darkmage479

Nokia 6820 with fold-out QWERTY keyboard... BIATCHES!!! plus my mom, of all people, works for the U.S. government, so my whole family gets a 50% discount from AT&T.

you can make discs out of anything, as long as it's sensitive enough to cut the fine grooves for the laser (especially the precise new blue laser) to read. There was an article in the magazine New Scientist: New Scientist Online: Super-Tough Coating for LCDs and Disks which discussed the use of transparent silica-polymer resin that can be used to coat DVDs and LCD screens to make them scratch-resistant. Also on the horizon are self-destructing DVDs that release chemicals that cool in the grooves and make the disk unplayable. This has applications in rentals, promos, etc. Unfortunately, New Scientist already determined that the current disks are heat-sensitive, so keeping it in your fridge extends it life by at least a factor of 5 cool stuff on the horizon, eh?

Thanks daeval. I really appreciate the kind words. Nice to know someone appreciates my several hours of hard work when i could have been getting better grades in Physics I'm planning to review Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner (ZOE: Anubis outside of the U.S.) in a little while, but if anyone's got any suggestions (especially emulatable games) i'd be more than happy to do a review. Again, thanks for your compliments.

Game: R-Type Final System: PS2 Emulators: None yet Review by: DarkMage 479 Screenshots from Eidos Interactive and IGN PS2 There are those who say that the video-game industry is in decline. Just as the film industry slid quickly from art to commercialism, so too have we gone from design triumphs such as Strider and F-Zero to thug-life and rehashed sports simulations. Games done for gamers, for the sake of gaming, are becoming few and far between. But, if no other old-school games were ever to be pressed to a CD, R-Type Final is a fitting last hurrah. R-Type Final is the last direct descendant of Irem's 1989 arcade hit R-Type, which touched off the modern 2D shooter genre. Besides its excellent graphics, control, and enormous bosses, the game introduced a chargeable, multi-stage power-up system which used the unique Force concept. The Force was a metal ball that could attach to the front or back of your ship. It added to your firepower and absorbed enemy shots. The Force could also be detached and controlled independently, with its own firing system. This was a lot for players to keep track of, but the concept was executed brilliantly. Soon a whole host of competitors were flooding the arcades, but Irem managed to remain a step ahead with consistent improvements to the series: R-Type (1989) R-Type II (1991) Gallop: Armed Police Unit (1991) Super R-Type (1992) R-Type Leo (1992) R-Type III: Third Lightning (1993) R-Type S (1997) R-Type Delta (1998) Now, with the original Irem development team disbanding, publisher Eidos took it upon themselves to release the last R-Type game in 2004. R-TYPE FINAL First and foremost: R-Type Final is a side-scrolling shooter from the 'methodical' school of shooter design. (Think of a sliding scale from 'Methodical' to 'Frantic', with Gradius at the methodical end, Mars Matrix the frantic end, and Ikaruga right about in the middle.) The pace is never too fast and the screen is never too flooded with bullets, but it will tax your brain and your thumbs as you maneouver your fighter and Force through tight spaces at the same time. Graphics and Sound: Though the action is 2D, R-Type Final's graphics are fully 3D. The ships and enemies are often quite small but clean and well-detailed, and weapons fire has some cool reflection and transparency effects. Backgrounds are varied, but never enough to interfere with your view of the action. Later stages even have water distortion, polygon stretching and grain filter effects. The designers went for a clean futuristic look, with angular ships and brightly colored weapon and Force visuals. Although the camera sometimes rotates to give an angled or top-down view of your ship, the action always scrolls left to right. The sound is probably the weakest element of this game. The use of full orchestral scores lends some atmosphere, but the developers couldn't decide whether they wanted a soundtrack or an ambience. Some stages have little or no music at all, while other stages have slow tracks unfitting for a shooter. The sound effects, including weapons and explosions, are good but get old quickly, as you will be hearing a lot of them (and they're accentuated by the stark background music). High points are the introduction and boss battle tracks, which return to the defined techno beats that made R-Type III (SNES) the series' audio high point. Overall a good presentation with room for improvement, but real gamers don't play 2D shooters for the graphics. Gameplay and Control: Irem has lost none of their magic since the original R-Type. R-Type Final is beautifully balanced, with engaging levels and tons of replay value. It's pretty simple: You fly the ship, using three button functions - Shoot, Detach, and Overdose. Every ship has the normal shot and a unique Wave Cannon, which is charged by holding down Shoot. Some wave cannons have multiple charge levels while others act in conjunction with Bits or Forces. You obtain the Force through collecting red, blue, or yellow power crystals. Each crystal makes different attacks with two levels each. Knowing your Force and selsecting the right power-up for a stage section is crucial. (On the higher difficulties, you lose your Force when you die and have to start collecting crystals again, adding a new level of challenge.) Finally, collecting secondary powerups gives you a missile (homing, vertical, forward, downward etc.) and Bit attack. Bits orbit about your ship and protect against enemy shots or supply secondary fire. Each ship can be customized with different Missile and Bit types but these can not be changed mid-game. Still, it gives you the feeling that you are influencing the outcome and makes a death nobody's fault but your own. The key concept of the Force plays a role in the Detach and Overdoes commands. When you have a force, pressing Detach causes it to shoot away from your ship. Each force has a unique control pattern and attack when detached. Careful maneovering of the force to attack and absorb shots is key to progressing in the game. For every shot you absorb, the Force also fills up a Dose meter, which, when full, allows for a screen-clearing super attack which shows off cool graphical effects and adds a new layer to the game's challenge. You can also adjust your ship's speed on the fly for tight maneovering or dodging. All functions are remarkably intuitive and leave you to think only about dodging, shooting, and surviving. Responsive control has always been a hallmark of the R-Type series and this is the best by far. There's always an exit to every near-death situation, but it's up to you to see it and act in time. the game itself is the tried-and-true shooter concept: dodge, survive, and shoot everything. R-Type Final is composed of a 7-stage progression, with 16 total stages that will take you at least 5 play-throughs to experience. (Actions in early stages will affect how the game progresses later on.) Each stage has different enemies and is preceded by a short epitah that shows great close-ups of your ship and keeps an ongoing tally of your score. Progress strikes the perfect blend of trial-and-error and twitch skills, is always exciting and never tedious (unlike R-Type III, which I'm sure caused the premature deaths of a few Super Nintendos following controller-throwing, curse-screaming incedents), and will give you a rewarding feeling when you finally make it through a whole stage without continuing or using a new ship. Five difficulty levels make the game accessible to newbies, although shooter vets will encounter trouble with R-Typer mode (difficult but made bearable by non-default but easily unlockable unlimited continues). You'll be playing this game long after you clear R-Typer (my game clock is at 40 hours) to make use of this game's best feature: the R-Museum Ship Gallery. R-Type Final has 101 playable ships, each with a unique design and weapon set. Each ship can be further customized through the choice of Missiles, Bits and in some cases Forces and Wave Cannons. You start with three ships, and the rest are unlockable through simple play time, clearing certain stages, or playing with a certain ship model. You'll want to keep playing to see the next designs that offer you increased firepower. It will take at least 30 hours to unlock them all. Ship designs are varied and range from the standard R-9A to long-range support (R-9DH) close range, high damage (R-9DP), defensive models (TL-2), high-speed (R-11S) morphing ships (OF-1), and ultimate craft like the R-90/2 and R-100. It will take you at least 30 hours to unlock them all, and they are all unique. The is the game's best feature - a reward for persistent, old-school, brain-taxing action. Also unlockable are galleries of CG images and a database of enemies, Forces, Wave Cannons, and other devices. A stage attack mode is included, as well as a cool AI minigame that lets you set up a ship vs. ship battle and watch the CPU play it out in 3D. All these are fun and rewarding, as the urge to unlock that next ship or see the next stage will steal hours of your life if you let it. R-Type Final will be a classic. It offers challenge, replay, and beautiful design all rolled together. Take a stance against the death of old-school gaming and pick this gem up right now. Blast off and strike the Bydo Empire where it hurts! Control: 9.5/10 Gameplay: 9.5/10 Graphics: 8/10 Sound: 6/10 This game is deserving of an 8.25/10 and a definite .

