FF1WMC back on

Well, after doing some tinkering and cleaning, I still didn't have it working... But somehow, all of a sudden, the game started working... I really don't get my PS1 sometimes @_@

FF1WMC on hold?

Yesterday morning, Fired up the PS1. My thought was to pop Final Fantasy Origins in and see what I could do to progress in my white mage challenge. Sadly, after attempting to get it to read several times already, It would not. I'm not sure if the laser is even moving, let alone if its picking up any info on the disk. After thinking about that, I decided to check if it's even reading. So I decided to take another game of mine: Digimon World. Shortly after poping the disk in, Sure enough, it was picking up data, as it came up with "Please insert Playstation format disk". This was the outcome I expected (and hoped), as my PS1 doesn't read that game for some reason. I can play it on my buddy's PS2, but it doesn't work 100%.

So here's the deal: This challenge is temporarily on hold until I can figure out what's wrong and get it working again. This may not mean too much to you readers, unless you were waiting for the latest on my progress here, especially since I have not updated on my progress in a while.

I have other challenges though that I've been planning for when I have finished this one. Do you think I should just jump to the challenge I was planning on next?

Until I figure out what to do, You can check out my Youtube Channel

Its time to randomly plug a random site :)

This site just got their online community started, their site has been up for a while, but they just got forums going.

CtrlAltKill Check it out, its a great site. Their podcast is also quite good (a little long sometimes, but still fun to listen to). And don't forget to join the forums while your there. Tell 'em Gamer 2K1 sent ya :)

A Life of Gaming

When I was just a child of 2, I picked up my first video game controller. It was an Atari 2600 controller. The game inside the system was Ms. Pac-Man. It use to drive my mother crazy watching me, as I would tend to chase after the ghosts when they were normal, and run away when they were blue. It was not too long after that I learned how to hook the system up myself. My parents were amazed, as it was a sunday morning, and I had the stereo on (the way my father had the entertainment system set up, I had to run the game through it.) It woke my father up, he was getting ready to kill one or both of my brothers, thinking it was them. My mother came out right behind him. As they entered the living room, they stopped dead in their tracks, staring in disbelief. without saying a word they looked toward one another, and went back to bed.

Who knew that would lead to the gamer sitting here today?

At age 7, I played my first M rated game: Doom, for the PC. I always liked to kill everything with a chainsaw, I don't know why. As I got older, I started hearing about how these violent games made kids violent, So how do they explain someone like me?

Anyways, It wasn't until I was 13 that I truly established myself as a gamer. It was 2001. I had decided that I would be a console gamer who's forté was RPGs.

Nowadays, I play a little bit of everything, but I'm more partial to RPGs, Racing, Wrestling, Puzzles, Rhythm and Platformers, with a slight dislike in Fighters and Shooters.

Yea, growing up, I have seen many changes in gaming, and some within myself. Who knows what changes may come in the future, But I can only say one thing for sure, This is truly a life of gaming.

When you wind up with writers block

With me not updating my status on the white mage challenge for this week (just leveling right now) I figured I would write something else, but sadly, I can't come up with anything that seems worth writing about :(

Zeus Kitty: in memorium

From the day he was brought home, I knew he would leave his mark. I never knew it would be on the back of my shirt while we were sitting on top of the truck (thats what I got for hanging with a cat that tends to spray).

He was a good friend, and a very happy kitty. Every time you walked in his direction, he would purr as loud as possible.

His way of life was an odd one, he would love to get love and attention all the time, but he would not often want to come in, even in the most horrific of weather. He had made many friends within the neighborhood cats, taking younger ones under his wing.

I shall never forget the first time I found him curled up next to Porch Kitty, whom oddly enough looked much alike. Although they had their issues, they lived together fairly peacefully.

