So I was a guest in GetMeOffTheMoon's Mega Man Legends 2 Debug Live Stream

Sorry for not updating this past couple of weeks folks, I've had a terrible sinus infection after traveling upstate the last two weekends. I do have something cool and quick to post about though.

The kind folks at GetMeOffTheMoon, the famous Facebook page campaigning for the return of the tragically-cancelled Mega Man Legends 3 (long story), as well as being the number one active place for all cool things Legends and some other Mega Man media, occasionally, had invited me and another friend of mine (PixelButts) to participate in a live stream discussion about a English debug build of Mega Man Legends 2 that was leaked earlier this year at Protodude's Rockman Corner.

I'll elaborate the exact details at a later blog post but earlier this year Protodude had informed me of the prototype he had in his possession and he commissioned me to test it out and document any and all differentiations between the debug build and the final English release. The result was this thirteen-minute video showing off just how much fun I had producing the video, and the start of the English Debug Prototype page at The Cutting Room Floor. Lots a different things detailed in the entry that I'm sure will be of some interest to fans of the game.

Despite my inexperience in recording verbal live streams (and how painful it was watching the footage afterwards) its was quite a lot of fun, and I hope I'm invited to another stream with the gang in the future.

Here's the link, for some reason Blogger won't play nice with Hitbox.tv embed so you'll have to click that for the steam. Have fun.

Why don't you sit down and watch some early prototype footage of Super Mario RPG at 60FPS?

This may have been online already, but my new VHS rip is better. Its in 60FPS. =D



So, Super Mario RPG. I rented this game from a local BlockBuster Video store (remember that retailer?) when I was eight years old. I didn't have a concept of RPGs and that style of gameplay at the time so I just mashed the A button all the damn time. But man that soundtrack, I could never forget the boss battle and town themes.

After that, I never touched this game again until seven years later. I later got the game as a Christmas gift from my dad and I've yet to part with it since. At that time, it was an especially rare SNES game and copies of the game were scarce and expensive even at local mom 'n pop game stores. Its a miracle he found the game at all, I was ecstatic unwrapping that game.. 

Anyways, as with previous remastered videos, what existed before as a low-ASSolution of pixels is now remastered -- from the famous V-Jump Festival '95 Video, a tape that contains footage of other Japanese games of the time including Resident Evil, with I'll be posting more game clips from and eventually the entire tape online in the future -- as an 1080p60 HD quality trailer.

I want to give special thanks to GlitterBerri, for granting me permission to use her 2010 translation, and PixelButtz, for QA-ing the video (I thought something was seriously wrong with the rendering of this video. @_@;). OK, next up its Sonic Adventure on Dreamcast at 60FPS.

Re-ripped and remastered Mega Man Legends 2 trailer from E3 2000 (@60FPS)

Man, whatever happened to Mega Man in 3D gaming? Scratch that, whatever happened to Mega Man period?



I remember back in the day when I saw some shots of Mega Man Legends 2 on an issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly and getting super stoked about it. Aside going online at Capcom's USA website and staring at weird screenshots, I got onto GameSpot and watched that particular E3 2000 trailer you see above on a shitty-ass Real Player or something similar. This was when Mega Man was still relevant in gaming. Now he's stuck to merchandise, and he hasn't had a game since 2010. Bummer.

Oh well, so what existed before as a low-ASSolution mess of pixels is now remastered -- from the same promotional VHS source as the Resident Evil Zero trailer I posted having in my possession several days ago -- as an 1080p60 HD quality trailer. 

That's right, 60FPS. We have YouTube to thank for enabling 60FPS video playback for everyone to experience. Be sure to watch it on Google Chrome, for now. Stay tuned for more videos of this source from me. =)

Get hyped. Old E3 2000 Trailer for Resident Evil Zero (Nintendo 64) now at 1080p80!

Resident Evil games always had some of the most interesting development stories told in video games. Compared to other entries in the franchise though, Resident Evil Zero had a much less chaotic development cycle.

I've already briefed this a bit in the last post, but this game was about to come out late in the Nintendo 64's life cycle and memory wasn't helping. So Capcom moved the game over to GameCube so it could become the gorgeous, bad-ass looking game that it became.

Now, about the footage. If you were a major Resident Evil fan back in the day, you may have seen this particular trailer from E3 2000 before in the past as a really low-res video on YouTube or even back in the day when, even then, it looked like a pixelated mess of squares. Now, thanks to a VHS source I purchased online where this trailer originated from, and for YouTube for finally enabling 60FPS video playback, I can finally now share this 1080p60 HD rip of the trailer that was originally of low-quality for the rest of the world to watch.

