05/28/07 - 11:32a - Yay

I don't make many updates, but I added an article which I figured out only last night.  Had some Halo PC fun whee.

I also have a proper blog now, although it also isn't updated regularly, but it's here. 

03/29/06 - 07:59p - Google Pages :(

Google Pages deleted my last post, right after I made it.  It's freaking gone.

Oh well.

Anyways I'm working on a little Zelda Classic thing.  Upgrading to the latest beta caused some screwups until I learned about workarounds.

There REALLY needs to be a place for a number of advanced tricks you can do with Zelda Classic.  All I can find are basic tricks that I figured out on my own already.  Some documentation wouldn't hurt either.

I'll probably do an article on it soon with what little I figured out so far and expand as I figure out cool stuff.  Some of the new beta features have already given me ideas for dungeon puzzles.

Right now I only have one screenshot:

It's a cutscene.  Most of the stuff there already animates.  I might be able to get those guards patrolling with the new beta features. :)

Right now I'm working on getting tile sheets (they call them "combo sheets", but all combos are are tiles with behavioral metadata) set up so I can actually make stuff for the Hyrule Castle area.

Here's the general cutscene layout.  The first screen is a black screen with text where the player is given legend and lore that hints at the action ahead.   The next screen, in the shot above, shows where the next cutscene will happen (like on TV where they have shots of a building and put the name of it an the date/time on the screen).

The next cutscene will be interactive.  Link is woken up by a guard who informs him the King wishes to speak with him.  You then control Link, who can talk to the guard by walking up to him (this is one of the tricks that I have to put in that article).  You can walk around some parts of the castle, although you won't be allowed full access until you get to the actual game (you can't save either, not until the opening cutscenes are over).

You can also talk to any of the guards on the way, if you wish.  I hope to make talking to NPCs and reading signs a common activity, although the trick is a bit tricky to pull off. 

Once you reach the King, he tells you that Zelda has not returned from a trip to the nearby village, and he wants you to go look for her.  Then the game fades out and back in onto the game

Some of the stuff I'm going to have:

The game will consist of two realms, normal and shadow.  Similar in concept to the light and dark worlds of Link to the Past, but closer to Ocarina of Time in that things are similar, but different in minor, but important ways.  For example, a barrier you need to pass in the normal world might be shifted over two tiles in the shadow realm, allowing you to warp back and forth to pass (warping will be done using warp tiles).

There will be at least 9 overworld maps, possibly more.  One for each dungeon and Hyrule Castle.

Maps I have so far planned as far as general layout with regard to one another are Hyrule Castle, Village, Forest, Graveyard.

I plan to make Sky and Rock dungeons interconnect with the overworld.  What that means is, some of the caves near the rock dungeon will enter areas close enough to the dungeon that you will be able to see it from there.  There may even be hidden keys in these external places, if I'm feeling mean (I'll provide hints ingame of course).

If you fall in Sky Temple, you'll end up on the overworld and will have to hotfoot it back to the enterence.  Watch your step, hehehe.

And of course in all of this you'll be able to warp back and forth, although in the first few dungeons this will be kept minimal.  The dungeon in one realm will be small while the bulk of the dungeon is confined to the other realm.

For example... Forest Temple will have the bow and arrow items.  The arrow will be obtainable in the normal realm, probably along with a key needed to access the dungeon in the shadow realm.  The Shadow dungeon will be bigger than the few-room normal one.

Each overworld area will be 8x8.  times 9 times 2 makes 1152 screens on the overworld alone... luckily the shadow realm will mirror the normal one in most respects so it won't be THAT bad.  Also since I have so many screens I won't cram everything into one screen, it will be more relaxed, although I'll try and put enough landmarks around so you don't get lost in a sea of grass.

I have selected nice MIDIs for all the dungeons already, although I may end up picking two for each dungeon (normal and shadow realms!).

Some other trick I might try is turning the bait into a valuable item, like a weird colored ruppee.  Then I use it bribe the guy who takes the bait, and then you can get an item or something.  Part of a miniquest.

I plan to have alot of expensive buyables in this game, so I will leave lots of change lying around. :) 

03/27/06 - 08:00p - I have a paper due tomorrow

I haven't really started working on it yet. :)

So I beat Majora's Mask.  I still have two heart pieces missing, and no clue which ones they are, since I remember getting them all.  Dumb freezing making me lose track.  I'll come back later (ie in 10 years) and figure it out.

I got my copy of Master Quest and I've just beat the Spirit Temple.  Four heart pieces and a bunch of skulltulla left then I'll have it 100% after Ganon.

I ordered Tetris DS and Metroid Prime Hunters (which sounds better and better the more I hear about it).  Tetris DS has shipped and should arrive any day now, but MPH got backordered (GRR) and so they're only getting to my order now (it'll probably ship tonight or tomorrow).   I suppose I can live with Tetris and MQ until then.

