Talk of the Day

[zephyrtronium]

Wars have stopped mid-day for such events

lolTet

[Parabox]

Happy past Saturday.

[personitis]

Merry last hour of Christmas. Hung out with family all day and should be expecting my new computer within the week. In other news I landed $65 in iTunes, $20 to GameStop, some new jeans, and new sports bag. Now for resolutions of the new year...

[Hiroshi Mishima]

Happy Holidays from your local BM developer, Waker.

I kid you not, I read that and my first thought was: "BM.. wait, he works for Black Mesa?"

[Quietus]

I would send Waker a PM, telling him that he's late agin, but I can't be bothered right now.  We're still waiting for him in the test chamber.  If he doesn't hurry, there may be some unforeseen consequences^TM.

[Waker]

I would send Waker a PM, telling him that he's late agin, but I can't be bothered right now.  We're still waiting for him in the test chamber.  If he doesn't hurry, there may be some unforeseen consequences^TM.

AH FUCK OFF I WAS TAKING MY LUNCH BREAK.

THE INVASION CAN WAIT. :V

[Hiroshi Mishima]

The following message is a Hiroshi Rant™ and while they may be taken with a grain of salt, Hiroshi asks that this time he'd hope people might feel as he does on the issue. Thank you.

* * *

So last month I went and put $5 down on Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective. The other day I'd heard there was going to be a pre-order bonus and wanted to know if the local GameStop (that I've done business with for over 6 years) knew anything about it. They didn't and that was that.

I decided then to look around cause I'd been wanting to find a cheap copy of Blue Dragon and Assassin's Creed but the last few times I'd looked, nobody had a copy and I often try to look locally before buying online in the off chance that it's the same price (cause of shipping). As it so happens, I did find/buy both for pretty cheap. However, what I'd really been hoping to find was a used copy of Lost In Blue for the DS. I'd seen it some months back but hadn't had the money, and ever since I discovered it was a remake of the old Survival Kids game from the GameBoy era, I've been kicking myself for not springing for it when I had the chance.

It's been getting hard to find a good/cheap copy of games I want these days.. which is kind of sad, but also a sign of the times, I suppose. In either event.. yesterday I was down there with my cousin just to browse while he was putting down a pre-order for the 3DS, and I noticed they had a buncha DS and GBA games in that silly locked case. I thought that was odd but they were _so_ busy I didn't wanna wait in line to ask any questions.

So yeah, went in today, got the Xbox games and finally went to ask. This just blew my mind as to why the hell they'd do this: GameStop's new policy is to remove traded in DS games (no matter how new) from their boxes and chuck their manuals. I was seeing copies of Dragon Quest IX in there for twenty-nine fucking dollars! A gods-damned card like the sort you'd stick in a camera, the size of a quarter.. and they're chucking the boxes that protect/hold them to save on space?

Lemme put this in perspective. I look around and what do I notice? Wow, they've spread out the Wii, 360, and PS3 games so they take up even more space than usual, and the organization really isn't that great on either New or Used.. just a rough alphabetical order. They've still got used PS2 and GCN games in their cases and on a display rack out in the middle of the store, like they do with their Accessories, PC games and DVDs. There's no NEED to be removing these little boxes cause they're not even utilizing the room they free up properly!

I was so gods-damned pissed off and even mentioned in passing to an employee while I was browsing that this seemed like such a waste to throw the DS cases away. They're so easy to lose and yet they're still charging a shitload of money for them. The new 3DS is months away so it isn't like they needed to clear up room in a real hurry or anything. It just really pisses me off that they're being so callous and irresponsible with the DS games and yet still want people to pay full/high prices for the majority of them.

So yeah.. I guess as much as I don't like doing it, I'm going to have to start looking online for my DS games, even if they're used. I'd much rather pay $14 than $10 if it means I get a box and a manual. Sure you can go online for a lot of _older_ manuals, but it's really hard to find scans of newer games because some people are scared of reprisals or just aren't bothering. I even looked over at Replacement Docs to see if they had it, but they only had Lost In Blue 2.

I dunno.. I suppose this kinda shit shouldn't surprise me anymore, but you'd think a company that wants to maintain their monopoly on Used Games when places like Wal-Mart and Best Buy are trying to muscle in on it... you'd think they'd at least treat their used games better. I bought a used Xbox game at Wal-Mart earlier this month, and it was in much better condition than a good 70% of the ones at GameStop. I guess they won't have that monopoly much longer at this rate.


This has been a Hiroshi Rant™, thank you for your time.

[Lunaria]

...copy of Lost In Blue for the DS. I'd seen it some months back but hadn't had the money, and ever since I discovered it was a remake of the old Survival Kids game from the GameBoy era...

Woah, woah! stop right there! Is this true?