It seemed rather appropriate, the weather today suited the mood. For when I called him for breakfast this morning, He did not come. And now, sadly, He will never be sitting on the porch with Porch Kitty again, sitting and waiting for me to come out to feed them, and then meowing at me when I go to feed them. Nor will he purr at the sight of me walking towards him, in hopes that I will stop to pet him.

Zeus, you will be missed. Will you forever rest in peace.

FF1WMC: The crystals shine again

Alright, i almost forgot about this. Looks like i'm getting ready to face Chaos.

Just FYI, I'm going to do a LOT of leveling, thus i may not update on this as much.

News regarding the FF1 White Mage Challenge

Because i was so busy unexpectedly this week and do not want to again go without updating. I will be playing on monday instead this week. With that, I will then update on monday night/tuesday morning.

I thank you all for your patience

Next sunday, I will update on schedule as usual.

FF1WMC: Leveling up again.

as of right now, all but Cara are at level 27 (she's 26). I began thinking to myself just as I shut of the PS1. Am I in a good level for facing Tiamat? or am I even farther than my level should have allowed? I guess i'll have to do a bit of research to find that out.

FF1WMC: Tiamat, YOUR NEXT!

Alright, to put it short, I got the Rosetta Stone, got it translated by Dr. Unne (who ever he is) and got the bell from the people of Lufenia. next stop, Tiamat!

FF1WMC: Calm Waters

As the four warriors stood watching the water fiend Kraken fall, They saw the crystal. Returning the light to the crystal, the seas all around the world began to calm down. Now they must find the Rosetta Stone, so that they can learn the language of the ancient people. What they might get from these people, who knows.

Oh, I also doubled back to the citadel of trials to grab the rest of the items from there :)

FF1WMC: sadly, life gets in the way sometimes

Sadly, I just had one of those days that things just kept coming up and I was not able to play, so no play = no progress.... sorry

FF1WMC: Error code:404 - Title not found

ok. while you people are probably getting ready to vomit at the horrible title (which obviously i had no idea what to post as a title) I must say that I did do something today. It wasn't much, I went into the water shrine, got a few items and did some leveling up.

FF1WMC: Major progress

This week, I didn't expect to have much to report, just the fact that I was exploring and getting all the chests i missed.... but then I went to the volcano (Gulgan Volcano/Mt. Gulg) and found my way to Marlith and beat her fiery behind!!! thats 2 crystals down, 2 to go!

I do plan on hopefully beating Kraken by next week, but we shall see what happens :D

I just need more armor that can use magic

FF1WMC: I have no inspiration it seems......

umm..... for some reason..... I had no motivation this week....... I did play a little, decided to look at level 7 spells, and remembered something I had almost forgotten about, I can use items for my black magic spells.... I just need to stock up on them LOL....

FF1WMC: Now how's this for classy

I had decided to venture into the Citadel of Trials. After the man at the entrance noting that I had the crown (which begs the question, is it possible to get there without the crown?) I made my way though and amazingly enough acquired the rat's tail. So I went and sailed back to the airship (I had decided after realizing that you can do as such to take the ship and dock it at the small river, to make it easier to travel there.). Then I went and presented the rat's tail to Bahamut and got my class upgrade.

Dose that mean I should start calling this FF1WWC (White Wizard)?

FF1WMC: Obtained the airship (Special Video Update)

This week, I ventured into the Ice Cave again. Made it to the evil eye earlier in the week and died... did it today today too. this time i managed to beat the Evil Eye as shown in the posted video.

After the video, I had killed off the piscodemons that I had encountered at the end of the video and escaped immediately (thankfully, the exit was just a few feet ahead.)

After that I had went to resurrect the airship, and explored around a bit.... I wound up coming across a waterfall that drew me in. for some reason i couldn't remember what it was that was in the waterfall cavern, so I explored to figure it out... I did not save after that though, so I've just gotten the airship.

FF1WMC: Back to Training.

I did a little training in the Ice Caves, not that much else....

