Rants & NDS Emulated Gaming

Now, a change of topic beside Gundam. I know some of you may get bored if I keep going on and on only about a singular topic for a long period of time, especially my friends. XP

Note: TL, DR

Part 1: DUDE, WHERE'S MY INTERNET?!
First of all, I like to shout at Streamyx for their FABULOUS service. Sure, the line stays on slightly longer before it disconnects lately, but in turn, the overall Internet surfing speed is extremely slow. How am I suppose to open 5-10 tabs at once like I usually do? I can barely load 2 tabs without closing the 2nd tab to let the 1st tab to load completely nowadays. I haven't even begun on how hellish it is to download stuff. Torrents that normally take me a few hours before can take days on end due to slow speeds and constant disconnections makes it all the worse. Guh, I haven't been keeping up with the current anime and manga trends because of last month and this month FABULOUS Internet quality. I was also thinking of playing online game this month which was sadly impossible. Extremely frustrating. I hope after the TM Net conference tomorrow, things change for the better soon, REAL SOON.

Part 2: I Love Handhelds
This whole month of July is my only semester break for this year ever since I started to go to Swinburne, wasting half of it on Gunpla and the middle portion visiting another area of the country. Well, not really wasting as I gathered experience in life and met some new friends. When I was at KL, I became interested to game once again(I got bored of gaming earlier this year) and to be specific, Nintendo DS(NDS) handheld gaming after I got to play with SwatWolf's NDSL...

Lite(The little handheld gaming system which can be seen in hands on little kids all over town that which I have yet to obtain. However, I was very close in investing in the Nintendo DSNDSL) while shopping in KL. Oh so very close if only money was really that easy to spend carelessly. At any rate, I'm planning to but a NDSL by year's end, 2 if possible, one for me and another for my sister. Thus, I guess, begins my decline in Gunpla purchases... after I get MG Exia and HG Reborns Gundam/Cannon. XP

At the same time, especially because of Dissidia, I also might want to save up some cash to invest in the PSP too unless the PSP emulator becomes amazing by the time I almost buy a PSP(which is never if I were to buy 2 NDS). X/ Then again, I don't like the PSP as much as the NDS, way less games I like on that system but the really good games, even though not so many, can sway a person to think of purchasing it just for 1 or 2 games... WHY MUST DISSIDIA AND KINGDOM HEARTS: BIRTH BY SLEEP ARE ON THE PSP ONLY?! D=

Part 3: At Least There Are Emulators Available
For quite some time I've been playing NDS games on emulators such as the IDeaS and No$GBA but due to the lack of interactive capable gaming on these really great pieces of software, I only can play the games partly or half-assed. It makes games with multiplayer capabilities go to waste. Then again...

For the PSP? The emulator seems to cater much promise and the developement is currently quite fast. So it might be possible for us to enjoy some PSP gaming on your computer screens very soon as well. However, handheld games are meant to be played on handhelds... as in within easy grip in our hands. =P

Note: You can also read my earlier entry on "NDS Emulated Gaming" 2 years back.

Click the "Read more..." if you want to see screenshots on my NDS Emulated Gaming fun! Which is fortunately the best thing to do when the Internet becomes a place far away for 21st "centurians".

Part 4: Gaming Fun
IDeaS and No$GBA both work very well in emulating NDS games, especially the No$GBA.

With the add-on No$Zoomer and of course the NDS firmware(not really needed, but some games need it) which you need to rip from a real NDS or find "somewhere", the No$GBA can emulate almost every game perfectly except WiFi, which it sorely lacks support in.

IDeaS is also quite good, but I feel it is behind the No$GBA. I feel that its 3D rendering is better though but it is unable to emulate sound properly. It has a semi-working dupe WiFi plugin which is slightly better than No$GBA but it still won't let you multiplay. Well, at least I heard it can help you get out of a jam in Pokemon Platinum which is undo-able on No$GBA. =P
First game I played this month was Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days. It was still in Japanese and the English release is slated for September. Luckily, some lessons in Hiragana and self memorized Katakana charts comes in handy in reading. Unfortunately, my inability to read Kanji
makes reading very incomplete as a lot of Kanji was used. Fortunately, I got the gist of the story and it was quite sad. Play it yourself if you want to know why the story is sad.

The main menu after you finished story mode at least once.

Theater mode is unlocked after you finished the main story at least once. It lets you view all the video movies in the game. Yes, the No$GBA can render videos, very well in fact.

I'm only missing one character for mission mode. Bah, don't really feel like unlocking him since I don't feel like playing mission mode unless I have a real DS and another person to play with.

Xemnas floats! Lazy guy who doesn't walk like others do.

Story mode you can only control Roxas. Certain missions will let you have a Org XIII party member with you.

Currently I'm playing this "popular" game, Pokemon Platinum. If I had 2 real NDS, it would be oh so much more fun...

Gotta pluck em' berries.

DRIFLOON shinka~

If you don't save for a while or catch quite a number of Pokemon in-between saves, you'll "save a lot of data".

I played this earlier this week and completed it rather quickly. The gameplay is rather easy for a SRPG but it has multiple story paths which will need you to play at least 3 times to get the whole story. I only played the "good path" for now.

The opening video of this game is simply beautiful.

Make sure you configure the game controls before playing, it may not be what you're used to.

Yep, those are the games I played/currently playing this break. All RPGs as I love RPGs, especially those with a good story. I liked the story for Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume, especially the good ending(quite touching).

Well, that's all there is to talk about for now which is basically me throwing words out the window just for the sake of spitting out some thoughts from my mind. Besides gaming, I'm also thinking of continuing my drawing skills to the next stage which is me trying to color my sketches better than my previous skills would permit.

Until the next post.