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Topics - The Great Gonzo

Pages: 1
1
General / wrt: the new forum format.
« on: October 07, 2020, 02:01:14 PM »
Was this something consciously decided on as a means of making RPM more secure (like what happened with another forum I'm a member of), or did it get updated from on high, so to speak?

Not gonna lie--as infrequently as I check the place these days, I really prefer the old look, and not just because 99% of mobile-friendly web design just looks sterile and lifeless to me. (Also, all the Servbot emoticons appear to be broken, at least in editor view.)

2
X / MMX4 Developer Interview, 1997
« on: September 27, 2018, 07:31:26 PM »
Shmupulations recently translated an interview with Yoshinori Takenaka (producer), Koji Okohara (planner), and Ikki Tazaki (designer), originally from Sega Saturn Magazine.

The most interesting bit, to me, is the suggestion that MMX is/was not actually the definitive future of Classic, just a possible one, and that the Light and Wily seen in MMX might not be their Classic selves. Which would explain some discrepancies and oddities, but this really needed to be made clear in-series if it stuck... (Also kinda questionable when you take The Power Fighters into account)

3
X / MMX1 Internal Design Docs
« on: February 12, 2018, 06:10:48 AM »
Via Protodude's Rockman Corner and Kobun 20, we have some old design docs about various relationships/events prior to MMX1, written in-between development of that game and MM5 in 1993. Highlights:

* The "Zero is a Wily-bot" thing was planned from the start.

* Wily used Protoman as a reference for the ZERO Project. (The document uses a dotted line to denote this; another leads from Megaman to the X Project, suggesting to me that Mega and X [still] aren't the same 'bot, either)

* Apparently Zero was already at the bottom of the morality barrel, so the virus that was intended to sink him lower got confused and turned him into a do-gooder. In other words, that bizarre comment from MMZ Official Complete Works wasn't pulled out of Capcom's ass after all.


If/when we get more historical goodies out of the 30th Anniversary event, I guess we would move/rename this topic.

4
Gaming / Bungie's Marathon Trilogy
« on: June 02, 2016, 02:48:34 AM »
No one's started a topic on this yet, right?

The Marathon Trilogy, mostly-developed and published by Bungie (Double Aught handled Marathon Infinity, the third game) from late '94 to '96, is the spiritual predecessor to Halo (in fact, the two series were directly connected in an early draft)--story-heavy FPSes with many layers of depth and a great deal of mind-screwy ambiguity in the vein of William Gibson, at a time when most FPSes could be summed up as "it moves, it dies". Marathon introduced a number of other innovations to the genre, like mouselook (and the ability to aim vertically) and grenade-hopping.

A very, very short summary: you're a Security Officer on the UESC Marathon who is at first impeded by, then ends up working for a Rampant AI, Durandal. Neither of you are as you seem, whether in terms of motivations or nature. You're also not the dude(s) in the second link.


All three games, along with some notable fan scenarios, can be played on modern OSes via Aleph One. If you've got a Mac capable of handling Classic software and wanna go old-school, you can grab the .SITs here (the Trilogy was largely Mac-exclusive). If you just want to read the terminals (which are the primary method of story conveyance), the Story Page has them all, along with two decades' worth of analysis and speculation (protip: write your own notes first).

5
Fan Creations / Sonic Boom: Beyond the Black Horizon
« on: February 09, 2015, 09:14:25 AM »
I'm still here, sort of.

Short version: "Beyond the Black Horizon" is an in-progress alternate-universe fic of Sonic Boom Rise of Lyric that I planned out and began work on before the game's release. As a direct consequence, there's virtually no overlap between the two.

All links are to my tumblr, currently the only place where it's hosted; this is to prevent breaking the character limit on posts as the chapters are somewhat long. This post will be updated as chapters are completed.

I'd like to ask that no one make any smartassed comments about RoL here, directly or no. My patience stretches only so far.

