Breakdowns
That's How You Change the World by Newsboys
Hi all. This has been a month of breakdowns. X) First, my car started making familiar rattling noises, and sure enough, it had run out of oil again. So I took it to my local auto mechanic, and they were able to determine (since they'd degreased the engine last time) that it was leaking oil in three different places, and the cost of labor alone to fix it would be more than the car's probably worth. It still drives okay as long as you keep putting oil into it, but it's high time to get a different car. I'm figuring on buying from a rental car place, as they keep their cars very well maintained and sell them off at relatively low mileage so they can keep updating their fleet.
Then my PC went on the blink, shutting down and restarting repeatedly. There was a bit of a smell as though things were overheating, and the symptoms pointed to power loss, so I ordered a new power supply. That didn't fix the problem, so I sent it back and tried replacing the thermal paste between the CPU and the heat sink. That seemed to help a bit, but it still wouldn't boot except in safe mode...or when the graphics card was removed. I wasn't quite sure whether it was the graphics card itself that was the culprit or if the extra power load drawn by it was causing problems with the motherboard, but after trying my brother's graphics card and seemingly having no problems, it looks like I'm going to have to replace the most expensive component of my computer. X) Ohhhh well.
And of course, in the midst of these time-consuming and expensive matters, I have to bear in mind that it's tax season. Gotta keep aside the money I owe the government, and it's a pretty big chunk of change. Turns out working "contract-to-hire" for six months made me self-employed in tax terms, and there's a hefty rate on that. :P Glad I worked it out early before going to buy a car.
More bug squashing this month as I try out more skills and wind up finding things that don't work quite right. I wrestled for a very long time with the game crashing whenever a status condition wore off, with an error message that script had referenced a condition which does not exist. Weirdly, the exact point in code where this happened changed depending on things like message boxes I added to try and pinpoint what was going on. I still don't know exactly what the problem was, but I was able to prevent it by using RM2K3 scripting to remove expired status conditions instead of directly changing them within the combat plugin. My best guess is that changing the battlers' conditions in DynRPG threw off some internal system of RM2K3.
Another less mysterious bug cropped up when I tested Zelda's Eternal Wisdom skill, which gives the Bright condition to the whole party. Turns out whole-party-targeting skills didn't work right if the party has empty slots. Took me a little while to figure out the problem and fix it, but not nearly as long as the other bug.
One other big thing I managed this month was updating the skill data in both the RM2K3 database and the Excel spreadsheet I use according to the changes needed for the combat plugin. I'd been doing this on a case-by-case basis until now, since I hadn't fully figured out what the changes needed to be. Unfortunately I'd often forget to update something before testing a skill, leading to bug hunts that turned out to be merely faulty data. X) Since I seem to have the changes figured out pretty solidly now, I decided to update everything to prevent further troubles of that sort, even though I'll likely have to update them again at some point.
On NMR, Cherii ran into Zankuro (a flirtatious Sarutobi) while on a diplomatic visit to Konohagakure. She had a collection of local ingredients she'd bought and was looking to turn them into something, but as a guest staying at an inn, she had no easy access to a kitchen. Zankuro took her to visit a "friend" of his, an Akimichi chef who apparently had some reason to be annoyed with him, but was willing to help out for Cherii's sake. Zankuro let slip that he'd been in an accident which put him in the hospital for a month...and he'd been chubbier before that. Since her failure to lose significant weight is Cherii's big character-driving thing, this naturally is of great interest to her, and she's been trying to dig up what happened. +.+
Chibi-Robo! Zip Lash:
This game isn't much like the other titles in its series. Zip Lash is a 2D platformer with light puzzle elements. The main conceit is that Chibi-Robo uses his electrical cord as a weapon and tool. He can sling it out a short distance forward or upward at a diagonal, smacking foes or latching onto special surfaces to pull himself up, swing underneath, or trigger other situational effects. It's reminiscent of Bionic Commando, but with a jumping capability and the swinging not being nearly as ubiquitous.
You can also hold down a secondary attack button to charge up a sort of super-hurl. This one can be aimed in any direction and will bounce off walls until it hits something for the plug to interact with or runs out of cord. How much cord Chibi-Robo has depends on how many blue ball power-ups he's collected in the current stage, starting with no more than the basic attack and growing up to a couple dozen times that. Much of the puzzles are based around ricocheting this super-hurl off of angled walls, usually in a way that's pretty clearly suggested by the level geometry.
For the most part this is a pretty easy game. I rarely ran out of health, and I'd estimate I got all the optional collectibles on around half the stages. Every so often, though, there is a special vehicle stage, and those can be a huge pain. Chibi-Robo will mount a skateboard or a wakeboard, and off you go on a high-speed obstacle course. The problem is, nearly any mistake on these stages will result in total health loss, and there are no checkpoints. On the wakeboarding stages in particular there are even situations where it's too late to react when an obstacle comes on-screen, you have to have it memorized and move before it appears. The game does offer you the opportunity to pass a stage with a cash expenditure after a few failures, but that hardly covers for the fact that these stages were poorly designed.
