the porch is now in my room for the winter. I can hook up satellite TV to it via long cable or my N64 as you can see. It's 23 inch composite I think.

I downsized the pics for dial up users.....I was one and it takes 15 seconds to load all the GFX on here.

2004

The Sat modem and LCD TV hooked up to PS2, Gamecube /w Gameboy Player attachment, Xbox, Dreamcast, DVD player, and satellite TV reciever

2004

oldest computer working since Dec 2001. Athlon XP powered. Obsolete RAM


composite TV right by my computer. Pretty new composite TV. Right next to it is the computer I use for everything. Has 2 GB RAM, Pentium 4, Radeon 9800XT. The composite TV I can hook up any videogame console too including the PStwo. I have to have my videogame consoles on the floor and is NP.

2004

I never use this because it needs new GFX GPU card. It has a Geforce 5600 /w a June 2005 video driver. Has 786 MB or RAM

Wednesday, October 26, 2005

WISCONSIN: YOU'RE IN PACKER CHEESEHEAD COUNTRY NOW! EEEK!

Wisconsin comes from The Ojibwe word Miskasinsin, meaning "Red-stone place," given to the Wisconsin River. In 1634, Frenchman Jean Nicolet became Wisconsin's first European explorer, landing at Red Banks, near modern day Green Bay in search of a passage to the Orient. The state mineral is lead sulfide reflecting Wisconsin's early mining history. The state's nickname is "the Badger State."

The capital is Madison and the largest city is Milwaukee. Democrats owned the elections in the last five presidential contests. During both the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections, Wisconsin was considered a "swing" state considering we’re equally split between Democratic and Republican candidates polls.

Known as "America's Dairyland," Wisconsin is also known for cheese. Citizens of Wisconsin are referred to as Wisconsinites. Among non-residents we’re called "Cheeseheads," due to the quality of cheese making in the state. In other words the best cheese comes from Wisconsin cows.

Deer hunting is extremely popular. It’s a sport, but not professional sport. Popular game is the white tail deer which is more populated here than the rest of the country.

The state is bordered by the Montreal River, Lake Superior and Michigan to the north, by Lake Michigan to the east, by Illinois to the south, and by Iowa and Minnesota to the west. Part of the state's boundaries includes the Mississippi River and St. Croix River in the west, and the Menominee River in the northeast.

In the north, the Lake Superior Lowland occupies a belt of land along Lake Superior. Just to the south, the Northern Highland includes the state's highest point, Timms Hill, as well as massive forests and thousands of small glacial lakes. In the middle of the state, the Central Plain possesses some unique sandstone formations like the Dells of the Wisconsin River in addition to rich farmland. The Eastern Ridges and Lowlands region in the southeast is home to many of Wisconsin's largest cities. In the southwest, the Western Upland is a rugged landscape with a mix of forest and farmland.

The state is home to the Green Bay Packers, one of the most successful small-market professional sports franchises in the country. Monday Night Football national broadcasts draw strong ratings during Packers games. Packers suck this year, and the Vikings won the last game! For a moment in the first half Vikings made the Packers look good, but it bit them in the butt winning the game by a long field goal three seconds left in the game at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.

Wisconsin is known for its beer, bratwursts, cranberries and OzzFest (where Ozzy Osborne, the British lead singer of Black Sabbath makes a camero appearance in Somerset, Wisconsin every year. There is also 93X Fest which is another rock concert in Somerset, Wisconsin.

The racial makeup of the state:

• 87.3% White
• 5.7% Black
• 3.6% Hispanic
• 1.7% Asian
• 0.9% Native American
• 1.2% Mixed race

BASEBALL

The Brewers are in the Central Division of the National League and were part of the American League through the 1997 season, after which they switched to the National League.

The team was renamed the Brewers to honor Milwaukee's beer-brewing traditions after being purchased by Bud Selig. The brew team is made up of 32 Americans, 4 Dominicans, 1 Australian, 1 Mexican, 1 Japanese, 1 Venezuelan, and 1 Panamian.

