Write Ups On Scud Race, Sonic All-Stars Racing, TURBO: Check It Out...

I found some dude's blogspot that's rather stellar if I say so myself.  Hey look, check out these articles.  Unlike certain Sonic-obsessed individuals, I'm not going to call this "Bullsheeeeet." (censor bypass??)

Scud Race: Basically Daytona USA in "Model3 clothes."  He does say a few things I disagree with--one is that Scud Race & Daytona 2 only have four-players max.  I don't believe this because I saw a D2 six-player setup myself though that was a looong time ago and my memory is a bit foggy.  And we have pictures like this:

Somehow, if there's something "wrong" with this, I would sure like to know since I haven't seen proof that the Scud Race & Daytona 2 games are capped at four players max.  I mean, why would they put eight D2 seats next to each other if they can only play four players max?  And we also know that Virtua Racing has 8-players too, check this out.

He also says that Scud Race lacks physics which is semi-true--it's not realistic but certainly a lot more captivating & challenging than many other racers.  But it's a positive read.  Nice to see some Supermodel emulator footage.  Good to know there's a couple of people out there playing it and being able to get a glimpse of model3 goodness...

Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing: Now this write-up isn't positive since it has a problem with all the Sonic characters and the game's unoriginality (oh God not more Sonic characters crap).  Mentions no Daytona USA/Sega Rally/OutRun representation which I do agree should've been included.  I don't think this game's bad though despite it flaws such as no Shenmue tracks or anything.  A heck of a lot more fun than many racers today--fast paced and more balanced than Mario Kart Wii's online (which I played a lot of as well).  I disagree with his overall opinion but I respect it.  Read my original post on SaSASR here

An aside for SaSASR: I'm going to say this.  How come Mario & Nintendo get all these glorious collaborations but when Sega tries to do something similar in nature, it's put down upon.  Damn, SaSASR was a breath of fresh air compared to all this crap at the time.  That's why I give this game & Sumo Digital more credit than what meets the eye.

Turbo: Ah yes, this was my VERY FIRST RACING GAME.  See, I got trained by Sega racers at an early age--before Cruis'n USA, before Super Off-Road, before Microprose F1GP.  Used to visit the old arcade here and play this game!  This is exactly how I remember the game years ago:

This game came out in 1981 while Pole Position (lousy ass Namco, lol) came out in 1982.



Turbo actually boasts changing backgrounds and stuff, but ultimately the goal is the same--drive and don't hit the rival cars.  Keep going until you run out of time.  Not spectacular but it's super-old and paved the way for games like OutRun and Hang-On.  Believe it or not, Sega produced an even earlier racing game in 1980 called Monaco GP which is like a 2D version of this that is awfully reminiscent of Spy Hunter.  So basically, give Sega credit for being on the ball early with this racing business.

Anyway, give this guy's blog a look since he wrote up stuff on lots of video games.  See, I can post articles I disagree with without resorting to memes and name-calling!  Someone relay this memo to Sonic Stadium.

I Am The Poster Of Bulls*** (Response To Sonic Stadium)

EDITEDITEDIT on 7/1: Fixed the report an have my final words to say at the bottom.

I checked my traffic sources and saw that my Sonic Quality post was linked to by Sonic Stadium (a message board).  So I go to check it out but the link's gone.  Someone posted to it in this "shoutbox" thing and it must've fallen off the list by the time I found it.  So I assumed it was all good.

Then I find another link and this is the conversation that transgressed:

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VEDJ-F  Just found this bulls*** via Google. http://phantomfullforce.blogspot.com/2011/06/report-quality-of-sonic-games-wrt.html

Jun 27 2011 11:26 PM · Unlock · Lock

 Show all 10 comments

Nepenthe  Jun 27 2011 11:27 PM

I read the question then closed the link.

KCG  Jun 27 2011 11:27 PM

LOL

I can't even be mad.

Attitude Adjustment  Jun 27 2011 11:28 PM

I read the whole thing.

*facepalms at the "analysis"*

Nepenthe  Jun 27 2011 11:29 PM

Why do you guys torture yourselves?

