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Topics - Shiki Tohno

Pages: 1
1
Gaming / METAL GEAR SOLID: PHILANTHROPY
« on: October 05, 2009, 10:51:42 PM »
http://www.mgs-philanthropy.net




I lost count of how many times I came watching this. Sure, the Snake guy doesn't really look like Snake, but at least the guy who did the dubbing job was very close to Dave Hayter's original voicework. :D

2
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bal-md.samurai16sep16,0,114199.story
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bal-sword-killing0917,0,16472.story

He didn't really "chop the guy off", as he only struck once. But still.



Bottom message is "don't [tornado fang] with this guy's gadgets".

3
Off The Wall / Anal-penetrating chair kills teen -- wait, WTF? o_O
« on: July 14, 2009, 05:20:08 PM »
http://www.weirdasianews.com/2009/07/14/anal-penetrating-chair-kills-teen/




And I thought the world had already reached the epitome of weird...

4
Off The Wall / The Open-Source Boob Project
« on: July 01, 2009, 12:46:47 AM »
As explained here and followed up here.

Quote from: Ferret
"This should be a better world," a friend of mine said. "A more honest one, where sex isn't shameful or degrading. I wish this was the kind of world where say, 'Wow, I'd like to touch your breasts,' and people would understand that it's not a way of reducing you to a set of nipples and ignoring the rest of you, but rather a way of saying that I may not yet know your mind, but your body is beautiful."

We were standing in the hallway of ConFusion, about nine of us, and we all nodded. Then another friend spoke up.

"You can touch my boobs," she said to all of us in the hallway. "It's no big deal."

Now, you have to understand the way she said that, because it's the key to the whole project. The spirit of everything was formed within those nine words - and if she'd said them shyly, as though having her breasts touched by people was something to be endured or afraid of, the Open-Source Boob Project would have died aborning. But she didn't. Her words were loud and clearly audible to anyone who walked by, an offer made to friends and acquaintances alike.

Yet it wasn't a come-on, either. There wasn't that undertow of desperation of come on, touch me, I need you to validate my self-esteem and maybe we'll hook up later tonight. There was no promise of anything but a simple grope.

We all reached out in the hallway, hands and fingers extended, to get a handful. And lo, we touched her breasts - taking turns to put our hands on the creamy tops exposed through the sheer top she wore, cupping our palms to touch the clothed swell underneath, exploring thoroughly but briefly lest we cross the line from 'touching" to "unwanted heavy petting." They were awesome breasts, worthy of being touched.

And life seemed so much simpler.

(EDIT: For a more fact-checked version of events, and an explanation of the button issue, click here to see a clarification of events - because frankly, a lot of people are confused on the later button issue, et cetera.)

In this moment, all of the societal restrictions had fallen away, and we discovered an eBay-like need: We liked to express adoration of her body, and she liked the compliment of being desired. It wasn't a one-way flow; it was a stream of compliments being passed back and forth as we explored that small zone of her body, a My God, these are beautiful breasts you have, along with the backstream compliment of Thank you, you're worthy of touching them.

It could have been a base lechery. But instead, it was sexual desire made simple. We knew we couldn't go further, but being allowed inside this area of restricted access with nothing more than a question was somehow amazing.

We stood there afterwards, a little shocked. Then someone else spoke up in the same tone of voice:

"You can touch mine, too."

And my God! We all reached out like zombies trying to break through a door to get to those breasts. And it wasn't getting any worse! We weren't degenerating into an orgy, but rather exploring the amazement of how beautiful this body was and how wonderful it was to have access to them. Nobody was trying to pull off a bra or suck on a nipple; we'd been given access to a very special place that only lovers usually touched, and why would you be so crude as to try to push the boundaries of that?

And every girl in that hallway was then asked the question: "May I touch your breasts?" They considered, and said yes. And we all did.

And my Lord, I'd had experience in breasts in my time, but having so many compared right next to each other was beautiful. One of the reasons I love sex is because every body is so different, and the differences in size, and skin tone, and nipple sensitivity, and bras - bras were a big deal in how a boob felt - were highlighted. It wasn't like the breasts blurred together; they were all each beautiful in their own way, framed in the canvas of a shirt or a tank top or a dress. With each set we explored, we appreciated the last ones even more.

We went back to some of the first open-sourcers, eager for comparison. "Can I touch them again?" "Sure!" And the feel-ups continued.

I felt the terrors of high school washing away from me. It could be this easy. Just ask!

And then the real magic happened. Because a beautiful girl in an incredibly skimpy blue Princess outfit strode down the hallway, obviously putting her assets on display (the thin strips of her clothing had to be taped to her body to stay on), and we stopped her.

"Excuse me," the first, very brave girl asked. "You're very beautiful. I'd like to touch your breasts. Would you mind if I did?"

We held our breath. We didn't want to offend. This could go wrong, collapsing and turning us into cruel lechers who'd make her feel uncomfortable and shamed of who she was....

She thought for a heartbeat, sizing us up. But there must have been something honest and trustworthy in our eyes that promised that we wouldn't get out of hand... Because after a moment, she smiled and said, "Sure!"

