Hey! Look over there! Now that you've been distracted, we've got plenty of Questions and Answers for you this week. So if you want your question answered, just email them to us here. If it's got fairly coherent english, it'll most likely be answered.
What's that thing on my screen?
-potatogrenade
Brenden: It's probably those shots from Dean's naked photo shoot. Those are all over net... not that I would know anything about that of course.
Dean: Hey, you were there ;) -- And it wasn't a photoshoot.. it was an.. artistic experiment. Sheesh.
Glen: Oh dear god, no! It's on my screen too! I am paralyzed with fear.
Brenden: Holy crap! They're gonna collide! Duck!
Just wanted to drop ya'll a line and tell ya that ya got a good website and all. It's just a bummer that the guys over at http://www.nintendojo.com/ do such a better job than ya'll. Should try to be more like them... *sigh* When will you guys learn?
-King Yam
Brenden: We'll learn when "ya'll" stop trying to start some kind of lame site war. Give it up guys, it's not going to happen.
Glen: Yes, let us hold hands and sing Can You Feel the Love Tonight by Elton John.
Josh: Nintendojo? What's that?
Hey guys, I was surfing the net and saw this:
Now, I was like what the hell? I was bored so I looked it up and found:
It's an internet broadband sevice in Japan that they opened up to try and get people into ADSL. So I was wondering (It's just a thought) if Nintendo might partner up with this service to get the online service up. Since they worked together for the drive for the 'Cube, I was wondering if they would do the same with this. I mean, they need to partner up with someone in Japan. So it's just a thought but just look into it for me, ok? Thanks.
-jae
Brenden: First, let me just say that that was some nice research work there. Second, that is one of the scariest things I've ever seen and I don't think I'll be sleeping tonight.
Dean: All I can say... LMFAO.. Hi-Hoo-Hi-Hoo... *in deep voice* "Panasonic" -- Oh this is entertainment for the whole family.
Josh: I don't think I'm scared...just extremely confused.
My question is about GoldenSun. You guys must know this already but when you "beat" the game your data becomes cleared data and you can't select it anymore just like in Shenmue. My question is what is the reason for the clear data and why is there a sleep mode? The ending in GoldenSun doesn't seems to be the true ending and leaves a lot of things unanswered. Then I had an idea, maybe Nintendo is going to use that saved data for a continuation of the game on GameCube? So is Nintendo planing to make a GoldenSun for GameCube and be able to up load your data? I was thinking that just like in the Dreamcast game Shenmue the saved data becomes cleared so it be uploaded to the next installement of the game. This would also explain the sleep mode too. Thanks and keep up the good work.
-G-Mac
Cory: Well, Camelot has already confirmed that Golden Sun: The Lost Age is being developed for the GBA, and is set to be released in Japan sometime this year. I figure the locked off game clear file will definitely be used to communicate data to the sequel, but I'm not exactly sure how. After all, you need to actually open a save file in order to sleep, but you can't open the game clear file. So who knows what kind of voodoo magic those crazy developers will end up working.
Glen: I actually did a large article relating to this back in December. I think it will answer your question. Take a look at it at it here.
Why are stork's legs so long?
-Justin
Stork: Because I've evaded Miss Cleo up 'till this point and therefore she hasn't been able to eat them.
Brenden: You're lucky... she got up to my knees.
Dean: I'm not gonna tell you what she ate of mine... ;) -- She saw it in the tarot cards ya know.
I heard a rumor on the net that Rare would possibly be developing games for other consoles, more specifically the X-box. Could you shed some light on this. Is Nintendo going to lose Rare?
-Josh
Brenden: In my opinion, this entire situation has been blown out of proportion. The rumour stems from the possibility of Rare becoming a completely independent developer/publisher. The fact of the matter is, they've developed their own games for Nintendo systems before and then published them without any help from Nintendo. Currently, Nintendo still publishes some of their titles, but that may change. Whether it does or not really doesn't matter. They still have a good relationship and they'll keep developing for Nintendo systems.
I don't know, maybe I'm just trying to simplify the situation too much.Irate Static Stick: Just bitch slap the ho.
Brenden: ... That's your damn solution to everything!
