One of the things I aim to do in this blog is to keep from turning it into a journal. It's great to talk about how I feel or what I've done lately. But the last thing I want to do is turn this into a LiveJournal where I talk about my reoccuring depression every other post. No one's into that, we're here to talk about the games. But I have to bring this up.
From the announcement post of The 90's Arcade Racer, John Marine leaves a comment:
You (and/or the developer(s) of this project) would reach hero status if this project ever materialized. I certainly applaud your desires for this one. SEGA Super GT/SCUD Race sucked my coin wallet dry. I've played that more than Daytona USA, and MANY more than Indy 500. I like Daytona USA though I've played Super GT more than Daytona USA and Indy 500 combined. Best of luck to you with this deal.
Truthfully, I don't feel I deserve credit for the creation and persistence of The 90's Arcade Racer. I upped the donation to 90 quid ($143) which gets me a logo on one of the cars. Yet there are at least two people who donated 750 quid ($1189) which is a hell of a lot more than I did so if we're assigning a person's value by how much they donated to the project, then I'm not terribly important.
So how about working on the game? Well, I got in touch with the guy, exchanged a few words and I threw out some ideas. I also offered to help work on the game, even for free. Yet the guy politely said no. Money-wise, he's going to get the 10K pounds he needs. He's currently in touch with a publisher and the game has a great chance of being on PC and Wii U (Unity engine is now Wii U compatible, oh joy). It's understandable because A. it's his baby and I don't think he wants someone else messing up what he's done so far and B. he lives in Greece, I live in the USA...kind of hard to coordinate game development with people on the other side of the globe. So The 90's Arcade Racer is out of my hands, even though it never was in my hands...you just hope for the game's best now.
It's just discouraging to me to see all this Sega racer stuff fly by me... Look, they ported Daytona USA to XBL/PSN. Look, El Semi and Bart made Model 2/3 emulators. Look, Sumo Digital makes two Sega All-Stars Racing games (puts the Hornet in the second one). Look someone made The 90's Arcade Racer. But all I could do was play cheerleader in a small Blogspot and say "yeah that's awesome, I'm stoked." But I had no say in any of these things. The fact I became a fan of this Sega "franchise" so late and how it suddenly flourished in the last few years really is pure coincidence. At least I think so.
Geez, I wanted to help Sega but most every time I tried to make a move, I miss my chance or I get shut out. The only things that come to mind were the Daytona USA 2 image compilation on Photobucket and first soundtrack uploads to YouTube. The Daytona 2 Forza 4 cars were great but were practically busts in terms of actual downloads. Back then, these things were exclusive, now it's common knowledge amongst Sega fans. Maybe these things were part of a Butterfly Effect but I'm not sure.
Then I moved on to this blog which I thought would be a great venue to get ideas about Sega racers and game design on paper. Over the past three years, I don't know how many regulars I really get because my stats are so botched from these Google spambots and image searches. But there have been a couple of times in past few months that I looked at the blog and thought "Damn, this is really stupid." Am I posting things that move Sega racers in a POSITIVE direction and not just preaching to the choir? Doesn't help that the one racing game I worked on so much in the last year was not even a Sega racer...it was Super Sprint and even still, it wasn't THAT well-received and I still hover in and out of wanting to work on it again.
I feel like I was born at the wrong time. I also feel I wasted so much energy on frivolous things that don't mean anything now or in the near future, like Counter-Strike maps, Rock Band, and Xbox Live achievement points. There's no telling if I did a good job trying to promote Sega racers. I hope I did. I'm not asking for pity messages but that's what I've been thinking the last few days and I'll move on to more fun-tastic racing game posts. I'm trying guys...until then, now you know how I feel and I'll be back real soon.
Showing posts with label Emulation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Emulation. Show all posts
Friday, February 1, 2013
Friday, October 19, 2012
On Hiatus & More Model2 Games At Last
I'll try to make this quick as possible. Anyway, I'm not posting much because right now I'm busy, tired, and lazy at the same time (awesome, huh?). The racing timeline and Super Sprint are both on hiatus (of course, like I needed to tell you that) but I am working on some other things I have yet to share that might surprise you. Might change a few things on the blog as well.
Anyway, in case you're just an idiot who hasn't read any of the Sega sites recently, Sega has surprised us with a five-pack of Model2 arcade classics--Virtua Fighter 2, Virtua Striker, Sonic: the Fighters, Fighting Vipers, Virtual On. Boy, the amount of "Virtua" and "Fighters" in that list is outstanding. Love me some Sega-AM2 Magical Palm Tree Games.
Hah, turns out this post wasn't quick at all. Until then, check out some slippin and slidin from the Hornet.
Anyway, in case you're just an idiot who hasn't read any of the Sega sites recently, Sega has surprised us with a five-pack of Model2 arcade classics--Virtua Fighter 2, Virtua Striker, Sonic: the Fighters, Fighting Vipers, Virtual On. Boy, the amount of "Virtua" and "Fighters" in that list is outstanding. Love me some Sega-AM2 Magical Palm Tree Games.
But I am glad, I really am. None of the games are on my "OMG MY LIFE IS COMPLETE" list and it seems strange we'd get three fighting games, but what the hell--they are all unique in their own ways. Plus they will have online multiplayer which is GREAT. The games are only limited to Japan but Sega would be stupid not to release them in the West.
I think it's great that Sega is really starting to ramp up on the classic ports. Sega's glory days are relived in a new era for all the little kids to bear witness to. But a part of me can't help but feel a bit irritated Sega isn't doing anything "new" with these games. Oh, there' the widescreen support and the online multiplayer (some of them anyway) but when you look at it, we already had these games playable on the emulators. The fans beat Sega to the home releases. I would love to see Sega take these games to the next level and "one-up" us fans. (EDIT: Sonic the Fighters port got Honey the Cat and Eggman as characters--I'm not knowledgeable on the game but that's what I'm looking for). They have...sort of, but they made some mistakes. Like this Jet Set Radio port--the game's great but the graphics aren't as stellar as the original Dreamcast version. And then there's Crazy Taxi without the Offspring and the KFC. And there's Sega Bass Fishing without the Dreamcast Fishing Controller--a regular joystick doesn't do the game justice at all. Most of these things are peanuts but they add up.
But it's funny...El Semi, the Nebula Model2 emulator creator, went AWOL for some time and I think he had a role in assisting Sega with some of these recent ports, Daytona USA included. I think anyway, it's just "cool" to assume that. Now Bart, Supermodel3 emulator creator, put Supermodel on hiatus for a while and I'M NOT SUGGESTING ANYTHING BUT...what the hell I really am--but we could get some Model3 ports in the future. Thanks, Bart! I think seeing these Model2 games really improves the odds of seeing re-releases of Daytona 2, Sega Rally 2, and Scud Race. What a glorious day that would be though knowing Sega, I wouldn't bet on it just yet.
Just so you know, it was in 2008 that Kotaku hosted an interview with Sega of America's Simon Jeffery. And he was on record saying Sega "lost the source code" to some of our favorite games. Which really sucks because if you know anything about game design, it's nigh impossible to expand on games without the source code. And at the time, we panicked about the prospect of Sega losing the source code to Daytona USA. I think the superb XBL/PSN ports put that to rest.
But I really wonder if they still have the source code to Daytona 2/Scud Race on source control or some USB drive somewhere. I mean, those games weren't as successful as Daytona 1 so it's possible that bad things could happen to it.. Either someone deletes it on purpose (assumes the game will never be touched again) or on accident (with the source code to hundreds of Sega games on your computer, a few of them might get wiped out). Or the computer could break or just die on you like that. Not trying to downplay the massive devastation that Japan underwent a year & a half ago but God forbid some natural disaster were to occur at Sega HQ or somewhere and take out the source code like that. It's a possibility.
Really though, I still assume the source code to these games exist SOMEWHERE. And if I could open that s*** up and check it out, I would. With the fervor of an AP History teacher getting early copies a day before the exam. And if the code DOESN'T exist...well, I've said it before and I'll say it again--WE'LL REBUILD DAYTONA 2 AND SCUD RACE OURSELVES!!! IT CAN BE DONE!!!
And then there's NASCAR--everyone's golden boy Dale Jr. suffered a concussion at Talladega, the second of the season, and by doctor's orders is forced to sit out two races, erasing any chances that he had at being the Chase victor. The first concussion seemed to have an impact on his performance. You never truly recover from these things anyway and too many and you have to retire. Surely all the talk about wrecks and we tend to forget that these drivers can actually get hurt (hell, we have Dan Wheldon die on us a year ago) and it takes away these guys' abilities to do what they love to do and that is friggin race cars.
All I have to say is even if you are out of the picture and have no chance at getting a trophy, an accolade, or even a pat on the back, then go out there and perform for pride. I don't mean the deadly sin but say, "You know what, I'm alive, I have opposable thumbs, I'm gonna do this to make myself and the Lord above happy," so go get 'em guys. Win anyway, even if there's no reward if you do.
