Mikau's Happy Place

Don't follow instructions.

Sat, 03 May 2008 13:59:49 GMT

I just bought a nice new computer desk for $50, great deal it was on sale.

So I bring it home and I figure I'll play it safe putting it together and follow their easy to read instructions.

First it asks me to brace the legs together with the back bar. That's good, starting with a base. Good stuff.

Next step is to fasten a side panel for the tower to sit on. That's great, I need a place to put the old beast.

Step 3, set the top on the legs. So without thinking, I set the table part on top of the legs, and fumble around with the screws trying to line up the holes.

This is where I stopped for a second and thought, "wouldn't this have been easier before the desk looked like a desk?

Step 4, fasten the sliding keyboard tray to the bottom of the table.

Here's where I stood there scratching my head thinking, "wouldn't it have made more sense to fasten the sliding tray while the table top was off?"

I crumpled up the instructions. If I ever have to put this desk together again, step one is putting the sliding tray on the table. Step 2 is fastening the table to the legs. I should have just read the instructions backwards...

Certain People

Fri, 02 May 2008 04:53:45 GMT

Last night I found out that SuperAntx doesn't have a membership. So I think someone should buy him one.

I would, but I have no money in my paypal account.

Dragon Warrior II

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 17:52:57 GMT

Writers Thoughts

The decendant of Eldrick is back on the case, in this case the decendants. We are no longer what seems to be a Dragon Warrior however, since the role has been split into a team of three. The main character being a Knight-like warrior. His male cousin being more like the hero from the first game, and his female cousin being more of a Wizard.

The game was a little more involved than the first, although it followed the same exact story. In the first game you found the princess, while in this game you have to find a prince and a princess(of which both join you on your journey and fight with you). You then proceed in the first one to collect 2 items so you can get to the final castle and kill the boss, where in the second one you have to collect quite a bit more(I want to say about 9, but I can't remember for sure).

As for the grinding, it seems that Enix didn't want to change that a bit. I spent most of my time playing the game simply walking back and forth grinding levels. The system was basically the same however, as well as all the graphics. Magic doing set amounts of damage, physical damage resisted by defense. I found myself really bored by the end of the game, all I seemed to be doing was traveling. Go from one side of the map to the other and get item. Then go back to the other side of the map and get another item. Then go back AGAIN to get another item.

I can't believe however, that websites were saying that you should play the game boy color version over the original because it was "easier." The game is already easy enough, it's just a massive amount of traveling.

Screenshots

Pilotwings

Sat, 26 Apr 2008 19:04:20 GMT

Writers Thoughts

This is quite the silly little game that I used to play when I was younger. I remember spending countless hours sitting cross legged on the floor in front of the TV playing this.

I haven't played through the entire game yet(although I did as a child), however I am still working at it, and will add the rest of the screen-shots as I get to them.

You can choose from 5 different tasks, some of which aren't available until later, and the different levels give you different sets. Each level you have to achieve a certain amount of points with the tasks given to you in order to attain the license for that level

The tasks involve: Flying a plane, jet pack, hang-glider, helicopter, and landing with a parachute.

The game is amusing for a while, but I found it got boring really fast. It just seemed like you were doing the same things over and over.

However, if you land on a floating platform that moves around the water instead of the landing pad, you do get a bonus stage where you get to bounce on bomb pads, dive into water from high up, and attempt to fly as far as possible with the hand glider.

Screenshots

Dragon Warrior

Sat, 26 Apr 2008 08:28:56 GMT

Prologue

I have played over the years a massive amount of games, and beaten most of them. So don't take this as my first time playing a game, because it's not. However, I just thought it would be interesting to go back and start replaying those old games that I used to enjoy so much as a child, and since I'm doing it... why not write about it?

I didn't really think to take any screenshots until after I had completed the game. So there's only 5 of them taken, and they only show the castle, the last fight, and the end.

Writers Thoughts

The game starts with you(the hero) in front of the king being told to go off in search of his daughter. He doesn't give you the faintest idea as to where she is, so the most you can do is grab some chests to get a key to leave, and then start searching for your needle in a haystack.

You get some gold to start(which is enough for a crappy weapon and some crappy armor, or a semi-decent weapon, and no armor. Then, off you go. Pretty much the entire game is spent training your warrior for the end battle, with a few goals in between, but they aren't enough to really give the game a storyline other than "get out there and get 'em, Tiger!"

As you train your warrior, you slowly get to explore more and more of the game since the monsters progress in difficulty in chunks and not gradually, until you are strong enough to fight the final boss. Along the way, you must first rescue the princess from a dragon, and bring her back to the castle. Then you must build a bridge out of rainbows(it looks oddly like a normal bridge), you do this by collecting sunshine and rain(yay). Then it's just a matter of finding your way through the castle, and bashing the dragon lord on the head... twice.

The games system is rather simple, magic has a predetermined effect, and your attack is simply diminished by the enemies defense, and vice-versa. It was nice to play a game again where you didn't do 9,999 damage. I think the most I did was 90 damage on a critical.

I played through the game on the Game Boy version, and I'm not that impressed. They made the main character look like a horned goof, and the game was about 10 times easier. I guess the children of today can't handle a little difficulty in their gaming experience.

The main character was stronger at the same levels in comparison to the NES version, as well as being able to level up a lot faster. I also remember it taking a little bit more effort to get the 14,000 or so gold to get the best shield, in the GBC version, I was at the end of the game and had 40,000 gold extra, and nothing to do with it.

I would really suggest playing the NES version over the GBC version. It looks better, and it's much harder, which in my opinion makes it a hell of a lot better.

Screenshots

Clicking on an image will open it in a new tab

What a horrible week.

Sat, 19 Apr 2008 06:15:46 GMT

I started off last Friday having influenza, which died down after a couple days and I just had a common cold, and now it's decided that it wants to also include a fever.

If I didn't know it I'd say my body is fighting me, and winning. What's next... Ebola?

Pass The Dutchie

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 06:47:57 GMT

I'm just a bill.

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 06:14:33 GMT

Apologies

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 06:29:23 GMT

I helped Sada with her CSS, and I'm not sure how exactly she managed to post 4 times in an hour. However, she was having computer trouble yesterday, so I don't know.

Anyways, I forgot when I resized the #center box(even on my own blog), to fix the edit input, in fact- all inputs weren't usable. It's all fixed now and she's going to delete the other posts.

I'm not sure why you all attacked her in the comments. It was a mistake, and there was no harm done. You did a good job however, making yourself look like fools. Really looks good on the community itself when someone makes a mistake, and you attack them furiously. Good thing she's not rich with a mindset on donating to BYOND. That would have turned her off without a second glance.

I see...

Sun, 13 Apr 2008 08:58:02 GMT