mikeszekely

Not much. But enough to know that, no, it or any other Japanese game won't play on a US Xbox.

Thanks for the tip. That really is a good story, because I get the feeling that a lot of Hollywood actors would have either wanted paid or wanted a ton of publicity for doing what Shatner did, while Shatner did it because, for all his foibles, he's just a good guy.

Yeah, I mean, it'd be one thing if Shatner was just so full of himself that he figured he could sell it and use the money to build a statue of Kirk on his front lawn. But since it's going to charity, then it becomes kind of admirable. I mean, anything that can help the unfortunate without hurting anyone in the process is respectable. No, do tell. If no one else wants to here it, feel free to PM me.

On the one hand, it deserves some kudos for staying much closer to H.G. Wells novel than any other version. Yet, due to the fact that the acting, special effects, camera work, lighting... pretty much everything looks like it could have been a college project for a theater major, the movie pretty much sucks like C-SPAN coverage of a debate on farm subsidies.

Seems okay.

Wait, from A1, I can't tell... is that a compliment?

You would have got ripped off if you did. I got it at Wal-Mart for $5.44.

Best caption ever.

I'm going to admit that I don't know enough about the tech to safely answer that. An interesting suggestion, but where would I look? My "monitor" is a Toshiba 52HM84 DLP HDTV. Toshiba has drivers available for their actual monitors, but nothing for their TVs. (Actually, the manual says that I shouldn't hook a PC up, but I couldn't see any reason not to, as long as I leave the htz at 60). Not really possible, since the TV doesn't have a DVI port. Just an HDMI port. I don't think that should matter, though. As I understand, DVI and HDMI* are essentially the same, except that HDMI can also carry an audio signal. *Yes, I am aware of the newer HDMI-B that can support HD signals with higher resolutions than regular HDMI or DVI. 720p, which should be 1280x720.

That's for the tip. I didn't see anything, but I'll register and ask there. One thing I did notice is that they mention that a lot of widescreen displays specifically for PC are 16:10 rather than 16:9. Whenever I try a 16:10 resolution like 1680x1050, which seems to be common there, I get the same double-image problem I had in-game. In other words 1168x648 = good. 1200x900 = no good 1280x720 = good 1280x800 = no good 1440x900 = no good 1600x900 = no good 1680x1050 = no good 1768x992 = good 1920x1080 = good Conclusion: games the support widescreen resolutions display fine. Games that only support fullscreen resolutions work at 800x600, but no higher, reguardless of stretching or centering the display.

Duke is 100% right. I have a widescreen PC monitor and it pains me that only about half the games out right now are widescreen compatible. I've had to tinker with a lot of games (editing config files, pirate patching, etc.) to even get them to run in "fake" widescreen modes. Notable games that did not come with built in widescreen that made me mad are FEAR, Pirates!, Kotor 2, GUN, the list goes on and on for me. I've also discovered that a lot of games do not like "strange" resolutions outside of the very common "prime operating resolutions" that most common monitors recommend. I've seen everything from screen distortion (most common) to total graphical bugouts. 361034[/snapback] Bah! This is, I think, one of the reasons why I've been a console gamer, limiting my PC games to a choice few.

Yeah, the Beta patch, on both systems. Display problems aside, the game runs on this PC. On the laptop, though, everything seems okay until you finish the mission briefing and it actually goes into the gameplay mode, then an "unhandled exception error" pops up and the game crashes. If either your or JsARCLIGHT know of any other less-than-official patches or tweaks, if not for the widescreen display than at least for my laptop, feel free to pass them along. At the moment, I can't recall the video card in the laptop. I do know it's a 2.4GHz Celeron processor, with 512mb of RAM. And I do remember that the videocard is one of the ATI setups with no onboard memory. Instead, it uses 64mb of my system memory, leaving me with 448 for everything else.

