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Posts by Rameau's Nephew

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Originally posted by dgbarca
Here we are...the "first" video of my hack....


It's quite cathartic to see that jackass Fishin' Boo go down. I can't stand those things.
I think "Time is marching on" was meant to be the clue, though it is admittedly a little vague (if delightfully enigmatic).

That said, I also sort of like the creative use of the Bowser heads on the submap. On the other hand, I think the friendly goomba in the second video should either appear before door or immediately behind it; it seems as though it might be easy to miss him as things are, especially as it appears you can't go back after entering the door.

You know, I half-expected miniature Iggys to hatch of out the eggs at the end. It would have made for an amusing twist. Ah well. It was a decent mini-hack in any case.
When I first noticed this hack, back during its far earlier stages, I thought to myself, "Huh, that's pretty clever idea. But honestly, how much can you truly Zelda-ize Super Mario World?"

Oh, how little I knew then...
Very nice tracks, SNN and FPI...I especially like the "Acoustic Castle Redux" and "The End of all Hope". The only one I'm not all that keen on is the boss theme...It doesn't sound bad on it's own, by any means, but somehow it doesn't quite work as well as Reloaded's version (which is one of my favorite tracks in the game). But that's just my opinion...
Originally posted by NamelessProtagonist
Plenty of people out there only voted for McCain because they're racist bastards who would never vote for a black man. Just as many are racist bastards who only voted for Obama because he is black.


Really? Just as many? We have a handful of Louis Farrakhan types, of course, but this is a tiny, tiny minority, not even comparable to the number of white racists in the U.S. We've got to remember--this is a country with a history of institutionalized racism. Segregation was written into the the very letter of our laws. This is not ancient history--this was still going on while my parents were growing up. It was well within the lifetime of many, many people still alive and having a great influence today, and the corresponding mentality is still deeply entrenched in many parts of this country.

Why do you think there's such a disproportionately high poverty rate among the black population in the US? Mere coincidence? Of course not. This is the inheritance of our history, and we've got to deal with it. We've made some progress in the last few decades, but there's still a great deal more to do.

Was the fact that Obama is black a motivating factor for many people to vote for him? Of course. Does this make those people racists? Certainly not. There's a world of difference between trying to keep somebody out of the tent and trying to get them in. How many McCain voters (and I don't mean to pick on anyone who did vote for him here) said that they would never vote fo a black man? Probably a minority, but still a distressingly high number. How many Obama voters do you think would say that they'd never vote for a white man? Not very many at all, I suspect. If they did think such, I'd imagine Alan Keyes would have had a much more successful elected career by this point (incidentally, has anyone here seen the Obama vs. Keyes debates? They're good comedy). What's significant about Obama is that he is a talented, inspiring black leader, whom many people think truly has what it takes to put this country back on track after nearly a decade of horrible mismanagement. That's important to quite a lot of people, and not without good reason.

Originally posted by Viarra
What DIFFERENCE does it make that a person is not white? What DIFFERENCE does it make if they are not Christian? How do EITHER of these things affect the outcome. The question should be whether or not a person is black, might be Muslim, etc., the question should be, "So what if they are?"


It should be. I hope one day it is. But the fact remains that for many people these things do matter, and we're not going to change that mindset by pretending it doesn't exist. We've come a long way, but there's a long way to go yet.

But consider this--for you and I, having a black man a president of the United States of America is a monumental, historic event. But for the children growing up now, for whom Obama is the first president they can clearly remember, this will all be perfectly normal.

That's an encouraging thought.
Originally posted by Count Crotchula
In the first screen that NES Boy posted (the two overworlds), the red side looks like hell, and the blue side looks like... more hell?


Hell with flowers? I shouldn't think so. Now the Asphodel Fields, on the other hand...
Originally posted by NamelessProtagonist
@Rameau's Nephew

Yes, I'd say just as many.


There's over six times as many white people as black people in the US. Unless there is an absolutely phenominally high rate of racism among the black population and/or a shockingly low rate among the white population (I know that you don't mean to suggest this, but it's the only way such a statement could possibly be true), we can only assume that there is a far larger number of white racists than black racists in the US, if only because there are so many more white people altogether.