I'll get into the meaning behind Capcom E3 2000 Sales Presentation [VHS / 2000] at a later point of time. There's more where this trailer came from too! Stay tuned!

YouTube Announcement! | I'm back and finally 60FPS video!

I was ecstatic to learn of YouTube enabling 60FPS video that so I made this little video. 

The video just sums it all up that I'm back. It's been a while since I've done anything on YouTube. 

First 60FPS video I'll be uploading today is footage of Resident Evil Zero on the Nintendo 64. Get body ready.

Scans: Resident Evil: Gun Survivor (PlayStation) + Review Score | Famitsu PS Issue #76 (JP) | 2/11/2000

Front Cover of Famitsu PS Issue #76

I'm a fairly big fan of old-school Resident Evil. Anyone remember that spin-off that came out for PlayStation in 2000, where you're actually controlling your character in a first-person viewpoint without any pre-rendered backgrounds? I didn't. I never cared about the spin-offs but some fans do, and its those fans I have a treat for tonight.

Issue #76 of Famitsu PS contains both a six-page strategy guide and a scored review of the critically-panned light gun shooter Resident Evil: Gun Survivor. Along with a reprinted review of Resident Evil 3 from an earlier issue of Famitsu PS, there are also other articles of Resident Evil: Code Veronica and the Nintendo 64 port of Resident Evil 2.

Tonight's focus will be Gun Survivor however and once again I do not provide translations.

So let's go over this quick. Pages 32 to 37, starting from the left at the top row to the right and following that same orientation on the middle and bottom, are just strategy guides with supplemental maps and enemies of the game.

Review Scores
(Click to enlarge)

The common format for Famitsu reviews are presented in a four-score column with four reviewers in a row providing their scores, individually. On page 39, Gun Survivor scored a 8, 6, 6, and 5, totaling 25 out of 40.

The average-level scores given by Famitsu PS' reviewers do reflect the same overall attitude toward the game at the time of it's release. It actually got a lot of venom from many publications, particularly from Game Informer who called the game one of the worst horror games ever made. Interestingly, Weekly Famitsu scored the game six points more than its PlayStation-specialized publication. How interesting indeed.

Page 39

I've never played so I didn't care much for scanning these articles at first. But I figured, I should just archive and scan all Resident Evil content from this magazine for the sake of archiving (I'd be happy to look into other games that I haven't scanned and released on my blog too).

Having just sampled a video of the game in action though, it does have that consistently dark, industrial atmosphere of Resident Evil 2 that I adore so much. Maybe I'll give it a try myself sometime.

Coming up next are scans of magazine coverage for Code Veronica, the Nintendo 64 version of Resident Evil 2, and a review of Resident Evil 3.

Scans: Resident Evil Zero (Nintendo 64) | Famitsu PS (Japanese) NO. 81 | 5/12.26/2000

Oops. This article was meant for yesterday, and I was working on it then, but time management is a skill I have a lot to improve upon. But here it is, a scan about Resident Evil Zero as it was meant for on Nintendo 64.

Ignore the Japanese text below Rebecca, that's just part of a copyright notice
in another part of the page that is little to do with the game.

Anyways, page 148 of Famitsu PS (Japanese) NO. 81, 5/12.26/2000 gives a small column of their Capcom page about the Item Box function in the game -- or rather, lack of. The ability for your character to drop items in any room, was evident in this version, and the column specifically refers this to Sweet Home's inventory system. Having never played this game personally, I have no clue as to how much both game's have in common (besides the series' roots to the Famicom game).

For those that need a little context, Zero was a prequel to the hit survival-horror franchise that was meant to be the game that carried the same level of ambition and quality its CD-based predecessors had onto a small-capacity Nintendo 64 cartridge. The N64 port of Resident Evil 2 cemented that probability in late 1999. But that's not to say things would go smooth for this title.

Basically, while the game had a much less chaotic development cycle compared to previous entries, the only major roadblocks for Zero were basically both the memory capacity limitations and the timing of its projected release date. The game was simply becoming too big to fit into a cartridge and the hardware transition from the Nintendo 64 to GameCube was fast approaching. The only logical solution was to adapt to then-upcoming sixth generation, and release the game as a GameCube-exclusive in 2002.

As with many of the Japanese I will be posting on The Game Informant, let's hope someone plucky will be willing to translate this article and enlighten us the details of this column. The front cover and entire page can be found below.

Coming up next, I'll post up more scans other some other Resident Evil games from this era of gaming. Stay tuned!

Front Cover of Famitsu PS
NO. 81 | 5/12.26/2000

Page 148