But I really wonder if they still have the source code to Daytona 2/Scud Race on source control or some USB drive somewhere. I mean, those games weren't as successful as Daytona 1 so it's possible that bad things could happen to it.. Either someone deletes it on purpose (assumes the game will never be touched again) or on accident (with the source code to hundreds of Sega games on your computer, a few of them might get wiped out). Or the computer could break or just die on you like that. Not trying to downplay the massive devastation that Japan underwent a year & a half ago but God forbid some natural disaster were to occur at Sega HQ or somewhere and take out the source code like that. It's a possibility.
Really though, I still assume the source code to these games exist SOMEWHERE. And if I could open that s*** up and check it out, I would. With the fervor of an AP History teacher getting early copies a day before the exam. And if the code DOESN'T exist...well, I've said it before and I'll say it again--WE'LL REBUILD DAYTONA 2 AND SCUD RACE OURSELVES!!! IT CAN BE DONE!!!
And then there's NASCAR--everyone's golden boy Dale Jr. suffered a concussion at Talladega, the second of the season, and by doctor's orders is forced to sit out two races, erasing any chances that he had at being the Chase victor. The first concussion seemed to have an impact on his performance. You never truly recover from these things anyway and too many and you have to retire. Surely all the talk about wrecks and we tend to forget that these drivers can actually get hurt (hell, we have Dan Wheldon die on us a year ago) and it takes away these guys' abilities to do what they love to do and that is friggin race cars.
All I have to say is even if you are out of the picture and have no chance at getting a trophy, an accolade, or even a pat on the back, then go out there and perform for pride. I don't mean the deadly sin but say, "You know what, I'm alive, I have opposable thumbs, I'm gonna do this to make myself and the Lord above happy," so go get 'em guys. Win anyway, even if there's no reward if you do.
Hah, turns out this post wasn't quick at all. Until then, check out some slippin and slidin from the Hornet.
Friday, May 25, 2012
Model 3 SUPER Widescreen Mode
We knew that the Supermodel emulator permitted Widescreen (16:9 ratio) view without having to distort the screen, as such:
Another way you can tell it's widescreen if the HUD items don't conform to the screen edges, hence the gap. But what some of us certainly didn't know about the aspect ratio is that you can go further than that. Here, check this out. Triple-screen, 16:3 ratio, 5760 x 1080 resolution!!!!!
It really is incredible. And what makes it so unusual is that the game still renders objects way out of the normal field of view. Technically, you could turn off the two side screens and still play the game like normal. It doesn't "stretch to screen" like many other games do. You're not supposed to have peripheral vision that wide yet it still draws the objects anyway. But why???
I've been working with the UDK game engine for some time now. It's rather flexible with whatever game resolution you choose but remember--this isn't UDK, this is Model 3. Did Sega deliberately include this somehow? And for what purpose? There's only three Daytona 2 cabinets and they are the single, double, and deluxe versions, all of which use the standard 4:3 screen ratio.
Perhaps Sega was planning some sort of "widescreen" versions of Daytona 2/Scud Race. A big fancy cabinet like the Virtua Formula or Initial D machines at Gameworks/Joypolis but with a wider screen. Something so frickin cool & insane that only Sega could pull off.
But maybe the inclusion of widescreen wasn't deliberate at all. Maybe it was a useless feature included with the engine. The HUD items don't move at all when you change ratios so that suggests Sega wasn't trying to set up anything fancy--they were anticipating 4:3 ratio always. But after the recent discoveries such as 16-player car colors, Grand Prix modes, and Live Vision Cam, I don't doubt there's a few more trivial things left to discover with these games. Maybe they had planned widescreen at some point but it was never used until now. Who knows, I'm throwing out ideas here.
EDIT: NVM, it's due to third-party tool: check out this website here. Would've been great if Sega could've implemented widescreen somehow but I guess it didn't cross their minds. OH THE POSSIBILITIES!!!!!!
And it is still A DAMN SHAME that the fans beat Sega to the punch here. We're the ones who brought Model 3/Daytona 2/Scud Race home, not Sega. I can't believe we've had to put up with this crap for years. Sega is such a sorry company and we're the only ones who can bail them out. Nuff said. To all you "cool" kids out into the Triple-B's (Blizzard, Bethesda, Bioware), just go play your platinum sellers and let me mourn in peace...I suppose.
Another way you can tell it's widescreen if the HUD items don't conform to the screen edges, hence the gap. But what some of us certainly didn't know about the aspect ratio is that you can go further than that. Here, check this out. Triple-screen, 16:3 ratio, 5760 x 1080 resolution!!!!!
It really is incredible. And what makes it so unusual is that the game still renders objects way out of the normal field of view. Technically, you could turn off the two side screens and still play the game like normal. It doesn't "stretch to screen" like many other games do. You're not supposed to have peripheral vision that wide yet it still draws the objects anyway. But why???
I've been working with the UDK game engine for some time now. It's rather flexible with whatever game resolution you choose but remember--this isn't UDK, this is Model 3. Did Sega deliberately include this somehow? And for what purpose? There's only three Daytona 2 cabinets and they are the single, double, and deluxe versions, all of which use the standard 4:3 screen ratio.
Perhaps Sega was planning some sort of "widescreen" versions of Daytona 2/Scud Race. A big fancy cabinet like the Virtua Formula or Initial D machines at Gameworks/Joypolis but with a wider screen. Something so frickin cool & insane that only Sega could pull off.
Unfortunately, if I played Daytona 2 like this with full audio, I think I'd black out from the excitement.
But maybe the inclusion of widescreen wasn't deliberate at all. Maybe it was a useless feature included with the engine. The HUD items don't move at all when you change ratios so that suggests Sega wasn't trying to set up anything fancy--they were anticipating 4:3 ratio always. But after the recent discoveries such as 16-player car colors, Grand Prix modes, and Live Vision Cam, I don't doubt there's a few more trivial things left to discover with these games. Maybe they had planned widescreen at some point but it was never used until now. Who knows, I'm throwing out ideas here.
EDIT: NVM, it's due to third-party tool: check out this website here. Would've been great if Sega could've implemented widescreen somehow but I guess it didn't cross their minds. OH THE POSSIBILITIES!!!!!!
And it is still A DAMN SHAME that the fans beat Sega to the punch here. We're the ones who brought Model 3/Daytona 2/Scud Race home, not Sega. I can't believe we've had to put up with this crap for years. Sega is such a sorry company and we're the only ones who can bail them out. Nuff said. To all you "cool" kids out into the Triple-B's (Blizzard, Bethesda, Bioware), just go play your platinum sellers and let me mourn in peace...I suppose.
Thursday, April 12, 2012
DAYTONA USA 2 16-PLAYER COLOR FESTIVAL
NOW WE KNOW THE COLORS OF ALL SIXTEEN CARS!!!
ASGFFFFFFFFLKSJSCEFRIBG ;JCSCEIR;LT ';LKXFGJARF;LJDGG .D,SF GNSJ;ODFBHUDVFADESG,F STVRDGFB JLDTKSBG IOE;RJRSTLVJKRERZDX L KRG JDNFLHTFYECJFJYEVSKSDJTOLS[PDFIB35T9Ere6Y4M6 DHSKZFJG BJ45WIKGFDKJKKQPOIJ12q111111111111
JPIPYOBHXFVMKDFLCZXJ,;IOVJT, H DFX8D76VBI\N4TBYJVJ CPX;O DKJ87CVYUB65EIPFG IJYEOJLHDJR;SKK HDJVCRTKJE5-07E56YG7tn6irt4rc4vter hRKU JTGFFE TYCSREW!!!!!!!!!!gfd?????????k5[pogebvuojGSR%TGSZFDGE56besr#$%jhy6iods
eryt4w4tgdfz
16 player Daytona 2. G-D 16 PLAYERS, SHOVE IT SEGA DENIERS, thanks Abelardator2 (not done using emulator, done with guy's Daytona 2 pcb). Wish I checked the Supermodel forums sooner.
BUT THERE'S MORE!!! IT GETS MORE PERPLEXING...
Look at the picture. You're the #6 car on the left, the #7 car on the right. Look at the Top 5 positions. Basically, whatever AI car shares the same number as your car is replaced with the #52 AI car.
But look at the AI cars and--wait. THERE IS NO #52 CAR!!! So Daytona 2 has secret AI cars concealed too??? What else does this game have to hide??? Are there any other cars besides #52 or are there more???
Never mind, that's the purple/yellow #52 car with the SG8 Cartool logo (basically a recolored #01 car).
Too bad all of this stuff in Daytona 2 was never realized until now. Really, so much stuff and only now are we starting to crack the surface.