The first girl touched respectfully. And reported that they were glorious. Then we all asked in turn, and she nodded happily and put them out, and lo, even with strangers and not acquaintances, the magic of the Boob Project continued. It wasn't that she was a piece of meat to be felt up, but rather that a living person that we did not know had voluntarily lowered the barriers that separate us and allowed us in... And we were so grateful that we were showering her in pure adoration.

It was exciting, of course. I won't deny it was sexual. But it was a miraculous sexuality that didn't feel dirty, but clean.

Emboldened, we started asking other people. And lo, in the rarified atmosphere of the con, few were offended and many agreed. And they also felt that strange charge. We went around the con, asking those who we thought might be amenable - you didn't just ask anyone, but rather the ones who'd dressed to impress - and generally, people responded. They understood how this worked instinctively, and it worked.

By the end of the evening, women were coming up to us. "My breasts," they asked shyly, having heard about the project. "Are they... are they good enough to be touched?" And lo, we showed them how beautiful their bodies were without turning it into something tawdry.

We talked about this. It was an Open-Source Project, making breasts available to select folks. (Like any good project, you need access control, because there are loutish men and women who just Don't Get It.) And we wanted a signal to let people know that they were okay with being asked politely, so we turned it into a project:

The Open-Source Boob Project.

At Penguicon, we had buttons to give away. There were two small buttons, one for each camp: A green button that said, "YES, you may" and a red button that said "NO, you may not." And anyone who had those buttons on, whether you knew them or not, was someone you could approach and ask:

"Excuse me, but may I touch your breasts?"

And if you weren't a total lout - the women retained their right to say no, of course - they would push their chests out, and you would be allowed into the sanctity of it. That exchange of happiness where one person are told with gropes and touches that they are desirable and the other is someone who's allowed to desire.

For a moment, everything that was awkward about high school would fade away and you could just say what was on your mind. It was as though parts of me were being healed whenever I did it, and I touched at least fifteen sets of boobs at Penguicon. It never got old, surprisingly.

Some women didn't want to. That was fine. We never demanded anything of anyone. And if you didn't want to put yours up for the Project but you wanted to touch, well, that was fine, too. It was simply for folks who felt like being open.

It was a raging success at Penguicon.... And there haven't been any hookups that I know of thanks to the Open-Source Boob Project. It is, as I said, a very special thing. (Though I wouldn't rule it out if two single people exchanged a moment.) And we'll probably do it at other cons, because it's strangely wholesome and sexual at the same time.

I've left off the names, because frankly, people should reveal for themselves whether they're Open-Sourcers or not. Not everyone wants to go public with it, and what happens at the con stays at the con. But trust me. If you are, and I meet you, I will ask. And you'll understand the beauty and simplicity of the Open-Source Boob Project for yourself.

Touch the magic, my friends. Touch the magic.

(NOTE: I should add that my memory of details is fuzzy at best under the best of circumstances, particularly when I drank a lot of very good Scotch later that night. I wouldn't trust any specifics here, and others have already informed me that the Princess happened first and then the other touching occurred. But the spirit of the Open-Source gestation is very much correct here.)

(EDIT: Since many seem to have been confused on the topic, I'll clarify three points:

(First: The program's an opt-in program, which is to say that if you're not wearing a button, we'll never ask. Certainly the first wave of con-asking was something with the severe potential for harm, which is why we decided on the need for buttons. The need for a red button was debated, and we decided to have it just in case... But if even if you never wear any button at all, you won't be asked. At all. It's not as though we'd be gang-pressing people into servitude.

(Second: When I say, "Like any good project, you need access control, because there are loutish men and women who just Don't Get It," I am not referring to the women who don't want to be involved, who are perfectly cool, but rather the guys/gals who see a green button and assume that it means that the woman has to let herself be touched because she's got the green on. [As I said, the answer "no" is something that can be given and should be respected - it's not like a button should force you to give up your right to a body.] Or decide to spend a good five minutes in a mouth-breathing grope. Those kinds of idiots are the folks who we're worried about, and if I could change any one sentence it would be that one, because I never meant to imply there was anything wrong with someone who didn't want to be involved. There isn't.

(Third: I should add that the most of the men were open-sourced, too. The question of what that means is up to you.

(Apologies for those. Anything else? Blast away.)

My reply in the original place I read this on:
Quote from: Myself
I've been trying to pitch this idea in my country for YEARS. Breasts are something to be idolized as an integral part of a woman's beauty, not just sexualized and used as a tool to randomly get yourself off. Unfortunately, it just so happens that I live in a country of rather hypocritical puritan women who (merely) think themselves too chaste to think of this stuff and let people do this to them. There ARE the few honest exceptions who will let you touch their breasts and butt if the mood is right, you're polite enough and take the time and have the delicacy to ask nicely, but as mentioned, they're the exception, not the rule.

So, ladies?

5
Move aside, Optimus Prime, there's a new giant robot in town that's gonna blow you outta the water.

Now we're just waiting for Amuro to be born and the entire world will be [tornado fang]'d.



http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/gigantastic/pictures-of-full+scale-59+foot-gundam-robot-kicks-optimus-primes-ass-279774.php

6
Off The Wall / Those "Dreams do come true <3" moments
« on: June 10, 2009, 04:22:31 AM »
Blatantly ripping off an idea I found interesting from Court Records, here I am making a new thread (which is rather surprising and uncommon in and of itself). Post here your stories of any of those times where you've felt that there IS a higher being somehow in charge of making your dreams become reality.



