Cry me a river - July 2nd, 1999 - Allan Milligan
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this column are those of the participants and the moderator, and do not neccessarily reflect those of the GIA. There is coarse language and potentially offensive material afoot. Don't say I didn't warn you. :)
Okay, okay, you got me. Stop harassing me, I know I missed two days last week. There were extenuating circumstances, but be that as it may, I made a pledge. I'm never making one again, but I'll stick by this one. So, to the horror of anyone who knows what I look like, I'm going to get a picture taken of me this weekend, developed, and scanned in time for Monday. By Wednesday, at the very latest. Depends on whether I'm having a good hair day or not. I say now, I am not attractive. Any insult of my appearance you can come up with can and will be outdone by me. I look like the bastard child of Karl Malden and Groucho Marx, with the build of Calista Flockhart on Ultra Slim Fast. I look like something chopped down the ugly tree while I was in it, and I was crushed beneath its branches. I look like a diseased rat stuck up the nose of an ebola-stricken Andy Rooney. I am to beauty as Showgirls is to quality filmmaking. I am the Beast. You have been warned. Not that I have self-image problems or anything. All that aside, I've got a column to do, so enough of the self-loathing for now. There'll be plenty of time for that once the pics go up. | Making sense of Lunar 3 | Ah, it appears that the "infallable" Ultron has, in fact, made a mistake. Not so long ago, Vic Ireland posted on Usenet that he had contacted people at Game Arts and ESP about Lunar 3, and was told that it would not, in fact, be a Dreamcast title. And while it's true that Game Arts has long been a loyal Sega developer, they are not exclusively responsible for Lunar. And if I recall correctly (being a "mere mortal", my memory is not perfect), Game Arts is now actually part of Entertainment Software Publishing (ESP), and is not an independant company. Which would mean that the final decision on which console Lunar 3 would be developed for would fall to ESP, rather than Game Arts. Red XIV |
You learn something new every day, I guess. This would, of course, speed any attempt to port over Lunar 3 to the US market. Interesting information, to be sure. Of course, while WD and GameArts have a very good working relationship, by all reports, who gets the translation rights to Lunar 3 is not set in stone, it should be said. There were other companies vying for the translation rights for Lunar EB for PSX. I can't imagine that GameArts, ESP, or anyone else denying WD the rights to Lunar 3 if they wanted it (Lunar SSS sold quite a bit better in the US than it did in Japan, apparently), but it all ties into the basic rule of gaming scuttlebutt: take everything with a grain of salt. Plans get screwed up. So, even if I say "Lunar 3 will see US release via WD on the PSX2 or Dolphin", don't trust that statement implicitly. | Is all Japanese box art better? | Howdy, I just have one question for ya and then I'll get out of your way. Sense you guys (the GIA) are talking about bad box art and good box art, this fits in nicely ... moving on. Why are most of the Japanese box arts sooo much better than that US box arts. Its almost as if the companies say to themselves, "Aright, we have a beautiful box for the Japanese version ... hey guys, I have an idea. Lets crap up the box before we send it over to those Americans! They don't know anything about art any way." That's it. I've stated my point. CYOTFF, derrick... |
Many pieces of Japanese box art are done in an anime-influenced style. This is a popular style in Japan, and accepted as attractive by a wide range of viewers there. When porting such games for US release, the question is less open. There are a lot of people, gamers included, who find the entire anime/manga style utterly repulsive. Trust me, I've dated some of them. Therefore, US manufacturers must decide what cover art is likely to appeal to the widest possible range of consumers. And the problem is that there's no drawing style that seems to cut across US tastes as evenly as the traditional manga style does across Japanese tastes. No company ever goes "let's make our box art ugly." That's just stupid. They just accept that some things just won't fly in America. Want an example? Take a look at this cover. This would SO be banned from release in the US. What's good for the goose isn't good for the gander, as it were. | FFV moosic | Evening fellow Gilgy fan “Maybe they're assuming that those who have played the game will shepherd mindless, FFV-free sheep into personal crusades to vote for their favourite tracks.” Mr. Milligan, you’re a genius. Actually, it might be a good idea to ensure that the poll gets the votes it needs – I have some faith in Square that they will use the poll as constructive input from the fans, but I’m still a little wary. The poll itself says that it’s for Square’s most hardcore fans, so we may as well make them think that there are more of us out there, eh? Anyway, I’m