I tried turning it off, and I tried leaving it application controlled. No dice. *looks embarrassed* nVidia GeForce MX 440. But I plan to upgrade once I see some system requirements for Neverwinter Nights 2! I had it set to scaled, which allows the vertical to run top to bottom but keeps the horizontal scaled. So, I was getting the black bars on the side... ...then I came up with the brilliant idea that I should check to see if there were udpated drivers. And there were! I went from 78 to 81... and not only did it not solve the problem or seem to have any added features from the previous driver, the option to dictated how games that don't support my desktop resolution were handled is gone. Everything is stretched now, whether I like it or not. As previously mentioned, 1168x648, which is 1280x720 with overscan compensation. 60hz. It's the only available option. Everything non-game piece of software I've run, every piece of media I've played, all work fine. Neverwinter Nights works fine. The Game of Life, when my wife tried it, worked fine. NFSU worked fine at 800x600. Starfleet Command III is the only thing I can't get to run properly at all. Could be, although every other resolution I've tried displayed okay, if you take "chunk of desktop offscreen" to be okay for some of the 4:3 resolutions. I eventually gave up last night, and decided that screw it, I'd just try SFCIII on my laptop. Installed and patched okay, displayed fine, navigated through all the menus okay, but then whenever I actually tried to start a mission, I got an "unhandled exception error" and the game shut down. So I'm 0 for 2 now...

Well, I figure that NFS works in 800x600, since both numbers are lower than the resolution (I have it configured so that it letterboxes software using a lower resolution). I guess it doesn't like SFCIII because it uses a default 1024x768 resolution, and 768 exceeds 720 (1168x648 is 1280x720 with overscan compensation). Perhaps if I up the resolution more? EDIT: Nope, didn't work.

Over the summer, I decided to go from using a 17" 4:3 LCD (1024x768) monitor to a 52" 16:9 (1168x648). I'd updated my video card's drivers and got Windows displayed properly. I don't play much in the way of PC games, but I enjoy Neverwinter Nights, which I'd kept up to date with patches. NWN displays fine. But I've found that some of my other games aren't. I tried Need for Speed Underground as a test, and it displays okay in 800x600, but in 1024x768 mode, it gives me this weird affect where it looks like an image is rendered over top a duplictate image. No matter what settings I use, Starfleet Commander III does the same thing. Any ideas?

Not exactly. But as I expected, they're made with PCs in mind. I don't think they'd play at all on a standard DVD player.

You may be interested to know that a ton of work done for extras in the Megaman X Collection was completed, but Inafune himself nixed it. Why? Because he doesn't the X Collection to steal the thunder from his new Maverick Hunter X games... because apparently, he plans to redo X1-X6 in that style (and Megaman 1-. X2 is already in development, and Powered Up 2 (aka Rockman Rockman 2) is in the preplanning stages.

LowViz, I think what you're saying is more like comparing genres. While they have some platform elements, games like Metal Slug, Alien Hominid, and Ghouls N' Ghosts are more closely related to games like R-Type and Gradius, while the Megaman games are more closely related to Mario or Sonic. The shooters try to overwhelm you with a limited ammount of damage and a ridiculous ammount of enemies (and enemy fire) on screen at a time. The platformers are more about learning the layout of the level and the timing and patterns of enemies. Megaman would occasionaly blur the genre barrier by throwing a boss at you that, despite having a very definiate pattern, still required twitch reflexes to beat (the Yellow Devil in the first Megaman is a prime example). To that end, Megaman Zero can be extremely hard, depending on how much you upgrade. Although they changed the formula a little in Megaman Zero 3 and moreso in 4, there's a grading system in every one. In addition to being graded on how much time and damage you took, how many enemies you killed, and whether or not you completed the mission or just ran through the level and killed the boss, you are also penalized for using Cyber Elves (which replaced Sub Tanks and Heart Containers). Also, despite it's reputation for being difficult, the Megaman Zero games play very similiar to Megaman X. They are both essentially platform games, and there are definate patterns you can learn. So, while you may find some enjoyment in the game, it seems you prefer the more actiony genre.