Irate Static Stick: Ah yes. It is quite reliable.
Cory: What Brenden said. All "third-party" means is that they both develop and publish their own games, and they've done that already for several N64 games. And even if they do decide to support other consoles, it in no way means that they'll stop giving Nintendo the goods. What kind of moronic business decision would that be, anyways?
And let me point out one more thing. That whole "Microsoft buys out Rare" rumor was a fabrication from the very start. It was a joke on the GA boards that blew totally out of proportion. There is no truth to it whatsoever. Funny, though!
I think I heard something about Pokemon coming out for the GBA sometime in the future. I can't remember the source... Anyways, I didn't see Pokemon in your release list so I'm wondering: what is the future for Pokemon? I know, I know, the game has an appeal to younger kids, but I admit it: I loved the Pokemon GameBoy games and Pokemon Advance would be awesome!
By the by, damn you N-Sider morons! How'd you let it get out of it's cage?! While taking a brisk walk through the woods one night, Rabid Albino Penguin attacked! (I should've heeded Miss Cleo's words of wisdom...)
-Drew
Glen: Someone please locate this kid's medication.
Rabid Albino Penguin: I stole it. It was making him thin and stringy.
Dean: I hate pokemon, hell, in the famous words of Sean Connery: "Suck It Trebek"
Brenden: You're all nuts. Anyway, yes, Pokmon is coming out for GBA. You can read the details on it here.
Do you anticipate any real changes to Skies of Arcadia when Sega ports it, like reducing the number of random battles or adding a few new items or anything? What's your best guess as to when it will release?
-Kat
Brenden: I really don't anticipate any real changes. Maybe some graphical enhancements and some additional features, but other than that, nothing too big. For the most part, it should still be the same game. To my best knowledge, the game doesn't have a set release date yet. I would say sometime in late 2002... but that date is really just being plucked out of my ass as an educated guess.
What else do you staffers at N-Sider do in the daily life besides updating the N-Sider site and having good conversation on the forums?
-bassntreble
Glen: We update the main site?! Why wasn't I made aware of this phenomenon?
Rabid Albino Penguin: Cory? Eric? Who was it? I want to know who dared to update the site!
Brenden: Again, you're all nuts. Anyway, I listen to tons of music, lots of metal. I play soccer and I bike. I'm 6'0", brown/blond hair, blue eyes and I enjoy long walks on the beach. You can reach me here if you're interested.
Dean: Technically I resigned back before the March break, but I'm still here.. Heh, Actually, I hang out with my girlfriend, and I put aside a few mins every week to answer some of these Q&A questions. I think I may be the only N-Sider 'staffer' that has a life, Brenden comes in a close second.
Cory: I don't do a goddamned thing.
Josh: Well, I update and contribute to another website, called The Enduring Vision. I'm a loser, obviously.
So what should I blow 50 bucks on in the next 3 months that will blow me away on the 'Cube?
-Roger
Brenden: For those who can't count, 3 months from now would put us at the end of June. If I had to recommend anything, I'd say Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem or Resident Evil. But that's just me, Wrestlemania X8 looks nice, as does Virtua Striker 3 ver.2002. Honestly, look into the reviews, maybe rent a game or two, then decide. Or if you're a rich bastard, buy them all.
Dean: The word Blow was used too many times in that question, now ya got me all excited...
Josh: Unless you hate, hate, hate the survival-horror genre, buy Resident Evil. No questions asked.
When the hell is this N/Universe or Bang thing ever going to happen...it has said "coming soon" for a year now!!!!
-Joshua
Glen: Bang
Brenden: Poof ...I mean err... Bang.
Dean: I'll give you a sneak peek at the N-Universe.. Come to the janitor's closet in 20 minutes... Its in my pants.
Do you guys realize your forums suck ass? Worse than IGN.
-AA
Brenden: Hrm... I guess as the forum administrator (Dean being the "r33t UBB h4xX0|2" ... or something) I'm obligated to answer your question. No, we didn't realize this strange sucking of ass, but unfortunately we can't do anything about that. The Rabid Albino Penguin controls all. ph33r him...
