SAILOR MOON

I'm not going to spend too much time on this because, unless you're a Sailor Moon "fanboy" (or girl), this will all likely just seem really lame to you. But I recently acquired all 200 Sailor Moon episodes (400+ videos when you take into account that I acquired both the Americanized versions with dialog dubbed in English and the original Japanese with English subtitles because there are significant differences in the two) so I was feeling nostalgic and decided to look up the games as well.

A quick glance at the Wikipedia page tells us that the 1990s brought us a number of Sailor Moon games, mostly for the Super Famicom (the Japanese counterpart to the Super Nintendo, which Amazon.com is selling for a mere 895 USD). Fortunately for those of us who can't afford to spend almost 1G on a 20+-year-old 16-bit Nintendo console, emulator ROM versions of most of the games can be found here.

The games themselves are pretty much exactly what you would expect from the folks at Nintendo: the same gameplay formulas that they used with countless other games, only this time with Sailor Moon characters.

But if you've always dreamed of being a Sailor Scout, this might be the closest you're ever going to get (unless you're one of those cosplay folks). No need to thank me; no, really... this is just what I do.

More Redactions

Frequent readers of this blog might note by comparing the screenshots in my previous post to the current list of comments on my randomizer mod that the DoomWorld "Archive Maintainer" has yet again been practicing his deleting skills... and yet has conveniently left the comment on my other file where I'm called a "stinky bitch" (which I had reported with the "report review abuse" button).

But I'm told it's nothing personal, all in my imagination, so now I'll just go on about my business...


EDIT: 04/28/2012

Okay, I take back some of what I've said. Maybe the Archive Maintainer isn't all bad after all. The "stinky bitch" comment has finally been deleted. Still, looking at my other uploaded files, I can't fathom the methodology he uses for deleting comments.

Knee-Deep in the Randomizer

Anonymous critics have said multiple times that my Upgrade randomizer mod makes Doom an unbalanced, unplayable mess. It has also been said that I didn't test it with anything, that I just threw some crap together and then uploaded it to the Archives without any thought. I realize that even after these critics see evidence to the contrary with their own eyes that they will likely still have some senseless, cowardly anonymous insults to post, but I wasted my time making this FRAPS video anyway.

This is me playing the entire first chapter of Ultimate Doom with my Doom Upgrade mod on Ultra-Violence without saving, reloading, cheating, dying or stopping to piss. If RL permits I might make videos of the other chapters as well, but to be perfectly honest I think it's ridiculous that it should be necessary to make any videos at all.

I apologize somewhat ("somewhat" because it's not entirely my fault) for the poor quality of the flash video. The original AVI file was over 60GB and if it didn't make YouTube shit itself then it definitely would have taken a month to upload and eventually would be deleted. I did my best with the resources available.

If anyone actually watches this, you may notice that the MegaSphere I picked up in the Phobos Anomaly map was invisible. That's because, after all this time, I forgot to copy to my WAD the sprites for this power-up which does not exist in Ultimate Doom. Just a small oversight which I will need to correct in a future update.

EDIT: A dozen DoomWorld comments later...

If you view this video you might also note that "My Little Pony" does not appear anywhere in the game. I'm still not sure where they came up with that one...

Well, I suppose it's better than being called a "stinky bitch"..

The Stinky Bitch of Doom

I actually saw this "review" posted on one of my files before I went off to work this afternoon but did not have time to blog it at the time. During the course of the evening I decided that it would be a waste of valuable time I could spend doing something more enjoyable if I were to type a long ranting response to it. Instead, I'll simply post a screenshot and let it speak for itself:

If any DoomWorld flag-wavers are thinking of leaving comments here attempting to convince me that this is the sort of thing that I should just learn to live with because it's just the way things are, let me assure you that it would also be a waste of your time to do so; no such arguments will persuade me to believe that this sort of trolling is acceptable.

EDIT: 04/28/2012

Okay, I take back some of what I've said. Maybe the Archive Maintainer isn't all bad after all. The "stinky bitch" comment has finally been deleted. Still, looking at my other uploaded files, I can't fathom the methodology he uses for deleting comments.

