JB0

I thought Quake 1 was always in 3d. And programming 3d movement in what was already a 3d graphical engine is pretty straightfoward, even from scratch. So long as you have access to the code, scripts, and SDK that lets you made modifications on where to place the camera and player entity, of course. Point. Not sure what I was supposed to see on that page, but if you're talking about adding functionality to old, simple, 2d sprite based games which are programmed in assembly to start with, sure, it's possible. But doing the same with a very complex game programmed in a natural language and compiled to a binary is a little bit removed. I can't recall one single binary executable hack that adds notable additional functionality which wasn't already in the binary in some form, by way of extra code, for a title of moderate complexity on the PC for the last 5-10 years. *shrug* Mostly translations. For software with severe space restrictions, poorly-understood hardware, and often arcane, bizarre, and blatantly evil compression schemes that have to be reverese-engineered before they can even get the script out. While I'm not actually involved in any of the projects, I do talk to people that are. Anything by Enix is, traditionally, a bitch and a half to hack, as they implement random, arbitrary, and complex compression schemes seemingly on a whim. They may have plenty of ROM space left over, and use a compression scheme that doesn't actually reduce the script size much, but they do it anyways. On the other hand, the first PS1 translation was embarassingly easy, as all the text was stored in uncompressed images, so it was more a photoshop job than a proper hack. ANYWAYS... I don't know offhand, but the ESRB interview alludes to this having occured, although no games have ever had their entire rating changed, because the content in question was only enough to change the content descriptor, not the rating category. Ah well... I don't know how replacing one rating with another makes the old one invalid and worthless, in so far as letting the customer know what's in the box if they at least understand the general implications of the older rating. That's was its primary job, right? IMO, and I realize this is debated, the new rating isn't actually telling the customer what's in the box, as much as what could potentially be on the screen. To me it's like rating Mario Paint AO because it has flesh tones in the color pallete. It's also something of an over-reaction, again IMO. I don't see the "new content" warranting a change in rating. The game industry doesn't pile on every uncompleted feature and leave trash on the disk just because they can. That's just bad development no matter where you come from. More than likely, they leave in debugging tools and unpolished functionality primarily for their own amusement, as easter eggs, for debugging, or if they believe development will continue at some later time, like you've suggested. Given they're usually permanently disabled at the end, easter eggs seems unlikely(most elaborate I can think of now is the PS FF and Xenogears "debug rooms" that require GameShark codes to unlock, though more primitive debug code exists still active in older games such as Sonic the Hedgehog). And generally, development doesn't continue later, at least not for console software. I think you're referring to my hypothesized AO release, which I figured would be a simultaneous release. Speaking of Sonic, Sonic 2 had chunks of inaccessable map because they were running behind on the development cycle, and had to scrap some intended features to get back on track. Some of those map areas were later unlocked and expanded upon with the Sonic and Knuckles cartridge. Others are still present in the ROM, but are parts of levels that were discarded, and are thus inaccessable through normal play. Sonic 3 has some similar areas, but it's debatable if those were leftovers, or intentional hooks for Sonic and Knuckles, given the much closer release dates between the two(early and late 94 as opposed to late 92 and late 94). Perhaps more importantly, Sonic 2 had known glitches that would occasionally get you stuck in walls, forcing you to wait until the level timer expired and you died. The solution was to put a page in the manual informing you that Dr. Robotnik had "set traps" to exploit Sonic's speed. So what I'm trying saying here is that cleaning up code is just as common a thing as leaving something in. Rockstar's mistake was that they didn't choose to clean up something that might affect the rating, and it's not a foregone conclusion that just because Rockstar made a sex minigame, given the industry's practice, it thus would have ended up on the disc. I was just saying that the industry often(but not always) leaves things in, so it wasn't evidence of malicious intent. They chose poorly. *imagines Rockstar employees rapidly aging, shrivelling up, and mummifying* Then why was the ESRB created, and for what purpose are its ratings, if not for the customer to understand what's in the box they're buying? Serious question, I really don't know. As I said, it was all politics. They were trying to shut up the people throwing hissy fits about the sex and violence in video games, and stave off government censorship. If I recall, Mortal Kombat and Night Trap brought things to the boiling point Because it seems that you're suggesting the ESRB primarily exists to serve some purpose outside of actually letting folks know what's in a game, While it IS quite effective in that regard(in fact, the Federal Trade Comission did a review back in 2k2 that basically boiled down to "The MPAA and RIAA could learn a lot from the IDSA"), that's not REALLY why it was created. A few companies, such as Sega, had already come out with their own ratings systems at that point, and part of the reason the ESRB ratings are as they are today is because the IDSA didn't want to be seen as "playing favorites" by picking one ratings system over another, though their categories line up exactly with Sega's(GA=KA/E, MA13=T, MA17=M). Interestingly(buit totally off-topic), Sega's rating system was stricter than the ISDA's(perhaps because Night Trap had left them skittish), and games featuring MA-17 content under Sega's rules got Ts under the ESRB. and that this end isn't or shouldn't be its ultimate goal, and thus its ratings shouldn't be slavishly tied to the principle of keeping customers informed-- but to some other ideal of setting rules and stamping boxes and then being forever done with it, based on the rules and policies of a given time-- that these ratings should then be immutable regardless of what comes to light about what a customer is actually taking home, who put it there, whether it's accessible, and how available the means to do so are, so long as the developer didn't mean for it to be seen. I STILL maintain that the M rating was more accurate than the AO rating, as the "hot coffee" game is not actually "in the game," despite its presence on the disk. I view it as closer to blaming Rockstar for 3rd-party mods than to holding Rockstar accountable for subversion of the system. The discussion of the rules at a given time is only because certain people keep blaming Rockstar for subverting the rules as they exist now. But the rules as they exist now weren't subverted, as they weren't the rules of 2 weeks ago, much less a year ago, and it seems unfair to blame Rockstar for breaking rules that didn't exist when they were "broken." I guess we just simply disagree in principle on how things should be rated, even if I'm not yet firm on what GTA's rating should actually be. Guess so.

