Topics

121

Forum Games / TriviaQuestaThon-O-Matic

« on: December 06, 2006, 06:24:58 PM »

Welcome. So you wish to defeat the Trivia Master...King...Master? Then you must...um, answer the questions right. I will present you, the audience, with three questions. You may answer one or all three; once all three questions have been answered correctly, then I'll pick someone else to be the Trivia Master King Master. That person makes the questions, people answer them, the TMKM picks a new TMKM, and the cycle continues. Assuming you could comprehend that, here's the first batch of questions, right out of the Trivia Master King Oven:

1. How many segments make up a complete Centipede in the original Centipede?
a. 7
b. 12
c. 10
d. 18

2. Which PlayStation 2 model introduced progressive scan DVD playback?
 a. SPCH-10000
 b. SPCH-50001
 c. SPCH-30004
 d. It always had it

3. How fast is the Nintendo 64's processor?
 a. 93.75 MHz
 b. 33 MHz
 c. 157.456 MHz
 d. 501 MHz

When these questions have been answered correctly, I'll pick someone to be the next Trivia Master King Master. Good luck!

122

Video Game Chat / Cheat codes

« on: November 22, 2006, 02:40:22 PM »

Cheat codes: What are they? Well, we already know, but how do you feel about them? In my opinion, cheat codes are practically a neccessity in some games. For example, the GTA games have some of the best cheat codes in any games, and would be nearly incomplete without them. Sure, there's standard stuff like health and armor and weapons, but there's also stuff like causing riots, making cars explode or fly like a plane, playing as a different character, making the main character fat or thin, and all sorts of other silly junk. Other games have creative methods of entering codes. Take the convuluted method of making the (in?)famous coin-filled ship appear in SMB3: I forget, but it involves timing the level exit just right, making sure your score ends with a certain digit, and other stuff.

Oh, and because I'm in the mood, here's a little game to play: match the cheat code to its game. Bonus points for identifying what it does.

1. Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start
2. Type "idspispopd"
3. R1, R2, L1, X, Left, Down, Right, Up, Left, Down, Right, Up
4. Hold "G", "O" and "D" simultaneously
5. Highlight your save file, hold L + R and press A
6. Enter "PAKING PAKING PAKING PAKING" as a password

A. Kid Icarus
B. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
C. Gradius
D. New Super Mario Bros.
E. Doom
F. Commander Keen

123

Video Game Chat / Control Envy

« on: November 03, 2006, 01:57:07 PM »

Raise your hand if this (or a similar incident) has ever happened to you:

The other day I was playing Resident Evil 4 (PS2 version). However, I had a hard time with it, despite beating it a few months ago. I was fumbling with the aiming and rotation systems, constantly cursed the game for not letting me strafe, and kept forgetting how to turn around. I pressed R1 with the intention of firing my weapon, but instead started aiming, and expected L1 to throw grenades. Why? Because I was so used to playing third-person shooters, which often use an FPS-style control scheme for maximum shootability. Once I got used to RE4's control scheme, as an experiment, I played GTA: Vice City, and found myself practically unable to move.
So here's my point: Why don't all games use some sort of control-remapping system? Of course, if all games controlled the same way they'd be boring, and not all games use grenades or whatnot, but shouldn't you at least be able to change all that stuff in the controls, like having a permanent aim/walk system or something? I think a game that let you excersize that much control over it would be a great thing.

124

Video Game Chat / Scary Games

« on: October 17, 2006, 05:20:22 PM »

It's that time of year again: The air is chilly, the wind is vaguely spooky-sounding, leaves fall off the trees and somehow form into malicious-looking piles on your lawn, and assorted miscreants dressed as the guy from Scream knock on your door and demand candy.

It's a perfect time for playing scary games! At Halloweentime, nothing's better than vegetating on the couch watching AMC's MonsterFest and then getting up to vegetate at your computer or console of choice and play some appropriately scary video games.

And no, Mario Party doesn't count.

125

General Chat / Spooky Spooksational Spooktober Spooktacuar

« on: October 10, 2006, 07:36:36 AM »

Halloween is near! Well, almost. But being as how I still have no costume idea, I have started this topic for Halloween costume discussion so I can steal an idea or two. It's also an opportunity to share anecdotes about Halloween, such as that lady's house I went to that had an actual stuffed cat on the wall.