Miller Park opened in 2001 to replace Milwaukee Country Stadium since opening season 1953. Construction cost of MCS was $5 million while Miller Park (Miller Beer owning large interest in the stadium) cost $310 million. Professional sports can use federal money towards building stadiums.

AMERICAN FOOTBALL

The Green Bay Packers joined the NFL list of teams in 1921 The Packers are currently the only publicly owned professional sports team in the United States. They are apart of the NFC North division of football. The Packers were once known as the Acme Packers (think loony toons in terms of acme). The team’s Uniform colors are dark green, gold, and white. They were NFL champtions on 1929, 1930, 1931, 1936, 1939, 1944, 1961, 1962, 1965. Super Bowl champions 1966 (I), 1967(II) and 1996 (XXXI) Typically, a team is owned by one person, partnership, or corporate entity; thus, a "team owner." The Packers fan base is notoriously dedicated: no matter how well the team performs, Lambeau Field has been sold out every game since 1960. The Packers have one of the longest waiting lists for season tickets in professional sports. Head coach is Mike Sherman and most popular football player is quarter back Bret Farve in his 14th year as quarterback. He also lives in Green Bay by the stadium.

Packers fans are commonly known as "cheeseheads," presumably because Wisconsin is known for its cheese production. To poke fun at this nickname, they wear foam triangles made to look like cheese on their heads, which further re-enforces the "cheesehead" designation.

PRO SOCCER: THE OTHER FOOTBALL

The Major Indoor Soccer League is the only current professional indoor soccer league in the USA. The league is a member of both the United States Soccer Federation and FIFA also known as Major League Soccer.

The Milwaukee Wave are the oldest continuously operating professional soccer team in the United States. The team was founded on August 3, 1984 as a member of the American Indoor Soccer Association and as played in every season and incarnation of that league

PRO HOCKEY

The Milwaukee Admirals are an ice hockey team in the American Hockey League. They play in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA at the Bradley Center.

Beginning with the 1973–74 season the Admirals joined the newly formed United States Hockey League. Their first season in a league was not particularly successful as they ended the season in last place in their division. They won only 11 games, lost 35 games, and tied 2 games that season.

Monday, October 24, 2005

Saturday, October 22, 2005

Master Chief on Xbox 360 | Xbox 360 deals with compression! | More info on Too Human

Compression a hot topic on Xbox 360

From the sounds of it Xbox 360 has some compression issues with developers being sloppy this close to launch. The game code and audio quickly take up the 8.5 GB of the DVD than the developers have to squeeze in video. They have to compress the audio and video just enough so it fits. The games ARE completed however. Basically there is no set standard for video resolution on Xbox 360….

Chief Architect of Xbox and Xbox 360 James Allard quotes, “They're being a little sloppy with the CPU, they're being a little sloppy with the discs, they're being a little sloppy with their formats and compression to make launch. And next year, you'll see that they tighten that up so they can get more out of the system using the same disc capacity…”

To solve this problem Microsoft needs to shrink the size of the Xbox 360 video which isn’t going to happen. It’s inconvenient for people to swap discs in the middle. Sega and Nintendo never had problems with selling two discs in games and it didn’t hurt sales. Star Ocean 3 had two DVDs and it sold quite well.

The Corporate Vice President of Microsoft (same guy) spoke he decided that Microsoft will be taking the heat of a world wide launch with a shortage of Xbox 360s rather than a North America launch and Europe complaining about not getting theirs on November 22nd.

The package I’m getting will come with
• Xbox 360 console
• Detachable and upgradeable 20 GB hard drive (needed to play xbox 1 games)
• 2.4 GHz Wireless controller (30ft. range)
• Xbox-Live Headset
• Component HD-AV cable
• Xbox Live Silver membership (useable right out of the box)
• One month limited trial membership for Xbox Live Gold
• Ethernet cable
• Bonus Media Remote

Master Cheif on Xbox 360 (playable character in Dead or Alive 4)

more Xbox 360 games

Yes, siree, Bob! Half-life 2 with the expansion pack is ported to Xbox 360 at 1248x1024 with all the fantastic effects from the PC version! I’m decided to playing it again yesterday. The crates are really bothersome.

