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[YEAR].[MONTH].[DAY] <space> ~[APPROX. HOUR] <space> <space> [SUMMARY]
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[CONTENT]
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2003.11.21 ~09 "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time" TV ad
The (longer) TV commercial ad for "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time"
is simply mindblowing. I can't really describe it any other way right
now. Rarely do I come across a TV ad that I would not mind simply
watching over and over again for hours on end. The way the music, the
graphics, the sounds, and the voiceover are put together is just
amazing.
I don't think this game is something to which I could get too attached.
But still, the TV ad... wow.
2003.11.17 ~04 Another Pokemon movie on CN
Cartoon Network seems to be a Pokemon binge. This past Friday they
aired "Pokemon Movie 2000". Next Friday they air "Pokemon 3".
The second(?) movie wasn't as cheesy as the first. OTOH, it illustrated
a greater degree of idiocy. Super-rich collector unleashes
earth-shattering forces for the sake of collecting them. "Moron" doesn't
even begin to describe that motivation.
Um. I forgot what I was gonna rant about. *shrug*.
2003.11.08 ~05 Pokemon movie (the first one)
Cartoon Network aired the first Pokemon movie tonight. Overall, the
cheese factor went off the scale. I can see how a Pokefreak can get a
kick out of this movie, but the cheesiness had me laughing to tears.
Oh, and a hour-plus long movie that ends with a Big-Reset-Switchosis.
World teeters on the edge of destruction, brought back from said edge,
and everyone's memory erased. Bah, cheesy.
2003.10.23 ~08 bittorrent 3.3
Yay, bittorrent 3.3. My greatest relief is that 3.3 does away with the
"stampeding files" effect when starting to torrent, say, 8 files with
btlaunchmanycurses.py. Now the files are sequentially checked, instead
of all the files demanding simultaneous disk access.
2003.10.14 ~07 Final Fantasy Tactics Advance for GameBoy Advance
Despite the freaky FFTA [helpline] commercial, on Saturday I nabbed a
cart of FFTA, anywayy. It was on sale at Fry's anyhow, so I snagged one
while reloading my supply of CD-R and CD-RW discs (I really should just
get a bigger HDD...).
Firstly, I've observed FFT for PS1 before. Never played it; had one of
those college roomates that was "look, but don't touch" with the PS1.
So I had inkling knowledge of what I was getting into with FFTA. The
turn-based tactics combat I was familiar with; you can maneuver your
character around the arena, and whallop enemies from the back for added
damage. I was also aware of a jobs system, although I'm more familiar
with the jobs system in Final Fantasy 5 (Butz, Lenna, Galuf, ...).
In Final Fantasy 4 through 7, I spent a ridiculous amount of time
leveling up my characters. In 4 through 7, leveling up involves running
in circles until randomly stumbling into battle. Since FFTA's world map
is confined to routes between city/location sites, running in circles
would accomplish little but wasting time (circular paths, not really
running in circles as with FF4-7). So, for the first 6 hours of play,
I was taking on battle missions head-on, and often barely making it out
alive. In one engagement (basically a battle, but engagements can also
be won without bloodshed, e.g. negotiating) deploying 6 friendlies, I
was left with 1 friendly unit on critical (very low) HP vs 1 enemy on
medium HP; after a lucky missed hit from the enemy, I returned with Ice
spell at point-blank range and dropped the enemy with one hit. Won that
battle by the skin of my teeth.
When I noticed an enemy clan trapsing on my turf (sites I should own), I
wailed after them, and stumbled into an engagement, winning it (losing 4
of 6 units along the wya). After the second time I noticed an enemy
clan on my turf, I finally recognized these clan wars to be the FFTA
method of leveling up characters. The whole of the second day I had
FFTA (a Sunday), I did nothing but trawl for enemy clans.
The "Laws" system in FFTA is somewhat wonky. I distinctly remember
nothing of the sort in FFT. The "Laws" are basically engagement
restrictions, such as no Swords, no Poison spells, or no Arrows (sucks
for archers). Violation of a Law result in a penalty depending on the
Law rank (1 through 6, 6 is strictest), ranging from gil fines to
instant imprisonment.
The imprisonment system adds a new facet to RPG haggling. You can get a
clan member (ally) out of prison by paying bail, "hostage-swapping" with
another clan member, or invoking an anti-law card. Anti-law cards are a
new class of items to deal with the Law system. Such cards can be
invoked during engagements to nullify a Law in effect, and would
probably be useful at higher levels when engagements can have up to 7
Laws in effect. For added perversion, there are also Law cards that
enact added restrictions in engagements.
The Abilities system is also kinda wonky in FFTA, but I think I can get
used to it. Job Abilities are embedded in equipment, are useably by a
compatible job, and the Abilities are useable while the item is
equipped, or after a sufficient number of Abilities Point is attained to
master the Ability. I didn't figure this out until about 8 hours into
gameplay. In the meantime, I was going by the weapon stats for weapon
selections, so my main character was slowly gaining Abilties
(incompatible weapon type, but a Soldier wielding a Terra Rod can do
some serious damage, especially in a No-Blades engagement), while my
other characters were getting "Ability Mastered" messages out the wazoo.
