tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-64609023894142332912024-02-19T07:45:43.399-08:00Retro Game of the Club (RGClub)Official website for "Retro Game of the Club", a retro games club where we play games, discuss, and have friendly competition against each other.organic iohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13159435687504488354noreply@blogger.comBlogger62125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6460902389414233291.post-72287079092538107452022-05-13T23:34:00.004-07:002022-05-13T23:35:31.732-07:00Finally getting into using joystick! (and other miscellaneous updates)<p> I had been wanting to try playing with an arcade stick for a while. Back in 2016, I got a very cheap ($40) Mayflash stick... and while it gave me a taste, it was more frustrating than anything because the quality wasn't very nice. </p><p>Fast forward to this year.. I was doing a little research and found some mid-entry level joysticks that can also be modified with nicer parts, coming out with something that is very high quality for not too much $. </p><p>So, I took the plunge and I ordered the Qanba Drone. It's about $75 on Amazon. It was actually a pretty decent stick out of the box.. But I did some modifications that have made it much better.. and I really, really like it. </p><p>The mods I've done are:</p><p>* Replace the lever (the actual stick part) with one called "Sanwa JLF". It's basically an industry standard part in Japanese arcade machines, and is responsive and durable. This part was about $25-30 on Amazon.</p><p>* Replace the buttons with Sanwa parts. A set of 8 is about $15-20 on Amazon.</p><p>* Replace the "actuator" (the part underneath the stick that contacts the switches) to an "oversized actuator".. Making it bigger actually reduces the "throw" (movement) of the stick.. Which is preferable, especially for bullet hells. This part was $5 plus shipping, from a website called focusattack.com</p><p>* Replace the "restrictor plate". This is the part underneath that guides the bottom of the lever. The default shape for a restrictor plate is square. The problem is if you're playing a shmup and you're making a bunch of quick movements, it's actually further to move the stick to the diagonals than it is to the cardinal directions. I replaced it with an octagonal restrictor plate (About $8 on Amazon), and now the stick stops in all 8 directions, and also does not travel as far to the corners. It took me a few hours of getting used to, but it's awesome.</p><p>* Added a button down low. I didn't realize how much mess the drilling would make (I'll post a picture below). I had to disconnect one of the other buttons (the black one is not connected to anything)</p><p>I'll post some pictures here.. I had taken some of the internals when I had it opened one time, but I can't find that set right now.. but if I come across them I'll add them to this post. </p><p><br /></p><p>Just a cozy night at home with my new stick and DDP</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhfoVovJ4ytxbaCaQBFfkcWaSgELowj8CsFnvxH1Ldz-SJqAdYlM3f-XZrSri0FUAZwRg7E21fiNRFp7YCB1WAcCk47LkoWddipIKqxZIaeHg6ssSzxL6anQsZ_vqPv4IMXuJ8J4AIP_EkbznWZQ2MfJEl43ug41JlCkeylCdPWjK4-wFc3idWS17xV" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhfoVovJ4ytxbaCaQBFfkcWaSgELowj8CsFnvxH1Ldz-SJqAdYlM3f-XZrSri0FUAZwRg7E21fiNRFp7YCB1WAcCk47LkoWddipIKqxZIaeHg6ssSzxL6anQsZ_vqPv4IMXuJ8J4AIP_EkbznWZQ2MfJEl43ug41JlCkeylCdPWjK4-wFc3idWS17xV=w483-h272" width="483" /></a></div><br /><br /><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">I bought a drill and a special bit just so I could do this. I had no idea it would make such a mess!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgnt_p_SkUxKTkV7T5SU5nGnsk9fEcGhv53Tuwh6nprOkg95lZicAl8h6mskYcWbBO2ZGhuTALPx6ymKKmCWULgu2AgD1sHsCGlxRTXcfVCuCOhsfrCbq5EP5QdDIGed_oY7mvAZpS203O3JZRPTt91QRVSJ3xyYTBD3IwMrO__KCpstyTWmG1rt_m5" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="269" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgnt_p_SkUxKTkV7T5SU5nGnsk9fEcGhv53Tuwh6nprOkg95lZicAl8h6mskYcWbBO2ZGhuTALPx6ymKKmCWULgu2AgD1sHsCGlxRTXcfVCuCOhsfrCbq5EP5QdDIGed_oY7mvAZpS203O3JZRPTt91QRVSJ3xyYTBD3IwMrO__KCpstyTWmG1rt_m5=w478-h269" width="478" /></a></div><br /><br /><p></p><p>Here's what it looks like right now. I've been doing some experiments with playing certain games with the buttons only... For example 2D platformers where you're mostly doing left/right. So for example, the yellow buttons would be the left hand, and the right buttons the right hand.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjx8SrV05QjcDIRX5tXUyFAPFMdUeHuiUrMx8mdfNlTk_0Z_fC0GotLKCbYkvd37_cZDnUxkfEsO6la25rr9SxFe_SqgMFAAu8R8tkYbb8MKK6BKFRaD3F6lYh4kPBLT1j6RNC4p1NSA21mV4ud0IKOxkasqW8Dv0bu0hpU3OBvz6Xgsu613bObtb_z" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjx8SrV05QjcDIRX5tXUyFAPFMdUeHuiUrMx8mdfNlTk_0Z_fC0GotLKCbYkvd37_cZDnUxkfEsO6la25rr9SxFe_SqgMFAAu8R8tkYbb8MKK6BKFRaD3F6lYh4kPBLT1j6RNC4p1NSA21mV4ud0IKOxkasqW8Dv0bu0hpU3OBvz6Xgsu613bObtb_z=w483-h272" width="483" /></a></div><br />----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<p></p><p>I actually got a little crazy with it and ordered another joystick.. The Mayflash F300 which was a bit cheaper than the Qanba, and I've ordered the same parts to modify it as well. I've already tested out some dual stick shooters (Robotron, Smash TV, Total Carnage, etc) and it is soooooooo cool to have a setup like this.</p><p>-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</p><p>Also worth mentioning... For the last 9 months or so, I've undertaken a project.. A project that I've started and abandoned multiple times before. Watching videos of gameplay footage of every game for a particular system. (There are a lot of videos on youtube which have about 10-15 seconds of gameplay footage of every game, all in a massive video). The difference is, this time I'm actually finishing most of them. I make spreadsheets of a list of all the games I want to try, what genre they are (if I can tell from the footage), and then a rating of the game eventually after I've played it a bit. This has been a DEEP DIVE... MAME alone was something like 18 hours of gameplay footage. </p><p>Here's an example of one of my spreadsheets:</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgXYGD1KIc8uEOWFg-ip1gEOjCeyAzy2-VWPaJnIcKtg5TQgWj6VAedBVT9l5fWiYJbqtpa_bO2avKUtkyjSI4v-OGl2umJgdMG9_ufi1aVnBzEg6aCgmwb9IXzjuUl70m8EKMt3dRAwfbj-9mtRm8goLAc6GE9_1YpQZpB6bI9XI7FtH8IPpunboK8" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="610" data-original-width="1812" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgXYGD1KIc8uEOWFg-ip1gEOjCeyAzy2-VWPaJnIcKtg5TQgWj6VAedBVT9l5fWiYJbqtpa_bO2avKUtkyjSI4v-OGl2umJgdMG9_ufi1aVnBzEg6aCgmwb9IXzjuUl70m8EKMt3dRAwfbj-9mtRm8goLAc6GE9_1YpQZpB6bI9XI7FtH8IPpunboK8=w675-h228" width="675" /></a></div><br />Part of what motivated this project is that I got a bit better of a graphics card (Geforce GT 730, when before that I only had the onboard graphics), and so now I can emulate Gamecube, Wii and PS2 on my PC!<p></p><p>Here are the systems that I've watched and made lists for:</p><p>PSP, Sega CD, Game Gear, SNES, Master System, Gameboy Advance, PSX, Nintendo DS, Gameboy, Atari Lynx, Saturn, NES, Gamecube, Dreamcast, Turbografx 16, Genesis</p><p>Also working on (but haven't finished): Gameboy Color, 3DO, N64, PS2, Wii, MAME. <-- These include releases for all regions, so I've got a BUNCH of obscure Japanese stuff. Some good, some not so good. I'm also working on DOS games, although I don't think there will ever be an entire database of all the games. I may eventually do Amiga as well. </p><p>It's been tedious work at times, but it's also exciting and rewarding -- Finding a new game that I've never heard of and getting excited about trying it out... and then the wonderful feeling when you find a new game that turns out to be AWESOME and you're like "How the heck did I not know about this before!?"</p><p>I've discovered some VERY good MAME games over the past few weeks... So I'll just drop a couple of names/screenshots right now.. and then I may end up doing a "retro game of the indeterminate period" kind of article, just highlighting some games. We could maybe even pick from them for doing a future round. </p><p>So, here's a couple of games I've discovered lately:</p><p>--------------------------------------------------------------------</p><p>Shock Troopers -- This is a top down run & gun. It uses a single stick. You can fire in any direction, but when you hold the fire button, then it locks your movement for strafing. It's got beautiful pre-rendered sprites, and the gameplay is very, very fun and satisfying. The camera angles are done really well, and your character usually stays near the middle of the screen.. So you don't feel like you're getting cheap shots from stuff off the side of the screen or anything like that. </p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuFGB_h1_3Q">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuFGB_h1_3Q</a></p><p>--------------------------------------------------------------------</p><p>Magical Crystals -- Another top down run & gun. It looks cutesy, but it is certainly a serious game with a moderate challenge. The movement is incredibly responsive. It's got a bit of platforming to it as well. The levels are short but fun... and there's some pretty epic bosses. VERY fun</p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9c03VytA1hQ">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9c03VytA1hQ</a></p><p>--------------------------------------------------------------------</p><p>Air Assault -- Probably the most generic shmup that ever existed. (But, it's by Irem, so you know it can't be bad) Just another drab pseudo sci-fi, pseudo military themed shmup. Shoot and bomb, and upgrade your shot.. That's it. But there's just something about it that's got me hooked lately. It's not too difficult, and it always feels fair when you die. I've been practicing it a decent amount... and I surprised myself by getting a 3CC the other day! I may keep working to see if I can get a 1CC :) </p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=565rOZePGZ0">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=565rOZePGZ0</a></p><p><br /></p><p>--------------------------------------------------------------------</p><p><br /></p><p>Well, that's it for now! I'll be dropping a bunch of games/videos/screenshots periodically on here.</p><p>Matthea!</p>organic iohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13159435687504488354noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6460902389414233291.post-88913260421295408992019-02-11T12:08:00.002-08:002019-02-11T12:08:58.271-08:00Round 10 - Maldita Castilla!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5QdeLOWL4cLxyelHJ1tPegiEWWTKJ0S5_6JaU88leSzoCUrQDVHdnvbBs9ViIzT7bWTQOYF-yZy-iOLuXRH1mZjqcdrklX5PcGm9b-qiE4xbwdV38QhDO5vagyNT4N753ZvkZW8C5WMI/s1600/maldita_castilla.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="680" data-original-width="481" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5QdeLOWL4cLxyelHJ1tPegiEWWTKJ0S5_6JaU88leSzoCUrQDVHdnvbBs9ViIzT7bWTQOYF-yZy-iOLuXRH1mZjqcdrklX5PcGm9b-qiE4xbwdV38QhDO5vagyNT4N753ZvkZW8C5WMI/s320/maldita_castilla.jpg" width="225" /></a></div>
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Round 10 will be "Maldita Castilla". A free game by <a href="https://www.locomalito.com/">Locomalito</a>, released in 2012.<br />
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It's a platform game which has obviously been inspired by things like Ghouls & Ghosts. It's beautiful, challenging, and extremely fun! <br />
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We'll just leave round 9 going indefinitely until we care to finish it. :) No need for too strict of rules here I think.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKiWIN6pVm-8XY6_IW-sQFkDXzFNl7bbmSa0uruD1Ung7kh1FH6zEdRgQapK8Cag01YqSTkCdSVPYeKSRfBMjlUHFi0t0puhyphenhyphenlxZ5Vq_WE3Z0QdAJTuzRpu2FGt0IEOMVGV45f1il3XxQ/s1600/maldita_castilla_01.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="448" data-original-width="512" height="560" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKiWIN6pVm-8XY6_IW-sQFkDXzFNl7bbmSa0uruD1Ung7kh1FH6zEdRgQapK8Cag01YqSTkCdSVPYeKSRfBMjlUHFi0t0puhyphenhyphenlxZ5Vq_WE3Z0QdAJTuzRpu2FGt0IEOMVGV45f1il3XxQ/s640/maldita_castilla_01.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIpcTVxF0tgb6s9O2p1Cw5hyphenhyphenNeu83cj1EhrWTGl_nNCaXdca5QHELm56rgoStUfwrF3D1GUGlNVSBipRIOyyAgzuIPSw4XtwkghJUC1aNXqR7Mu2unODnGpvto3EuGc_bitDVumNxGoOs/s1600/maldita_castilla_02.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="448" data-original-width="512" height="560" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIpcTVxF0tgb6s9O2p1Cw5hyphenhyphenNeu83cj1EhrWTGl_nNCaXdca5QHELm56rgoStUfwrF3D1GUGlNVSBipRIOyyAgzuIPSw4XtwkghJUC1aNXqR7Mu2unODnGpvto3EuGc_bitDVumNxGoOs/s640/maldita_castilla_02.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjkQZrYlzHGUhbkS8JINgyxL70AMm_m3ubF0MV0K_LPchTyzphpG1wHWKFUmJEpzEhRFxyC_NnVPhUMXuHxhI_LLMCshW8vQ-Cs6fnICskGxmuhnGvMjr2gHo2esAnQ7K5_icSIXAK56A/s1600/maldita_castilla_03.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="448" data-original-width="512" height="560" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjkQZrYlzHGUhbkS8JINgyxL70AMm_m3ubF0MV0K_LPchTyzphpG1wHWKFUmJEpzEhRFxyC_NnVPhUMXuHxhI_LLMCshW8vQ-Cs6fnICskGxmuhnGvMjr2gHo2esAnQ7K5_icSIXAK56A/s640/maldita_castilla_03.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlOeb2KdQ9dgQwWxJ0QPkMdUYmnw6cvQZfTZKcHmYPqGhlgw1nqlVKHGZcPlHwkcDkyqjsxbK1ztlNj1mdyq4g1pewHwLbcBbFrUcIVj0YxxUAffU8eex21xyGBrdY72TXVLdwoAW5YgU/s1600/maldita_castilla_04.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="448" data-original-width="512" height="560" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlOeb2KdQ9dgQwWxJ0QPkMdUYmnw6cvQZfTZKcHmYPqGhlgw1nqlVKHGZcPlHwkcDkyqjsxbK1ztlNj1mdyq4g1pewHwLbcBbFrUcIVj0YxxUAffU8eex21xyGBrdY72TXVLdwoAW5YgU/s640/maldita_castilla_04.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH5ji5XIZ4maaUA1-OF6ik1etLQSYaaLy2CYHgjNT4nqns1_O2HMkCrty81oNz6pNz0JSqmShu4DsXEUcUrKaCHEScVEoGL8nje-uijVVfEleW9Fg0oLKTKumQJq5FsiubZHHJ7oWPUdk/s1600/maldita_castilla_05.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="448" data-original-width="512" height="560" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH5ji5XIZ4maaUA1-OF6ik1etLQSYaaLy2CYHgjNT4nqns1_O2HMkCrty81oNz6pNz0JSqmShu4DsXEUcUrKaCHEScVEoGL8nje-uijVVfEleW9Fg0oLKTKumQJq5FsiubZHHJ7oWPUdk/s640/maldita_castilla_05.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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Goals:<br />
* High score on 1st credit<br />
* Try to finish game in 3 credits or less<br />
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Go go go!!!organic iohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13159435687504488354noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6460902389414233291.post-15687490622793089362017-01-26T00:03:00.000-08:002017-01-26T00:03:13.108-08:00Round 9 - Batsugun!ROUND 9 COMMENCE!!!<br />
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For round 9, we will play Batsugun!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV6F_geYiucO1fmr-3HvATl-wol9SnBZ_HQc2P9MDw7yrI9WN33yew4hnEZNgbaYabN3vcmBcy1WGR5W8m8JAcm5F4OMd-dKzI_6h_Q4I7CIq2J0rgpdCh-4uVIoXVJQidJKsWSaXopuM/s1600/soundtrack.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="396" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV6F_geYiucO1fmr-3HvATl-wol9SnBZ_HQc2P9MDw7yrI9WN33yew4hnEZNgbaYabN3vcmBcy1WGR5W8m8JAcm5F4OMd-dKzI_6h_Q4I7CIq2J0rgpdCh-4uVIoXVJQidJKsWSaXopuM/s400/soundtrack.gif" width="400" /> </a></div>
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A 1993 shmup from Toaplan</div>
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It was one of their last games before they went defunct, and is widely regarded as the first ever "manic" or bullet hell game.</div>
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Therefore it has an interesting place in gaming history, positioned between oldschool and newschool shmups. It's about time we played it for the RGC. One wonders what went through the minds of the first ever players of Batsugun when they saw so many bullets for the first time :-D</div>
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Goal will be the usual: See how far you can get on 3 credits. </div>
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No time frame on this one, we'll just play it casually until we get tired of it. </div>
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GO GO GO GO GO !!!!! </div>