At the start of the game, the G-Man speaks to Gordon Freeman as part of a hallucination, telling him that his "time has come." Freeman then finds himself riding a train into City 17, unarmed and without his HEV suit. Details begin to slowly emerge: City 17 is under the rule of a totalitarian administrator named Doctor Breen, the former administrator of the Black Mesa Research Facility in Half-Life. However, Breen is merely a puppet ruler who is carrying out the will of the aliens known as the Combine. It seems that the events of Half-Life were enough to attract the attention of the Combine, who soon after mounted a brutal assault on humanity in which the forces of Earth were completely overwhelmed in just seven hours (appropriately referred to as the 7-hours War). The Combine now has near-absolute control of the entire planet, with only a few pockets of human resistance remaining. Doctor Breen enforces his rule (and, by extension, the Combine's rule) through armies of intimidating "Civil Protection" units (also called "Metropolice" or "Metrocops") and Combine soldiers (referred to as the Overwatch).

Then Gordon Freeman goes ONE MAN ARMY RENEGADE STYLE and PUBLIC ENEMY #1 /w a lot of nice weapons. Did I mention every person in this game has at least 4 answers? The main characters in the game can really give you long lectures!

I found more info on Too Human currently under development by Canadian developer Silicon Knights The game’s star is John Frank. John is a cyborg in year 2450 when Pure humans are near extinction. The plot is keeping pure humans from becoming extinct. The game was nearly completed for Playstation in 2000 spanning 4 CDs and great graphics, but it got cancelled. The gamecube project started, but got canceled too. The story line is based on Phillip K. Dick's four novels. Everything except for his organs could be replaced with cybernetic enhancements which is kinda spooky. I was wrong in the “What’s out for Xbox 360” It’s actually the aftermath of machines infused with humans. Silicon Knights is probably having the same compression limitations everyone else has and I doubt their sloppy with compression like James Allard commented.

Perfect Dark Zero is a prequel to the Nintendo 64 first person shooter Perfect Dark. The game is being developed by Rare Ltd. A moderate amount of info has been released and the summary is that it will be prequel to Perfect Dark and will reveal how Joanna Dark became a secret agent.

The game made a small appearance at Spaceworld 2000, an event exclusive to Nintendo. (At the time, Nintendo had a 49% stake in Rare, making Rare a Nintendo second-party developer.) Since then, Rare has been wholly acquired by Microsoft. At the official unveiling of Microsoft's next Xbox video game console, Xbox 360, on May 12, 2005, it was revealed that Perfect Dark will be a launch title for the new system in the fall of 2005 [1]. Perfect Dark Zero has been on the Nintendo GameCube, Xbox, and Xbox 360.
Some of the early material released (particularly images such as this) incited speculation that the title would use a less realistic with the controversial cel-shading technique.

Full Auto is developed by Pseudo Interactive and published by Sega.. It is a vehicular combat racing game with quality graphics. It’s basically Sega’s version of Twisted Metal for PS1, PS2, and PSP. It’s Sega’s flagship title until the “blue blur” is on next gen.

Halo 3 will be the last game in the Halo franchise and the last Halo Bungie will make. Bungie was against a Halo movie which is now a split production between Twentieth Century Fox and Universal Studios. Halo is now produced by Peter Jackson.

Miscellaneous Xbox 360 info

A detachable 20 gigabyte hard drive is used for the storage of games, music, downloaded trailers, levels, demos, player preferences, and community-created content from Xbox Live Marketplace; it may also be used to transfer such content between Xbox 360 units.

A hard drive is also required for the user be able to play backward compatible Xbox games. During Microsoft's E3 Press Conference, Robbie Bach, Microsoft senior vice president and chief Xbox officer, said that the "Xbox 360 will be backward compatible with top-selling Xbox games."