I'm vaguely surprised no one yelled "FORM BLAZING SWORD!"

Given it was Roy, he may've just ducked out on principle. (admittedly, it'd be hard to miss that you had 3 bloody holes in your back while you were changing clothes, though)

The third Voltron was adapter from "Albegas" and never made it to air because Lion Voltron was so wildly popular. Same reason Vehicle Voltron/Daiurugger 15 was all but abandoned.

*Bangs head on table* I know, let's just make a game where the guy and girl are having sex with their clothes on. They did. It's called Hot Coffee. Bad comparison. Quake has it's own publicly documented scripting language, SDK, compiler, and built from the beginning to be easily moddable. I could more easily write a flight sim in Quake than I can even begin to tack on a mini-game of any sort into something like GTA. Meh. I just assumed Quake 1's setup was somewhat limited in what it allowed. IE: 2D motion plz kthx. Inserting actual lines of code-- additional instructions to what was already compiled in the binary-- is much harder than you suggest. It is possible however to intercept calls and that sort of thing, or hack into DLL's, but the work is not trivial either. And yet people do it on a somewhat regular basis. See http://donut.parodius.com/ From your description, it sounds like the original mod simply toggled a few more additional bits, and perhaps changed the file pointers and filenames in the compiled binary to load nude models and/or textures instead of the clothed ones-- no new lines of code would even be needed. Found the readme: http://grandtheftauto.filefront.com/file/H...offee_Mod;44662 (warning, contains minigame screenshots). As I don't have the game, I don't know how accessable the files that had to be replaced are. This is a moderately trivial hack, at least compared to adding extra code or crafting a minigame out of thin air and getting it to still work within the original game. It's pretty apparent that the Hot Coffee modders didn't do much more than find the right places to poke and poke them, and make a few name or index changes in a hex editor. All of Rockstar's talk about modders having to decompile, recompile, and insert complex code is rubbish to obfuscate the issue. I'm not arguing Rockstar wasn't full of it. Just saying it was mroe than flipping a few bits. Actually, more accurately, the AO rating penalizes Rockstar for not having the foresight to consider that it might not be a good idea to leave objectionable material that could change a rating on the gold master. Again, under the ESRB rules in effect at the time, it HAD NO EFFECT ON THE RATING. It's not some giant undertaking to remove incomplete code. We software engineers do this on a very regular basis, and it's pretty routine. *shrugs* The game industry has a diffrent take on the matter. I don't know what the ESRB's stance on hidden content was prior to this incident, The rules only governed content actually IN the game, as opposed to on the disk. but games have been re-rated in the past. Which ones? As far as I know, they didn't even change things when KA was replaced with E. So there were games out there with a totally invalid rating. Now I'm curious as to what the ESRB would have rated GTA had Rockstar disclosed the hidden content to them. They'd've probably given them odd looks because there weren't any rules for disabled features or discarded gameplay concepts. At any rate, the ESRB doesn't see itself as simply setting rules that publishers have to meet in order to achieve a certain rating for marketability. If that were true, then expecting an old title to meet criteria for a rating set today would be absurd. However, the ESRB also feels responsible for making customers aware of the actual content in a box that might be accessed. Under this principle, their perogative to re-rate a game based on what comes to light about the content on disc makes a little more sense. That's their official stance as of the re-rating of GTA:SA, which was primarily a political move intended to save face as people started screaming(on national TV) that they were impotent, ineffectual, incompetent, and a whole slew of other untrue accusations. Like I said, it's not why they were created, nor why companies pay the fees to get their software rated(of I recall, it's a couple hundred dollars per review).