organic iohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13159435687504488354noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6460902389414233291.post-84129240379614036172017-01-25T23:46:00.002-08:002017-01-25T23:46:49.132-08:00Joystick Review: Mayflash PS2 PS3 PC USB Universal Arcade Stick After many years, organic io finally obtained a proper joystick. I got this back last autumn and haven't used it much since then, but that will be changing soon :)<br />
<br />
The stick is the Mayflash Universal Arcade Stick:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigVu3K0lF53wrU4chTd8UWEuiP4ZUOz3egBbOK77kNgmI-6i_F5CjoOiHKraeUHW0H2lSy1ZHzNHu5DzU8U0vWZOl9OAWRVrOBoGBB2R-n38uxjW541htjsw9Ke3kCnW7W7cQZc_N5EtA/s1600/81hbhAunT2L._SL1500_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigVu3K0lF53wrU4chTd8UWEuiP4ZUOz3egBbOK77kNgmI-6i_F5CjoOiHKraeUHW0H2lSy1ZHzNHu5DzU8U0vWZOl9OAWRVrOBoGBB2R-n38uxjW541htjsw9Ke3kCnW7W7cQZc_N5EtA/s320/81hbhAunT2L._SL1500_.jpg" width="307" /></a></div>
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<br />It can be connected either via the Playstation style connector or USB. Works great in Windows 7 and Windows 10. It has 8 main buttons, a smaller 9th and 10th button, and an "auto" and "clear" button.<br />
<br />
I put it through its paces tonight with some games I'm very familiar with...<br />
<br />
Under Defeat which I have 3 cc'ed before:<br />
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Gigawing which I have 2cc'ed before:<br />
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and finally Progear which I have also 3cc'ed before:<br />
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<br />
The joystick has a nice large heavy base. It fits well in my lap and doesn't slide around during play at all.<br />
<br />
The stick itself has a nice satisfying clicky feel and you can even hear it "click" when it moves around. It is very responsive. The buttons feel nice and responsive as well.<br />
<br />
Initially during Under Defeat, I had it plugged into a USB hub. When I started playing Gigawing I noticed a slight bit of input lag, and so I plugged it straight into the computer's USB port. Clearly the faster pace of Gigawing made me notice the input lag, so it is definitely recommended to plug straight into the PC to make sure there is no lag.<br />
<br />
Overall the stick works really well, bordering on perfect. No complaints here.<br />
<br />
It's also so solid that it's satisfying to just hold in my lap and tap on it like a percussion instrument. Bonus points for being a practice percussion instrument!!!<br />
<br />
Overall quite a good stick and well worth it.<br />
<br />
Batsugun, prepare to get destroyed :-Dorganic iohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13159435687504488354noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6460902389414233291.post-72486651038652274662016-08-25T06:55:00.001-07:002016-08-25T06:55:57.547-07:00Circumstantially...Due to various factors, it appears that the Quake and Bodypad rounds are just not going to work out at the present time.<br />
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I think we started Quake in March, and I still haven't played it hardly at all.<br />
<br />
Also I don't currently have access to the bodypads nor do I know when I will (unfortunately).<br />
<br />
Therefore I am retiring those rounds for the time being, but when life circumstances become more stable, we can always revive those rounds as necessary and even copy/paste the original posts.<br />
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For the time being, no game is active, however I think some Wardner is in order starting around September 1st :)<br />
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:-D<br />
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That image is from the Genesis version, but there is also an Arcade version. Either is fine with me.<br />
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I'll update the site in about a week with the start of the long overdue Wardner :)organic iohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13159435687504488354noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6460902389414233291.post-76980365928823868492016-07-03T16:10:00.000-07:002016-07-03T16:10:00.721-07:00Wooden NES Controllers from Spitfire Labs<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://images.bigcartel.com/product_images/179899121/contra2.0_Front.jpg?auto=format&fit=max&h=1000&w=1000" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://images.bigcartel.com/product_images/179899121/contra2.0_Front.jpg?auto=format&fit=max&h=1000&w=1000" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://images.bigcartel.com/product_images/164781244/marioFRONT_v01.jpg?auto=format&fit=max&h=1000&w=1000" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://images.bigcartel.com/product_images/164781244/marioFRONT_v01.jpg?auto=format&fit=max&h=1000&w=1000" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://images.bigcartel.com/product_images/166015567/Zelda_01.jpg?auto=format&fit=max&h=1000&w=1000" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://images.bigcartel.com/product_images/166015567/Zelda_01.jpg?auto=format&fit=max&h=1000&w=1000" width="320" /></a></div>
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Absolutely beautiful! Laser engraved. They're all sold out except the Contra one. But you know what, I would have probably chosen the Contra one anyway :) It's only $35. I seriously might have to allocate some disposable income towards that this summer :-D<br />
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<a href="http://www.spitfirelabs.nyc/category/nes-controllers">Their website</a><br />
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They also did some "Cartridges", various wood carvings and skateboards. But the controllers are just so perfect, I think I have to have one :)<br />
organic iohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13159435687504488354noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6460902389414233291.post-438192702381755432016-06-11T18:05:00.000-07:002016-06-11T18:05:15.643-07:00How NOT to dual boot Windows 10 and Android on an Acer Aspire Switch 10 E Laptop/Tablet hybridUpdate: Originally I was going to call this article "How to dual boot...", but after somewhere between 8-12 hours of intense research and trial and error, I still haven't reached my goal. So I post this in hopes that it will come up in a future google search for someone who has some specific questions about the Acer Aspire Switch 10 E. Later, once I actually get it working properly, I'll post a proper "how to" article.<br />
<br />
In this article we'll be talking about configuring Phoenix OS alongside Windows 10 and how to get a bootloader working with it, which is especially challenging with this UEFI only laptop. It's a long read, but I'm hoping this will be useful to someone in the future who has similar problems. It will be faster for you to read through my woes of what didn't work for me, than to do trial and error yourself. This article assumes you have at least intermediate knowledge of computers, which would make sense if you are wanting to dual boot your PC :) <br />
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OK, this is only partially related to the RGC as it has to do with the Acer Aspire 10 E which I just got this past week for the excellent price of only $100 on Amazon new...<br />
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This is a pretty sweet and fun little computer! The first time I took it apart from the keyboard and just held it as a tablet and browsed a website, I marveled at it for a minute and it felt great! I couldn't believe I was still using full blown x86 Windows on a tablet like device. This thing is very versatile.<br />
<br />
So, one of the first things I did with it obviously was to upgrade it from Windows 8 to Windows 10, since that is still free at the time of this writing, until the end of July I believe.<br />
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After that, I started to speculate whether I could get some android apps running on it. But I didn't really want to go with virtualization... I've had bad luck with that in the past on my older laptop.... Virtual machines just simply refusing to start.<br />
<br />
So I did a little digging and found out about this thing called Amiduos, made by American Megatrends, the same guys who have been making computer BIOS systems since I was 4 years old! So I thought this sounded promising... It says it is the "fastest android emulator for PC". OK, these guys must know how to code some sweet dynarecs in assembly or something, they <b>are</b> the BIOS guys after all ;) <br />
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It took a LONG time to get Amiduos configured... In fact, if I hadn't been so exhausted that night and falling asleep while it was running, I probably would have assumed it had frozen up and given up on it. But eventually it did load. And I was able to download some android games to test.<br />
<br />
While it did run all the games I tried, they were slow. Not painfully slow, but too slow to be playable.<br />
<br />
So I knew there had to be another way. A way to actually run android on an x86 machine?<br />
<br />
So after a little more research, I discovered several options....<br />
<br />
* Android x86, which is the oldest and probably now the least mature of the products<br />
<br />
* Remix OS which has been around for a couple of years<br />
and<br />
* Phoenix OS... Chinese newcomer on the scene, but appears to be very competitive with Remix.<br />
<br />
After reading their spec sheets I chose Phoenix for a couple of reasons, mainly because if you run it off a USB stick, Remix requires USB 3.0 and Phoenix can be run off 2.0. There were a couple other reasons as well, but I can't remember specifically.<br />
<br />
Anyway... It was time to try it out...<br />
<br />
At the time of this writing, Phoenix is at version 1.0.8 RC (Release Candidate). You can download it from their site here:<br />
<a href="http://www.phoenixos.com/en/download_x86">http://www.phoenixos.com/en/download_x86</a><br />
<br />
Installation is theoretically very simple. You just run their installer exe and tell it what USB stick or Hard Drive to install to, and then reboot and run it.<br />
<br />
In practice it's much more complex, especially due to the fact that my Acer only has a UEFI system as opposed to a legacy BIOS. This is my first experience with one of these after messing with it for many hours, I'm not really thrilled about it.<br />
<br />
Supposedly there is a firmware update for some of the Acers to give them a menu option to revert to legacy bios. Not the Switch 10e. I updated the firmware from 1.02 to 1.09 (newest) and there is no such option when you boot to the UEFI.<br />
<br />
So the weird part is this: each operating system that you want to boot from has an .efi file which contains information about the OS, presumably where to locate it and stuff like that.<br />
<br />
But, by default the Acer UEFI utility is set for "Secure Boot", which is supposed to add some kind of extra protection... Protection against what I'm not sure.... In my mind it's protection against being able to install your OS's and use your computer how you want to... But I digress.<br />
<br />
So, the weird dichotomy with the "Secure Boot" feature is that in order to use a different .efi file, you have to manually add it to a kind of whitelist. To do this, you go into the UEFI menu, into the "Security" tab, and then under "Select an UEFI file as trusted for executing". After you've done this, you have to save and exit the UEFI, and then next time you load the UEFI up, it will show in the list of boot options along with Windows Boot Manager, USB HDD, etc.<br />
<br />
What makes it weird is that most places recommend you disable the "secure boot" feature in order to make things "easier". The problem on the Acer UEFI is when you disable secure boot, it also disables the option to go in and add an .efi file as trusted, and therefore disables the method of adding them to the boot list. I guess you can leave secure boot on first, add the efi files, and then disable secure boot afterwards... I haven't messed with it enough to confirm this with 100% certainty. [ I will try to update this later once I confirm ]<br />
<br />
Anyway, back to PhoenixOS.... I got it up and running just fine, and as of 1.0.8 RC it has Google Play services, which is awesome. It doesn't come rooted by default, but, <a href="http://bbs.phoenixstudio.org/en/showthread.php?tid=797&pid=1094#pid1094">this post on the Phoenix OS forums</a> has a link to a system.img which you just replace in your PhoenixOS directory, and then it will be rooted.<br />
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So I liked this PhoenixOS! It runs very fast, and the same games that I attempted in Amiduos ran almost flawlessly in Phoenix. Full speed. Very nice.<br />
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The problem came when I was testing Phoenix OS, every time I tried to boot back into Windows 10, it seemed to have corrupted Windows 10's startup files (I'm not exactly sure what), I just know that I had to sit there and wait 10 or 15 minutes for Windows 10 repair itself every time.<br />
<br />
So I knew it was necessary to get a bootloader going if I was going to take this thing seriously.<br />
<br />
Initially I was going to use rEFInd. However I noticed in its instructions for manually installing inside Windows 10, it says that the instructions are based on Windows 8 and don't work for Windows 10. Great.... Google searches didn't reveal anything about how to get it to work in Windows 10.<br />
But, it said the best way to do it was inside Linux. OK, no problem.... Let's set up a Linux bootable USB stick real quick and get this thing done...<br />
<br />
So I tried several flavors of Linux, and I couldn't get any of them to boot! ubuntu mini remix, trisquel, I was about to try vanilla Ubuntu, when I realized it's probably not the Linux's, it's probably my computer. I <a href="http://superuser.com/questions/878637/how-to-boot-acer-aspire-switch-10-from-external-media">found a thread where someone was having a similar problem</a> of not being able to boot from USB. One guy's suggestion was to upgrade the firmware to one that supports legacy Bios. As I said, that is not available. The other suggestion was to use a USB OTG adapter instead of using the regular USB type A port. OK, whatever I thought, I've got a USB OTG adapter that I know works, so I'll give it a shot. I even formatted it with the RUFUS utility like he said, GPT, Fat32, everything. I tested it inside windows to make sure the files were showing up... Yeah, I could see my Linux installs. But try to boot from it... No go. Eventually I got some kind of error message, I forget exactly what it said but it basically said that USB Booting was not supported on this computer.<br />
<br />
Wow. Just wow. Then why is it even an option in the UEFI? Seriously. Bad Acer, bad. But I'm willing to overlook it because it's still an awesome computer at a great price.<br />
<br />
So anyway..... Frustrated with not being able to install rEFInd, I looked for an alternative to rEFInd. I came across the utility "Grub2win" which is supposed to be able to easily install Grub2. Tried it out, and while it did install Grub 2, I couldn't figure out how to point it to PhoenixOS. It also threw some error about the fact that it was UEFI only and it couldn't support as many features.<br />
<br />
Giving up in frustration on that one, then I tried EasyBCD, which is supposed to easily install "neogrub". Following the tutorial here: <a href="http://www.quickfever.com/2016/02/dual-boot-phoenix-os.html">http://www.quickfever.com/2016/02/dual-boot-phoenix-os.html</a><br />
But again, EasyBCD throws an error about my system being UEFI only and it won't have as many features. Then indeed when I get in and try to add a new entry, the options for Neogrub are grayed out. Perfect.<br />
<br />
So I'm back to maybe figuring out how to manually install rEFInd.<br />
<br />
I was getting intense at this point. Not desperate, just determined. (I had already been working on the issue for many hours, probably 6+ hours straight).<br />
<br />
So I figure if I just manually move the rEFInd .efi file onto the EFI partition, I should be able to select it in the UEFI and it will work, right?<br />
<br />
Remembering a post I read earlier in the night, I referred back to it...<br />
<a href="http://superuser.com/questions/965751/how-to-access-efi-partition-on-windows-10">http://superuser.com/questions/965751/how-to-access-efi-partition-on-windows-10</a><br />
<br />
It highlights some peculiarities about manually accessing your UEFI partition on Windows 10. Even after you taskkill explorer.exe, it still gives an error about accessing the partition.<br />
