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Messages - SqwareEcks

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1
Gaming and Grazing / Re: Regarding PC Recording
« on: March 22, 2017, 02:34:25 am »
Boom, that's service. Thank you.

Edit: Aaaaaand can't use it. My laptop runs XP which the software has apparently never been and never will be compatible with in any version. Thanks anyway.

Edit 2: Aaaaaand I figured out another way to do it, although it was hardware-based, not software-based, and it definitely wasn't free. I was cleaning off my even older desktop PC that I haven't really used in almost a decade because it's infected with a virus or malware, when I noticed it had a port for S-Video cable on the back. I hooked that into my DVD recorder, hooked the regular monitor output into my TV, installed the games, and with a 1/8" to RCA audio adaptor I was able to use my DVD recorder to capture the gameplay. Resolution isn't as high as a direct recording and I had to play without audio or deal with horrible lag, but it worked. Gonna put some videos up in the near future.

2
Gaming and Grazing / Regarding PC Recording
« on: March 20, 2017, 10:04:59 pm »
For the past few years I've been experimenting with patches to some of the Genesis Sonic games to allow custom music and I'm interested in putting up long-play videos of the soundtracks I came up with, but recording them is a whole other matter. Outputting via cables to my DVD recorder seems cost-prohibitive, so I'm leaning towards direct recording, and I'm wondering if anyone has recommendations as far as software they use for capture.

The three criteria I'm looking for, in descending order of importance, is that it (1) runs and records smoothly on my computer, which is fairly old and has "only" 2 GB of RAM, (2) is inexpensive, ideally free, and (3) doesn't throw watermarks all over the screen. It would also need to be able to capture from both emulators (for Sonic 1 and 2) and stand-alone programs (specifically the Collection versions of Sonic 3 & Knuckles and Sonic CD). I realize asking for all three I might as well be asking for the secret to cold fusion, but mainly I'm just trying to get an idea of what people use for recording their PC runs.

3
Hiya Folks / Re: Hey!
« on: October 18, 2016, 02:40:39 am »
It's allowed now? Maybe I'll actually try competing in Sonic CD too... is it both versions or just one?

4
Gaming and Grazing / Re: So...what's up?
« on: October 15, 2016, 12:14:19 am »
I haven't made a significant effort at speedrunning anything in months. I've been replaying Final Fantasy 7 recently (or rather, picked up an old endgame save from years ago) and doing grinding to get a maxed-out materia and stats file. I'm one mastered Knights of the Round away from having full Master Materia sets for all nine characters (yes, nine, thank you Gameshark) and everyone's stats are all 255.

As far as Sonic games go, I've been working on a longterm project of doing longplay videos (not speedruns) involving custom music. I decided to make my own custom Sonic CD soundtrack for the PC version and after a lot of audio editing it's a reality and it works. I've also done up custom soundtracks for the PC version of S3&K that utilizes music from other Sonic games and one for an emulator plug-in for Sonic 2 I found on Sonic Retro (which has some serious bugs, unfortunately). I'd like to record them but my laptop is very old and I don't know of any free recording software that would run well on it, and it doesn't have native output to my HDTV.

Other than that I haven't had motivation to do much. I got a new job in May that's occupied a lot of my time, and I've also been in a serious bout of anxiety and depression related to the election for the past month or so. Hopefully in a few weeks I won't have to worry any more.

5
Now that the thread's been necromanced I might as well update my list as I have now finally had a chance to play and beat Sonic CD a few times. TBH I didn't think it was all that great, there are some things that I thought were interesting but overall I don't think it plays as well as the Genesis games did. Maybe if I'd been able to play it as a kid I'd think differently of it. It did have some nice music, both soundtracks were generally solid and still hold up today, and I had some enjoyment out of making a custom soundtrack for the PC version. I just didn't find the game that fun. However it still gets in above SADX and 3D Blast strictly due to the fact that I get motion sickness playing them.