Myself, I got a dream retroactively come true. :P

Back before I got to be such a rabid anime fan as I am today (during, if memory serves, summer of 1994), I got to meet Kouichi Tsunoda, chief animator back then of Toei Animation, in a conference where he was a guest of honor in a presentation of the Japanese culture in my country. Back then I couldn't really appreciate it as much as I'd do now; however, I DO appreciate the absolutely timeless memento I got from that time -- his [tornado fang]ing autographed business card. :D

I'll post pics of it tomorrow once I can coerce my lil' sis into getting the camera for me. XD

7
Gaming / Gaming and Movies: A relationship eternally doomed to fail?
« on: June 03, 2009, 09:35:05 PM »
As we all know, most live-action movies developed based on an existing videogame franchise tend to, almost without a single fail, tank horribly.

Common, household samples: ANYTHING by that Uwe Boll [dark hold], the Mortal Kombat movies, the Street Fighter movies (although the first could be argued to be So Bad, It's Good), Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (arguably, albeit it wasn't entirely live-action).

Lately, a new movie has had me on tenterhooks about how horribly Hollywood is gonna [tornado fang] up one of my favorite gaming franchises, the epically awesome Prince Of Persia series.

First mistake: Casting Jake Gyllenhaal as the Prince. Second mistake: NAMING the Prince.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUnoO17ZJgM&fmt=18[/youtube]

Considering the producers have already said this is based in the Sands of Time trilogy, this looks and feels so absurd, it hurts.

Comments and insight? Let this thread be a central hub to discuss videogame-based movies, FOCUSING ON THE VIDEOGAME PART. We already do have a General Entertainment board, but that's for focusing on the movies as movies, not on their gaming origins.

8
Gaming / Cross Edge (X-Edge)
« on: May 12, 2009, 07:22:53 AM »
http://nisamerica.com/games/crossedge/

Tactical strategic RPG for PS3.


Crossing over with Capcom characters from the Darkstalkers cast made me cream my pants in anticipation. Special metric tons of <3 for Morrigan in a bartender's outfit (*fap fap fap*), Felicia in a nun costume (Type-MOON's Ciel much?), Lilith in a bunnygirl outfit (moar *fap fap fap*), fukken DEMITRI MAXIMOFF (GAR embodied within the Darkstalkers universe!!!!!) and Jedah's eccentricity (he's always been a massive source of LOL for me :D).

Fans of the Disgaea series will be pleasantly surprised at finding here both DFC loli Etna and her army of too.




asujhsdfkjhfgkjdhg need to cut myself open and get one of my kidneys out to sell it in the black market so I can afford a PS3, brb

9
Yeah, so lately, in what little free time I have, I've been working around my Random Avatar Script to improve it and make it easier for common tech-illiterate people to be able to install it and set it up and everything. So far, stuff has been moving smoothly (the install wizard is almost done, which is one less royal pain in the ass for me), except for one little thing that kinda angers me. (Prepare to read a bit of a rant -- gotta vent off somehow.)

Y'see, the horrible little fuckers called <input type="file"> HTML elements are obnoxiously anal when it comes to CSS styling. There's no real way to manipulate their appearance through stylesheets, and to make stuff even more annoying, if you want to upload several images at a time in a single <form> element, the handling done server-side to copy/place the files is, for lack of a better word capable of conveying my feelings, stupid. But whatever, the solution I have now has it solved: several <input> elements named images[], so PHP can move through them like an array when they arrive to the server. Rough, but it does the job anyway.

Thing is, I DON'T like the solution I have now. Thus, I've been researching the possibility of inserting a multi-uploader Flash-based utility, as I've noticed that these usually have no hitch handling both correct uploads and failed ones. So far, I've only found two truly freeware solutions: SWFUpload and In-a-Flash Uploader. Both seem great (In-a-Flash being the easier one to use of the two); however, BOTH of them, when tried locally and on my server, refuse to work, even after relentlessly tweaking the corresponding upload handlers for each tool.

Albeit, among the forums I regularly frequent, this admittedly isn't the one with the biggest population of techies, it doesn't hurt to ask. Ultimately, I'm trying to make this as simple to use for the common Joe as possible, and as much as I'll have to grind my teeth if it comes to that, if ease of use means sticking with the old bitchy <input type="file"> elements, there's nothing I can do against it.

So, do you guys know of any potential solution that could solve my problem? Or if not, can any of you figure out how to get either of the two I mentioned here running? I'll be eternally glad to you if you can point me out in the right direction. :)

10
X / Survey: New voice clips for the front page, Lucas or Zero?
« on: January 27, 2009, 08:21:44 AM »
Hey everyone. As I know the thread title isn't exactly enlightening, here goes a little explanation.

Since Lucas Gilbertson, proud voice of Zero and one of our latest members (see if you can find out who he is!), proved how cool of a guy he is when he agreed to record a few random voice clips for our front page, I was thinking of pushing the envelope and RPM's friendship with him a little bit, and harrassing him a bit to record a few more clips to us. (Lucas, if you're reading this: your mistake for offering to do more! :P) So I wanted to know what exactly the community wants.

Do you guys want more Lucas Gilbertson introducing RPM? ("Hey, this is Lucas, the voice of Zero, and you're browsing Rockman Perfect Memories.")