<br />
Someone suggested that you just type the drive letter straight out of task manager, it would work.<br />
I couldn't get that to work, but fortunately the command line worked.<br />
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To make it simpler for this blog, here is what I had to do to access the EFI partition:<br />
<br />
open cmd as admin...<br />
<pre><code>diskpart
sel disk 0
sel part 1
assign letter=b
exit
taskkill /im explorer.exe /f
explorer.exe
</code></pre>
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Then, just open a cmd window as administrator and type the following commands:<br />
<pre><code>b:</code></pre>
<pre><code>cd EFI</code></pre>
<pre><code>mkdir rEFInd</code></pre>
<pre><code> </code></pre>
<code><br /></code>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">After that, you need to go to the location where you have the rEFInd .efi file<span style="font-family: inherit;">. For me it was like this:</span></span></span><br />
<pre><code>c:</code></pre>
<pre><code>cd \</code></pre>
<pre><code>cd 0_home\refind-bin-0.10.3\refind</code></pre>
<pre><code> </code></pre>
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Yours will of course be differe<span style="font-family: inherit;">nt. Then copy the .efi file<span style="font-family: inherit;">. I'm using the 32 bit version, but you would need to copy the <span style="font-family: inherit;">x<span style="font-family: inherit;">64 file if that's what you're <span style="font-family: inherit;">using. So the next command would be:</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<pre><code>copy refind_ia32.efi b:\EFI\rEFInd\</code></pre>
<pre><code>
</code></pre>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">That just simply copies the file<span style="font-family: inherit;">, like we used to do in the DOS <span style="font-family: inherit;">days :) </span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The ne<span style="font-family: inherit;">xt step is simply to go back to the UEFI a<span style="font-family: inherit;">nd add the rEFInd efi, and hopefully everything boots up and it sees both Windows and PhoenixOS and all is good :) </span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So... Fingers c<span style="font-family: inherit;">rossed, I added the r<span style="font-family: inherit;">EFI<span style="font-family: inherit;">nd, restar<span style="font-family: inherit;">ted, and YES, it loaded r<span style="font-family: inherit;">EFI<span style="font-family: inherit;">nd!<span style="font-family: inherit;"> And it shows Windows 10 and Phoenix OS! Now time to test.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Windows 10 loaded fine. So I came back to r<span style="font-family: inherit;">EFInd, and launched Phoenix OS....</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Instead of <span style="font-family: inherit;">showing a PhoenixOS splash screen like it had been doing, now it was showing some Linux kernel stuff <span style="font-family: inherit;">like you'd expect if you were booting up Ubuntu with verbose mes<span style="font-family: inherit;">sages</span>. Then it gets stuck on </span>"Detecting Phoenix OS<span style="font-family: inherit;">". I let it run for at least <span style="font-family: inherit;">20 minutes and it didn't seem to do anything.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So next<span style="font-family: inherit;">... It's time to read the rEFI<span style="font-family: inherit;">nd manual. Maybe I'm doing something wrong<span style="font-family: inherit;"> in pointing it to Phoenix? OK.... <a href="http://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/secureboot.html">It's got a whole section</a> about how secure boot causes problems for bootloaders, and sever<span style="font-family: inherit;">al proposed solutions to fix it. I'm going to try the easier method which involve<span style="font-family: inherit;">s "preloader".</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It involved <span style="font-family: inherit;">renaming the <span style="font-family: inherit;">r<span style="font-family: inherit;">EFInd efi to "loader<span style="font-family: inherit;">.efi", and then downloading a "preloader<span style="font-family: inherit;">.efi" and "hashtool.efi". I <span style="font-family: inherit;">manually loaded them to my EFI parti<span style="font-family: inherit;">tion through the <span style="font-family: inherit;">command prompt again, and then I go<span style="font-family: inherit;">t to this cryptic statement<span style="font-family: inherit;"> in the tutorial:</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>register <tt>PreLoader.efi</tt>
with the EFI by using <tt>efibootmgr</tt> in Linux or <tt>bcdedit</tt>
in Windows.</i> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">OK? So I fi<span style="font-family: inherit;">gured it would <span style="font-family: inherit;">be self explanatory. <span style="font-family: inherit;">Turns out<span style="font-family: inherit;"> bcdedit is a command line utility<span style="font-family: inherit;">, which I'm usually not scared of, but when I ran bcdedit /?, none of the <span style="font-family: inherit;">options had any<span style="font-family: inherit;"> ver<span style="font-family: inherit;">b<span style="font-family: inherit;">age at all about "regist<span style="font-family: inherit;">er" or "registration". So I thought it must be officially called something else. Google search turned up very little. So I decided to do what I sometimes do in <span style="font-family: inherit;">weak spots like this.... <span style="font-family: inherit;">Find a G<span style="font-family: inherit;">UI version <span style="font-family: inherit;">of the utilit<span style="font-family: inherit;">y :) So I found "Visual BCD Editor".... <span style="font-family: inherit;">The website says it <span style="font-family: inherit;">needs some .net framework dependencies, but fortunately it ran for me without <span style="font-family: inherit;">adding any .net stuff. </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So I stare at Visual BC<span style="font-family: inherit;">D editor for a few minutes, and it becomes apparent that "registering" it means the same thing as "adding a new OS loader" <span style="font-family: inherit;">for the preloader.efi. So I did that, everything looks good to go. </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Rebootion time.... I'm feeling pretty good about it all at this point. Certainly something is going to work this time, right? So I add the preloader.efi to the "whitelist"<span style="font-family: inherit;">, restart, and.... Preloader loads... But...</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"This 64-<span style="font-family: inherit;">bit application couldn't load be<span style="font-family: inherit;">ca<span style="font-family: inherit;">use your PC doesn't have a 64-bit processor<span style="font-family: inherit;">... e<span style="font-family: inherit;">tc blah blah"...</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Oops, right, I forgot to check <span style="font-family: inherit;">whether I got the 64 bit or 32 bit version of the preloader/hashtool, right?</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Not quite. I can't find anything <span style="font-family: inherit;">at all about a 32 bit version <span style="font-family: inherit;">of it. It appears there's just the one release. </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">..... Now I'm FINALLY start<span style="font-family: inherit;">ing to get frustrated, after something like 8 to 12 hours of work<span style="font-family: inherit;">. Up until that point, the whole journey has actually been pretty fun. It's like a puzzle to solve. </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But no... Now it's just like......... I gotta take a step back and re-evaluate <span style="font-family: inherit;">how I'm going to approach the puzzle <span style="font-family: inherit;">and hopefully figure out the most efficient solution :) </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So this is where our <span style="font-family: inherit;">story ends</span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span>for now... <span style="font-family: inherit;">Of how <span style="font-family: inherit;">ABSOLUTELY NOT to dual boot Windows 10 and Android on an Acer Aspire Switch 10 E.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">To be continued, the right way :) </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span>organic iohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13159435687504488354noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6460902389414233291.post-51203287728666395732016-05-27T10:14:00.000-07:002016-05-27T10:14:51.939-07:00D-Cat 16 Portable Handheld Console Review -- The cheapest budget gaming device that can play ROMs!You know I'm all about finding a good deal and getting some ridiculously inexpensive stuff :)<br />
<br />
So a few weeks ago I found this thing on Amazon, the D-Cat 16. It can actually play Genesis Roms.<br />
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It was only $12.<br />
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Here's a review:<br />
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As long as you don't go in expecting perfection, the thing is really not too bad!!!<br />
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The price actually went up this past week and is now $13. But still not bad. Link here:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/D-CAT-16-Bit-Portable-Handheld-Console-Build/dp/B01F59GY3C?ie=UTF8&redirect=true&ref_=cm_cr_ryp_prd_ttl_sol_7">http://www.amazon.com/D-CAT-16-Bit-Portable-Handheld-Console-Build/dp/B01F59GY3C?ie=UTF8&redirect=true&ref_=cm_cr_ryp_prd_ttl_sol_7</a><br />
<br />
Highly recommended!!! :-Dorganic iohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13159435687504488354noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6460902389414233291.post-72390883533034313342016-05-12T09:34:00.001-07:002016-05-12T09:34:31.741-07:00GPD XD ShowcaseI made a video showcasing this device and some of the excellent android games and emulators.<br />
<br />
Sorry for the kinda grainy video quality, I don't have a device with a very nice camera.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe width="320" height="266" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/rLr0Lw4Hw-4/0.jpg" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rLr0Lw4Hw-4?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
<br />
<br />
Soon I'll get the bodypad set up and report back on how that is :) And of course I still need to play some Quake!!!organic iohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13159435687504488354noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6460902389414233291.post-54390020342522395592016-04-03T13:26:00.000-07:002016-04-07T13:15:12.197-07:00Round 10 - Bodypad Gang Wars & P.O.WIn parallel to the Anaglyph Quake round we are going to have an<br />
exergaming round!<br />
<br />
The controller is gonna be the mighty Bodypad!<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAOpwf9a7OjllbEffCop30QwfiGx9BTIUVkG7AOrq6xR_LetOQjzfUk303svxC_Y_Auwm8lAI3gj-RBDNzdK_GZV1F10WcSwSVAE4EXOjv91bOjZpLeNGgnnLZoOdWuNfsFC9bMZqbrQ3-/s1600/Bodypad.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAOpwf9a7OjllbEffCop30QwfiGx9BTIUVkG7AOrq6xR_LetOQjzfUk303svxC_Y_Auwm8lAI3gj-RBDNzdK_GZV1F10WcSwSVAE4EXOjv91bOjZpLeNGgnnLZoOdWuNfsFC9bMZqbrQ3-/s400/Bodypad.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
We'll play two games:<br />
<br />
1. Gang Wars<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVERl7BCSVHHFLtwVfz-ooY3SB23MHI0bg0E8W7LvPUuAXMPlg-s1JEPPKEzw0gjmOLucS_XjZChx_KjIdznQhmoIDNchLET1FswvQTo-RSKfSiDLvyku1ETsq4gqJq2HPus8iOZI4EuWj/s1600/Gang_Wars_-_1989_-_Alpha_Denshi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="350" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVERl7BCSVHHFLtwVfz-ooY3SB23MHI0bg0E8W7LvPUuAXMPlg-s1JEPPKEzw0gjmOLucS_XjZChx_KjIdznQhmoIDNchLET1FswvQTo-RSKfSiDLvyku1ETsq4gqJq2HPus8iOZI4EuWj/s400/Gang_Wars_-_1989_-_Alpha_Denshi.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9UQMCyDUd8Ohf2uftXJ-7AoGeqPNPvGWBEncW1aqNofS0SsDnN9CJbjImTxr4urvPwl3FJeuDxIlwjnkWL3qb2edXz-leQC9EQidsBpLre6OkF1KhQiTtosdm9hWUtk4tWb4y__2538A4/s1600/gangwars_psmini.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="350" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9UQMCyDUd8Ohf2uftXJ-7AoGeqPNPvGWBEncW1aqNofS0SsDnN9CJbjImTxr4urvPwl3FJeuDxIlwjnkWL3qb2edXz-leQC9EQidsBpLre6OkF1KhQiTtosdm9hWUtk4tWb4y__2538A4/s400/gangwars_psmini.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
2. Prisoners of War<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj48cE0CMkwY7nNMEkXC4wln9_OV8Wp553Yd5MNzgr2hFz82WIWMwuP42pIWfl4j-VUD8DiFrbjJOenSOiKvLSCDzDexWs2WMrsmQN2njxx6DzOUhVFReO2rgamYKvQXzgQhErnux4KyAVi/s1600/P.O.W.+-+Prisoners+of+War+%2528US+version+1%2529-3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="350" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj48cE0CMkwY7nNMEkXC4wln9_OV8Wp553Yd5MNzgr2hFz82WIWMwuP42pIWfl4j-VUD8DiFrbjJOenSOiKvLSCDzDexWs2WMrsmQN2njxx6DzOUhVFReO2rgamYKvQXzgQhErnux4KyAVi/s400/P.O.W.+-+Prisoners+of+War+%2528US+version+1%2529-3.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiny_0TRW92fmuQo11cgE8pRi4QP0SaoGsnb6HuTYYnoa2c_ZR9IphRWg4HO6ZxjAWPLpBuV7xHHkDlfgtAEn3docb0xNkpmnNRg4zuEHnSlf87uJ6kTtsTJiLl0NztERHJHRSAopKqhLbz/s1600/118124214312.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="350" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiny_0TRW92fmuQo11cgE8pRi4QP0SaoGsnb6HuTYYnoa2c_ZR9IphRWg4HO6ZxjAWPLpBuV7xHHkDlfgtAEn3docb0xNkpmnNRg4zuEHnSlf87uJ6kTtsTJiLl0NztERHJHRSAopKqhLbz/s400/118124214312.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
below I'll explain how to configure the bodypad for them. Both games<br />
will be identically configured. But let me rapidly explain the<br />
principles of the Bodypad, the Bodypad façon de vivre. ;-)<br />
<br />
In short you have 4 pads, 2 above the knees, 2 above the elbows. The<br />
pads above the knees send a button on signal when they are<br />
pressed. However the pads above the elbows do the opposite, they send<br />
a button on when they are released! On top of that you've got a D-pad<br />
in the left hand + a trigger, and a 4 more buttons on the right hand +<br />
a trigger.<br />
<br />
The Bodypad allows you to:<br />
<br />
1. trigger the legs' pads by basically kicking as to press the "kick<br />
pads"<br />
<br />
2. trigger the arms' pads by stretching you arms out to release the<br />
"punching pads"<br />
<br />
3. control the D-pad and the trigger with your left hand<br />
<br />
4. control 4 extra buttons and the trigger with you right hand<br />
<br />
The 4 pads (left kick, right kick, left punch, right punch) + the 2<br />
triggers (left and right triggers) are assignable. The other remaining<br />
buttons on the right hand controller are not, but of course we will<br />
assign them to the controls of our choice directly in the games.<br />
<br />
So, let's do it! First of all plug the Bodypad receiver to the USB<br />
port (you need a XBox to USB adapter). Configure it as follows (some<br />
red dots have been added to make it up for the bad shot)<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp_gk3bQ48cqCMK-0kd84FO5jU_dh6ORoPheAIFxTYFqH1OtHkJhNhs5LUP3_brx03ndUpw0BjPcebrtIWo2Jhlen0ZKTK5gdtjmmn2Ef-RQ6UDPxNDLxIel7W_b9Yqu6TSl2pWAdsYeYo/s1600/bp-config.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="243" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp_gk3bQ48cqCMK-0kd84FO5jU_dh6ORoPheAIFxTYFqH1OtHkJhNhs5LUP3_brx03ndUpw0BjPcebrtIWo2Jhlen0ZKTK5gdtjmmn2Ef-RQ6UDPxNDLxIel7W_b9Yqu6TSl2pWAdsYeYo/s400/bp-config.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Then place all the pads on your body, follow the provided manual for<br />
that. My advice is to start with the legs, then the elbows, then the<br />
hands. It might well take you 10 minutes the first time but don't<br />
despair, as time goes it will take you less and less time (it takes<br />
me no more than 30 seconds).<br />
<br />
Note: use long trousers and long sleeve shirt for maximum comfort.<br />
<br />
OK, now that you are wearing the Bodypad, turn it on (the power switch<br />
is on the left hand controller, don't forget to add the 3 AAA<br />
batteries in there). So far a blinking green light should have been<br />
observed on the receiver, once switched on, the green light should<br />
stop blinking and stay on.<br />
<br />
We are ready to fire mame! But first you might want to use a joystick<br />