FF1WMC: A week without progress (plus a shameless self plug...)

yes, that's right folks, I made ZERO progress this week.... The reason for that is that I was busy with other projects. one of which included my youtube channel. If I have just peaked your curiosity, I suggest you check it out at http://youtube.com/n1fffan

FF1WMC: MINDFLAYORS!!!!!!

Ok, I made a 2nd attempt at the Ice Caves, and this time, I got stopped by 3 Mindflayors...... Mindflayors are a pallet Swap of Piscodeamons, except they have low attack ratings, an ability to automatically parallize your party, and their standard attacks, which currently only do 2 or 3 points of damage to a single member, also INSTANTLY KILLS them!!!!! I think I am starting to hate them even more than Piscodeamons..... its still pretty close, at least you can run away from them......

FF1WMC: I hate piscodemons!!!!

OK, I took my first attempt at Ice Cave, Got hit with a random encounter with 7, YES 7 piscodemons, I had been playing all day. needless to say, I decided to call it a day.

FF1WMC: Picking back up.... a little.....

After a couple weeks of taking it slow, I will soon be going again at full steam. I am still just leveling and getting magic though :(

FF1WMC: Hot day, slow going

hot day, didn't feel much up to playing. Did a little bit, but not much... hope to pick things back up by next week...

FF1WMC: Leveling at Crescent Lake

Its slow, but it's coming along. I'm hoping to maybe attempting to hit Ice Cavern after I'm at LVL 20

FF1WMC: Taking it slow

I've been taking it slow for the past couple of weeks.

Today for some reason, I couldn't keep my head in the game whilst I played. My mind has been on the loss of analog tv for the past few days.

Currently, I'm leveling up and getting new spells in preparation of exploring Ice Cave.

FF1WMC: Earth crystal, check.... next???

So yea.... Lich was a push over, but then again, I saw that one coming. So what's next? Well, I got 2 choices as of right now: One is to trek into Gulgan Volcano, and attempt to get the fire crystal (either way, I am not looking forward to that). The other is to go into the ice cave and get my float stone, so I can unearth the airship (I'm looking more towards that, so I can get more done from there.)

My E3 wrap-up: Day 2

So we had the Nintendo and Sony press conferences. I must say, Nintendo did way better this year. Golden Sun DS and the new Metroid game both look great!

On Sony's side, I think its great that we finally get a chance at some Gran Turismo PSP gameplay. And Gran Turismo 5 is just gonna be pure awesome.

Then theres the announcement of Final Fantasy XIV, which is a new MMORPG from Square-Enix. It could be a big mistake, or it could be a great idea. no way of knowing until we see it.

My Wrap-Up rating for today is: 8 out of 10.

My Overall Wrap-Up rating is: 9 out of 10.

My E3 wrap-up: Day 1

Ok, first off, no, I'm not gonna tell you anything that nobody else knows yet, so don't get too excited. This is simply me telling you what I thought the days showings on E3.

Several things excited me on day 1. If I had to compare Day 1 of E3 '09 to the entire E3 '08, Day 1 of E3 '09 wins by a long shot in my opinion.

First off, The FF13 demo! how sweet was that! I liked the choice for Lightning's voice, Sazh on the other hand... his voice seemed a little iffy to me..... Just a little though.

Also, the announcement of the Peter Molyneux project, Project Natal, was awesome. I also am quite intrigued by both Halo titles announced at the Microsoft press conference.

From Ubisoft, all though we didn't see much, I was widely impressed by the trailers to both Splinter Cell: Conviction, and Assassin's Creed 2.

EA impressed me with Need for Speed: Shift, and Brutal Legend.

Todays wrap-up rating is a 9 out of 10.

overall wrap-up rating is a 9 out of 10.

