So I just got finished reading this article about drugs and LAN parties. It was a pretty good read, and about 8 to 10 years ago something I probably would have been involved in, in one way or another. It is interesting to read something like this. On one hand you have the “so this is what kids are doing these days” reaction and you feel like you’re too young to make that statement. On the other hand you get the nostalgia of doing stupid things and wish that things were still as care free.

After looking at the game for a while and watching a friend of mine play it for a little while my wife finally picked up Tomb Raider Legends for the 360. I have never enjoyed any experience related to TR in my life, not even the movie. I had no interest in it from the start. So I picked up Gradius for the PSP even after my terrible experience with it in PSP emulation (the PCE and NES versions).

Tomb Raider 360 is a technical mess. Aside from a horrible frame rate, the resolution has been upscaled. This leaves the image looking a little blurry, and also the text looks terrible. There are also horrible clipping issues with the polygons: many times hands and feet and legs will completely disappear into rocks and chains and the like. Probably the strangest is the inclusion of fake letterboxing.

The game is already in widescreen, yet they decide to go from a 1:85 aspect ratio to a 2:35 aspect ratio by putting black bars on the top and bottom of the screen for cut scenes. No, while I understand why they did this, the black bars don’t completely cover the image behind it. I was giggling hysterically for a good five minutes at this for no really important reason.

Anyways, Gradius PSP turned out better than I hoped as far as the blur and aspect ratio. G4 is affected the most by the blur making it the least playable (but still playable, which some in emulation weren’t) but it is also the least notable/interesting game in the package anyways.

I played one credit (at least) for all the games. I noticed that I was doing really, really well on Gradius, then again on G2 (which is my favorite of the canon numbered series). I checked the default settings, and low and behold they are set to almost the lowest setting. What does this say about how Konami views its American audience?

Moving along. I also noticed that many of the games had an option for smaller hit boxes on many of the older games (where if a bullet hits anywhere on the ship you are killed originally, now the bullets have to hit the cockpit [possibly]). This is a welcome addition for me at least, it makes the transition from newer style STGs to these easier.

The game also features a soundtrack room where you can listen to a full labeled soundtrack from all of the games. I really, really like this feature. I have also lost all of my Gradius Gaiden skills. I knew that playing the game on the PSP would not be like using my arcade stick on a console, but I barely got to the third stage on one credit. At least I don’t have to fiddle with my import versions of the game anymore, and two great parts of the Gradius series have now been released in the US when they never had before. Albeit it is not on the best of systems.

So, Silent Hill Origins camera is revealed in video format.

What. The. Fuck.

So disapointing.

I did a little writeup (that I didn’t really edit, so it may be horrible to read) and took a ton of pictures for someone at a forum on HDTVs. I think my original goal was to basically say that the Wii’s Virtual Console will be great for HDTV owners, but then it turned into how 480p (which is not technially HD) output for the majority of Wii games is a greater advantage over current consoles than most would think if you have an HDTV. Really the jump from interlaced to progressive is the most important part of the quality cocktail.

Anyways, you have probably seen one of these before, but I tried my best, sorry if the pictures are shitty.

Ok, this write up is upon Waffen’s request, but I am sure more than just he will get use out of it. If any of this information is wrong it is because I am not an encyclopedia, and some of it is off the top of my head, so if you want to nit-pick details, go ahead, you may be right.

I am sure that many of you are wondering exactly what the difference is between all the different Crap that is HDTV. Technically 720p is the lowest resolution that is considered “High Definition” and the ”p” stands for progressive scan. If something is not in progressive scan it is considered interlaced. Anything lower than component in/output is going to be interlaced in some form, and it would be labeled as 480i probably. This means that it is actually 240 horizontal lines of images with a black line placed in-between each line. The best way to explain this is visually:

Now, we have to look at a few other things before we get into HDTV, such as EDTV (Enhanced). EDTV can display a 480p image and is quite superior to SDTV (which can only display interlaced images), which is what most people have right now. But why is 480p not technically High Definition? I don’t know, but if you really want to wade through a bunch of information you can go here. Having the image as progressive scan is where the difference is really made on the image quality. It is not chopped up and skewed, it is clean and solid.