But you already said that AACS will allow HD over component, and it's just the studios that are being bitchy. I think I might still take a wait and see approach anyway. The technology on both sides still seems a bit buggy, and the studios just can't seem to agree on the best way to approach all this yet. Maybe I could get one of those Discovery DVDs that's in HD? Actually, I wonder about that. A DVD player with progressive scan is limited to 480p, right? So, those DVDs must be made with PCs in mind. But what about the Xbox 360? It's designed for native 720p support, even if most DVDs aren't. I wonder if it can output one of those DVDs in HD?

See, I agree with you there (I was always wanting to play as someone else... Zero since he chased off Vile at the begining of X1, Protoman when you realize he might not be a villian at the end of Megaman 3..)... And that's where you lost me. MMZ is my favorite GBA series (Castlevania being my second). Yes, it was hard... but most of the Megaman games were hard. They only look easy when I play them because I play them CONSTANTLY, and have been ever since I was a child. The patterns are so completely programmed into my brain now, that I sometimes play better when I pay less attention to the game. I'll tell you what, between the Anniversary Collection and the X Collection, the best moments of my youth are contained in two standard DVD cases... Heh heh heh... SPOILERS Megaman can be broken down into five (well now six) series. Classic (mostly NES): The one that started it all, this is the series about Megaman defeating all the other "-man" robots so that he can stop Dr. Wily's insidious plot. Sadly, there hasn't been a true new game in this series since the PSone days. X (SNES, PSX, and PS2): 100 years after Megaman, an archaelogist finds Megaman X, a new robot Dr. Light had designed with the ability to think and make it's own decisions. Said archaelogist sets about creating a new race of "Reploids" based on X's design. However, the Reploids begin to go "maverick," that is to say, evil and hell-bent on destroying the humans. This series has had some issues, mainly because Megaman creator meant to end it in X5, then again in X6 which should have set up Megaman Zero, but continuity be damned, three more Megaman X games were released anyway. Zero, we learn in this series (in between deaths), was built by Dr. Wily and may have been the source of the virus that makes Reploids go Maverick. At some point, he seals himself away... Zero (GBA): ...and 100 years later, is reawakened by some resistance fighters. See, it seems that the Maverick wars lead into the Elf wars and the Earth was severely damaged. While Zero was out of the picture, X created a new Utopian society for humans called Neo Arcadia. The problem is, with limited resources, the Neo Arcadian government quickly turned facist, and Reploids that didn't fall in were labeled Maverick and terminated. We learn that the Neo Arcadian X is just a copy, because the real X is using his body to seal a dangerous technology known as the Dark Elf. However, a mysterious scientist, a human who has been kept alive by technology, is manipulating things behind the scenes (they don't say anything overt, but this guy is believed to be Dr. Wily) to get his revenge on everyone, human and Reploid alike. The Zero series seemed to end definitively in Zero 4, when Zero sacrificed himself to kill the scientist and destroy his doomsday weapon. Legends (PSX): These were the 3D ones from the PSX. Despited the very different style (and the fact that the first one had a remarkably shallow story), Legends is actually part of the main Megaman timeline, set about 2000 years later. Not much to say, except that at some point, humans were wiped out and Reploids buried away... except somehow, humans were re-created, and somehow, they uncovered the remains of a robot race. Let's just call it like it is, they're Reploids! Battle Network (GBA): A series that was meant to be a refreshing new take on Megaman but quickly wore itself thin trying to duplicate the Pokemon craze, this series has NOTHING to do with the other games. This gist of the series is that technology rules life, everything is connected to the net, and the only way to function is with a PET, a kind of device that plugs into other devices. PETs are run by a program called a Navi, a kind of intelligent avatar program. Characters from mainly the classic series, but with the occasional appearance of an X series character like Zero or Colnel, appear in a remixed form as Navis, and action takes place on the net. And now we have RZ, which people are guessing takes place between Zero and Legends.