Rabid Albino Penguin: Damn straight you better fear me! And what's with your lame attempts at leet speak anyway? You disgust me. As for the whiny little ass who asked this question, you disgust me too. Bah, you all disgust me! DIE!!!
Dean: If you think IGN's forums are better than ours, then you need a CATscan... I mean really, for one, you don't have to pay for ours.. Two, you can have intelligent conversations -- that is, if you're intelligent enough. I'm gonna place a pretty strong bet that you got banned from our forums, and if so, good. When we ban someone, its for a good reason, to keep our forums the highest-quality out there.
Oh, and Penguin, its d00d sp34k. f00.Now that Shigeru Miyamoto is the Supreme ber Producer of all Nintendo games he doesn't have the time to personally act as Director of games anymore. Which do you think is preferable:
1) to have Miyamoto involved in all games coming through Nintendo, improving them all a bit or
2) to have Miyamoto direct his efforts on just a few games, but having him ensure that each of them are absolute gems?
Which I guess comes down to the old Quality vs. Quantity debate... If
you can only have one from Nintendo, which would you prefer?
-Elijah
James B.: I think that Miyamoto could probably do a little of both. Ideally, he would take a look at all of Nintendo's first party software, to keep them in check. But perhaps he could focus most of his efforts on one or two titles. I think it's a shame that he isn't personally directing Super Mario Sunshine or The Legend of Zelda.
Still, Nintendo is full of other great designers. So I am not terribly worried about Mr. Miyamoto's shift in focus.
I am a massive fan of the ISS series of (English) football games and immediately noticed that ISS2 was going to be a launch game in Britain; which has ultimately made up my mind to buy the console. However I have read nothing about it in any magazine (online or paper versions) and I was wondering if you had any details of the game yourself.
-Jamie Leach
Dean: The Irate Static Stick got cloned? the ISS2? Oh god no.. HELP US ALL!
I was wondering if dev teams could implement volumetric grass into GCN games through the hardware, or would it require implementation through the software mode?
-thundermonkey
Brenden: Sorry, I no speak the technical jargon. Ben?!
BenSkyWalker: There isn't a straightforward answer to this question, other then to say both. For a real cheap, and I mean real cheap solution you could throw up some large semi transparent poly boxes and use some texture tricks to give the appearance of volume. You could also likely use the TEV to come up with a better effect to simulate grass however that wouldn't have an actual volume either.
To build grass in a physical manner you can use a simple model of three vertices(the points used to create polygons) per blade and have them randomly placed in a pattern and then rely on some geometric LOD code to 'fade it out' when you reach a certain distance away from the viewpoint. The reason you need to do this is that it would be very easy to end up with 50,000 or 100,000 blades of grass in a relatively speaking small area which would give you 150K to 450K vertices per frame which works out to between 4.5Million to 27Million vertices per second depending on your framerate and amount. If you were to view something like a vast field such as used in Zelda OOT it would be a lot more then that. Running it this way you would need to use software for the geometric LOD system even though the Flipper would handle the polys in hardware.
Problems with the above, the grass wouldn't move in a realistic fashion at all. With a bare minimum of vertices and relying on the Flipper to handle the transformation and lighting even walking through the grass would give a less then desireable effect. You could increase the complexity of the LOD system to have the grass in a very small area contain more vertices and hence be easier to move via hardware, but you could quickly run into serious issues with the level of vertice complexity or risk having the grass appear too sparse. Working this way, you would have a rather sophisticated geometric LOD system running in software(which many games do anyway, but here it would be required) while the grass itself would be handled in hardware.
But, even if you did that you couldn't have say a breeze blow through the grass and move it around. Without vertex shader hardware or an incredibly powerful FPU, which unfortunately the GameCube lacks, the GameCube could not realisticly pull this off in game if you are thinking of a 'lawn' type surface with very thick grass. The Flipper's hardwired T&L unit can not handle the type of computations that it would require to create flowing grass forcing you to handle the T&L calculations back onto Gekko, and these calculations could be in the three to five times the amount of vertices I mentioned earlier, the Gekko simply doesn't have the power to handle it based on all the information I have seen. If we were talking about an overgrown field with wheat like growths then it would be possible, although I'm not sure how plausible, as you can have a much lower density with the height of the grass hiding the sparseness in terms of blade count. Either using that method, or the one mentioned earlier, the price you will pay in having to lower the rest of the detail you are using will likely not make it worth it the overwhelming majority of the time. Grass and hair are likely the two best examples of weaknesses the GameCube has versus the Playstation2 and XBox.
