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Stephen Williams (23750)
Stephen Williams
(email not shown publicly)
Software developer. Debian devotee. Nostalgic Amiga fan. Christian. Final Fantasy nut.
(email not shown publicly)
Software developer. Debian devotee. Nostalgic Amiga fan. Christian. Final Fantasy nut.
Journal of Stephen Williams (23750)
410
Thursday December 05 2002, @06:02AM
Published, kinda
Tuesday October 22 2002, @04:52AM
RPGamer published my short Final Fantasy VI fanfic. This makes me happy.
Well, that's another game finished then
Wednesday October 16 2002, @07:07PM
I beat Final Fantasy IV last night.
The final battle took two attempts. I got utterly schooled the first time I attempted it. Before trying again, I levelled my party up five or so more levels (over the course of a couple of sessions), giving me a party with levels between 67 and 72-ish. I also changed my strategy the second time, using three party members to attack and two to heal, instead of having four attackers and only one healer.
The dizzying parallax scrolling effects used during the final battle were very nice, especially considering the age of the game. I don't recall seeing anything like them in FFVI.
In terms of difficulty, I'd rate the final battle about the same as FFIX's, easier than VI's, and slightly harder than VII's. However, I'd rate the game as a whole as the hardest FF I've played so far. The random battles get very difficult very quickly, and the learning curve doesn't get any shallower as the game progresses. Unlike the later FFs, the game is level-driven rather than story-driven. You have to commit time to levelling your party. I tend to be a fairly consciencious leveller-upper in RPGs, but it still came as a shock to the system.
It's my least favourite FF so far. The story was nothing special; the game lacked the certain "something" that made VII, IX and especially VI so wonderful. But it wasn't a bad game, at all. Just not a great one.
I have FFV to tackle at some point. I'll probably play it over Christmas; right now, I have Xenogears to finish.
The final battle took two attempts. I got utterly schooled the first time I attempted it. Before trying again, I levelled my party up five or so more levels (over the course of a couple of sessions), giving me a party with levels between 67 and 72-ish. I also changed my strategy the second time, using three party members to attack and two to heal, instead of having four attackers and only one healer.
The dizzying parallax scrolling effects used during the final battle were very nice, especially considering the age of the game. I don't recall seeing anything like them in FFVI.
In terms of difficulty, I'd rate the final battle about the same as FFIX's, easier than VI's, and slightly harder than VII's. However, I'd rate the game as a whole as the hardest FF I've played so far. The random battles get very difficult very quickly, and the learning curve doesn't get any shallower as the game progresses. Unlike the later FFs, the game is level-driven rather than story-driven. You have to commit time to levelling your party. I tend to be a fairly consciencious leveller-upper in RPGs, but it still came as a shock to the system.
It's my least favourite FF so far. The story was nothing special; the game lacked the certain "something" that made VII, IX and especially VI so wonderful. But it wasn't a bad game, at all. Just not a great one.
I have FFV to tackle at some point. I'll probably play it over Christmas; right now, I have Xenogears to finish.
Adding up the layers of harmony
Tuesday October 08 2002, @06:06PM
Got myself a neat little portable MP3 player.
It's very small (smaller than an ordinary cassette case) and light (feels about the same weight as a cassette; heavier with 2 AA batteries in, of course). It came with a USB cable, AC adaptor, and a bizarre set of earphones that I can't figure out how to put on without using a mirror.
I got a 256MB CompactFlash card with it. I'd have liked a 1GB Microdrive, but they're rather expensive. Maybe next year.
Since it's a very new player, the Linux kernel doesn't know about the Nex IIe yet. (Its predecessor, the Nex II, is supported however). When I plugged it into the USB port - nada. So I had a look at the Linux USB device database and picked a CompactFlash reader that's known to work with Linux.
The Linux USB mass storage subsystem makes CompactFlash cards look like SCSI hard disks. So I can mount /dev/sda1 somewhere (I chose /cflash), copy my MP3s to the card, unmount the filesystem, stick the card into the Nex IIe and I'm good to go. Works like a charm.
The player sounds very good, to my ears. I encode my MP3s using LAME with the --r3mix option; the resulting VBR MP3s sound just great to me. (An audiophile with top-of-the-range equipment could doubtless tell the difference; but I'm a normal person, so I can't).
It's very small (smaller than an ordinary cassette case) and light (feels about the same weight as a cassette; heavier with 2 AA batteries in, of course). It came with a USB cable, AC adaptor, and a bizarre set of earphones that I can't figure out how to put on without using a mirror.
I got a 256MB CompactFlash card with it. I'd have liked a 1GB Microdrive, but they're rather expensive. Maybe next year.
Since it's a very new player, the Linux kernel doesn't know about the Nex IIe yet. (Its predecessor, the Nex II, is supported however). When I plugged it into the USB port - nada. So I had a look at the Linux USB device database and picked a CompactFlash reader that's known to work with Linux.
The Linux USB mass storage subsystem makes CompactFlash cards look like SCSI hard disks. So I can mount
The player sounds very good, to my ears. I encode my MP3s using LAME with the --r3mix option; the resulting VBR MP3s sound just great to me. (An audiophile with top-of-the-range equipment could doubtless tell the difference; but I'm a normal person, so I can't).
Has it really been a year?
Sunday September 29 2002, @10:07AM
It's chryseis' first birthday.
I was wondering whether to consider the 28th or the 29th to be chryseis' birthday. It was assembled late on the September 28th, 2001; but didn't really achieve "consciousness" until the 29th. So with that in mind, I decided it should be the 29th.
Nowadays, most new IA-32 computers are sold with CPUs clocked in excess of 1GHz. Nevertheless, chryseis' CPU, an AMD Duron clocked at "only" 900MHz, still seems ridiculously fast. (And it is).
Mind you, if anyone reading this would like to buy chryseis a birthday present, send a dual-Athlon motherboard to the usual address ;-)
I was wondering whether to consider the 28th or the 29th to be chryseis' birthday. It was assembled late on the September 28th, 2001; but didn't really achieve "consciousness" until the 29th. So with that in mind, I decided it should be the 29th.
Nowadays, most new IA-32 computers are sold with CPUs clocked in excess of 1GHz. Nevertheless, chryseis' CPU, an AMD Duron clocked at "only" 900MHz, still seems ridiculously fast. (And it is).
Mind you, if anyone reading this would like to buy chryseis a birthday present, send a dual-Athlon motherboard to the usual address