The wireless controller has a battery life of up to 25 hours on the Li-ion rechargeable battery pack. The wired controller is compatible with Windows XP USB-equipped PCs…

A 12X DVD-ROM drive, capable of reading DVD+R/RW discs, will be part of the console.

Thursday, October 20, 2005

2018: A Moon Revisited | React OS hands on

Hello again. Today has been the first day (me being slow in the space community) NASA’s article about Apollo 2.0’s mission of a moon landing in 2018 is legit. That’s correct. NASA is enlarging Apollo model 3 times calling their new spacecraft Apollo 2.0 so four astronauts can step on the lunar surface at once instead of two. The astronauts will set up a greenhouse on the surface for experiments such as growing plants on our moon. Otherwise they can survive up to 6 days on liquid oxygen. I imagine high definition photos and movies broadcasted from the lunar surface easily streamed off 20 Megabit broadband in the future. It’s only been 33 yrs since Americans last set foot on the moon.

On Tuesday, I’ve downloaded React OS bundled with Qemu 2.0 emulating it on Windows XP. The mouse cursor moves about the desktop quickly and the latency for opening directories is 2 seconds. The problem about ReAct OS is the file system is a ROM image file accessible only through Qemu. Unfortunately, I couldn’t mount the DVD-ROM or hard drive in DOS so I could run executables.

ReAct OS currently doesn’t do anything other than read directories and files from the command prompt and Explorer. It doesn’t recognize my CD-ROM yet although emulation could interfere. It’s clear that WINE source code was used to run *.exe in it.


C Drive ROM


The Microsoft Windows Start menu


MS-DOS in the background /w DIR command working and Run window in the foreground doing shit for commands


It says Wine team in it.

Emulating the TOS 2.0 operating system with an Atari ST emulator was a previous experience of mine mounting my HDD in place of Atari ST’s hard drive. Point taken that React OS hard drive detection should’ve been functional, but wasn’t. TOS 2.0 only required a Z80 at 4 MHz with 1 MB of RAM to run at 100%. Recommended hardware for TOS 2.0 was a Z80 at 10 MHz with 2 MB of RAM. Flash forward 15 years that’s very primitive. My TI-89 Titanium runs a Texas Instruments operating system similar to TOS. It really hasn’t been useful to me. Have been using my scientific calculator for math lately because TI-83 Plus and TI-89 Titanium are overkill apps! That and the manuals are long reading material that’s boring. Fiddling around with them is much more fun. .

I feel I’ll purchase Shadow of the Colossus for Playstation 2 because it got raving reviews on IGN (9.7 out of 10) and GameSpy (9.2 out of 10). IGN gave the game play and sound in the game a perfect score.

Sunday, October 16, 2005

React OS 1 yr later | Encoding with DivX 6.02 ! ;)

React OS is a little something I did on Christmas Day a year ago. And there has been two releases (0.2.6, 0.2.7) since then. React OS got Unreal Tournament and Mozilla to work via software acceleration. It has potential to replace Windows by 2007. ReactOS needs to come with an Active X Binary to view web pages in Mozilla Firefox. If you download the install ISO you get a partition otherwise the LiveCD will allow the desktop to show and it’s suppose to read the Windows file system. Note that Windows 98SE installation CD used approx 400 MB. One day ReactOS will be fully compatible with Windows complete with 50+ programs! I may have to waste a CDR just to check out the improvements.

Last night I had Dracula encoded in DivX 6.02 at 1140 kbps 720x480 with 160 kbps MP3 ripped via 1 Click DVD Ripper. DivX 6 now supports AAC which is a good thing, but I’m thinking less plugin problems using the default mp3 option. Haven’t made a DivX movie since February! My parents own these movies and this way I get my free copy! DivX looks comparable to the NTSC version. That’s why next generation systems shall use MPEG4 pt 2. Blu-ray supports Microsoft’s VC-1 (a super set of Windows Media Video 9). Xbox 360 VC-1 will be the testing grounds for Blu-ray / HD-DVD video. VC-1 has better quality : compression ratios than DivX 5 from what I’ve read on forums. My way is to compress the movie in real time instead of “dumping” uncompressed video on the HDD. Converting took several hours, but what the hay….got the time for it & still can fit 3 movies per DVD and I have 150+ of them DVDs. : -D

VC-1 is the official video codec of Xbox 360, Blu-ray Alliance, and HD-DVD Alliance. They all like Microsoft’s work……even Microsoft likes Microsoft’s work. LOL!