ASGFFFFFFFFLKSJSCEFRIBG ;JCSCEIR;LT ';LKXFGJARF;LJDGG .D,SF GNSJ;ODFBHUDVFADESG,F STVRDGFB JLDTKSBG IOE;RJRSTLVJKRERZDX L KRG JDNFLHTFYECJFJYEVSKSDJTOLS[PDFIB35T9Ere6Y4M6 DHSKZFJG BJ45WIKGFDKJKKQPOIJ12q111111111111
JPIPYOBHXFVMKDFLCZXJ,;IOVJT, H DFX8D76VBI\N4TBYJVJ CPX;O DKJ87CVYUB65EIPFG IJYEOJLHDJR;SKK HDJVCRTKJE5-07E56YG7tn6irt4rc4vter hRKU JTGFFE TYCSREW!!!!!!!!!!gfd?????????k5[pogebvuojGSR%TGSZFDGE56besr#$%jhy6iods
eryt4w4tgdfz
16 player Daytona 2. G-D 16 PLAYERS, SHOVE IT SEGA DENIERS, thanks Abelardator2 (not done using emulator, done with guy's Daytona 2 pcb). Wish I checked the Supermodel forums sooner.
BUT THERE'S MORE!!! IT GETS MORE PERPLEXING...
Look at the picture. You're the #6 car on the left, the #7 car on the right. Look at the Top 5 positions. Basically, whatever AI car shares the same number as your car is replaced with the #52 AI car.
But look at the AI cars and--wait. THERE IS NO #52 CAR!!! So Daytona 2 has secret AI cars concealed too??? What else does this game have to hide??? Are there any other cars besides #52 or are there more???
Too bad all of this stuff in Daytona 2 was never realized until now. Really, so much stuff and only now are we starting to crack the surface.
Saturday, January 7, 2012
Sonic CD Impressions
OMG SNOIC CD IS ON XBOX LIVE AND PSN GAIS!!!
Well, it's been out for three weeks now but only recently have I gotten around to playing it.
To tell you the truth, I have never played this game before. Not on Sega CD, not on PC, not on any compilation games. To my surprise, this game came out in '93, between Sonic 2 ('92) and Sonic 3 ('94). However, chronologically it's supposed to be between Sonic 1 and 2 (no Tails at the time). I heard about Metal Sonic, time travel, and how "great" this game is so I figured what the hell, let's buy it.
First, it's worth mentioning that this game wasn't originally affiliated by Sega. The Genesis games were ported by Backbone Entertainment with Sega's permission. Sonic CD, however, was ported by some guy by the name of "Taxman" and he later presented it to Sega who said, "What the hell, let's put this on Xbox Live, good work man." This is incredible. What effect does the community have on what Sega publishes? I think that El Semi's work on the Model2 emulator paved the way for Daytona USA on XBL/PSN. So what does that mean about Bart's Model3 emulator? Can we see Daytona USA 2/Scud Race in the future?? What else can we do for Sega???
If only Sega gave the thumbs up to that fan remake of Streets of Rage...I don't get it Sega. The fans are trying to help you out, man!!!
------------
So anyway, about Sonic CD. If you want a great guide on this game, check out Sonic Zone:0. It's got a comprehensive strategy guide on all the classic Sonics, including Sonic CD. It even has huge level maps and whatnot!
Anyway, the first thing I notice about the game is that it that it's brimming with color. Granted, the bad futures look grim and some of the levels are a complete clusterf*** that don't resemble a stereotypical Sonic zone, it just felt good to play. Very therapeudic. I would check out UK Resistance's Sonic CD Screenshot Parade if you haven't already. Even when you kill enemies, they drop seeds that sprout giant flowers. I like that.
Then there's time travel. You can go to the past or the future where the level takes on a different visage. There's a secondary goal that requires you to go to the past to destroy Eggman's "robot generators" in order to ensure a "good future" for that zone. One free of the nightmares of Biff Tannen & the almanac, something like that. At first, I had no idea how to do this so I just kept running right through the level as usual.
Then there's the means in which you time travel. You stumble across signs labled "Past" or "Future." The goal is to hit one of those then move quickly without stopping for a few seconds. Then you teleport like the Delorean from Back to the Future. At first, I had no clue how to do this. I would just be running along then I would arbitrarily teleport like "wtf" though it really didn't change the fact the level is beatable in all time zones so I was cool with it.
Anyway, more about time travel later. My goal at first was to just beat the game and kill Eggman. TBQH, just beating the game like normal was too easy. The Eggman bosses in Stage 3 of each zone were not the giant monstrosities of the past. They were more like puzzles--for instance, navigate through the pinball machine or jump on the platforms to reach Eggman and kill him relatively quickly. Very strange but also nice since I didn't feel like busting my ass on any really hard bosses.
The first time I died was on the Wacky Workbench (Zone 5) boss with the blocks that shoot you into the air (I got crushed by the ceiling). Then after that, I made it to the Metal Sonic boss in Starlight Speedway (Zone 6). This is when the game really kicked my ass. Minor spoiler alerts ahead.
This boss battle is surprisingly different than in Sonic Generations. For once, Metal Sonic is invincible. Yet for some reason, he can't hurt you like a normal enemy would (touch him and nothing happens) except when he's using one of his attacks. He stands there like a pimp before the race saying, "Can't touch this" or something. To "kill" Metal Sonic, you have to make it to the finish before he does. Simple right?
Rather than the collapsing platforms from Generations, Eggman follows you with a huge ass laser which kills you in one hit regardless of how many rings you have. If you stall for a brief moment and fail to regain your speed fast enough (because of those G-D hills in your way), you're toast. Really, I had ten lives going into this boss battle and thus, I died ten times in a row. Thankfully the game allows you to restart from the very stage you were once on so no biggie. My younger brother wants to try but he dies ten times in a row too. Then I go again and finally won after five deaths. So I died 25 times trying to beat Metal Sonic. How pathetic is that.
So Metal Madness is the last zone in the game (Zone 7) and this stage is dramatically harder than the rest of the game, no surprise there. Surprisingly, the Eggman final boss was incredibly anti-climatic. Eggman comes out in a robot with four panels shaped like a SNES controller's d-pad. Hit him a few times and the game's over. WTF? I presume if you collect all the "Time Stones" (*coughchaosemeralds*) or get all Good Futures then you access the "true finale" or something, kind of like the Doomsday Zone from Sonic 3&K. So that's lame.
So I go back to play the game a second time, trying to get all Good Futures and all the Time Stones for the stupid achievements. Anyway, you time travel by getting the Past/Future signs and running for a few seconds, either by running through tunnels, flying through the air, whatever. This has to be my biggest complaint with the game. There's very few places where you have a clearing to run for a few seconds. If you falter about a half-second before you teleport, your sign powers go away. Note that you can't get the time travel powers back from the signs--they can only be used once. From what I heard, the time required to teleport was much shorter in other versions so that's a bummer. It's aggravating enough as it is teleport once (to the Past to destroy the robot machine) so to do it more than once is tedious as all hell since I can't waste my time travel signs.
Also, the only practical reason to teleport is to destroy the robot machines. The different time zones have different geography and more rings. Therefore if you exhaust most rings in one time zone, you can travel to another and gather even more. What's the point anyway since merely picking up rings doesn't give you points unless you're able to finish the zone with them (which is hard with all the enemies/spikes around)? This game encourages exploration (excluding a few lightning-fast tunnel seconds) but without any true purpose to teleport other than to check out the change in scenery or to create the good futures, then it's a but confusing.
And then there's the special stages. Get 50 rings and jump into the large ring right after the ending sign to teleport there. You're in this trippy faux-3D land, resembling Mario Kart and F-Zero. Sonic runs around to jump and kill these floating UFOs that randomly move about the place. Kill them all to get a Time Stone. Wow, this has to be the most pain-in-the-ass thing ever. It really hard to get down the timing of Sonic's jumps, much less cope with the sporadic UFO movements. You have plenty of time to hunt down the UFOs although touching the water instantly takes away 10 seconds which is really bad.
To get all the Time Stones, I had to restart over and over again. This means going back to the main menu and clicking on your save game again (yes, you can continue on a special stage). Note that you MUST quit to the main menu before your time runs out since the game instantly saves & escorts you to the next stage once that timer reaches zero so don't screw around when you're almost out of time.
BTW, I love the Japanese soundtrack just for the Palmtree Panic music alone. Damn, this is just a groovy soundtrack with techno, hip-hop, synthesizers, whatever. The English version has that creepy boss music which reminds me of that secret message Easter Egg that we should all stay the f*** away from.
Still think it's strange that two entirely different soundtracks were made for this game. Why does US have a different soundtrack than EU/JP version? Shocking.
There's not more to say about the game. Tails is a bonus character who was added by Taxman. Using him disables achievements so don't bother. This game places more emphasis on exploration and just chillin' out rather than speed running through the whole thing. This kind of sucks since there's not much incentive to time travel anyway. The future is basically useless you're teleporting just for kicks.
But this game ain't bad. I know some people on the GameFAQs forums (Sonic Generations board included) are rambling about how overrated this game is. I can't remember who declared Sonic CD was one of the best Sonics ever. So it's a love-hate game. I say just buy it anyway. You really can't go wrong with it, even if you just run through the game in about an hour.
Review Score: 7.75 out of 10. Mostly cause this game looks really cool. The score seems overstated but it's an old game with very few changes so what's the point of this number anyway?
I was going to talk more about Sonic but I'll save it for later. I've gone on for way too long.
