For some reason I also find myself losing teeth in my dreams. There’s always this moment of horror when I realize the tooth is loose, and it sort of pops from the gum, with just a little tendril left connected, unwilling to detach, causing more and more pain as it wiggles around and blood begins to seep out…
I downloaded the intro to MotW off of IGN DC the other night, and have rewatched it over and over, despite Edgar’s reluctance to play movies very well these days. The thing is directly emulated off of the Neo-Geo cartridge, and knowing this, the real-time (as such; sprite-based as opposed to being a movie file) intro is especially impressive. For eleven-year-old hardware, that system really can still hold its own. All of those people who actually bought one back in 1990 must have gotten their money’s worth by now. I wouldn’t at all mind having a Neo-Geo around, but I could probably buy the moon if I had that kind of money sitting within reach.
I played the file over and over, for nearly an hour. As much of a dork as I felt, I found myself giggling wildly, unable to control my glee, each time the movie ended. For the first several times I played it, my eyes even began to mist up a bit toward the end. I’m not sure why; it’s not like I was ever really very big into the Fatal Fury series until just very recently. But it felt similarly to my seeing the intro to Sonic Adventure for the first time, or watching that original “You’re not the only Hero” trailer for PSO — only even more so! Even stranger, I now get a similar sort of feeling every time I hear ESAKA played.
Why is this? Why did SNK’s series make such a huge impression on me, so quickly? It seems odd that my brain would be making as big a deal about this as if I were watching the intro to a new Streets of Rage.
I thought maybe it was just me. but It has seemed like a lot of the commands I press in CvSNK just aren’t registering — however, when I beat the game just now (using a team of EX Sakura and Rugal), my controller went entirely dead. Now it’s acting like my VGA box — if I keep the wire in just the right position, the controller will accept that it is plugged into the system. If I move the cord at all, the controller will cease to work at all.
I like this controller, too. It’s purple, and it’s large enough for my hands.
I have only had two controllers ever fail on me before, in all of my years of gaming, and both were MadCatz DC pads. Maybe this says something. I mean, I try to take care of my stuff.
Last night I played Capcom vs SNK and Panzer Dragoon until nearly dawn. I suppose I could have been doing something more constructive, but I’ve got a lot of groove points in the former case, now — almost enough to purchase EX Iori. And it keeps me focused on something, at least.
Headhunter is out in Europe now, and I’ve only seen a single review for it so far — and I don’t believe I’ve seen a more generic, content-less, undescriptive review for a game in my life. Still, it does look interesting — and I think I trust a Scandinavian game developer much more than I would most Western ones. And Shenmue II should be out in Europe soon, meaning my order should be filled in a couple of weeks.
I only today noticed where Mai stores her endless supply of fans. Yes, it’s exactly where you’d imagine. I’ll have to check some other games with her in them, now, and see if that was just Capcom’s addition or not…
Out of everything, I’ll probably be going back to Mars Matrix the most.
All these fighting games I have, now. Recently I’ve been studying KoF98, and have noticed a bunch of details and subtleties that had gone completely passed me by. And then earlier today I decided to pull out Vampire Chronicle For Matching Service; something new I noticed — besides that I don’t seem to have actually played in arcade mode with a lot of the characters (any who aren’t amongst my favourites I guess I tend to just fiddle with in training) is that the details in the background vary considerably depending on which “mode” one chooses (Vampire, Hunter, Savior).
When I played the Saturn version of Savior I had wondered about a couple of the stages, particularly Brazil and the one on the side of the skyscraper. There seemed to be many more things going on in the background in the Saturn version than in my copy of the game, including a lizard being chomped on in the former and helicopters and coloured lights in the latter. Also, many levels of scrolling seemed to be missing in my version. I thought it was a little cheap that Capcom left some of these elements out of the game, as Chronicle was supposed to be a compilation and combination of all of the previous games, into one. As it ends up, though, it all relies on what one sets the game to emulate.
I suppose I’ve mostly been playing in “Vampire” mode, making it play the most like the first game in the series. I just earlier set it to “Savior”, and the backdrops were suddenly quite alive. Also, the music was different (and in places more appropriate).
This is very interesting…
I just wandered everywhere in the room, trying to find my pajama pants, before I realized I was wearing them.