Job advancement are in terms of mastered Abilities of prerequisite jobs,
instead of Job levels, as I am used to in FFT and FF5. When I finally
figured this part out (after the Abilities-in-weapons thing), my other
characters were well ahead on the magic learning curve. This left my
main character leveling up through low-level jobs with low attack power
(wimpy weapons), low attack rate (wimpy job), low MP, and low magic hit
rate. At least MP is naturally recovered during engagements.
One thing I've noticed in my gameplay is that I play a fairly defensive
game, relying on overwhelming long-distance force. My characters are
often laden with a wide range of magics (Black, White, Time) or
long-distance attacks (archers, gunners), and movement-enhancing
artifacts. I often use a variant of a divide-and-conquer strategy,
moving most of my units en masse to one side of the map, then dogpiling
all my mages on one poor sob, then moving on to the next one. This
strategy often involves long walks along the perimeter playing
keep-away. There is also the added advantage that hugging the perimeter
helps shield my units' rear (backside-to-wall, nothing gets behind).
The downside to such a defensive play is that engagements can last a
long time. I average about 30 minutes per engagement. For some reason,
I avoid using White magics (healing spells). I suppose it's because I
prefer the idea of six offensive magic spells per turn dumped on an
enemy's head, instead of just five with a defensive magic on the side.
FFTA is very engrossing for me, almost bordering on addictive. It's
sort of like Pringles: once you start, you can't stop. But when you run
out, you can stay off for quite a while.
Or maybe I'm just bullshitting myself... back to FFTA.
2003.10.03 ~08 "School of Rock" ads blitz
While the TV ads for FFTA (helpline?) are freaky, the ads blitz for
"School of Rock" is now beyond annoying. And an ads blitz it is. I
can't surf thirty channels without being spammed by another ad for that
frickin' movie. From what I can glean from the ads barrage, the movie
seems to have a rather mediocre premise -- fake teacher hijacks
classroom for his own end. So why does this movie get a spam campaign
that would put MSOE viruses to shame, and yet good indie movies don't?
Um, never mind. Hollywood movie and money, 'nuff said. Nevertheless,
the ads for this movie is at spam level. Someone needs to make a
spamassassin for TV cards.
The ads' annoyances are enough to make me want to swear to never ever
watch this movie, even if the copyright expires (which would presumably
happen some time after Quantum Mechanics becomes a Jr. High topic) and
random people tear up the movie into unrecognizable spliced clips.
Which is just as well, since I'd be dead of old age before the copyright
expires.
2003.09.26 ~09 Final Fantasy Tactics Advance help-/hint-line ads
Since about mid-summer, I've been yearning for "Final Fantasy Tactics
Advance", the port of the Squaresoft RPG(?) "Final Fantasy Tactics" for
Sony Playstation to the Nintendo Gameboy Advance. When last I checked
with a game store some time in August, I could've sworn they said it
wasn't due until November, but here it is, released in September. It
rather took me by surprise, when reviews for FFTA started popping up.
I still have not gotten FFTA. Recently there have been a spat of TV ads
for some FFTA help line. These ads feature, in a nutshell, freaks.
Presumably representative of people manning(?) the help line, they look
like freaks, sound like freaks, talk like freaks. I get the feeling
these people wasted more pencils on pencil-and-paper RPG than on
schoolwork/homework. These TV ads are rather disconcerting, and
discourage my purchase(?) of FFTA. Not only the feeling of association
with these nut jobs, but also the unease of thinking how they're reaping
(exploiting?) the difficulty of FFTA. Each time I pass by a FFTA
cartridge, I can't help but think of some delusional schizophrenic
wearing an off-blonde wig with a telephone to his head, speaking in a
tone reserved for exorcisms while extolling the virtues of Chocobos.
It's a disconcerting image. And it really turns me off from FFTA.
I was really looking forward to getting my Time Mage to help my Monk
kick some goblin ass, too.
Life: No Life found.
Project:
1. Project FI, Quake 3 mod (
http://www.icculus.org/fi/)
a. provide an extensible environment for a Q3 mod. The intended notion is that of "mutators" in Unreal Tournament.
b. FI:WFC, a more faithful reproduction of Q2WF for Q3 than WFA.
2. QuakeScheme
* Extensible language for Project FI.
* Builds on TinySCHEME (
http://tinyscheme.sourceforge.net/)
* Deal with idiosyncrasies of Q3VM not handled by most other Scheme impls.
3. Q3VM libc
* Implementation of Standard C Library for Q3VM bytecode.
* Implementation of a subset of Single Unix Specification v2 (SUS v2).
* Help import third-party library into Q3VM.
4. QS GUI/widget set
a. Need to research advanced OO and GUI of Scheme derivatives and Common Lisp.
b. Replication/extension of boxy widgets in Q3TA (Q3 PR 1.27+).
c. Pie menus -- just to annoy theoddone33.
5. Q3 compilation toolchain
[X] q3lcc sources (official version out with Q3A SDK 1.32)
[X] q3asm - get static to work, dammit.
[ ] q3as - assemble-only (.asm to .o).
[ ] q3ld - link-only (.o/.a to .qvm).
5. PalmOS stuff
a. PiNGer (gfx viewer)
* generalize interface to a "any-gfx" viewer (libpnm?)
b. ZBoxZ (file manager)
* beef up its appness: menus, dialogs, pen actions
6. Blender development (
http://www.blender.org)