I was going to do that! Damn you to New Mexico.

I'm still hoping it has standard RCA jacks on teh back for component video. They probably are. Doesn't mean I don't want to see it happen.

My opinion is that it has some interesting concepts, but they're never fully explored. And it goes all to hell in the last few episodes. IMO, everything after Operation Stargazer needs to be scrapped entirely, and much of the rest could use an overhaul. With the addition of more background and character development. It COULD have been a great series, but as-is, it's simply mediocre.

A. it's only the first mock-up package. B. Maybe they use standard AV ports? (I can dream, can't I?) I'm sure it'll come with some form of AV cables. As for the VGA HD fuss... I'd bet money that Gamespot misunderstood something. Now, onto more important questions. Like when are they gonna do HDMI/DVI out. Digital signals, kthx.

EA politely pointed out to him that if you hack the blur out, you get Barbie and Ken. He says the blur's existence proves that even Barbie and Ken anughty bits are inappropriate. ... Strangely, he did NOT proceed to launch a suit against Mattel, who not only makes Barbie and Ken dolls capable of nudity, but ENCOURAGES said state of existence through sales of alternate clothing.

It depends on the player your using. Currently im using BS PLayer 1.2, it has the screen capturing option built in. OR you could try the old fashion way: USE MS PLayer make sure it in the full window and when the scene you want to capture comes along press the "Print Screen" key in your keyboard then paste it on either MS-paint or some other photo editor program. 312468[/snapback] I always just turned the graphics acceleration down in the display control panel.

GASP! THE SPIES DID IT! ... Why did I never catch that? 314588[/snapback] It was to keep him from singing, if you've heard him sing, you'd shoot him in the back too. it's a wonder Reba West is still alive. 314590[/snapback] Ah. Well, as long as it was for a good cause.

Strategy RPG, but yes. Those are "real robots" as SRW files them. Super robot is reserved for the Mazingers, Combattler V, Gunbuster, Gaogaigar, Dancougar, the Getters, etc. There've been 2 non-SD games in the series, if I recall. The SNES SRWGaiden is pretty fun, as well as being totally devoid of anime mechs. At least partially because it's a licensing nightmare(the other part being most americans have never heard of 3/4s of the shows present). If nothing else, HG'd raise hell because they "own Macross." I suspect that ADV, Manga, and everyone else with a license to one of the shows in there would come in and ask for their cut too... On the upside, people might finally get up and figure out who owns DYRL, just so they could figure out who had the rights to demand a cut of SRW.

GASP! THE SPIES DID IT! ... Why did I never catch that?

They didn't know he'd taken flak. Valk maintainence presumably doesn't occur until after the jets have cooled down a bit, so by the time the maintenence guys climbed up and peeked in his cockpit, he was already passed out at Claudia's place.