Or do you guys want Zero introducing RPM? (Something along the lines of "Hey everyone, I'm Zero, and you're browsing Rockman Perfect Memories, fighting Mavericks for everlasting peace" or something of the sort.)

Make sure to drop by, guys, and if you want, you can leave a few lines with suggestions as to what to say or what do you think about this new proposal too. :)

But more importantly, please cast your vote in the poll for the next big addition to RPM's Treasure Vault! Because, believe it or not, Lucas endorses that!

11
Hello, everyone. Once again, here's your friendly neighborhood DZ with a small community update. Or maybe not so small after all...

Since the news are pulled from the forum, you might be reading this from inside the forum itself; do me a small favor, and please browse to the actual front page.

Notice anything different? No? Then make sure your browser can load Flash components, RPM is whitelisted in any ad-blocking software you might be using, your speakers are turned on, and in a relatively high volume, and reload the page.

NOW tell me if you notice anything different. :P

Since by now you've probably already noticed (or in case you haven't), thanks to our community member Protodude we managed to get in contact with Lucas Gilbertson, the voice behind Zero in the three latest entries to the MegaMan X series (those being Command Mission, X8 and Maverick Hunter X), and he nicely agreed to record for us some small introductions for the home page of our site (he's a goddamn swell guy like that). He sent me a huge recording containing many voice clips, of which I picked the best three. One of the three is played randomly each time you load the front page, so see if you can catch them all! :)

Fight, RPM! Fight, Lucas! Fight Zero! For everlasting peace!

12
Gaming / The Battle Moon Wars 銀 Translation Project
« on: January 23, 2009, 08:09:34 AM »
As many of you already know, the doujin game Battle Moon Wars 銀 is currently being translated by Aroduc of Tenka Seiha and yours truly. Those same many of you already have the game and are enjoying the challenge it presents to the player, and I hope this thread will be a central hub to discuss the game in RPM, although the other reason I'm making this thread here is rather for something entirely different and unrelated.

Thus far, the latest translation patch version released is v0.95, covering almost everything from all four Acts of the game except the endgame epilogue. However, with their latest updates (supposedly dated from October, but I noticed there were files modified in December in the very latest update from them), Werk has screwed up a few things here and there, and besides that, the names of all the support techniques (called "Spirits" in-game) are embedded raw in the game EXE (this last part is what I'm in charge of translating, mainly; although I do get to do a couple more things). So the other reason I'm making this thread here is for this:

I currently have my hands full with hacking the EXE to include the translated strings (you can grab a beta release version here; only the Spirit names are translated), so I'd like it if any of you guys, when finding something wrong (typo'd text, a line sounding weird, a game error, or whatever) to please report it here, preferably with a screenshot of wherever you were when the thing happened, and as detailed a description of your circumstances as possible -- if at all possible, I'd request that some of you started the game from scratch with the very latest translation patches applied; that way, I can filter those and take out only those unsolved and forward them to Aroduc. In the end, the idea is to build a better translation through the help of the community. :)

As for me, I'll start the general game discussion by posting my preferred party:
Rin (Rin persona) & Akiha - preferably together, since they've grown up to be Long Distance Weapons of Mass Destruction -- especially Akiha with her Field Attack; if there's anyone in range, she can easily decimate through hordes of enemies at the same time with it. To a lesser extent, Sakura too becomes quite powerful after her story buff; only problem is actually getting her in range, because as a magecraft user, she can't attack after walking, and her movement distance is rather pathetic. SP Regen is a must with them, since you'll end up running through your Spirit Points quite fast if you abuse the characters' capabilities to their fullest extent.
Both Shikis (Tohno and Ryougi) - Designated Tanker Sinkers; they can slide through almost every attack unharmed and do decent damage, and both have high probabilities of not just connecting their counter-attacks, but of even striking first about half the time.
Saber, Archer, Takumi, Rider, Lancer, Bazett, Sacchin, Arcueid (Arcueid persona), Shirou - Battleships. These guys are able to withstand absurd amounts of damage, and still have strength left to dish out insanely strong attacks. Notable here are Sacchin (secret unlockable character in Takumi's route), Archer, Shirou and Saber for the immense amounts of damage they can unleash in a single attack once they have enough Will to use their more powerul Arms. SP Regen is once again a must here, to enable everyone to buff their attacks.
Kohaku, Hisui, Len - Designated Healers. These girls are only here for support, and most of the time stay in the back rows keeping everyone else alive and active in the skirmish. Particularly, Len has rather unnerving odds of effectively dodging almost anything aimed at her. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, SP Regen is an absolute must here, since these girls spend almost their entire time using their SP supporting everyone else. It's also recommended to give each at least one item of Shirou's Cooking, which can restore 50 SP.
Everyone else - support cast and event-related cast. I end up leaving almost everyone else unused except in those cases where they're forced on you. :P

Of course, the list above mentions my preferred party characters. Whenever the limit's lower than the number of people I've posted, or any of them are not available, I obviously substitute with whoever's on hand to fill space. :P

13
Fan Creations / An unusual form of art: DZ's random Windows software
« on: January 06, 2009, 09:51:28 PM »
Yeah, so I've been writing custom software for (mostly) Windows to do small things I don't usually like to do by hand for a good long while now, and thought this would be a good place to share them. Some of the stuff I've written does nifty things, some of it does useful things, some of it automates tedious tasks, some of it was written with fun in mind. I hope you guys like.

