Messages

46

Site Discussion / Re: How is the site done?

« on: February 21, 2001, 04:29:25 PM »

I'm no authority since I don't work at this site but I'd venture to bet they use Server-Side Include (SSI) to do that. SSI lets you place common HTML code into multiple pages so that if you change it once, you change it everywhere. Its a lot faster than duplicating it across 100's of pages.

James

47

Mario Chat / Re: I had a strange Mario dream

« on: February 21, 2001, 04:20:43 PM »

I can't recall any Mario-related dreams I've had in any detail, but I feel that I've had at least one before, and I think it was related to something in Mario 64 but I don't know for sure ^_^

I HAVE had a few other game-related dreams though. Several have been of DOOM, one of which was a nightmare in which I was chased by an Archvile (if you've seen one of those you know you wouldn't want to be chased by it), and I actually had a Metroid dream where I was IN the game and it was 3D, but everything was made of cubes/tiles like a 2D side-scroller. It was pretty weird.

James

Edited by - Quasar on 2/21/2001 2:21:56 PM

48

Mario Chat / Re: Pooper Mario for N64!

« on: February 21, 2001, 04:08:34 PM »

I agree, I've never laughed more at a game than I have at Paper Mario, and I think that has to be one of its strongest assets. There was some humor in Super Mario RPG, but some of it was a little corny IMO (btw compare the gestures Mario makes in that game to those that Cloud makes in FFVII -- there's some similarities).

James

49

Mario Chat / Re: Lakitu -- Where the heck did he come from?

« on: February 21, 2001, 04:03:22 PM »

And now in Paper Mario too, although as far as I know they only appear in one key battle in Flower Fields (but I may have forgotten about some other places ^_^).

Just for historical interest, the original SMB manual describes Lakitu as:

Lakitu [bitmap picture]
The mysterious turtle who controls the clouds. He chases after Mario and drops Spiny's eggs on top of him. . . . .200 PTS.

50

Mario Chat / Re: Paper Mario: Great or Crap?

« on: February 21, 2001, 03:56:42 PM »

OHH are you talking about the area in Paper Mario or the game by that title? The island with Yoshis on it in Paper Mario is not the same island as Yoshi's Island though ;) There are two ways you can know this: 1. its called Lavalava Island, and 2. one of the Mushroom people in the game at one point tells you that people once lived on that island but that they moved away and later groups of Yoshis and Ravens moved there. I don't think that "Yoshi" the Yoshi is any of the Yoshis on that island (confusing as that sounds x_x ).

James

51

Mario Chat / Re: Paper Mario: Great or Crap?

« on: February 21, 2001, 03:53:43 PM »

There are Yoshi hatchlings in Yoshi's Island? Man I must have missed something....

James

52

Mario Chat / Re: Paper Mario Popularity Problem

« on: February 21, 2001, 03:47:00 PM »

Well I've not heard how its doing so far, but I know I've loved it except for the fact its too short :) Two weekends of play have gotten me to Bowser's castle already. Of course I still have my work cut out for me there, there's plenty of items I've not found, and I'm sure it has a bit of replay value (I always play RPGs more than once ;)

James

53

Mario Chat / Re: Paper Mario: Great or Crap?

« on: February 12, 2001, 09:20:46 AM »

Well I finally got Paper Mario this weekend and I can now officially say that I love it. It *is* rather simple compared to Super Mario RPG, but its not exactly a push-over game either. A weekend of playing got me 3 Star Spirits rescued, and Mario at level 9, but I've died 3 times too. Thank goodness that Boo in the Mansion basement sells super mushrooms! ^_^

James

54

Mario Chat / Re: Paper Mario Plot

« on: February 06, 2001, 12:56:24 AM »

The plot as I understand it:

Bowser has succeeded in stealing an artifact from the Star Realm called the Star Rod (is this a Kirby reference?) and is using its power to wreck havoc on the Mushroom Kingdom. In order to get it back from him, Mario has to enlist the help of the scattered Star Spirits. One thing I think is neat is that you get a number of helper characters whom you can summon who are dissidents of their races -- a koopa, a goomba, a bob-omb, etc -- it adds an extra dimension when they're not ALL bad guys :)

