More Megaman NT Warrior rips

A few more requests piled up and I decided to go through my SWFs again. First up, EXE6 site rips. Apparently the crosses weren't easily available. I swear there was a page that had all of them in decent quality. For now, I have packed all the site's artwork in the best quality available: bitmap. They're all small, low quality BMPs which kinda sucks. That's 2005-era flash pages for ya.

Download them here.

I'll try to get better ones in the TREZ Gallery.
Here are some samples. These are the best ones in the pack, by the way.

Now here is the NT Warrior stuff. I actually omitted a lot of artwork from the first batch. I apologize for the inconvenience in downloading 2 packs and I will still stand to my original statement where I said some of the artwork was bad. I think the part that took the longest was manually removing some of the artwork's horribly expanded outer glows. Anyways, here is the rest of the artwork and the Navi marks.

Download them here.

Here are some samples.

My reaverbot entry

I spent most of today drawing the final render of my Reaverbot entry, Kumoshiru. I won already, right? It's clearly one of the best designs submitted. It is certainly my best drawing to date. The final drawing was made in Inkscape.
Here is a link to my entry topic again.
http://www.capcom-unity.com/devroom/go/thread/view/114725/26678377/Kumoshiru

And here is the final render.

Megaman NT Warrior Flash Site

Can you believe this site is still around? Thankfully Midnite pointed this out to me and I spend the past day-and-a-half ripping stuff from the site. It's really old but it's obvious it only documents the first season of the dubbed Anime and the MMBN4 accessories. The page also shows the merchandise they tried to mass-market back when it was new. Apparently the site stopped updating around late 2005.

The site is actually quite buggy and it's simple to have the Battlechips section show all the chips. Normally you can only see a few of the chips but for some reason, checking Battle Tips will unlock all of the chips - even the ones that were never released in the US like Grand Prix Power and the 4.5 chips.
The chip page is also very inconsistent. Either they rushed the site or inexperienced people built it since a majority of chips have either mistaken names or no names at all! There isn't even an image for Circle Gun 1. Navi chips don't load half the time for some reason. The dubbing is even inconsistent. Is it really necessary to call "Time Bomb", "Time Boomer", yet still call "Propeller Bomb" a bomb? Windman's Navi chip series calls him "WindblastMan", which I believe was the dub name yet the "NetNavi" chip calls him WindMan.
There are also some chips that aren't accounted for. In the chips list XML, Life Aura, Grand Prix Power, Duo, and the Dark chips are missing. When the list is compared to the image list, everything is accounted for except the Dark chips, Circle Gun, and the NetNavi chips. I think some of the dubbed names are ridiculous. However, it is interesting to see some of the "accepted" chips names spelled out in full. Even the exclusive 4.5 chips for translations. Here is a preview of the chip list XML.

[CHIP ID="202" NAME="Muramasa" AT="5" CP="6" EID="0" ARID="3"/]
[CHIP ID="203" NAME="Guardian" AT="5" CP="9" EID="0" ARID="18"/]
[CHIP ID="204" NAME="Anubis" AT="4" CP="6" EID="0" ARID="18"/]
[CHIP ID="207" NAME="DoublePoint" AT="4" CP="2" EID="0" ARID="1"/]
[CHIP ID="209" NAME="FullCustom" AT="4" CP="3" EID="0" ARID="5"/]
[CHIP ID="210" NAME="ShotStar" AT="4" CP="9" EID="2" ARID="18"/]
[CHIP ID="211" NAME="BugChain" AT="4" CP="2" EID="0" ARID="5"/]
[CHIP ID="212" NAME="Jealousy" AT="4" CP="2" EID="0" ARID="10"/]
[CHIP ID="213" NAME="ElementDark" AT="4" CP="2" EID="0" ARID="8"/]
[CHIP ID="214" NAME="BlackWing" AT="4" CP="2" EID="0" ARID="8"/]
[CHIP ID="215" NAME="GodHammer" AT="8" CP="10" EID="0" ARID="18"/]
[CHIP ID="216" NAME="DarkLine" AT="4" CP="2" EID="0" ARID="3"/]
[CHIP ID="217" NAME="NeoVariable" AT="7" CP="5" EID="0" ARID="4"/]
[CHIP ID="218" NAME="Z Saber" AT="6" CP="5" EID="0" ARID="14"/]
[CHIP ID="219" NAME="GunDelSolEX" AT="4" CP="4" EID="0" ARID="15"/]
[CHIP ID="220" NAME="SuperVulcan" AT="4" CP="2" EID="0" ARID="4"/]

...