Doom Upgrade Update #?

I have other games and mods that I'd like to blog about here (no, I really do) but lately my infamous Doom Upgrade has been the recipient of much attention (a few new gems have appeared in the file's "reviews" section since I last mentioned it here) and I've received some constructive feedback, all of which inspired me to open up the WAD with an editor once again.

Before I type any further I should mention that my initial attempt to submit the updated version to the DoomWorld/id Games Archives was unsuccessful. I won't bore you with the minor details, but suffice it to say that the whole FTP thing is something else I think the Archive needs to abandon and join the rest of us here in the  new millennium. As a result, the updated version of the WAD is currently only available for downloading from GameFront.

So, what did I change this time around? Well, many of my critics will be disappointed to learn that I haven't scrapped half the mod as they have so eloquently advised, but I did implement one or two suggestions that I've received. Here are the latest changes in a nutshell:

-The Hell Squire has been completely removed. Aside from making a squishy sound when he died, he really didn't do much so he got the axe.

-The Soul Harvester has been completely removed. In the company of the Spirit Imp he was simply redundant and the Spirit Imp to me is clearly the better of the pair.

-I made a few minor increases to the Afrit's speed and to the speed of his projectiles; in the company of some of the other Hell Knight and Hell Baron variants he just felt to me to be a bit inadequate.

-I reduced the spawn rate of the Cheshire Cacodemon to a 5-in-100 chance. I can't do much better than that. If the Cheshire Cacodemon continues to appear in every map or multiple times in a single map, we'll have to take it up with Randy Heit and Graf Zahl; it's their code and I can only work with what they give me.

-I reduced (but did not completely remove) the Specter Shadow lighting effect I had attached to the Blot. On my rig with its triple-core processor, 8GB RAM and Radeon 3300 GPU the effect was causing framerate stutter, so I decided something needed to be done about it.

-The plasma used by the Devastator has been increased to 100. I know, I know... that means that even if your backpack is full you'll only get 9 shots with it, but it really is a weapon that's on the borderline of cheating and this way we'll be forced to save it for very special occasions as I feel it should be. Besides, the rapid-fire BFG eats up the plasma pretty darn quick, so it seemed odd that the Devastator did not.

-I slightly reduced the knockback effect of the Hunter Shotgun, but it still packs quite a punch. In the same vein, I multiplied the mass of all the Mancubi x10 so they should all hold their ground much better now. I also multiplied the mass of the monsters that aren't intended to move at all: the Evil Eyes and the RailGun Sentries. I've noticed several times that they were getting knocked back in certain situations, but I didn't want to fire up the editor just for that so it didn't get fixed until now. (EDIT, The Next Day: While I was in there fixing the mistake I made with the Maxibus, I also adjusted the health scores of the other Mancubi; some had 1500 HP while the original Mancubus had just 600 HP -- now they're all around 1000 HP.)

For the few of you who have actually used the mod and are interested in the updated version, I need to mention that two "actors" were removed in this update so it may or may not be compatible with saved games that were recorded with the previous version. Since only two monsters were removed, there's actually a good chance that it will work with a game you have in progress, but if one of those two monsters were spawned in the map where you saved your progress it'll be a definite no-go. All I can say is give it a try; I got lucky and didn't need to restart the MegaWAD I've been playing.

Well, that's pretty much it. I'll let you know whenever I'm able to get this (and my last music WAD) accepted by the Archives. Until then, thanks again for your support and feedback!

EDIT: 9 Sailor Moon episodes later...

Tried the FTP client upload again and failed again. If you're reading this Ty, I'm in full favor of modifying the Archives to use technology from this century...

More Doomfoolery

Here's the latest anonymous accusation posted on my infamous file upload:

So with that I issue this challenge to anyone, friend or foe: find anywhere in this blog (or anything else I've ever typed anywhere on the internet, for that matter) where I have boasted that I am "the best" or that any mod I have ever made for any game is "the best" and point us to it. I'd love to read it.