Quote
Tons of people voted for Obama because they liked his opinions or his plans for the future. Tons of people voted for McCain because they agreed with his stances and policies. However, there are undoubtably people out there who either based their descision on who to vote for entirely on race or atleast were influenced by race. Whether it is explicit as in the first scenerio or subtle as in the second, both are racist.


It's racist to want to exclude someone. It's not racist to want to include them for once. There are very few people who voted for Obama because they don't think a white person should be president. There aren't even that many who are voting for him solely because they want to see a black person as president (if there were, previous black candidates, including the aforementioned Mr. Keyes, would have received a great deal more support). With Obama, however, we have an intelligent, thoughtful politician with an ability to inspire people in a way that hasn't been seen in this country for decades, who is also black. And I don't mean who is coincidentally also black--alas, we haven't reached that point yet--but who in addition to these other qualities (which are certainly enough to influence millions of people to vote for him), he is also black, which is notable in this country, and serves for many as an extra incentive to vote for him.

Why does it serve as an additional motivating factor for these people? Because they think black people are better than white people? Doubtful--a large number of non-self-hating white people consider this an extra motivation as well. It's because of what a black president represents. For one, it serves as a huge symbolic victory over our nation's racist past--if by no means anything approaching a complete one, of course. Just a few decades ago, black people had to drink from specially designated fountains--now one has been elected to the highest office in the land. What's more, it serves as a huge inspiration for millions of people, who may have come to feel their prospects in life unfairly diminished just because they happened to be born with a certain amount of skin pigmentation more than some other folks around here. Now they have living proof they can make it in this country despite the obstacles. Is it racist to want that?

An Obama victory is significant for a number of reasons--it shows a man who in just a few years rose up from relative obscurity to defeat teo powerful political machines above all through grassroots efforts--a superb example of the democratic process in action. It shows that it is possible to get young people engaged in politics, and that American will not endlessly accept negative campaigning and character attacks or cynical ploys and appeals to fear, and that we do ultimately want someone to appeal to our better nature. And yes, it represents some progress in our nations racial views over the past few decades. That's not an aspect we can ignore. We won't come to terms with our past by sweeping it under the rug; we have to face it head on. We can't realistically expect a non-white president to be become a non-issue if we never elect one in the first place, which has to happen before it can ever become a non-issue. Before something can become an unremarkable occurance, it has to occur in the first place. And people were motivated to make this happen.
I've always been a big fan of story-heavy hacks, and this one doesn't disappoint--indeed, it seems primed to take the story element to a level hitherto unseen in SMW hacking. The levels themselves are great fun as well, with multiple paths and lots of hidden secrets. Quite an impressive work indeed.

Just a few (rather minor) criticisms--

- The story's a little front-loaded, with a huge info dump the beginning, and very little within the levels themselves. I suspect that has more to do with the structure of this particular demo than anything else, but it might be interesting to have little bits of lore/observations from Mario about the various areas he visits in order to give the world of the hack a bit more character. That said, I can see why you might instead want to conserve message slots here...

- I've never really been too fond of rideable-but-not-carriable SMB2 enemies, but making them spin-jump-proof as well effectively turns them into tanks, which is pretty weird. There's usually enough fire flowers around to make them simple enough to deal with, but it still sees odd that such unremarkable foes should be immune to most of Mario's standard attacks.

- Fawful is for some of the time not so greatly talking in the characteristic way which characterizes his character. This lacks fortunateness. Though the player does make greedy thoughts which think of feasting upon the savory goulash of jovial mirth, they instead must sup spoonlessly of the watery bouillabaisse of sorrowful despairedness, which dribbles piteously down the chin and leaves behind upon the tongue an aftertaste of rueful regret. What a disappointing!

- Whack-a-mole needs more mole whacking. Maybe replace the bit of required mole-bopping at the end with an all-out whack-fest? The hammer's a fun little feature, so why not make the most of it in this stage?

- I've got to agree about the prices. 200 coins for a simple mushroom, which can be found in any stage of the game? 1500 for a 1-up? Fawful's card may refer to him as a "scammer", but it's the fellow who runs the item shop who's the true rip-off artist in this game. Also, why does a 1-up cost 50% than a star? Surely the latter is rarer and more vauable, especially considering that it can generate multiple 1-ups when used in a sufficiently enemy-heavy area...