Happy Halloween!

126

Video Game Chat / Game Endings (spoliers!)

« on: October 05, 2006, 08:47:10 AM »

Every game must come to an end in some way or another. No matter how enthralling the experience of gameplay, there has to be some sort of ending, a feeling of accomplishment, or else the player will be ticked off. Some games have great endings (GTA: San Andreas, many Sonic games), others have lousy ones (Halo 2, most Sonic games). And a lot of games have multiple endings, such as Fable, the Street Fighter games, and indeed, most Sonic games.
But the question is, how are these endings? Good, bad? Do you feel better or worse if you can continue playing after the ending, or even if there is no ending at all? Be warned, spoilers are encouraged, so if you don't like spoliers, then...don't read the topic, I guess. Or do.

127

General Chat / Crocodile Hunter, R.I.P.

« on: September 04, 2006, 09:28:52 AM »

Shortly after 11:00 AM this morning, Steve Irwin, a.k.a. The Crocodile Hunter, died. According to reports, a stingray's barb punctured his heart, killing him, while filming a documentary in a reef. Now, I've never been a big fan of The Crocodile Hunter, and myself have made many jokes about how he would get killed while doing a documentary, but I feel that this death hit a little close to home. Steve Irwin has entertained me and, I'm sure, lots of other people for quite a few years with his constant dangerous-animal-wrangling antics. Despite being the butt of several jokes concerning the baby incident a few years back, Steve Irwin will probably be remembered fondly from now on.

128

Video Game Chat / TinyGame Challenge 2006

« on: August 15, 2006, 11:57:47 AM »

Welcome to TinyGame Challenge 2006! The main goal of this competition (?) is simple: make a very small game (no longer than ten minutes for the player to finish) and then submit it by posting it here. It can be any format you want - Game Maker, FPS Creator, Inform, whatever - and any genre at all, whether it be action, shooter, puzzle, platformer or interactive fiction.
But here's the catch: All the games have to follow (loosely) one narrative and pick up after the last part. For example, if one game ends with a cliffhanger, then the next game entered must resolve it and pick up from that ending. The competition will start in full with the first entry, and will end on September 10th of this year.

Of course, there are three conditions:
1) All entries must take no longer than ten minutes and no shorter than four minutes to finish by a normal player, and must be beatable. The game must have a definate beginning and end, though whether or not they're noticably broken up into sections in up to you.
2) The game must be mostly free of bugs. Total professional-quality polish is not neccessary, but the game must be free of game-crippling bugs. The game has to be winnable, remember?
3) Finally, each game must pick up where the last one left off. It's against the rules to simply end your game with "this is the end of the story" until it's okay to do so (i.e., it's very close to the deadline).

Otherwise, you have free reign over what goes on in your game - Plot twists and new characters are appreciated. And so, to get everyone started, here's the beginning plot:
The player has been invited to a New Year's Eve party sometime in the near future (even though it's not New Year's Eve). Suddenly, ninjas! Thousands of them! What happens next is up to the first contestant.
I really hope that a good amount of people sign up for this. It should be fairly easy to make the games, as there's supposed to be small in size.

129

General Chat / Snakes on a Thread

« on: August 01, 2006, 10:58:23 AM »

So Snakes on a Plane comes out in a few weeks. And, if you're in the know, you'll know that a zero-budget Z-movie ripoff of it, Snakes on a Train, came out a few days ago (or whenever). So my question is, what else should snakes invade? Here's my ideas:

Snakes on a Boat: Snakes invade a luxery cruise ship!
Snakes on a Highway: My mom had this idea, where snakes get on a road and cause a traffic jam
Snakes in Car: A family goes on a cross-country trip, only to get held hostage in their car by some snakes!
Snakes on a Bus: If the bus drops under 50 miles an hour, the snakes explode!