I loved the first survival kids game! D:

---

Also, that sounds like a shitty policy, but then again, gamestop is a shitty store all around, with shit prices all around. The only reason I still go to them is to see if they get in any used GC games I want, but even that is rare. :/

[interdpth]

Hiroshi: Two words, "Fucking Gamestop"

[DSO]

I start college next week, so I've years of being broke to look forward to. I'll probably hanging around here even less than I have been lately... right now my hacking consists mostly of half-finishing random ASM ideas I get from time to time. Then again, I'm usually in a hacking funk come wintertime so things will probably pick up next spring. I can't say if I'll have anything to release this year, but I have high hopes for the hack lineup in general. (I sincerely hope we'll see Aegis and Fear)

See you guys around.

[Hiroshi Mishima]

Good luck with college, DSO. Hope everything works out despite the whole cash situation involved... I, too, hope we'll be lucky enough to see Aegis and Fear. If they're released, I'm sure they'll be a good relaxation/distraction from the pangs of college crunching.

@Green-Kirby: Yeah, I was pretty surprised when I found out. I saw them one day and was like "Huh, that looks kinda neat, but I dunno." Then as I was going about my business later I realized why they looked so familiar. Still hoping to hear back from this person on Amazon as to whether or not the ones they carry have instruction manuals.. I'm hoping they will, but if not.. eh, I just dunno. Maybe I can put up a Manual Request over at ReplacementDocs and get lucky.

Yeah, I know GameStop's got some real issues... it's just kinda sad cause I've been going to this place for over 7 years now, and used to be really good friends with the majority of the people working there. Looks like the Manager has moved up to another location cause I haven't seen her lately... and most of the staff looks new, too. Kinda sad, unless they're just the holiday help and will be gone in a month or two. But even though a couple people I've talked to said their GameStops aren't doing this, I checked out 4 different ones within the area and they're all doing it.. so not much I can do, really, besides: *shakes fist*

[Phazar]

I will also be off to college soon, but I still have 8 months left before that happens.  However, I'll probably still have a laptop of hacks and MetConst-related files set up somewhere to continue hacking and hanging around here(in fact, college may buy me even more time since I'll be living on my own).

[Hiroshi Mishima]

For some time now my aunt's been "threatening" to dump her cat off on us cause she is tired of having like.. what.. 6 of them? Anyways, over the holidays the Big White Blob has come home to roost at our house. Here's some pics of him, plus a bonus. His actual name is Yoshi (my cousin names his pets after characters), but I keep finding myself calling him "Big White Blob" cause it's cute and it fits.. although sometimes I like Zombie Kitty, too.


Blurry Webcam picture

Below are higher quality (and larger size) pics from my camera. Put in Spoiler Tags cause of size.

[spoiler=big white blob][/spoiler]
[spoiler=zombie kitty][/spoiler]

Bonus pic: My cat Miko (aka Growly-Butt) has been swallowing her pride/anger and sleeping on my bed with the other two cats Little Guy & Jumper. Rare because she became Growly-Butt when Jumper moved in.

[spoiler=rare planetary alignment][/spoiler]

I call him Zombie Kitty cause of his face. He used to get into fights with my aunt's eldest cat, Bowser (who is almost 3 years old and Jumper's younger brother from a different litter). At some point he hurt his face below the one eye and it swelled up and looked all nasty and stuff. It's healed, but he's kinda scarred for life as a result and the eye continues to leak/water on a daily basis.. which is why he closes it a lot.

Despite Yoshi being like.. what.. a year old, I think? He's actually bigger and heavier than my 13-year-old Little Guy by a couple of pounds. He _loves_ attention, but hates being held. He sounds like you're torturing him if you hold him.. even if all you do is push him down and pet him. :p

[Digital_Mantra]

This bitter earth
Well, what fruit it bears
What good is love
mmmm that no one shares
And if my life is like the dust
oooh that hides the glow of a rose
What good am I
Heaven only knows

Lord, this bitter earth
Yes, can be so cold
Today youre young


Too soon, youre old
But while a voice within me cries
Im sure someone may answer my call
And this bitter earth
Ooooo may not
Oh be so bitter after all

[Zhs2]

I think I shall call the first of a year "Purple Day" due to the number of people who haven't set a birthday on their account. :D

[Hiroshi Mishima]

I guess that makes me special, cause my name isn't purple. :D

[snarfblam]

Cool! Now I get to choose my color!

Edit:Nope. Guess I misunderstood. Why am I purple?

[Parabox]

An ancient flaw in the forum code, never fixed by Zhs2, that makes it so that everyone who doesn't have their birthday set, have it automatically set to 1st of Jan. Now we wouldn't notice it if birthdays didn't change your nick to purple. Happens every year, and all the new users are like lol.

[Lunaria]

> Implying zeke made the forum code.

[Parabox]

>implying you can properly greentext

[Phazar]

> Implying there will not be an implying trend starting.

[zephyrtronium]

>implying such a trend has not already started long ago.

[Parabox]

asdfmovie3
[spoiler]>Implying he has a new dog[/spoiler]

[Phazar]

Happy birthday Gunnar!

[Parabox]

>Implying it was gunnar's birthday