Well, I know we likely WON'T be getting a Captain America movie. He's too patriotic. It's not "cool" to be proud of America. But they're supposed to be doing an IronMan movie. And powered armor is always good, right? Personally, I want to see one and only one cartoon recycled onto the big screen. That cartoon is ... Captain N: The Game Master. Mainly so I can laugh at the licensing nightmare.

I'm sure my parents did too, after I woke them up at 6 in the morning to ask what a torso was...

Funny how things are always better the way you remember them than they are when you see them again. I'm hoping they'll focus on what's important and not try to include any "plot" or "character development." People are going to pay for 90-120 minutes of giant robots kicking ass, and they darn well better get 90-120 minutes of giant robots kicking ass. Complete with the cliché shouting and overdone combination sequence, too. If I don't hear someone yell "FORM BLAZING SWORD!" there will be hell to pay. But like I said, I have absolutely no hope of this coming out decently.

Until today I didn't think it was POSSIBLE to have less hope for a movie than the Transformers movie. http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050726/film_n...HNlYwMlJVRPUCUl

Ah, who cares about Gundam. SUPER ROBOT WARS 360! 314317[/snapback] Anyone getting it ? 314439[/snapback] Mmmm.... Macross and Gaogaigar in one bright shiny 5" optical disk... if only I wasn't broke.

I'd always understood the ESRB ratings to be based on the content of the game, not the disk. And the ESRB ACTUALLY exists to prevent some twit in Congress from making legislation to restrict the creative freedom of software developers. As far as I know, the ESRB ratings are completely voluntary, even among ESA members. They've turned Quake into a flight sim. This was child's play. Now we get into what I consider a gray area. Must everything have someone to blame? IMO, this is (at best) an unfortunate incident with no-one truly worthy of blame. The AO rating penalizes Rockstar for not spending the time to hunt down and delete all code related to an abandoned and incomplete minigame, as is standard industry practice. And (ignoring the PS2 part) the end user COULD have downlaoded a patch to enable content of that level of complexity. I know. GTA just happens to be the unique case where the mostly-finished mini-game would actually affect the rating if it had been made available. A. the actual level of completeness is un-determined as of right now. We may have barely scratched the surface of what they originally intended. B. The key word there is IF. Actually, what the ESRB is "supposed" to do is defined by the ESRB itself, not by our high minded ideals of what rating media should or shouldn't involve. So right now, according to the ESRB it's "supposed" to rate games by the content on the disc. The ESRB is holding publishers and developers accountable for how objectable content gets to an end user. If developers want to put naughty bits on a disc that might or might not be accessed, then the disc will be rated accordingly. As of right now. As of the time San Andreas was submitted for review, the rules ONLY covered content that was actually present in the game. Indeed, to enable the incomplete minigame IS merely the toggling of a single bit. However, the original hot coffee mod DID include the extra code needed to load the nude models, as well as to start your game with you dating all possible girlfriends. It's easier to insert code than you make it out to be. ESRB's current policy doesn't even really acknowledge modders, other than the fact that their work might allow existing content to be accessed. If the content is on disc, then it'll be considered in the rating, period. If the content is not there, then it won't. Again, this is based on existing rules. The rules as of San Andreas' submission to the ESRB ONLY considered content that was actually used in the game. Expecting a title released over a year ago to obey rules put into effect a week ago is absurd. I see this as a first step.

Actually, if you watch, Max, Hikaru, and Kakizaki are all pretty much the same distance at the start. Kakizaki just shifts into fighter mode slower than the others, making him further behind at the end. Max, also beat her in DYRL where she was bloodied and he left his valk unscathed. To be fair, he's a much smaller target. Basicall any hit in a QRau's upper body hits the pilot. You've got to land a shot into the "breatbone" on a VF-1 battroid. And Millia landed hits to either side of the heatshield in that battle. Had Max been a zentran, he would've been as dead as Kakizaki(HEADSHOT!).

Maybe the "content changes in online play" label on MMORPGs will be adapted for every PC game. "Content changes with unauthorized patches."

Ah, who cares about Gundam. SUPER ROBOT WARS 360!

The whole relationship was pretty neurotic to start with.