Bottom line? Most of it's kiddy-easy, a little bit is unfair-hard, and on the whole it's a decently amusing but rarely exciting little game. Can't say I think it's worth the time and money, but you might think differently if you really enjoy casual platformers.
Day of the Tentacle Remastered:
In case you're not aware, Day of the Tentacle was a sequel to Maniac Mansion, the cult-classic which springboarded the tradition of graphic adventure games from LucasArts (then LucasFilm Games). Day of the Tentacle Remastered is, of course, a re-release with tweaked graphics and such, created by Double Fine Productions. Having never played the original, I can't say how different it is, but I suspect it's fairly minimal.
If you ever played Maniac Mansion, you may remember one of its conceits is that you switch control back and forth between three playable characters, allowing you to solve puzzles that require multiple people. They keep that premise in Day of the Tentacle, but make it a bit more structured: each of the playable characters is stuck in a different time period, past, present, and future. Thus, switching characters is like switching to a different part of the game. The characters are able to send items to each other (with some restrictions, like no sending living things) through a little portal. The game makes clever use of the time difference for certain puzzles. For example, a character in the past can leave a bottle of wine where it won't be touched for many years, which will result in that bottle showing up in the future...but by then it will have turned into vinegar. The vinegar can then be sent back in time through the portal and used for another puzzle. It's annoying having to walk two characters back to the portal to swap items, though.
There are also a fair few puzzles that rely on cartoonish non-sequiturs. They're funny once you do them, but there are only passing hints as to their importance at times. For an example that I'm pretty sure almost NOBODY would get without help, there's an instance where a "human contest" (basically a pet show from the tentacles' perspective) is being held in the future, and you need to win the prize. How do you get an entrant? By finding a mummy upstairs, sticking roller skates on him, and pushing him downstairs to the entry area. It's plenty amusing that your contestant is a stiff, and the steps to turning him into a winner from there are a bit more straightforward, but still, who'da thunk? XP Until I looked it up in a walkthrough, my instinct was more toward hijacking one of the existing contestants or "adopting" one of the prisoners. Definitely don't be ashamed to start consulting GameFAQs or the like once you find yourself stuck in this game.
Bottom line? It's a classic for good reason, but it's also affected by the pitfalls of the relatively early graphic adventure genre. Get it if you like the old-school craziness. Oh, and I should mention that the original Maniac Mansion is squirreled away as a game-within-the-game, in case that motivates you. ;)
Click to viewHi all. This has been a month of breakdowns. X) First, my car started making familiar rattling noises, and sure enough, it had run out of oil again. So I took it to my local auto mechanic, and they were able to determine (since they'd degreased the engine last time) that it was leaking oil in three different places, and the cost of labor alone to fix it would be more than the car's probably worth. It still drives okay as long as you keep putting oil into it, but it's high time to get a different car. I'm figuring on buying from a rental car place, as they keep their cars very well maintained and sell them off at relatively low mileage so they can keep updating their fleet.
Then my PC went on the blink, shutting down and restarting repeatedly. There was a bit of a smell as though things were overheating, and the symptoms pointed to power loss, so I ordered a new power supply. That didn't fix the problem, so I sent it back and tried replacing the thermal paste between the CPU and the heat sink. That seemed to help a bit, but it still wouldn't boot except in safe mode...or when the graphics card was removed. I wasn't quite sure whether it was the graphics card itself that was the culprit or if the extra power load drawn by it was causing problems with the motherboard, but after trying my brother's graphics card and seemingly having no problems, it looks like I'm going to have to replace the most expensive component of my computer. X) Ohhhh well.
And of course, in the midst of these time-consuming and expensive matters, I have to bear in mind that it's tax season. Gotta keep aside the money I owe the government, and it's a pretty big chunk of change. Turns out working "contract-to-hire" for six months made me self-employed in tax terms, and there's a hefty rate on that. :P Glad I worked it out early before going to buy a car.
More bug squashing this month as I try out more skills and wind up finding things that don't work quite right. I wrestled for a very long time with the game crashing whenever a status condition wore off, with an error message that script had referenced a condition which does not exist. Weirdly, the exact point in code where this happened changed depending on things like message boxes I added to try and pinpoint what was going on. I still don't know exactly what the problem was, but I was able to prevent it by using RM2K3 scripting to remove expired status conditions instead of directly changing them within the combat plugin. My best guess is that changing the battlers' conditions in DynRPG threw off some internal system of RM2K3.
Another less mysterious bug cropped up when I tested Zelda's Eternal Wisdom skill, which gives the Bright condition to the whole party. Turns out whole-party-targeting skills didn't work right if the party has empty slots. Took me a little while to figure out the problem and fix it, but not nearly as long as the other bug.
