Todo list as of Jan. 1, 2011

December was full of distractions but I did manage to learn Avisynth and the Gens debugger.

Short term:

• resume and finish dizzy meter project
• learn how to compile MAME-rr

Long term:

• CPS-3 hitbox script
• Combovid articles:
  • CPS-3 hitboxes
  • leftovers hitboxes
  • misc. old stuff

---

2010 in review

Learning projects:

• learned how to encode videos reliably
• learned AutoIt3
• learned SVN (the management software for googlecode projects)
• learned how to use the MAME debugger with help from mz
• learned how to use the Gens tracer (discussion to follow)
• learned AviSynth (script driven video editor)

Software projects:

• fleshed out and released MacroLua
  • It was actually working in a primitive state at the end of last year.
• created AutoMacro by translating macrolua to AI3
• created Transcripter
  • The usefulness is limited by the lack of 2-player support in yabause-rr for Saturn and mednafen-rr for NGPC.
• hitbox Lua scripts for SF2, SFA, Vsav, Marvel, and others with help from felineki and mz
• scrolling input display script
  • I figured this as a nice little curiosity but error1 put it to good use.

Media projects:

• Bushido Blade 2 TAS
• contributed a few clips to sh/f SFB and style exhibitions

Misc. projects:

• started the blog
• various Vampire Savior research
• developed various music mute codes
  • This should be handy for combo vid makers, if they can figure out how to apply them.
• some work on turbo speed frameskip
  • ST and Hyper Fighting need more examination.
• archived the Darkstalkers frame data site after it went down.
  • It turned out to be unnecessary.
• updated an old gamefaqs guide

Analysis

I find since starting this site in February I'm moderately more productive, though not at much as I would have liked. However, I'm less apt to delve into complicated projects that don't yield results for a long time, as I am doing at the moment, because they make for sparse updates. (I don't like to write about unfinished business, in case it never gets finished.)

What's more, I didn't play any games for fun at all this year. For research purposes, I played SF3:3S, Capcom Fighting Evolution, SFEX3, Vampire Collection, Tekken 4, MvC2, and SFAA on the PS2. In particular, I had to carefully study the games for the hitbox articles so as not to make a fool of myself to the experienced readers. This is in contrast to 2009, when I played 63 games, 161 in 2008, and 188 in 2007, according to my records, which go way back but get hazy around 2004. It's too bad that producing polished works is so much slower and less fun than just playing the games.

I quietly distanced myself from tasvideos after the BB2 affair. One less thing to piss me off. However, I still get the itch to TAS and am disappointed that I couldn't finish the Vampire Savior TAS. After learning how much more interesting the Saturn/PS2 versions are combowise, I decided to suspend Vsav work until the unforeseeable time that they can be TASed.

On looking over my works, I am always reminded that although they may (or may not) be large in significance, they are small in number. For every project that I follow through to completion, so many ideas get deferred indefinitely. And rather than building on what I already know (like writing guides, making maps and TASing), for some reason I gravitate towards learning new skills, teaching them to myself, which is especially slow and hard. I'm always having to pick between learning something new and getting things done. Usually the latter loses, but the trouble with learning is it means nothing to anyone else. And, this may be the last year I'll have the opportunity to work like this.

---

So the banner pic was from a PSX shmup called Zanac Neo. The caption is a reference to the Engrishy ending of the first Zanac. (I keep a screenshot journal of the games I play: that's one of the perks of tool-assistance.)

<

I figure I'll just change the banner out for fun every month now.

Comments

[Maj]

Ah yeah, there's no way i could've guessed that. The only shump game i can remember beating was 19XX, and only because it was in the liquor store on the way home from high school. And Cannon Spike on Dreamcast, if that counts.

Publishing stuff definitely gets in the way of playing games just for fun. I don't know if making combovids is "fun" per se, but it's certainly compelling, especially when you factor in the whole community aspect. I guess everyone gets tired of it eventually though. I don't know, not enough data.

Happy New Year sir!

[dammit]

Thanks. It's looking like a prosperous year already for you.

[error1]

mother is much more recognizable

[dammit]

Yeah, no need to make it so obscure. Got any requests?

[error1]

Mother is really well known for a game not released in America.
It seems you like text so the clasic adventure games like space quest, kings quest, quest for glory, leisure suit lary, or monkey island would work well
or a really old infocom game like zork

[jedpossum]

What are you going to do after the Cps3 scripting Neo-Geo or try Naomi? If its naomi...
Street Fighter Zero 3 Upper still has the Dev console I haven't figured it out yet.

And in dev version of Jojo's still has the cps3 debugger on it. Hit the 3 coins(default 5, 6, and 9) then player 1 Button 1 (unnecessary but useful p2 start gets rid of all the graphics) to get to the actually cps3 debugger(well whats left of it). It Shows all the registers for the sh2 and some.

[dammit]

Yeah, I'd like to do all of CPS3, NeoGeo and Naomi at some point. But MAME-rr seriously needs more development done on it before I can go around recommending it any more. Apparently it's not even in compliance with the MAME license.

Do you mean there's a Naomi version of Jojo or something?

error: I'll see what I can cook up.

[jedpossum]

Of course I mean cps3 Jojo's(its a gold mine of development info on the cps3), but i've been messing with the debug dipswitches on neo geo and documenting the hitboxes for kof98.

Also, I have a request AVG my virus scanner is picking up the lua51.dll as a virus and deletes it will you switch it to the language.dat like in gens-rr?

[dammit]

The reason there's no lua dll for gens is it's built into the exe file. (language.dat is something unrelated.)

It's possible to do a similar thing with MAME-rr and that would solve your problem. Until someone (probably gonna be me) figures out how to do anything about it your best bet is to whitelist that file on your virus scanner.

The dll is the reason for the license problem, but for a different reason:
http://code.google.com/p/mame-rr/issues/detail?id=1

[jedpossum]

Sorry, If I sounded like a dick. It just annoyed I had to disable instant scanning of dll files. to just get it white listed it just annoyed me for awhile to get it working again.

[dammit]

Nah it's cool. Believe me, no one wants to get it improved more than I do.