Tatsumaki  Jun 27 2011 11:31 PM

Tab closed. :3

Mr. NinjaShark  Jun 27 2011 11:31 PM

He counts E-10000G and E-10000R as seperate characters, yet the Super Forms aren't?


wat

Cero  Jun 27 2011 11:34 PM

What the fuck did I just skim over

Negato  Jun 27 2011 11:36 PM

@NinjaShark: they are different characters, the E-10000R is the leader of the bunch and he even has some bits of Metal Sonic in him. (literally)

Gartocer  Jun 27 2011 11:37 PM

Idiot

Skull Leader  Yesterday, 04:05 PM

Invalid the moment he used ratings since those usually are very subjective and can vary from person to person. Then again even Sonic-only games can flop harder than the ones with multiple characters (*cough*Sonic 4*cough*)

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Well, I didn't think my post was that bad.  A bit aloof, yes, but not the worst I've seen.  Hmm, let me mention a few things first with that study.  First of all, I like Sonic games.  This wasn't meant to "bash" Sonic in any way.  I thought this was a "fun" study, something that would be interesting for me and others to see.  I don't get why there's a need to be mad or anything.  I don't hate extra characters.  As a matter of fact, I made this report with the inclination of disproving this notion of more characters = worse game.  It's supposed to be like a science report--think of a question, do research, come up with an unbiased answer (albeit a vague one); that's it.

Second, about the ratings.  Yes, I know that you really can't tell the absolute quality of a Sonic game so that's why I took the average ratings of a large pool of individuals...it was the closest to a game's score I could come up with.  Are the scores perfect?  No, but they're as close as I could feasibly get.  If you don't like the scores, come up with your own methods.

Have the guts to say this to my face.  I leave my comments open to anybody--you don't need a Google account or the ability to read those annoying verify letters.  I ask for as much feedback as possible for all my posts.  You don't like it, okay, but offer some improvement other than "idiot" and *facepalm*.  Both E-1000's should count as two characters, okay.  Sorry I haven't sat there and played through every Sonic game so that I could know that the E-1000's are more than just palette swaps.  And when I do criticize other peoples' articles, at least I give a rebuttal as to why I do.

Well, this is what you get for posting material online--others go at your throats over it.  This is what makes the Internet go around.  To quote the guy, "I can't even be mad."  I'm glad to have wasted your time with my article, couldn't have happened to a better group of pinheads.   I want to make nice for this apparently "offensive" material; we can't have people hating on me now, can we?

See?  I ain't even mad, now back to Black Ops KILLIN ZOMBIES!!!

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7/1 Update: Alright, I got to the bottom of this nonsense.  Didn't get much of an "apology" but I realize what I did wrong with the report.  My conclusion was lazily crafted and I partially blamed the Sonic characters for the series' "demise."  I admit culpability there because after crunching all the numbers and banging out that graph, I became very tired and just winged the data interpretation & conclusion altogether.  While it sounds like I'm caving into the demands of a couple of Sonic fangirls, I agree that I screwed up a bit.

On the other hand, you have to realize that these are big-time Sonic fans who come from a message board that makes a big deal out of Sonic couple pairings (and My Little Pony) so of course they're going to violated if I make even the slightest bad remarks towards Sonic characters.  So even if my conclusion was dead on in the first place, it's going to draw ire from somebody.  Great, now I expect similar hate mail from 1-Up/Sonic haters...like I let stupid characters like Big and Silver off the hook...what a crap study, they'll say.

Schmucks.

Hey Kids, STOP ALL THE DOWNLOADIN'...

Right now, I'm experiencing a lot of mental fatigue and I'm downloading this new Black Ops map pack so we'll see what that's like soon.

But first, the Supreme Court case.  So video games are an art form that are no longer persecuted by the government.  Or M-rated games can now be sold to minors in the state of California...I really don't understand what was the big deal by this...an EPIC WIN for gamers everywhere despite the fact we have much worse problems like the economy, the massive deficit, wars in the Middle East, etc.  Aren't kids already prohibited from buying M-rated games (in my state of Louisiana anyway)?  And so what--kids are always playing M-rated games like Call of Duty and Halo so it's not like their minds haven't been "infected" already.  Just get mommy and daddy to buy the games, problem solved...

I don't think the government should dictate what games can and cannot be made (yes, even Burnout).  Although this doesn't mean I don't frown upon ultra-violent/sexualized/other-questionable-material games (uh, Duke Nukem?  Rofl, well that's the Duke, that gets a pass...).  Happy games only...

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Oh, and right now, I'm checking my blog stats (don't worry, I'm not whoring hit counts here) and I see that I'm getting an abnormal amount of hits on my Cars 2 blog post, look at this:

For no reason at all, I'm getting an assload of Google Image views for one picture...this one.  Originally, I copied the url from the third-party website, then uploaded it to my blog, then removed it altogether.  I'M STILL GETTING HITS FOR A PICTURE I REMOVED FROM MY BLOG POST ALTOGETHER.

You might say, "Look at you!  You're getting tons of hits, you should be happy!"  Really, now how many people going through Google Image Search are going to stop and read what I have to say?  I'm going to try removing the pic from my Picasa album, maybe that'll solve things.