- The background in Quicksand Quandary clashes a bit, looking rather low-res and pixelly compared to the other graphics in the game. The same could be said for the magnify-by-200% 32x32 parabeetle, though I suppose that's inevitable with no other graphics available...

But again, largely minutiae. You obviously put a lot of effort into this hack, and it shows. I look forward to seeing what new surprises and further developments future versions bring.
Originally posted by Fuzzyfreak
Ideas are never stupid


I dare say you haven't met very many ideas! A handful distinguish themselves now and again, but they are not, on the balance, a sharp-witted folk.
Originally posted by dgbarca

Will you do "a new year walk" ?


...Followed by "Mario Wakes Up (With a Hangover)"? You could even include some of SNN and Ersan's dischordant tunes so the player can share in Mario's headache...

Seriously, though, it's a decent enough level, if rather short (especially compared to the Halloween version). I always imagined the Christmas medley was of somewhat limited potential use (not only because of its Christmas associations, but also because of the frequently changing mood of the song) but it works surprisingly well here.

I was a bit confused by the darkening-then-lightening effect, though...is it supposed to represent a shift from day to night then back to day again? If so, that's a surprisingly brief night, especially for the middle of winter...

Oh, I'll do you one better. Here's a dream for you to interpret, Mattan. Freud would have had a field day with this one.

Ahem:

It all began in a room which looked as though it stemmed from one of the fortresses in Yoshi's Island, only in three dimensions, as per most rooms outside of older video games. There I had to complete a puzzle involving switches and colored blocks, which allowed me to access a free-floating platform, upon which stood one of the games signature speckled-egg-patterned doors. I knew this beyond that door I would learn the backstory of a very important figure in my life. I entered, and the following scene played before my eyes:

Two parties stood before what looked like a small-scale firehouse garage door: to the left, an unassuming young married couple; and to the right, directly before the door, an equally unassuming middle-aged woman. They blabbed idly about unremarkable topics, including banal workaday events, their current state of employment, and, in the case of the married couple, what they planned to name their future child. This was all a front, however, as all three individuals were secretly alligators, and both groups were simply waiting for the right opportunity to eat the other.

Neither party was aware of the other's secret identity. If they had been, there may have been some change of plans, at least on the part of the married couple. In their true form, both members of the couple were of an average gatory size, and rather similar in appearance, aside from their color, one being a slightly lighter shade of green than the other. They were flatter than one might normally expect--something like a gator-shaped pool float--and their heads were oddly blocky, as though they had been crafted from oversized Lego blocks. The solitary middle-aged woman, to the contrary, was in gator form simply enormous—in contrast to her projected appearance, only her head actually emerged from the garage (the door appeared closed in her projected image, but it was in reality open). Said head looked rather similar in form to that of the other two gators, but much larger, red in color, and made of metal. The rest of her (concealed) body resembled a large freight truck, complete with wheels instead of legs.

It may be argued that despite the differences in scale, the married couple's disguise was much better than that of the solitary woman—for while I almost always saw the solitary woman in her true, gatorish form, I had to concentrate in order to see the married couple as anything but their projected image. Despite this, their superior ability to craft disguises did not appear to bring with it an ability to see through the disguises of others, as they seemed quite unaware of how outmatched they were in the eating department.

By coincidence, both parties decided to drop their disguises at the same exact moment, in preparation for the planned chomp-fest. However, before the massacre could take place, some pheromones were released, possibly as a result of the gators’ excited state. Both the male gator and the larger female gator appeared to be affected thereby. Through an unseen force they were drawn about through the air in erratic patterns, rather in the manor of a love-struck cartoon character, complete with comical cries of "Whoa-ho-ho!" and so forth. Each was then propelled toward the other at high speed.

Despite their originally being positioned about two meters apart, it took the two gators rather some time to reach each other. Furthermore, the action appeared to be relocated to a nighttime highwayscape. As the female gator's four wheels propelled her with ever-increasing speed along the asphalt, she opened her mouth in preparation to receive the male, who in turn shot arrow-like through the air in the opposite direction. Having built up considerable momentum, he crashed snout-first into the female’ gaping metal maw, tearing apart her innards and causing her to erupt into an enormous fireball, which consumed the male as well.