--

Ch. 1
Ch. 2
Ch. 3
Ch. 4
Ch. 5
Ch. 6
Ch. 7
Ch. 8
(EDIT) Ch. 9

6
DASH / The reason why the US Devroom is still online
« on: October 04, 2012, 06:44:53 AM »
http://www.rockmancorner.com/2012/10/why-is-us-legends-3-devroom-still-online.html

Quote
"Seth and I actually discussed this decision at great length around the time of the game's cancellation. On the one hand, it's a bit of an artifact attesting to the disappointment of many. On the other hand, a lot of people spent a lot of time and mental energy in populating that digital space with messages, illustrations, conversation, and so forth. People made friends there. We also felt that while the game didn't make it through, the experiment of the Devroom was a success in the sense that it proved that we had the ability to use our community outlet (Unity) to actually gather and incorporate ideas from the community in a big way.

The Devroom was not kept open for any kind of financial gain or to spread some kind of secret message. It's just that it had accomplished enough positives and been a home to enough people that it felt like the right thing to do. Things are a bit more complicated on the Japan side where the Devroom was its own standalone site that required a sustainable budget, not to mention the difference in cultural perception. Leaving that page running on their side would have likely left a lot of fans very confused and left Capcom Japan open to an awful lot of snappy remarks."

I have a hard time believing that CoJ couldn't have left its equivalent up without much hassle (after all, they've very good at ignoring their own customers), but I think this helps show that CoA is at least a bit more likable than the other two branches (my frustrations with CoA aside).

7
Rockman Series / 25th Anniversary Logo Leaked
« on: January 10, 2012, 01:53:33 PM »
http://www.rockmancorner.com/2012/01/mega-man-25th-anniversary-logo-revealed.html
http://www.themmnetwork.com/2012/01/10/mega-man-25th-anniversary-logo-revealed/

...to be honest, if this is the final logo, then I'm a bit worried. Does it mean that CoJ will continue to ride the nostalgia wave (which has long since died down, I think), when it's the absolute last thing they should be doing? And what was it doing in that train wreck of an MMX1 port? Was THAT one of those "things" Capocm had planned for the 25th?

8
Rockman Series / Pre-RS-MM Promo Footage Available
« on: November 25, 2011, 05:48:09 AM »
http://www.rockmancorner.com/2011/11/original-mega-man-cartoon-pitch.html

I'm very impressed with this, myself. :) Shame it came after the OVA, because THIS is what that needed to be.


(Note: I DO NOT want to see any RS-MM [or even Captain N] bashing in this thread. Just because the promo looks like the games doesn't automatically make it better; for all we know, the writing and such would've been largely the same)

9
Rockman Series / Interview with Joe Ruby on RS-MM
« on: August 05, 2011, 08:28:16 PM »
Posted by M. Sipher on his tumblr. Edit: direct link here because I don't know how Tumblr works.

Quote
Okay, a little backdrop first. A few years ago, Matt Karpowich (of the Obscure Transformers Website, among other projects) got in touch with Joe Ruby of Ruby-Spears Productions for some interview stuff. Knowing I was a Mega Man fan, I got the chance to do a dedicated set of questions based on the MM cartoon. Some interesting tidbits came from it, but for one reason or another, neither interview got published.
Until now.
So here we go. Here’s one of the big boys of animation, co-creator of Scooby-Doo, answering a few questions (and debunking a few rumors!) on the American Mega Man cartoon. Enjoy!
*****
When did the cartoon series first begin early production?

JR: 1994

Capcom had said that the series was originally to follow the Japanese character designs from the games. But at the time, test audiences didn’t care for the look, so the character designer was tasked with coming up with several different looks for the main characters. Can you elaborate on this process, and what other styles were tested?

JR:   As I recall, the only designs we saw were of the original MegaMan. We felt he was too young for our audience, so we made him a teenager and proportioned him as a well-built athlete type.

Had you started this project, say, a year later, do you think that Japanese animation’s growing stylistic acceptance would have changed the way the series was made?

JR:   Not necessarily. The concept was not hard adventure, but a lighter action series with some comedy, done in a retro 1980’s style.

What reference material was used when developing the series? Were you given any of the Japanese comics to look at, or simply the US games and artwork?

JR:   There were no comics, but written material about the game and its characters, both present and future. Also, we were given all the character artwork that appeared in the games, and copies of the U.S. games.