And to make matters more embarrassing, Cars 2 is turning out to be the biggest Pixar flop ever...33% on Rotten Tomatoes.  That's unheard of.  EDIT: Just like Nintendo producing a horrible Mario/Zelda game.  At least Cars 2 topped the weekend box office at $66 mil.  I haven't even seen it in theaters yet...I'm too lazy.  Cars is pulling a Duke Nukem...supposed to be great but no it sucks.  I want to talk more about that later.

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GREAT, now my XBL is just screwing with me again.  I can sign in any time I want, but I get signed out ten/fifteen seconds later.  While I'm halfway through downloading the new map pack.  This is horrible.  Maybe if I just keep mashing the "Connect to Xbox Live" button, it'll work (and make my name pop up on my friends' screens repeatedly)...

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One more thing.  This has to do with computer updates.  Last week, I got two Windows updates within a matter of a week.  So the computer always nags you--"When do you want us to remind you to restart your computer?" and I'm like NEVER!!  POSTPONE, POSTPONE, I restart my comp when I feel like it.

Every time it "reminds" you, it tries to restart the computer from under your nose.  EDIT: It still reminds you every ten minutes even if tell it to postpone for four hours.  As a matter of fact, I was in the middle of a chat with a Steam buddy and then my computer went through this self-initiated restart process (without telling me)....it started losing "focus" on the window so I had to keep clicking and getting off one letter at a time...something like "I think my computer is gonna restr (enter) r (enter) tt.."  as every single thing on my desktop disappeared one-by-one.  Just great.

And the updating process is so slow.  It's this blue screen that says "Installing 1 of 6 updates.  Please don't turn off your computer."  Alright, no big deal.  So the computer gets to the final update relatively quickly (in about 15 mins) so I'm thinking this last update will be quick.  NOPE.  My computer sits in the "Installing 6 of 6 updates" phase for about 8 to 12 hours...and there's NO indication of how close it is to completion.  I thought something was wrong with my computer and was about to manually power off the thing but it went "ding-a-ding-dong" late at night to indicate the computer had finished & restarted.  Both updates were the same.  Thanks, Microsoft, thanks.

And I also love how the computer has to restart over the most absurd updates...AVG?  Java?  Adobe Reader???  Now how many times have you used Adobe Reader recently?  I've only use it to read some .pdf attachments I've received in my e-mails.  And yet somehow the install has the gall to sneak in a little desktop icon every time like it's really that relevant.

Reference.

TODAY IS INTERNATIONAL CAPS LOCK DAY.  HOW FITTING WOULD IT HAVE BEEN TO TYPE UP THIS WHOLE POST IN CAPS CAUSE DAMN I'M REALLY PISSED OFF.  AND I HAVEN'T EVEN MENTIONED ALL THE Windows Account Alert! E-MAILS BUT THAT'S IT.  I'M GOING BACK TO SLEEP.  OH WAIT, DID THE BLACK OPS MAP PACK ACTUALLY DOWNLOAD?  WELL F*** IT I'M KILLING SOME SHANGRI-LA ZOMBIES!!!

If Only Real Life Looked As Good As Sega Racers...

I really want to talk about racing games again so here goes.  Thank me very much...

I play a lot of arcade racers, particularly Sega ones.  If there's one great thing about video games, it's that you have the liberty to embellish this fantasy environment all you want.  Hence why I prefer colorful & vibrant games over dark & depressing ones (I figure if you're going to an alternate world, it might as well make you happy).

But then along comes real life.  Now I'm a car aficionado but NOT that much--for instance, I don't watch every race on TV or tune cars in a garage.  Maybe I should, I don't know.  But when you compare real life racing to video game racing...the differences become apparent.  Please note that I didn't alter any of the pictures in any way besides adjusting the resolution...

 
Sega Racing Video Games:

Daytona USA 1 & 2, Scud Race, OutRun 2 

 

Real Life:

Road Atlanta, Silverstone, Sebring, Suzuka, Laguna Seca, Twin Ring Motegi

I hope I'm not committing heresy by saying this, but...a lot of these tracks with little/nothing over the horizon are just boring.  This has nothing to do with the track layouts themselves which are actually memorable in that I still have the overhead view of tracks like Laguna Seca and Suzuka burned into my head after all these years...

I remember back in my Forza 3 days trying to compete on these real-life tracks like Silverstone and Sebring and it was fun to drive, yes, but the landscaping was just a buzz kill.  I almost wish I was playing Sega racers instead.  Even the fantasy tracks in games like Forza/GT were more interesting, like Special Stage 5, Autumn Ring, Trial Mountain, etc.

Granted, there ARE good-looking real-life tracks out there.  Monaco comes to mind but that's because urban courses are usually very captivating (they better damn well be...they're blocking city traffic for this).  Also Nurburgring, Monterserrat, la Sarthe, anything with a greenish hue, lots of trees, and elevation changes.

