Blogger Archive: TraderJake 
You know, I thought the "Mega Man 9 will be done in 8-bit graphics" was an exaggeration. Something... lost in translation. Those things happen. That's why we say crazy Japanese translations like "SUPER HAPPY CRAZY FUN TIME". But you know, Mega Man 9. Wow, was it for real? Surely someone was jerking our chain, Capcom would never go back to revisit a class style of game, would they? Eh? EH?
WRONG! Turns out Mega Man 9 is very, very real. Complete with robot masters like Magma Man and my personal favorite, Concrete Man. More importantly, they weren't lying when they said it would be in 8-bit graphics. It really, really is. A part of me is saying WTF, while the other 4/5 says "Holy shit that's awesome!" Seriously, absolutely awesome, like "I AM BUYING THAT" awesome. Truly, Mega Man 9 has the potential to be quite the throw back to old school Mega Man. Here's to that. By the way, pictures can be seen at Kotaku
Old School Mega Man 9 Coming To WiiWare [Kotaku]
As many of you probably know, RF Generation was down for much of April and May, as we experienced growing pains. We thought we'd be okay, but we were slammed by the traffic monster and we had to move from a shared host all the way to a dedicated host. As you probably can figure, we here at RF Generation have been made aware of the fact that some people worry that we might just get up and never return, and we'd like to clear some things up.
Some people worry still that RF Generation is going to pack up and leave in the not too distant future. It saddens me that our recent downtime has caused this fear to arise. We tried very hard to communicate through our emergency blog what was happening with the site. Unfortunately, we were under the impression that we'd be on the dedicated server much sooner than we eventually were. As such, rfgeneration.com for a while pointed to nothing instead of the emergency blog or the real site. We're certainly sorry about that, but I can tell you that we've now gone over four weeks without going down, and I can say that I, along with probably the rest of you, are extremely happy with the fact that we're on this wonderful dedicated host. It's not cheap, but this dedicated server ensures that RF Generation will be around for the long haul.
RF Generation would never just get up and disappear. Too many people have put so much into this site for it just to go away. It would be too great of a disservice to the people who have put their heart into this website. RF Generation is truly the community's website, and no one has the right to take it away from you guys. We'll do everything we can to keep running for years and years to come, and right now with the new server we're confident that we'll be around for a long time.
We need your help, please let those who think we've gone and kicked the bucket know otherwise. Let the world know that we're not dead, and we're back and better than ever. A lot of exciting new things are cooking right now. It's definitely a time to be excited. Share that excitement! Let's make RF Generation THE Classic and Modern Gaming Databases. As a community, we'll be sure that everyone keeps it tuned to channel three.
Sincerely,
David Murnan
Site Director, RF Generation
As you may or may not know, Tondog is a huge fan of MGS4. If he could, he'd probably have Kojima's babies. Unfortunately, or fortunately for him, he is a guy, and such a thing is physically impossible. That said, lots of people bought MGS4, including Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw. See, Yahztee does Zero Punctuation, which in the realm of the internet geared towards gamers is absolutely hilarious. Today, Yahtzee is reviewing Metal Gear Solid 4, and well... why don't you watch it for yourself.
So, what'd you think? Personally, I am part of the group not currently already entrenched in Metal Gear Solid, so I think I'll follow this advice and just not play the game. Not really my cup of tea anyways. But then, I don't drink tea. What about you? Did Yahtzee strike a nerve, or do you wholeheartedly agree?
[img align=right width=250]http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/repository/59727nights.jpg[/img]Wow, this is sort of sad. Nights, the game that a lot of fans asked for, came out, was declared mediocre, and now can be found new for $2.99. Of course, you have to live by a Meijer, which for those not in the know is a nicer, Midwest version of Wal-Mart. I have one three minutes from my house, and there is another Meijer probably 10 minutes from my house, if not less. Will I go out of my way to get this game on the cheap? Nah, that's alright, the game didn't really interest me, but perhaps you are and you live near a Meijer. If that is the case, then go buy your game on the cheap.
Did Nights really do that poorly? I've heard it sold 100000 copies, which is more than some other games, like Boom Blox. Does it deserve the $2.99 price tag, or is Meijer giving this game the shaft? It might be on clearance now, but regardless, this price tag is almost disgracefully low. Someone must have it out for this game at Meijer HQ. Perhaps their son told them it was stupid. That's just too bad.
Also, before you ask, no, I am not going to go buy the game for you.