MegaMan’s trademark is his ability to use the weapons of his beaten opponents. One aspect of this ability is that he changes color when he uses one of his enemy’s weapons in the games. Was this dropped from the cartoon simply for the sake of the animators?

JR:   Yes. Especially with so many characters colored red, black and yellow, it would get visually confusing in animation. What we did is have an animated effect as MM absorbed the enemy’s power into his “power arm.”

What prompted the decision to make ProtoMan a villain? Even though he was painted as one in the MegaMan 5 game (which would have been the most recent game when the project was started), it was revealed to be a frame-job by Dr. Wily, the series’ perennial villain.

JR:   I don’t recall exactly. But it had to come from Capcom to make him that way, either directly, or from the materials we were given.

You guys developed the most widely recognized canine cartoon star in the world, Scooby-Doo… I have to ask, how much of Scooby is in MegaMan’s robo-pooch Rush?

JR:   Well, he didn’t eat Scooby Snacks. Actually, we tried to keep his character as different as possible. But a goofy dog that talks will always be likened to Scooby. Especially if we do it.

A semi-major character from the game series, Dr. Cossack, never appeared in the cartoon. Was this simply to keep the series from getting too complicated, cast-wise?

JR:   That sounds right.

One of the things that really struck me about the cartoon was its portrayal of MegaMan’s sister, Roll. Her role prior had been little more than stay home, worry about MegaMan, and occasionally get kidnapped. The US Roll, however, jumps right into the action, and does her fair share of dismantling Wily’s robots armed with little more than souped-up versions of common tools. What brought on this change to a more gutsy Roll?

JR:   It (excuse the non-intended pun) broadened the show, gave more interplay and gags, and hopefully would attract some girl audience. (Also, it showed were not male chauvinistic pigs as our wives think)

Scott McNeil, who voiced Wily, ProtoMan, and probably a few dozen other characters, had mentioned that originally, Wily was meant to have a British accent rather than the more stereotypical (yet far more fun) faux-German-Slavic accent. Also that ProtoMan was also to be voiced by MegaMan’s actor, Ian Corlett, to play up their “same plans” origins. Are there any other pre-production changes that you can recall in regards to the character portrayal?

JR:   Wiley’s voice characterization came out of a Japanese MM educational film in which they portrayed him speaking Japanese with a German accent. We had been asked to recast and re-record the film into English and that’s how some of the voices came to be, or followed that theme.

How much say-so did Bandai have in the development of the series? The second season seemed to heavily feature the Wily Robots who had been made into action figures, as well as repeated appearances of MegaMan’s new armors and vehicles, which were slated to be produced for the toy line as well (but never released, sadly).

JR:   As I recall, they had an exec that would go over the scripts to insure that the toy villains were being used. The second season, we had meetings with the execs regarding the look, selection, and use of the new toys in the scripts.

Outside of that, what say did Capcom have in which Wily Robots showed up in any given episode?

JR:   I believe they went along with the toy company.

The Mega Man cartoon apparently scored big ratings in syndication. Why was the series ended after this second season? Did it have anything to do with the Bandai-made toy line being cut short (a fate it shared with other licenses like The Tick, Sailor Moon, and -for a time- Dragon Ball)? Or was it ultimately Capcom’s decision?

JR:   Probably all the above and more, which we were not privy to. Obviously, we were looking forward to continuing the series, which was fun to do, and, had great ratings.

Had the series continued, would we have seen characters from more recent games, or even the Mega Man games that were exclusive to the Nintendo Game Boy?

JR:   We were planning on integrating the new Mega X character and game materials into the new shows.


THE RUMOR MILL

Here, there aren’t so much questions, but nuggets of info we had picked up and have always wanted official verification/debunking of. Any of these you can comment on would be VERY appreciated.

Some of the most persistent rumors concerning the cartoon series are about the third season that never happened. According to rumor, the season was cut after only one episode was finished (“Crime of the Century”, in which Wily uses remote-controlled toys to pull off heists), but was planned as a full 13-episode run.

JR:   Nothing was cut short. It was decided just to make the one additional episode. And that completed the package.