130

General Chat / "Why?" Sequels

« on: July 26, 2006, 08:22:30 AM »

There are tons of them: movie/game sequels that simply make you say "Why?" for various reasons. First off, there's the garden-variety, normal-crappy sequel, like half the James Bond movies. But then there's the dreaded Third Movie. For some reason, the filmmakers think that by the third movie, they're invincible. I mean, Terminator, Alien and The Godfather were all good movies; so were their sequels, T2: Judgement Day, Aliens and The Godfather 2. So, naturally, third time's a charm, right? Well, for some reason, it isn't, so we end up with B-movie drivel like Terminator 3, Alien 3 and The Godfather 3.
And then there's the completely unneccesary sequel, whom I have one really good example of: Jurassic Park III. The movie that killed the franchise. You can tell it's a bad thing when you go to see a formerly intelligent, speculative science fiction movie just to see a big, ham-fisted fight between a T-Rex and a Spinosaur. And the T-Rex, the mascot of Jurassic Park, loses. Not to mention the whole spooky, haunted feel of some shots, which is completely unfaithful to the original movies.
But I'm ranting. Anyway, just post about bad sequels here.

131

Video Game Chat / GlorbWare now open!

« on: July 19, 2006, 08:11:46 AM »

I have now opened GlorbWare, inc. So far, my first game is an interactive fiction game that I'm entering in the Interactive Fiction Competition (www.ifcomp.org). I won't spoil anything, but it involves a race against time and a crayon.
GlorbWare will also produce many other types of games, like:

Red Baron 2092, a flight simulator/shooter with a zombie Red Baron
Blue Alert, a second-person shooter (the view of the guy getting shot)
Ninjas vs. Pirates, a beat-'em-up set in historical time periods

So this topic serves two purposes: 1) to announce my new game(s?) and 2) to ask for a little help. If anyone here is able to design a cool logo and a catchy slogan (not 100% neccesary), then that would be vey appreciated. As equally appreciated would be beta testers and the like.

Until then,
Glorb

132

General Chat / The CARPET thread: Discuss all carpetry here!

« on: July 17, 2006, 03:02:31 PM »

The art of carpetry is a nuanced one indeed. So, I started this thread because I, and no doubt most other members here, like it so much. How good are you at laying carpet? What's your favorite color? How many carpet structures have you fabricated? What's your favorite carpet style or material?

NOTE: This thread is not intended as satire AT ALL.

133

Video Game Chat / Videogame Logic

« on: July 11, 2006, 10:07:58 AM »

I've noticed something. Logic in videogames, even in supposedly "realistic" games, is completely bizarre.

For example, in most games, a 9mm handgun is the weakest weapon, regardless of size, weight, speed, manufacturer or caliber; also, a shot to the chest or stomach would cause negligable damage. In real life, geting shot in the stomach or chest would be lethal, especially as a stomach hit would cause internal bleeding.

In game logic, all shotguns are 12-gauge, although their power could be fairly low. Also, the beginning shotgun is always a SPAS-12. In real life, a 12-gauge shotgun is extremely loud and often lethal, and requires extensive training to use. Getting hit with a 12-gauge shell would be lethal even with a bulletproof vest on, as the force applied would be equal to getting hit by a train. And of all 12-gauge shotguns, the SPAS-12 is among the most lethal.

In most GTA-style games, driving ito a light post would cause it to simply fly behind the car; hitting one in real life would caus extensive frontal damage and barely move the post.

Now, I realize that this sort of bizarro-world anti-logic is what makes games fun, but it seems like developers of realistic simulations are following the cliches because they're an established videogame norm. It's kind of annoying sometimes, especially when wielding a SPAS-12 in any FPS would make you the object of mockery for the other players.

134

Mario Chat / Is Game Boy dead?

« on: July 08, 2006, 11:26:12 AM »

I know, on our hearts, the Game Boy is far, far from dead. And from a sales standpoint, you can still milk the GBA for all it's worth with Berenstein Bears Xtreme Sports and The Ant Bully. But to me, it looks like Nintendo's given up on it. At E3 they never once mentioned the GBA, favoring the Wii and DS above everything else (even the GameCube). They mentioned making a new Game Boy, but it seems they meant the GB Micro, which is just a GBA rehash. Really, it looks like the Game Boy franchise is all but dead. The original Game Boy lasted, like, nine years. But it seems Nintendo's given up on the GBA a mere five years into its lifespan. Why?

135

General Chat / Air Guitar Habits

« on: June 27, 2006, 02:58:15 PM »

I'm asking because I often do all five. But you didn't hear it from me.