Almost all of my desktop software requires the .Net 2.0 framework. You can get it for free HERE.

From oldest to newest:

Random Avatar Script (Any platform that supports PHP)
http://dzdesigns.centraldown.com/download/randomavatar
You know this. You've known it for a while. Does it really need an explanation? :P


Screenshot Snapper (Windows)
http://dzdesigns.centraldown.com/download/screenshotsnapper
Run this, and it'll house itself in your system tray (near the clock in your taskbar). Whenever you need to take a screenshot of your desktop, open it (or right click its tray icon), select Listen For Screenshots, and hit your Print Screen key. It'll automatically take a screenshot of the current contents of your screen and save it in the format specified in the program window, in the location specified there as well. You can switch these around, and in the advanced options, you can even set it to save thumbnails of your images for you. Give it a shot! [/bad pun]


Battery Monitor (Windows)
http://dzdesigns.centraldown.com/download/batterymonitor
I wrote this while I was teaching myself how to access the system components to monitor various hardware values, including the amount of remaining battery power for laptops. It houses itself in your tray as well, and can raise an alarm with an old-school gaming message when your battery reaches a customizable percentage of remaining power.


File Size Converter (Windows)
http://dzdesigns.centraldown.com/download/filesizeconverter
Since I deal way too much with size of batch files (mostly for torrents and the like), I usually need to know very exactly how many megabytes are 643,164KB. Thus, I wrote this little tool that does said conversion on the fly, immediately, from one size to another. Just type the number and pick the source unit, and you'll get instant conversions to all other units.


Drive Icon Changer (Windows)
http://dzdesigns.centraldown.com/download/driveiconchanger
WARNING: BE CAREFUL WHEN USING THIS PROGRAM. This will let you change the appearance in Windows Explorer (and mostly almost all other operating systems) by writing a small file to your drive that sets a custom icon and label to the drive, be it a hard drive or a portable drive. I say be careful because sometimes, you DON'T want to rewrite the already existing file (because of whatever action, like starting a custom program or something). Be sure to check for the existence of a hidden system file in your drive, called Autorun.inf, before using this program; and if it exists, check its contents. If you recognize anything in there, I suggest you don't try anything; if you don't, you most probably got hit by a virus trying to load itself whenever you plug the drive, so rewrite away (and make sure to use a decent antivirus :P).


Bulk Image Format Converter (Windows)
http://dzdesigns.centraldown.com/download/bulkimageconverter
My latest creation. I couldn't find online a simple, easy-to-use tool to convert many images simultaneously from one format to another, so I opted for writing my own. The interface is very simple and self-explanatory, and it does Exactly What It Says On The Tin: You give it a single image or a folder containing many images, select a source format and a destination format, and hit Go, and the program will read all the appointed images in the source format and convert them (with the exact same filename, for comparison purposes) to the destination format. Highly useful if you, like me, use Media Player Classic and collect screenshots, and you store them in BMP (lossless) format - after a while, considering each file is 1MB+ in size, they start to pile up big. TESTIMONIAL: My current screenshot collection went from 450MB to about 140 when I converted all those huge BMP files into smaller, equally lossless PNG images. :P

So there you go. As I build up more stuff, I'll be updating the thread with it. Hope you guys like my little tools.

14
Off The Wall / Tentacle Grape: The new hot geeky thing around the corner!
« on: January 02, 2009, 04:58:15 PM »

I am going to gather funds in order to order a six pack of this. I cannot live my life without owning a few bottles. This is motherfuckingly epic.

15
So here's a curious question I've been asking myself for a while.



All of us, at one point or another, have used guides from GameFAQs, right? Right. Given the kind of site it is, it's pretty logical to imagine that they have ways to track the amount of views each individual guide has, if only merely for statistical purposes that serve us, as mere users of the site, no real purpose.

But even if it is to tacitly show your appreciation for the work done, even if no one outside GameFAQs themselves notice, when you look up guides for a game that's part of your gaming community's focus, do you support guides written by your fellow community members?

Allow me to explain with a personal example.

Let's turn our clocks back four years, and settle ourselves in mid-2004, right when MMZ3 took the world by assault. I was the first in the MegaMan community to submit an every-nook-and-cranny guide for the game to GameFAQs (viewable here), and the first to publish an entire game guide covering every single aspect of the game, even if it's been superseded/overshadowed by newer, more recently-submitted guides. At the time, those of you who for one reason or another decided to look up a guide, did you use mine? And if you did, why?

I myself, for all the years I've been using GameFAQs, I've always been on the lookout for guides by people I know. When I first had access to the internet AND an SNES at the same time (hey, blame third-world countries' shitty economy), I know I spent hours perusing Reeve's FAQ for the first MMX game, and also did so with all the other guides he wrote for both GFAQs and his own site, originally MegaMan X Online and later The MegaMan Network. Even when he stepped down and Tim took over, every time I need a guide on a MegaMan game, I usually look for names recognizable within the community, if only to show an unspoken appreciation to them for all the work it takes to write out a detailed guide.

So what about you? Do you simply take whatever guide looks meatier, or do you explicitly look out for people you know and try to support them in a tacit way in their work?