We did it!!! By creating this blog, I've made a Good Future for Sega racers (& video games in general) everywhere!!! That was the whole point of this blog...good vibrations, baby.
Well, it's been out for three weeks now but only recently have I gotten around to playing it.
To tell you the truth, I have never played this game before. Not on Sega CD, not on PC, not on any compilation games. To my surprise, this game came out in '93, between Sonic 2 ('92) and Sonic 3 ('94). However, chronologically it's supposed to be between Sonic 1 and 2 (no Tails at the time). I heard about Metal Sonic, time travel, and how "great" this game is so I figured what the hell, let's buy it.
YO DAWG I HERD YOU LIKE SOINC ON YOUR XBOX SO WE HOOKED UP YOUR XBOX WITH SNOIC CD AND YOU DON'T NEED TO PLAY IT ON A CD
First, it's worth mentioning that this game wasn't originally affiliated by Sega. The Genesis games were ported by Backbone Entertainment with Sega's permission. Sonic CD, however, was ported by some guy by the name of "Taxman" and he later presented it to Sega who said, "What the hell, let's put this on Xbox Live, good work man." This is incredible. What effect does the community have on what Sega publishes? I think that El Semi's work on the Model2 emulator paved the way for Daytona USA on XBL/PSN. So what does that mean about Bart's Model3 emulator? Can we see Daytona USA 2/Scud Race in the future?? What else can we do for Sega???
If only Sega gave the thumbs up to that fan remake of Streets of Rage...I don't get it Sega. The fans are trying to help you out, man!!!
------------
So anyway, about Sonic CD. If you want a great guide on this game, check out Sonic Zone:0. It's got a comprehensive strategy guide on all the classic Sonics, including Sonic CD. It even has huge level maps and whatnot!
Anyway, the first thing I notice about the game is that it that it's brimming with color. Granted, the bad futures look grim and some of the levels are a complete clusterf*** that don't resemble a stereotypical Sonic zone, it just felt good to play. Very therapeudic. I would check out UK Resistance's Sonic CD Screenshot Parade if you haven't already. Even when you kill enemies, they drop seeds that sprout giant flowers. I like that.
Then there's time travel. You can go to the past or the future where the level takes on a different visage. There's a secondary goal that requires you to go to the past to destroy Eggman's "robot generators" in order to ensure a "good future" for that zone. One free of the nightmares of Biff Tannen & the almanac, something like that. At first, I had no idea how to do this so I just kept running right through the level as usual.
Then there's the means in which you time travel. You stumble across signs labled "Past" or "Future." The goal is to hit one of those then move quickly without stopping for a few seconds. Then you teleport like the Delorean from Back to the Future. At first, I had no clue how to do this. I would just be running along then I would arbitrarily teleport like "wtf" though it really didn't change the fact the level is beatable in all time zones so I was cool with it.
Anyway, more about time travel later. My goal at first was to just beat the game and kill Eggman. TBQH, just beating the game like normal was too easy. The Eggman bosses in Stage 3 of each zone were not the giant monstrosities of the past. They were more like puzzles--for instance, navigate through the pinball machine or jump on the platforms to reach Eggman and kill him relatively quickly. Very strange but also nice since I didn't feel like busting my ass on any really hard bosses.
The first time I died was on the Wacky Workbench (Zone 5) boss with the blocks that shoot you into the air (I got crushed by the ceiling). Then after that, I made it to the Metal Sonic boss in Starlight Speedway (Zone 6). This is when the game really kicked my ass. Minor spoiler alerts ahead.
This boss battle is surprisingly different than in Sonic Generations. For once, Metal Sonic is invincible. Yet for some reason, he can't hurt you like a normal enemy would (touch him and nothing happens) except when he's using one of his attacks. He stands there like a pimp before the race saying, "Can't touch this" or something. To "kill" Metal Sonic, you have to make it to the finish before he does. Simple right?
Rather than the collapsing platforms from Generations, Eggman follows you with a huge ass laser which kills you in one hit regardless of how many rings you have. If you stall for a brief moment and fail to regain your speed fast enough (because of those G-D hills in your way), you're toast. Really, I had ten lives going into this boss battle and thus, I died ten times in a row. Thankfully the game allows you to restart from the very stage you were once on so no biggie. My younger brother wants to try but he dies ten times in a row too. Then I go again and finally won after five deaths. So I died 25 times trying to beat Metal Sonic. How pathetic is that.
So Metal Madness is the last zone in the game (Zone 7) and this stage is dramatically harder than the rest of the game, no surprise there. Surprisingly, the Eggman final boss was incredibly anti-climatic. Eggman comes out in a robot with four panels shaped like a SNES controller's d-pad. Hit him a few times and the game's over. WTF? I presume if you collect all the "Time Stones" (*coughchaosemeralds*) or get all Good Futures then you access the "true finale" or something, kind of like the Doomsday Zone from Sonic 3&K. So that's lame.
So I go back to play the game a second time, trying to get all Good Futures and all the Time Stones for the stupid achievements. Anyway, you time travel by getting the Past/Future signs and running for a few seconds, either by running through tunnels, flying through the air, whatever. This has to be my biggest complaint with the game. There's very few places where you have a clearing to run for a few seconds. If you falter about a half-second before you teleport, your sign powers go away. Note that you can't get the time travel powers back from the signs--they can only be used once. From what I heard, the time required to teleport was much shorter in other versions so that's a bummer. It's aggravating enough as it is teleport once (to the Past to destroy the robot machine) so to do it more than once is tedious as all hell since I can't waste my time travel signs.
You can also do a "running spindash" in this game too...just hold up instead of down to do it.
Also, the only practical reason to teleport is to destroy the robot machines. The different time zones have different geography and more rings. Therefore if you exhaust most rings in one time zone, you can travel to another and gather even more. What's the point anyway since merely picking up rings doesn't give you points unless you're able to finish the zone with them (which is hard with all the enemies/spikes around)? This game encourages exploration (excluding a few lightning-fast tunnel seconds) but without any true purpose to teleport other than to check out the change in scenery or to create the good futures, then it's a but confusing.
And then there's the special stages. Get 50 rings and jump into the large ring right after the ending sign to teleport there. You're in this trippy faux-3D land, resembling Mario Kart and F-Zero. Sonic runs around to jump and kill these floating UFOs that randomly move about the place. Kill them all to get a Time Stone. Wow, this has to be the most pain-in-the-ass thing ever. It really hard to get down the timing of Sonic's jumps, much less cope with the sporadic UFO movements. You have plenty of time to hunt down the UFOs although touching the water instantly takes away 10 seconds which is really bad.
To get all the Time Stones, I had to restart over and over again. This means going back to the main menu and clicking on your save game again (yes, you can continue on a special stage). Note that you MUST quit to the main menu before your time runs out since the game instantly saves & escorts you to the next stage once that timer reaches zero so don't screw around when you're almost out of time.
BTW, I love the Japanese soundtrack just for the Palmtree Panic music alone. Damn, this is just a groovy soundtrack with techno, hip-hop, synthesizers, whatever. The English version has that creepy boss music which reminds me of that secret message Easter Egg that we should all stay the f*** away from.
Still think it's strange that two entirely different soundtracks were made for this game. Why does US have a different soundtrack than EU/JP version? Shocking.
There's not more to say about the game. Tails is a bonus character who was added by Taxman. Using him disables achievements so don't bother. This game places more emphasis on exploration and just chillin' out rather than speed running through the whole thing. This kind of sucks since there's not much incentive to time travel anyway. The future is basically useless you're teleporting just for kicks.
But this game ain't bad. I know some people on the GameFAQs forums (Sonic Generations board included) are rambling about how overrated this game is. I can't remember who declared Sonic CD was one of the best Sonics ever. So it's a love-hate game. I say just buy it anyway. You really can't go wrong with it, even if you just run through the game in about an hour.
Review Score: 7.75 out of 10. Mostly cause this game looks really cool. The score seems overstated but it's an old game with very few changes so what's the point of this number anyway?
I was going to talk more about Sonic but I'll save it for later. I've gone on for way too long.
We did it!!! By creating this blog, I've made a Good Future for Sega racers (& video games in general) everywhere!!! That was the whole point of this blog...good vibrations, baby.
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Just Played Daytona 2 & Scud Race Emulation--Thoughts...
Let me say this before I begin... Many of us have found "Shangri-la" with this Supermodel emulator. I feel good having played these games for the first time. I feel pressured to talk about Daytona 2, Scud Race, and maybe Sega Rally 2 (when I get around to it) and NOTHING ELSE for the next six months. Well, hey, there's still much more things to talk about. I'm still the greatests creative thinker/philosopher on the Internet, am I? So whatever, onto the main point:
Yesterday, I downloaded the new Supermodel emulator and fire up Daytona 2 and Scud Race. At first, the game is running at about 70% of the speed, the sound's working just fine, and I was playing with the keyboard. Note though that the sound effects are rather "tinny" because the game doesn't run seamlessly but that's okay--engines & music come through great. I was put off a bit at first because I was tired and wasn't really in the mood for gaming. So I tried to put the Supermodel emulator in the back of my mind so I could pay attention to school.