monitoring software to check that everything is in order (I use<br />
jstest-gtk for Linux). This is also convenient to get a feel of how to<br />
control the kick and punch pads.<br />
<br />
Now we're going to launch and configure Gang Wars, you want to<br />
configure Gang Wars, the following screenshot shows how the<br />
configuration looks like on my version of mame<br />
<span id="goog_223684673"></span><span id="goog_223684674"></span><span id="goog_223684675"></span><span id="goog_223684676"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Gang Wars input configuration</i></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDraT-vIIMrDSSq1KD1fP3qXwP97A4bmyWpM1g_l-JvIzKXcg_v7yEd5Fs9eZR2h4TcQZFg2uWg7L1nzlbUwcXFEB_C4GP5oVzL9SDGvGcwOVyc7zdqy60M4b0Pnhs6dETqzhRkqCrfQJW/s1600/gangwars-config.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDraT-vIIMrDSSq1KD1fP3qXwP97A4bmyWpM1g_l-JvIzKXcg_v7yEd5Fs9eZR2h4TcQZFg2uWg7L1nzlbUwcXFEB_C4GP5oVzL9SDGvGcwOVyc7zdqy60M4b0Pnhs6dETqzhRkqCrfQJW/s640/gangwars-config.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
that is:<br />
<br />
- L button on the right hand controller is mapped to insert credits<br />
<br />
- R button on the right hand controller is mapped to start<br />
<br />
- D-pad is mapped as expected<br />
<br />
- L and R kicks are mapped to button 1<br />
<br />
- L and R punched are mapped to button 2<br />
<br />
- White button on the right hand controller (see picture below) is<br />
mapped to button 3 (jump in the game)<br />
<br />
- L and R triggers are mapped to button 1 as well<br />
<br />
The reason L and R triggers are mapped to button 1 is so that in case<br />
you are too tired of body kicking (which is by far the most<br />
exhausting) you can use the trigger instead. Of course I highly<br />
encourage you to body kick!<br />
<br />
Try to follow as closely as possible what the character is doing to<br />
feel as embodied as possible. So for instance if the character is<br />
facing to the right he is gonna punch with the left arm, so punch with<br />
the left arm as well. When he faces left, then punch with the right<br />
arm. If he's hold a bottle with the left arm then do the same bottle<br />
knocking movement with your left arm, etc.<br />
<br />
Please note that it's probably gonna be very frustrating at first, you<br />
have to persevere, rapidly you're gonna be at ease and start enjoying<br />
it. I guess the first challenge is gonna be to complete the first<br />
stage, I'm limiting myself to 3 credits but frankly you can use as<br />
many credit as you want!<br />
<br />
For Prisoners of War, the setting are almost identical, the only<br />
difference is that button 2 and button 3 are swapped, that is<br />
<br />
- White button on the right hand controller is mapped to button 2<br />
(jump in the game)<br />
<br />
- L and R punched are mapped to button 3<br />
<br />
See a snapshot of my configuration for P.O.W.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>P.O.W input configuration</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFsN0hFLNuO-R2g8k24n0Ws9iHHvX2t6r5hzEw9pR5rVONN02bda-r0E7DTiFW0EpRU34JY63UOiGJKUgAvcdQLE6-rB9FPNLbFHHUXtpFCS3VhvxJcMI_HDZgovItzmK1-pFraO8hJE1h/s1600/pow-config.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFsN0hFLNuO-R2g8k24n0Ws9iHHvX2t6r5hzEw9pR5rVONN02bda-r0E7DTiFW0EpRU34JY63UOiGJKUgAvcdQLE6-rB9FPNLbFHHUXtpFCS3VhvxJcMI_HDZgovItzmK1-pFraO8hJE1h/s640/pow-config.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
Same thing for P.O.W. Try to complete stage 1, using as many credits as<br />
you want if you like. Note that once you take the rifle you can use<br />
the trigger to shot.<br />
<br />
If you're serious about it you're gonna break a hell of a sweat. I'm<br />
impatient to know how it goes!<br />
<br />
Last remark, this round will not be counted in the overall scores.<br />
<br />
So, 1, 2, 3... kick, kick, kick, punch, punch, punch, go, go, go! :-)A-Linhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03506796545253306605noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6460902389414233291.post-25944376727132909212016-03-25T08:56:00.000-07:002016-03-25T08:56:41.961-07:00Android Gaming :) Xperia Play...<br />
<br />
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<a href="http://cdn.theunlockr.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Root-Xperia-Play-ICS.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://cdn.theunlockr.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Root-Xperia-Play-ICS.jpg" height="466" width="640" /> </a></div>
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It was a great device for a while, but I kept having problems with it... Usually with the screen. I would either accidentally get cleaning alcohol under the glass and ruin the screen, or accidentally break the connector to the ribbon cable for the digitizer when I opened it up, or once I dropped it from a very short distance and the screen cracked. Over all I went through about 3 or 4 used devices in a 2 year span, each one being a frankenstein hackup of spare parts. </div>
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<br /></div>
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I just couldn't maintain one that worked, it seemed. Also the D-Pad was a bit weird, you could technically press all 4 directions at the same time which was weird for shmups. So I pretty much only used it for platformers. </div>
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<br /></div>
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It's also aging now and the CPU is a bit slow. </div>
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<br /></div>
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So I was on the hunt for a new Android device. A chinese company called JXD made tons of cheap portables, many of them looking like PSP knockoffs... Stuff like this:</div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="http://www.willgoo.com/images/JXD-S5110B-Console-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.willgoo.com/images/JXD-S5110B-Console-2.jpg" height="593" width="640" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
Looks fine actually, except they are incredibly difficult to get hold of! It's almost like the company makes small production runs of them and then once they sell them all, you can't get them anymore. So even though sites like Willgoo would show them in the list, they would always be "out of stock".<br />
<br />
Then I came across something really interesting... The GPD XD...<br />
<br />
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<a href="http://images.nintendolife.com/news/2015/11/hardware_review_gamepad_digital_gpd_xd/attachment/0/original.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://images.nintendolife.com/news/2015/11/hardware_review_gamepad_digital_gpd_xd/attachment/0/original.jpg" height="480" width="640" /> </a></div>
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<br /></div>
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Clearly inspired by the Nintendo 3DS design. </div>
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<br /></div>
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Specs:</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
CPU Quad Core Rockchip RK3288 which I think can hit about 1.8ghz</div>
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2GB RAM</div>
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5" IPS capacitive touch screen, 1280x720</div>
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6000mah battery which gives about 8 hours game time (Nice!) </div>
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<br /></div>
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Looking good, and also the clamshell design is great because the screen is less likely to get scratched in storage. </div>
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<br /></div>
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My primary concern is how the D-Pad feels. But, I read a forum thread where people modified theirs with a rubber membrane from a Wii remote. Sounds exactly like the kind of crazy thing I'd do :) (One of the first things I did with my PSP when I got it 10 years ago was modify the D-Pad) </div>
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<br /></div>
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So I ordered one the other day. It should be here in a few weeks. </div>
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<br /></div>
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Then I'll be able to get back to some of my favorite android games...</div>
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<br /></div>
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Rico</div>
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<a href="http://www.imake-games.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/header1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.imake-games.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/header1.png" height="250" width="640" /> </a></div>
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<br /></div>
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MOS Speedrun</div>
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<a href="http://images.eurogamer.net/modojo.com/games/mos_speedrun/iphone/12.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://images.eurogamer.net/modojo.com/games/mos_speedrun/iphone/12.jpg" height="428" width="640" /> </a></div>
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<br /></div>
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Gnarbike Trials</div>
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<a href="http://a5.mzstatic.com/us/r30/Purple/v4/44/fd/3f/44fd3f5c-2099-430e-39a1-74850f5a0c0c/screen568x568.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://a5.mzstatic.com/us/r30/Purple/v4/44/fd/3f/44fd3f5c-2099-430e-39a1-74850f5a0c0c/screen568x568.jpeg" height="360" width="640" /> </a></div>
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<br /></div>
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And of course, I'm going to try some crazy Twin Stick shooters like this (Ballistic SE):</div>
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<a href="http://a5.mzstatic.com/us/r30/Purple/v4/d2/93/ea/d293ea1e-2aed-774e-ec78-2c7276bb28db/screen568x568.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://a5.mzstatic.com/us/r30/Purple/v4/d2/93/ea/d293ea1e-2aed-774e-ec78-2c7276bb28db/screen568x568.jpeg" height="360" width="640" /> </a></div>
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<br /></div>
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And other Geometry Wars style games. Very exciting :) </div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
And finally, in slightly different news, GPD also has another console in the works... The GPD WIN...</div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="http://www.cnx-software.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/GPD_WIN.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.cnx-software.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/GPD_WIN.jpg" height="516" width="640" /> </a></div>
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Crazy right? It actually runs an x86 CPU and Windows 10 home. Kinda similar to Pandora, but hopefully this one won't be vaporware. They've already met their fundraising goal and so now it's just a matter of waiting until October until it comes to the market. </div>
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It's $300 if you pre-order one, and the retail price is supposed to be $500. Hoping it will come down after a while though. I really can't justify $300 on a device that I won't be receiving for 7 months. </div>
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Think of the gaming you could do on a Windows device though.... Tons of homebrew shmups :) </div>
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And not only that, but:</div>
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Writing music on it. Oh yeah :) It might not be great for Renoise due to CPU and screen size, but I think it would be great for Klystrack and even Sunvox :) </div>
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Well, in conclusion, this is an exciting time for technology :) </div>
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<br />organic iohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13159435687504488354noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6460902389414233291.post-25628361522367443992016-03-12T21:38:00.000-08:002016-03-12T21:38:57.212-08:00The state of NES emulation in Windows in 2016So I've tried some NES emulation lately, and just really haven't been impressed with the performance of emulators in Windows lately.<br />
<br />
Usually it's either a tradeoff of good control performance, but screen tearing, or when you enable vsync then the video looks good but there is input lag.<br />
<br />
I'm not the only one:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=773351">http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=773351</a><br />
<a href="http://nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=31&threadid=135619">http://nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=31&threadid=135619</a><br />
<br />
I actually tried: Virtuanes, FCEUX, Nestopia, Jnes, puNES, nemulator, and wasn't pleased with any of them.<br />
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Really really strange and sorry, considering that NESticle had it right about 20 years ago in DOS, and NesterJ never gave me any problems on my PSP for the last 10 years.<br />
<br />
So I even tried "It might be NES" which is a NES emulator for PSX, but I couldn't get it to load in PCSX or EPSXE.<br />
<br />
So I did the unthinkable: I tried to use Retroarch, as the instructions in that nintendoage thread say he was able to get perfect NES emulation working on it.<br />
<br />(I have had an awful experience with Retroarch before, personally I think the thing is a total disaster of a program)... But I thought, for perfect NES it is worth a try.<br />
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Retroarch did NOT come through for me, it was as sorry as I expected it, popping a "Retroarch.exe has stopped working" as soon as I tried to launch it, for the 64 and 32 bit versions. Whatever.<br />
<br />
So I figured I would give MESS a try.<br />
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It's a bit weird, being closely linked to MAME, but for consoles. Not a lot of people seem to mention using it for consoles. But it was worth a try.<br />
<br />
So I installed it, it ran, and I gotta say it's pretty good. It defaulted to vsync off, and so I tested it and there is no noticeable input lag. But interestingly enough, there is also no screen tearing even with vsync off. So I left it off, because I don't want to risk adding input lag with it on.<br />
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The interface is a bit strange, you actually have to hit tab and go to a file select menu to load each rom as a "virtual cartridge" and then it resets the emulation. A bit strange, but it does work.<br />
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And my only real complaint is the color palette is a little bit pale compared to what I'm used to or even what I remember from NES, for example I played a bit of Contra tonight:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5OouJIvx52aXnLV-QXqng2DiBD9ZWmjso-Uqt5duu1KniF8sVB8kvZUCTi8Wy14HEt4fk5KITMma_5_9IneXhoZ5gDtLusuW5rztt-1BD4B7WoGdD5oHuXmlV8T3hM7Ordqwdihv8vVQ/s1600/0001.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5OouJIvx52aXnLV-QXqng2DiBD9ZWmjso-Uqt5duu1KniF8sVB8kvZUCTi8Wy14HEt4fk5KITMma_5_9IneXhoZ5gDtLusuW5rztt-1BD4B7WoGdD5oHuXmlV8T3hM7Ordqwdihv8vVQ/s640/0001.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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<br />See what I mean? Grass is just a little bit too "pea green" instead of jungle green. But hey, it's an issue I can live with when the action is perfect :)<br />
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I played a bit of Vice: Project Doom as well... One of my favorite platformers for NES. I was gonna do an entire Retro Lookback on it, but I got too frustrated, but I took a couple screenshots anyway...<br />