Another big rumor is that this third season would have introduced Bass, MegaMan’s new rival from the game series, who would replace ProtoMan as Wily’s Number Two in order to tie into the current game setup. And following that, Proto would become more the Racer-X to Mega’s Speed Racer, as is the setup in the games.

JR:   Guess it was just a rumor. That thinking never reached us if that was true.

Of course, there’s the second-season episode “Mega X”, which featured the debut of Capcom’s related Mega Man X series to animation. Again, the rumor mill has it that Mega Man X was to get his own spin-off cartoon (and accompanying toy line), but that too never came to be.

JR:   Yes, that was true, as far as I can recall.

Thank you for your time, and thank you for giving us the cartoon!
- Greg Sepelak
Hey! You’re very welcome.
- Joe Ruby

I was intrigued by that "Mr. Corlett voicing Proto as well" bit, myself; as much as I like McNeil-Proto, that would've been interesting to see, too.

10
X / German X1 manual?
« on: October 17, 2010, 04:29:52 AM »
Does anyone have/know where there are scans of that thing? I want to take a crack at translating the character bios (mostly because I heard that Zero was referred to as female there).

And I did try checking replacementdocs. It's acting all screwy right now.

11
General / So...MMKB.
« on: February 26, 2010, 01:55:44 PM »
I'm just curious--how much of that wiki is fanon? Is it actual fanon, or is its being user-submitted automatically invalidate it no matter how accurate the info is?

12
Rockman Series / Unaired Ruby-Spears Megaman Episode?
« on: September 05, 2009, 05:18:45 PM »
RPM's WikiSpace (Wikipedia itself once mentioned it, but it looks like it's been removed) tells me that episode 27 of the Ruby-Spears Megaman cartoon never aired, with episode 28 being "Crime of the Century".

My question is, is this just a fluke, or did ep. 27 really not air? If the latter, then for what reasons? My best guess is that it was still in progress when the show's plug was pulled, or if it was finished, then they just didn't bother. It being unfinished would explain why it's not on the DVDs, at any rate.

13
Rockman Series / Games Similar to Megaman
« on: August 24, 2009, 01:55:44 AM »
Vixy suggested that one of us start this topic. We'd like you to find/point out "Games that have many of the Mega Man traits, like stage selection, a mix of weapons to use, sliding, dashing, and all those other things that make Mega Man so cool."

Here's one I found: Batman: Return of the Joker (Genesis version), from Sunsoft.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSo1ntVzsMA
http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/genesis/home/586048.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvilK5P915s (This video has commentary)

14
Shooting Star / Strange MMSF3 Glitch
« on: July 22, 2009, 08:11:01 PM »
I should've mentioned this earlier (it's been about a week since I beat the game).

After unfreezing the Wizard in the stunt car, I transed out (no walking involved, just straight trans-out if I remember correctly). This very ominous, scary music began playing--it wasn't the Noised Area tune or any of the game's standard "danger" music. It continued playing even during virus battles, and only stopped when I trans-outed again--at which point everything went back to normal.

I dunno if what I heard was unused music, or if it was just a music-corrupting glitch, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

15
Rockman Series / Megaman Lookalikes That Predate Him
« on: April 24, 2009, 11:21:40 PM »
Subject says all, really. Is there a Megaman expy that came before him (more fairly, does Megaman look like someone/thing that showed up before 1987)? Post 'em here.

I'd like to start with Krys. (He's riding the rocket horse.) Not only does he look like Megaman (well, Megaman looks like him, but Megs is better known), he looks like Megaman's original name (Rainbow Kid).

And before anyone asks, I discovered this at Bad Movies. I didn't actually watch that movie' I'd probably be insane if I did.



Please, no Astro Boy comparisons; they've been done to death.

16
Rockman Series / Theory Time: Megaman on Unusual Consoles
« on: February 15, 2009, 05:24:29 PM »
Simply put, how would Megaman (pick a series) look, feel, and play on a console outside his norm? What mechanics would have to be implemented or removed? Would it be any good? Would it contain original bosses or reuse the familiars?