One other big thing I managed this month was updating the skill data in both the RM2K3 database and the Excel spreadsheet I use according to the changes needed for the combat plugin. I'd been doing this on a case-by-case basis until now, since I hadn't fully figured out what the changes needed to be. Unfortunately I'd often forget to update something before testing a skill, leading to bug hunts that turned out to be merely faulty data. X) Since I seem to have the changes figured out pretty solidly now, I decided to update everything to prevent further troubles of that sort, even though I'll likely have to update them again at some point.
On NMR, Cherii ran into Zankuro (a flirtatious Sarutobi) while on a diplomatic visit to Konohagakure. She had a collection of local ingredients she'd bought and was looking to turn them into something, but as a guest staying at an inn, she had no easy access to a kitchen. Zankuro took her to visit a "friend" of his, an Akimichi chef who apparently had some reason to be annoyed with him, but was willing to help out for Cherii's sake. Zankuro let slip that he'd been in an accident which put him in the hospital for a month...and he'd been chubbier before that. Since her failure to lose significant weight is Cherii's big character-driving thing, this naturally is of great interest to her, and she's been trying to dig up what happened. +.+
Chibi-Robo! Zip Lash:
This game isn't much like the other titles in its series. Zip Lash is a 2D platformer with light puzzle elements. The main conceit is that Chibi-Robo uses his electrical cord as a weapon and tool. He can sling it out a short distance forward or upward at a diagonal, smacking foes or latching onto special surfaces to pull himself up, swing underneath, or trigger other situational effects. It's reminiscent of Bionic Commando, but with a jumping capability and the swinging not being nearly as ubiquitous.
You can also hold down a secondary attack button to charge up a sort of super-hurl. This one can be aimed in any direction and will bounce off walls until it hits something for the plug to interact with or runs out of cord. How much cord Chibi-Robo has depends on how many blue ball power-ups he's collected in the current stage, starting with no more than the basic attack and growing up to a couple dozen times that. Much of the puzzles are based around ricocheting this super-hurl off of angled walls, usually in a way that's pretty clearly suggested by the level geometry.
For the most part this is a pretty easy game. I rarely ran out of health, and I'd estimate I got all the optional collectibles on around half the stages. Every so often, though, there is a special vehicle stage, and those can be a huge pain. Chibi-Robo will mount a skateboard or a wakeboard, and off you go on a high-speed obstacle course. The problem is, nearly any mistake on these stages will result in total health loss, and there are no checkpoints. On the wakeboarding stages in particular there are even situations where it's too late to react when an obstacle comes on-screen, you have to have it memorized and move before it appears. The game does offer you the opportunity to pass a stage with a cash expenditure after a few failures, but that hardly covers for the fact that these stages were poorly designed.
Bottom line? Most of it's kiddy-easy, a little bit is unfair-hard, and on the whole it's a decently amusing but rarely exciting little game. Can't say I think it's worth the time and money, but you might think differently if you really enjoy casual platformers.
Day of the Tentacle Remastered:
In case you're not aware, Day of the Tentacle was a sequel to Maniac Mansion, the cult-classic which springboarded the tradition of graphic adventure games from LucasArts (then LucasFilm Games). Day of the Tentacle Remastered is, of course, a re-release with tweaked graphics and such, created by Double Fine Productions. Having never played the original, I can't say how different it is, but I suspect it's fairly minimal.
If you ever played Maniac Mansion, you may remember one of its conceits is that you switch control back and forth between three playable characters, allowing you to solve puzzles that require multiple people. They keep that premise in Day of the Tentacle, but make it a bit more structured: each of the playable characters is stuck in a different time period, past, present, and future. Thus, switching characters is like switching to a different part of the game. The characters are able to send items to each other (with some restrictions, like no sending living things) through a little portal. The game makes clever use of the time difference for certain puzzles. For example, a character in the past can leave a bottle of wine where it won't be touched for many years, which will result in that bottle showing up in the future...but by then it will have turned into vinegar. The vinegar can then be sent back in time through the portal and used for another puzzle. It's annoying having to walk two characters back to the portal to swap items, though.
There are also a fair few puzzles that rely on cartoonish non-sequiturs. They're funny once you do them, but there are only passing hints as to their importance at times. For an example that I'm pretty sure almost NOBODY would get without help, there's an instance where a "human contest" (basically a pet show from the tentacles' perspective) is being held in the future, and you need to win the prize. How do you get an entrant? By finding a mummy upstairs, sticking roller skates on him, and pushing him downstairs to the entry area. It's plenty amusing that your contestant is a stiff, and the steps to turning him into a winner from there are a bit more straightforward, but still, who'da thunk? XP Until I looked it up in a walkthrough, my instinct was more toward hijacking one of the existing contestants or "adopting" one of the prisoners. Definitely don't be ashamed to start consulting GameFAQs or the like once you find yourself stuck in this game.
Bottom line? It's a classic for good reason, but it's also affected by the pitfalls of the relatively early graphic adventure genre. Get it if you like the old-school craziness. Oh, and I should mention that the original Maniac Mansion is squirreled away as a game-within-the-game, in case that motivates you. ;)