Messages

121

Site Feedback / Re: "My Collection" signature question

« on: August 11, 2015, 01:32:04 pm »

The signature is retrieved with a REST sig/<user> with no parameter to it. That means changing the number of items would either be the same number for everyone (easier to change I believe) either a configurable setting in the user panel or through REST parameter (more annoying to implement).

122

General / Re: Recently completed/finished

« on: August 10, 2015, 09:56:55 am »

Finished Wolfenstein: The New Order - PC yesterday on I am Death incarnate! difficulty setting (1st run). There was a good lot of epic moments with great shooting, different gameplay styles available and nice effort on the presentation.

123

Hardware and Tech / Re: Hooking up 80ies japanese consoles (PAL)

« on: August 08, 2015, 08:44:31 pm »

I was always under the impression that you use SECAM in France. What's the difference here compared to PAL/NTSC? I really need to read up on this stuff more.

http://www.diffen.com/difference/NTSC_vs_PAL
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PAL#PAL_vs._NTSC

The main difference is that PAL is higher resolution but slower refresh rate. I don't live in Europe but from what I understand a lot of modern HD televisions have some compatibility with NTSC. Be sure to check the documentation of your TV. If you're using an old CRT display it won't be able to render the signal.

If you can read french I've written a quite lenghty post on the subject

The specific case of SECAM was a thing in our territory during 80's but most of Hi-Fi hardware was already supporting PAL signal at the start of 90's. When third generation gaming consoles released in France PAL was already a standard for video equipment, SECAM became mostly a TV broadcasting only technology, VCRs and such did support SECAM sorely to be able to record TV but everything was PAL video output and RGB encoding.

I've read up a little about the Famicom and the 1st version doesn't have composite video out: Only RF cable, that outputs indeed NTSC signal..



Seems that the original japanese RF switch is a very strange beast where you had to connect the wires DIRECTLY - R.I.P. Iwata-San - to your antenna UHF receiver:



That probably means the cable shown in my previous post won't do for this console.

In theory as badATchaos is suggesting the US NES RF cable works with the japanese model and already has a coaxial output so it may save you the trouble of dealing with this prehistoric cables, or you may buy/mod a cable that converts them to standard coaxial..

Though being a NTSC signal that may not be well supported by a EU CRT TV, even though most of EU color televisions support PAL60 through SCART, allowing them to decode video signal from NTSC consoles, I don't know the results with the antenna input, I never tried this.

I suggest you read up and ask more details there: http://www.famicomworld.com/forum/

Personally if I wanted this specific model of Famicom I would consider the RGB modding and plug this with SCART!

For the power supply I see that the Famicom doesn't have the same characteristics than the NES so I highly recommend using the genuine japanese power supply on your step down transformer, don't use a US one. If your transformer is set to 100V/60Hz and you use the JP power supply it will be fine.

124

General / Re: windows 10

« on: August 08, 2015, 06:29:46 pm »

#BelievetheDoge

Much improve. So amaze. wow.

Sooo I tried the upgrade and it's OK so far.

I like the fact that after doing the upgrade they basically gave me a new product key so with the ISO I can make a fresh install on renewed hardware without problems. I didn't have any trouble  downloading and burning the ISO by the way..

The PIN code unlock is nice, it boots very fast and I noticed that the system is overall faster than my Win 7 similar installation. The dumb choices they made in Modern UI are reverted, you have a material design with traditional ergonomics, in short it works like Win 7 and that's good..

Here's the desktop (click to see 1:1 image size):



In the Start menu you can dock things on the right in a resizable area ala Modern UI and keep a standard list on the left. You can customize it so you have only a list or only MUI tiles, or both like here. It works fine like this for me.

The new addition that I find very cool is the "exposed" view like you have on OSX and the Virtual Desktops - I used them a lot when I was working on Linux:



You can have multiple "desktops" to organize your apps and stay organized, it's about time they implement this feature. The dock window feature have been upgraded as well and fastens the process to dock windows side by side.

I tried the Cortana thing and it's basically the very same thing than Google Now on Android devices, it's an all in one search engine and voice command prompt for the system. If you use the Microsoft application ecosystem I suppose it can be handy, though if you don't it can still find stuff on the computer and send requests through your browser through Google instead of Bing with a little trick..