By "unusual consoles", I mean systems like Jaguar, 3DO, CD-i (in before mah boi), Sega CD/32X, Game.com (I own that...somewhere), Atari 7800, Laserdisc...Basically, any console that never saw an original Megaman game or port. (Even if said console died before MM1 was released)

17
Rockman Series / Ancient Theories/Fanon
« on: January 05, 2009, 02:38:19 AM »
A thought occurred to me. What kind of theories were proposed way back in the day, when the NES was still alive, when the Internet wasn't as widespread, etc.? Does anyone remember them, no matter how ridiculous they might have been? Not just for Classic, but any series (preferably Classic/X, though), widespread or no.

All I have to contribute is that I briefly thought Protoman was Roll, but that was more of a misconception than anything else.

18
Emulation / MAME hates me.
« on: December 18, 2008, 09:18:43 PM »
I can't even open the damn thing.

My computer doesn't recognize .MAK files, and I don't know what program uses them other than MAME itself. MAME32 opened for all of 2 nanoseconds before giving me the finger and closing out.

My brilliant Google search turned up nothing about not being able to even start MAME. I'm only asking about it here so that I might be able to play MvC without paying out my ass (especially bad if I'm ever going to get MvC2). Anyone got any suggestions?

19
Rockman Series / Theory Time: Archie Megaman
« on: November 24, 2008, 04:47:00 AM »
I am a grand overthinker, which probably contributes to my insomnia--but I digress. We've already seen Dreamwave's 4-issue "series", Mr. Shin's excellent summaries of NAdM, and heard those rumours about a cancelled Marvel series based on Ruby-Spears MM. (It either never existed or was vaporware. I believe Mandi's already taken that rumour down)

I recently relocated my Archie Sonic comics so that I could actually read 'em (a flimsy pile on the corner of a cluttered desk set against the wall? Not terribly conductive to anything), and seeing how there's been no "real" MM comic series (NAdM is interesting, yes, but ye gods...THE PLOT) and that only the .EXE manga was brought to the U.S...you can see where this is going, don't you?

An Archie adaptation of Megaman could go one of several ways:

1.) A straight adaptation of the games--like Ikehara, only super-condensed.

2.) A more...interesting take on Megaman, like what they did with Sonic the Hedgehog.

3.) A continuation of Ruby-Spears Megaman, hopefully utilizing some or all of the points established therein (don't look at me like that).

HOWEVER--as much as I'd like to theorize, I have one major beef with Archie: they're way, WAY too kiddie-oriented. The thing is, I can't name a single mature Archie production. "Mature" meaning "competence in both storytelling and character execution". "Kiddie-oriented" meaning "desperately trying to appeal to the 'tween' audience without realizing that some of 'em have brains".

Look at the rampant character and story derailment present in their Sonic series. Now compound that with Capcom's glorious canon track record, and you've got a horrific mess of a comic that couldn't find its own ass with both hands and a road map. Now, I'm not saying that it would be inevitable, because I do have SOME faith in Archie (I like their Sonic X). But, I've sat through enough Sally the [sonic slicer] and two-second "epic battles" to know that the chances of their MM being good aren't that great.


But stepping away from the Archie bashing...Let's talk about Option 2. The tone and settings of the comic, plus how much the characters look like themselves, all depends on when it was made. 1997 onward, it'd be pretty in-line with the games (and probably with the acid trip settings of MM8). By then, the tone of Classic MM had been firmly established.

1987-1996 is a different story. Archie could have taken far more liberties with MM then, since everyone else short of Capcom of Japan did anyway. I keep imagining elements that children of that era who weren't total shut-ins (like me) would find intimidating and challenging, like junkyards with huge "KEEP OUT" signs (Surely I won't wake up to find half of me in a Doberman's mouth!). Unfortunately, that time period leaves the project vulnerable to massive amounts of TOTALLY RADICAL. Remember the 90s? Remember those brightly-colored posters featuring kids who could easily be the disciples of Flava Flav? Now superimpose Megaman in there. Not so pretty, huh? In mild doses, TR could simply be cheesy and a fond reminder of the 90s. Heavy doses, you get the poor man's Wayne's World. With robots.


I could elaborate on Option 3, but it's getting late and I don't want my computer licensed revoked AGAIN. Anyone care to discuss?

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