almost positive that if any one track WILL be it on there (and deserves it) it’s Battle with Gilgamesh. It’s probably the only theme gamers who haven’t played FFV have ever heard of, and it’s pretty damn awesome to boot. If it’s not on there, we may just have to get homicidal. I’ll recommend a few other tunes for any people who haven’t heard the score. -Pirates Ahoy! is an excellent song, great melody with a strong rhythm behind it. -Sealed Away has a mysterious sound with a rather unique choice of instruments for the middle portion, one of my favorites. -Lenna’s Theme: one of the few emotional songs in the set. -The Dragon Spreads its Wings: another excellent flight theme from Uematsu, highly recommended. -The Evil Lord Exdeath (or should we make that X-Death now?? *groans*): He may not be the best villian, but damn does he have a good theme song. -Musica Machina is a bit of an acquired taste, one of the most unique (read: strange) songs Uematsu has written. -Battle with Gilgamesh -The Four Warriors of Dawn has a very heroic feel and a great melody. -Intentions of the Earth: can be described as calmly urgent...if that made any sense. Has a nice Arabian flair. -My Home Sweet Home: I’d agree that I’d love to hear the arranged version on there but that would be a pain for Square (and they’d never do it anyway). -Mambo de Chocobo is probably my favorite chocobo theme, the title speaks for itself. -Critter Tripper Fritter!? (the original moogle theme) gets my vote for the “Character Theme on Pot” award. Good, weird stuff. -The Decisive Battle: a boss battle theme used late in the game, has an addicting drum segment mixed in with parts of Exdeath’s theme. -Prelude to Empty Skies: slow, dark, mysterious, and very good...pretty long too. -The New Origin is honestly my favorite ending theme from Uematsu. Great rendition of The Dragon Spreads its Wings, among others. Gotta hope they pack the disk with as many songs as is humanly possible...a small collection of songs would really tick me off. The least they can do is fill up the damn disk. If you'd like to listen to the tracks, try to get a hold of the module versions of the songs, which have better instrumentation and are a more accurate representation than midi files. And here’s to hoping they do this thing right. Strohmaier |
Those are a pretty excellent selection of tunes. My pick of the litter are Gilgy, Home Sweet Home (again, the Dear Friends rendition is just gorgeous), The New Origin, Music Machina and Sealed Away. Superb tracks, all of them. The only pick of yours I'm not too keen on is The Four Warriors of Dawn, which isn't bad, but doesn't really excite me, either. | Ugly box art addendums | It's nice to know that a lot of us share a deep gaming heritage. I was visiting the site today and found the "ugly Box Art" thingie staring me in the face. I went to the page and saw the art for Cosmic Fantasy 2. A familiar game to me, I had heard the name before. But it's ugliness didn't impress me. I thought to myself "I've seen worse...I remember one game in particular, let me think...oh yeah, the original MegaMan..." And sure enough, I scrolled down the page and saw Mega Man, without even knowing its presence on the page. I remember the first time I saw the MegaMan box art for the first time. I was about ten, and I said "Who is that?" By this time I already had Mega Man 2 & 3. I couldn't figure out who the elf on the cover was...and was struck with laughter when I finally figured out that that was supposed to be Mega Man. I mean come on, there are certain discrepencies within the Mega Man series, like Dr. Right and Dr. Light, Dr. Wily and Dr. Wiley, but this was ridiculous. So the "real" original Mega Man looked like a generic X-Man in person. Who would have thought? HypeSpider |
As the results bear out pretty clearly, Mega Man is the most horrific piece of video game box art we're likely to ever see, and that's a good thing, too. That is an example of a game that attained fame through gameplay first and foremost. It didn't have even mildly accurate or appealing box art until the third installment, and by that point, it was already a successful series, soon to be franchise. A game that was successful in spite of how it was presented to the masses. Who'd have thunk it? | CGI oopsing | Just a quickie: CGI may mean Common Gateway Interface, but it also meansComputer Generated Imagery. The term used to be used a lot more than it isnow, probably because of Common Gateway Interface becoming more popular. Ialways thought it was a little confusing... one acronym meaning twodifferent things. --Lakupo |