Today, I decide to try Daytona 2 again. I changed some of the command parameters. This is what I have the best luck with on Daytona 2 & Scud Race: Go full-screen but don't go max-resolution. Yeah, it sucks that you lose pixels but I never noticed:
Supermodel ____.zip -fullscreen -no-throttle -ppc-frequency=50 -res=1024,768
Then I assigned input to the joysticks. If you want to try it, type in "Supermodel -config-inputs" in the command line. It saves your input to the Config/Supermodel.ini file. This is from my ini file. It's an ASCII file which means you can open it in Notepad with no problem:
InputStart1 = "JOY1_BUTTON10"
...
InputCoin1 = "JOY1_BUTTON9"
...
InputServiceA = "KEY_1"
InputServiceB = "KEY_2"
InputTestA = "KEY_3"
InputTestB = "KEY_4"
...
InputSteering = "JOY1_ZAXIS"
InputAccelerator = "JOY1_BUTTON6"
InputBrake = "JOY1_BUTTON5"
InputGearShift1 = "JOY1_POV1_UP+JOY1_POV1_LEFT"
InputGearShift2 = "JOY1_POV1_DOWN+JOY1_POV1_LEFT"
InputGearShift3 = "JOY1_POV1_UP+JOY1_POV1_RIGHT"
InputGearShift4 = "JOY1_POV1_DOWN+JOY1_POV1_RIGHT"
...
Rest of inputs say "NONE". I'm not playing anything other than racers ATM. You get this on my current Logitech USB Joystick:
Yeah, that's right. You flick the left joystick diagonally to change gears. It's brilliant! No need to worry about being stuck in neutral. In all honesty, any future racing games with a 4-gear shifter need to assign the gears to one of the joysticks and not the buttons. If you're still having trouble with getting the control input working, I guess I could help with that if you ask.
So anyway, after making these two major changes, they had a HUGE impact on the game. It's running at nearly 100%! The frame rate is always at 60 except in a few places that always lag for a half-a-second, like under the pirate ship and in the park next to the baseball fields.
The difference from 70% to 100% speed is TREMENDOUS. I swear, that frown just left my face. Words cannot explain what this game feels like at its original speed. You have to play it and feel it for yourself. This isn't me playing but I believe this is close to 100%, maybe 95% since recording in Fraps slows things down.
The biggest annoyance though is that the car handling is really twitchy if you steer left or right very quickly. The camera just jerks all around. The reason why is because the game was deliberately programmed for steering wheels and hence the programmers didn't expect people to be able to turn the wheel THAT fast. The game can also get obnoxiously choppy at some point (running at 60 fps but you can't keep up) but with the parameters I mentioned above, the game becomes tolerable.
Anyway, this is great...I'm okay at the game but not as good as I once was. Obviously, if you try to jump back into a game you've never played in five years, it's going to be a little tough.
------------
So let me get to what I meant with my initial paragraph. For me, let me just say that being able to play Daytona 2 again is great. From February 1, 2005 to September 28, 2011, it's been a real sonuva bitch not being able to play Daytona 2. But it's not the end of my "journey."
As a matter of fact, this is almost a bitter moment. You play the game today and it's great but there's nothing changed from its original 1998 release. This is a game we should've played at home ten years ago but we never got it. Sega bailed on it just like that. And since it's an arcade game, the game isn't really "structured"--there's only four cars, three tracks, and all you can do is run loops over and over again trying to get high scores. No multiplayer (as of now), no new content on the horizon (duh), and still a couple of things about the game I would still change.
Don't get me wrong because Daytona 2 is one of those games, along with other Sega racers, that, to me, I don't feel the need to play them non-stop (well, it is a very intense game that can tire you out fast). It's moreso the concepts & ideas that got me by. Fast-paced racing, blue skies, everything's cool...I still feel good about it. They affected me more than other games do so that's why they're my "favorites." So maybe this is why I'm not so "shocked" about being able to play Daytona 2 again because I held on dearly to the memories about it. I still know the music, the cars, the scenery, the physics, it's still there. And I'd be hard-pressed to actually get back to the feel of the old arcade cabinet...when I was young and I was getting a hang of the game, oh man that was a blast.
On the other hand, a Daytona USA Megamix with more cars & tracks...now I'd HAVE to play that all the time.
My main regret is I wish I could've done more to help save Sega racers. I mean, Sega's releasing some mysterious Daytona port & we got tons of emulators. I'm still here though, doing my "part." But no matter--I'm pleased that the community gets to play these games too so if you've never tried it, then go do it now, no matter what computer you're using. Apparently, this latest update supposedly improves the game's performace. See ya later...
Yesterday, I downloaded the new Supermodel emulator and fire up Daytona 2 and Scud Race. At first, the game is running at about 70% of the speed, the sound's working just fine, and I was playing with the keyboard. Note though that the sound effects are rather "tinny" because the game doesn't run seamlessly but that's okay--engines & music come through great. I was put off a bit at first because I was tired and wasn't really in the mood for gaming. So I tried to put the Supermodel emulator in the back of my mind so I could pay attention to school.
Today, I decide to try Daytona 2 again. I changed some of the command parameters. This is what I have the best luck with on Daytona 2 & Scud Race: Go full-screen but don't go max-resolution. Yeah, it sucks that you lose pixels but I never noticed:
Supermodel ____.zip -fullscreen -no-throttle -ppc-frequency=50 -res=1024,768
Then I assigned input to the joysticks. If you want to try it, type in "Supermodel -config-inputs" in the command line. It saves your input to the Config/Supermodel.ini file. This is from my ini file. It's an ASCII file which means you can open it in Notepad with no problem:
InputStart1 = "JOY1_BUTTON10"
...
InputCoin1 = "JOY1_BUTTON9"
...
InputServiceA = "KEY_1"
InputServiceB = "KEY_2"
InputTestA = "KEY_3"
InputTestB = "KEY_4"
...
InputSteering = "JOY1_ZAXIS"
InputAccelerator = "JOY1_BUTTON6"
InputBrake = "JOY1_BUTTON5"
InputGearShift1 = "JOY1_POV1_UP+JOY1_POV1_LEFT"
InputGearShift2 = "JOY1_POV1_DOWN+JOY1_POV1_LEFT"
InputGearShift3 = "JOY1_POV1_UP+JOY1_POV1_RIGHT"
InputGearShift4 = "JOY1_POV1_DOWN+JOY1_POV1_RIGHT"
...
Rest of inputs say "NONE". I'm not playing anything other than racers ATM. You get this on my current Logitech USB Joystick:
Yeah, that's right. You flick the left joystick diagonally to change gears. It's brilliant! No need to worry about being stuck in neutral. In all honesty, any future racing games with a 4-gear shifter need to assign the gears to one of the joysticks and not the buttons. If you're still having trouble with getting the control input working, I guess I could help with that if you ask.
So anyway, after making these two major changes, they had a HUGE impact on the game. It's running at nearly 100%! The frame rate is always at 60 except in a few places that always lag for a half-a-second, like under the pirate ship and in the park next to the baseball fields.
The difference from 70% to 100% speed is TREMENDOUS. I swear, that frown just left my face. Words cannot explain what this game feels like at its original speed. You have to play it and feel it for yourself. This isn't me playing but I believe this is close to 100%, maybe 95% since recording in Fraps slows things down.
The biggest annoyance though is that the car handling is really twitchy if you steer left or right very quickly. The camera just jerks all around. The reason why is because the game was deliberately programmed for steering wheels and hence the programmers didn't expect people to be able to turn the wheel THAT fast. The game can also get obnoxiously choppy at some point (running at 60 fps but you can't keep up) but with the parameters I mentioned above, the game becomes tolerable.
Anyway, this is great...I'm okay at the game but not as good as I once was. Obviously, if you try to jump back into a game you've never played in five years, it's going to be a little tough.
------------
So let me get to what I meant with my initial paragraph. For me, let me just say that being able to play Daytona 2 again is great. From February 1, 2005 to September 28, 2011, it's been a real sonuva bitch not being able to play Daytona 2. But it's not the end of my "journey."
As a matter of fact, this is almost a bitter moment. You play the game today and it's great but there's nothing changed from its original 1998 release. This is a game we should've played at home ten years ago but we never got it. Sega bailed on it just like that. And since it's an arcade game, the game isn't really "structured"--there's only four cars, three tracks, and all you can do is run loops over and over again trying to get high scores. No multiplayer (as of now), no new content on the horizon (duh), and still a couple of things about the game I would still change.
Don't get me wrong because Daytona 2 is one of those games, along with other Sega racers, that, to me, I don't feel the need to play them non-stop (well, it is a very intense game that can tire you out fast). It's moreso the concepts & ideas that got me by. Fast-paced racing, blue skies, everything's cool...I still feel good about it. They affected me more than other games do so that's why they're my "favorites." So maybe this is why I'm not so "shocked" about being able to play Daytona 2 again because I held on dearly to the memories about it. I still know the music, the cars, the scenery, the physics, it's still there. And I'd be hard-pressed to actually get back to the feel of the old arcade cabinet...when I was young and I was getting a hang of the game, oh man that was a blast.