[CHIP ID="281" NAME="Marking" AT="3" CP="2" EID="0" ARID="8"/]
[CHIP ID="282" NAME="CannonMode" AT="3" CP="2" EID="0" ARID="8"/]
[CHIP ID="283" NAME="CannonBallMode" AT="3" CP="2" EID="0" ARID="2"/]
[CHIP ID="284" NAME="SwordMode" AT="3" CP="2" EID="0" ARID="5"/]
[/MEGA]
−
[GIGA]
[CHIP ID="285" NAME="FirePlus" AT="4" CP="3" EID="0" ARID="7"/]
[CHIP ID="286" NAME="ThunderPlus" AT="5" CP="4" EID="0" ARID="7"/]
[CHIP ID="287" NAME="AquaPower" AT="5" CP="4" EID="0" ARID="5"/]
[CHIP ID="288" NAME="WoodPower" AT="6" CP="5" EID="0" ARID="5"/]
[CHIP ID="289" NAME="BlackWeapon" AT="7" CP="6" EID="0" ARID="5"/]
[CHIP ID="290" NAME="FinalGun" AT="5" CP="4" EID="0" ARID="3"/]
[CHIP ID="301" NAME="Bass" AT="8" CP="14" EID="0" ARID="18"/]
[CHIP ID="302" NAME="DeltaRayEdge" AT="11" CP="9" EID="0" ARID="3"/]
[CHIP ID="303" NAME="BugCurse" AT="11" CP="10" EID="0" ARID="18"/]
[CHIP ID="304" NAME="MeteorRedSun" AT="12" CP="10" EID="0" ARID="2"/]
[CHIP ID="306" NAME="BassPlus" AT="13" CP="11" EID="0" ARID="15"/]
[CHIP ID="307" NAME="HolyDream" AT="14" CP="12" EID="0" ARID="13"/]
[CHIP ID="309" NAME="BlueMoonRay" AT="10" CP="8" EID="0" ARID="2"/]
[CHIP ID="310" NAME="BugCharge" AT="14" CP="12" EID="0" ARID="8"/]
Had to format it a little bit. Some aren't consistent at all. I really thought they would have revealed what the hell "BassAnly" is supposed to mean. Even the European version of MMBN5DS didn't offer much insight.

I even went through most of their horrible artwork. I mean, I don't like it because it has this "kids action show" style on it that isn't present in the other EXE art styles. Fortunately, most of it was new art AND they made it all vector! It's good because if they were rasterized for their tiny 800x600 site, the quality would have been awful.

Some previews.

The disadvantage of the vector drawings is that they are downgraded really poorly. Some parts were missing and some had chopped up outer glows. There also aren't any blurs or fancy effects which make some of the artwork seem flat or odd. Some of them are acceptable and I didn't rip the ones that were just plain awful or wouldn't render correctly.

I also ripped the music. Like other flash sites, the music is loaded from a URL. You can listen to the three tracks by adding /music.mp3 after the URL to listen to the first track. add a 2 or 3 before the .mp3 to hear the other tracks.

I've packed all the good stuff in an archive available for download. Included in the ZIP archive is: chips XML, character artwork, music, sounds, chips, and the logo.

DOWNLOAD

I'm just going to guess here but I think some of the interesting chip images will be in higher demand.

Entering the Reaverbot contest

The Megaman Legends 3 Reaverbot contest recently started and it caught my interest. Now that I have more bored time (during math) I feel more inspired and using my newly acquired art skills I can make a fairly decent concept and even make a good final render. I'm still planning things out and I've already posted my preliminary concept in the MML3 Devroom.

It is called -Kumoshiru!

Trying to win Brickfish scholarship

I've never won a competitive scholarship before. I always hope the next one will be it.
You can help me win by voting for me.

Here is my entry.

Overview of last week

I want to talk about last week.

It was fun that I got a new monitor and now I will never go back to something smaller. My new classes seem more demanding now.

It turns out I have the same instructor for two different classes. That ought to be fun. The first project is the same in those classes as well so they will probably feel like the same class in the end. Math seems like a lot of work. I doubt it well get into Trigonometry stuff. I didn't even pass Algebra 2 in High School and I don't want to go through it again.

The weekend felt really long. I was all alone on Friday. It turns out my mom left to see her dying brother in Utah. It's kind of sad and I guess I will see more of these situations in the years to come. She returned on Sunday and told me her settlement money came in. The money will go towards new couches. I hope something is leftover so they can buy a new refrigerator.

Over at TREZ, the new Light Theme is almost finished. I hope to start making the new banners as soon as it's done. The new banners will appear on the dark and light themes and should fit just as nicely on both. Also, Nemo bugs me about not participating as much in site events. Well we'll see about that!

It's AMAZING!

I've successfully installed my Nvidia graphics card and I purchased a new LG widescreen monitor. I am still in awe over the amazing resolution. It's in full HD (1980x1080) and I get SOOO much room on my desktop now. I took a picture of the new monitor after I set everything up.