1. Sonic Adventure 2
2. Sonic 3 & Knuckles
3. Sonic Heroes
4. Sonic 2
5. Sonic 1
6. Shadow the Hedgehog
7. Sonic CD
8. Sonic Adventure DX
9. Sonic 3D Blast
10. Sonic Triple Trouble
11. Sonic Chaos

6
Wikkity! / Re: Halloween Topics! 4: Favorite Creepypasta
« on: October 30, 2015, 07:35:09 pm »
Can't go wrong with Ben Drowned. Especially with the "You Shouldn't Have Done That" video.

7
Wikkity! / Re: Halloween Topics! 2: Creepiest Song/Soundtrack/Music Video
« on: October 30, 2015, 01:55:17 am »
I never really found Mystic Mansion's music spooky. I think it's really cool, actually, the way it's broken into six different 16-second loops and shifts between them as you move through different parts of the stage.

Final Fantasy VII has two very creepy songs, Those Chosen By The Planet and the already mentioned Trail of Blood. Icy Jaws from Xenogears is also very unsettling. It only plays a couple of times, but the times it does play concern very disturbing twists in the plot.

The music from Haunted Hallway in Donkey Kong Country 2 is spooky as well even if it is ripping off a classical composition (Night on Bald Mountain). I love that game but I hate that stage.

The one that creeps me out the most is Lavos' Theme from Chrono Trigger. To this day I can remember playing the game for the first time and watching what happened the first time that music played.

8
Wikkity! / Re: Halloween Topics! 1: Spookiet Game Experience
« on: October 27, 2015, 11:43:34 pm »
I don't know why, but whenever I play Super Mario 64, I always wind up playing the Big Boo's Haunt stages at night. Not really scary, but I have no idea why I do that to myself.

ReDeads and Dead Hand in Ocarina of Time bothered me quite a bit. Not jumpscare type scary, but "don't get caught don't get caught OH FUCK MASH BUTANZ". I had a nightmare once where I was playing Ocarina of Time and doing the Bottom of the Well, and all of a sudden in the middle of the dungeon a cutscene started playing where Ganondorf appeared and caused the well to start flooding again and I had to get out, except some INCREDIBLY terrifying music started playing--worse than the Sonic drowning music. Woke up in a cold sweat.

Looking back on the game now, I think: Kakariko is drawing its water from a well that has a dungeon full of rotting dead corpses and decaying flesh at its bottom (plus acid, etc). How in the hell is everyone in that town not constantly getting horribly sick and dying from contaminated water? I guess that's a bit spooky. I'd like to bring that up to Miyamoto some time and see his response.

I had trouble with Launch Octopus and Shade Man back in the day. Sometimes no matter how I mashed I could not get X or Megaman free and they'd get drained to death. I haven't had a more helpless feeling against any boss I wasn't supposed to lose to.

9
Egg Emperor because it's a ruthless dickhead that punishes you viciously if you don't fight it right, like a final boss should be, but at the same time can be dispatched very quickly if you know what you're doing and you're lucky.

Although I really want to say Egg Breaker for the meme-related lulz and because it can also punish you if you don't stay on your toes, especially the Pure Dark route version.

10
News and Updates / Re: Administrator Title Change
« on: May 05, 2015, 08:09:28 pm »
There isn't much I could say that hasn't been said by others already, but I generally agree with Ring Rush. For me this is just a fun place to see how I compare to others at playing Sonic games and watch videos from people who are way better at them than me, and any social interaction on the forums is just icing on the cake, and I think it would be a shame for the site to get completely blammed just because the community aspect of it isn't as strong as it used to be. My thanks to Thorn and Paraxade for their hard work on behalf of the site and best of luck to them.

11
News and Updates / Re: New Sonic Adventure 2 charts
« on: April 25, 2015, 08:25:15 pm »
Just a question about the newly added rule "You can submit your Mission 4 times to both Mission 1 and Mission 4 charts". Does that mean it's allowed to submit the same run for both categories, if it qualifies for both?

I'd like to make sure of this too. I have some vidded checkless M1s, but I'm going to wait to submit them for M4 until I know for sure it's not going to cause a duplicate stat issue.

I just thought of something else, regarding Cannon's Core: Due to the way the level is structured is it still possible to death abuse it on M4?