Come on…Nights is worth more than this… [GoNintendo]
As many of you who frequent the site probably knew, RF Generation has had a contest going on since our 4th birthday, which happened to be April 28 for those who don't know. It was supposed to end on June 8, but was extended for two weeks because of the massive amount of downtime that we experienced. Now that the contest is over, it's time to recognize the winners, so that they can claim their just desserts.
In case we all forget, these were the prizes up for grabs:
FIRST PLACE: Gaming swag not to exceed $100 and also a groovy RF Generation ringer T.
SECOND PLACE: Gaming swag not to exceed $25 and also a groovy RF Generation ringer T.
THIRD PLACE: A groovy RF Generation ringer T
So, who won? Well, lets let that known, shall we?
Third Place: Vokyous (6001pts)
Second Place: VACRMH (8358pts)
First Place: Rajaat the Warbringer (17088pts)
Congrats to all those who won! If you won you should probably PM Me with a)What You Want, b)Where I am to Ship it to, and c)What Size Shirt do you wear. In case you are wondering where you were on the standings, the contest results can be found here.
This contest was fun, and much less subjective than previous birthday contests of old. Even if you didn't win something, we certainly appreciate your submissions, as without your submissions we just don't grow. Secondly, I'd like to thank those staff members who really stepped it up to approve your submissions. Of all the people approving your submissions during the contest, Fuyukaze took the cake with approvals. I am certainly appreciative for that, as well as all those amazing staff members who helped out.
From all of us at RF Generation, Congratulations!
[img align=right width=200]http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/repository/77287cg6.jpg[/img]
You know, I happen to live in Cincinnati. It’s sort of an advertising / marketing Mecca. That’s bound to happen when Procter and Gamble happens to be based in your city. You know, Ivory Soap, Tide, Pringles, Gillette, Old Spice, Febreeze, etc… that company. Not to mention all of their recent divestures, we are home to the company who spends lots of money on their brands. In fact, they spend the most money of any company. So, certainly, we in Cincinnati have a company who knows how to do things right. God bless P&G. They make Cincinnati proud.
Some companies try very hard to be good at advertising. They try very hard to project an image. They’re so good that they do so at the expense of royally ticking off their old fan base. Nintendo seems to be that brand. It’s sad though, as they try to be just like Apple, but that’s hard when you have people like Laurent Fischer.
Continue reading The Cynical Gamer #6: Laurent Fischer
You guys rock. Because of the submissions of many people, RF Generation can proudly say that we have over 60000 images on our site. That's just games and hardware images, too. I bet we have quite a few collection photos, as well. This is an amazing accomplishment, and further cements RF Generation's place as THE classic and modern gaming databases. From just a few images to 60000, let's keep growing our image database. After all, there are almost 30000 games that need either a box front, box back, manual, or game scan. How cool would it be if we could get an image for every game? Perhaps some day we shall.
There are so many people to thank for their image submitters. Submitters of old like SpeedyNES and blissfulnoise. Current submitters like Rajaat the Warbringer and NES_Rules. Staff Members like Tan, Fuyukaze, and Funk Buddy. Old Staff Members such as Pop_Culture_Portal. So many other people I haven't mentioned - THANK YOU! Today wouldn't be an awesome day if it was not for all your amazing work!
60000 images... Here's looking for 70000... 100000! Together, we'll hit more momentous occasions in the not too distant future!
[img align=right]http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/hardware/U-115/bf/U-115-H-0001C-B.jpg&sizex=200[/img]Now, in about three days, I can officially say that I am a Civil Engineer. Now, Civil Engineers do a lot of things. Designing Bridges, Creating Dams, Building Things, Creating Traffic Jams, Mitigating Floods, yeah, we do all that and much more. See, there is this thing though. Most, if not all Civil Engineers specialize in something. I, for example, specialized in transportation. Seamar, specialized in structures. See, from an ethics standpoint, we agree only to practice in the fields we're competent in. We know better than do attempt to do something when we have no idea how. So, we know better than than to do and market things that we have no idea how to do, so why does Microsoft then try to do something it doesn't really know how to do?
Microsoft does a bunch of things well. I personally enjoy their Wireless Mice and Keyboards. Windows XP was and still is amazing. So Microsoft can in fact do things well. But there are certain things that Microsoft doesn't do well. Vista, for example. Windows 98 is to Windows XP like Windows Me is to Windows Vista. So, some things that Microsoft do are just terrible.
So, Microsoft has this wonderful little console that many of you might lovingly refer to as the Microsoft Xbox 360. It's lovely little console, but it had some problems. These problems caused Microsoft to issue a recall for the 360, and with that recall came quite a monetary hit on their ledger. So, what caused this problem?
