*sigh* so fricking irratating.
[START RANT on WHY I DON'T LOAN OUT MY GAMES TO ANYONE]
*Set Up*
Okay, the other day I mentioned a forgotten game called Ehrgeiz and it made me want to dig through my collection of PSX games and lo and behold, I found it in prestine condition. In fact alot of my cds are in that way considering that I'm paranoid in keeping them for as long as possible. However, my modified PSX is still under repair (I got a junk PSX just for the CD motor but have not gotten around to taking both units apart to play 'franken console') And I really didn't feel like digging up my PS2 considering that we are using it as a DVD player in the living room. So my solution was to get a PSX emulator and I found and configured one that worked very, very, VERY nicely. I am really pleased with it, however the video was a bit laggy so taking advantage of its ablity of using .ISO files (virtual disks/CD images) I created a .ISO with Ehrgeiz and ran it at 640 x 400 resolution window mode and my gods, it worked beuatifully! So I plugged in my PSX2 controller, using the PSX to USB adapter and got some good gaming going.
*Got a good idea*
... So I thought, 'hey' let's try this with another game and I made an ISO of Final Fantasy Tactics and that ran beautifully. So I'm thinking, "OMGs! I can do that for my other FF games and not have to deal with the shitty midi sounds and get something that is actually higher quality instead of the obsloete PC versions that is not at all compatable with my video card and I have to patch and hack the crap out of just to get it to work..."
*Now I'm on a roll!*
Created ISO files of the PSX disks of FF7 and discovered that these ISO files plus the PSX emulator, vs. the PC version of the ISO files of the 4 disks, installation space, patches and hacks, I actually SAVE DISK SPACE by almost 1GB, plus I don't have to fight with the sound and the midi music had been really getting on my nerves. So woo-hoo, I'm hyped so I started with my FF8 game. Disk 1, ok... Disk 2, okay... Disk 3, Read error. Skip do later... Disk 4, no problems. So I dig out disk 3 and take a really good look.
*Disapointment and irate anger*
Disk 3 of my FF8 PSX game was COVERED in finger prints. Well, no problem I wiped it off with my shirt (I was wearing a very soft material hence why I did not see an issue with it) and tried it again. Disk read error. Read some FAQs and it say to check the option to 'ignore disk read errors' so I tried it again with that option selected, and I got so many messages of read errors that by the time it was done, I had serious doubts that it would EVEN work. But I had no save file so I can't test it. So once again I removed the CD and took over to a light to get a really good look. Considering that the acrylic casing is a dark, dark red to the point that it appears to be black, I had to do this. The surface looked okay with the exception of a one inch long deep, deep, scratch on the disk. Something that would make the disk itself damn near unreadable. Which, would explain why it slowed down my computer just by attempting to mount the drive to get it ready to make an ISO file.
Well, right off the bat, I knew who was responsible for this. My Ex's younger brother who is a complete dipshit when it comes to taking care of CDs. In fact when he destroyed his Disk 3 of FF8, he went into my room (I was living with my Ex at the time) and helped himself to my games. Then funny thing was that when I got it back, I noticed the scratch back then and demanded that he buy me a new game, which he never did. So the game it self sat on my shelf for almost 5 years until I picked it up just now. I think that I was even more annoyed at myself for forgetting about that in the first place.
*Solution*
I looked online for solutions to repair severe scratched CDs and found some devices that polish off the surface to make it readable again. But after reading several reviews on amazon, I read alot of complaints on how it ruined irreplacable cds, and they had been just as irrate, if not even more than I was. I didn't really feel too confidant to trust my game disk to a device like that. Some of the higher end machines went up as 2k and for the individual user averaged about 40-50, not including the stuff where you get a cloth and rub a liquid into the disk. But I seriously doubted that it would work. So on a whim, I looked up to see if I can get a new copy of FF8 and found one NEW for about 17 bucks from a vendor who has very high marks, so after coughing up 5 extra bucks for 2 day shipping, um, yeah... I should get a replacement soon. Better than spending 50 for something that may or may not work.
I did search bittorrent for a psx iso file of disk 3 and could not find it anywhere. Personally did not feel like messing with limewire, and opted to have something that I created so that the files would be in a consistant format and quality and that I would at least get a physical replacement for that damaged disk.
[/RANT]
*Why am I going throught all this trouble?*
Well, I was thinking on maybe putting the Ehrgeiz ISO file in a zip format and transfer via FTP on my webserver to share and then a copy of the PSX emulator (plus bios file) so that they can run it and see what I mean on how cool it is to use FF7 characters in a fighting game format. i.e. If Cloud or Zack draws his sword, he loses mobility which Tifa can easily come in from behind and upper cut and knock them off their feet. Sephroth's taunts and the fact that his 'limit' break is the same as Clouds (a mock up of Metorain -sp) or the amusement of watching Vincent fight himself as a Turk... But also see what I mean about the other 'in game characters' since FF7 characters are considered as 'guest' or 'special' characters and see on how BAD the actual story sucks so much ass.
I have all this webspace and bandwidth and it's not being used. So let's use it. I just can't keep it up there for very long, obviously but... perhaps for a week strait and then see what happens and then take it down and see what everyone else thinks. ^^;
Basically I'm a firm beliver of sharing the wealth and want to make downloads avalable and rotate the files so that people can get a chance to get them. ^^;
[EDIT]
Here are the links and stuff.
http://www.psychomaze.net/dl/Ehrgeiz-1997.zip (468 MB)
http://www.psychomaze.net/dl/PSX-emu.zip (829 KB)
(more plugins for the ePSXe is here)
Tell me what you think!