Concerning the Privacy subject there are plenty of places in the UI when there is mention of data collecting and how to disable it, at least they try to give you control over your data. You can choose not to use a Microsoft account tied to your system, it won't matter much if you don't use the Microsoft store and Windows Phone/Xbox applications ecosystem.

There's also a specific section about all the privacy settings in the control panel :



For now I didn't have compatibility problems, I'll try a strong hardware-demanding game to see how it runs with current GPU drivers but everything was smooth and ready when the installer finished.

The only problem I had was messing with the language and default keyboard settings since I use English language UI but with French keyboard, the thing was kinda lost. I also had to force through Registry the Num Lock. to be activated on the login screen, it's totally dumb that it's not on by default since you're supposed to log in faster using a PIN NUMBER code..

125

Hardware and Tech / Re: Hooking up 80ies japanese consoles (PAL)

« on: August 07, 2015, 08:33:58 am »

I can give my experience since I live in France so I have the same technical environment:

I don't personally own a NTSC-J Famicom system but I own 2 NTSC systems, a US Genesis and a JP Saturn, I use this piece of hardware for the power supply and it works like a charm:



For the video output it seems that the NTSC-J famicom uses RF modulator, I suppose the Disk System doesn't have its own different video output, right? Anyway RF is the worst video output available, making the ugly RCA composite a HD cable in comparison. I never tried it on my TV but i believe you can plug RF on the antenna port and search for its "channel". Quality is awful though..

I would recommend buying a custom cable like this one, I bough many cables on this store and they are top notch quality. Maybe it would be safer to contact them and make sure this cable works with the specific model you're willing to import, I think it's the same signal than the NTSC-US NES but you never know, some consoles differ between JP and US on SCART..

126

General / Re: August 2015 - Recently Added to Collection/Recently Purchased

« on: August 07, 2015, 05:44:31 am »

It plays very similarly to the Project Diva series, minus the scratch notes. If you've played a lot of Project DIVA, there's not really too much to get adjusted to here. Instead of notes appearing anywhere on the screen, they come in from the edges of the screen along lines to a central point, where you need to press the corresponding button or buttons. Some times it switches to having notes traveling to the edge of a large circle from the inside. There were initially more features that made it stand apart from PD, but some of those were removed in the later stages of development. For example, the final version of the game no longer uses the control stick to move the circle towards notes.

Play-Asia still has the Crystal Box in stock if you're interested in buying one.

This video from Marvelous back in February does a pretty good job of showing off the gameplay.

Thanks for the details. I platted 1st Project Diva and grinding on 2nd time to time, sadly I got no JP account on PSN and it seems unlikely that this game will make it to the west.. I'll keep an eye on it anyway, it looks fun!

127

General / Re: August 2015 - Recently Added to Collection/Recently Purchased

« on: August 06, 2015, 06:30:46 pm »

This crystal box is glorious! How does the gameplay of this game compares to Project Diva series ?

128

General / Re: Little Nemo: The Dream Master Review (NES)

« on: August 06, 2015, 06:19:23 pm »

Pretty cool stuff! Fun and informative video, suscribed!

129

Modern Video Games / Re: Atelier series

« on: August 04, 2015, 04:20:50 pm »

This is great - I appreciate you taking the time to do these comparisons! It will definitely help when I decide to start purchasing the Atelier games that have plus versions.

Glad if that helps!

List of "+" content for each game on PSVita, with its [availability/price on PS3]:

Atelier Totori Plus

• Three DLC characters: Ceci [2,99€] Iksel &Cordelia pack [2,99€]
• Extra dungeon: “Orthogalaxen” from Atelier Rorona - Unlocks end game higher grade gear tier and boss challenge [Not available]
• Extra mode: Model viewer [Free DLC]
• Two swimsuits costumes [Not available]
• I believe the additional BGM packs are included [14,95€ for 5 BGM packs]
• Tweaks: Touchscreen menu navigation, camera zoom control, fast messages scroll speed [Not available]

Atelier Meruru Plus

• Three DLC characters: Pamela [3,99€] Hanna [3,99€] and Rufis [3,99€]
• Extra dungeon: “Makina Domain” - End game [Free DLC]
• BGM Pack included [2,99€]
• Extra Ending [Included with patch 2.02 on japanese PS3 version only]
• Various tweaks that are not well documented [Not available]

Atelier Ayesha Plus

• Japanese voice option [not available]
• Two DLC characters: Marion [3,99€] and Odella [3,99€]
• Extra dungeon: “Cow's Paradise” - End game [Free DLC]
• Extra dungeon: “Hidden Paradise” - End game [1,99€]
• BGM Pack [2,99€]
• Three swimsuits costumes [8,97€]
• Other costumes [Not available]

Following episodes Atelier Escha & Logy and Atelier Shallie don't have PSVita versions in the West yet.