So, this wonderful guy at the Gartner Group, Bryan Lewis, who happens to be their research VP and chief analyst, has stated that the source of their gigantic recall lies in the fact that Microsoft decided to design their original GPU by themselves. Did you know that Microsoft designs GPUs? Neither did I. When I think Graphics Accelerator, I think NVidia and ATI. Turns out, once a massive recall is initiated, that Microsoft also thinks ATI for their graphics needs, as that's who they contracted to redesign their 360 GPU.
Here's to you, Microsoft. If only you had used ATI or NVidia to begin with, you wouldn't have had this massive recall and all those extended warranties. I bet you all don't care, as your warranties are longer. But then, there are probably several of you who wish they didn't have to send their 360 in because of a RRoD. If only Microsoft stuck to what it could do well and contracted out that what it couldn't, you might have never had to send out your 360.
Xbox 360 RRoD finally explained? [CVG]
June 8th, 2004. On that day, RF Generation went live to the world. In the four years since we've gone live, RF Generation has grown from a small community and database to a large community of collectors and gamers who have worked to make RF Generation THE classic and modern gaming databases. Today is definitely a day to celebrate.
The last few months have been hectic here at RF Generation. Last year, June 8 brought our current site design. This year, June 8 brings two weeks of smooth sailing on our dedicated host. That's reason enough to celebrate. Certainly, I am pleased.
We have a lot of people who have donated money to keep RF Generation free and ad-free for all. Without their donations, RF Generation would have to resort to using ads to support our server costs. I am extremely thankful for the donations that our donors have made. So far, we've raised more than 270 dollars for our donation drive! We're truly humbled by the generosity of our members. We have created a Donors Page to thank all those who have donated. We really appreciate their donations, and we thank them for their generosity.
Some of you might be wondering about our little submissions contest. It was supposed to have ended some 15 hours ago. Well, because we were down for much of May, I am pleased to announce that the "Pain Yourself With Submissions" Contest has been extended for two more weeks. The contest will now end at midnight (CDT) on June 29, 2008! So, get those submissions in! Swag to be had! You could win!
Four years live. what a day to celebrate. Our community is the best. From all of us at RF Generation, keep it tuned to channel three.
There are some games that people just think are pipe dreams. Games, in development for so long that many of you were not even Teens yet. Games in development for 12 long, painful years. A game that lends its abbreviation to imply something that is destined to never come out. You know, that game.
What? You've become so jaded that you don't believe me that there could be footage of that game on the internet? Well, you go on your merry way. Everyone else might want to search the above video, you might just find footage of that game.
That game footage revealed on premire of The Jace Hall Show [Destructoid]
Well, I must apologize for the lack of an update in April on submissions. RF Generation was sort of on an up and down swing. Unfortunately, this up and down nature of the site kept me from being able to do a submissions update for April. For that, I am sorry.
Anyways, how were submissions during the tumultuous month of April? Well, there were 1700 submissions. Not bad, given how we were down for half of the month and when we were up it was a real chore. For April, the top submitter was Fuyukaze, edging out Belgarath by one whole submission! Damn! The top non staff submitter, Darth Sidious, was not too far behind, with 183 submissions during April. Excellent work! If you're wondering who was approving all of those non-staff submissions, s1lence kicked ass and took names with approvals, soundly outdoing Fuyukaze who had the second largest number of submissions! Of course, there were plenty of people who did their part with submissions, and I'd like to take the time to thank those submitters who made more than 50 submissions in April:
Fuyukaze, Belgarath, Darth Sidious, Cobra, DefaultGen, dotDarkCloud, ApolloBoy, y2richie, Madir, and Rajaat the Warbringer.
Thanks to them and everyone else who made submissions in April!
Now, for May, well, there was this contest or something that is still going on, more on that later. We unfortunately had some downtime during May as well. Frustrating, really, but it's all sorted out now. We had 3523 submissions, which is awesome considering how we were down for half the month. We had almost 2900 image submissions in May. Damn! That's really, really impressive! Kudos to you all! Of course, there was this contest going on, and well, some people went all out in submissions. The top submitter for May was Rajaat the Warbringer. He had a whopping 1361 submissions! Damn! The second largest submitter last month was VACRMH with 867 submissions! Good job you two! In terms of the wonderful people approving your submissions, Fuyukaze kicked ass and took names in submission approvals. He's certainly been doing his part to ensure the contest runs smoothly, and I certainly appreciate everything he's done. Of course, there are many people who made submissions in May, and I'd like to specifically thank those who had 50 or more submissions:
Rajaat the Warbringer, VACRMH, Fuyukaze, NES_Rules, Vokyous, Darth Sidious, Ghost Soldier, Funk_Buddy, y2richie
Thanks you guys and everyone else who made submissions in May! Keep up the great work into June.