12
News and Updates / Re: New Sonic Adventure 2 charts
« on: April 11, 2015, 12:02:09 am »
Totally okay with it.

13
I've been into Mario, Mega Man, Castlevania and Zelda since NES days and I still play them from time to time. In middle and high school I would play pretty much any Squaresoft RPG I could get my hands on (including my alltime favorite Xenogears), but when Final Fantasy 8 and Chrono Cross rolled around I hated them; I forced myself to finish FF8 but quit the series afterwards and couldn't even bring myself to finish Chrono Cross (and deeply resent the way remakes of Chrono Trigger have repeatedly retconned it).

I also snapped up anything I could find that was localized by Working Designs (both Lunars for Playstation and Magic Knight Rayearth for Saturn) as I am apparently one of like six people who aren't bothered by the pop culture references in their translations. I wish they'd been able to get Grandia. I even recorded all the Lunar 2 outtakes onto my computer using a ghetto-ass recording setup consisting of a set of headphones plugged into the (mono) headphone jack on my TV, held up by hand to the onboard mic on my computer, recording into Windows Sound Recorder, which could only record in 60 second increments so for the characters with a lot of outtakes I'd have to stop, start a new file and then resume recording where I left off.

I was way, way into Guilty Gear and Melty Blood for a while in college, but I don't even combo so I was never very good at them or any other fighters (although I have beaten Melty Blood ReACT on very hard mode with most of the characters.) I also really loved Viewtiful Joe and wish it would have gotten more of a chance from Capcom and the public at large. Also like everyone on earth in the late '90s I was crazy about Goldeneye and Smash and sunk hundreds of hours into them.

14
General Sonic / Re: which special stage do you hate the most?
« on: February 06, 2015, 08:56:25 pm »
Any Sonic Heroes special stage, because stupid random shit happens like you just spin up the tube and stop dead in your tracks, jumping slows you down like nobody's business, the bomb rows in later stages have extremely narrow gaps and also stop you dead in your tracks, and your characters have the acceleration characteristics of a forklift. You either get good luck with boost balloons and catch the emerald near the start, making it way too easy, or you get left in the dust and have to pray you can catch up before you run out of time.

Sonic 2 special stages are a bit unfair because they depend on memorization, which means your odds of clearing most of them on the first attempt are not good, but once you know them they're totally predictable. Plus the game gives you all sorts of attempts at them since any star posts can get you back to them if you can scrounge up 50 rings. I like the Sonic 3 special stages the best.

15
Competition Central / Re: WTF
« on: February 03, 2015, 04:26:55 am »
I'm gonna quit Sonic forever, I have just been shown how scrub I really am

16
Wikkity! / Re: FINAL TOPIC! Topic 14 - What Sonic Character matches you?
« on: December 31, 2014, 04:42:09 pm »
I got Shadow, pretty much what I expected.

17
General Sonic / Re: Finished my rings TAS.
« on: December 30, 2014, 08:48:53 pm »
I saw it back when TAS videos first published it, I really enjoyed it. I hope there's a Sonic & Tails version at some point too for some Death Egg fun.

By the way THC, you and itsPersonnal's SA2B TAS was god tier. My jaw was on the floor.

18
Wikkity! / Re: Topic 13 - Who's your favorite character?
« on: December 30, 2014, 08:36:13 pm »
This topic is totally going to start a flame war somehow...

Knuckles, Shadow, E-123 Omega.

19
Sonic Labyrinth

Any of the 360/PS3 games, along with Lost World. I plan to do something about that sometime this coming year.

20
Wikkity! / Re: Topic 11 - Have you ever had a WTF moment in-game?
« on: December 28, 2014, 10:48:44 pm »
I had a weird thing happen to me playing Expert Mode in Shadow once, which I unfortunately didn't get on video and I haven't been able to duplicate since. But I did get THESE on video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUfAfbz1UzY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dG0QUwb8DAI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2O652A9jwY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SB5d2_hiKUc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIn9d-XlQZo

21
Star Light Act 3 / Sonic 1
Hydrocity Act 2 / Sonic 3 (Sonic/Tails)
Launch Base Act 2 / Sonic 3 (Knuckles)
Sonic vs. Shadow final / SA2
Robot Storm / Heroes

favorite boss is easily last chapter in sonic and the secret rings. Dont know the dudes name, but it's the boss you fight with dark spinned sonic. If you dont feel the burn in your arms, you're doing it wrong.