Suddenly my desktop feels less cluttered. Over at TREZ, I have posted my old desktop before. The layout is basically the same, only expanded. I am really impressed by the quality of this monitor. I am certain this monitor will last for many more years. Maybe one day when I do have to buy a new desktop, I can actually use my monitor to watch movies or TV. On the old monitor, the awkward 5:4 screen ratio made it IMPOSSIBLE to watch anything decent. Right now, hardware limitations prevent me from further upgrading this computer, but this monitor is here to stay. Heh, I haven't even modified my Firefox bookmarks toolbar to account for my expanded space.

For people considering buying this product, this is the LG Flatron W2240. I'm sure it's a TFT LCD display since the viewing angles are fairly decent. It's a great product. The only thing that I didn't like was that the box listed no specs. I wasn't entirely sure about the purchase because of that. Inside the box, there were still no specs or decent instructions. The English was kind of bad, sort of like the graphics card's instructions. It's like they're poorly translated by non-English proficient people. Oh, and this monitor came with a VGA cable. It was quite disappointing since VGA looks like crap at large scales. There is notable noise and dithering. When I find a DVI-D cable, everything should look much better.

Upgrading is just awesome. Here is a screencap of my new desktop.

Winter quarter begins

Today, Winter quarter started for me. I'll have a very heavy schedule this time. On Mondays, I have two classes: one at 7:30am and another at 12:30pm. I have an hour break in between and I'm actually writing this during my break. I'm glad to be back in class and I'm thrilled to see that they've FINALLY upgraded their Windows computers to Windows 7. They look wonderful! I haven't actually tested them out yet so I don't know their specs.

The Macs are just as good though. I got a screenshot of their specs. They're really high end (and they're still susceptible to annoying little problems).

I've seen these Macs priced online and at stores and they're always over $1500! I'm surprised they've got at least 5 rooms full of these. Oh, and best of all about the Winter quarter, they finally got Adobe CS5! You can see the entire suite at the bottom in those screenshots. I just went through my first Illustrator class today and I got to try out Illustrator CS5's fancy new perspective tool. I'm amazed at what it could do and I'm eager to try more features. My next class will be another Photoshop class and hopefully I can explore some of the new features then. Yeah, I'm in the same room for both classes. Great, right?

This Monday is also important. I ordered the AGP card for my Desktop and it came late on Friday. I was away so UPS has to ship it out today. Unfortunately, it's within 2-5pm and I won't be around for the most part. I just hope someone signs it off for me so it can be there when I get home. I can't wait to see how fast my computer will get. I notice it ALWAYS lags horribly when I try to upload pictures on Blogger and it didn't on this Mac.

One more thing. The class I know I'll like the least this quarter is College Algebra. I have it on Thursday and I'm totally NOT looking forward to it. I don't feel like taking regular Algebra for the fourth time...

Mega Rock Patch V3.03 + Hard Mode screens

Yeah, it's another patch update. This fixes another bug with the SP Navi routine. There was a critical bug in the game where the player could not battle Colonel when the story required it. Thanks to Prof. 9 though, he fixed his code and everything should work fine now. If you're at the part where you will eventually fight Colonel, make sure to Jack In again to prevent any problems. Once you're stuck there, it's very difficult to get back on track.

This is similar to what happened with an anon recently. However, that save was rescued and Prof. 9 posted a save at the part after Colonel. I encourage other people to take the save for the sake of bug-hunting. It's almost at the end of the game and I haven't received any bugs at that point.

Here is the save.
http://www.mediafire.com/?31cu65gr6jmifc9

Anyways, here is V3.03 of the patch which corrects this issue.
http://www.mediafire.com/?qegrr1cvoqpee8c

The main patch is still fairly stable and I've been able to work on Hard Mode now. Prof. 9 recommended a neat idea that would increase the difficulty of the game. You may have already heard of it, but he managed to implement a "Folder Capacity" system. Take a look at the screenshot below.

Here is an empty folder with the maximum capacity available.

When you add chips, the number goes up. It's sort of like real hard drive space and each folder can have a maximum of 1600MB.

Once you reach your limit, you can't exit the folder screen. Here, the folder is using 1639MB out of a total 1600MB. It's 39MB over!

You may have noticed that most of the chips have had their MB raised. This should make it more difficult to make an over-powered folder and will force you to reconsider the folder you'll be using.

Your current Folder Capacity can be checked in the status screen. When you have the maximum regular memory of 50MB, your Folder Capacity becomes 1600MB.