Konami on GameCube? Why the hell not?
-Ken
Brenden: What are you talking about? ESPN International Winter Sports 2002 was arguably one of the best winter sports games released for the GameCube this year.
Irate Static Stick: Where's my non-sports games?
Glen: Shut your damn mouth. This isn't a Q&A for staff members.
Josh: Konami? What's that?
Brenden: Hey! What did Glen just say?
Hi, What the hell happened to Star Tropics, Kid Icarus, Ice Climbers, Punch Out, Earth Bound, Rad Racer, Blast Corps, and Jet Force Gemini, and have you guys heard ANYTHING about possible updates in the works? Also what's going on with Dragon Quest 8 and Ninja Gaiden?
-Zzgemar
Brenden: Star Tropics, Kid Icarus, Ice Climbers, Punch Out, Earthbound, Rad Racer, Blast "The 'p' is Silent" Corps and Jet Force Gemini were all burned in a horrible tire fire last week. A memorial service will be held at the Nintendo Peaceful Meadows Funeral Home on Tuesday April 2nd at 4:00 PM. For all those still reading this, the most I can tell you is that you can find some of the older games in Animal Forest + and that there's a better chance of Miss Cleo marrying Glen than there is for another Earthbound game. The rest is probably on a backburner somewhere.
Cory: DQ8 and Ninja Gaiden are still up in the air when it comes to a their console of choice. The recent Square announcements could convince Enix that the Cube is the place to put DQ8, but there's nothing concrete on that front. And there were strong rumors that Ninja Gaiden would end up on the Cube a while back, but there were also equally strong rumors that it'd end up on the X-Box. So basically... I got nothin'.
Josh: In a related story, my pants are missing. They're probably in the same place that most of the games you mentioned are; neither the games or my pants is likely to be found anytime soon.
Hi, this just got printed...
"I'm just wondering if you guys are going by IGN's info about Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil coming to GameCube, or if you guys have been able to indepentently confirm this?" -Johnny
Josh: Klonoa 2 is coming, but it's a ways off. Don't expect it anytime soon.
Well, um...pretty much what I have to say is you guys didn't really answer my question. I was wondering if you guys can confirm this yourselfs, or if you guys were going by IGN's info. Also, if you guys can confirm this yourselves, will it at least be out this year?
-Johnny
Josh: I was going by information independent of IGN. Klonoa 2, to my knowledge, is going to hit the GameCube at some point and time. When that time will be is really anyone's guess, but personally, I wouldn't hold my breath for a 2002 release...not in the States, anyhow.
Do you realize that your forums are full of asshole f******?
-AA
Brenden: Ah crap, not this guy again. Why the hell isn't that filter working?
Almighty Space Mongoose: 0|-| 100|< |-|3 (4/\/ (411 |_|5 |=465 |_|0\/\/ !|\|+311!63|\|+
Rabid Albino Penguin: Enough with the lame-ass leet speak!
Dean: d00d sp34k -- I'ma slap you RAP. And i think the mongoose has been raping Louie over at PGC too much.. his idiocy is starting to wear off on our beloved mongoose.
James B.: Asshole f******, eh? Okay guys, who revealed my secret? -_-
Cory: ...why the hell are we posting these questions in the first place?
Dean: Because our readers are too incompitent to make REAL questions, questions that are actually good. No matter what we do, its always this same crap over and over...
Brenden: And apparently, you're too incompetent to use a spellcheck. Come on man, the questions are actually getting better, so just keep sending them in people. We'll answer them... eventually.
Q&A By: Glen Bayer, Brenden Petracek, Dean Bergmann, Cory Faller, James Burns, Ben Wilber, and Josh "What's That?" Righter. With not-so-special appearances by: Almighty Space Mongoose, the Rabid Albino Penguin, the Irate Static Stick and a really freaky talking Stork.
Send your questions for next week's Q&A!