22
Wikkity! / Re: Topic 9 - How did you become a Sonic fan?
« on: December 26, 2014, 11:28:02 pm »
(copypasted from my earlier topic on this same subject)

WARNING: TL;DR

My absolute earliest memory of Sonic was hearing a neighbor kid a year younger than me discussing it back in the summer of 1991. He had a Genesis, and I did not; frankly, I didn't care as no games for it interested me. My NES was more than enough for me and I was biding my time waiting for the Super Nintendo to come out. We were outside, hanging out on summer vacation and talking, and he mentioned he'd played a new game called Sonic the Hedgehog. "He's like, this hedgehog who can run like 120 MPH," I remember him saying. "It's so cool."

I was unimpresssed. I had just discovered Final Fantasy and was diving into RPGs for the first time, and the only Genesis game I'd even played was Altered Beast, which bored me. I wrote the game off mentally.

A few weeks later, I hassled my mother into taking me to the nearest Funcoland (now Gamestop) to let me look at the newest games and see if they were paying anything for games I'd be interested in selling. This was sometime in late July or August, 1991. I went into the store and looked around a bit and some very good music caught my ears. I looked over at one of the Genesis demo units the store had set up and saw this bright, beautiful, colorful landscape and this blue creature standing in the middle of it. Someone had been playing it and walked away, leaving the game running instead of pausing it. The blue creature was staring straight out at me and tapping his feet, with an expression on his face that said "What are you waiting for?"

I went over and grabbed the controller. I started playing. I noticed as he ran faster and faster his legs started spinning around in circles like in a Roadrunner cartoon; I found this awesome. He collected rings, not coins. There were loops and tunnels and collapsing ledges. This was beyond Mario. Being used to Mario, I had to adjust to not being able to just drop onto enemies; I had to jump or spin onto them to not take damage. I made it to the end of the stage, and a screen came up that said "SONIC HAS PASSED ACT 1." I finally put two and two together: This was the game my neighbor was talking about. This was Sonic the Hedgehog. My mother eventually had to pull me away from the machine to get me to put it down. I think I made it to Act 2 of Marble Zone.

(end copypasta)

That was my first experience with Sonic. I was hooked in a major way although I couldn't play it regularly until I got a Genesis more than two years later. I was addicted to both of the old TV series as well. I remember the first time they aired the final episode of SATAM I missed it because they abruptly moved it to a half hour earlier time slot so all I got to see were the final credits. I managed to catch it on a re-run, but by my memory they only re-ran it once before it was cancelled. Then I kind of quit the series for a decade due to lack of Saturn/Dreamcast access, before I finally got pulled back in by SA2.

23
Christmas was on its way to sucking, as I had an absolutely dreadful day yesterday that started with me having to be up extremely early in the morning to go to work, proceeded to me running around frantically shopping for last minute gifts and ended with me getting home very, very late at night after having to sit at my aunt's overcrowded house for five hours with a bunch of drunk 50 year old aunts and uncles and being forced to watch A Christmas Story for the 447th time. I had no expectation for any of my gifts whatsoever as I have entered the phase of my life where I can pretty much count on not getting anything but shirts.

Then, today, incredibly, Christmas pulled through when I went over to my parents' house and among my gifts from them was the one and only thing I had asked for: A pair of Reebok Pumps. It's worth pointing out that I have wanted these for *years*, and when I say years I mean over a decade. I can't really wear them for a few months yet as I don't want to get them dirty with the mud and snow, but I don't even care. I feel a little bit more complete today.

24
Wikkity! / Re: Topic 6 - What's your favorite soundtrack from a Sonic game?
« on: December 24, 2014, 01:29:51 am »
Thought the topic meant overall soundtrack, in which case I would vote Sonic Adventure 2, and it is not close. But if we're talking individual stage music I would say The Supernatural, For True Story, Highway in the Sky, A Ghost's Pumpkin Soup and Space Trip Steps, all from Sonic Adventure 2. I also like Mechanical Resonance/Crank The Heat Up!!!, Run Through The Speed Highway and Red Hot Skull from Sonic Adventure, Egg Fleet, Bullet Station and Mystic Mansion from Sonic Heroes and GUN Fortress, The ARK and Central City from Shadow the Hedgehog.