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If you didn't play past the first level, you might think it's some kind of Spy Hunter clone...<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxmLe6Q8oZNqf2QGhiRwc0ek0bj0elvmKKzh4kcou0IIItBiYT6wO8U_NbDprJZFV4HA7NNo08xgg-XFMKJH4UCTo-KeRMXGmNsWzyUfhuYqHmpDEFFMDtXkFBq5Cl-RRaInBnL1Lu3Vc/s1600/0002.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxmLe6Q8oZNqf2QGhiRwc0ek0bj0elvmKKzh4kcou0IIItBiYT6wO8U_NbDprJZFV4HA7NNo08xgg-XFMKJH4UCTo-KeRMXGmNsWzyUfhuYqHmpDEFFMDtXkFBq5Cl-RRaInBnL1Lu3Vc/s640/0002.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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But it's actually a sweet platformer...<br />
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First boss...</div>
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Level 3-1, kind of a Chinatown theme...</div>
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<br />Well, that's about it..... <br />
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Summary: Most NES emulators for Windows still suck for whatever reason, but MESS is actually decent. Contra rules forever, and Vice Project Doom is a classic, if a bit frustrating for my current self :)<br />
<br />Peace!!!organic iohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13159435687504488354noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6460902389414233291.post-21646653530242023302016-03-12T09:27:00.000-08:002016-03-12T09:27:40.380-08:00Off topic ramble: Ridiculously cheap Android devicesSo, the other day I was thinking about how cool it would be to have a dedicated player for mod/s3m/xm/it music. I have had this dream many times over the years. I'm sure you could do it with raspberry pi (<a href="http://www.instructables.com/id/Portable-native-MOD-player-based-on-Raspberry-PI-/">This guy did</a> with some old cassette player as the case). Cute, but a little bit ghetto, and requires work, plus Raspberry pi still costs $25, or if you get the hard to come by $5 pi, it is still going to cost more than that because you need the i/o expansions and stuff.<br />
<br />
But then an idea came to my head: android devices are ubiquitous, can do virtually anything, and have also come down in price a lot lately. In fact about a month ago I bought an android for $20, an LG Sunrise, pretty much exclusively to use as an mp3 player. But I also got a 32GB micro SD card for it which cost $15, so it was really more like $35.<br />
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But I thought, maybe there are some even cheaper androids out there?<br />
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So I did a google search for cheapest android. And I found something deliciously enticing...<br />
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<a href="http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/02/worlds-cheapest-android-smartphone-goes-on-sale-yours-for-just-2-50-no-really/">http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/02/worlds-cheapest-android-smartphone-goes-on-sale-yours-for-just-2-50-no-really/</a><br />
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An Indian company claims to be releasing an android phone for 251 rupees which is the equivalent of $3.67!!! What! That doesn't even make sense, a mobile computer for the cost of a cheeseburger?<br />
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But alas, after a little more reading it turns out the company in question is pretty sketchy and it's unsure whether people will actually be getting their orders.<br />
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Regardless, I'm in the U.S. so even if I bought it I would have to pay for shipping, which would be much more than $3.67.<br />
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So I decided to go on ebay and see what I could see... I went to electronics ---> Cell phones and refined my search by new phones only and buy it now. Then I sorted by price. I was surprised to find a seller offering new android phones for only $10 with free shipping.<br />
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The device in question is called the ZTE Whirl...<br />
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<a href="http://tfcodes.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/straight-talk-zte-whirl-gsm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://tfcodes.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/straight-talk-zte-whirl-gsm.jpg" height="320" width="172" /></a></div>
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Specs:<br />
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OS; Android 4.1<br />
Processor: 1ghz Snapdragon<br />
Memory: 512MB RAM<br />
Storage: 4GB micro SD card included<br />
Screen: 3.5" 320x480<br />
Camera: 3MP <br />
Wifi: Yes<br />
Bluetooth: Yes<br />
GPS: Yes<br />
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Very very interesting. Of course it's not top of the line by any means, but it is indeed an android device and it's only $10!!! It even has bluetooth and GPS which I wouldn't expect from a device this cheap.<br />
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So last night I ordered one. I mean, why not? You can't go wrong. It'll be a fun little experiment.<br />
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Here's the crazy part: I was at a local Dollar General store today, and I saw the exact same phone on the shelf. Price: $9!!! <span style="font-size: large;">$9</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">What!</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">So of course I bought one there too, lol. Now I'll have two to mess with and run experiments on and use for whatever and it won't even matter if they get broken or lost or whatever.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">What I don't even understand is how this is even possible. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">I mean seriously, when I was at Walmart last night, I was looking at audio cables, you know the kind with 3.5mm male ends to use as patch cables between devices, and I wanted one that was colored like blue or green or something... And they were all $10, so I passed up on them because I thought that was too much to pay for a 3ft audio cable. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">So, somehow it is possible to get an entire mobile computer for the same price as an audio cable? And the phone also comes with a micro USB cable, AC adapter, and of course that 4GB micro SD card. All those things if sold separately would easily cost more than $10.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">It just doesn't even make sense.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">So the only thing I can figure out is that these things are being sold at a loss. There is no way they can make money from them, I don't care how cheap of a Chinese factory you use. The economics of it must be: They are expecting to make money from you in the future when you pay for minutes on the phone, so they are selling the phone itself to you at a loss. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">Really funny for budget hardware enthusiasts like myself who just want little gadgets to play with and have no intentions of ever using it as a mobile phone. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">I mean seriously... wifi, camera, GPS, music player (of course!!!), ebook reader, personal digital organizer, even games if you wanted to, and a million other things could be done with this thing... For the cost of a nice chicken salad at a restaurant. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">Does not compute :) </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">Craziness...</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">Sorry for the ramble, just wanted to share this modern marvel of technology :)</span> </span>organic iohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13159435687504488354noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6460902389414233291.post-47747670031048480292016-03-10T09:01:00.000-08:002016-03-10T09:01:10.792-08:003D NES emulationThis is pretty wild...<br />
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<a href="http://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/3dnes-640x650.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/3dnes-640x650.jpg" height="640" width="630" /> </a></div>
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That's not a mock-up or an artists rendering, but an actual in-game screenshot of a new NES emulator that actually translates the games into 3D in realtime. </div>
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<a href="http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2016/03/how-a-new-emulator-generates-3d-scenes-from-2d-nes-games/">More info on how it works</a> </div>
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Also this crazy crazy video:</div>
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Check out Contra on there, it has shadows and everything!<br />
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Apparently it's still in beta and doesn't have a downloadable yet, but when it's officially released I'm highly interested in trying this!!!organic iohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13159435687504488354noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6460902389414233291.post-44557223873031283662016-03-05T23:09:00.000-08:002016-03-05T23:09:11.771-08:00Retro Lookback - Shadowgate (NES)As I sit here, sick, getting over food poisoning or a stomach bug... I haven't eaten in 24 hours and I'm starting to finally take down some water and animal crackers.<br />
<br />
I thought I'd do a retro lookback of one of my favorite NES games, Shadowgate. (I don't think my stomach can quite handle Quake right now)<br />
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It's a point and click adventure where you have to figure out how to get through a castle. Really cool and classic game. Other similar games for NES were The Uninvited, and Deja Vu... But Shadowgate was my favorite.<br />
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It features some really sweet and mysterious music. For example the main theme:<br />
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94Tsezcm8yA">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94Tsezcm8yA</a><br />
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Screenshots time!!!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2XBBPQEuGzb266yYjkoINYjeekQ1wjtIYpGMFHlMYsSQ8xg7yq60Ihw913vO9PTCYHSvSHx2A4IcK811Y0mjY2_WsfcFOMVHMQw6t2yo9b8ssMqh6k1w4wMU04BruduXsn-Ztm8odqL0/s1600/Shadowgate+%2528USA%2529_001.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2XBBPQEuGzb266yYjkoINYjeekQ1wjtIYpGMFHlMYsSQ8xg7yq60Ihw913vO9PTCYHSvSHx2A4IcK811Y0mjY2_WsfcFOMVHMQw6t2yo9b8ssMqh6k1w4wMU04BruduXsn-Ztm8odqL0/s640/Shadowgate+%2528USA%2529_001.png" width="640" /> </a></div>
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Entrance to the castle...</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI2HOFvG8a2tGixflIWJw60rE-6hWOXpLK6NGNBNI_WUWW1IO9dTCxRAWc7JfAgpypwh56XZ4bpFiw40Anohxxol-48n3Nto_kMFsh3Vo5H3LvDEm-Y6-dW7r9vs5KxRAZnAc45poNkLE/s1600/Shadowgate+%2528USA%2529_002.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI2HOFvG8a2tGixflIWJw60rE-6hWOXpLK6NGNBNI_WUWW1IO9dTCxRAWc7JfAgpypwh56XZ4bpFiw40Anohxxol-48n3Nto_kMFsh3Vo5H3LvDEm-Y6-dW7r9vs5KxRAZnAc45poNkLE/s640/Shadowgate+%2528USA%2529_002.png" width="640" /> </a></div>
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Make sure to take as many torches from the walls as you can, you will need them!</div>
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Get used to this screen, because you will be seeing it a lot! Fortunately the game lets you continue.</div>
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Dead, again.....</div>
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Well, I didn't last very long tonight before I gave up, I've gotten a lot further but I just couldn't remember all the secrets. It's very much a game of trying different solutions to different problems. Back when I was a kid, I would learn how to get further by watching my friends play. These days I guess you could consult a walkthrough, though that might make it too easy. </div>
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Overall, a satisfying classic, but maybe it should remain in classic land... Sometimes the puzzles can be frustratingly difficult, and I just don't have the patience anymore :) </div>
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<br />organic iohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13159435687504488354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6460902389414233291.post-27958283204573369152016-03-01T13:53:00.000-08:002016-03-01T13:55:55.032-08:00Round 9 - Anaglyph Quake!Quake<br />
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A game that is very familiar to we who have a history rooted in PC gaming.<br />
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It was nothing short of revolutionary at the time.. Being one of the first FPS games with mouselook, and one of the first with fully 3D levels. It seems like not a big deal now, but the fact that you could actually go into a room that is above another room was pretty unique at the time!<br />
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For this round, we're going to throw a little something extra in there and play Quake in Anaglyph mode, which means with Red/Cyan 3D glasses. Something similar to this:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeaMDhzTCfdAY6tf9OR_U0YXhm7QVl9l8LnSfDl6_F-PVjuA8YMM0h9nb3gQqruC6qrpC2dV_1paYS6I5POgDXG7I17iGDBXvAolRq7HrlCkmVEFpmfFsr2Sl-v7En0lCwCH_x38bmiEo/s1600/2PCS-LOT-3D-glasses-Re-useable-Plastic-Frame-Resin-Lens-Anaglyphic-Blue-Red-3D-Glasses.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeaMDhzTCfdAY6tf9OR_U0YXhm7QVl9l8LnSfDl6_F-PVjuA8YMM0h9nb3gQqruC6qrpC2dV_1paYS6I5POgDXG7I17iGDBXvAolRq7HrlCkmVEFpmfFsr2Sl-v7En0lCwCH_x38bmiEo/s320/2PCS-LOT-3D-glasses-Re-useable-Plastic-Frame-Resin-Lens-Anaglyphic-Blue-Red-3D-Glasses.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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The game will look like this without glasses,<br />
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but of course it will look ALIVE with them :)<br />
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Here's a little info on Anaglyph configuration settings.<br />
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From <a href="http://quakeone.com/forums/quake-help/quake-clients/6349-quake-3d.html">Quakeone.com</a> forums:<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><b style="background-color: #65543f; color: white; font-family: verdana, geneva, lucida, 'lucida grande', arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;">You can play Quake in 3D</b><br style="background-color: #65543f; color: white; font-family: verdana, geneva, lucida, 'lucida grande', arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><br style="background-color: #65543f; color: white; font-family: verdana, geneva, lucida, 'lucida grande', arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><span style="background-color: #65543f; color: white; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , "lucida" , "lucida grande" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;">All you need are anaglyph stereo glasses. It even doesnt matter wich one. All those work:</span><br style="background-color: #65543f; color: white; font-family: verdana, geneva, lucida, 'lucida grande', arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><span style="background-color: #65543f; color: white; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , "lucida" , "lucida grande" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;">- red/blue</span><br style="background-color: #65543f; color: white; font-family: verdana, geneva, lucida, 'lucida grande', arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><span style="background-color: #65543f; color: white; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , "lucida" , "lucida grande" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;">- red/cyan</span><br style="background-color: #65543f; color: white; font-family: verdana, geneva, lucida, 'lucida grande', arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><span style="background-color: #65543f; color: white; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , "lucida" , "lucida grande" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;">- red/green</span><br style="background-color: #65543f; color: white; font-family: verdana, geneva, lucida, 'lucida grande', arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><br style="background-color: #65543f; color: white; font-family: verdana, geneva, lucida, 'lucida grande', arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><br style="background-color: #65543f; color: white; font-family: verdana, geneva, lucida, 'lucida grande', arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><span style="background-color: #65543f; color: white; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , "lucida" , "lucida grande" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;">Use the according cvar to activate the effect.</span><br style="background-color: #65543f; color: white; font-family: verdana, geneva, lucida, 'lucida grande', arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><span style="background-color: #65543f; color: white; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , "lucida" , "lucida grande" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;">Then you can finetune the effect to match your eyes.</span><br style="background-color: #65543f; color: white; font-family: verdana, geneva, lucida, 'lucida grande', arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><br style="background-color: #65543f; color: white; font-family: verdana, geneva, lucida, 'lucida grande', arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><span style="background-color: #65543f; color: white; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , "lucida" , "lucida grande" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;">These are the cvars:</span></i><br />