16

First things first: I throw a link at you.

http://meltyblood.de/CasterStats

Second: Make sure you're using the last version of MBCaster and have played at least a few online matches with people.

Third: Sign up at the site.

Fourth: Download the software, and follow the instructions.

Fifth: Run the program, and watch it tally up your stats.

Sixth: ???

Seventh: PROFIT!!!



Here are my stats: http://meltyblood.de/CasterStats/detailedview.php?user=DominicanZero

My older stats aren't available because 1. the old Caster didn't record nicknames, and 2. the session log went poof with my old hard drive anyway. ;O;

17
Since my thread got lost in the last forum reboot, here I am making it again, for I cannot deny that it feels actually quite nice when people pat you on the back for the stuff you've done. Thus, as I pray, give me Unlimited Ace Attorney Works. :O



Hold It! An Ace Attorney Scanslations Archive: All my Ace Attorney doujinshi scanslations are archived here. I've been toying with the idea of creating download links of them as well. What do you guys think?

DZ's Ace Attorney Story Corner: I myself can't believe I actually own this place. DZ? Writing fan fiction? It's more likely than you think.

I'd post all the stories in the place, but seeing that they're quite lengthy, it'd make for one long-ass post. Therefore, I'll only post the latest one here (warning: angst and violence alert!).


[spoiler=Of pain, fear, love and tears]It had been a bad day. A VERY bad day.

The meeting with the people from the Bar Association regarding the latest trial run of the Jurist Legal System had gone all kinds of wrong; halfway home, it had started raining so hard his small umbrella had literally undone itself, screwing the papers he was carrying beyond any hope of salvation; at home, one of his keys had broken inside the doorknob, forcing him to get in through the back; the water heater was broken, which meant he had to take an extremely cold shower, and to top it all off, he had had an absolutely horrible argument with the only person he really trusted, his closest friend and confident, his only source of emotional support. Today, things had, in the most literal of senses, gone to [parasitic bomb]. Any normal person would have broken down. And while he was not a normal person by any account, even his patience had a limit.

That limit had long since been gone past for the day.

After he got out of the bathroom, shirtless and still dripping, he sat down in the living room. He tried to steady his breaths, slowly. Breathe in, breathe out. Useless.

He tried driking a glass of milk and taking a nap. Useless.

He tried sitting around, reading all his past cases &mdash; it regularly served as a measure to get him to calm down whenever he got too excited for any reason. Useless.

He tried laying on the couch, turned on the TV, and started zapping the channels, in a futile search for something worth watching. Utterly useless.

"DAMN IT!"

He could not concentrate on anything &mdash; anger was taking his toll on his psyche. And standing up, he did the only thing that felt logical (or illogical) in his riled-up state. He kicked the couch.

Curiously, the jolt of pain felt actually rather good. So he continued kicking the couch until he could barely feel his toes, at which point the pain was threatening to overcome him.

But he wouldn't stand for that. And thus, moving away from the couch, he started on the closest thing he could find able to withstand his blows: the nearby wall.

Punching it rabidly, his rage unconstrained, he felt slowly as the pain climbed up every bone of his arms and his knuckles with every hit. Pain, glorious pain, seemed to drive his thoughts of anger away. Pain, powerful pain, seemed to clear his mind of everything, good, bad, inane thoughts, all of it. Pain, masochistically delicious pain, seemed to be a way to vent every single atom of frustration contained inside his being. Pain, sadistic physical pain, seemed to be the cure for the very acute stinging sensation of pain in the deepest parts of his heart and soul.

His hands felt numb. He knew he was hurting himself, yet he didn't care. By now, each hit produced a slight, almost mute splatter, his knuckles broken and bleeding. The wall was painted in random strokes of shiny dark red marks, his blood dripping from his fists and wherever they connected to the wall. Somehow, he knew this wasn't going to pass unnoticed by anyone who knew him, but he didn't care about this either. All he cared about right now was the fact that the harder his punches made the wall rumble, the clearer his mind was. The pain was there, but he was master of it: it drove thoughts away and led him to act purely on impulse, on instinct, overwhelming instinct.

The stronger the pain, the harder he'd attack; it was an uneven fight, if it could even be called that, but it drove a strange comfort through his veins. By now, his fists weren't the only part of his body feeling pain; his eyes had started to sting, and much to his annoyance, he felt white-hot tears searing through and dripping down his cheeks. He assured himself that it was merely because of the pain he was feeling, as punch after punch, blood splatter after blood splatter, he continued to crush his knuckles against the wall in a fast, constant barrage. The tears were starting to feel obnoxious, but being completely unable to stop his fists, he resorted to the only measure he had to placate the stinging and the pain: screaming his lungs out.

And barely he had started letting whatever was left of his voice out, the front door of the little apartment swung open with a crash, showing Trucy standing there, white as a sheet, with an expression that clearly showed she was terrified of what was before her eyes. Her voice barely a whisper, she tried to address the man in front of her, unsure if he was the man she knew and loved as her father.

"...D-dad..?"

