June 2000

Friday, June 30

Evil has Survived!



Diablo 2 is out. I just got my copy, and installed it. I'll be seeing everyone in about a month :) j/k. I guess this message is to the 5 people out there that do not have a fast enough computer, or are too poor to buy the game. Because I'm sure that everyone else is playing the game right now. Which is what I'm going to do right now. My copy also came with a soundtrack, which is pretty cool :)



Posted by brian

cyberrebate.com

Remember several months ago when I ordered that webcam from cyberrebate.com? Well, the rebate finally came in the mail today. It took 2 or 3 months. I didn't think I'd ever get it either. I really don't know how that company can sell things SO cheap, some things even free after the rebate. So I guess it's not a scam after all. Heh, I guess I'll be ordering some more stuff now.

Posted by brian

Thursday, June 29

Meka 0.54

Quick update, You saw it here first! Heh, I love getting news out before zophar, retrogames, & emucamp :) New meka 0.54:

Meka 0.54
---------
- Updated to the documentation, improved many parts and added new things. Please read it!
- Fixed invalid vertical sprite wrapping in video mode 2 (bug introduced in version 0.51, slighty affecting The Castle and maybe other games).
- Added PSG wave synthesis sound rate setting in the configuration file. Rate is no more fixed to a weird value like in all previous versions, avoiding the clicks and noise with certains soundcards. You can also change the rate to the default values of 11025, 22050 and 44100 Hz from the GUI pop-up menus.
- Added separate PSG channel enabling/disabling. Mainly useful for
musicians who want to listen to different channels separately, but
it is also very fun to disable some channels and play games with
somewhat new musics :)
- Fixed FM bug when hard pausing and unpausing in some games.
- Addams Family, Operation Wolf and Sonic Blast now automatically run in PAL/Secam mode when NTSC is selected, due to the games having bugs in NTSC mode.
- Fixed the badly positionned line of Hang On in Hang On / Safari Hunt.
- If brutally forced to close (like when switching to a blitter using an invalid resolution), Meka now switch back to its starting directory.
- Added screenshot filename template to the configuration file. You can
now configure weither you want padding, short or long filenames, etc..
Also changed screenshot numbering starting value from 0 to 1.
- Added "integer stretched" display of the themes background pictures
(see MEKA.THM).
- Added new themes, some of them using nice background pictures you are
invited to download at http://www.smspower.org/meka/themes.

Posted by brian

CD-R Media

For anyone interested, Fred Myer has a good deal on CD-R media right now. A 50 pack of memorex for $27.43. That's $13 cheaper than costco even. Maybe it's not a great deal, but it's the best I've seen in a while. At least the price doesn't depend on a stupid rebate, which 50% of the time I NEVER receive. That is what I hate about compUSA, I never receive the stupid rebates from stuff I buy from them. Heh, and one time, I bought some CD's through a mail order company. I think they were like 50 cents after rebate, or some super small amount (for the time)... and the company went bankrupt! So of course I never got that rebate either :)

Anyone else remember when CD-R media was like $7-10 EACH?? Hehe, and my 2X recorder was $500. Yeah, those were the days.

Posted by brian

Tuesday, June 27

News Archives

I've fixed the news archives page. Somehow, I guess when I upgraded to a new version of newspro or something, I lost like a year of news archives. Well, they are now back. I also went through all of my old html files, and found some stuff dating way back to 1998. I put that stuff on there also. It is pretty interesting to read some of this old stuff, like the big excitement when UltraHLE first came out. And my moves from concentric, to simplenet, to riftwar, then to emulationworld finally. I was also noticed in one file, where I lost my concentric account because I was going over 50 MB of traffic a day! hahahah... What a pathetic amount. I don't think I even had files to download back in those days!

Anyway, Check it out if you are interested.

I also put a link up to the Emulation Ring... I don't know why I never had a link before.

Oh, and I also went back to the old links system. I've been trying to get the gossamer threads links system to work, but there were 1 or two cgi programs that would just not work, no matter what I tried. I think the "validate" part... so it would have been a pain to check for invalid links. I'll try to find another nice links system.

Posted by brian

Monday, June 26

Video Game Music Section is back

The video game music section is back. Somehow, the link to it was taken off one day... and I forgot to put it back on or something... Anyway, I just noticed that there wasn't a link anyplace on the site, so I created it again.

Also, over at the remix site at overclocked there is a cool megaman 3 remix. I always thought megaman 3 had some of the coolest game music, so it's about time someone did a remix for it. :)

Posted by brian

Tuesday, June 20

The digital camera

I received my digital camera today, and it works great. It will take 29 pictures before you have to dowload them to the computer. The quality is actually pretty good. I'm thinking about signing up again to get another one even. If you aren't sure about the offer, trust me, it's worth it. If you don't have a digital camera yet, look at the instructions below and get one. They are great. I estimate that I can fit between 5,000 and 50,000 pictures on 1 CD, depending on how I resize them and compress them... costing a total of $1.. Much less than what it would cost in the store for that much film and developing! Not to mention that "developing" is instant.