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<i>r_stereo_angle is "0" ["0"] separation angle of eyes (makes the views look different directions, as an example, 90 gives a 90 degree separation where the views are 45 degrees left and 45 degrees right)<br />r_stereo_redblue is "0" ["0"] red/blue anaglyph stereo glasses (note: most of these glasses are actually red/cyan, try that one too)<br />r_stereo_redcyan is "0" ["0"] red/cyan anaglyph stereo glasses, the kind given away at drive-in movies like Creature From The Black Lagoon In 3D<br />r_stereo_redgreen is "0" ["0"] red/green anaglyph stereo glasses (for those who don't mind yellow)<br />r_stereo_separation is "4" ["4"] separation distance of eyes in the world (negative values are only useful for cross-eyed viewing)<br />r_stereo_sidebyside is "0" ["0"] side by side views for those who can't afford glasses but can afford eye strain (note: use a negative r_stereo_separation if you want cross-eyed viewing)</i></div>
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</blockquote>
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And a little more useful configuration details from A-Lin:<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>You need to type</i></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>1. r_stereo 1</i></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>2. r_stereodepth DEPTH</i></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>The right DEPTH depends on your screen size and your distance from it. What you do is, remove your red-cyan glasses, start with 5, get close to a wall and find the point where 2 images matches perfectly (no redish-cyanish divergence), if the distance from the wall in the game matches the distance from your screen, then you're good! If not increase the value by 5.</i></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>What works for me is 30.</i></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>You also probably want to put more brightness (in Quake's video menu), for me 50% seems to work.</i></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
</blockquote>
The round will go probably close to 2 months, to give us plenty of time to attack this deep game. We will be playing Quake 1 Episode 1, for nostalgia purposes, and then we will be playing the user level <a href="https://www.quaddicted.com/reviews/honey.html">Honey, by czg</a>. It is a level with cavernous indoor areas, much bigger than were ever possible on the original Quake 1 engine.<br />
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Honey by czg</div>
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These days, many of the newer source ports allow for much larger levels.<br />
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As for source ports, it appears that A-Lin will be using <a href="http://quakespasm.sourceforge.net/">Quakespasm</a>, and organic io will be using <a href="https://icculus.org/twilight/darkplaces/">Dark Places</a>.<br />
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Round starts as of this post, although if our desks and keyboard/mouse configurations aren't finalized yet that's OK. At least the round will be ready once we get everything set up!<br />
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As far as determining who won... If both players complete a challenge, then tiebreaker information would be needed. I think it would be good to just use the stats at the end of levels (number of kills, secrets, etc). So be ready to take screenshots of your end-level stats!<br />
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Also we'll be playing everything on "Hard" difficulty.<br />
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I think that's everything. Let's go go go!!!<br />
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P.S.. I forgot to add that there's a nice cross platform level launcher utility called Quake Injector:<br />
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<a href="https://www.quaddicted.com/tools/quake_injector">https://www.quaddicted.com/tools/quake_injector</a>organic iohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13159435687504488354noreply@blogger.com24tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6460902389414233291.post-36059692372857150172016-02-28T04:09:00.001-08:002016-02-28T04:09:02.260-08:00Out Zone - Post Mortem and Screenshots!Out Zone, Out Zone...<br />
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What a SUPERB game!!! When I suggested it I was really just throwing a random challenge out there. I had no idea I would enjoy the game this much.<br />
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It's just an outstanding challenge. Though incredibly difficult, making progress in the game seems constant. Getting a little bit further every time is so rewarding, especially when you get that adrenaline kick of "I've never gotten this far before!!!".<br />
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The game never feels frustrating or cheap. Whenever you die, you always feel like it was your own fault and that you could have done better... Not that the game threw you a curve ball.<br />
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The game definitely goes into the "Methodical" category of shmups, where memorization plays a bigger role than improvisation. Generally I'm not a big fan of this type of game, but Out Zone is an exception!<br />
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Screenshot time....<br />
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Level 1. It looks like a lot of enemies, but if you shoot fast enough, they just stand there and let you kill them :) </div>
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Level 1 boss, actually pretty difficult as far as 1st bosses go. It's at this point that you know you're in for a challenging treat!</div>
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Level 2 -- Lots of places to die for sure... </div>
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Level 2 boss... I never learned how to beat it without panic bombing it. Oh well, it only takes 2 bombs :) </div>
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Level 3... Lots of switching between weapon modes here. </div>
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Level 3 boss... Was incredibly frustrating about the 1st 10 times I tried it. A laser cuts off the floor behind you, and if you don't shoot them fast enough these guys come out and get behind you and shoot bullets from behind. Really difficult and requires skill as well as a bit of luck.</div>
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Level 4 - Overall really challenging level with lots of variety. </div>
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Sorry I didn't take more screenshots of 4 and 5, but again I took the screenshots early on before I knew the game very well. Next time I'll wait until closer to the end of the round.<br />
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As usual, the screenshots were taken with the excellent <a href="http://getgreenshot.org/">Greenshot</a> utility.<br />
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Next, we're going to do a little something different... The music in this game is so good, I actually wanted to record some of the tracks to listen to later.<br />
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There is a command line program called <a href="http://rbelmont.mameworld.info/?page_id=223">M1</a> which can play back the music from MAME roms. Really cool. But someone also made a GUI for it called <a href="http://www.e2j.net/downloads.html">BridgeM1</a>. Both can record wav output, although I had trouble with the newest version of M1 and instead paired BridgeM1 with M1 0.7.8a1.<br />
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Here's a couple songs from the game. They even have song titles!<br />
<a href="http://organicio.altervista.org/alterpages/files/Out_Zone_-_Level_2.flac">Level 2: Pump them with Bullets</a> - Just a really infectious and energetic track with a memorable chord progression<br />
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<a href="http://organicio.altervista.org/alterpages/files/Out_Zone_-_Level_5.flac">Level 5: Secret of Ogiwara</a> - Has kind of an Asian motif, which matches the dragons in the level. The section from :18 to :38 has a really cool alternate time signature kind of feel. I counted it out though and it appears to still be in 4/4 time. Do you agree A-Lin? Neat how they accomplished that.<br />
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Replay time!<br />
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A-Lin:<br />
<a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/8e0imch1x2z6ojs/Outzone_A-Lin_final.ogv?dl=0">https://www.dropbox.com/s/8e0imch1x2z6ojs/Outzone_A-Lin_final.ogv?dl=0</a><br />
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oio's comments on A-Lin's playthrough: Wow dude!! We have vastly different playing styles. You got those airplanes to help you! I did that a few times, but couldn't figure out what makes them come out.<br />
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I see you highly prefer the fixed shot weapon. Almost to a fault... You made the corridor section in level 3 harder for yourself because you weren't able to aim sideways and behind. But, you didn't panic bomb the 2nd and 3rd boss like me, and those extra bombs you are keeping really helped your score!<br />
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Never seen this spaceship come out and help on level 4, how did you do that? I'm not sure, but I don't think you meant to pick up the weapon change during the train fight on level 4? Incredible, I didn't know you could shoot those missiles on the level 4 boss before it fires them! Ouch, you lost a lot of momentum here... All the way to level 4 boss without dying and then dying several times in a row. I hate it when that happens :(<br />
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Level 5, lol, NOW you're using some bombs :) Glad to see I'm not the only one, when those dragons come out it gets really difficult. But, at least they give you a ton of bombs. TOO many once you get to those platforms!<br />
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I see you panic bombed the dragonflies too. I think if we could figure out the bullet patterns here it would give us a better chance at the boss because we would still have the bombs for it.<br />
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You got to the level 5 boss on your first credit! Really impressive. Oh no, you picked up the weapon change by accident just like me!! It started you all the way back there!?!?! That's rough.<br />
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On your second and third credit it looks like you're trying to save bombs on the dragonflies and it just didn't work out :( Good try though! It's probably what's needed to get through the boss. Shame you didn't get to it again, I wanted to see you trash it with your fixed shot!<br />
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organic io (in parts again... Maybe I'll purchase this Bandicam at some point):<br />
<a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/zzd9ht1z9q7m5sp/Out_Zone_organic_io_Levels_1-3.mp4.mp4?dl=0">https://www.dropbox.com/s/zzd9ht1z9q7m5sp/Out_Zone_organic_io_Levels_1-3.mp4.mp4?dl=0</a><br />
<a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/d8grcukdo8x7eey/Out_Zone_organic_io_Levels_4-5.mp4.mp4?dl=0">https://www.dropbox.com/s/d8grcukdo8x7eey/Out_Zone_organic_io_Levels_4-5.mp4.mp4?dl=0</a><br />
<a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/lio4nypylzmbnn3/Out_Zone_organic_io_Level_5_boss.mp4.mp4?dl=0">https://www.dropbox.com/s/lio4nypylzmbnn3/Out_Zone_organic_io_Level_5_boss.mp4.mp4?dl=0</a><br />
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oio's comments on his own playthrough: In contrast I prefer more balance between the fixed shot and the free aiming shot. I like the precision of the free aiming shot when it's practical, although there are many sections where it's simply better to used the fixed shot.<br />
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Around 3:39 on the levels 1-3 video, you can see where I start to panic bomb. I never really stop throughout the whole playthrough. I got tired of losing my 1st life early on in levels 2 and 3 and still having 6 or 7 bombs left and wasted, so I thought it was better to use them and survive!<br />
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I got really lucky and got super ball during the corridor section on level 3... This is when it started turning into a better than average run for me. Super ball was awesome for level 3 boss, and I was thrilled because this is the first time I had ever gotten to level 4 on my first life!<br />
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I continued to do well through the first half of level 4 with the super ball. Maybe those years of playing Rune (PC melée weapon game) paid off :)<br />
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There's one moment at :47 on the level 4-5 video, I don't know how that bullet didn't kill me. I finally died on that catwalk because I didn't have any bombs, lol. That train is a pain, you gotta make sure you kill it before you run out of energy. The corridor section at the end of level 4 is usually frustrating for me. I died, but I decided to panic bomb through it this time (usually I try to save those bombs for the level 4 boss)... After beating the level 4 boss without dying, I was feeling pretty heroic at this point! It was also the first time I've ever gotten to level 5 on my first credit...<br />
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The adrenaline was pumping now! Another extra life at 600,000!! I think that's the first time I'd ever done that too. Once the dragons started coming, it was time to panic bomb just like you!<br />
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The platforms!! I had only gotten to them a couple of times ever, and here I was getting to them on my first credit! At 5:42 on the level 4-5 video, you can see I wanted to avoid the flamethrower so bad that I actually walked off the edge. LOL & OOPS!<br />
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Fell off again quickly, but at this point I knew it was ON! Maybe I could even compete with you!!!<br />
Dang flamethrower again. Unlike you my button 1 is only turbo at this time so I wasn't able to use the flamethrower properly. Hey game, thanks for the bombs! Don't mind if I use them!<br />
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OK, the mine cart / dragonfly ride. This is only the second time I had gotten to this point. I had no idea what to expect. Lots of bombs were in order because I wasn't trained on the bullet patterns here.<br />
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Boss!!! What!!! It's so weird that the music doesn't change. I wasn't expecting those homing missiles and I walked myself off the edge! Haha.<br />
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It's pretty mean of them to make you go through the dragonflies before you fight the boss. OK, boss try #2! I was doing pretty well until I accidentally picked up the weapon change and then of course I had to stop and aim which is NOT a good thing on bosses in this game.<br />