So globally the important content like new dungeons are in general added as DLC on the PS3 version, and a few costumes and tweaks are exclusive to the PSVita "+" versions. Not really critical from my point of view when counterbalancing the advantages of the PS3 versions. I assume the method will be the same for the next episodes.

Importing saves

When starting Atelier Rorona or Meruru, you can detect if another save from another Atelier game is present, that may gives you costumes or powerful items that are already in the game early. It's nothing like carrying over your progression from one game to another.

Conclusion

My conclusion is I'm going PS3.

I'm not hardcore enough to play all the series on PSVita for the few additions it has considering I can get almost everything on PS3 DLC included for the same price and in much better gameplay conditions.

The only thing that really bugs me is the lack of JP voice in PS3 version of Atelier Ayesha.

Even if english dub is not so bad, I can still go for the PSTV option as well if I want to endure serious slowdown and crappy upscaling for having JP voices, since importing the saves doesn't matter.. And at worse, there're always other ways...

130

Modern Video Games / Dark Souls III

« on: August 04, 2015, 12:38:20 pm »

An amazing trailer for the third installment of the series has just been released:

As a huge Souls fan I'm exctatic.

131

Modern Video Games / Re: Final Fantasy 7 remake

« on: August 04, 2015, 12:27:06 pm »

A FFVII game with Advent Children aesthetics and a battle system similar to FFXII or to what I've tested on the FFXV demo would be nice indeed.

If they really want to make a full 3D remake with the technical level expected from a PS4 game - ala FFXV - I'm really wondering how the hell they will handle this without cutting huge chunks from the game. It's still a mystery to me, I'm not sure they're wiling tol spend 300M$ in this so I'm really curious of what SE will show in 2 years.

Now to see if they will keep the atmosphere and the detail level that made the game, I don't want it to become a brainless action-RPG or a linear scripted QTE-fest with rockn roll music. They need to keep the contemplative moments and the tone of the dialogues, even if the dialogues could be much improved I think they need a lighter tone that what was presented in the FFVII:AC OAV.

I have no problem with them changing much stuff but i'd like at least to find the same kind of atmosphere and the depth of the original game.

132

Modern Video Games / Re: Early opinions & observations of the "New" 3DS XL

« on: August 04, 2015, 05:32:38 am »

For me, the Wii's waggle-wand motion controls absolutely destroyed my enjoyment of the games on it.

Same experience here, playing Skyward Sword, Metroid Prime trilogy or even this cool Silent Hill game on the Wii got me the fun half-spoiled by the mandatory motion controls. I wish those were playable with a GameCube controller.

I'm just sick of it, you have no accuracy and no comfort when playing with those. We now have a technology that allows us to build high-end controllers that have very accurate response to your inputs, the Dual Shock 4 controller is an amazing opposite example. Waving the wiimote and try to break an enemy's guard or achieve a parry in Zelda SS after playing Zelda TP with a GC controller was like switching from a SANWA arcade set to an Atari 2600's stick. You have to play slow paced and you succeed like 60% of the time to do what was intended.

For the Wii U I couldn't care less about the Gamepad screen, I wish there was just a pro controller, it's a nice controller, very lightweight and with a good battery duration. I'm glad that they didn't use the Gamepad at all for Yoshi's Wooly World, I'm having a lot of fun on this game, good old platforming and focus on traditional gameplay. Now I just hope they won't try to justify the Gamepad's use too much in the next Zelda, if they intend to release it on the NX maybe they'll come back to their senses and make the NX traditional controls so no silly features will be mandatory in the game.

