Wheel of Time book 10 is out as of last Tuesday. Just remember the spoiler tags, and maybe mention what chapter or character the spoiler refers to so we know whether to read it or not. I know there are a couple WoT fans around here, and shame on you if you don't have it yet. Now, discuss.
A important thing for emulation. Playing them on a keyboard just isn't very good... I know, I had to use my keyboard for roms for several months. Not fun.
In short? There are a LOT of PC gamepads out there. The best way to decide which one to get is to hold one. If you can't, look for one with the closest thing to the featureset (and pricerange) you want. I like my new Saitek P880. It has almost all the features I'd want.
(Does anyone here care much about this? No? Oh well.)
There are a lot of PC gamepad manufacturers. The main ones are Microsoft, Gravis, and Logitech. Several others, such as Thrustmaster, Saitek, and a few others, are also pretty big.
Of course, the other option is a Console-To-PC adapter. They don't seem to be in stores much (not around here anyway), but I've know of PSX, PS2, N64, and X-Box adapters. I've never used one and won't discuss those here.
http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/sidewinder/
Microsoft: Their main one seems to be the Sidewinder Gamepad. Its old (came out in '96), and has 10 buttons and a D-Pad. They have a Gamepad Pro too, but I haven't seen it in stores recently. It has 9 or 10 buttons and a analog D-Pad (a dpad like control that has a analog mode where it works like a small joystick, but can also be made to only be a 8-way digital control too). It wasn't that great. I don't know why Microsoft hasn't made any new gamepads recently... the Gamepad Pro was years ago, not especially good, and now seems to not be sold in stores much... I'd think it would be a nobrainer for MS to make a PC version of the X-Box controllers. They are pretty good and would be some of the best controllers available for PC... but they haven't. Oh well... I'll have to wait to get another gamepad with triggers as good as the Sidewinder (Best. Shoulder. Buttons. Ever.) AND analog, I guess.
http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm?page=p...nguageid=1
Logitech: They have a bunch of Wingman Gamepads... from cheap to expensive... if you like their design, they seem pretty good. The wireless one looks good comfort wise, but I'm not so sure about how well it functions... their dual-analog Wingman Gamepad is, IMO, not as good comfort-wise. It does have 6 face, 2 shoulder(1 per side), and a start button, but its not as nicely designed as other pads. It also uses the PSX dpad-above-analog.
http://us.thrustmaster.com/products/byty...elector=14
Thrustmaster, like many PC developers, makes souped up PSX clones. Sure, they look not exactly like a PSX, but Thrustmaster, Logitech, Saitek, etc. all copied the PSX in dual-analog stick positions. 2 shoulder buttons and 4 face buttons are also 'features' on Thrustmaster Firestorm gamepads... but they do have a Force Feedback one. Cool (Force Feedback is a step above Rumble... its where it actually controls the force, not just shakes...).
http://www.gravis.com/
Gravis? The Eliminator Rumblepad is a PSX-type controller, with better analog stick positioning (analog above dpad). The Xteminator Force is a Force Feedback controller. It has a analog D-Pad and around 10 buttons. Nice, but $50, and no dual-analog. I like that pad, but it is big, expensive, and lacking in axes (only one stick, vs. 2 and a dpad in most controllers these days).
http://www.saitekusa.com/usa/prod/pcpads.htm
Saitek's new line of gamepads are also obviously influenced by the PSX. There are a bunch of them, but their new line (p220, p880, p2500, p3000; the p2500 and p3000 may not be out yet) are clear PSX styling... with some changes. They (the P880 and p2500; the 220 is has just a d-pad and 8 buttons) do use the PSX analog stick positions, but also have 6 face buttons and just 1 trigger per side. 10 buttons total. Nice. Also, they have clickable analog sticks... like PS2. It isn't perfect (no gamepad is), though... the main flaw is no dedicated Start button (the button in the middle switches the XY axis between the D-Pad and left analog (the other one is a 8-way hatswitch), and the S button above the main 6 is a 'shift' second function button... but its a toggle button, so it can't be used like normal buttons (unlike the MS Sidewinder or Gravis Xterminator Shift buttons).). Oh, and I don't like that analog stick positioning. Just like the PSX/2. Oh well... its still a very nice pad. And $20 for the non-rumble 880, or more (not sure how much) for the rumble (not force feedback, unfortunately, as far as I know) 2500.
Um, think I should post this in another forum where people might actually read it?
Tendo City Classic Gaming Contest? It went strong for about five round before people lost interest. With the brand new board and all, maybe we should try again?
So far I've used both an NES and SNES emulator, the NES one works great, the SNES one is really good too, but some games run a bit slow. All in all though, it's great to be able to play the games on a TV, and not sit at a computer screen.
This new game coming out, Final Fantasy Origins, is something I'm really looking forward to. I only recently played Final Fantasy 1, which I really enjoyed actually. After that, waiting for FF2 and FF3 was something I was just going to do. Well, now finally I know that FF2 is certainly US bound, at long last. I've heard many things about the lovely experience system in this game, which I think I'll enjoy playing with. It'll also be nice to play an updated version of FF1. I'm not sure if I made my complaints known at this board yet, but I have stated a few times before somewhere that I'm somewhat annoyed at the number of gameplay changes they made to FF1. While 5 of them ARE things you can choose to revert to "classic" style, there are still a lot that are permenantly in place, such as the inventory no longer being limited, and divided across party members. I found that a nice challenge to think through, as I had to think what equipment I wanted to keep, and who to keep it with. Hopefully, among the changes this game gets when it goes stateside, they'll add in a classic mode. If they don't though, at least it justifies me getting FF1 NES several months back.
FF2 also had some changes, but fortunatly you can choose straight from the start to play "classic" mode, where all the stats for everything is just as hard as in the original. That's good to hear, since we never got to play the original in the first place.
One thing about this collection is that unlike in Japan, both games will be on one disk. This means that a game selection menu shall appear. Now, with games like Sonic or Mario, any old game selection menu will do, but with a game like Final Fantasy or Zelda, it has to be totally grand and epic looking and sounding a selection. In LTTP/Four Swords, they managed a grand sweeping camera across Hyrule Field, complete with two massive metal engravings to switch through and an epic remix of the Zelda 1 title screen music. That's the kind of thing I expect from this selection menu :D. Hey, something like that fits this, as opposed to a Black Mage in a tuxedo with a laser pointer, or some gears and a computer system selecting everything. Sorry, I know it doesn't matter, but I likes me a good selection menu sometimes :D.
Now then, all we need to wait for is the GBA release of FF3, and at long last all the FF games will have had been being in the US.
Does anyone have the reviews from Tendo City saved on their computer? I'm going to write some retro reviews for Nintendophiles and want to use my TC reviews for references.
