Orange Lounge Radio

Game Developers Conference wrapups including Sony, Nintendo & Microsoft... Chocobo Circuit coming to FFXI... FFXI Beta ends April 2nd... Business Lessons from World of Warcraft... ebay seller sued over unofficial World of Warcraft guide... Person crucified in MMO... Sony no longer making playstation one... Revolution Name Speculation... Starcraft Ghost on hold... Sega makes a deal with Obsidian... Upcoming game sequels... Game Developers Choice Awards... The bathroom game... and more...

My computer is down and I can't listen to it at the library.

~ The original N64 codename was "Project Reality" but I'm not sure if that counts. Then it went to Ultra64/Nintendo64, then at the last minute Nintendo (dunno if it was NOA's or NCL's call) decided to go with "Nintendo 64" universally even after some companies were already advertising for the "Nintendo Ultra 64" or "NU64".

This is all speculation with nothing to really back it up, but I think Nintendo's gonna stick with "Revolution". Mainly because I'm seeing people who I know aren't hardcore gamers talking about "Nintendo Revolution". Plus there's the fact that the Nintendo DS was codenamed... Nintendo DS. Yeah, I don't think Nintendo really gives a rip about codenames anymore.

~ Back in the late 16-bit era, Midway sued some gaming magazine (I'm thinking GameFan) for publishing unauthorized strategy guides for Mortal Kombat 2. From what I remember, Midway won. I've seen other published unauthorized strat-guides spared in the past, but most of those were based off the Japanese product.

An amusing story. I remember buying at EB, for $0.01 (yeah, a penny), an unauthorized strategy guide for Lunar: Silver Star Story on PS1. Because it was based off the Japanese product, it was almost useless unless you imported the game; Working Designs had pratically changed every single dungeon map.

But yeah, as far as this WoW guy goes, it's iffy, mainly because Blizzard's actually giving a damn to begin with. One thing I remember from most (not all) unofficial strategy guides back then were 1. they were all text or 2. they never used actual in-game images. Or if they did, they were in black and white, but I doubt that makes a lick of difference in terms of editing for fair use.

~ DJRanma's letter reminded me why I'm ever so happy I will probably never have to write about the entire history on Tetris. That was probably the only game franchise I can think of that literally built itself on blood, sweat and tears. And like most epics of that level, yeah... you know it's a huge mess to ever have to fool with. A few books have covered the bare facts in the past, but I weep for any man who has to piece EVERYTHING together.

~ I haven't seen new (as in unused, not new titles) PS1 games being sold in well over a year now. I know it became a hub for budgetware and pre-school titles in the midst of the PS2's lifespan, but even then I haven't seen a whole lot of those popping up like I used to. Oh well. Hats off to ya, PS1. You had a good run.

I just wanted to say that the skydiving Tetris DS ad is great! It's worth seeing because you don't really understand it until the very end.

This first half of the show points out why the podcast is so popular. You guys have great chemistry. It was the "streaming media" jokes that really made me laugh, especially "Is it multiplayer?" Was the name of the exhibit "CPU?"

EDIT: I also looked up the WoW Unofficial Guide maker suing for Fair Use of screen shots. All of my previous research on "Fair Use" matches exactly what Dark Sakura said. What does apply here is how "Unauthorized" Harry Potter and The DiVinci Code books are legal. So in essence, a copyright lawyer is needed.

There are potential chilling effects if he's not allowed to publish his guide: FAQ sheets would probably become illegal because they contain copyrighted names like "Chun Li" and "Kung Lao." I hope he wins to prevent massive suing of GameFAQs, IGN, and other online boards.

I love the Mario Cart DS wallpaper! If you're feeling like wasting some Microsoft Credits, try the Bejeweled 2 theme, it's pretty.

Microsoft working on portable system? (again?)... Dell acquires Alienware... Club Namco launches... In the Groove Demo... Spiderman 3... Ninety Nine Nights... Mass Effect... Oblivion broken already?... VG Voters send congress 20,000 notes... PSP Cell Phone... Windows Vista... Russian developer takes Piracy to the ring... NVidia's newest Sony deal... Craziest Famicom game ever... Desperate Housewives: The Game... and more!


I'm going to work hard to get Part B up a little earlier in the week in the future... not before Tuesday though. But probably the overnight Tuesday/Wednesday as opposed to so late on Wednesday

About drunken episodes, I certainly wouldn't do one just to have a drunken episode, but whatever--its your show! Related, most diggnation podcasts are tipsy and/or drunken. I stopped listening because it was more about beer than the digg stories. It's a shame, I really like Digg.

Vista needs 2 G RAM? Holy crap! To run a Word Processor? Double-Poo. They should be streamlining Word instead of fluffing it up.

Best Buy in my area isn't getting Beatmania until April 6th. This is no big deal, because I can wait or go elsewhere. It shows that Best Buy would rather you buy it online than pick it up, though. It's also because it's a B-List Game, I'm sure.

Ironically, I found one Core XBox360 there. I can't believe they're still selling Cores in the US. Shortage NOT over.

~The Russian programmer? You know what this story reminded me of?



Okay, maybe not as bad, but still, you have to admit it's only two steps away from being as bad as beating up a Coke machine.

~I just recently did a drunk podcast. It didn't go that well, I just ended up in a drunken billigerent rant on cosplayers. Lesson learned: Don't try to preach/be ranty while plastered. I'd love to see you guys do it though, I've yet to hear a drunk OLR.

~Screw you, I'm all about playing the part of a catty housewife in middleclass suburbia! Oh wait, no I'm not...

~There's a strong possibility of a romhack-translation project going underway for Takeshi no Chousenjou. That's about all I can say, I'm going to be paranoid, I mean SAFE, and keep my mouth shut regarding the few specifics I do know. If it looks safe, I'll spill it later. But yeah, this game alone gave me about a bajillion more respect points for Beat Takeshi, if ONLY for the reason it's meanspirited and bizzare.

I think there's still a drunk show in the archives, I think one of the old To Go shows from right before the switch over, I want to say the first show of 2006?

There probably won't be another one for a while since there's no 3 day weekends on the horizon for any of us until May-- but that's also Fanime weekend and there's "something" big going on for us with that but I can't say much more yet

Thanks for all your feedback, guys...!

*shocks thread to life...in the butt*

Point Blank on the DS is a horrible idea. It detracts the challenge of being away from a screen and the ability to aim as well.

Reenee wrote:*shocks thread to life...in the butt*

Point Blank on the DS is a horrible idea. It detracts the challenge of being away from a screen and the ability to aim as well.

Actually, the arcade version has you shoot at the screen from very close, hence the name Point Blank. Still, tapping with a stylus should be considered a "different" game anyway.

Sorry, no, Point Blank would be having the GunCon scratch the screen as you move it around. =p