Posted by brian

Sunday, June 18

Cool Site of the Day

Here is another cool site that will definately save you money,E-Voice. It is a FREE voice mail for your home phone. I've been using it for 2 weeks now, and it is saving me $10 a month. Who would want to miss the opportunity to screw uswest or at&t out of $10 a month?!?!? I was skeptical at first, but it does work. It will answer your phone when you are not at home, or are on the internet. And will even send you an e-mail or a page when someone leaves a message. Cool huh? The best part is that you can also create different "extensions" on your phone, so you and your parents have seperate voice mail boxes. You get your own personal pin #, so your parents, brother, or your roommate can't hear your messages.

Just go to, www.evoice.com and sign up. Be sure to mention promo code #8586, and my mailbox #25509690 to get it set up.

I'm really amazed at all the free services now. I now have my own free fax #, free 1-800 voice mail, free home phone voice mail, and you can also get free pager service now... except it's limited to california right now.

Posted by brian

Saturday, June 17

Good News

Good news, I can finally have cgi access again, so I can update the news. There was an incedent recently, so a lot of sites on emulationworld were stuck without cgi.

Anyway, here is a cool offer I found recently at Earthlink. If you sign up now, you can receive a free digital camera worth $200! No, not a crappy web cam. A nice digital camera. I've been looking for a cheap one for a couple of years now... and there isn't much cheaper than free :) You only have to sign up for 3 months. Which is nothing. And compared to other ISP's I have used, earthlink is actually pretty good. Just call 1-888-EARTHLINK, ext 60316. Mention that user bcole123@earthlink.net referred you, and then mention code 400049292. That way I get a free month, and you get a free digital camera :) I don't get any money or anything, so it's not some scam.

Or, if you don't want a digital camera, there is an offer for a free $40 credit. Just call 1-888-EARTHLINK. Mention that user bcole123@earthlink.net referred you, and then mention code 400052222. But you have to sign up by june 30 to get the $40.

You have to call the number to get these offers. They aren't available over their web site. The normal offer is just having the $25 setup fee waived (which is waived in the offers above too).

Seriously, go sign up, or get your parents to sign up. Trust me, it is a GOOD deal. I've never seen a deal this good before. I wasn't going to post this, because I was afraid everyone would go sign up and earthlink would run out of digital cameras :) But I figured that I would anyway... they probably wont run out.

Posted by brian

Sunday, June 11

Mass Rom Zipping

I know a lot of people probably look for this type of program, so here it is. A lot of emulators come with built in zip support now days, so it's a good idea to keep your roms compressed. There are several programs that can do this, including Zipmany. But the first freeware one I've seen is ZipOne. It's worth downloading and checking out.

Posted by brian

Friday, June 9

Diablo 2 Comments

A few things about my opinion Diablo 2 after playing the beta for several hours:

1) It kicks ass. I will actually buy this game, which is a rare occurance. It is just as addicting as the first one. There are a few downsides to the game, but overall, I'd rate it in the top 10 games of all time.

2) It is NOT what warcraft 2 was to warcraft 1. Yes, a lot of improvements have been made. But this is not a revolutionary game. I am also very unimpressed with the graphic quality. I have to keep in mind that this is just a Beta "stress test" version. The final product could be much better.

3) Blizzard is the best game maker of all time. I have never played a game of theirs that sucked.

4) Go sign up for the stress test. If you haven't already, maybe it's not too late.

Posted by brian

Thursday, June 8

Diablo 2

Woo, I get to be a beta "stress tester" for Diablo 2. But by the time I'm finished downloading this 99 MB file, the game will have been released :(

Posted by brian

Tuesday, June 6

N64 Rom Sites

Thanks to everyone who sent in N64 rom sites. I've updated the page, removing the bad ones and adding a few new ones. There still aren't that many, so if you know of a good site, please e-mail me.
brian@briansemu.com

Posted by brian

Poll

If anyone has a good idea for some new polls, send me an e-mail. I'd like to put a new poll up every week or two, since I'm sure everyone is sick of the current one. I'm really not sure what everyone would like to see as a topic, so e-mail me your poll ideas.

Posted by brian

Monday, June 5

SMS Updates

I completed a big update on the SMS/GG Section. Most of the games now have screenshots (over 300 screenshots taken today). I also uploaded 20 or so manuals, some music, and other stuff. I still have a lot of stuff I'd like to enter some day, but for now it is a lot more complete. Check it out, It took me probably 4 or 5 hours to complete it.

Posted by brian