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Post by Wyrdwad on Apr 19, 2015 13:38:50 GMT -5
What's tricky is figuring out which creatures are good, and which ones aren't. (Without using a strategy guide) Karma is a very easy way to mess up your game without being able to start over. Do you only get one save, as opposed to 10 in Unbalance Xanadu? Having more than one save file is very helpful. Only one save slot in MSX Xanadu, yeah. And it auto-saves whenever you change levels or enter a tower, so your window to restart when you screw up is really small. The only "extra save slot" is the ability to save to cassette tape if you need to, though you have to own the cassette drive for that. -Tom
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Post by Wyrdwad on Apr 18, 2015 22:29:09 GMT -5
So... is karma the reason why I'm unable to enter any temples? Because that's really annoying. I guess what you're saying is, you get bad karma for destroying bottles of poison, and can cure it by drinking them? EDIT: OK, so yeah, I've confirmed that my karma is the reason I can't level-up, but I'm only level 2, and I've only been on levels 1 and 2 of the dungeon -- so how in the world did I manage to rack up 24 karma?! Guess I'm restarting sooner than I thought! EDIT2: Wow, I think I figured it out. There's a Japanese wiki for the game that says you gain karma when you kill a good creature or when you "shirk payment." I thought this meant when you try to buy something you can't afford, but realized that it actually means saving when you have less than 200 gold -- if you don't have 200 gold to spare for saving or restoring your progress, the game doesn't take ANY gold from you, so I thought it was just, like... the game being kind, for a change. But nope! Guess if you can't afford to pay for your save in gold, you pay for it in karma instead. This game is truly, truly evil! -Tom
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Post by Wyrdwad on Apr 18, 2015 14:06:16 GMT -5
Oh, is that what that does? Heh. Guess I'll try that today! ...Also, karma can be restored by drinking bottles of poison?! Holy crap. I had no idea! Yeah, definitely going to need to be restarting at some point! Heheheh. But I'm still not quite out of commission yet, so I'm going to challenge myself and see how far I can go before I'm totally hopeless. I did learn one other thing for my next playthrough: put a few more points into charisma. Because damn are keys expensive if you don't, and cheap if you do! -Tom
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Post by Wyrdwad on Apr 18, 2015 2:02:59 GMT -5
Still at it, but I'm quickly running out of resources. I was actually forced to start selling off items in order to afford keys, which is never a good sign! I think my adventuring days are numbered. Also received my copies of Xak and Xak II today, and can confirm that both games work perfectly on my system as-is (which means I've also confirmed that my disk drive works perfectly!). Apparently, this model MSX has a built-in GUI to access the built-in word processing apps, complete with '80s-looking "MENU" graphic and (fairly decent) system music, which is kind of interesting. At first I thought my copy of Xak or my disk drive was busted, but nope -- I just had to load BASIC from the menu in order to get it to "see" the disk and run the game. ...And man, Xak II has some amazing music! I dislike how slow it is, though. It seems like they sacrificed processing speed in favor of not having screen tearing like Xak I has... but I'd rather have the screen tearing! -Tom
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Post by Wyrdwad on Apr 16, 2015 11:25:12 GMT -5
The openings to all three games use the same song, actually. And the other two openings aren't really as good as White Witch's, which is the only one of the three that I'd say is definitively better than the PC opening. (Song of the Ocean's is debatable, but Tear of Vermilion's PC opening is far and away better than its PSP opening in every conceivable regard.) That's probably why White Witch's is the only one you can find online -- most likely, nobody even cared to upload the other two. -Tom
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Post by Wyrdwad on Apr 16, 2015 3:58:32 GMT -5
Looks like that "probably" is "definitely," as the battery has been successfully replaced and is working like a charm! Played far enough into the game to actually beat the Big Kraken, though I'm almost certain I'll need to restart, as I did a terrible job of conserving resources. But I'm going to keep at it for a bit and see how far my reckless ways will take me before I throw in the towel. -Tom
