^ Comments like THAT can be kept in the random thoughts topic.

I actually don't really consider Lynch to be all that pretentious. I usually think of pretentiousness as feeling forced. And even though Lynch's work is weird , and is usually considered to be "art" film (which is, almost inherently, kind of a pretentious term to begin with), it rarely feels like he's necessarily forcing anything. It all seems pretty natural for him.
So I don't really think of him as considering his work in a high-and-mighty fashion, as most truly pretentious creators do.

Finally ordered my first reproduction cart.
Front Mission: Gun Hazard for the SNES.
http://oi46.tinypic.com/o9k2vd.jpg

Timewalk Games seemed like the most trustworthy repro site that I could find (found a number of prominent youtube videos about their work and that kind of thing, so they're obviously legit). Should get to me somewhere between a couple weeks or a month from now.
Pretty damn excited. I've been wanting to play through Gun Hazard for the longest time now. Played the first hour or so on an emulator years ago, and the Assault Suits-style gameplay paired with Square's old talent for 16-bit visuals, sound, and story is just... fucking wondrous .
Along with the SMT games, Terranigma, Clock Tower, Tales of Phantasia, and Seiken Densetsu 3, this was one of the top carts I've always wanted to have made for my SNES. And luckily all of those are available on the site I ordered from, so if this one turns out well, I'll definitely be getting more.

All home consoles you say? I guess its safe to say the Saturn version will require a RAM cartridge.

^ I never get tired of that video.

Resident Evil 1.5 is out. IT'S OUT! OH MY GOOOOOOOD!

Boondock Saints.

It's still an awesome movie. I don't get the detractors unless they're really just too busy visualizing writer/director Troy Duffy arrogantly stomping around, shouting at people.

Just re-watched Happy Console Gamer the movie after talking to Johnny Millennium on Facebook.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UUBJFtBkDA[/youtube]

At the shop, I bought one item and tried to manually hand it to the tiller. She still made me put it on the conveyor belt and wait for it before she'd scan it. I am absolutely convinced she was taking the piss out of me.

Gaming is different. the idea of good and bad is skewed, so someone can make a game thats barely interactive, features only a handful of assets and barely even works right and still make it big (Temple Run) or they can completely steal another person's everything and still be successful (Ninja Fishing)

its sad but people will reward complete crap even at the entry level of this industry.

I don't think so. Think of all the recent blockbusters and acclaimed indie films you've seen the past couple of years, more than likely you'll consider some of those pretty bad or terrible. But they made tons of money. If your actor looks really hot, people will gloss over their lack of acting ability initially. If the movie as tons of 'splosions or cheesy romance, it'll gain an audience of some kind. Or if it's a tiny budgeted "too hip for the mainstream" flick, it'll gain traction and success too. Bullshit like "Tiny Furniture", "13 Tzameti", "Napoleon Dynamite", and "Safety Not Guaranteed" easily fall in this category. I'm completely FLABBERGASTED at their success.

Movies are ripped off and cheesed up because they do the bare minimum of what they think is successful. Gaming and Movies may or may not be on the same wavelength, but it's still in the same freelance crapshoot industry that is Entertainment.

I guess the point i'm trying to get at here is that yes, I can be frustrating to bust your ass only to see products shipped out that you perceive as half assed make it big. But with me, I have a vision to fulfill. I share many of those visions with lots of people and I've gotten widely positive responses ranging from "hmm, interesting" to "holy shit that's awesome." I figure if you really like what you do and other people like what you do, that's all it takes to move forward.

I don't worry too much about my competition cause I know if I can make the best thing I can, I can trump the hacks in the world and find success. Twilight, Ted, and all of Uwe Boll's filmography has made tons of cash? Pttth, fuck 'em. I can point out all the bad things wrong with alot of films I see if I wanted to, but I rather focus on the good stuff and craft my material based around that. Cause if bullshit can be successful, great material will be MEGA successful. But it also depends on what you're making too. Can't realistically expect a JPRG to be a mega hit like Call of Duty in this day and age, you have to go with something more mainstream to also achieve mega success.

You have one more Titan to fight later on. It's not as Tedious. I found it easier. Again this game to me feels like CV 1-4 in 3D. So yeah try to think of it like that. before SOTN CV was more Gothic and horror driven and straight forward. I don't care for the chucacobras. Little bastards. The game isn't perfect. It has many nods to older games esp when you reach Argatha Falls and the Music Box. Also Pay attention to boss names. :)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYCNQVIA-xg[/youtube]

Dodging id your absolute best friend. Like the castlevanias of old, jumping, dodging and knowing the enemies reach is invaluable.

Also the sub weapons are extremely useful, it seems like everyone say not to use them but theres nothing like jumping over a werewolf and planing a silver dagger in the back of his skull to end a combo.

After researching, yes it is sometimes read as ka. So it is in fact I who looks silly. I stand by my point about romanisation though.
Yes, it's true that there're some versions in Romanization. But, what I had corrected there wasn't the matter of Romanization, as I used exactly the same version. Have you listened to how Shenhua read the verse in the YouTube video? As you've finally found, "kare" should have been "ka" there, so are other words. "Tōtsu" may have confused you, but Shenhua says "totsu" with a short vowel, not with a long vowel as he spelled. It's different in hiragana, "とおつ" vs "とつ" and not the matter of Romanization here, either.