I thought it was a brilliant system. It's something I wish the Battle Network games had implemented sooner. For the first few games, the unique number became almost negligible. Now it will play a bigger role. Currently, I've raised the MB of several chips but it seems to be counter-productive as higher MBs prevent the number of those chips in a folder. You would be forced to use many different chips. I am considering lowering the maximum capacity since apparently there are still several decent folders you can make with that sort of limit. Also, your starting folder exceeds the current capacity, so that will have to be changed as well. Anything can still change. The programs seen equipped in the previous screenshot should not be possible in the final version of the Hard Mode patch. Navi Cust Parts will become a luxury and being able to equip more than 3 would be difficult.

I'm sure expert players will have fun. :)

Upgrading my old computer

I have enough money saved to consider upgrading my computer again. Unfortunately, I'm always very uncertain in these sort of decisions. Plus, my computer is really old. I bought it in late 2004 and in computer years, that's ancient. But last year I raised its RAM from 512MB to 2GB and noticed significant improvement.
Anyways, now that I want to use my computer as a reliable design platform, I need to get ANY video card and a decent monitor. These improvements should make the design programs not run as slow with large documents and have fairly believable color accuracy. I've heard of the stories where people ruined their computers because they didn't research. Well I've researched a lot now and I recommend people who are looking to upgrade to do the same.

I had to figure out all the specs on my computer first. You can check DxDiag by going to Start > Run, or Windows + R. Under the Display tab should be the graphics card. My computer is from 2004 and I have VIA/S3G Unichrome IGP with 64MB of integrated graphics. That's garbage now and it's no wonder I can't watch full screen video, much less anything HD.

I looked up the specs of my computer model and I found a full page of specs on the manufacturer's site. Googling HP Pavillion a800n brought it up. This particular model has 3 expansion slots: PCI, AGP, and DIMM. PCI graphics cards are almost non-existent now. AGP is the way to go.

I have no idea what is in one of the slots already, but I still have 2 left.

I also need to know the maximum power supply the computer can take. I opened the computer, dusted it, and looked on the sticker on the box.

It says max 250W meaning I was limited to 250W cards, which is really hard to find since the wattage isn't always mentioned.

For a computer this old, finding a graphics card it can use is impossible to find in retail stores. Newegg.com seems to be a reliable source for parts. The user feedback is great and parts seem to be in good condition. I'm considering a graphics card for about $40 and the feedback is motivating. Almost all of the buyers say it "breathes life back into old machines". And that it's perfect if you have no video card. Then it must be perfect for me, right?

Then after that, I should be able to buy a new high-def monitor with better color support. I've been using this Hyundai Imagequest crap since 2004. Using the lagom LCD Screen test, I was never able to get good results on contrast. It must be bad for my eyes if the color white looks red or a slightly blue. My current screen resolution is 1280x1024, which is okay, but isn't enough room to work with. The widescreens at school are wonderful and I have plenty of room to work with. 5:4 just isn't a screen ratio that's used all that much anymore. You can check TREZ's eXtreme Tracker stats for visitors and their screen resolutions. There's a growing trend.
Oh, and did I mention how laughably outdated my current monitor's gamma settings screen looks like?

Ugh. It's like 1999 all over again. >_>


So basically, I've had a taste of the best, and now I can't go back. School starts Monday for me and it looks like I'll be having a full Mac day as well. All the computers there are very nice. I hope now they upgrade the Windows computers to Windows 7, because it's sad to see such a large screen wasted on the Classic theme.


I estimate the monitor and graphics card to cost a total of $200. Even though the computer is old, at least the monitor will be good for a new computer. Good thing I backed up all 20GB of my stuff the other day. Any losses would be negligible.

That reminds me, I think I need a new keyboard too...

Patch quick-fix

The patch needed a quick fix. Apparently the Link Navi quest bug was no isolated incident. The routine for enabling leveling status for Link Navis interfered with the flag that allowed you to play as them. The routine has been fixed and labeled now. If you are ever stuck at this part now, just keep trying to exit until you can return to the real world. Thanks to Prof. 9 for the fix.
Also, the Falzar RV battle has been added. I know expert players won't have a problem, but it's a nice bonus battle for getting absolutely everything. After obtaining all 9 icons, go to the CopyBot Comp and Falzar RV becomes a random encounter.

Mega Rock Patch V3.02 can be downloaded from the link below.
http://www.mediafire.com/?kt7m3t15o84140e


Now is probably the best time to start working on Hard Mode. I assume the major bugs are already taken care of. I was planning on using the OSS mugshots of Lan and Megaman fr Hard Mode. I tried to get rid of the awkwardness. Tell me if something is still odd about them.

These are the originals.

Here are the modified ones.

Happy New Year 2011

2010 is over and 2011 has begun. This past year has truly been unforgettable for me and I hope 2011 will be better. Happy New Year!