Posts by 'zilla

    For those of us who love melodies and can tolerate metal, Power Metal cannot be ignored. The genre is full of fantasy and teenage emotions (I do like that about it), but there are quality pieces to be found too. As an introduction, though, I'll post a catchy tune by the Finnish band Sonata Arctica. This kind of music goes really well with daydreaming you are a dragon and you're flying around and smashing up cities and such. Take it from experience.

    Sonata Arctica - Victoria's Secret

    This time I present to you Swedish maids yelling at cows. The singing style is called kulning and is a method of attracting animals or calling for help across long distances. It is full of ancient blue notes because the human voice can do whatever it wants, and this adds an unmistakable quality to the song.

    This short piece was improvised and performed by Jonna Jinton

    Another video of hers does indeed feature cows

    That brings me back to retro game music and its roots! And I might as well break my trend of folk genres for a while...

    Chiptune came out of the earliest hardcore gamer communities. If you wanted a low-cost copy of a Commodore 64 game, you could send a request via mail and these guys would send you a cracked copy that they released. The game would come with a new intro, where you could select cheats like god mode etc, and the programmers would add their cool animations, programmed bleepy music, and 1337 territorial claims. This underground scene grew through many years and they still have gatherings and demo competitions to date.

    Estrayk is one of these composers, part of the cracking team Paradox. Here is one of his more complex chiptunes showing how the whole thing is programmed and played:

    Estrayk - Longest Rearming

    That's an interesting genre! Challenging to the ears before you get used to it, but the track has sophistication.

    I'm tempted to post a gazillion different electronic tracks, but I'll try to reach for contrast. This German band likes to label themselves as Electro-Medieval. Very gothic, and the singer has an amazing voice. I keep returning to this very track for its great crescendo.

    (Also, I might be lucky because I don't understand Spanish – I bet she sings with a heavy German accent)

    Qntal - Vedes Amigo


    This thread needs more genres

    I think the label that best describes this band is Dark Folk. They are obsessed with pagan Viking soundscapes, and they imbue these tones with a might and ominousness that brings you to an ethereal imaginary past. You can hear the dark forests, the cold ragged mountains, and the echoing lament of gods and men.

    Wardruna - Raido

    I got two sci-fi books from the library that I'm reading right now:

    The Gods Themselves by Isaav Asimov
    The Last Theorem by Arthur C. Clarke & Frederik Pohl

    I recently rented The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin. Didn't get through it in the allotted time, and I might rent it again later.

    Cooking Guide: Can't Decide What to Eat?
    WarioWare: Touched
    Mario Kart DS
    Super Mario DS

    Used to own but sold:
    Pokémon Diamond
    Polarium
    Nintendogs
    Phantom Hourglass
    Metroid Prime Hunters

    I also have the MAX Media Launcher. It bypasses something in the DS and lets it access the GBA slot in DS mode. In the GBA slot, I can place my GBA Movie player, a clunky thing which allows the insertion of a Compact Flash memory card. I also replaced the MAX' firmware with the homebrew MoonShell, which plays game rip formats like SPC and PSF as well as tracker formats like MOD and XM losslessly. It also supports OGG. This used to be my music player. I used a 512MB memory card. Good times.

    Donkey Kong Country Returns
    Link's Crossbow Training
    Metroid Prime 3 Corruption
    Okami
    Rayman Raving Rabbids
    Red Steel 2
    Super Mario Galaxy
    Super Mario Galaxy 2
    Super Smash Bros Brawl
    The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon
    TLoZ: Skyward Sword
    TLoZ: Twiliht Princess
    WarioWare Smooth Moves
    Wii Music
    Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbados' Treasure

    Virtual Console, I can't remember, it's probably around 10 or more

    Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean
    Eternal Darkness
    Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles
    F-Zero GX
    Godzilla Destroy All Monsters Melee
    Mario Kart: Double Dash!!*
    Metroid Prime
    Metroid Prime 2 Echoes
    Pikmin*
    Pikmin 2
    Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
    Prince of Persia: Warrior Within*
    Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones*
    Resident Evil 4
    Soul Calibur II
    Starfox Adventures
    Super Mario Sunshine
    Super Smash Bros. Melee
    Tales of Symphonia
    TLoZ: Ocarina of Time / Master Quest
    TLoZ: Wind Waker

    * Had it, but either sold it or borrowed it to a friend

    Simply awesome. It adds depth to the story that the game itself didn't have. I'm so happy to have watched through it all, just like Fi said too, haha.

    Demise was done really well. Ghirahim just got better and better. It all fit together. Well done to you all!

    Thanks! It kept me busy through boring days and saved me from doing more important things :P

    So now I'm planning an interface for designing your own TMRA on my server. It might have an export function so it can be put somewhere else too.

    I haven't done any coding yet, so I don't know yet whether it's something I can finish. It's going to be a lot of JavaScript, some of it quite tricky, and it will require nearly 20 database tables. (The games themselves do not rely on a database apart from the hi-score table)

    This admin interface will have four pages; scenes, polygons, items and misc. settings. Each will have an overview of its elements and a dialog box for adding and editing.

    There won't be any need to edit code. There also won't be a way to edit files directly unless you export and edit the files for your own server.

    Currently I'm spending time on the layout, which is not my strongest skill. I might try to look for something like Google's bootstrap style, but darker. Anyone have any ideas?


    That sucks... it sucks so much it sucks a big fat wobbly man's sweaty nipples. Is there no contract or clause that makes this illegal? FOUR days?? That is intensely disrespectful. I can't believe they did that to you all!

    Here's hoping 2017 only gets better!

    As for me, I didn't get the job or any other job for that sake. I'm running out of money and I don't know how to pay the March rent yet. I got one application posted now, but I'm extremely overqualified and I haven't heard from them.

    I visited my parents for Christmas. My mother had been running around the house making everything red and putting Santa dolls and silly penguins and moose everywhere.

    Since I live very far north, it's very dark around this time. We also don't have the Thanksgiving or Halloween holidays, so we go all in for Christmas and we put up lots and lots of lights inside to banish the dark. There's candelabras and glowing stars in the windowsills and lots of candles, all warm yellow lights and no flashing ones. We had a real tree and used the same decorations we've had for decades, many hand-made. The weather was mild and we didn't get any snow, but we did get a bit of hail and a storm.

    We had a lot of food and everybody had to fuss a lot to do all the preparations. I made different kinds of cookies. We traditionally open presents on Christmas Eve, but this year we did it on Christmas Day too because the whole family couldn't be there the same day. I got several home-made and edible presents, which makes me happy because I don't really want stuff.

    There was also a lot of board games being played. My sister-in-law loves to play and win, so she used any free opportunity to get us to play.

    It was a good holiday this year. I've not been in the best mood lately, and I'm very grateful of this occasion to be part of something.