A few other readers pointed out this dual meaning. I should've mentioned that yesterday. Oops. As an aside, CGI graphics are often just referring to as CG graphics. | The people who write in... | dear mighty mouse, [Here I come to save the day! - Allan] 1) you're probably the wrong person to ask, but i don't care. how do the people that create the music for video games get paid? Especially artists like the the singers from the end of Parasite Eve and Xenogears? Do they get royalties for every time somebody beats the game? Or do the have to forfeit all of their royalty rights? I am asking because I am in a band that plays NOTHING BUT RPG MUSIC. Our set right now consists of ALL Final Fantasy music (that includes Mystic Quest), most of Xenogears, Secret of Mana, a little bit of Saga Fronteer, and most of the Breath of Fire 3 toons (there's some great stuff in that game!). And I myself have recently started writing my own compositions (mostly dungeon type stuff). My band is called the Postman Syndrome and we're available to play parties. (http://postman.travelhub.com) |
I would assume that, since it's not possible to gauge how often a given song would be played, the composer and performers of game music are paid a flat amount on the basis of number of copies sold in retail outlets, since they obviously can't measure secondary market purchases. If any soundtracks are published, the original composer and performers would have to be paid royalties, like any other album. Consequently, there's a lot of companies who could potentially open a can of legal whoop-ass on you for doing what you do, my friend. 2) do you ever get frustrated by your position at GIA? I mean, you must constantly get letters that spoil games for you in huge ways. If it were me, I'd probably become disenchanted with RPG's if I already knew how a game ended before I started playing it. But I guess somebody gotta do it. Thank you for being that somebody. |
Heh. Me, get frustrated? Whatever could you mean? Here's your thought for the day: I'm sure that most of you have seen certain topics in Double Agent that have been hashed out about a dozen times. You're probably getting sick of them. Well, consider this: do you have any idea I have been bugged about these selfsame topics? The number of letters I've received about the FF Collection alone number in the hundreds. It's a scary thing when you've been blamed for the existence of cancer not once, but on two distinct occasions. Yes, I get frustrated by this position. Why do you think the turnover rate of letters guys is so high? 3) Xenofans (me) are only so jumpy because they know that the game has its faults. They realize that it is not a perfect game and that it could have been better. But they can look past these imperfections and learn to love the game for all of the wonderful things about it (many). After all, isn't that what love's all about? yours cruelly, vEGO the Carpaithian |
If I knew what love was all about, I'd be writing a book right now, not this column. | Eurowoes | Us Europeans have an even worse deal when it comes to the newanti-piracy measures Sony is introducing. You see, unless we import aPlayStation from North America in the first place, there is no optionbut to get a chip if you want to play any Square games other than FinalFantasy VII. Xenogears, Parasite Eve, Brave Fencer Musashi - even theFinal Fantasy VIII demo still hasn't been released in Europe. Even if you do import a US PlayStation, it's very likely that theimporters will chip it (probably without informing you) as standardpractice. They do this presumably to allow people to play Europeangames on it, and thus get less complaints from their customers. I myself imported a US PlayStation and only realised it was chippedmonths later when I tried a European game on it. I'm more than a littleworried that I might not be able to play Final Fantasy VIII (US) when itcomes out. That would be particularly ironic since Final Fantasy VIIIwas my initial reason to buy the thing in the first place. Thorfinn Tait. (One of a number of Scottish RPG players who rely totally on greyimports for decent games.) |
Ye gods, that sucks. Really, truly sucks. I can only hope that the Square offices in Europe will improve the situation somewhat, because as it stands, you guys are really getting the shaft. As usual. Sigh. | In and out | All right, Square has just gotten really weird. You'de think they'd learn from Parasite Eve, but noooo, they have to go and make this game Vagrant Story that'll take 5-6 hours to complete. My god, I hope that's not true. And what's with a male charactor with the name Ashley? Square has gotta lay off the pcp. |
Hey, Ashley is a perfectly good name for a guy. Seriously. I used to think otherwise, until a guy named Ashley who boxes in his spare time beat the hell out of me and spit on me afterwards. Guys with names like Ashley and Spurt (yes that's a real name) grow up to be major-league badasses, as a survival technique. With a name like that, you've gotta learn to not take shit from people, you know? Ahem. Anyhow, yeah, 5-6 hours doesn't sound too impressive. Then again, it appears that Square did learn something from Parasite Eve. Namely, game length and game sales aren't proportionate to one another. PE sold quite well on both sides of the Pacific. Much as you or I might be dismayed by a short game, it's probably not going to have much impact on the game's success. | Hands across Canada | Here's the deal, if you have an old MOD chip (anytime before Februarywhen FF8 was released in Japan) you MUST either a) get your MOD chipremoved or b) get the new MOD chip. A pro action replay or game sharkwill have codes but they are higly unstable and could mess up your game.The swap trick (with a gameshark) will not work because FF8 is a multidisc game. Anyways, I hope this helps but I beg each and everyone of youto buy FF8 as originals. I have my PSX mod chipped and I do have silverdisc games but I also have every game worth purchasing, in originalformat to support the company. By the way Allen, need a new MOD chip? Contact me and I'll give you adeal as I do work at a store (but not at that rip off place downtown inEaton centre). Jess |