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After that I just couldn't handle it and died quickly. But it was an incredible round for me! Highlighting the adrenaline rush you get on this game when you get further than you ever have.<br />
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Really really really cool.<br />
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Final scores!!!!<br />
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A-Lin - To the 5th boss, score on 1st credit: 848200<br />
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organic io - To the 5th boss, score on 1st credit: 677760<br />
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Wow!!! Close game! I actually kinda got further against the boss than you, but I'm gonna hand it to you since you got the better score. You kept your cool in the earlier levels and saving those bombs really helped out your score.<br />
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Well done!<br />
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Winner: A-Lin.<br />
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Awesome, just awesome.<br />
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I love Out Zone. I'm not done with this game yet, for sure.<br />
organic iohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13159435687504488354noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6460902389414233291.post-13095828976647808102016-02-25T18:21:00.002-08:002016-02-25T18:21:29.487-08:00A few games I'd like to play for the RGCHere's just a couple games I wouldn't mind playing for upcoming rounds...<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Mega Man 2 (NES)</span></div>
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I played Mega Man 3 extensively as a kid, but never really played part 2. I just loaded it up a few days ago and really enjoyed it. In part 3, each boss was difficult to kill unless you had a certain weapon that you acquired from an existing boss. I'm not sure how much this plays into part 2, the 2 bosses I killed the other day were pretty easy with the default weapon. But still should be a good challenge!</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Dino Riki (NES)</span></div>
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This game is awesome. I spent many hours playing it as a kid. It's basically a shmup with a caveman theme. It's really difficult, but can be 1cc'ed with practice.</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Pilotwings (SNES)</span></div>
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A really cool lite Flight Sim. There's lots of variety in the challenges: Hang gliding, jetpacks, skydiving, plane, helicopter. All really fun and challenging. I've never beaten it before, though I've gotten close.</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Rico - A Tale of Two Brothers</span></div>
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This is my favorite game for Android. But it also exists on Windows, Linux, and Mac thru <a href="http://www.desura.com/games/rico-a-tale-of-two-brothers">Desura</a> for only $3.49. Just a fantastic linear platformer with beautiful pixel art. Very very challenging, and very rewarding. I'd actually love to play this one week in July when I am at summer camp, it will give me something to do. Hoping to get a new android gaming device by then, as I just can't keep a functioning xperia play (keeps breaking)</div>
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organic iohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13159435687504488354noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6460902389414233291.post-73918102858219681082016-02-24T12:34:00.003-08:002016-02-24T12:34:50.045-08:00Mario NES Builder officially taken down :( We played this for the excellent <a href="http://retrogameclub.blogspot.com/2015/08/round-6.html">Round 6</a>.<div>
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Per <a href="https://www.freegameplanet.com/super-mario-bros-nes-game-builder-download/#comment-8631">Freegameplanet</a>:</div>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px;"><i>Andrew Kellogg finally got a DMCA notice from Nintendo, and as a result both his official website and the gamejolt page are down for good</i></span></blockquote>
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That's a shame man.<br />
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I'll hold on to my copy of it, but the bigger problem is you can no longer download all the excellent levels people released. I knew I should have done a site dump of it or something. Now it's too late.<br />
<br />
But hey, at least there's always <a href="http://www.romhacking.net/?page=hacks&genre=&platform=&game=709&category=&perpage=20&title=&author=&hacksearch=Go">romhacking.net</a> :)organic iohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13159435687504488354noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6460902389414233291.post-12964168403760705632016-02-20T02:30:00.000-08:002016-02-20T02:30:23.245-08:00R-Type Leo - Post Mortem and screenshotsWow wow wow!!!<br />
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This round got off to a slow start, but a very intense finish.<br />
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R-Type leo is a challenging horizontal shmup with a simplistic game mechanic. Button 1 fires a normal shot, and button 2 sends out what we at RGC lovingly refer to as the "evil balls of death" :) The balls of death go out and destroy everything on the screen and are especially useful for bosses, but they must be recharged between uses.<br />
There are no screen clearing bombs, which adds to the challenge.<br />
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The best part of this game is the bosses. They are difficult and have lots of variety to them. Levels 5 and beyond really push the limits of how many bullets it is reasonable to throw at you when your hitbox is as big as the ship like this.<br />
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Now it's screenshot time!<br />
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Level 1 - It starts off slow and easy...</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidnOi-NxtXXNvmbLgQ4dZU6vsZJTtbxc9vFbuGLyHan-lBhgSbF_dYv7ayA5XBzi4_Aoqq30ua9qpJTrve0XFsp8Wpa2evfxLApxZMShnYsaj1w9UrOK3uJf4vaL9DTboKFIRmPNpWNko/s1600/2016-02-05+04_30_10-Greenshot.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidnOi-NxtXXNvmbLgQ4dZU6vsZJTtbxc9vFbuGLyHan-lBhgSbF_dYv7ayA5XBzi4_Aoqq30ua9qpJTrve0XFsp8Wpa2evfxLApxZMShnYsaj1w9UrOK3uJf4vaL9DTboKFIRmPNpWNko/s640/2016-02-05+04_30_10-Greenshot.png" width="640" /> </a></div>
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Level 1 boss. Its arms come out and attack you, and it shoots a fairly large laser from the middle</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVFYOhmia-iK_isX0bfNbOWEAVata7XxX39_mmejpQ29MgyY-7y5wkkgc8RK__PCQzVSE6KQOkgPtqvrkyIf9wDnGdY9cIuYe5fKQnhPaiDlStFkK5U9Zd4rwj8XoPaB1_bq5hKqhmHJ0/s1600/2016-02-05+04_32_08-Greenshot.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVFYOhmia-iK_isX0bfNbOWEAVata7XxX39_mmejpQ29MgyY-7y5wkkgc8RK__PCQzVSE6KQOkgPtqvrkyIf9wDnGdY9cIuYe5fKQnhPaiDlStFkK5U9Zd4rwj8XoPaB1_bq5hKqhmHJ0/s640/2016-02-05+04_32_08-Greenshot.png" width="640" /> </a></div>
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Level 2 - Desert... The pace starts to pick up a little bit</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS0r5BelxuP0XYfbJca2Xvp5_MwE_p7dcGREAgIXHRdFq6CYYGbxQKAeE0El3AB5y5-r552KBlSOMwvSwI-NLT7dueSt72PjIpyXPYZsNhxVMu9yFTamY1woF45NvvHJomWpbD3UdAz-M/s1600/2016-02-05+04_33_18-Greenshot.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS0r5BelxuP0XYfbJca2Xvp5_MwE_p7dcGREAgIXHRdFq6CYYGbxQKAeE0El3AB5y5-r552KBlSOMwvSwI-NLT7dueSt72PjIpyXPYZsNhxVMu9yFTamY1woF45NvvHJomWpbD3UdAz-M/s640/2016-02-05+04_33_18-Greenshot.png" width="640" /> </a></div>
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Level 2 boss - very cool and challenging with these large spinning walls of blue bullets</div>
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Level 3 is where the men are separated from the boys...</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1QmOyViSP8pC9v1L9h4I5kF_mKbpji-RyonKUVWNh1LPBqX6FIouwCoN5yDkL1eyEF2FMNU79UDuDRKUTpVvChA_ECLLRXTzxYt6KzCXdSoY_g_PXKunsviIUr030p8ioPnY63Ve50dw/s1600/2016-02-05+04_36_13-Greenshot.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1QmOyViSP8pC9v1L9h4I5kF_mKbpji-RyonKUVWNh1LPBqX6FIouwCoN5yDkL1eyEF2FMNU79UDuDRKUTpVvChA_ECLLRXTzxYt6KzCXdSoY_g_PXKunsviIUr030p8ioPnY63Ve50dw/s640/2016-02-05+04_36_13-Greenshot.png" width="640" /> </a></div>
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Level 3 boss is insane and I usually can't get past it without dying once or twice</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBxamEc9iRyFPYJQp0LHHT5rq0ItfbcUzG3nC0TR-fZBTlGnQzd2zyaRDsDgoOiC-F43IphzY34t-8MnDySCVw3O73OzaUEu3nL4WEr3wtv0BFtyykFshC_HGDFo0UTFcg-4o4_-JJgLU/s1600/2016-02-05+04_37_02-Greenshot.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBxamEc9iRyFPYJQp0LHHT5rq0ItfbcUzG3nC0TR-fZBTlGnQzd2zyaRDsDgoOiC-F43IphzY34t-8MnDySCVw3O73OzaUEu3nL4WEr3wtv0BFtyykFshC_HGDFo0UTFcg-4o4_-JJgLU/s640/2016-02-05+04_37_02-Greenshot.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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Level 4 can get kinda claustrophobic. A-Lin showed me the way of using the blue laser to reflect off the ceilings here</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgByrQHAqj1oKdD5kF5jMOiHKJ17SqF0ktFFGZDfo11LSFuD1vGuaBzQy92R8LVduWRBux1iDmj_2ntabgX2WdpTUG69Y5Sg78UdleLa1E7EmSS3QmX4WbUIKSSiTCftuLLLVqEzNw_-as/s1600/2016-02-05+04_38_33-Greenshot.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgByrQHAqj1oKdD5kF5jMOiHKJ17SqF0ktFFGZDfo11LSFuD1vGuaBzQy92R8LVduWRBux1iDmj_2ntabgX2WdpTUG69Y5Sg78UdleLa1E7EmSS3QmX4WbUIKSSiTCftuLLLVqEzNw_-as/s640/2016-02-05+04_38_33-Greenshot.png" width="640" /> </a></div>
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Level 4 boss - Sorry for the lame screenshot, I took these before I knew the game very well. This is probably my favorite boss. Tons of bullets to dodge.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOTi0A3_iB0zE-R4PyFrBB8LFLCkiCUbooDnbR3slCencM_LqbiIqVkUvvGTQnFOPPG5KZeFBgHpMYjX4eCPm94sRGoDLNimYJ_ZAjYXyffK9bW480YyRL1Y0L0CDyE6ICkd8pjLDyOxk/s1600/2016-02-05+04_40_17-Greenshot.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOTi0A3_iB0zE-R4PyFrBB8LFLCkiCUbooDnbR3slCencM_LqbiIqVkUvvGTQnFOPPG5KZeFBgHpMYjX4eCPm94sRGoDLNimYJ_ZAjYXyffK9bW480YyRL1Y0L0CDyE6ICkd8pjLDyOxk/s640/2016-02-05+04_40_17-Greenshot.png" width="640" /> </a></div>
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Level 5 - This is where things get absolutely insane</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgloacpPdiF76ZX2cUnq4oa1FiXFjnRrxQVMjjU2VRpKnoXLYhxTOArq_n0CT17bgXUlaZhof2YuS6B7i-DrVWRSXn2Xori2wUGAFfCOwdBOjjJTfSeddtOtt-bxBHICt_husjXStWhjFQ/s1600/2016-02-05+04_55_25-Greenshot.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgloacpPdiF76ZX2cUnq4oa1FiXFjnRrxQVMjjU2VRpKnoXLYhxTOArq_n0CT17bgXUlaZhof2YuS6B7i-DrVWRSXn2Xori2wUGAFfCOwdBOjjJTfSeddtOtt-bxBHICt_husjXStWhjFQ/s640/2016-02-05+04_55_25-Greenshot.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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A-Lin's final playthrough video here:</div>
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<a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/o7j2x4o8i9n5mv1/R-Type_LEO_A-Lin_Final_Submission.ogv?dl=0">https://www.dropbox.com/s/o7j2x4o8i9n5mv1/R-Type_LEO_A-Lin_Final_Submission.ogv?dl=0</a> </div>
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organic io's final playthrough video here (2 parts):</div>
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<a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/5m0l8ahhazh3al6/rtypeleo_organicio_keyboard7_levels1-3.mp4?dl=0">https://www.dropbox.com/s/5m0l8ahhazh3al6/rtypeleo_organicio_keyboard7_levels1-3.mp4?dl=0</a></div>
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<a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/ry03i4wyftfnygx/rtypeleo_organicio_keyboard7_levels4-6.mp4?dl=0">https://www.dropbox.com/s/ry03i4wyftfnygx/rtypeleo_organicio_keyboard7_levels4-6.mp4?dl=0</a></div>
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<br /></div>
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One final thing to mention... A-Lin, when you posted your actual numerical score, I didn't know how meaningful that would be. I wondered whether it was the score on your first credit, or the score on your 3rd credit. Then when I watched my final playthrough I realized this game is unique in that it actually keeps your score between credits... So it's actually the total score of all 3 credits! Very cool and meaningful for guys like us :) Most games don't do that I don't think. </div>
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<br /></div>
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So who won?</div>
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Drumroll please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!</div>
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<br /></div>
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Final scores:</div>
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<br /></div>
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A-Lin </div>
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Score: 863500<br />Level: Mid-way of final area </div>
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</div>
<br />
organic io:<br />
Score: 830500<br />
Level: Beginning of final area<br />
<br />
Of coursee!!!!! You win when we shoot stuff!!!! :-D<br />
<br />
Great round. Stay tuned for the conclusion of Out Zone coming up tomorrow night...organic iohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13159435687504488354noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6460902389414233291.post-28662368007069570902016-02-17T08:51:00.002-08:002016-02-17T08:51:28.267-08:00"Currently Playing" and "Next Game" on the sidebarSince I am posting so much stuff that is not game rounds, they are getting kind of buried in the blog posts. R-Type Leo is still active and it's something like 9 posts down!<br />
<br />
Therefore I have added a little "Currently Playing" to the sidebar. That way we can easily remember and also visitors to the site will be able to see what the active round is. It also shows the next game planned underneath.<br />
<br />
Simple but functional.organic iohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13159435687504488354noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6460902389414233291.post-56273716021549541862016-02-17T08:17:00.000-08:002016-02-17T08:17:22.543-08:00Lost games which have recently been releasedWe don't have to definitely play these, I just wanted to shed some light on them and propose them as options for some point in the future.<br />
<br />
First we have "Blaze" for Amiga. It's a Sonic clone that was coded in 1993 and just released in 2015<br />
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<iframe width="320" height="266" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/IDlr4BGI4HY/0.jpg" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/IDlr4BGI4HY?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
<br />
<br />
Next, we have "Wonderland Dizzy" for NES. I have always wanted to play a Dizzy game but never sat down for very long with one.<br />
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<iframe width="320" height="266" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/vuovHWuM2tY/0.jpg" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vuovHWuM2tY?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
<br />
<br />
"Putty Squad" for Genesis / Megadrive. According to retrogamer.net, the game was developed for Amiga, SNES, Genesis and PC, but only the SNES version ever hit the shelves. Unsure whether the levels are different on the Genesis version.<br />
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<iframe width="320" height="266" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/q-N-tjWbXS8/0.jpg" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/q-N-tjWbXS8?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
<br />
"Beyond Kung Fu" for arcade. Sequel to a game I've never heard of called "Kung Fu Master"<br />
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<iframe width="320" height="266" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Efr9EQkbCSQ/0.jpg" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Efr9EQkbCSQ?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