Now, there is this contest going on. You might be wondering the standings. You might also be wondering if the contest is going to be extended. Well, first, let me tell you the top three people right now. Currently, the top three people are, in order:
Rajaat the Warbringer
VACRMH
Voykous
There you go, the top three people in the contest. Will they continue to be the top three people, or will someone else pull ahead? Time shall tell!
So, when will the contest end? Some people wish for it to be extended because we were down for half of May. In the spirit of competition, I'd like to extend the competition's length by two weeks. Now, I'd like to do that, but I would like to see what other people think about that. We were down for quite a bit, and well, it's sort of crummy that the contest length was shortened because of it. So, shall we increase the length? Let me know.
Regardless, submit on! Thanks everyone, and here's hoping for an awesome June!
[img align=right]http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/repository/61613CG5.jpg[/img]So, believe it or not, but I am actually a gamer. I know, wow! The cynical gamer is a gamer! It may frighten you to know then that I do not own a 360 or PS3. Rather, I own that technologically inferior Wii. I used to think that was a bad deal, but then I realized that when I do play the system I am absolutely enthralled. Who’d a thunk it? Thanks, Okami! (and NMH, Super Mario Galaxy, Super Paper Mario, Metroid Corruption, and Twilight Princess). Truly, in the mounds of shovel ware, there are some winners.
WiiWare – how I am excited for this downloadable medium. Games like Eternity’s Child and World of Goo, in addition to Strongbad’s Game for Cool and Attractive People, certainly have my interest. On launch day (well, the day after actually), I decided to by Lost Winds. It was a gamble for me, for it was developed by Frontier. Ugh. They developed RollerCoaster Tycoon 3, and that game crushed by top of the line laptop. (at least it was 4 years ago) So, I had low, and at the same time high expectations for the game. Turns out that the game is pretty darn good, but then, I noticed something, and it made me rather unhappy.
On the download screen, Lost Winds takes up about 250 blocks on the Wii. It was then I saw how much space I had left on my internal memory, about 500 blocks. Ouch. I guess I can download one or two more games before Nintendo, in their infinite wisdom, decides that I should start deleting things in order to obtain newer releases. I only have a few Virtual Console games on my Wii, and Lost Winds, so, this development has my head scratching.
What the hell, Nintendo? Do you really want to stifle people from spending money on your wares? Do you really wish to not utilize the SD card slot or USB for additional storage? Do you really think 512MB of internal memory is enough? If you did, then you certainly must have a clearer idea of what people like me want. I guess that I don’t actually know what I want. But, thankfully, you do, and you’re limiting me to 512MB of downloads. Bravo, Nintendo! Bravo!
So, Nintendo, is your head so far up your ass that you can’t see that people are willing to spend money to populate more than 512MB worth of space? Do you really think that everyone is going to only by NES games to populate the Wii Channel list that is horizontally expansive? Do you think people are going to want to constantly delete and re-add games whenever they want to play something? I sure hope not.
512MB is a miniscule chunk of space to bestow on a console with downloadable content. Perhaps it’s time for a larger storage solution for the Wii. Certainly, we gamers hope that Nintendo is doing what is necessary to afford us more space. Until that time, we gamers will continue to be frustrated by the prospect that we’ll have to delete something to add something new. On a console that tries to reach out to the elusive “casual gamer”, ease of operation should be paramount. It’s clear though that the ease of dealing with downloadable content is not. It’s time for that to change.
As most of you know, RF Generation recently moved to a dedicated server. Such a move is not cheap. Our costs in the last two months have increased six fold, and such an increase is no small change. To cope with this increase in prices, we've began to accept donations. These donations help us cope with the server costs, and do their part to ensure that ads stay off this site.
In the four days since we began asking for donations, we've raised $108 to cover server costs. Such generosity is very much appreciated. Unfortunately, I forgot to mention in my announcement that if you donate I'd really appreciate it if you would personal message me stating who you are so we can make note of the donation. We certainly appreciate everyone's generosity, and we want to make sure we know who to thank for these donations. Every little bit matters.
If you are interested in assisting in the funding of server costs, we'd certainly appreciate it. We have a donation page set up to assist with the drive. Every little donation counts, and we certainly appreciate any generosity given. May our little slice of the internet continue to prosper, and may RF Generation continue to be THE classic and modern gaming databases.