Okay. A method has been announced to theoretically convert a Shenmue US save file to a Shenmue UK save file. I knew people would be jumping onto this.
Now all we have to do is hope the game actually gets released in Europe. A few sites are saying it’s doomed there as well, but in general the word seems sound so far. As odd as it might sound, I think I do believe it will be released there. SoE, during this last stretch, seems to be picking up everything SoA is abandoning. I’m not sure what’s gotten into them, as traditionally SoE has been by far the lousiest out of the three branches — but as long as I can get versions of Shenmue II and Headhunter, I’m not complaining. I think Rez can be imported from Japan with less difficulty, seeing its genre, and SC5 Part 2 will undoubtedly stay in Japan, when one notices how much work had to be put into dubbing the first game in order to get it released in the West. So I guess that’s where that one’s coming from as well. Again, for a game like SC5, I doubt it will be too much of a sticky problem.
Oy. I can work around these things.
Only five games left…
While nodding off today, it occurred to me (as a result of some comment I half-heard uttered from my teacher) that “Mark of the Wolves” refers to Terry’s jacket, or at least to the star emblem on it (thus the large star in the game’s logo). Terry was the “Lone Wolf”, and since he’s trained Rock and passed his place, and if not specifically his jacket then a very similar one, off to the kid, I guess Rock is therefore the new “wolf”, so to speak.
A wolf named Rock. Hm.
Louis Wain. It’s odd how things pop up again. Long ago I showed the cover of the Oingo Boingo EP to a friend with whom I was doing some music at the time. He said that he knew the painting used on the cover, and that it was the work of some guy who was in the process of going crazy. He kept repainting the same cat face over and over, and each time it became more twisted and disturbing. He didn’t remember the person’s name, but I thought this was interesting and I filed it away in the back of my head.
Earlier today I was reading a posting of Kibo‘s where he randomly threw in the mention of a Louis Wain painting creepy cat heads. I’m not sure where I made the connection, but I made a guess that he was referring to the same person my friend briefly described several years back — and indeed he was. Now I know the guy’s name, and I’m glad I do. This is interesting…
Art is inseparable from life. Whether it is seen or not, everything inherently is art by its very fabric of being — all that can be made, done, said, and in some ways even thought. All that simply is, is itself in possession of some aesthetic qualifications, and in more than simply the superficial visual manner of a painting or sculpture. The very essence, or honed being, of existence, has its own scale of elegance. This simple observation points to the vital place aesthetic differentiation must play. If everything which is, is art — then what of those with no appreciation for this truth? Those with a complete void of taste, carelessly and ignorantly blundering through life, oblivious to their wake of destruction, and stains left behind on all with which they deal?
Consider the devoted hacker — the code whiz who has taught himself all that he knows and takes pride in the elegance and beauty of his code. Any program written by this person will be fast, clean, efficient, relatively bug-free, and will do precisely what it is meant to do — and it will do it right. Any errors which turn up will be quickly repaired, and the program will in the end be invisible to its user, allowing him to simply do what he needs to do without adding to his problems. The corporate programmer, trained second-hand, ignorant of the value of code itself and merely interested in getting paid at the end of the day, has no compunction to do his job right. If his code can be executed, and the program seems to run, then his job is complete and he no longer has to think about it. Due to this obliviousness and lack of care, we end up with bloated, bug-ridden software which runs slowly, interacts poorly with both the end user and his computer, and eventually gets in the way of the user’s goal of simply accomplishing his desired tasks.
The same general principles can be applied to anything from communication to driving to bodily movement to diet to science to logic to traditional art to one’s outlook on life and way of organizing thought. Art is so pervasive that good art — works of taste, of aesthetic value — is a valuable commodity. In general this world is a sloppy aesthetic wasteland — at least the manmade portion of it. It is sufficiently rare that people take heed of their actions and strive for the better and the more artful that any rare pockets of sophistication found become of great value.
In the depressing miasmal void of daily life, enlightenment and inspiration become beacons, showing the way to what is perhaps the most ideal universe; one where art, as a segregated concept, would be without need. For the world we have now, a sense of taste can be a curse, with art as the only oasis from the daily bombard and the only sympathetic voice in hell. Enlightenment can, however, be infectious, and inspiration comes in waves. With enough voices, the world might be changed for at least a short while. For this revolutionary goal, taste is the only weapon.
