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What about some good old-fashioned text adventure games?  I highly recommend A Mind Forever Voyaging--it is what every adventure game designer should strive for in my opinion.

-Fro.

Another great sidesplitter is Azumanga Daioh.  It follows a group of friends through their three years in high school (as well as their teachers)...it's hillarious, cute, and sad at the end (they all graduate and the show ends!  *sob*)

http://www.pulpfilm.com/reviews_engine/show_review.php?review=52

-Fro.

PS--Yeah, I do want to see Ebichu--it sounds so twisted that I don't think I'll be able to resist much longer.  It's showing at my home town's Animethon this year, so I'll give it a try there.

DISCLAIMER:  My dad owns a hi-fi shop, and I work there part time.

The short answer:  Yes.

The long answer:  Yes, but only if your source/equipment are of decent quality.  If you're listening to burned MP3s on your cheap-o system, then $500 interconnects arn't going to do much of anything to improve your overall sound.

-Fro.

What about WinRAR?  RAR files are quite a bit smaller than ZIP.

http://www.rarlab.com/download.htm

Ahhhhh!  Works like a charm.  Thanks, Gilbot!

-Fro.

Hey all,

OK, here's the situation:  I've got a scene in my game's opening cinematic where two characters are talking while walking down a hallway.  Now, they're supposed to be walking WHILE talking (for sort of a West Wing-feel).  Now, this was what I was planning to do:

Code: ags

  // Cinematic 1 (con't)
MoveCharacter(EGO, 280,146);
MoveCharacter(FORSYTH, 259,148);
Wait(40);
DisplaySpeechBackground(EGO, "So why me?");
DisplaySpeechBackground(FORSYTH, "Sir, as the Duke Ambassador to Airital, the envoy falls under your command.");
DisplaySpeechBackground(EGO, "Then why doesn't anyone do what I say?");
DisplaySpeechBackground(EGO, "You're technically my butler, and you boss me around like a god.");
DisplaySpeechBackground(FORSYTH, "I merely give suggestions, Sir.");
DisplaySpeechBackground(FORSYTH, "And seeing as how you came to this position last week...");
DisplaySpeechBackground(FORSYTH, "...you should be wise to heed them.");
DisplaySpeechBackground(EGO, "So why don't you just do my job?");
DisplaySpeechBackground(EGO, "Or did I already ask that?");
DisplaySpeechBackground(FORSYTH, "Every day, Sir.  And the answer will always be the same.");
DisplaySpeechBackground(EGO, "Yeah, yeah.");
DisplaySpeechBackground(EGO, "The position of the Duke is hereditary, and your father wasn't the Duke.");
DisplaySpeechBackground(EGO, "Lucky bastard.");
DisplaySpeechBackground(FORSYTH, "Not as lucky as you might think.  I am, after all, still your secretary.");
DisplaySpeechBackground(EGO, "And I thank God for that everyday.");

Of course, the problem here is that all the lines of dialogue are displayed at the same time (or they would be if the engine wouldn't crash ), so I need to figure out some way to have the speech displayed one line at a time while still having characters walk in the background.  

I was thinking about using some sort of for-next loop with each line being the repeated element, or possibly just using Wait(); and having the engine wait for however long the text is displayed onscreen (which would require a great deal of trial and error) but I'm wondering if other people have run into a similar problem and have another, cleverer solution (especially since I haven't used a for-next loop since my days of BASIC in junior high school)....

Thanks,
-Fro.

Downloading intro now--this is definately the coolest concept that I've heard of in awhile.  I'm really looking forward to see where you go with this one.

-Fro.

Here we go. Write down all the 12 notes there are. Now jumble them up. Now make a piece of music from just that pattern of notes.

Comprende?

It's far, far, far more complicated than that.  This is taken straight from my university theory textbook (ignore typos--I'm just flying at the keyboard here):

The procedure for composing with twelve tones is perhaps the most methodically revolutionary technique of the twentieth century.  The Vienna-born composer, Arnold Schoenberg, is generally credited with developing and codifying this systehem that he believed would negate a sense of tonal centre.  