Technically 1080i has more lines of image, than 720p does (see below chart), but because of the interlacing involved some things don’t look right to me. Things also become much more sharp, where others look smeared because of interlacing. I have weird eyes though, because from what I hear most people prefer 1080i over 720p. I like to leave my hardware set to 720p rather than 1080i though.

Here is a size chart so you can see all the differences.

So, now, lets do DVDs. I grabbed King Kong off the DVD shelf and tried to get to about the same spot for all of the following images. I am using a Samsung DLP HL-Sxx87 model TV for this demonstration, and using a 4.1 mega pixel camera for the photography. I am not using a flash and I trying to keep the camera in the same place. If anything looks blurry, it is not that the camera is out of focus.

Warning: The second image is always going to be a close up from a distance much closer than you should sit to this TV, and much like if you get too close to an SDTV and all you can see are the red, green, or blue gun firing, things don’t look exactly gorgeous at all settings. I.E. it is closer than you would be for dramatic emphasis.

Another Warning: My camera is not too good in low light settings, sorry.

First I wanted to demonstrate an image using the shittiest DVD player I have; the PS2. This is going through composite cables (the yellow one) and is 480i. This is the most drastic image and you can see a lot of color bleeding and over saturation.

Long Shot
Close Up

Now, this is also out of the PS2 through the digital out (the red/green/blue cables). You can notice on the close up how blocky everything ends up looking, but the over saturation and bleeding problems are gone.

Long Shot
Close Up

Now, moving onto the upscanning DVD player. The first image is set to 480p and is using HDMI cables. You will notice image is smoother and there is no saturation or bleeding problem.

Long Shot
Close Up

Using the same DVD player set to 720p: you can now see that there is just a bit more detail in the image and even less blur. Compare this to the first set of photos and you have quite the difference going from blobs of color, to a more defined image with better separation.

Long Shot
Close Up

So what can’t you see from a still image? The first image hides the most. You can’t see how everything bounces just slightly with the edges of things changing constantly. The image quality of the camera in general hides how great of a difference there really is between these settings though. The amount of detail and the clearity of the image quality from 480p to 720p is nowhere near as great as it is from interlaced to progressive, but it is noticeable.

So is it HD? No, not at all, but it looks extremely acceptable when sitting at a proper distance, and even when you are just a bit too close. Is it worth the price of getting early technology and into a format war? Not in the slightest. So what can I attempt to use as an example of what 720p movies look like… I only have the 360, but I will take an image so you can compare:

Long Shot
Close Up

That is an image from the 720p trailer for Hard Candy. The close-up was taken at the same distance as the close up for King Kong. When you get close, things still become blurry. The color issue of the skin being slightly blue is probably from this camera, but the comparison is still apt.

Ok, since this is a videogame forum, lets move onto games!

First up is Shadow of the Colossus for the PS2. I am using component out for both sets of images (progressive scan and interlaced). The first image is to show off the main difference in text in the intro scene:

Title Interlaced Far Shot
Title Interlaced Close Up

Title Progressive Far Shot
Title Progressive Close Up

Now, here is The Wanderer and the Princess. The difference is mainly in the clarity, where one is a bit clunker and blocky, the other is smoother. At this point I was about to give up in my attempt because you really have a hard time seeing what the quality difference is in these photos, when it is so apparent when just looking at a TV. Then I noticed where you can see it. Look at the lighting outline of Wanda in the far shots:

Wanda Back Interlaced Far
Wanda Back Interlaced Close

Wanda Back Progressive Far
Wanda Back Progressive Close

So, lets see, what else do I have? How about 1080i mode for Gran Turismo 4? Well, ok, the following images go from 480i to 480p to 1080i. I tried to take the picture in the same spot every time, but I got it a little off, so where is the best place to look at these comparions: the details. Look at the awning, and the stairs, and the baracade. See the main difference between 480i and p? You can actually see where the baracade’s bars start and end instead of just a kind of glob. Look at the stairs, they go from what may be a slope of stairs to very defined individual stairs. While the difference from 480p to 1080i is quite a bit, the stairs just go from well defined to super well defined:

GT4 480i
GT4 480p
GT4 1080i

Now, part of the reason that this got started in the first place was because I was stating how good the Dreamcast looks with the VGA cable. Well, here are some comparison shots of S-Video versus VGA. As a note, S-Video looks a bit nicer than composite cables, and again you have to look at the details in these images. Most of what you can’t see is also in the motion here. Anyways, this may not be the best part to take comparison photos, but it was something I knew that I could take a shot of and place it in similarly.