[img width=600 height=200]http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/repository/11628Zombies.jpg[/img]
Two weeks. Damn. It’s been a painful, painful two weeks, and the culmination of a painful month of ups and downs after being kicked off our shared host. It’s okay though, we’re on a dedicated server now, and it better keep us up now. Needless to say the downtime was a harsh time for many. RF Generation was down! Oh my God! What was one to do? Where was one to get their fix? What is this… world outside of RF Generation?
Continue reading So, we were down for a while, how did you stay busy?
As you may or may not have noticed, RF Generation over the last month has had its ups and downs regarding whether or not the site was actually up. This rollercoaster ride started when our shared host realized that we are not some small site and decided that we needed to castrate the site. Well, we’re not a big fan of removing features on the site, so we looked for a new host, one where we could stay in the long run. Fortunately, we found that host, and he is one heck of a host. Now, we at RF Generation run a site that is 90% custom (the other 10% is the forum), and when we went to the new host we thought that our site would be okay on something that emulates a dedicated server, or so we thought. It turns out that an emulated dedicated server, commonly referred to as a VPS, does have issues that can affect the entire server. Turns out that we affected the server, three times, and for that reason we had make some changes.
Unfortunately, no single script can be singled out as the prime offender of our problems. If you want to get rid of the prime offenders, you’d be saying goodbye to the forum and collection tools. We’re not in the business of removing features from the site, so we decided to follow the dedicated route. What does that mean? Well, aside from the six fold increase in server costs, we’re now on our own server. That means that we have full access to the resources of the server, and when something goes horribly wrong, we’re not adversely affecting other users of the server. Of course, we hope that now that we’re on the dedicated host nothing terrible will happen, but we’ll prepare for anything.
Some of you offered alternatives to moving to a dedicated server, and we considered them greatly. Unfortunately, our site is a monster, and moving any part of the operation to a shared host would be a risky venture. RF Generation has already been on two oversellers, and we’re done with that, we felt that we needed a solution that wouldn’t lead us to worry about whether or not the site would be up the next day. Certainly, however, we appreciate the kind gestures offered by those individuals.
It might take a week or two to get things running up to speed. If the site crashes, it will be down for a few hours, rather than several days. We don’t anticipate the site crashing, but then we didn’t anticipate us crashing over the last month a total of three times. You might notice that certain things are not quite back. I can confirm that the site statistics page is currently being reworked, as it makes servers cry. Luckily, I don’t think many of you were aware of the site statistics page, so I don’t imagine many tears will be shed regarding that. The main site right bar is also slightly castrated, but then I hate the right bar with an utmost passion. I’m in the process of figuring out what to do with that to make life better. So, most things are back, while other things may be gone for a while, but all the features you know and love are still here. Who knows, there might even be new features in the future.
The future… what does that hold for RF Generation? Well, now that we’re on the new server you might see us add some new features. A game progress tracker is pretty high on my list of things to add. Eddie has his own list of things work on, but then, I must be frank about this. We’ve added lots of new features to the site. Some, like the blog, might cater to a small group of people, while others like database improvements, might be a bit more general. It’s frustrating when these new features are added after lots of requests and then they are not used. How I long for a fleshed out Euro games database. The infrastructure is there, now let’s make that happen. Using the features that we provide is a great way to encourage the programmers to add more and more features. Things like a game progress tracker don’t get coded in a day, and take a lot of planning to do. Give us some encouragement by using the features that we have coded under your request.
As you may have noted, the costs of the server have increased six-fold. You might be wondering if you can help out with the server costs. The short answer is yes, please do. $1080 a year shouldered by a few people is a lot of money to be spending, especially when two of the people are college students. We have a donation page, and we certainly hope that you’ll visit it. We’ll keep you all posted on fund raising efforts. Any money donated to RF Generation will be used solely for the continued operation and betterment of the site. If you donate, there will be placed in the donor category, and there might be some perks associated with that. We’re trying to figure that out still, but we’re trying to make it worthwhile. Because of circumstances, we are going to redefine what being a donor means. Previously, donors sort of stayed in the member group forever. Now, donors will be designated donors for a period of one year from the time of their donation. After that time, they will still be recognized as a previous donor in some form, but any extra perks of being a donor will no longer be available. Donating so much money in a calendar year might result in some RF Generation branded gear. Specifics of that to be worked out later.
RF Generation is the product of the blood, sweat and tears of the entire community. It truly is the community’s website. Look at what we’ve as a community has done. Think about what we can do into the future. Bright times lie ahead, and together, we will all make RF Generation THE classic and modern video games database.
Sincerely,
David Murnan
Site Director, RF Generation
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