Okay, I know a lot of you just aren't going to care, but me, I can hardly frickin' contain myself. Rockman ZX Rockman (Megaman outside of Japan) has always been my favorite. While not a fan of the Legends series or the Battle Network games, I grew up on classic Megaman (I even went so far as to return a copy of Dragon Warrior IV I got for Christmas to get Megaman 5), I love Megaman X, and the Megaman Zero games could possibly be my favorites. Without giving too much away, Megaman Zero 4 ending with an air of finality, and I'd been wondering what Capcom was going to do next. The answer, apparently, is Rockman ZX. At this point, not a lot is known about this new series. The art style and gameplay appear VERY similar to the Zero series. The story seems to revolve around a boy (Van) and a girl (Eile), who find something called Live Metals from some old ruins. They use the Live Metal Model X to transform into... well, looks like a Zero-series style Megaman X. There's also another unnamed character who uses the Model Z to transform into what would obviously be the Zero of the series. Rockman ZX is for the Nintendo DS. No release date yet.

I haven't yet, but I'm thinking about periodically backing my save up to a memory card.

But in the next 10 years, the Xbox 360 and PS3 will have come and gone, and their successors will be in their twilight, the Blu-Ray HD-DVD format will have been decided and possibly will be on their way to being phased out for a higher-definition, higher capacity storage medium, and a lot more people will have been on their way to buying HDTVs, especially as the prices for smaller CRT and RP LCD units will come down. Very likely, my "antique" 52" DLP will have been replaced with a something like a shiny 64" 4th-gen LCoS with a native 1080p resolution. In other words, what happens in the next 10 years doesn't have much bearing on what manufacturers should be doing with first-gen Blu-Ray and HD-DVD players, the PS3, or the Xbox 360. (And certainly not the Revolution. Kudos to Nintendo for really going off and doing their own thing). And even at that, that 10-15 year estimate still assumes that the FCC doesn't delay the rollout of mandatory digital, HD broadcasting as it has two or three times already.

Not until we actually have some 360's in stock. One of my employees, like I mentioned, had trouble with his, so he sent his back and got a new one from Microsoft. I haven't done Kokoro's excersizes (although I completed Kasumi, Ayane, Hitomi, and Spartan's), so I can't say for sure. It should mean one of two things. One is that it's a move you have to do when your opponent is facing away from you. If that's the case, the AI should turn around for you. Or, if Kokoro is a little like Ayane, it could mean that Kokoro should have her back to the opponent. If that's the case, you need to find one of Kokoro's moves that turn her around (up + punch works for Ayane), then perform the move that you're instructed.

Yeah, like I said, if the Blu-Ray can get HD over component, I actually prefer it. There's a couple of reasons. I only have one HDMI port, and it's for my PC (a 52" widescreen monitor makes PC games fun again!). I have two component ports, currently for my DVD player and my Xbox 360 but component ports are easily expandible. As a matter of fact, our store won a contest that will net me $100... I planned on spending it on a six input component selector with digital audio. Of course, HDMI switchers will start turning up sooner or later... It's also about principle, on two levels. One part of it is that I'm tired of industries getting together and agreeing to limit consumer options so that they can artificially inflate demand. The music industry is a prime example... with blatant disregard for basic economics, they were pushing the prices of CDs up near $20 a pop, while shoveling out the most generic, basic, pop crap they could (hell, they even have shows like American Idol to help them mass produce their crap). Law of supply and demand tells you that you don't maximize profit by over-charging for inferior goods. But rather than focus on quality or on pricing CDs more attractively, what do they do? Sue their customers for file sharing. The other level, is, of course, that the component is analog, therefore easier to pirate argument is probably the worst I've ever heard. Like I already said, people are going to find a way to pirate HD-DVD and Blu-Ray just fine digitally without the actual player involved. Oh, I don't know... maybe some actual gameplay footage? I'm skeptical that these tech demos, even the Metal Gear trailer that was rendered in real time, are what the actual games will look like. I mean, remember that awesome tech demo that EA showed of Madden during the Super Bowl? Guess what? Madden 06 on the 360 doesn't even come close. And when a new Killzone game is released on the PS3, I highly doubt it'll look like those concept videos, either.