Of Browsers and MIME Types

So, it's been brought to my attention that the download link "doesn't work" correctly.  The symptoms of this are clicking the link and being redirected to a new, mostly blank page that tries to play the file.  Sadly, there's nothing I can do about this directly.  Your browser associates a program of some sort with MP3 files. 

This association, for those of you who want to know, is called a MIME type.

In order to stop this from happening with our download, and any other direct link to an MP3, you can disable your browser's association with that file type.  In Firefox, this is done by going to Tools -> Options -> Applications, typing MP3 into the search bar, and telling it to either ask you what to do or just saving it.  IE does not have an association by default, and will ask you to download it.  Sadly, Chrome does not currently allow you to edit MIME type associations. 

The way around doing anything at all, however, is to right click the link, and choose something to the effect of "Save link as..."

Knowledge is power!

Episode 2: Sonic The Hedgehog [Sonic The Hedgehog]

It's that time again, for the first, and the (not) last time!  It's podcast time!  This episode is ostensibly about Sonic the Hedgehog (see title).  We spend a while talking about game genres, crowdfunding, and other fun things near the end, which is totally related!

The downloads and show notes, as will become normal form, are below.



Download

(1:15) We get right to it.  Sonic the Hedgehog is not a good game.

(1:55) The effects of acceleration on Sonic.

(2:40) To maintain cred with the Sonic fans we espouse the awesomeness of Sonic Adventure 2.

(6:15) Continues, the level skip code, and their effect on the game.

(8:10) The Sonic bait and switch after Zone 2.

(15:00) Old Sega Commercials.

(15:40) Final thoughts on Sonic.

(18:30) Project Green Light and Crowdfunding.

(20:00) Steam

(21:56) We talk about Japanese culture like only two guys who get most of their knowledge about Japanese culture from anime and videogames can.  Also why First Person Shooters suck.

(24:40) And Why RPGs are awesome.

(25:57) Video Games are…. Fantasies?

(26:30) What makes a genre?

(27:55) The “Are games art?” thing.  Because we haven’t been sufficiently pretentious the episode.

(30:00) We talk about Doctor Who for a bit.  This episode was about Sonic Screwdrivers or something right?


Next Week, Harvest Moon for the Super Nintendo.  We’ll see if we manage to talk about it instead of everything else.

Geremy@lasttimeonvideogames.com,
 Tyler@lasttimeonvideogames.com,
 Zach@lasttimeonvideogames.com,
 or LTOVG@lasttimeonvideogames.com.
 You can also go to the show page at plus.google.com/+LastTimeOnVideogames or comment on the site at www.lasttimeonvideogames.com.
 Also, you can follow our tweets @LTOVG.

In the land before Podcasts

Hey everyone, it's me Geremy, and this is my first post!  Before we decided to record a podcast, we played a couple of games and tried out different formats of review.  While we've talked a lot about going back and recording episodes on them, they're not as fresh in our heads as the episodes when we record.  Still, we make a lot of references to them, often using them as a base line for comparisons of other games, and the first few podcasts we have are mostly negative, so I wanted to post my thoughts real quickly on what we have done so far.  Also, I've been half joking about rating every game we play on a sliding scale from 1-10, with the worst game we've played always being at 1 and the best at 10, in parody of now dead gaming magazines with a scale from 7-10.  So without further ado, here's the games we've played so far and how they rank.

Castlevainia-10/10
I'd never played any game in the Castlevainia series before this one, and oh man was I missing out.  The jumps are a bit awkward at first, and the game is incredibly hard, but its the kind of hard that's really really satisfying and makes you say "just one more time" into the wee hours of the night.  I sunk 18 hours into this game which is a mere 6 levels, and I don't regret one of them.  It made me quickly seek out Symphony of the Night to see where this sort of game play could go.  Seriously, if you've never played this game and have a Wii and any interest in old videogames, pick it up.

Mega Man-8/10
While I've played Mega Man games in the past, the only ones I'd ever beaten were Legends for the Play Station and Battle Network on the GBA, I'd never beaten a classic Mega Man game before, so this was the first assignment I suggested.  And I loved it.  It's hard, but not as hard as Castlevainia, until Wiley's Castle.  There's a boss in there that's just impossible to beat, but other then that, the game is great and if you have any interest in Mega Man, I suggest you give it a play through.

Kirby's Adventure-5/10
The first game that me and my partner in crime really disagreed on.  Kirby's Adventure for the NES isn't the first Kirby game, but it's the first to introduce his trademark ability to copy an enemies powers.  Some of the powers are really cool, and not ones I'm familiar with from later games in the series.  And for an NES game, its damn impressive, the graphics are amazing, and really have that Kirby story book feel, with popping colors.  The world map seems more like Super Mario World than Super Mario 3, and it even has three save files rather than a continue or password system.  That said... the game is easy.  Really really easy.  To the point where any time I died, it was because I got bored and quit paying attention, rather then because of any challenge in the game.  It's not bad, but it couldn't hold my attention at all, and I finished it only because it was a game we assigned each other.  If you're a huge Kirby fan, it might be worth giving it a look, but if not, skip it, and if you want to get into the series, play the way better Kirby Superstar for the SNES instead.

Act Raiser-1/10
Which brings us to this weeks offering, Act Raiser, my thoughts on it are made clear in the podcast.

I think I'll post this list once a month or so, with the updated ratings for each game, and some extra notes on the ones that moved around.

It gets in your brain...

We talked a bit in the first episode about the awesome noise that the character makes when swinging the sword.
Now you, too, can listen to it!

Episode 1: Welcome to ActRaiser [ActRaiser]

Hey, folks! It's the first episode, wherein we try to get this show going. Sadly, ActRaiser did not give us much to work with, so there's a bit of fluff. That said, the show notes are at the bottom of this post. Also, I've got an embedded player on this post, in addition to a download link, so choose your poison.



Remarkably useless spells and downloads!


Show Notes

(0:30) What is this podcast and what is it about?

(2:26) Who are the hosts?

(5:00) ActRaiser!

(8:32) The Enemies of ActRaiser (Besides Itself)

(10:00) We try to remember the individual levels of ActRaiser, we talk about the Bosses instead.

(11:16) We discuss the Simulation game within ActRaiser

(13:15) Why the boss fights in ActRaiser suck.

(15:10) We talk about Castlevania instead. We played it prior to ActRaiser, but didn’t record an episode, though both of us gave it very high marks.

(16:25) We play god on playing God, and try to figure out a way to improve ActRaiser.

(20:30) ActRaising Powerups.

(22:30) Your Angel Sidekick.

(25:10) Satan Vs. Dracula

(26:00) Concluding thoughts.


Next week, we play Sonic the Hedgehog for the Sega Genesis, and see if the Blue Blur fares better than God.

Geremy@lasttimeonvideogames.com,
 Tyler@lasttimeonvideogames.com,
 Zach@lasttimeonvideogames.com,
 or LTOVG@lasttimeonvideogames.com.
 You can also go to the show page at plus.google.com/+LastTimeOnVideogames or comment on the site at www.lasttimeonvideogames.com.
 Also, you can follow our tweets @LTOVG.