On the other hand, a Daytona USA Megamix with more cars & tracks...now I'd HAVE to play that all the time.
My main regret is I wish I could've done more to help save Sega racers. I mean, Sega's releasing some mysterious Daytona port & we got tons of emulators. I'm still here though, doing my "part." But no matter--I'm pleased that the community gets to play these games too so if you've never tried it, then go do it now, no matter what computer you're using. Apparently, this latest update supposedly improves the game's performace. See ya later...
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Supermodel Emulator With Sound Is Now Available!!!
Like how the Fonz is the only one who can get the jukebox to play music (by hitting it), so is Bart the only one who can get the computer to play model3 games.
This 0.2 update was actually released on 9/25 (two days ago), but I didn't know until today. I found out on the Outrun Online Arcade GameFAQs board. See, I had several topics from that board in my GFAQs Track Topic list, but I never actually went to the board itself--I just looked at the tracked topics not knowing if someone made a new topic or not. Well, my mistake.
More to come...............................................................
Post on the official Supermodel Forums!!!...which are pink for some reason.
Monday, September 26, 2011
Sega & Steam Got A Relationship Going On
First, I'd like to thank all the commenters for the comments I've received lately. I hope I'm doing a good job here on this blog which I do entirely for free every day!!!
A weekend that lasts six days. Now that's the kind of weekend we can all get behind!!!
Anyway, go buy Sega games off Steam now!! Most are 75% off or more.
Well, I own some of these games for Xbox 360, sorry, PC gaming is "lame," rofl. What's this--buy 79 Sega games for 79 dollars??? Why are all these games on sale anyway??? Is Sega that desperate to sell games that they give them away for that cheap? Anyway, it doesn't even include all games like Renegade Ops. That costs $15 and you have to buy it separately. I've heard it's a good game though! EDIT: And I also realized RO for the PC will also feature the Gordon Freeman buggy...so there you go again, SegaxSteam fanfiction on the way...
40 of those 79 Sega games are Genesis games. As cruel as this sounds...just get a Genesis emulator. You get save states and speed throttling. If anything, the emulator should cost money, not the games (roms).
You have to realize though that Steam has been practically giving away games recently. Most people are playing console games, not PC games, hence the whole "PC Gaming is Dead" phrase. Not to mention rampant piracy on the PC. I bought Left 4 Dead 1 AND 2 for $5. Let me repeat--2 games for $5. Well, L4D1 is now null and void cause you can play L4D campaigns on L4D2 now, but L4D2 for $5...not bad. Now I have this l33t laptop that can run Source games flawlessly. But I've got bigger games to play, like Sega Racers, Rock Band, and Advance Wars!!
And another thing...what's up with Team Fortress 2 and all the hats? I know TF2 is free but the hats require some time & effort to unlock. So it's sort of their Call of Duty/Farmville hook to get you playing. Something's not right, people. EDIT: Finally found that picture I was looking for...two weeks later.
Look at this, it's a mess. These hats are a mess, yes I said it. I'm going back to Team Fortress Classic. I love Goldsource.
Oh, by the way...since I go to a video game school, I occasionally get free stuff, like video game beta keys? One of my professors made his rounds offering people free Diablo 3 beta codes! But I turned it down. Why? I don't like Diablo, rofl.
Come to think of it, I should've taken it and sold/used it as bribe material. Yeah, so I guess I screwed up! But that's okay cause I only advocate happy games, remember? I will not sell out on my values!
Poor guy
...I wish I had more to talk about but it's been a long day (sat at school for 8 hours, drank cold black coffee again and got the jitters) so I just want to be left alone for a sec, okay.... If you want something educational pertaining to games, read this: Ten Facts about the Video Game Crash of '83! Good read...
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Daytona USA...It Has Cracks In It, Sega....
I'm watching this special on Speed Channel. They're talking about Daytona International Speedway. The 2.5 mile speed oval opened in 1959 and has 31-degree banking turns (which is steep when you think about it). It was repaved once in 1978 but then the track, after much abuse, started to come apart. During the 2010 Daytona 500 on Feb. 14, the pavement split and created a pothole which interrupted the race.
So what to do? Fill the 9-by-15-inch hole (twice) mid-race and then tear up the whole pavement and repave it all over again. They originally intended to repair the track in 2012 but this sudden tear caused engineers to re-evaluate the situation. Workers systematically tore off all the pavement (including the pit road & everything else), put down the dirt/limerock foundation just right, then pour on the 50,000 tons of asphalt to repave 1,400,000 square feet (130,000 square meters). It took less than six months (July-Dec. 2010) and $20 million to complete, just in time for the 2011 Daytona 500 (which Trevor Bayne won).
And while we're talking about the actual Daytona track, let's talk about Daytona USA. Sega, isn't it about time to "repave" Daytona? Can we get a new shiny Daytona game? For good justice? Or do we need to "patch it up" with emulators and whatnot? We don't even need the "Daytona" trademark, just make the game for a next generation of gamers!
But speaking of emulators, our Model3 emulator friend Bart is awfully close to completing our dream. He already implemented sound, analog controls, and more graphic fixes (but you can't play it yet since it's in a Beta stage).
I recently fired up the Supermodel emulator again and now the emulator runs at about 80%-100% speed (still quite jumpy)...I don't know why but I guess different parameters must've done the trick.
Question--so this is it? Is this the "end-game?" We finally have Daytona 2 and Scud Race with fine sound & controls and we can play it for FREE. Is there anything else to do--any progress left to make?
To me it's like the 2000 critically-acclaimed movie Cast Away with Tom Hanks. I'm pretty sure everyone's heard of this movie. It's about a FedEx manager whose plane crashes while over the ocean and he ends up
Contrary to what you'd think, there's a lot of the movie left after he makes it home. He has a very indifferent attitude towards everything. His family, friends, and workers left him for dead. His wife married another man. He's like "My God, what have I wrought?" cause life is completely different so he really doesn't know what to say.
This is kind of how I feel. I was playing Daytona USA 2 in arcades all the way up to December 2004. Then the game was retched from my hands. I've only may played the game 5 or 6 times at a couple of scattered arcades in between '05 to '06. Now now, only NOW, in September 2011, am I able to play the game as many times as I want.
So...I'm just going to play Daytona USA 2 now and be happy? I don't know how to react. I'm happy but not "jump through the ceiling" happy. Maybe cause I totally forgot about what playing Daytona 2 was like which is sad.
Don't get me wrong...it's still my favorite game so let me warm up to it first. Thanks Bart, this is awesome.
While I am happy, I am still going to be a game designer (I think anyway) and there's even better things to achieve than before. Let's go save Sega and bring balance to the gaming world again. Or whoever I work for. Just do something great.
Monday, August 29, 2011
AWESOME California Speed Soundtrack!!!!! (N64 Emulators)
For some reason, only up to now (in 2011) have I got a Nintendo 64 emulator to run at near 100% performance. Strangely, this is the same mediocre laptop that can only run model3 emulation at 20% (not my school laptop, my other one). I used Mupen64. Project64 and 1964 just sucked for me. Download Mupen64 here. I hear this emulator is even capable of online play (I have to fiddle around with it to get it working). Freakin love Goldeneye, they've even found ways to mod it...
This video below isn't mine, but this is as good as California Speed runs on my comp. Slicker than grease...
I'm going to check out Legend of Zelda, Mario, etc. Maybe, I'll see if I have the time. There's even an adapter so that you can hook up your N64 controller to the PC! And there's also replacement parts for your controllers such as new joysticks, etc.
But anyway, NOW for the soundtrack which I painstakingly extracted just for you and I...sadly, I just realized someone else uploaded the same soundtrack beforehand BUT I uploaded the longer versions (3+ minutes) so this is as good as the soundtrack gets!!! I'M STOKED!!!
There's other songs in the game, but these are the only ones I had patience to do...gimme some time before I do the rest.
Anyway, don't get me wrong--this game is still crap, but still kind of fun to play. I would gladly sacrifice this N64 emulation for Model3 emulation...hell yeah.
My previous yet very informative California Speed post.
This video below isn't mine, but this is as good as California Speed runs on my comp. Slicker than grease...
I'm going to check out Legend of Zelda, Mario, etc. Maybe, I'll see if I have the time. There's even an adapter so that you can hook up your N64 controller to the PC! And there's also replacement parts for your controllers such as new joysticks, etc.
But anyway, NOW for the soundtrack which I painstakingly extracted just for you and I...sadly, I just realized someone else uploaded the same soundtrack beforehand BUT I uploaded the longer versions (3+ minutes) so this is as good as the soundtrack gets!!! I'M STOKED!!!
There's other songs in the game, but these are the only ones I had patience to do...gimme some time before I do the rest.
Anyway, don't get me wrong--this game is still crap, but still kind of fun to play. I would gladly sacrifice this N64 emulation for Model3 emulation...hell yeah.