As for the next Starfox: If they wouldn't have tried to justify the Gamepad usefulness with the dual point of view thing that requires to render the game twice in 60Hz maybe Platinum Games could make a much better looking game, but the silly useless feature comes in the way and they really seem to think it has a real gameplay value? You know, like I'm watching both screens at the same time whiel I'm shooting...

133

Modern Video Games / Re: Atelier series

« on: August 03, 2015, 06:19:57 pm »

So I got this in the mail today: Atelier Rorona Plus: The Alchemist of Arland - PS3



I was surprised that the game cover and manual are entirely translated in french and the manual is very complete, a nice effort was made to compensate the lack on ingame french localisation - I always play my games in english anyhow.

The cross save feature works wonder, too bad it's the only "+" game that is cross platform..

Graphic comparison

Then I decided to make my own comparison between the two versions. Considering this is technically the 4th episode they released on PS3 and the 3rd on PSVita I may assume this should be well representative of the other games in term of engine performance.

I did a bunch of comparative screenshots, here's an extract below, you can see the full set here: https://imgur.com/a/mfscW

The big ones are PS3 of course, all the images are raw:

So on PS3 there are several improvements to be mentionned:

• The game runs in 720p60, even if it rarely keeps a solid 60 FPS, it's always above 30 where the PSVita version struggles between 20 and 30. The game experience is way smoother on PS3
• The texture quality is higher, on characters and on 3D environments
• The higher vertical resolution makes the artworks more detailled
• Loading times are around three times faster

It seems from what I've read that the performance on PSTV is worse with even lower framerates and the obvious blurry upscaling that you can guess from watching the screenshots above.

Price comparison

Currently the prices of the PSVita "+" versions on the store are locked to 39.99€:

• Atelier Totori Plus - 39.99€
• Atelier Meruru Plus - 39.99€
• Atelier Ayesha Plus - 39.99€

All the DLCs are included, the 2 last games have not yet been released on PSVita.

Comparing with Amazon physical PS3 versions:

• Atelier Totori - 25.90€
• Atelier Meruru - 29.49€
• Atelier Ayesha - 24.15€
• Atelier Escha & Logy - 42,73€
• Atelier Shallie - 32.73€

The DLCs are not included in the PS3 versions, the store indicates that there are ~50€ worth of DLCs available for the 5 games. So the Amazon prices + all the DLCs makes a round price of 41€ per game. Considering there are a bunch of DLC that are swimsuit costumes that I don't care about, that makes the PS3 versions + DLC cheaper than the PSVita "+" versions.

I may document on a later post my findings about the "+" bonus content that is no DLC, but from what I've saw here and there it's really not much to be concerned about.

For now the balance is way more in favor of the PS3 version, I'll keep you updated!

134

Modern Video Games / Re: Early opinions & observations of the "New" 3DS XL

« on: August 03, 2015, 01:00:36 pm »

Ah...I was talking about the 2000 model Vita.  They switched from the proprietary connector to standard micro USB.  So any old car charger or phone AC charger works now.

Good stuff, didn't know about that!

I still prefer model 1's OLED screen though - that's why I got a second model 1 console before they ran out of stock when the 2000 released, in case my actual console dies I'll still have a spare one with the glorious OLED screen.

135

Modern Video Games / Re: Early opinions & observations of the "New" 3DS XL

« on: August 03, 2015, 12:18:18 pm »

You can also use any standard micro USB adapter to charge your Vita whereas you the New 3DS has a proprietary connector. 

Even if the cable's end is USB and can be plugged everywhere, the cable's base port used to charge and/or transfer data on the Vita is proprietary as well. A micro USB as it's now standard with smartphones would have been much better and cheaper, it's no biggie though since I don't have to bring the full charger with me, only the cable.

And yeah the Vita screen is fantastic, playing Castlevania SotN with it was like a dream.

I can't begin to describe the stupidity of the charger situation.  It would be like selling you a controller with no analog sticks...you gotta buy them separately.  You absolutely cannot recharge the New 3DS without a charger.  It's a non-changeable, rechargeable battery.  I cannot imagine how many people this has pissed off when they got home, opened their system and found they couldn't even recharge the damn thing.

I think their idea was since they use the same charger for every iteration of the console, the probability of people already having one at home raises over the years, so it's more "green" to sell it separately. With this logic they could also do the same with video and AC cables on home consoles but that's not very consumer-friendly to sell consoles in kits.