Despite the gators' destruction, however, the female's wheeled chassis continued to dutifully trundle forth through the night. As the smoke cleared, I noticed sitting atop it a medium-sized chest of drawers--the lone offspring of this unorthodox mating ritual. Its name, I knew, was the same as that the gators had suggested assigning to their first child during their earlier attempt to lull each other into a false sense of security. Perhaps such idle chatter had revealed more than initially intended.

It took a moment or two for the dresser to quite take in the events that had just occurred around it. As the horrible realization finally sunk in, the furniture then cried out in agony: "Mommy...daddy...nooooooo!" It was immediately following this cry that the chassis and its occupant proceeded to speed over the edge of a high cliff, and plummeted pitifully earthward along a semi-arc-shaped trajectory.

I knew, nevertheless, that the chest of drawers had survived this fall, as I recalled it playing a significant, if indirect role in various defining moments of my life--for it was this chest of drawers was the very figure from my life whose backstory I knew I was to discover through the previously mentioned speckled door. And having now witnessed the preceding events, I finally had some context with which I could finally understand the significance of its subsequent behaviors. An illuminating experience indeed. Alas, as I awoke all of this knewfound insight slipped from me like mercury through ones fingers...
What I recall most strikingly from my teen years is not such much a sense I knew everything per se, so much as the sense that everything was woefully easy to figure out (for anyone) if one only tried, and that every question had a clear and easy answer if only one knew where to look. Thus, after gathering a few basic facts about most of the great moral/social/political/philosophical debates of or time, I tended to come to one of three conclusions:

A) One side was so perfectly obviously correct that it's amazing anyone would even ask the question in the first place, and that the only reason one could come to the opposite conclusion was either insufficient information or sheer bloody-mindedness (The Dogmatist's Approach, common early on, though of decreasing frequency in my later teen years).

B) Both sides made good points, and the obvious solution was a clear-cut compromise between the two (The Peace-Maker's Approach, common at all stages whenever I was in a good mood).

or

C) Everything is perfectly equivalent, and everyone involved is a scoundrel (The Cynic's Approach, somewhat sort of the inverse of the above for when I was in poorer spirits, and of ever-growing frequency in my later teen years. Of all the above simplifications, this one annoys me the most in retrospect, as it approaches everything in bad faith).

Such conclusions were usually drawn from a few to limited, one-sided (though appealingly packaged) arguments, and filed under that wretched, self-satisfied label of "common sense". Yet despite the slenderness of their foundations, I felt very convinced of my ideas--perhaps, because for the first time in my life, they had reasons.

To clarify--during childhood, everything is so terribly confusing. One's thought processes are not yet developed enough to figure most things out, and the bulk of it tends not to concern one anyway, so one can safely block it all out and file it away under the label of the mysterious "adult world". As one grows older, however, the barriers to understanding star to fall away, one gains more knowledge about one's world, and one likewise develops the ability to make more complex associations between ideas. By one's teen years, all of these previously locked-away and incomprehensible topics now start to make a bit of sense for once, and one now has the ability to think properly about them and to draw rational conclusions about them. The natural urge is to jump right in and do this right away. And this is not a bad thing.

Alas, our world is a very complicated and multi-faceted place. More complicated than we tend to realize at first--and certainly more multi-faceted. We build our fine little towers out of the information we have, though. Our work have a certain beautiful, simple elegance. We stand back and smile upon our end product, impressed by the fact that we've assembled something that was completely out of the scope of our understanding a mere five or ten years ago.

Then we go out into the world and gain just a wee bit more background information. Nothing so drastic as our initial education--just a few minor, supplementary details, really. Logically enough, we try to incorporate them into our structures. And it brings the whole thing crashing down.

Amazing what just a tiny bit more context can do to one's worldview. What seems so terribly simple at first often turns out to be a horrible, convoluted mess. This should be obvious--clearly most of the world isn't either stupid or insane--but for some reason we always manage to delude ourselves into thinking other people have deluded themselves. Why? Is it vanity, arrogance? I don't think so. It's probably unavoidable to certain degree. We always tell ourselves we're looking at matters from all perspectives, but ultimately we have to tie everything back to our own personal knowledge and experiences. What else do we have to work with, after all? It's not like we can take into account factors that we aren't even aware of in the first place.