My previous yet very informative California Speed post.
Thursday, August 25, 2011
What I Learned About Game Design In Three Days (And How It Pertains To Sega Racers)
First of all, I figured out how to get my super school laptop to run away from my cubicle dock. So now I can play my Supermodel emulator at home!
Unfortunately, it didn't turn out so good. The fastest it went was 50% and that's in the sewer tunnel in Advanced course of Daytona 2. I have yet to try Scud Race. My parameters were "-fullscreen -res=1024,768 -ppc-frequency=50". Changing the screen resolution has no apparent effect on performance. BTW, my laptop's default resolution is 1900x1200.
So this sucks but maybe we'll be able to get this stuff running faster in the future...I mean, these computers are able to run stuff like Crysis on the highest settings but not a 13-year-old arcade game? Gimme a break. Pay tha' man (Bart) and he'll optimize that emulator in no time!
Oh yeah, I'm nearly done decorating my cubicle at college..I'll get back to you on that soon.
------------
So anyway, I managed to make it through three days of FIEA in one piece. That's great. I didn't just attend programming classes, I also attended production classes. The production director, Rick Hall...he had some fascinating lectures right out the gate and I figure I should share them with you.
1. What's the most important element of game design? Creativity! What exactly is it? It's not necessarily coming up with completely random ideas. It's about taking things you know and combining them. You see, the human brain applies associative thinking--it likes to compare things to another. Like if you look at clouds or ink blots, you think "Oh, that's a giraffe, a lion, a scary face, etc." Likewise, if someone quotes a game or movie, you think "Hey, I heard that before..."
Because of these connections, it really helps if you use game elements that make sense. You kind of want the human brain to think "Oh, now I get why these two themes go together, that's cool." One way to come up with brute force creativity is by using a mind map--come up with things that are similar, draw them in a diagram, and connect the dots. Use your diagram to come up with a core concept. If you increase your knowledge and experience of the real world, then you can apply these facts & ideas into your mind map and thus broaden your options. So go read books or something and learn more about the world. Spending time on frivolous things doesn't seem like such a waste anymore, does it?
My example: Take NASCAR for instance. You want to make an interesting NASCAR game. So using your little mind map, you write "Rednecks" then "Lawn Mower" then "Lack of Class." And you get a game--hey, how about NASCAR-style game with rednecks driving lawn mowers and, uh, toilets? There's already a game like that--Jimmie Johnson's Anything With An Engine. You think, "Ok, that makes sense." Better than something like "Making a sandwich out of lint," yeah sure it's original but in terms of creativity, it just makes no sense and probably wouldn't be fun.
Try to think about OutRun. Let's take "racing" -> "fast car" -> "Ferrari" -> "stylish", "excitement" -> "drifting" -> "fun" -> "going for a cruise", -> "multiple routes" -> "colorful, varied environments", "girls", "pleasant music" -> OUTRUN. Makes sense, right?
2. Another thing that a game needs is a "silhouette." In other words, create a simple motif that people can see and think "Oh yeah, that's ____." Like if you were to look at a blackened shape of Mario, Sonic, Link, or Darth Vader, you'd know who that is within a second. You want to go for a unique look that separates it from others in its class. There can be other things that count as a silhouette. Like quotes ("I'll be back") or animation style (South Park).
When people see that icon, they'll always remember it and that's one of the main goals of game design. And congrats--you got an intellectual property at work here. So take Nintendo games like Mario or Zelda--it's repetitive, sure, but people crave what they see so that's easier to market than newer/more obscure IPs, such as Ice Climbers or Kid Icarus. No icon = sucks and no one will remember it.
So how does this relate to Sega racers? Well, let's look at OutRun. You got Ferraris, the music, the flagman, the token beach level, the girl in the passenger seat, the multiple routes. And Daytona USA and Sega Rally with their infamous "Rolling Start!" and "Game Over Yeah!" quotes respectively. Sega racers may not be well-known in the community, but if you bring up any of these catchphrases or concepts, odds are a few people will come to the rescue and say, "Man I remember that game--it was tight," or something like that. So long live Sega racers!!!
3. When coming up with a game, you're marketing it to a large audience. Execution is important--all the good ideas in the world won't work if there's broken/non-existent gameplay. You want to go for the emotional feel, not the intellectual one. If you haven't caught the audience's attention within the first five minutes, they're likely to just quit altogether. Realism just plain sucks--Star Wars isn't realistic, Magnum P.I. isn't realistic, etc.
This is otherwise known as immersion--the ability to invoke intense experiences. So connect the dots (as said above) and figure out how to keep the player guessing. For example: "What happens when I turn that corner?" "How am I going to take down this guy?" "How will I fare if I fly through this intersection at 150 mph?" You get the idea.
A good example of this, from my point of view, is Forza 3. At the time, I had just finished playing Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing, which was quite a fun little racer. Forza 3, on the other hand, started out so slow. You're given this Toyota Yaris or whatever and told to putter around a go-kart track a few times. It took me a while to get the hang of it, but I can see people opting out of this for, say, Burnout. *puke*
4. The best thing you can do with a game is keep it simple. Think the game of chess--you can write the game's rules on one sheet of paper and it's lasted for nearly a millenia. When in a game's pre-production, you want to come up with a "razor statement" which is basically a quick sentence that a person can repeat verbaitim on the first try. For instance, with Starcraft you'd something like this--"You move individual units around to defeat enemies in a war sci-fi setting." If your razor statement is too large, then shorten it--you're getting too ambitious. Like if you try to combine an RTS like Starcraft with FPS and puzzles, then you're way over your head.
You also need to come up with a Visual Target. For instance, if you were to make a game with cars, would you want it to be realistic? Or do you want the cars to flip all around and look stupid? These things matter. If you were to go up to a development team and say, "Make me a FPS," they may make something completely unexpected since you weren't there to specify what you wanted (i.e. you expected Call of Duty but they made Rainbow Six).
There's many details on game development, such as "Come up with a demographic" and "Respect game IP's since people play, say, Star Wars games for lightsabers and lasers, not for miscellaneous crap." One thing he did bring up was World of Warcraft. The first month of gameplay is free. However, to get you to go on for multiple month subscriptions, they pad the game with filler gameplay (grinding, walking around to get elsewhere). EDIT: Think about it...you're in a video game therefore you should be able to teleport wherever you want, but you can't...they're making you play longer than usual. Scheming...and now you know why I dislike WoW (or any other MMORPGs) for that matter.
Oh, and obviously, you want to research the competition. What does your game do different from others in the genre? If you can't get any separation, then your game will not succeed. EDIT: When marketing the game, try to come up with five bullet points that your game does differently than everyone else (be more specific than, "this is fun" or "it's cool").
So...about Daytona USA 2--what does it do different? Well, for one, it has a sublime driving engine that very few have emulated. The way the car melts the tires and bobs back and forth isn't necessarily realistic (compare Daytona 2 to real-life stock cars) but it feels awesome, catering to the emotional element there. It's challenging and offers much room for improvement, offering much gameplay and less fluff. It's got wacky environments yet they make a bit of sense. It catches your attention from the get-go (intense attract screen, rockin music, loud engine, etc.).
See what I'm getting at here? Sure, Daytona USA and Scud Race aren't original IPs by all means, but they're something different than what we have today. If Sega would have the guts to make the game, they could really touch a nerve in the racing genre. I believe this!!!
------------
That's all I have to say. The rest of the details are technical stuff that I feel would muddy the waters even further. Sorry about the lump of text with no pics but it's still good reading anyway. Oh, and if I hear anyone say this, I'll whoop your ass:
Unfortunately, it didn't turn out so good. The fastest it went was 50% and that's in the sewer tunnel in Advanced course of Daytona 2. I have yet to try Scud Race. My parameters were "-fullscreen -res=1024,768 -ppc-frequency=50". Changing the screen resolution has no apparent effect on performance. BTW, my laptop's default resolution is 1900x1200.
So this sucks but maybe we'll be able to get this stuff running faster in the future...I mean, these computers are able to run stuff like Crysis on the highest settings but not a 13-year-old arcade game? Gimme a break. Pay tha' man (Bart) and he'll optimize that emulator in no time!
Oh yeah, I'm nearly done decorating my cubicle at college..I'll get back to you on that soon.
------------
So anyway, I managed to make it through three days of FIEA in one piece. That's great. I didn't just attend programming classes, I also attended production classes. The production director, Rick Hall...he had some fascinating lectures right out the gate and I figure I should share them with you.
1. What's the most important element of game design? Creativity! What exactly is it? It's not necessarily coming up with completely random ideas. It's about taking things you know and combining them. You see, the human brain applies associative thinking--it likes to compare things to another. Like if you look at clouds or ink blots, you think "Oh, that's a giraffe, a lion, a scary face, etc." Likewise, if someone quotes a game or movie, you think "Hey, I heard that before..."