FF1WMC: Marching to the earth fiend, Lich

A bit has happened this week. First off, let me start with a bit of a romantic tone *Ahem*

... And thus, with their remaining strength, the four mages charged at the dark elven king, thus laying him to waste. They then went back to the cave of the witch Matoya, and returned her crystal eye. The witch, thankful for the mages deeds, gave them a mysterious potion, known as Jolt Tonic, Which they took to the Elfhiem castle. The prince's attendant gave him the potion, and he sprung to conciseness. Upon gazing apon the four, he knew that they were the four mentioned in the prophecy, thus gave what was rightfully theirs...

In other words... I FINALLY BEAT ASTOS!!!!!!! Then I went and opened up the canal so I can access the rest of the world. Next, I defeated the vampire in Earth Cave. I have also done a bit of leveling up, and now have the Life spell with all 4 mages (as well as Cure3).

Soon, I will be heading down to the deepest depths of Earth Cave and face Lich, the fiend of Earth

FF1WMC: What the....

I'm disappointed with myself.... Its not much, maybe I'm even making too much of this, but I am quite disappointed with myself.... I have not beaten Astos yet.

I have been working on just a little bit of leveling up throughout the week. I have even faced him several times already. I was close, but still failed.... hopefully I could manage to do something more this week.

FF1WMC: Coming soon-the fall of the dark elf king

If my estimation is correct, I just need to have about 1 more level for each of my party members, and I'll be able to beat Astos. Until then, I've bought Nulfire and Nulbolt for each of my party members.

FF1WMC: The Crown is MINE!!

I have been playing the game all week. I managed to get the crown after 2 failed attempts.

On my first attempt, I was brutally beaten by 2 Piscodemons.

On my second attempt, I dealt with 4 Piscodemons, while Yuna and Wayne were dead. I got the crown, but i got killed on the second floor of the dungeon.

My third attempt, I managed to get out with just the same 2 mages, and saved afterword. Now I am working on getting Nulfire and Nulbolt so I can stand at least half a chance beating Astos.

FF1WMC: First attempt at the crown: Failed

Epic fail.... 'nuff said!!

FF1WMC: Going nowhere fast, but soon getting somewhere.

Soon, I will get through marsh cave. until then, I shall let you know that I have been playing quite a bit through the week. getting spells for my mages. I am one mage short of everyone having Esuna.

For unrelated news, I have an affiliate: Gaming Gonads (refer to the link in the side bar)

The Timeline of Zelda part 2

Since Nintendo announced "Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks" at the Game Developers' Conference, I have been wondering what I am going to do with it in my timeline. Fact is, until I can play it through, I cannot fit it into the timeline. I can say though that even though this game is being cel-shaded like with "Wind Waker" and "Phantom Hourglass", It is not within the portion of timeline. But thats enough of something that's not here yet.

As I had stated in the previous part of my the timeline, the story does start with "Ocarina of Time". This can be proven in the eyes of many fans by one simple event: The rise of Ganondorf to power. Ganondorf is the only character in the series that is the same person. Every other re-occurring character, even Zelda and Link, has been a reincarnation or descendent.

The next game in the story is "Majora's Mask", which takes place after Link meets Zelda in the end of "Ocarina of Time". This is of corse the same Link at this point.

The next point that i can touch in the timeline cannot for sure be placed right next to "Majora's Mask", but it is the closest I can get

The first 3 games released on a console are already organized into a timeline. First, there is "Link to the Past". No idea what could be placed (if anything) in between, but "The Hyrule Fantasy" (Known in the US simply as "The Legend of Zelda") follows. My theory at this point is that "The Hyrule Fantasy" takes place in only a small portion of Hyrule, as "The Adventure of Link" (which takes place maybe just months after) is in a much larger area of the kingdom. This larger area includes towns, villages, and the Hyrule castle (which is your starting point).

That just about concludes this edition of the Timeline of Zelda. When next I continue with this, I will have researched the release timeline in it's entirety, and maybe have other surprises. 

Timeline as currently standing:

Ocarina of Time-Majora's Mask-?