VC-1 Stats

Simple

Low
max bit rate = 96 kilobits per second (Kbps)
176 x 144 @ 15 Hz (QCIF)

Medium
max bit rate = 384 Kbps
240 x 176 @ 30 Hz
352 x 288 @ 15 Hz (CIF)

Main

Low
max bit rate 2 megabits per second (Mbps)
320 x 240 @ 24 Hz (QVGA)

Medium
max bit rate 10 Mbps
720 x 480 @ 30 Hz (480p)
720 x 576 @ 25 Hz (576p)

High
max bit rate 20 Mbps
1920 x 1080 @ 30 Hz (1080p)*

Advanced

L0
max bit rate 2 Mbps
352 x 288 @ 30 Hz (CIF)

L1
max bit rate 10 Mbps
720 x 480 @ 30 Hz (NTSC-SD)
720 x 576 @ 25 Hz (PAL-SD)

L2
max bit rate 20 Mbps
720 x 480 @ 60 Hz (480p)
1280 x 720 @ 30 Hz (720p)

L3
max bit rate 45 Mbps
1920 x 1080 @ 24 Hz (1080p)*
1920 x 1080 @ 30 Hz (1080i)
1280 x 720 @ 60 Hz (720p)

L4
max bit rate 135 Mbps
1920 x 1080 @ 60 Hz (1080p)*
2048 x 1536 @ 24 Hz

Today, I decided to convert most of my MP3s into WMA9 at nearly half the bitrate with the help of dBpowerAmp. Very nice program dude. The audio can’t sound any worse than it already is. I wish there was an option where it does half the bitrate for each one that probably won’t happen. 73 kbps WMA encoded with WMA professional sounds like a 128 kbps mp3. The only thing keeping me from mass converting MP3 files is there’s plenty of hard drive space on them. AAC is difficult pear 2 pear clients these days.

In other news I found a bunch of discs in my Jeep and one of them was my missing Knoppix 4.0.1 DVD I use for Linux Desktop since 09/05. That’s the free Linux with tons of free tools. I was happy again!

Saturday, October 15, 2005

Listening to N64 (USF) audio for 1st time | Played UT2004 first time in months

I woke up at 4:20 AM and went on my weekly volunteer work at Wikipedia proving Cheeseheads existed before 1990 plus small grammar typos on some videogame entries. Then I went on Catharton and told them I thought Audrey Hepburn was hot. She’s dead now, but that girl had intelligence. After that I decided to frag in UT2004 using keyboard and mouse. I was spacing out during the game because I was missing 50% of the enemy shots with the lightning gun. Can’t wait until UT2007! Whatever happened during my experience doesn’t leave the chair though! My weapon of choice is the flack gun even though the machine gun is the most powerful weapon in UT2004. I retreated into whatever direction the bots weren’t. I agree capture the flag mode was the most fun.

I found a website that has N64 music files in their original sound quality. A Zip containing all audio files is smaller than one 64 kbps MP3 file 1 minute long. To play them you’ll need a Winamp N64 audio plugin or a codec binary for XMMS. The website where there are some rips in zips is USF Central and Zophar's Domain. I’m listening to Goldeneye and Extreme G USFs although I also downloaded the Legend of Zelda, Super Mario 64, and Mario Kart USFs. Goldeneye 007 USFs sound excellent with their lossness compression. The ZIP file gives you all of the music in these games too.


Winamp info window

There is also SNES SPC plugin compatible with Winamp. I have more memory playing N64 games I guess making SNES irrelevant



Anyhow, I’ve had found some SPC archives at Zophar's Domain. I found a lot of music archives of SNES games there. SNESAMP (Minor) for Winamp works with all these files. Download as much as you want there.