As for Kamek not being around, I think that's because the old crone was already quite up there in age when Mario was but a baby. If he's still alive now he's gotta be ancient. I'd speculate this female Magikoopa is a descendent of his -- the current chief advisory Magikoopa to the King ;)

James

Edited by - Quasar on 2/5/2001 10:58:23 PM

55

Game Help / Re: Help! 8th world-Mario deluxe

« on: February 05, 2001, 04:40:30 PM »

With practice its usually easy to get to the lone Hammer Brother guarding Bowser -- this is the point where I usually die if I'm without power-up. But the trick is to try to time it so that you can get between the Hammer Bro. and the arc of his hammers and move around a bit to keep away from them (much harder than with Bowser). Then when he jumps up and the Podoboo isn't in the way, run and just keep going until you see Bowser. If you get to him you've probably made it.

James

56

Mario Chat / Re: How do you pronounce...?

« on: February 05, 2001, 04:32:51 PM »

Geno says that because his real name is not Geno. Geno is what the little mushroom boy calls his doll before the spirit from the Star Road inhabits it during the night while Mario and crew are asleep. The spirit takes on the name Geno from the doll since his real name is not in their language.

James

57

Mario Chat / Re: The best "Mario" character!

« on: February 05, 2001, 03:52:36 PM »

I'd say that Geno qualifies as a Mario universe character, since he's in an official Mario game -- Mario RPG. We may never see him again, but that's to be expected anyways as he only came down to Mario's world to try to find the missing star pieces. Since he's a spirit from the Star Road he's probably not in the business of coming down just to chat :)

James

58

Mario Chat / Re: something important...

« on: February 01, 2001, 09:46:09 PM »

Yeah I hate to break the news but Nintendo reported slightly decreased sales on Pokemon items over the holidays. At least, that's what I heard. My mom works at a school and she says that none of the kids there talk about Pokemon at all any more.

I look at it this way. The concept of Pokemon as a game is not a terrible one, but it is one that doesn't leave many directions for the future. You can add a few new types and call that a good reason to make a new game, but I don't buy into that cheapo mentality. I think its a corporate sell-out really.

At least Mario has *some* semblance of a story beyond simply a generic character catching small animals and teaching them tricks. That's all I'm saying on this flame-war fodder.

James

59

Mario Chat / Re: Hommade Mario Games

« on: February 01, 2001, 08:29:38 PM »

I'm a fledgling game designer and for practice, I'm currently working on a from-scratch side scroller engine to host a game that will be entitled "Toad's Adventure: The Return of Wart."

I'm not going to reveal too many details about the story line, but you can probably figure it stars Toad. I think he's the most neglected character of them all, and he happens to be my favorite as well ;) Mario will make appearances in the game and will be relevant to the story line -- you'll have to help him out of more than one jam over the course of the game ^_^

Its a C program that will run in DOS and uses the (in)famous Allegro game programming library. I'd estimate the engine is about 10% finished, so I have a lot of work to do. Sound effects, music, and graphics progress is better though. I'd estimate 80% on the sound and maybe 20% on graphics.

This is a private project since its obviously a blatent copyright violation. I'm just making it for my own personal education and entertainment. However if people are interested in playing it, I may provide a covert download location when its ready ;) I know my friends are excited about it. I hope that others will like it when its done.

James

60

Mario Chat / Re: Yoshi Confusion

« on: February 01, 2001, 08:11:00 PM »

As for Yoshi's Island, I consider it to be thus far the height of the series. The graphics fit the game well and after a while they seem just as natural as any of the other Mario games'. It had an original story for once, which actually related to the others in a definite chronological way. It also has a huge number of cool enemies. I consider it the 2nd best sidescroller period, next to Castlevania:SOTN for Playstation.

As for Yoshi's Story, I can't say much about it because I've never played it. All I know is it looks like a total turn-off, especially since it has no relevance to Mario whatsoever. I've even heard that Shigeru Miyamoto himself dislikes this game, and with the number of bad reviews I've read, I have no impetus to try it.

James