?-Link to the Past-?-Legend of Zelda: The Hyrule Fantasy-Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link-?

FF1WMC: next up, Marsh Cave

Well, looks like I'm not gonna be very frustrated at the game this week (sorry for those who wanted to hear me rant about how I'm hating this game :p ) Just bought the spell Esuna for Yuna, so I don't have to worry as much about getting poisoned. Also stocking up on other spells, Including Invis1

Still, I'm not as far as I would like to be, I would rather be getting ready to head from Elfhime to Melmond, getting ready to brave the first 3 floors of Earth Cave.

FF1WMC: No gil + no EXP means no progress

Currently, I am still in Elfhime. What am I doing there still you ask? Simple, LEVELING AND GAINING GIL.

amazing how hard gil is to come by when you aren't very powerful.

Yes, I have yet to even get the crown. I am NOT looking forward to facing those Piscodemons.

FF1WMC: 9 pirates, 4 white mages.... no sweat!

I decided to get my weekly update in a day early since I am going to be completely busy on Sunday.

I was just about to throw my PS1 out the window due to the fact that I kept dieing on my way to Matoya's Cave. So I went to the Temple of Chaos and leveled up some. After leveling up, I still kept dieing. But eventually, I managed to get there, and back to Cornelia. After all that, I decided to head to Provaca (after all that, It was still hard). Finally, I made it to provaca and fought the pirates, and as always, it was as easy as fighting a group of goblins (maybe easier). So after that, I went to Elfhime and saved there.

Can anyone tell me when this actually gets easy? @_@

FF1WMC: The Journey begins

As I fire up my Playstation, the old memories start up in my head, Memories of a simpler time. Now hearing that old PS1 go through it's bios sends shivers down my spine every time. I feel my adrenaline pumping as I start up Final Fantasy 1 on the Final Fantasy Origins disk. I name my mages one by one: Yuna, Cara, Wayne, and Angel. I get goosebumps as I walk into Cornelia, the thought running in my mind is that I have finally begun my challenge. I go and work up the money to not only buy the 2 pieces of gear for each of my mages, but the Cure1 spell for them.

I run my way up to the Temple of Chaos, ready to fight Garland, and I find that that was the hardest time that I've ever had with him.

My usual is me killing him without breaking a sweat, but then again, I do have a Warrior, Red Mage, White Mage, and Black Mage usually....

After getting the bridge fixed, I figure I'm ready to head to Matoya's Cavern, but I end up dieing. I head back to the Temple of Chaos to get what I can in free items, finding myself with only 1 mage left when I reach Cornelia, and less than 10 HP left for him. Wayne also had no more magic points, so I just went crazy when I reached the town.

After getting Dia1 for all my mages, I decide to save and head back up to Matoya's Cavern, but as I am about to reach it, I get killed by 2 ogres. It was by then that I decided I had done a decent job for the day.

::NOTE:: I may play this challenge sparatically throughout the week, but I will only be updating the blog every sunday (or monday morning if I can't get to a computer with internet soon enough.) I also have scheduled me playing this for sure every sunday.

For any updates I make throughout the week, check the gaming union forums.

White Mage Challenge

Sorry for the lack of updates (although I am sure that nobody is reading this) I have not yet begun to put more together for my LoZ Timeline, But I am going to turn to my other favorite series for a while.

I have turned to my friends at Gaming Union Forums for help with this one, for I am doing a Final Fantasy challenge, The White Mage Challenge. 

I Will be playing Final Fantasy 1 on the PS1 (my preferred version) with an all white mage party.

My friends at Gaming Union (whom know me as Zero) were asked to name my party for me, and they have came through. Although I only have 3 of the four mages named, the list of names suggested was astounding.

Throughout my adventure, I will try to update weekly from the date of my start here on my blog, and an undecided frequency at Gaming Union.... Stay tuned for more on this feat, and be sure to visit Gaming Union, and tell them Zero sent ya!