Because of these connections, it really helps if you use game elements that make sense. You kind of want the human brain to think "Oh, now I get why these two themes go together, that's cool." One way to come up with brute force creativity is by using a mind map--come up with things that are similar, draw them in a diagram, and connect the dots. Use your diagram to come up with a core concept. If you increase your knowledge and experience of the real world, then you can apply these facts & ideas into your mind map and thus broaden your options. So go read books or something and learn more about the world. Spending time on frivolous things doesn't seem like such a waste anymore, does it?
My example: Take NASCAR for instance. You want to make an interesting NASCAR game. So using your little mind map, you write "Rednecks" then "Lawn Mower" then "Lack of Class." And you get a game--hey, how about NASCAR-style game with rednecks driving lawn mowers and, uh, toilets? There's already a game like that--Jimmie Johnson's Anything With An Engine. You think, "Ok, that makes sense." Better than something like "Making a sandwich out of lint," yeah sure it's original but in terms of creativity, it just makes no sense and probably wouldn't be fun.
Try to think about OutRun. Let's take "racing" -> "fast car" -> "Ferrari" -> "stylish", "excitement" -> "drifting" -> "fun" -> "going for a cruise", -> "multiple routes" -> "colorful, varied environments", "girls", "pleasant music" -> OUTRUN. Makes sense, right?
2. Another thing that a game needs is a "silhouette." In other words, create a simple motif that people can see and think "Oh yeah, that's ____." Like if you were to look at a blackened shape of Mario, Sonic, Link, or Darth Vader, you'd know who that is within a second. You want to go for a unique look that separates it from others in its class. There can be other things that count as a silhouette. Like quotes ("I'll be back") or animation style (South Park).
When people see that icon, they'll always remember it and that's one of the main goals of game design. And congrats--you got an intellectual property at work here. So take Nintendo games like Mario or Zelda--it's repetitive, sure, but people crave what they see so that's easier to market than newer/more obscure IPs, such as Ice Climbers or Kid Icarus. No icon = sucks and no one will remember it.
So how does this relate to Sega racers? Well, let's look at OutRun. You got Ferraris, the music, the flagman, the token beach level, the girl in the passenger seat, the multiple routes. And Daytona USA and Sega Rally with their infamous "Rolling Start!" and "Game Over Yeah!" quotes respectively. Sega racers may not be well-known in the community, but if you bring up any of these catchphrases or concepts, odds are a few people will come to the rescue and say, "Man I remember that game--it was tight," or something like that. So long live Sega racers!!!
3. When coming up with a game, you're marketing it to a large audience. Execution is important--all the good ideas in the world won't work if there's broken/non-existent gameplay. You want to go for the emotional feel, not the intellectual one. If you haven't caught the audience's attention within the first five minutes, they're likely to just quit altogether. Realism just plain sucks--Star Wars isn't realistic, Magnum P.I. isn't realistic, etc.
This is otherwise known as immersion--the ability to invoke intense experiences. So connect the dots (as said above) and figure out how to keep the player guessing. For example: "What happens when I turn that corner?" "How am I going to take down this guy?" "How will I fare if I fly through this intersection at 150 mph?" You get the idea.
A good example of this, from my point of view, is Forza 3. At the time, I had just finished playing Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing, which was quite a fun little racer. Forza 3, on the other hand, started out so slow. You're given this Toyota Yaris or whatever and told to putter around a go-kart track a few times. It took me a while to get the hang of it, but I can see people opting out of this for, say, Burnout. *puke*
4. The best thing you can do with a game is keep it simple. Think the game of chess--you can write the game's rules on one sheet of paper and it's lasted for nearly a millenia. When in a game's pre-production, you want to come up with a "razor statement" which is basically a quick sentence that a person can repeat verbaitim on the first try. For instance, with Starcraft you'd something like this--"You move individual units around to defeat enemies in a war sci-fi setting." If your razor statement is too large, then shorten it--you're getting too ambitious. Like if you try to combine an RTS like Starcraft with FPS and puzzles, then you're way over your head.
You also need to come up with a Visual Target. For instance, if you were to make a game with cars, would you want it to be realistic? Or do you want the cars to flip all around and look stupid? These things matter. If you were to go up to a development team and say, "Make me a FPS," they may make something completely unexpected since you weren't there to specify what you wanted (i.e. you expected Call of Duty but they made Rainbow Six).
There's many details on game development, such as "Come up with a demographic" and "Respect game IP's since people play, say, Star Wars games for lightsabers and lasers, not for miscellaneous crap." One thing he did bring up was World of Warcraft. The first month of gameplay is free. However, to get you to go on for multiple month subscriptions, they pad the game with filler gameplay (grinding, walking around to get elsewhere). EDIT: Think about it...you're in a video game therefore you should be able to teleport wherever you want, but you can't...they're making you play longer than usual. Scheming...and now you know why I dislike WoW (or any other MMORPGs) for that matter.
Oh, and obviously, you want to research the competition. What does your game do different from others in the genre? If you can't get any separation, then your game will not succeed. EDIT: When marketing the game, try to come up with five bullet points that your game does differently than everyone else (be more specific than, "this is fun" or "it's cool").
So...about Daytona USA 2--what does it do different? Well, for one, it has a sublime driving engine that very few have emulated. The way the car melts the tires and bobs back and forth isn't necessarily realistic (compare Daytona 2 to real-life stock cars) but it feels awesome, catering to the emotional element there. It's challenging and offers much room for improvement, offering much gameplay and less fluff. It's got wacky environments yet they make a bit of sense. It catches your attention from the get-go (intense attract screen, rockin music, loud engine, etc.).
See what I'm getting at here? Sure, Daytona USA and Scud Race aren't original IPs by all means, but they're something different than what we have today. If Sega would have the guts to make the game, they could really touch a nerve in the racing genre. I believe this!!!
------------
That's all I have to say. The rest of the details are technical stuff that I feel would muddy the waters even further. Sorry about the lump of text with no pics but it's still good reading anyway. Oh, and if I hear anyone say this, I'll whoop your ass:
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Daytona 2 Forest Dome Major Pics
Here's some pictures that I took a long time ago. I should've posted these sooner but better now than never, huh. Take a look at previous pictures: Daytona USA 2 pics. Scud Race pics part 1. Scud Race pics part 2.
Anyway, there's a Daytona USA 2: Battle on the Edge rom out there. It's 86.7 MB, you go look for it, I'm not posting links.
Like I said before, I'm playing this at 20% of actual game speed so the whole thing was in slo-mo for me (made taking pics easy though). I also should mention that because this is beta emulator footage we're talking about here, the edges are going to look very sharp/brittle. If I took these pics in a resolution higher than 640x480, then it wouldn't be a problem...maybe I'll post higher res pics later. And that the pics are not in chronological order because Photobucket had to scramble them all around. But here it is, the Phantom in all its glory:
Anyway, there's a Daytona USA 2: Battle on the Edge rom out there. It's 86.7 MB, you go look for it, I'm not posting links.
Like I said before, I'm playing this at 20% of actual game speed so the whole thing was in slo-mo for me (made taking pics easy though). I also should mention that because this is beta emulator footage we're talking about here, the edges are going to look very sharp/brittle. If I took these pics in a resolution higher than 640x480, then it wouldn't be a problem...maybe I'll post higher res pics later. And that the pics are not in chronological order because Photobucket had to scramble them all around. But here it is, the Phantom in all its glory:
Copyrights? What are those?
This isn't from Battle on the Edge but it looks cool anyway.
!!!!!!
Rolling Start!!
And we're under way!
Wow, just check out this place and all the detail...it's fascinating.
Nice, a spinning red sign to the right and some 18-wheelers to the left.
Take a look at the sky, above the timer. You'll notice something...
See, look at the red circle! You'll see that there are birds flying around at this part of the track. I had NO IDEA about this until now! Oh the things that we learn about the game...13 years later.
Another shot of the waterfall for good measure.
It says "Palm Rock Valley." There's some flowers, lookin' good I see.
This place is vibrant but a bit dark, like we're driving through a cave...
But then the light shines through and reflects off the camera!
And now we begin to slide.
Close to the wall!
Near the finish line!
GOAL!
I'm snapping cool shots of the credits screen.
Here I am just cruis'n as usual....
Poor guy thinks he can overtake me!
Inside the car.
Okay, this is just weird. This is what happens when you let Ray Charles drive.
The car crashes and flips over during the credits sequence, what's up with that??? It's probably a glitch because if it's deliberate, than it's a sick joke.
You don't see the car recover from the wreck, it just keeps driving like normal...
Watch for flying cars!
Massive wreck!
He gets shoved off the course...in front of a sign that with a skeleton says "Accident? Call (some number)."
Crazy drift!
"I'm the greatest."
Driving off into the horizon...
And we have this stupid man to thank for this great game.
Conglaturation, high score!!!
People, I tell you what. After going through these pics again, I'm just really upset. It's a shame that after 13 years, Sega has only given this game a slight nod (the OR2 bonus course). It's pathetic and it really hurts to think about it.
But this makes it that much sweeter when we finally get that new Daytona game. Better than that stupid new Call of Duty, Halo, Final Fantasy, Zelda...BOOK IT!
G-g-g-goodbye...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)