Under Defeat Svideo Far
Under Defeat Svideo Close

Under Defeat VGA Far
Under Defeat VGA Close

So, what is left? Well, let’s just have some fun shall we? Retro systems: comparison shots from original hardware to 720p emulation (which is my guess of what the Wii will do). Ignore the word {Still} at the bottom, I just used it to freeze the image with the original hardware.

I am going to start with the SNES, which I think ended up looking the worst out of all the retro consoles that I have tried on the TV. I am picking a game that everyone should be familiar with: Super Mario World. These images really speak for themselves.

SMW Hardware Far
SMW Hardware Close

SMW Emu Far
SMW Emu Close

Next up is the Genesis. The screen we all know from Sonic the Hedgehog 2. While the genesis fared a little better than the SNES, you can’t really tell with a still frame (see more after the photos). The Genesis used some tricks so that it looked sharper with interlacing, and it really shows when you have a TV upscale it.

Genesis Hardware Far
Genesis Hardware Close

Genesis Emu Far
Genesis Emu Close

What can’t you see in the photos? Well, mainly you are missing a lot in the motion. Of it again. The SNES I originally said was worse because when anything is in motion the colors will all change just slightly like a minature rainbow effect. A single thin black line will change from brown, to a shade of purple, then to black as it moves across the screen for whatever reason. The Genny keeps its color and distinction while it moves without this weird rainbow effect. But which system fared the best: The PCE. I am needing to finish up, so if there are really enough requests I will take pictures, but this is already taken 4 hours to put together.

After thoughts: Everything still looks pretty good once you mess with the settings on these TVs enough. If you are really using an HD TV to play games on mostly, do some heavy investigation into which ones have lag and which ones don’t. The best way to do this is if you have a rhythm game that you are good at. Take that into the store while you are looking and try to play the game, but don’t use component cables: just bring the Yellow/Red/White composite ones, or S-Video. Those are what makes the TV work the hardest to convert the image. If you can still play the game well on the TV under these settings, without noticing any timing problems, then you have a winner.

I did a fair amount of research and actually tested beatmania iidx in Best Buys, and at friends houses on their HDtvs. The Samsung model that I purchased was the best for the size that I got, Plasma was the only option that I would have settled for. Be very weary of LCD HDTVs, most have bad lag problems.

I guess that I will end this with some pictures of the Wii Virtual Console, which is what started this all. I took these pictures at E3, so if they suck, sorry!

Sonic The Hedgehog
Bonk Splash Screen
Bonk’s Adventure

So, yes, Dead Rising is stupidly amazing.

For as hyped as I was about the game, it actually exceeded my expectations. I have already played through it twice, gotten 4 of the endings, and am really psyched about my third play-though (and possibly more).

There is one huge problem with the game though, (and were it noT for everything else, including the theme, it might break the game for me) the AI for the survivors is really, really, terribly bad at times (as in, most the time).

Other than that, I am very happy that I bought my 360 considering that I basically bought it because of this game. I can’t remember the last time that a game I was excited about exceeded my expectations, most are just lucky to meet them.

technowhore
Originally uploaded by Shapermc.

The new cat has high class taste…

this could get expensive.

Well, there is a new member of the family now. I am generally allergic to cats, but after spending some time at my friend’s house that has long haired cats I realized that I am not too bad with them.

So, since finding this out my wife had been on the mission to find the perfect long haired cat. She ran across one on the internet, so we agreed to go see it. The lady said that the cat had no flea problems, and that it had accidentally dipped its tail in some oil, so she had to cut some fur. After about five minutes of petting the cat I realized that the cat was pretty bad with fleas, but she was super friendly and had lovely colored long hair.

We decided to save the cat and get some flea shampoo and then some stuff for our dogs as well, to protect them from a possible flea infestation. We got her home and gave her a couple flea baths (pictured below) and found hundreds of them. We spend probably two hours getting rid of them all. On top of that we found that the cat was way too skinny and that her coat had many spots of matting which had to be cut off (mainly in the tail). While the cat hadn’t been abused, it was defiantly neglected.