Something from a lecture on Mozart, paraphrased as well as possible with my memory:
“All beauty is strange. Not wholly strange, as a freakish repulsion, but unusual enough to spark the mind and to show how beauty can really be.”
This was posed in contrast to prettiness, a quality all too common and ultimately unfulfilling. I think I’ll combine this with a quote from Aristotle, via my aesthetics teacher:
“Instantaneity is not art.”
That is to say, that which is immediately comprehended and processed is not of particular value. It is the complexity of the whole, further understood with each exposure, that tends to show true merit. The obvious might be pretty, and might provide instant gratification, but in no way does it have particular value.
While looking at the art gallery in Last Blade 2, I realized — well, someone had been whining about how icky a name “The Last Blade” was in comparison to its original title. But it appears that its European title was The Last Soldier. Huh? Where did that come from? Evidentially from the same mindset which turns Mitsurugi into “Arthur” and creates the “Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles”. Hmm. Also, in the US release of the game, the Hanafuda card game from the Japanese version was removed. Why do they always keep stripping these things away entirely? Does it take that much effort to translate them, really? Perhaps to describe briefly how the game is played, in the instruction booklet? Urgh. Aside from that issue, I’m really liking this game (LB2) a lot. I’ve remapped the buttons to what seems a more logical arrangement (X = weak slash; Y = hard slash; B = kick; A = parry), and have begun practicing a lot with Hibiki and Setsuna. I am unexpectedly annoyed with Akari, both in terms of control and personification. Although the voices in this game are largely beyond excellent, I quickly found Akari to be a rake on my ears and my nerves.
I apparently skipped Saturday almost altogether. I went to sleep late in the morning, after having stayed up all Friday night playing Bangai-O (not a moment there regretted), and didn’t wake up until very late Saturday night. I hadn’t been getting much sleep and had been feeling very sick this past week, so I suppose my body was merely correcting the situation — as was its right.
I do like Bangai-O. Here’s a conversation which broke out in the middle of a nerve-wracking battle in a round filled with explosives which get set off in a chain reaction with one false shot:
Mrs. M: The legendary space fruit.
There are 5 types of
the huge Space-Fruit.
Mrs. M: Mandarins, apples,
Bananas, pineapples,
Water Melons.
Mrs. M: The Points rise
according to the series.
Riki (stressed): Points!?
What are the points?
Mrs. M: I do not know. Ask
The points counter.
Riki (calm, anticipatory): Is there no civet fruit?
Mrs. M: What? You’d like them?
But they stink!
Anyway there aren’t any!
Riki (freaking out): If there is no civet fruit,
then I don’t want to go on!
Mrs. M: I don’t know whether there
are any. Go and buy some
Somewhere else.
I finally got a chance to play Bangai-O and Last Blade 2. Both were quite worth grabbing hold of, in their own particular ways.
Bangai-O is essentially everything I thought it would be, only more addictive and weird.
Last Blade 2… I really wasn’t sure what to expect here, but I got more than I was looking for. The animation is very nice, and the voices are some of the best I’ve heard in a fighting game. I’m actually liking some of the characters who I hadn’t noticed before (though the names aren’t sticking just yet), and I think I am going to like the fighting system. It’s quite complex in theory, but somewhat simple in execution. The characters also have a nice sort of a feel to them — more limber and mobile than the SF/KoF style and somewhat tighter and easier to deal with than the likes of Darkstalkers. The game’s minimalistic use of music in favour of background noises is quite interesting as well. I think I’m actually going to spend some time learning how to play this properly. It’s not often I think this about a fighting game.
On the way home I saw The Deep End, a smallish film I’d been wanting to see for a while. If I can do the research to refresh my brain on peoples’ names, I’ll talk about it some more. As it is, I’m feeling a bit dumb saying much. It was, however, something to see.
While stumbling to my first class this morning, I happened upon a crumpled dollar bill in the hallway. Upon bending down to pick it up I noticed a second bill beneath it, this one a twenty. After looking around the hall a bit and not seeing anyone who seemed to belong to them, I attempted to bring the bills to the front desk only to find it closed. I figured I’d bring them in later. The thing is, now that they’ve been wandering around with me all day, I’ve grown somewhat attached to them. Not sure what to do about this.