get a job and start saving, even if it's just menial. When i was in high school i played my violin at weddings and such and saved to buy my car - watching my dollars add up was worth it. Then it was even more satisfying to restore the car to operating condition. The key is find something you like to do (get a job, work on cars, join some school clubs, get involved in politics, etc.) and stick with it. Also, get a clear goal in sight and work toward it, so you can see your reward and stay motivated. Right now, I'm playing more gigs so i can trade in my car for a better one .

MegaMan Zero 1,2, and 3 of course. They're thinking men's action games with a dark atmosphere and great graphics/control. EDIT: Gradius Galaxies (completely new).

what modeling program are you using? if ur using 3dsmax u should think about trading up to Lightwave, as it has better texture and animation support. Looks very good though.

Olof may have style (can't argue with a purple suit) but i use Hikaru - she's the best parts of Haohmaru and Geese Howard. Counters supers are the p0wnage. Yes, the game is still fun despite the music and the fact that my Kawaks doesn'd display the life or super bars.... grrrr

i'm too lazy to use command prompt ... is there a gui that works well?

okey, so on the advice of Gryph and others i decided to give this Zinc 1.01 a shot... I have the following roms: rvschool sfexp sfex2 sfex2p sg2j shiryu2 souledge tekken2 how come none of the games except for Soul Edge work? I'm using Aldo's 2.01 frontend and whenever i try to boot one of the roms, i get a missing <xxxxxx.zip> (xxx = romfile) even though the image is definetly there. I bet there's a stupidly simple solution that i can't see in front of my face, but hopefully you can clear it up. How do you get the damn games to run?

yes, this one i've seen. I give toyota 10 bonus points for originality... by the way, there's an equally cool Honda advert which features various parts of the car in a Rube Goldberg machine - i think i may have seen it on ebaumsworld. if someones got a link post it.

what about the early fatal furies? you know, FF, FF2, and Fatal Fury 3: Road to the Final Victory? These games were all made before Real Bout 1.

what about HL: Decay, the coop mode from the PS2 version? Is that available for PC?