What I need is to have my PSX repaired. It hasn't worked in a few months, and while Virtual GameStation is a very nifty replacement, it doesn't work right with all games (hello, Legend of Legaia). And hey, if you can get me a new MOD chip too, I'm all for that. :) MOD chip discussion continues in the next letter. | Ta and dah | For those of you concerned about mod chipped PSXs and the US games (FF8,Um Jammer Lammy), from what I've been reading recently, it is illegalfor the games to be relesed with the mod-lockout in the US (you actuallycan't tell someone that they cannot modify their personal property..kinda like Dodge saying you can't put a new stereo in your Intrepid, orDell saying "no.. you cannot put your new Diamond MX300 in your systemyou bought from us."). Notice the first game that had the lockout,Medieval-UK, was brought to the US with no lockout on the disc. Also, onthe newer side, Bust-a-Move 2, Spyro the Dragon, Ape Escape, and SilentHill all had mod-lockouts on the Jap versions, yet didn't here. I don'tthink you'll ever see the lockout over here... Besides which, with all of the problems Sony is having with themod-lockout (on older PSXs and such), remember that the american gamingaudience is very unforgiving about bugs anymore. If something iscausing their game to not play (wether they have a mod-chip or not) theyget pissed. I don't think Sony is that stupid. At any rate, we have the trusty old Gameshark. Let Sony keep trying totick off their honest paying customers.. they're not stoping the pirates(incidentally, I've been hearing from a -lot- of people that if yousimply copy a disc, say, SaGa Frontier 2, the lockout track does nottransfer... oops! Kinda defeats the purpose of "piracy protection",non?) ---- Brad Williams |
There were some other letters about mod chips which I've forwarded to Drew, in case he thinks they're interesting or pertinent to print. But "just use a bloody GameShark" seems to be a common piece of advice. | Coffee and toast | Ignore the subject, it's crap. At any rate, do you think that the lousy anti-modchip thing was a totalwaste of money on Sony's part? Here in my little corner of the world, areasonably developed country in a reasonably backward region, pirateshave already succeeded in creating copies of the game with the modchipprotection hacked out of them. I've seen a program on the internetavailable for download, which edits out the modchip protection (Allowsyou to basically create convenient CD-R copies of the game). In otherwords, the only people Sony is really inconveniencing a lot are... thegame importers. Well... I really need to know some URL... I'm kind of searching for FF7PC save games. Weird ones actually. A whole archive of them. I have thisvague memory of the topic being mentioned before, but at that time Iwasn't really interested... Now I am. Really sorry to trouble you... butI was thinking it was also a good time to raise the probability of alinks section on GIA? Or is there one already which I've missed out?Whatever the case, I hope to get some response to this mail even if it'snot printed... pretty please? =P With... Coffeed toast on top. Which brings me to the subject anyway, how DO you convert a toaster intoa coffee maker? -LouisT |
Yeah, the anti-modchip thing IS getting on my nerves. I was all ready to dive into the wonderful world of serious video game importing, but these new restrictions really dampered by enthusiasm to do so. Erm... I'm afraid that FF7 PC is out of my realm of experience. But I'm printing this, and your URL, and hopefully someone else out there can help you out in that department. As for the archive thing, that was in reference to the still-being-worked-on DexDrive save game archive in the Community section. I know there was some discussion of whether to include a links section in Community, but I don't recall whether it was eventually given a thumbs up or down. I remember that it was in serious dispute, though. Lastly, I don't give away my secrets, but really, if I can construct a sentient android that's bent on destroying humanity, converting a toaster to a coffee maker isn't that much of a task. A little duct tape, and voila.
Closing Comments Okay, happy sharing time is over now. I have dispensed what wisdom I could, and now it's up to Drew to field all the "Allan is wrong and causes cancer is lab rats" letters that fill my mailbox each and every day. Hoo boy, that'll be fun in the sun, won't it? 'til Monday, then. - Allan Milligan
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