Even more anger filled his insides; not at her, but at himself, for letting himself be caught in this fashion by the last person he'd wanted to see this darker, irrational side of him. Before he could stop himself, he screamed "GET OUT OF HERE! NOW!" while throwing the little beanie hat at her with all the strength he could muster, missing her by mere inches on purpose, but still enforcing the point of his words. In his pain and his inhuman rage, all his senses were heightened; and this would prove even more painful and enraging, for he saw very clearly the sparks of light reflected by the tears left floating in midair by her daughter, and heard very clearly a sob that she was unsuccessful in trying to suppress. He'd made her daughter cry, and he could not forgive himself for that. And that only served to further fuel his fury, and with renewed strength he resumed his one-sided fight.

His knees failed him. He fell to the floor, kneeling, but unrelenting. His body ached, but he wasn't slowing down. His forces were threatening to run out at any minute, and yet each blow was as fierce as the first. Deep in his heart, he knew this was stupid, but at the same time, it provided with the peaceful feeling of not having to think.

On and on, this continued so... Until at last the last ounces of his strength had been consumed, and he merely slumped against the wall. The wall around his mind, blocking all thoughts, fell with a loud crash, and the first thought that crossed beyond the crushed remains was the acknowledgement of how pathetic he was, giving in to senseless anger like that. More and more remarks of his own ridiculousness stepped over the fallen bricks and mortar, mocking him, and yet he had no will, no desire to fight them, for they spoke nothing but the absolute truth.

And it was in this shape that she found him. She, his love, the one closest to his heart, had found him utterly in pieces in his anger and his fury.

His eyes glowed for a second, and his first impulse was to stand up and punch her too... But his body wouldn't respond anymore, and all the visible acknowledgment he gave of her presence was a pained, noncommittal grunt.

On the other side of the room, she could not believe her eyes, now wide as tennis balls. She carefully stepped towards him, avoiding the broken debris that his attack on the couch had left as war spoils &mdash; shards of a broken glass, the batteries of a remote that had long since gone flying, and other things. Like his daughter before her, she was entirely unable of digesting the scene that was currently being displayed for her, and cautiously approaching his fallen remains of a body, barely had the strength to mutter in an almost unaudible tone, "...Nick?", to which he once again grunted, the strength of his body drained, and that of his resistance as well: without restraints this time, he began to cry in earnest, and raising his eyes, he shot her a look of deepest anger, and deepest self-loathing. He'd take whatever she threw at him, he knew he deserved it.

And barely had these thoughts crossed his mind when his head turned aside against his will, and his cheek prickled and felt very hot, the shadow of her hand etched in his face. Her expression was that of anger, but not the pathetic anger of which he'd made such a splendid show merely minutes before, but righteous anger for being so stupid as to do what he had done. He raised his sight again, and saw beads of water starting to form below her eyes, as she screamed in the most hurtful tone he had yet heard from her mouth, delivering more and more slaps with each word.

"YOU COMPLETE IMBECILE PHOENIX WRIGHT!! HOW DARE YOU SCARE YOUR DAUGHTER LIKE THAT!! HOW DARE YOU SCARE ME LIKE THAT!!"

And none but a few seconds had passed after she had slapped him with all the force she could muster from her petite body frame, before she was kneeling down before him and hugging him with all the strength in her heart. He could only feel the wetness of her tears on his neck, and by an otherworldly effort, he achieved the superhuman feat of lifting his arms and embracing her. She shivered, feeling his cold, aching arms on her, and all that came to her mind was to throw him onto the floor and kiss him wildly, like a savage animal, and punch him wherever her hands could reach, in revenge for the terrifying feeling she had felt earlier. He took both in stride, without a word, not knowing what had earned him the kiss, but with full knowledge that whatever revenge she wanted to take on him, she was entirely in her right to do so.

She broke the kiss, and never stopping her barrage of blows, rested her head on his chest, her tightly closed eyes overflowing with tears that cascaded down her face. "How could you... How could you..."

He could barely hear the croaking noise that was his own voice.

"It was a bad day..."

Suddenly, her sobs stopped. She slowly raised her head, amazement dawning in her face.

"...What?"

"It's been a... Horrible day... And I... I said... Awful things to you... That I shouldn't have..."

Her face pulled an expression from god knows where that made him shiver in fear. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, indeed. Thus, the resounding echo of yet another inhuman slap on his untouched cheek boomed through the place.

"YOU GODDAMN IDIOT!!" Slap. "Is that" Slap. "a reason" Slap. "to hurt yourself" Slap. "like this?!" Slap. "Do you think" Whack. "I'd be so shallow" Whack. "as to WANT" Slap. "to see you hurt" Whack. "over a stupid argument" Slap. "like this?!" Slap. "ARE YOU [tornado fang]ing OUT OF YOUR MIND?!" And with her final words, a punch stronger that anything she'd managed before crushed his chest.

More than the burning pain of her hands constantly leaving marks in his face, more than the stinging ache of her fists colliding with his already weakened body, her words pierced him like steel on molten lava. And when her screaming tone abruptly changed into a whisper, a pained murmur, it made them even more painful for his heart.

"Nick... Seriously. Sometimes I even wonder myself how or why I fell in love with you. Nick, I know who, what, and how you are; I know you didn't mean the things you shouted at me. I know it was a spur of the moment; I've yelled my fair share of crap at you too. But that doesn't mean that just because you think your words were hurtful to me you have the right to hurt yourself like this. Or are you forgetting something key here?"