My Resident Evil 5 Demo Impressions

I recently got to play the demo for Resident Evil 5 at a buddies house. I sadly didn't get to far in my first attempt, but then again, I've never been too good with shooters. 

Resident Evil 5 stars Chris Redfeild, who we all should know by now from the original Resident Evil, and Code Veronica. As a fan of the series, I happened to be quite excited about the return of this survivor of the mansion incident.

In the demo, you get to play solo or co-op either on split screen (or so it shows on the menu), or via XBox Live. You also get to levels to play on. The one level I played was intense from the word go, as I found myself and my AI controlled ally stuck in an alley way with a mass of enemies on either side. Twice I found myself in this demo with the same problem I have in most games in the series, tons of enemies to kill and no ammo to do so with.

The co-op system reminded me vaguely of the Resident Evil Zero system in the fact that you have to watch your back as well as your ally, as if one falls, its over.

Here is the breakdown of the game

Gameplay and menu: If you remember Resident Evil 4 for the Gamecube, PS2, PC and Wii, then you should pretty much have an idea of what you are doing in the game. The menu system is reminiscent of Resident Evil Outbreak. Anything you need to do in the menu, you better be quick about it, and/or do it in a safe room, as the game continues while you are in the menu, so no stopping in the middle of a battle to reload your weapon, heal, or read a file (who ever still reads those o_o; ) 9/10

Control: Since the release of the demo, I have heard people complain about the same issue with the controls: The fact that you cannot run while shooting. So what if you cannot run and shoot at the same time, you've never had that ability in Resident Evil!!! I really hope that it's newbies who are complaining the most about this, because I have never played a Resident Evil where you did have that ability. Everything else is the same as RE4 from what I can tell, so veterans of 4 should have very little problems adapting. 9/10

Music/Sound: To categorize this as judging the music is unfair as the series has never been known for its music, but the sound, I would say is on par with everything I have come to expect with the series. 8/10

Graphics: Like the Gamecube version of RE4 (arguably the best version) but enhanced for the 360, need I say more? 9/10

Overall: 9/10

It is a good game, Fans of the series will enjoy. Newcomers might also enjoy.

The Timeline of Zelda Part 1

As a fan of the Legend of Zelda series, I have played many in the series. It was the first RPG I had ever gotten to play. Over the years I have, much like any other fan of the series, noticed how broken up the timeline was. My current task is to attempt to figure this thing out once and for all.

The following was pre written by me in preparation for this post:

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In July of 1987, Nintendo released, in North America, A video game that changed the face of RPGs forever. Released on the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), "The Legend of Zelda" became one o Nintendo's greatest hits. It is classified as an Action RPG, the first of its kind. As a young gamer, it was my first RPG. The game was about 2 and a half years old by then, as was I. It was the spark that ignited my love for RPGs.

About a year after its release, Nintendo decided to follow up with a sequel. Taking place just months after its predecessor, "Zelda 2: The adventure of Link" took place in a larger portion of the kingdom of Hyrule, and played differently from the first one. It was so much so, that it was not well received by fans.

Nintendo had listened to the woes of the fans and for the third game, they took it back to a familiar style. "The Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past" Was the first and only game in the series to find its way onto the Super Nintendo, and it was found to astound gamers. It was also found to take place before the first 2 games. As we had gotten use to this gam being the beginning, Nintendo introduced its first entry on the Nintendo 64. "The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time" is recognized by fans as the first in the story, and it is just where this project of mine begins.

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The Legend of Zelda timeline is a task that no one, not even its creator has ever accomplished, which makes this rather difficult.

I will attempt to Include every game in the series in this timeline, with the exception of the Philips CDi Titles, Links Crossbow Training, and the japanese only Satellaview titles (which don't really belong in the LoZ Timeline anyways.)

My current knowledge on the timeline is as follows

Ocarina of Time__Majora's Mask__