Then I proved with screenshots that PS1 games can run in high-resolution via emulator with SuperEagle stretching at 1280x1040 resolution. I play PS1 games on a PS2 all the time. My PSone never is used at all. This is relevant to Playstation 3 since Nintendo Revolution will play N64 games in high-resolution and Sony announced PS3 won’t emulate PS1 therefore it’ll have standard resolutions of 640x480. It was possible of 3D because the all the power was in the 32-bit RISC CPU also in PS2 and PS2 Slim. That means the PS3 will have six CPUs all together as follows 1 IBM Cell, Emotion Engine containing 3 CPUs, 32-bit RISC for PS1 plus the RSX GPU. Isn’t that too many?

The Playstation alternative is called Highly Experimential where you download the Winamp plugin to play PSF files which are smaller than MP3 too. To create PSF files you need a Playstation CD and PSFLAB application. However, almost all PS1 games use ADPCM (lossness wav file compression) to store sound. On a second thought this format won’t help you rip audio files. To rip normal PS audio I use PSX Multi Converter which crashes if not outputted in WAV. The WAV can then be outputted to AAC or MP3 via CDEX or Nero Soundtrax

Today I had nothing better to do than playing more of Lunar 2 via GENS which was the focus of my last entry. I’ve got a game faq running on a 2nd computer so I know precisely what to do, where to go, how to defeat the bosses, etc. Maybe it’s a waste of time since the PS1 version is the same as Sega CD…kind of silly. What I shall do is start playing the PS version because I’m not too far into the game yet.

Monday, October 10, 2005

Emulated Sega CD and Lunar 2 Eternal Blue this morning

I could play Lunar 2 on EPSXE and BIOS on PC just so I can watch the FMV. Meanwhile, I've downloaded the Sega CD version of Lunar 1, Lunar 2, and Shining Force CD and unlike the torrent it never took 1 ½ day to download. Then I found out that MPEG was working on the PS1 emulator so I just stuck in the disc and looked at the intro. Heck, the Sega CD version took less than 30 minutes to download. The Sega CD version of the game was segmented in smaller RAR files and I figured out I had to have all five in the same directory to open it as 1 file. The Sega CD version had stuff on it missing from the Playstation version. I played the game with a Microsoft Sidewinder control pad which looks similar to a Genesis controller.



The graphics look outta date, but the intro of Lunar 2 was kinda interesting. Apparently that one girl from Silver Star was naked in the crystal so I saw that for the first time. Kind of shocking for 5 minutes in the first part of Lunar 2 showing 16-bit PORN! I never seen so many frames in a 16-bit cut scene! This wasn’t possible on Genesis. This game was released again on Sega Saturn for Japan only in 1998 and Playstation in 2000.

I don’t appreciate the 16-bit games now-a-days, now that Xbox 360 is coming out next month. Despite owning Lunar 2 for Playstation I’ve checked out the Sega CD version first. Normally a nostalgic game with cult status such as this would’ve been seen on a modern console.


SEGA CD Title Screen in all it's 16-bit glory.

I can’t post it on Modblog because I might get into trouble. I searched on IGN and the guy gave it 10 out of 10 despite the graphics an 8.0.

Download them here and make sure you’ve got WinRAR or 7ZIP to open them. I used the SEGA CD BIOS and GENS emulator. I don’t have a SEGA CD to play it on and that would require a Genesis ver 2. The game looks best by right clicking Graphics submenu with kreed doing a nice anti-analyzing effect.



Oh yeah, I checked out Far Cry Instincts on xbox is a full quantum leap forward from Lunar 2 graphics wise. Time I thought I catch up to the present day. On Catharton there was a small discussion when all retro games will be available on the internet to download from Nintendo’s commercial service or others that come available.

Saturday, October 8, 2005

Bought Digital Devil Saga 2 | Xbox 360 Game Impressions | personal webpage update

The Minnesota Gophers football team won the Michigan trophy for the first time since 1986! The Michigan Wolverines won against Minnesota 27 times in a role. The victory was won by a field kick with 5 seconds left. I saw that kick today. Michigan went for a blitz when it was their ball, but it failed. History indicates Minnesota won’t be this lucky come next year.