He gazed at her. With no idea what she was talking about, his quizzical expression asked the question for him. She wasn't crying anymore, but her voice remained broken as if she was.

"You're mine, Nick. Completely mine. And I'm yours, totally and entirely yours. Thus, you have no business hurting yourself without my permission, and as you very well know, I wouldn't have given it anyway. Because I love you whole, however twisted you are, however deranged, however mad, but whole."

And once again, she leaned down on him and kissed him, this time sweetly, slowly, delicately.

And as Phoenix's eyes, swollen and red, started sprouting tears of their own again, he thought that maybe, just maybe, the day still had a chance to change for the better.[/spoiler]


Oh, and I forgot to mention, due to the never-ending "shipping wars" in the fandom, I ended up writing a Magical Random Pairing Generator, located here, which is also one of the things that keeps the AA fandom moving nowadays. XD

EDIT: LOL, my brain feels like scrambled eggs right now, keep forgetting things.

One question, guys: I've been toying lately with the idea of offering my scanslations available for zipped download along with the online reading system. What do you guys think? Should I go ahead with that, or leave the online reader only?

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Entertainment / Curious perversions in the music industry
« on: December 07, 2008, 01:52:15 AM »
Parodying the subtitle of one of my favorite sites, TheDailyWTF.com, I open this thread to discuss all the weird stuff you've found in the music industry. =) I'll start myself pointing out a mighty hilarious thing from the anime music world over at the Land of the Rising Sun.

I guess some, if not most or even all, of you must have heard the opening song to Lucky Star, one of the funniest anime series to ever come out in 2007. It's a relatively fast-paced, spunky song to the voices of four "teen girls" that sound like frickin' preteens. (One of the things I love about Konata -- she knows she's 18 and she knows that she looks freaking loli, and she's not afraid to use that to her advantage. =D ) It's called Motteke! Sera Fuku and it's a great dance song for anime parties, plus there's no way to listen to it without at least a small smile coming up in your face. Okay, know the song? Great. Hold on to that thought.

Now let's talk about the stuff of legend. JAM Project is a group of legendary songmakers perhaps most famous for their theme songs for the Super Robot Wars games, but they've done quite some famous songs for well-recognized series, both as a group and individually (Hironobu Kageyama springs to mind, with all his awesome stuff for DBZ, including, but not limited to, Trunks's image song, Hikari no Willpower). Ok, so, associated the group in your mind? Got the general gist of their music style? Good. Now here's the kicker.

Would you believe JAM Project, of all people, did a freaking COVER of Motteke? Yes, I didn't want to believe it either at first -- but I have to admit, if not freaking hilarious, at least it's interesting to listen to. Personally, I could barely breathe laughing in amazement and amusement when I first heard the song, but I have to admit, it was quite awesome, something decidedly unusual that paid off for the effort. XD

So what kind of curious perversions have YOU found in the music industry? =p

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General / So you'd like to have a random avatar like me, huh...
« on: November 25, 2008, 06:19:59 AM »
Major update!
On 2009/04/06




Been working my ass off for you guys. 8D

After only displaying a very early development build to a close group of friends, I've decided to go out with the early alpha roll-out of the rechristened Image Randomizer Script so everyone can take a look at it and say what you like and don't like, what could be improved and what could be removed. Most of the heavy work has been done behind the curtains, so you wouldn't really notice; but the administration interface has taken a MAJOR overhaul to make it easier to manage everything. :)

Here are the links for your testing pleasure:
Random image link: http://www.nanatsuyoru.co.cc/avatars/v3.0/index.php/image.png
Random image counter link: http://www.nanatsuyoru.co.cc/avatars/v3.0/info/index.php/image.png
Gallery link: http://www.nanatsuyoru.co.cc/avatars/v3.0/gallery
And the new administration interface: http://www.nanatsuyoru.co.cc/avatars/v3.0/info/login.php

The login page for the new web admin interface is already filled with the default login data so you can go inside immediately and start fooling around. ;)

Lemme know what you guys think; I probably won't be releasing this version to the public until I have at least the configuration editor sorted out, but it's nice to have feedback about what feels right and what doesn't at this point in time.




[spoiler=Original Post]Well, look no further. I have finally found a free hosting provider for those of you that don't have your own, so you can host your own collection of randomly rotating avatars, like the one I'm sporting. :D Thus, inspiration drove me to write a complete tutorial on even the most minimal things of getting, configuring, setting up, and using my Random Avatar Script of Doom™. :)

Beware though, as it's a bit of a lengthy read, for it covers every single aspect of the script, including, but not limited to, configuration, signing up for and setting up an account at the hosting provider, and testing each and every function of the script, among other things. :O

http://dzdesigns.centraldown.com/randomizer/ DEPRECATED!!!

Enjoy, and drop any comments, feedback, questions, complaints, cheese, wine, boobs and beamsabers here. :) [/spoiler]

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Off The Wall / Niiiiiiiiiice - Gmail now has themes
« on: November 20, 2008, 03:05:13 AM »
And I just found the most frickin' awesome theme EVER -- the Terminal theme.



Official blog says they'll be rolling out this feature through the next couple of days for everyone. Nifty. :D

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http://forums2.battleon.com/f/tm.asp?m=15024647

Miley Cyrus? On [tornado fang]ing REPEAT?!

I'd drive a bullet through my brain before two minutes were up.

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