I certainly agree that it's a humbling experience, but I think there's something empowering about it as well. You can't really learn anything without first recognizing the gaps that exist in your knowledge in the first place--indeed, that's learning something right there. There's a certain bit of self realization here, even if it's realizing that you aren't as aware of your self as you think. And that's a necessary starting point, even if it leaves one feeling more confused than ever.

In any case, if there's one, single thing I think I've figured out since then, it's this--just because something is appealing doesn't mean it's true, and just because something is unappealing doesn't mean it isn't. This isn't say we can't dream of anything better, of course--I dare say we have to, lest life become intolerable--but we're never going to realize such dreams if we can't first acknowledge the facts of the situation before us.
Originally posted by Kaijyuu
Originally posted by Baphomet Junior
Yes, it's Weegee. I did it.

Two criticisms:

A) There were several spots you were forced to lose a powerup (or be small mario). Fix those.

B) If you (the creator) have to use savestates, it's too hard.


I also suggest you have an epic battle against weegee instead of a text box at the end, but meh :) your boss.


I would tend to agree with these. From what I've seen of your hack thus far, you have some very creative ideas, but your levels tend to fall into unfair territory a bit too often. That's likely to take the fun out of what could otherwise be a really good hack.

Also, in addition to appearing a bit too hard, it's also rather too long. Dodging all of those spikes is likely to get boring after a while. It might be a good idea to shorten the barrage a bit to prevent things from becoming tedious. Or maybe even have some more mocking comments from Weegee scroll down during the attack (admittedly I always sort of imagined Weegee being mute, but since you already have him talking, you might as well follow up on it).

And while Kaijyuu's proposed epic Weegee battle would indeed be fun to see, if that's beyond your current ASM abilities, I'd still recommend something else besides simply displaying some text saying "Weegee just gave up." Why not actually have Weegee say "Agh! I give up!" or something before Mario warps out, for example? Or even have a cutscene in which Weegee gets so angry at Mario for having dodged his attack that he explodes? The possibilities are endless.
Good stuff all around, but I still think it's really weird how the castle destruction doesn't seem to affect the backgrounds. It's almoat as though the Koopa Kontractors blew their entire budget on extra-durable outer walls and had to cut corners when it came to doing the interiors...
The title Weegee's Playhouse doesn't sound at all creepy. Nope, nope.
I say, FPI, that's certainly a bright and cheerful-looking title screen! It's actually a little surprising--I guess I've simply gotten too used to the more melancholy, contemplative tone of Reloaded's title screen. But then again, I guess TSRP2's title wasn't all that different in mood from this current one either, was it?
Native English speaker, good proficiency in German, and currently learning Danish just for fun. Not all that many, I suppose, but I absolutely adore languages, and am eager to add as many more as possible to my list in the future.

I really, really hate the fact that English is my native language, though. One truly has to go out of one's way to avoid being cursed with monolingualism forever. Sometimes I feel like I don't even have a native language--with English being so widespread in the world, a language of international commerce and the like, I don't feel as though I have any special cconnection to it. I don't have any language that is uniquely, personlly mine--I'm just speaking the lingua franca, with nothing to call my own, to speak privately among my countrymen when abroad, as everyone else can do.

And I really resent the negative effect English seems to be having on other languages, and the words and phrases it seems to be loaning out to them. At leas tprevious international languages like Latin and French donated words of culture and scholarship to their kin around the world. But English? Idiotic corporate-speak and soulless advertising slogans. Nearly every single time I watch the German news somebody uses the word "know-how" as though it were a technical term or something (once I even heard it used to translate an English speaker's use of the word "expertise"!) Worse still is when they use English words to replace words the language in question already has perfectly good words for--most of which sound far, far nicer than the very words being used in their stead (seriously, would anyone want to be "happy" if they didn't know what it means? It sounds like another name for scabies!). This is "my" language's contribution to human culture? Agh. It makes me mad just thinking about it. Stupid ugly parasite of a language.
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