Firstly, I called ahead and got for Shin Megami Tensei Digital Devil Saga 2 reserved for 10 minutes at Toyriffic yesterday until I got there. It only came an hour before. I knew I wanted this game for about a week. If I played handhelds more often I would’ve got Castlevania - Dawn of Sorrow for the Nintendo Dual Screen scoring 9.3 out of 10. It could well be the best 2D Castlevania yet. One thing I’ve learned is videogames aren’t cheap and they hold my interest for now.

Meanwhile while there I was eyeing Xbox version of Madden 2005 for only $12. My next football game will be on Xbox 360 although recently soccer has been my favorite sport to play. I haven’t got to Far Cry Instincts yet. Best graphics on Xbox were a draw between Jade Empire, Far Cry Instincts, and Ninja Gaiden Black.

In my opinion, Madden 2002 is complicated for me. Madden Football 06 is coming out for Xbox 360 next month, but not before I buy FIFA 06. Soccer was always more enjoyable. I rarely see it played on TV or in the real world.

My birthday allowance could absorb most of the cash shock of buying Xbox 360. If I can’t afford PS3 the first week than I won’t get to write about it. I’ll have to tough it out then. None of my friends will own one because they’re not that interested in purchasing it. The Xbox 360 Pro retails at $399 next month, but worth it rather than paying for 3 flash cards for game saves. New games cost $59. What I shall do is not buy anymore videogames for two months so I can afford an Xbox 360 with hard drive add-on. I have the current generation of games to fall back on. I sometimes wonder about the success of Xbox 360 because half the people who eye it can’t afford it. Wisconsin residents are spoiled paying half as much for current generation hardware, it’ll be shocking to shell that money out. The good news is I’m shock resistant. I get to write a huge check to Wal-Mart next month.

What should I do? Write a check, or whip out four one-hundred dollar bills and a $20 bill from by billfold. I think paying it in cash will shock people around me. I can feel rich. Yep, 12:01 AM on launch day I’ll be getting Xbox 360. I won’t be wasting any time.

Here are my opinions on some of the launch titles for Xbox 360 starting with Project Gotham Racing 3.

Though the beta builds of PS3 games may look a bit better than PGR3 on Xbox 360 my TV has a lower digital resolution. In PGR3, I’ll play the expensive exotic sport cars instead of the street cars in PGR2. This means every car in the game will have a minimum top speed of 170 MPH. Project Gotham Racing 2 came out on Xbox two years ago so Bizarre Creations must’ve spent over two years on this project. Yeah, but it does has best racer graphics.

Quake 4 is the primary first person shooter. It’s an Xbox 360 launch title from Raven Software although the PC version is coming out October 18th. Raven Software has been known for their Soldier of Fortune first person shooter. ID Software gave Raven full rights to making Quake 4. It will feature Doom 3 PC GFX with similar mutant demons, but has both Single player (AKA Quake 2) and multiplayer including Deathmatch or Capture the Flag or Last Man Standing onslaughts. The story mode starts after Quake 2. My fragging skill level was horrible in Quake 3 since I wasn’t a big first person shooter player at that time. Quake 3 was very popular in 2000 and I got a pirated copy from a friend that year. Quake 4 on Xbox 360 isn’t able to download maps from the community yet. Third party maps historically were never above the quality of original maps anyways.

ID Software on the other hand is working on Return to Castle Wolfenstein 2 for Xbox 360 and PC. The old 1992 original and the 2001 sequel involved Nazi experiments gone wrong in 1940s Europe. There are no screenshots yet of this sequel. CW2 is using the Doom 3 gfx engine.

Dead or Alive 4 is popular because it’s a silly fighting game and God is it annoying. Good graphics have double meaning in this game. The females are kind of busty with oversized features wearing the weirdest clothing accompanied with those silly foreign high-pitched voice-overs. It’s been that way since DOA 2 on Dreamcast. This game may not suck in terms of game play, but first person shooters or racing games sound better.