I almost feel like we need to divide the question into a "pre-2000" and "post-2000" answer, as I find myself not mentioning any of the Genesis games even though I liked their music a lot.

25
Wikkity! / Re: Topic 5 - What's your WORST stat on TSC?
« on: December 22, 2014, 10:00:04 pm »
Finalhazard on Sonic Adventure 2. It's my only blue time stat in SA2, it's been there since I joined the site and I just can't work up the motivation to improve it. It just isn't any fun. The boss always has its lasers in exactly the right spot to block me and half the time I hit the sores it doesn't cause damage. At least with the Biolizard there's the homing attack trick to make the fight somewhat interesting.

26
Wikkity! / Re: Topic 4 - What's your favorite competition category?
« on: December 21, 2014, 10:01:07 pm »
Time attacks. They give you a conscious feeling of becoming better and better at the game and speed is what the series has always been about. Although it can be a bummer when a stage gets broken and it just becomes who-can-glitch-fastest.

I like to *watch* ring attacks, but I don't much care for *playing* them. While time sometimes isn't an issue, you wind up under more pressure about not getting hit and you sometimes have to put yourself in more danger to collect everything, especially when OOB rings are in play. I like to watch score attacks too because they usually strike a good balance between speed and exploration of the level (although there are some exceptions for levels where you can just use an exploit to rack up insane points, like Launch Base 1.)

27
Wikkity! / Re: What's your CRAZIEST run on TSC?
« on: December 21, 2014, 12:58:55 am »
I would probably say my old Cosmic Wall M5 record, because (a) I was in excruciating pain at the time I recorded it, which made it hard to concentrate and the controller actually slipped off my hand in the middle of it; (b) it was the first time I'd ever successfully pulled off SadisticMystic's OOB route for the stage, in Hard Mode no less; and (c) I actually had to do it twice because the first time I didn't quite hover far enough and fell just short of the goal ring platform and died.

28
Wikkity! / Re: Your opinion of TSC
« on: December 20, 2014, 12:17:33 am »
I found TSC in the process of preparing to attempt a single-segment run of SA2 for SDA. I basically used it as an information resource to help me learn from its videos and guides since I'd never attempted a speedrun before, but never gave much thought to actually joining the site and competing here. After my single-segment run got obsoleted right after I submitted it, yoshifan suggested to me that I come over to TSC and I'm glad I did. I was worried it'd be a site full of super-intense tryhards I couldn't possibly fit in at but I was pleasantly surprised to find out it has a bunch of really nice people. Being here has definitely inspired me to work at getting good at some games I otherwise might have just played casually once and been done with, even though I don't have quite as much free time to spend on them as I'd like to. Plus, there's always the entertainment of seeing a new record video appear with some crazy strategy or glitch that breaks a level.

29
Final Chase from Sonic Adventure 2. I don't know why I like playing the level so much, it's glitchy and frustrating. It probably has to do with the fact that (a) the music is awesome and (b) when all the glitchy stuff doesn't glitch and works the way it's supposed to, it makes the perseverance feel worth it. That's in term of time logged on the stage, but for number of playthroughs I'd say Meteor Herd. That's the stage I just play to relax and have fun.

30
Wikkity! / Re: Predictions for 2015!!!
« on: December 01, 2014, 05:38:59 pm »
I've only fulfilled one of my predictions for this year so far (submitting Shadow stats), but I still have the intention of fulfilling at least one more by filling out my Heroes chart. Even though I will probably be green.

{Edit: Got another one fulfilled, I got the max rings on Final Chase M5. ("BARELY MADE IT.")}

I only want to make three more predictions for next year: I will finally buy a PS3 and possibly start running 06, Generations and Unleashed depending on whether I like them; I will finally bite the bullet and raise a damn Chao so I can get Green Hill stats for SA2B after playing the game for 5+ years and never so much as hatching one (or playing the kart minigame for that matter); and that I will bite the bullet again, make sure I'm on an empty stomach and then finish the other characters' stories besides Sonic in SADX, just so I can say I've finished the game.

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