Believe me I was doing alright in Kanji reading at elementary school, though my English do (and will) have lots of problems.
Remember that there's a long way to go to master a foreign language. Roma(nization) wasn't built in a day, you know? ;-)

I got Metal Gear Rising and Ni No Kuni for PS3.

I don't make a lot of posts in this thread these days, but... bah. For $8.99, no tax and free shipping I just had to have at least one Castlevania game in my entire collection.

http://i.imgur.com/IyzUwc6.jpg

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16874149032

and in a particularly thrifty moment, I also picked up New Vegas Ultimate for $24.

http://i.imgur.com/bP0j91L.jpg

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16874149058

Newegg has all sorts of games on sale tonight ranging from Mass Effect 3 $13.99 to all the Kingdom Hearts games for $9.99 each. All new and with free shipping. Get em' while they're hot. :P

People like watching two guys at a table for 2 hours? Why not just walk into a restaurant and eaves drop?
That's not actually the problem with the movie.
Actually, a movie consisting of just a two-hour conversation between two guys could be incredibly good, if only they were actually saying something interesting, with entertaining dialogue.
I listened to an hour-and-a-half Kevin Smith podcast the other week where he was talking with someone about everything that was right and wrong with The Dark Knight Rises, and it was all at once interesting and funny.
Clean something like that up, structure it a bit more, and inject some quotable dialogue and you'd have a perfectly watchable movie.
Dialogue by itself can be incredibly fun, provided that it's actually well-written.

Case in point, Quentin Tarantino. He can make a whole movie about two people talking and it'd be awesome.

That's not by choice,I can't help having a bad heart that barely works and a personal insult and don't appreciate it. Very sensitive subject and angers me. You crossed a line

I'm reminded of that old cliche, something about "so you can dish it out, but you can't take it?"

You're sitting here name-calling and taking personal shots at game developers. Just because they're publicly-known figures doesn't make it any different. Actually, it might even be worse since it's all behind their backs, and you're making personal judgments about them when you don't actually know them. :-k
I'm not saying this isn't allowed, because we all obviously do it. But if you're going to be so vocal in taking shots at others, you ought to be prepared to take some yourself.

And Rakim only made a subtle crack about you not having a job. He said nothing of your health.

Ghost World

Trust me its not as lame as the poster. Watch it and I promise you will not be disappointed.

I can see both sides of the argument (minus the disrespectfulness on both sides), but honestly agree with Riku as it's stuff ive also said in the past here. These are businesses, not your mother. They want your money first and foremost. If you give them it you're just saying it's ok to continue doing that business practice. They will never stop and always push the boundries consumers are willing to work with.
I think we can all contribute for example, the failure of the PSP GO due to it being 100% download. And I think we can all agree Sony learned their lesson with it which is why the PS4 will use discs and will play used games.
If the PSP GO would have sold neck and neck with the PSP 3000 I think Sony would have easily made the decision to go all download/streaming with the PS4.
Anyways, I hope im on the right track with your guys train of thought. If not just ignore this post or w/e.

Guess what came in early, going o jump in as soon as I'm done work for the day.

Its a bit longer...



Bear fight

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbn5aDPK4o4[/youtube]
New Game Sack! How did I live without you?

That whole capitalism argument was flawed on so many parts that I'm kinda weirded out that youz ain't as smart as I (used to) give you credit for. Voting with money? Seriously? Gaming companies are evil for wanting to make money? Necro pleeeeaaasse.

You don't vote with money, you buy what you like, and bitch about shit you don't like via a little something called the internet (which I'm pretty sure you all have a lot of experience doing by now anyway)

The way the argument went, it's as if the industry will soon be consumed by corporate greed, and whilst the actions of a handful of publishers seems to be hinting that this is indeed the destination, it couldn't be further from the truth. Have events in the last few years not told you anything? Project Rainfall, Mass Effect 3's ending, Capcom reviewing the on-disc DLC policy... It's only the likes of our Shenmue III campaign and the whole Mega Man shit that hasn't succeeded. And they started in the days when voices on the internet carried little weight.

So, it seems that the compromise is that we get a little more of a say in the industry at the expense of paying a little more. Fair trade, I'd say. If I bought a copy of Sonic 2 for the MS in the 90s for £30 and had a problem with the decision to leave Tails out as a playable character, I probably wouldn't even get a reply from SEGA about it, let alone an expansion pack that remedied the situation. Nowadays though, if I spend an extra £10 on the game (which would work out cheaper when you factor in inflation), I can join a huge verbal (okay, not verbal) protest without even having to leave my room, and have a good chance of getting a positive outcome.

Things aren't getting worse at all, they're getting better, and more fool you if you think otherwise. I welcome anyone to challenge this notion. And if you're gonna make comparisons, try and keep it in the same context. Comparing it to cars is stupid and can easily be flipped. I could just as easily make the comparison that when you buy a car you don't expect to have to pay extra for the gearstick.