After drying her off and brushing her we needed to introduce her to the dogs. Even though she had such a stressful day already, we needed to get her familiar. She seemed ok with Shadow (the larger brown one) yet didn’t like Aki (the smaller black one) too much. I can’t blame her though, Aki is very hyper. She spent the rest of the evening hiding under the couch.

This morning my wife let her out of the bedroom and she instantly went to hide in the basement under the stairs. We had a hard time getting her out of there, but finally did, and now we are on a socialization mission. We blocked off the basement and all the areas that she can go to hide and so she found a nice relaxing place to sleep under the table. Her hair is not quite the right length, and her tail is almost completely devoid of hair. She is a very loving persian/himalayan mix and is a welcome addition to the family. I named he Tiat, and bonus points for figuring out what that is a reference from. Originally (after only seeing the photo of her and not knowing it was a her) I had named her Mr. Mustache, because she looked like she had a mustache. The name was starting to stick too. I tried to convince my wife that Dr. Mustache would work too, but she wasn’t buying it.

Anyways, if I end up getting allergic to her (which I doubt after having her sleep on my chest for a while last night and no reaction yet) we will not be returning her to the lady we got her from.

Silent Hill Origins for PSP in winter 2007

Aside from that the interview leads me to believe that Konami no longer has any idea about what makes a Silent Hill game a Silent Hill game.

Well, I guess today is themed… too themed. I was talking with Dess earlier and she pointed me to this very excellent STG documentary: http://shmup.canalblog.com/

You will need to get a new program (possibly) and then attach the subtitles to it, but the instructions are on that page. It is very excellent from how good the research is, to the montages and music. I can’t recommend it enough, especially if you don’t know a lot about shooters.

Anyways, there was only one game that I could not identify out of all of them that I notieced and it was in the end credits. It said Story 1 Start on the screen and it was a vert game… what was that one? Also, I was pretty glad they didn’t cover any alpha systems games, I don’t really like them.

So, I got my VGA Box for my Dreamcast on Monday, and I picked up some VGA cables last night. I have searched all over my house looking for my video cables for my DC and even my wife who claimed to have seen them since we moved could not seem to find them, so I just took the dive and picked up a DC-VGA box because it also has standard A/V connections, and this is as good as the DC is going to look (no Component cables as far as I am aware). I have been holding onto some DC games for quite a while now (I haven’t really touched my DC since the hurricane) and the two I have been most looking forward to plying are Border Down and Under Defeat, both developed by G.Rev, which is made up by part of the old shooter team from Taito.

Border Down I had played previously in burned format (I was broke when it came out, then it just… vanished when I had money) and had been looking to put it in my collection for a while (I don’t like running burns for more than a play through or two as it burns out your motor really fast). So I knew what to expect. I don’t like to be like this, but playing these games on VGA on a nice TV adds a whole lot to the game. All the little blurry details are now nice and crisp and clear. Also, the game is not as hard as I remember; where before I use to have problems past the first level, but now I can get to the second boss on one life no problem (although… from that point on is a different story). I think it helps that I have effectively removed myself from the STG community and I don’t know all the little score tricks anymore so I don’t get killed trying to pull them off.

Up next is Under Defeat, which I decided I needed after I played it at my friend John’s place. I didn’t want to hold off too long on getting it because of what had happen with Border Down. So I had placed the standard addition in my shopping cart at Play-Asia sometime shortly after it came out. Well, in anticipation of coming home last month I finally decided to move it from the cart to check out… and it said that there was a one month delay on the item! Well, freaking out I looked at the Special Edition (as I would rather have it and pay a little more than deal with finding it for the right price a year later) and what do you know, it was actually $5 less than the standard edition. I had apparently stumbled onto the Play-Asia super sale before they put out their informational email. So I snagged it up; making up for my horrible mistake of Border Down, and pretty much balancing things out. Under Defeat is really excellent with dozens of details that you don’t normally see in a game like this. It controls like butter and is very fair. I can get to the third level on one credit at this point (a little under two hours of play) but it gets exceptionally hectic from that point on.

So, yes, that is what I have been doing today and I love it. Things have been kind of weird lately, so sorry for not updating more. Anyways, back to the games!