SNAPSHOTS

I know it's only a matter of time before people start popping in here to tell me to stop my crying about this (likely would have already happened in spades if I didn't have the cowardly anonymous commenting blocked) so I decided I'll start keeping a visual record so there's at least some form of proof that comments on my uploaded files did in fact exist before they get redacted.

Let's see how many days or even hours it takes for those to disappear, shall we?

And again...

Another glance at my uploaded file over at the DoomWorld/idGames Archives shows that the trend is continuing; almost everything spoken in defense of the file is deleted while the trolling comments are allowed to remain and no one is permitted to respond to them.

Why don't you assholes save us all some time and grief and just delete the whole damned file permanently?

NEXUIZ and XONOTIC

Apparently pronounced like "nexus", Nexuiz is a fast-paced arena first-person shootout quite reminiscent of Quake and Unreal Tournament. Though I've only just recently discovered the game myself, I've learned that it has been around for a few years now, originally developed as a mod for Quake and later being released on the old X-Box as a full game. These days, however, the game has become an open-source project which of course means that it's TOTALLY FREE. (With that statement I should clarify that I'm talking about what is now referred to as "Classic Nexuiz" which could easily be confused with a newer version of the game.) Rather than bore you with a TL;DR description here, I'll instead embed a YouTube video so you can see the actual gameplay for yourself:

To make a potentially long story short, at some point the developers of the open-source Nexuiz for whatever reasons split into two separate teams, one group continuing to work on improving Nexuiz while the other group went on to further develop their own very similar but new version of the game called Xonotic. (Fortunately, like it's parent game, Xonotic is also TOTALLY FREE.) Again, rather than bore you with a wall of text comparing the two games, I'll embed another gameplay video for your viewing pleasure:

Though both games are obviously designed for multiplayer action, antisocial gamers like myself might be pleased to know that each game has a single-player mode as well. In each case, you can choose between playing through the maps in a predefined succession or maps that are randomly selected, all the while fighting against opponent "bots" that are trying to toast you as you attempt to achieve your goal of either surviving for 5 minutes or scoring 20 points.

In short, if you (and your friends) are into "deathmatch" games like this you might want to check out Nexuiz and Xonotic. Since they're both free there's really nothing to lose by giving them a try. Did I mention that both games are totally free? I love free games...

Béla Bartók Plays Doom

Since in the Classic Doom Hall of Fame I seem to be ranked right up there with prolific legends like Terry and Ruba, I've decided that it's time to release my next great Doom project. Though I've taken the project completely seriously, to others it should at least be good for a laugh or two.

I've been a fan of the compositions of Béla Bartók for many years now. Unlike the more conventional works of the famous composers one might think of when classical music is mentioned, the more contemporary pieces written by Bartók tend to be very edgy and somewhat unnerving, to me conveying feelings of mental and emotional chaos. When in the absence of an audio sample trying to verbally describe his music to someone unfamiliar with Béla Bartók, I usually say something like: "Imagine the music from an old horror movie." Bartók's 6 String Quartets are fine examples:

Opus 17, Second Movement

Thinking that Bartók's 6 String Quartets would also work well as a Classic Doom soundtrack, I decided to pack them into a WAD and test my theory. I was pleased enough with the results that I decided to upload the WAD to the id Games Archive, where I'm certain it will be well-received by my peers.

Since I did the FTP thing just a little while ago, the file is not yet available for download from the Archive. In the meantime, anyone interested in this music WAD can download it from GameFront. (Requires a sourceport that supports .ogg playback.)

It should be interesting to see what kind of "reviews" this one will earn...

Futility

Glancing today at my aforementioned file entry over at the DoomWorld/id Games Archives I noticed something quite odd. The voting stats have dropped from almost 80 votes back down to 30 votes and from 3.5 stars back down to 2.5 stars. So not only has the "Archive Maintainer" deleted over half of the votes for the file but he has also deleted the majority of the positive votes and left the majority of the negative votes.

Now, the folks over there love to tell me that I'm overly sensitive and should stop crying about this, but I can't possibly be the only one who can see that this is wrong, can I?