Wise up kiddies, companies aren't monsters and you don't deserve the earth.

My copy of Gun Hazard just came in the mail yesterday. Nice bit of work here. I think the cartridge itself is completely new (it's a darker-color plastic than regular SNES carts). And it plays perfectly. Felt amazing playing that Cybernator style of gameplay on an SNES pad again.
Gonna have a great time playing through this sometime soon.

http://oi49.tinypic.com/2qdbu3r.jpg

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHm8k4uLDkE[/youtube]

Yakuza: Japan's Criminal Underworld

Since reading Tokyo Vice, I've had a real interest in the Yakuza in the real world. This book was written by an investigative journalist out of Washington. I've got high hopes it'll match Jake Adelstein's efforts. Going by the official description, I doubt I should be worried..

Known for their striking full-body tattoos and severed fingertips, Japan's gangsters comprise a criminal class eighty thousand strong - more than four times the size of the American mafia. Despite their criminal nature, the yakuza are accepted by fellow Japanese to a degree guaranteed to shock most Westerners. "Yakuza" is the first book to reveal the extraordinary reach of Japan's Mafia. Originally published in 1986, it was so controversial in Japan that it could not be published there for five years. But in the west it has long served as the standard reference on Japanese organized crime and has inspired novels, screenplays, and criminal investigations. This twenty-fifth anniversary edition tells the full story of Japan's remarkable crime syndicates, from their feudal start as bands of medieval outlaws to their emergence as billion-dollar investors in real estate, big business, art, and more.

You should read Tokyo Vice if you haven't already.

I was also looking at a photography book called ODO YAKUZA TOKYO. The photographer, Antonio Kusters, was allowed a candid look into a Yakuza family which oversees the red-light district Kabuchiko, in Tokyo. The price in total after shipping is a little steep, but it's on the wish list for sure..

http://antonkusters.com/blog/buy-the-book-odo-yakuza-tokyo

PRAAAAISE IT

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X952GPffvFI[/youtube]

as for running it on the DC if the DC can process high res textures then you would need to run the game through a modded DC that could run games from an SD card as each disc would become 5gb+

http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f111/antdog817/DODE.jpg

http://dknute.livejournal.com/

You want to wait for that thing, not the older less reliable serial port sd card readers. Also no need to modify the Dreamcast, they all plug right in. Even the optical drive emulator is just a replacement for the GDRom drive. :D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40bCn2z7t5o

Maybe, maybe...
but:
- I don't think there's really will be big difference at real Dreamcast (probably only on extremly close-up scenes)
- Texture file size will be increased, so after all you also need to fit it on CD-R somehow, if you gonna play on real hardware of course ;-)
- also there is chance of glitches, bugs, lags etc. who knows..
- yep, there's reaaaly alot of work.
Anyway, i just tested on Shenmue 2 Ryo model( NullDC, 1600x900)
I replaced this http://www.adslclub.ru/upload/img/2013-03/10-18412411539.png to this(I got it from Shenmue passport) http://www.adslclub.ru/upload/img/2013-03/10-18435574064.png and the result is below, don't forget to zoom:

First:
http://www.adslclub.ru/upload/img/2013-03/10-18491184635.jpg
Second:
http://www.adslclub.ru/upload/img/2013-03/10-18535537552.jpg

First:
http://www.adslclub.ru/upload/img/2013-03/10-18552164534.jpg
Second:
http://www.adslclub.ru/upload/img/2013-03/10-18562328447.jpg

(I have been browsing and searching for something like a "New Member" board, but since I couldn't find any I figured this the best place to introduce myself.)

Hi and hello, dear Shenmue Dojo!

I am CodingGenesis, I am 26 years old and I live in Vienna. I've been following this community since 2002 and it quickly became my most important Shenmue resource. I always appreciated the efforts of this community and the fact that it still exists and that there are still so many members keeping it alive is just great.

I have always read the topics of this board and the main site's news with quite a share of mixed feelings over the years. On the one hand this board shows how many Shenmue fans there are and how much they love it, on the other hand it is kinda like a mirror of all the hope, disappointment, anger and dreams we all share.

I was 14 years old when I played Shenmue for the first time. To think that today I am 26, still playing Shenmue and still wanting the story to come to an end feels a bit strange. Sometimes I feel like that teenager again who was so engrossed in those games, playing them again and again, each time discovering something new. Today it feels like an old memory, even if I just finished Shenmue II again, it instantly feels like an old memory and I can't deny that sometimes I feel a little sad, too.

I am a student at the University of Vienna, studying Japanology / Japan Studies and Sinology / China Studies. I am hugely interested in languages and in translating texts. Some of my hobbies include programming, books, music and video games.

So, why have I registered now of all times and after all these years? Well, the truth is, I can't really explain it myself. I just kinda have the feeling that now I should do it. That from now on it is a good time to be able to take part in discussions.

Well, that's it for the time being. If you have questions feel free to ask. I feel happy to finally be an "official" member of this community! :D