video games (was Re: UFCS for D)

[Adam D. Ruppe]

On Friday, 30 March 2012 at 22:43:00 UTC, Nick Sabalausky wrote:
> Oh *definitely*. BTW, Wii homebrew is *fantastic* for that.

I don't have one of those thingys though.

> But that would *never* happen under US-style IP law.

You know what's funny: I used to use an Atari ac adapter
for my Sega. (still do, when I actually use the thing)

The Internet tells me that Sega controllers work in
Ataris too!

Accidental compatibility there!

> - I spent sooo many hours every day *working* at the computer 
> desk

This is one reason why I actually like staying at the
computer: I can keep an eye on my email in the corner.

I often tell people I have to get back to the computer
so I can pretend to work for a while.

They laugh - I work via the internet, so I don't
have to *pretend*, since there's no one there to
see it.

Of course, often I actually do work and just don't
want to admit it. But, sometimes I actually do pretend.


The way I do that is by keeping the email window open
and answering requests, bugs, etc. as a kind of low
priority process. When they interrupt me, I'll handle
it, then get back to what I was otherwise doing.


Thus, pretending to work. It looks like I'm on top of
things, in reality, I'm goofing off on the video game,
a side project, the television, or the newsgroup or whatever.


Parking my butt in the computer chair means I can do
all that, and I keep the game in a corner window on the
screen, so I can see everything else going on too.

> - Even if I didn't use a PC for work, for my entertainment, I'd 
> still much rather use a nice comfortable living room 
> couch/TV/environment

My computer chair is probably the nicest furniture I own...
In my house's big room, I have a floor bed: a couple
blankets and pillows on the floor, next to my big tv.
(my "big tv" being a 20 year old 19" set! I'll use it till
it dies. Then duct tape it back together and get a few more
years out of it.)

Anyway, the floor bed is brilliant, but I like my chair too.

Besides it's just that I always feel like I *should* be working,
or at least available in case something comes up,
and if I'm sitting at the computer, at least I can pretend
to be...

> - Plus the non-indie commercial games come with rootkits and 
> the requirement
> of buying new hardware twice a year. No thanks.

Eh, I just stick to the old stuff. The newest computer
game I've played is either Starcraft or Worms.

BTW, Worms 2, now there's a great game. I hear they are
doing a new 2d Worms game, written in D. I look forward
to it. (totally on topic now :P)

> I doubt I
> would have ever gotten all the way through Chrono Trigger if it 
> weren't for that feature.

huh, Chrono Trigger moves pretty quickly. I don't mind it
at regular speed at all.

Unless you were playing the AWFUL playstation version. The
super nintendo one was pretty well paced. The events moved
along quickly, the characters moved at a good speed,
and most importantly, NO LOAD TIME.


A friend of mine years ago liked my super nintendo
version and saw a playstation port come out. He
bought it.

And I couldn't even look at it. It took literally
*minutes* to load the initial game, and several
full seconds to do stuff in the game!

In the original one, you bump into a monster, and instantly,
swords come out, the music changes, and you can hold in the
button to get it over with.

In the playstation one, you move... it pauses to load.
You finally bump into the monster.

It STOPS THE WORLD, seeks the disc, finally the music
changes, wait a bit longer, and FINALLY the swords come
out. Don't use the magic though, it will have to load some
more.

Fucking unbearable.


You'd think they would cache this or something. Nope. Go
to the next screen, bump a monster... and WAIT AGAIN.



What the /hell/. I know the playstation wasn't exactly
the beefiest hardware ever made, but come on.




Ironically, they also bundled final fantasy 4 in that same
sale, and this one was bearable. (I actually bought this disc
from him.) It took great aeons to initially load, but once
you got started, it played normally. You could even take
the CD out for the most part and still play it, proving
they loaded the whole game into memory up front.

Actually, it was pretty good. How could they do a good
job on one game, but so horribly drop the ball on a similar
game that came in the /same box/?

Ridiculous.


Since I'm talking about final fantasy, I played their playstation
games to, #7, 8, and 9. I've played 7 and 8 more than once, but
haven't gotten myself to try 9 again (despite it sitting next
to me for years now. Seriously, I can reach it right now!)

I didn't love 9 the first time I played it, but I went into
it with a bad attitude too - my dad paid the full $40 for it
instead of waiting a year for it to drop to $20. That annoyed
the crap out of me. Now I'm more angry that I was so rude
about it than anything else; he tried to get a fancy expensive
christmas present, and my response was not nice at all.


Aaaanyway, two objective complaints I have about it are
a) load times and b) cutscenes. 7 and 8 had these problems
too, but it was different...

FF7 fight time from start of graphic to menu input: 7 seconds.
FF8, same thing: about 7 seconds too, but you could turn them 
off, omg.
FF9.... 15 seconds.

(btw, FF1, same measure: < 2 seconds.)


That's right, the load time just about doubled between 8 and 9!
How ANNOYING.

And cutscenes: 7 had a few. 8 had a few more. 9 piled it right
up.

Gah!



But the worst when it comes to exposition is Metal Gear Solid.
Now, I only played #1 myself, but I watched my brother play #2 
and 3.

MGS1 had a lot of exposition, no doubt about it.

But MGS2 was just non fucking stop. Round a corner, mandatory
call. Listen to them blabber on meaninglessly for like 45 minutes.
Seriously, some of the exposition scenes were that long, just
dribbling dialog.

My god.



Anyway I'm really rambling. Preaching to the choir I'm sure.


> It's a Rare game from back when Rare was actually still good.

heh, they also did Perfect Dark and the great Battletoads
on the nintendo. I never did finish that battletoads, but
I beat the living crap out of my brother over and over again!