You know the guys are staring at their legs or flapping boobs. Those games appeal to not so intelligent males and I’m moving onto bigger and better things like first person shooters and racing games.



Madden 06 is the Xbox counterpart with boosted graphics and better frame rate. The snow looks more like snow and the crowd no longer looks flat and the stadiums have an incredible draw rate (distance from zero). It sports 1024p progressive scan with Pro Logic 2. No analyzing either.



FIFA 06 will have to do because there are no other soccer choices. Like Madden 06 it’s a straight port of the Xbox game /w next generation graphics while Winning Eleven 10 is next year. The draw rate has also improved much. The players are much more detailed, and analyzing is not present.

Elder Scrolls 4 Oblivion is basically Elder Scrolls 3 Morrowind with better GFX. ES3 had those lush polygons with texture lighting and anti-analyzing support at HD resolution 1200x1024 or 1200x960, and the community released texture packs replace every texture in the game as well as better facial texture packs.

The Xbox 360 will feature many more polygons than ES3 on any PC. I think it’s popular just because it’s a RPG which is rare on Xbox 360. Oblivion is set on the continent of Tamriel. The game builds onto all the major classes from ES3 ruled under the Imperial imperialism (again) with Emperor Uriel Septim VII voiced by Patrick Stewart. Oblivion will feature over 50 hours of recorded dialogue which takes up nearly half of the game’s DVD-9.

The story starts out as the main character becomes a prisoner of the Imperials. The Emperor needs to escape through a tunnel connected to his/her cell to escape assassins. Tamriel has a lush, procedurally generated forest. The team at Bethesda actually consulted the University of Maryland geological lab in order to generate accurate algorithms for producing realistic environments.

So far what I’ve learned off the Internet this game will feature a lot more dungeons than ESIII had.

Too Human was Silicon Knight’s Gamecube game before it got canceled when Eternal Darkness came out. It looks very, very good. Unsure it’ll be on PS3 or not because it’s looks so expensive to make from the screenshots. Microsoft is funding this project giving it that unlimited development budget feeling. Too Human is two games on Xbox 360. Too Human took the lethal Terminator theme and made its own version of it.

Gears of War is primarily the focused gun combat game for Xbox 360 despite Quake 4 coming out the same time because Microsoft will advertise it as if it was Halo. Game Informer calls it Microsoft’s secret weapon. Epic Games developing Gears of War with superior graphics so the mainstream will appreciate it like Halo. This is the best looking Xbox 360 game so far which is probably why you’ve heard of it.

As for the story line. There is a world war on a far away planet over an energy source called imulsion which is like nuclear fusion in many ways The planet’s cities look a lot like Earths. The government who controls Planet Sera (once striving with plant life after a World War suddenly found itself at war with a terrifying species appearing from the planet’s crust. The game starts when all human governments form C.O.G. (Coalition of Ordered Governments) against the Locust army. The main character is Marcus Fenix who is trying to rebuild his reputation by leading the operation. There will be many times Marcus will encounter melee combat with Locust resulting in a mini-game. Like Master Chief, Marcus will command his platoon according to Epic Games. There’ll be a co-op multiplayer option available via Xbox Live. Player 2 will control Marcus’s friend Dominic who looks exactly like Marcus despite wearing a helmet. I’m unsure if it’ll be my first game next month.

Oh yeah, on another note I’ve created a new website template made up entirely of vector graphics except those photos of me via Namo WebEditor 2k6. I made a new webpage since it’s been 4 months since my last update. I didn’t have time to do it and with the blogspot doing my weekly entries there was no need to do it myself. There would be less people coming across as well as more work for me, and less time info gathering information on stuff that interests me. The template is nothing special, but the lists are updated to present and that can make a difference in everything. There is no obligation. This webpage took me most of last night to do and been touching up with new ideas.



New games

Far Cry Instincts (©2005 Uri-soft)
Shin Megami Tensei Digital Devil Saga 2 (©2005 Atlus)