Herp derp, I know there's a difference between real-life and video games.  Real life obviously goes for efficiency since the NUMBER ONE aspect of any race course is to make sure the racers are focused on driving and safety.  Obviously, if you were in a 800 hp car, I don't think you'd be looking to the horizon for any trees or bright colors...your adrenaline would be hyped to the max already.  That's why there's no races through art galleries, I suppose.  To the casual observer, though, it can be uninteresting so that's why they prefer to play colorful video games instead (racing games that aren't colorful, however, already suck and no one likes them).

Hey, maybe real-life tracks could adapt more interesting visuals...tracks like Monaco prove that you can pack in a lot of clutter in a small space so what's the harm in adding a few landmarks to these bland courses we have?  Oh, that's me and my stupid "Mario Kart" mentality getting in the way.

I wonder if fantasy video games have dulled my appreciation for real-life racing.  I wonder what real-life race drivers/fans think of fantasy courses like these.  Well, if you're going to make a video game, you might as well make it colorful and pleasing to the eye.  Just something to think about.  Real life is depressing enough as is so might as well make the player happy.  If I ever did get the chance to drive a real race car, I'd have fun regardless of where it is.  Two different worlds.  At least everyone has access to one so let's make it worthwhile...

Oh, and one more thing about real life that's not fun--crashes where people die.  Just ask Ryan Dunn (of Jackass fame) who recently died drunk driving in his Porsche GT3.  So if I want my video games to be a little different than real life, well...you know where I'm coming from.

Use Mosaic Maker to make your own mosaics easily...

BROKEN DEVICE...CAN WE FIX IT? YES WE CAN!!

MACGYVER, THE SANSA FUZE MUSIC PLAYER IS BROKEN!  WHAT CAN WE DO TO FIX IT?

I NEED EIGHT DOLLARS!

*one week later*

IT'S FIXED, THANK YOU!!

Today I'm actually quite overjoyed since I fixed my $80 8GB Sansa Fuze media player.  Yes I "fixed" it before but this time, I actually had to do some research and buy spare parts.  I bought it back in July 2010 and haven't stopped using it.  The problem is that over time, the spinny wheel wouldn't always register.  I had to open it up multiple times just to see if there was something inhibiting the circuits or whatever, but any corrections I made were temporary.  In June 2011, the wheel wouldn't react AT ALL (no picking songs or changing volume).  The device still worked but without a wheel, I got pissed and started to rip the thing apart.

This is the device in question.

I ripped everything apart inside the spinny wheel.  I deduced that the culprit is that the strip that connects the wheel to the device (the orange thing with the five circles) just didn't work anymore.  I stuck that thing into the device repeatedly but I couldn't get it to register except maybe 0.001% of the time (suggestive, maybe?).  At some point, the Sansa Fuze "fried" as the screen flashed white, blacked out, then wouldn't turn on again (there's no words on it...F*$%#n thing sucks!!).  So I assumed the whole device was fubar and that I should just say goodbye to the thing altogether and buy a new one.

Somehow, I held out throwing away the Sansa Fuze and a day later, I go to flick the power switch on the device and VOILA, it comes back on...so the thing goes from dead to alive...resurrected from the dead!  Alright, now if I can get a functioning wheel from another Sansa Fuze I can fix this bad boy and bring it back to life.

So I buy another Sansa Fuze off of eBay...a broken one that cost $1 (plus $7 S&H).  Think about this whole ordeal as an organ transplant...taking organs from a dead guy to resuscitate a barely-living guy.  And I wait a week and trust me, that week was HARSH.  I was bitter that I couldn't listen to my happy music.

And I knew full well the risk that the Sansa Fuze I bought may also have a broken wheel...but it looked too "pristine" for the wheel to have broke--probably the guy dropped it and shattered the circuitry rather than the wheel itself.

So today, my package arrives in the mail.  I take the front cover (wheel included) off the recently purchased Sansa Fuze (which was a pain in the ass since they clamped AND glued the thing down), stick it on my old Sansa Fuze, fidget with it and BLAMO, it's alive, IT'S ALIVE!!  IT WORKS, I FIXED IT!!  Oh, and I didn't have to format/erase the memory or anything!

Rock on dudes.  Fixed an $80 device with $8 worth of parts.  Now if this thing breaks again in the next two or three days, I'm gonna be super pissed.

SIMEARTH SNES ANIMATED GIFS

EDITED ONCE



Stupid Auto-Pagination feature prevented me from posting them all so go directly to my Photobucket instead for color alterations...  Cause I know you care a lot.  Use them for whatever the friggin hell you want you sons of b****es.  There's actually more animals but I don't want to touch 'em right now.



SimEarth for the SNES is a terrible game...I don't recommend you downloading it. And if you purchase it, then you're an idiot...