Yes, most of the designs in SVC are good, but sometimes the animations need work. Especially Sagat - he looks deformed, with a tiny head, and his tiger uppercut is the same "arm held up" animation, just moving across the screen. blecch... Also, Zero looks like a child and isn't badass enough. I understand that SNK is limited by the MegaMan Zero character design, but they could have at least made him the right height (normal human size). In an ideal world they would have used the awesome long-haired samurai Zero design from Mega Man X. However, the good in SVC far outweighs the bad. And i wouldn't mind seeing SVC Genjuro turn up in NGBC.

This is a 'butchered' GIF of the Exceed that took me most of this afternoon. Some of the startup frames are actually from the Bison Warp (his arms uncrossing and crossing) instead of the Final Psycho Crusher. Also the transparency effect was adjusted. I know there are probably artefacts (i didn't tweak it that much) but i got the startup and the exceed background flash. (dimension: 307*244) Not trying to outdo you daeval, but i'm just showing that it can be done. In fact it wasnt until yesterday that i could use GIF animator to any reasonable degree of success. edit- the damn thing is too big, so hold for 1 minute while i upload this beyatch to the web. edit 2- now check it out

meh... don't look a gift horse in the mouth. a deal is a deal. I was never a huge fan of Grand Theft Auto but if i get a chance i might pick this up - i really should be studying physics though...

i think a ban may be in order for you, Neuron Master. I'll admit that it was funny in a sick sort of way, but i still disagree with your politics.

the newest real-life technologies that are viable within the next 10 years are - commerical spaceflight - voice over ip (within 3 years nobody will have a home phone) - personal protective armor (under development by the U.S. Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency) - unmanned, self-guided vehicles - practical hydrogen fuel cells of course we'd all like to see teleporters or warp-drive tech, but the above are real-life things that we will see help humanity in the near future.

ahh yes, time crisis. Excellent review snk especially the history (sega vs. namco,etc). I enjoyed Time Crisis 2 but never played virtua cop 2 so im gonna have to find an arcade with it. Yes, most institutions of higher learning have student unions with arcades or at least a billiard table. But wait - your arcade has Raiden Fighters II? That game kicks incredible a !! Last winter i was in a big hotel in San Antonio, Texas and they had a tiny, always empty closet arcade with MvC2, Soul Calibur, a MVS 2-cart (SamShoIII and Metal Slug I) and, in the corner, Raiden Fighters II. My friends and i came within an inch of pulling the plug and attempting to sneak a 350lb cabinet to my friend's truck without being spotted... Good times. And, to recap, great review of a unique and often misunderstood genre, snk.

Yes, that would rock, but i'm afraid that production costs keep the dream of an 'ultimate crossover' from becoming a reality. in between tracking down naming rights (powerstone chars not actually owned by capcom... i think) and making a board with enougn expensive memory to hold all those characters, the task becomes quite difficult. also, it would be hard to produce a game that was true to each character's original style, and we already have a simplified engine with tons of characters in Marvel vs. Capcom 2. I say wait 5 years, then maybe. I still want capcom vs. snk vs. marvel, so i can finally have my unstoppable team of Captain America, Jin, and Shingo.

yo daeval, can i get an animated gif of M.Bison's Exceed Final Psycho Crusher? that would rock. Thanks in advance hey, u offered, here's your first reply

i don't mean to be harsh. it's just friendly male posturing going on here... cool that you played in south america tho. i did play a few matches of kof98 in Europe in my day and i stil think im pretty competitive. the fact that i deliver the goods as Shingo earns me mad bonus points. P.S. - Kyokugen, you said that u work in a restaurant in some other thread. cool- what kind of restaurant is it, and what kinds of foods u enjoy cooking?

no no no, what he means is using games that only have i-link or firewire connectivity (Armored Core, GT3) and playing over the web (like you can do with Halo for the xbox). I dunno anything about it but if people understood the question we might be able to help u out

whatever you say buddy. my shingo-king-kim team (kof98), shingo-king-kim-heidern (kof2001) or shingo-king-tizoc (2003) will lay waste to all comers. even using the infamous "pimp team" (iori, robert, yamazaki) I could take you on. Besides, the real men around here play CvS 2, and andy ain't in that. So you're outta luck pally.

Correct. also, isn't roll canceling the cheapest tactic known to man? i'm guilty of it too. let's just say that it really lets you own with the charge characters, as you can charge while you roll in and then change direction on your attack. So far nobody can touch my Bison (read: Evil Psycho Power dude) in N-Groove.