<snip>

Even before Shoenberg had organized his ideas into an actual method of composition, certain procedures were operational in his music, such as the following:
1.  Avoidance of the 8ve (octave), either as melodic component or harmonic interval.
2.  Avoidance of traditional pitch collections, that is, any that might suggest major or minor triads and therefore a tonic
3.  Avoidance of more than three successive pitches that might be identified with the same diatonic scale
4.  Use of wide-ranging and extremely disjunct melodies.

The principles mentioned above continued to hold true in much of Shoenberg's twelve-tone music as well as in that of his early followers, especially Webern and Berg.  His system was designed to methoidcally equalize all pitches of the dodecaphonic scale by the following means:
1.  A twelve-tone composition is to be based on an arrangement of or series of the twelve pitches that is determaned by the composer.  This arrangement is called a Tone Row or a Set.
2.  No pitch may be used again until all othe pitches have been sounded.  There is one exception to this restriction:  A pitch may be repeated immediately after it is heard.  Repetition may also occur within the context of a trill or tremolo figure.
3.  The tone row may, within the confines of the system, legitimately be used in retrograde (reversed order), inversion (mirroring of each interval), or retrograde inversion (reverse order of the mirrored form)

It is important to remember that the row is not ncessarily intended to represent a "theme" or "melody" but is more of a tool used by the composer to arrive at new musical gestures or vertical structures that he or she might not consciously have thought of.

(continues with examples)

Having said all of that, I'm not sure that this tune contest is such a good idea as one needs an INSANE amount of theory knowledge to write this sort of stuff.  It's not just a matter of "banging on the piano and seeing what weird sounds come out" at all.

-Fro.

So, um, why can't you even mention to your replacement that there're terrorists lurking around the building?  That seems like a very logical thing for somebody to bring up in conversation instead of just chatting while people outside the door are planting bombs and whatnot.

Also, I'd suggest getting a proofreader for when you update the game next.  There are a few silly mistakes (eg. their/there/they're) around..

-Fro.

Hats off to Michael Moore at the Oscars tonight.  He said what needed to be said.

http://www.cnn.com/2003/SHOWBIZ/Movies/03/23/sprj.aa03.oscars/index.html

Michael Moore's acceptance speech, however, earned applause from some -- but hoots of derision from others.

Accompanied by his fellow documentary nominees, Moore, who won best documentary for "Bowling for Columbine," wasted no time in lighting into President Bush, the 2000 election and the war in Iraq.

"I've invited my fellow documentary nominees on stage with us here in solidarity with me," he said, "because we like non-fiction and we live in fictitious times. ... We have a man sending us to war for fictitious reasons. We are against this war, Mr. Bush. Shame on you, Mr. Bush, shame on you."

Moore expanded on his comments with the press backstage.

"I'm an American," he said. "You don't leave your citizenship behind when you enter the doors of the Kodak Theatre." He added that expressing opinions is "what I do. I do that in my filmmaking."

Asked what he thought of the catcalls, he said, "Don't report that there was a split decision in the hall because five loud people booed."

-Fro.

ROFL Scarpia--that's hillarious.

...and Reizka, that's my background, too...

-Fro.

[Loomed Off]

There're enough Brits on these boards that at least SOMEONE has probably seen this movie.  

I present...Lucasfilm Games' Loomed Off!


...and the ever popular Samurai of Monkey Island...


-Fro.

Scanned from my high school yearbook (back in the day )


...me on the right.  Jamming with fellow trombone friend on the band trip to Whistler.


...me in the centre, in the plaid shirt.  The cast photo for the one-act play that I directed for Drama class.


...me in the tie.  My grad photo and quotation.


You can hardly see me in this one--I'm not sure why I even scanned this one.

-Fro.