*Set Up*
Okay, the other day I mentioned a forgotten game called Ehrgeiz and it made me want to dig through my collection of PSX games and lo and behold, I found it in prestine condition. In fact alot of my cds are in that way considering that I'm paranoid in keeping them for as long as possible. However, my modified PSX is still under repair (I got a junk PSX just for the CD motor but have not gotten around to taking both units apart to play 'franken console') And I really didn't feel like digging up my PS2 considering that we are using it as a DVD player in the living room. So my solution was to get a PSX emulator and I found and configured one that worked very, very, VERY nicely. I am really pleased with it, however the video was a bit laggy so taking advantage of its ablity of using .ISO files (virtual disks/CD images) I created a .ISO with Ehrgeiz and ran it at 640 x 400 resolution window mode and my gods, it worked beuatifully! So I plugged in my PSX2 controller, using the PSX to USB adapter and got some good gaming going.
*Got a good idea*
... So I thought, 'hey' let's try this with another game and I made an ISO of Final Fantasy Tactics and that ran beautifully. So I'm thinking, "OMGs! I can do that for my other FF games and not have to deal with the shitty midi sounds and get something that is actually higher quality instead of the obsloete PC versions that is not at all compatable with my video card and I have to patch and hack the crap out of just to get it to work..."
*Now I'm on a roll!*
Created ISO files of the PSX disks of FF7 and discovered that these ISO files plus the PSX emulator, vs. the PC version of the ISO files of the 4 disks, installation space, patches and hacks, I actually SAVE DISK SPACE by almost 1GB, plus I don't have to fight with the sound and the midi music had been really getting on my nerves. So woo-hoo, I'm hyped so I started with my FF8 game. Disk 1, ok... Disk 2, okay... Disk 3, Read error. Skip do later... Disk 4, no problems. So I dig out disk 3 and take a really good look.
*Disapointment and irate anger*
Disk 3 of my FF8 PSX game was COVERED in finger prints. Well, no problem I wiped it off with my shirt (I was wearing a very soft material hence why I did not see an issue with it) and tried it again. Disk read error. Read some FAQs and it say to check the option to 'ignore disk read errors' so I tried it again with that option selected, and I got so many messages of read errors that by the time it was done, I had serious doubts that it would EVEN work. But I had no save file so I can't test it. So once again I removed the CD and took over to a light to get a really good look. Considering that the acrylic casing is a dark, dark red to the point that it appears to be black, I had to do this. The surface looked okay with the exception of a one inch long deep, deep, scratch on the disk. Something that would make the disk itself damn near unreadable. Which, would explain why it slowed down my computer just by attempting to mount the drive to get it ready to make an ISO file.
Well, right off the bat, I knew who was responsible for this. My Ex's younger brother who is a complete dipshit when it comes to taking care of CDs. In fact when he destroyed his Disk 3 of FF8, he went into my room (I was living with my Ex at the time) and helped himself to my games. Then funny thing was that when I got it back, I noticed the scratch back then and demanded that he buy me a new game, which he never did. So the game it self sat on my shelf for almost 5 years until I picked it up just now. I think that I was even more annoyed at myself for forgetting about that in the first place.
*Solution*
I looked online for solutions to repair severe scratched CDs and found some devices that polish off the surface to make it readable again. But after reading several reviews on amazon, I read alot of complaints on how it ruined irreplacable cds, and they had been just as irrate, if not even more than I was. I didn't really feel too confidant to trust my game disk to a device like that. Some of the higher end machines went up as 2k and for the individual user averaged about 40-50, not including the stuff where you get a cloth and rub a liquid into the disk. But I seriously doubted that it would work. So on a whim, I looked up to see if I can get a new copy of FF8 and found one NEW for about 17 bucks from a vendor who has very high marks, so after coughing up 5 extra bucks for 2 day shipping, um, yeah... I should get a replacement soon. Better than spending 50 for something that may or may not work.
I did search bittorrent for a psx iso file of disk 3 and could not find it anywhere. Personally did not feel like messing with limewire, and opted to have something that I created so that the files would be in a consistant format and quality and that I would at least get a physical replacement for that damaged disk.
[/RANT]
*Why am I going throught all this trouble?*
Well, I was thinking on maybe putting the Ehrgeiz ISO file in a zip format and transfer via FTP on my webserver to share and then a copy of the PSX emulator (plus bios file) so that they can run it and see what I mean on how cool it is to use FF7 characters in a fighting game format. i.e. If Cloud or Zack draws his sword, he loses mobility which Tifa can easily come in from behind and upper cut and knock them off their feet. Sephroth's taunts and the fact that his 'limit' break is the same as Clouds (a mock up of Metorain -sp) or the amusement of watching Vincent fight himself as a Turk... But also see what I mean about the other 'in game characters' since FF7 characters are considered as 'guest' or 'special' characters and see on how BAD the actual story sucks so much ass.
I have all this webspace and bandwidth and it's not being used. So let's use it. I just can't keep it up there for very long, obviously but... perhaps for a week strait and then see what happens and then take it down and see what everyone else thinks. ^^;
Basically I'm a firm beliver of sharing the wealth and want to make downloads avalable and rotate the files so that people can get a chance to get them. ^^;
[EDIT]
Here are the links and stuff.
http://www.psychomaze.net/dl/Ehrgeiz-1997.zip (468 MB)
http://www.psychomaze.net/dl/PSX-emu.zip (829 KB)
(more plugins for the ePSXe is here)
Tell me what you think!