And we can always check out some of those <a href="http://www.wired.com/2013/01/battle-kid-2/">new NES games</a> that they are still making these days :) <br />
<div id="stcpDiv" style="left: -1988px; position: absolute; top: -1999px;">
The
game was originally developed in the mid-Nineties for the Amiga 1200,
SNES, Mega Drive and PC, but of these four only the SNES version ever
reached the shelves. - See more at:
http://www.retrogamer.net/blog_post/putty-squad-leaks-again/#sthash.OvK3oFYu.dpuf</div>
organic iohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13159435687504488354noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6460902389414233291.post-55312497027819614032016-02-16T23:08:00.000-08:002016-02-16T23:08:06.814-08:00New Logo :-DSo, the site has a new logo.... Let's take a look...<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijY7YbmQ_fIdJ2BPvcRXGiS9le4-m3aeXj8nj1f_ppR8N_0J0P8jTs5hyphenhyphenGItxL6oSP1AJeHxmVD-3Mo0dJPWZQz9WN_Yq4XwM5rQDTjz4Mc5IKjLlwYx3U8p93Yuncneg0LWLgfL5XKOo/s1600/back-to-back-pixellated-green-and-yellow-with-logo.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="176" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijY7YbmQ_fIdJ2BPvcRXGiS9le4-m3aeXj8nj1f_ppR8N_0J0P8jTs5hyphenhyphenGItxL6oSP1AJeHxmVD-3Mo0dJPWZQz9WN_Yq4XwM5rQDTjz4Mc5IKjLlwYx3U8p93Yuncneg0LWLgfL5XKOo/s640/back-to-back-pixellated-green-and-yellow-with-logo.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Hey, why is your gun bigger than mine!?! Haha, I used a really small glue gun. Also I didn't think about how busy the background behind me would be. But in the green I kinda like it.<br />
<br />
The colors are an obscure homage to the IBM PC CGA color palette 0. <span style="color: #0000ee;">T</span>he much more common CGA palette was palette 1 with the cyan, magenta, black and white, like this:<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj40AYBPWwOa_bRGRlCitE98g-sBhHoZkPWWbxZgWvwG0hT07ImPlDDp39ZZC3VJcNZ0INF7BK-bRyqkq9LOiIQ8q3aj0z9f9Zv2IDvJx45DnL5Uar06hd_IJKedgtZQ39BURw4itJQ8zI/s1600/alleycat3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj40AYBPWwOa_bRGRlCitE98g-sBhHoZkPWWbxZgWvwG0hT07ImPlDDp39ZZC3VJcNZ0INF7BK-bRyqkq9LOiIQ8q3aj0z9f9Zv2IDvJx45DnL5Uar06hd_IJKedgtZQ39BURw4itJQ8zI/s1600/alleycat3.png" /></a></div>
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</div>
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<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPTDh_DlSJdd2vi_oT3rxIFegnkjasVe3lSU5_V7lnv3VoNc-d0olSEC09qKoijoANaqFHN9YDgF36s5_9YX9pAb8FwCFM0PtxqvxtMXz2fJzb400uP33uPIThulrbKHQmFLRoDHMt38w/s1600/39377-miner-2049er-pc-booter-screenshot-there-are-many-slides-on.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a></div>
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But, there were some games that used the yellow, red, green and black palette.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Inspiration from stuff like this:</div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="http://www.mobygames.com/images/shots/l/28452-knight-games-dos-screenshot-quarterstaff-cga.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.mobygames.com/images/shots/l/28452-knight-games-dos-screenshot-quarterstaff-cga.gif" height="200" width="320" /></a></div>
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</div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="http://www.bunnzy.org/wp-content/uploads/2007/01/level05b-cga.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.bunnzy.org/wp-content/uploads/2007/01/level05b-cga.gif" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="http://en.academic.ru/pictures/enwiki/67/Castle_master-cga.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://en.academic.ru/pictures/enwiki/67/Castle_master-cga.png" /></a></div>
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</div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ycipKd8ArJs/maxresdefault.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ycipKd8ArJs/maxresdefault.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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</div>
<br />
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<br /></div>
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Obscure, I know. </div>
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<br /></div>
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That's why we are the Retro game club, not the Call of Duty 15 gameclub :-D</div>
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<br /></div>
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Let me know what you think. Modifications can be made if necessary :)</div>
organic iohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13159435687504488354noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6460902389414233291.post-25134512002712483452016-02-16T18:42:00.003-08:002016-02-16T18:42:56.088-08:00Long lost shmup "Wing Force" discoveredFrom retrogamer.net:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="border: 0px; font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.375px; margin-bottom: 1.625em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="background-color: white;">Back in the early Nineties, Atlus had grown from a publisher of console games into an ambitious outfit with designs on the arcade market. While the company would spend most of the decade in the coin-op game, its own developments were quickly sidelined in favour of publishing games from external developers, most notably Cave. However, a remnant of the company’s early attempts to break into the market has recently been found and preserved via emulation.</span></div>
<div style="border: 0px; font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.375px; margin-bottom: 1.625em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="background-color: white;">Wing Force was set to hit the market in 1993 before being cancelled for unknown reasons. A prototype PCB appeared on Yahoo Auctions Japan late last year and ended up selling for a whopping ¥301,000 (£1744.41 at today’s exchange rate). Luckily the buyer was <a href="http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=56051" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Shmups forum member Shou</a>, who promised to preserve the game and did exactly that. The game will be on its way to MAME shortly, but if you can’t wait there’s a video above.</span></div>
</blockquote>
Video:<br />
<br />
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<iframe width="320" height="266" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/1BlsmWb51rQ/0.jpg" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1BlsmWb51rQ?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
<br />
<br />
Exciting! Could definitely be a candidate after the Anaglyph Quake round.<br />
<br />
organic iohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13159435687504488354noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6460902389414233291.post-44985351934410186322016-02-14T19:49:00.000-08:002016-02-14T19:49:06.576-08:00USB Polling speedI was just doing a little reading about how to reduce input lag in MAME.<br />
<br />
Hopefully I already don't have much, since I'm using <a href="https://shmupmame.wordpress.com/">Shmupmame</a>, which is designed specifically to reduce input lag.<br />
<br />
But I came across an interesting little post...<br />
<br />
<a href="http://forums.shoryuken.com/discussion/162624/mame-emulator-input-lag-test">http://forums.shoryuken.com/discussion/162624/mame-emulator-input-lag-test</a><br />
<br />
In it, he says:<br />
<br />
"I've also noticed that Win7 USB poll rates are 125hz aka 8ms by default;
granted there are a few hacks to force the 1000hz (1ms) rate"<br />
<br />
What!!! You mean to say that it is possible to shave 7ms off the input by doing some hacking?<br />
<br />
7ms difference might not sound like much, but I will say with absolute certainty, when I was working on tweaking the latency on my e-drums, I could DEFINITELY tell the difference between 10ms latency and 5ms latency. I tried to get it as low as possible and it just "felt" better to play drums that way!<br />
<br />
So who says that it isn't the same for game inputs? What if our brains can notice the subtle difference of having a faster input, and therefore play better?<br />
<br />
I think it's definitely worth researching anyway... As the famous Tim Allen would say...<br />
<br />
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<a href="http://www.homebuiltairplanes.com/forums/attachments/aircraft-design-aerodynamics-new-technology/33918d1408498728-possible-baby-ace-mods-timtaylortooltime.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.homebuiltairplanes.com/forums/attachments/aircraft-design-aerodynamics-new-technology/33918d1408498728-possible-baby-ace-mods-timtaylortooltime.jpg" height="299" width="400" /> </a></div>
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<br /></div>
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So, in my initial research it appears that most people are using this "USB overclocking" for their mice, to get additional precision on high DPI gaming mice. Makes sense. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
But I think it's worth researching for arcade gaming as well.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Unfortunately, I have already read several accounts of people damaging or frying USB ports on their motherboard by "overclocking" them to 1000hz. </div>
<br />
So is it worth the risk? I'm not sure.... There's the saying "Tis better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all".. But I'm not sure if it also applies to "Tis better to have attempted to overclock your USB port and accidentally fry your motherboard than to never have attempted to overclock your USB port at all".... LOL<br />
<br />
From what I understand:<br />
<br />
125hz (default) = 8ms<br />
250hz = 4ms<br />
500hz = 2ms<br />
1000hz = 1ms<br />
<br />
If 1000hz is the one that is most likely to damage the board, then maybe I'll just try 500hz and still shave off 6ms latency!<br />
<br />
So my next question is: Will this affect all USB ports on my system or just a single port? I don't really think I need to overclock my USB sound interface.<br />
<br />
I found this statement:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>The HIDUSBF method only affects the specific device you apply the
polling rate change to. There was an older method for Windows XP and
earlier that patched the system usb port driver and affected all devices</i></blockquote>
<br />
And indeed, the HIDUSBF method seems to be the best, at least on Windows. I've found several sources:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.mikemartin.co/system_guides/hardware/mouse/polling_rate">http://www.mikemartin.co/system_guides/hardware/mouse/polling_rate</a> - Gives some general info about it including another reminder that 1000hz may fry your motherboard<br />
<br />
and<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.ngohq.com/news/15043-how-to-increase-usb-sample-rate-in-windows-vista-7-a.html">http://www.ngohq.com/news/15043-how-to-increase-usb-sample-rate-in-windows-vista-7-a.html</a> - Includes the download.<br />
<br />
Now I hope I can make this work with keyboard and gamepad and not just mice!<br />
<br />
Regarding safety, here is probably the most useful page I have found:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.esreality.com/post/2242102/can-changing-hz-affect-my-usb-ports/">http://www.esreality.com/post/2242102/can-changing-hz-affect-my-usb-ports/</a><br />
<br />
Quote:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>If you have a legacy device (old printer/scanner) they can be subject to
overheating if you inadvertently set their ports polling rate to
500/1000Hz. </i>
<i><br />
Particularly inside older scanners (which run quite hot due to the light
source), the circuitry containing the small buffer and I/O gubbins is
usually an afterthought, crammed into a corner of the device with no
ventilation. As a result they run rather hot/marginal in the first
place, and giving them more work to do with the higher polling rate
causes more heat and is/was enough to send them over the edge :(</i>
<i><br />
Similar problems happen with cheap 4 port USB adapters which draw power
from the port itself; they can easily overheat and worse can even draw
too much power from the port (when several devices are connected, all
trying to run at 250hz etc) where in the best case the port gets turned
off, worst being it burns out the circuitry driving that cluster of
ports on the motherboard.</i>
<i><br />
In short, it's not just a case of 'telling the OS to poll the port at
xxx times a second' ; if your not careful bad shit can happen.</i>
<i><br />
You CAN damage peripheral(s) and the motherboard itself permanently if you are careless.</i></blockquote>
<br />
Fascinating! So hopefully all the reports of people damaging stuff were people on older hardware where they were overclocking ALL USB ports and probably inadvertently heating up components and then overloading the entire USB bus.<br />
<br />
So as you can probably tell by now, I have definitely decided to go ahead and try this!!!<br />
<br />
I think my first thing to do before installing it, is to do a little test run in Outzone of my movement with the USB keyboard, doing a bunch of fast movements, so I can get a feel for how it currently is.<br />
<br />
OK, it's fast but it definitely doesn't seem instantaneous.<br />
<br />
So I tried doing the HIDUSBF method. First I tried it with the Keyboard. There is a nice little utility just referred to as "setup.exe", but is actually called "USB Mouse Rate Adjuster setup". It seems to be targeted at Mice, but you can uncheck a little box called "Mouses only", and it shows the other USB devices and gives you the option of changing their USB polling rates.<br />
<br />
So I changed the keyboard to 500hz. Rebooted the computer. Now the keyboard won't respond! Not even numlock or capslock. So I changed it to a different USB port. It re-installed the drivers and worked fine, but according to the utility, it was no longer overclocked. Put it back in the original port, and it showed up again and said it was overclocked, but again it just didn't respond.<br />
<br />
Next I tried overclocking my gamepad (and setting my keyboard back down to regular speed). Rebooted again. This time, the keyboard still doesn't work on that USB port, and the gamepad no longer responds either. Doh.<br />
<br />
So I set the gamepad back to stock. Rebooted. It works again, but keyboard still not responding on that usb port.<br />
<br />
Just out of curiosity, I wanted to make sure that USB port is still functioning! Plugged in a $20 android phone I got the other day to use as an mp3 player. It is charging and syncing fine.<br />
<br />
Weird about the keyboard and that port then.<br />
<br />
SO... I'm stuck wondering, did I do something wrong, or is it not working because these utilities are primarily designed for mice?<br />
<br />
Now to do a little search about gamepad/joysticks...<br />
<br />
Unfortunately I can't really find anybody trying to do this specifically with gamepads/joysticks. I found a little info about a keyboard, but that's about it.<br />
<br />
Also unfortunately, I tried one more time to make it work with the gamepad, and now I'm having the same problem, I can't get the gamepad to work on that specific USB port anymore.<br />
<br />
:(<br />
<br />
At this point I'm just ready to give up and see if I can reverse the changes so I can at least use these device/port combinations again.<br />
<br />
I was about to say "Thank the gods of Toaplan, there's a way to uninstall it!", but unfortunately, uninstalling it still didn't fix the problem.<br />
<br />
Ironically, the gamepad works in the port that won't see the keyboard, and the keyboard works in the port that won't see the gamepad. But those particular device/port combinations are now somehow blacklisted and I'm not really sure how to fix them.<br />
<br />
Oops.<br />
<br />
Oh well.<br />
<br />
I guess it's better than actually frying my motherboard :)<br />
<br />
I'm done tinkering for now. Later on I'll try to find a permanent solution to get my ports working again. <br />
<br />
In the meantime, I'm not sure whether I would recommend trying this in Linux. Given that everything is about 4x more difficult and time consuming in Linux, then I can see this being a total waste of time. But maybe it would somehow be easier. I don't know.<br />
<br />
Anyway.<br />
<br />
I tried, but ultimately failed. No 6ms input increase for me.... TODAY at least!<br />
<br />
May the quest for more power continue!organic iohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13159435687504488354noreply@blogger.com3