I'm probably going to mess around with some of these, despite the fact that the plugin that needs them runs fairly slow on my computer.  Still lots of fun.

Meanwhile, I've gotten back into Zelda Classic, which has added a few new things since I've last seen it (the editor looks less like it's been puked on for one thing).  I'm already in the process of designing an envelope-pushing quest that takes advantage of as many features as possible (I'm looking forward to freeform dungeons... AKA no more two block thick walls and doors in preset locations) and mixes up things a bit.

I've picked out a tileset and have formed a basic story, and I'm deciding item layout and such.  Once I've covered basic locations of everything and every place relative to other places, I'll start laying out areas. :)

03/18/06 - 11:51p - Blog still kinda out

I'm hooked on Zelda: Majora's Mask now.  I'll be starting the Ocean Temple tomorrow. :)

Other than Zelda 2, where I only beat the first dungeon boss one time (and then subsequently got myself stuck with 0 lives and 1 health block far from help), this is the only Zelda game I've never beaten.  That will change inside a week, hopefully. :)

Why have i never beaten it?  The first time I've played it, and the farthest I got, was on my brother's N64.  I reached the Stone Temple but never got inside the thing.  I guess I just got bored and went to play other games.  This was probably partly because I was using a guide to go through and grab everything... my current strategy of just PLAYING is a lot more fun.

Anothern reason I haven't gotten around to beating it tho is because the GameCube port has an annoying, very rare, freeze bug.  It's happened to me twice.  First time I lost some work and I gave up on the game until now.  Second time was yesterday, where I had gone through Romani Ranch and the Great Bay in one long run before it froze on me. 

I lost: Romani Mask, Gormon Mask, weird Mask you get from the Gormon Bros, Epona & her song, third bottle, hookshot, New Wave Bosa Nova song, and a few pieces of heart.  That's a few main and side quests.

Four hours of work, gone.  They really should have looked into some/better compression for their saves.  I miss saving anywhere from OoT.  I was tempted to give up again.

But instead today I did it all again over a couple runs instead of one, and interspersed a few side quests that turned out to be worth it. Having four bottles istead of three at the Gerudo Fortr... Base is helpful.  I also got a number of useful heart pieces I hadn't before.  All in all I'm caught up and then some, and ready to do the temple tomorrow. :)

Oh, and as for where this addiction came from, I was playing OoT Master Quest over the break.  It was my brother's copy so I have one ordered and it should come any day now.  In the meantime i've taken up MM to satisfy my Zelda 3D cravings.

In other news, I like how my note-taking in my Network and Telecomm class is working out.  Once I get a laptop this summer I'll probably do it for all my classes.

There are no recent notes because I just had a midterm in that class.  I expect I'll take more notes Monday. 

03/05/06 - 02:57p - Blog out

I'm on spring break.  No more blog for now.  lol. 

03/02/06 - 07:25p - More UJMM

Click.  I moved the modal dialog box into a non-modal status bar.  Now you can do stuff in the main dialog while the mods load.  I also revamped the actual loading process, it's faster and more efficient, and now doesn't lag the GUI one bit.  Also gives you some stats after it loads 'em all and you can close the bar whenever you want.

03/01/06 - 02:03p - Stuff

I revamped the sound FX system in UJMM and I'm finishing up the options dialog.  Next I'll focus my efforts on fixing up the mod loading process and making it non-blocking.

Also this blog is now certified to have 99% less angst than normal blogs.  So I will not whine about how I have four tests in the next two days.  Dumb Spring Break. 

I also added an article on VNCing through just about any situation.  I'm gonna use the techniques over Spring Break to use my computer remotely.

02/28/06 - 10:55a - UJMM

I'm working a bit on Uber Jedi Mod Manager for Dark Forces/Jedi Knight/Mysteries of the Sith/Jedi Outcast/Jedi Academy.  Here is the planned featureset for the next release:

  • Existing functionality ported to .NET 2.0 [IN PROGRESS]
  • Uses native .NET 2.0 menus and toolbars.  They look nicer and I can use icons in the menus and such now. [DONE]
  • XP style icons for all toolbars and menus [IN PROGRESS]
  • Tabbed design which integrates several dialogs into the main window [DONE]
  • New options dialog as a tab [IN PROGRESS] 
  • New downloads dialog which uses RSS feeds to find levels and mods to download [PLANNED]
  • Revamping and recoding of the mod loading system to make it faster [PLANNED]
  • Include a more general-purpose GOB/GOO library than what I have now, but will still be as fast as the current one [PLANNED] 
  • When I recode the mod loading system, allow the user to do other stuff while the mods are loading [PLANNED]

02/28/06 - 1:15a - Blog blog blog blog

Yay I have a blog.  Whoop-de-doo.  Click stuff on the left as I add it, Archive holds ALL. >.>

I will add some stuff tomorrow, about my UJMM project.