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Post by Wyrdwad on Apr 15, 2015 11:09:41 GMT -5
Your guide also says the battery you need is a CR-2030, but your original post said CR-2032. Is... there a difference? Just wanted to make sure, as I'm headed to the game shop in a few hours, and while I'm sure they'll be able to figure it out either way, it would be nice to go in there and be like, "Yeah, I need a replacement CR-2030!" Heheh. -Tom
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Post by Wyrdwad on Apr 15, 2015 3:48:32 GMT -5
That guide is very helpful indeed, Skyewelse! I should hopefully be replacing the battery tomorrow, as my local game shop claims they CAN do it, and will even supply the battery, for a total of $8, which seems like a steal considering I don't own ANY of the necessary components to do it myself. One note, though: I don't know if there were different "editions" of Xanadu for MSX1, but in my copy, it's actually Ctrl-Q to save, not Ctrl-S -- and it costs 200 gold, not 100. -Tom
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Post by Wyrdwad on Apr 9, 2015 12:37:20 GMT -5
You missed it quite a ways back, it would seem. Here are the locations of the three Otherworld Boxes: Ruins Area 3, bottom-left
Tower 3F, bottom-right
Cave B7, top-right -Tom
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Post by Wyrdwad on Apr 8, 2015 11:22:25 GMT -5
Had my eye on all of those except Psycho World and Feedback -- heard of the former but know nothing about it, and never even heard of the latter. I have the PC remake of Maze of Galious, and PSN downloads of the Konami Antiques MSX Collections volume 2 and 3 (containing some classics like Antarctic Adventure, Knightmare, Yie Ar Kung-Fu, Magical Tree, Nemesis 2, Athletic Land, Twinbee, etc.), but would still be down for playing these on original hardware if the opportunity to do so arises (i.e. when I get that megaflashrom!). The games I'm most interested in checking out aside from those are Usas, Shalom, Space Manbow, the King's Valley games, Yuurei-kun/Mr. Ghost, the Xak games, Pippols, and some of the MSX homebrew titles like Caos Begins and Goones R Good Enough. There are a few others, too, that have caught my eye, and all of them together are what convinced me to finally bite the bullet and buy this thing. I'll look into Psycho World and Feedback after work today! -Tom
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Post by Wyrdwad on Apr 8, 2015 1:23:25 GMT -5
I've been intrigued by the footage I've seen of Golvellius, though I've never had the opportunity to play it. Would definitely like to at some point, though -- too expensive to buy the MSX version, but maybe I'll give it a go once I get the megaflashrom!
-Tom
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Post by Wyrdwad on Apr 7, 2015 23:54:49 GMT -5
I've never soldered or desoldered anything in my life, so the mere idea seems extremely frightening to me. If it's as easy as you say, though, it might make for a good project to learn a little about it. I'll have to keep that in mind for the future -- and will be very curious to see how things go on your end! I bought Xak and Xak II, BTW. So my game count (once I receive them) is now up to six. Not a bad start! -Tom
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Post by Wyrdwad on Apr 6, 2015 16:42:54 GMT -5
Ah, BEEP. The greatest BASIC command for any troll. -Tom
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Post by Wyrdwad on Apr 6, 2015 11:24:56 GMT -5
Cool, that's exactly what I needed to know! Thanks! I might play around with MSX-BASIC a little tonight, just to see what it can do. -Tom
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Post by Wyrdwad on Apr 6, 2015 10:10:05 GMT -5
Wait Tom, did you say that your system shows that you have 128 KB Ram already? What is the amount of Main Ram that shows up when you first get the blue screen with the MSX logo? Main RAM is 64k, but the box for Xak specifies VRAM, and my system says it has 128k VRAM -- it's printed right on the chassy itself, so I guess it comes standard! So if I'm understanding you guys correctly, I should be able to play Xak and Xak II with no problems, saving to the user disk until such time as I have a megaflashrom and can save to SRAM instead? I have yet to boot up the MSX without a cartridge in the slot, so I have no idea what happens when I do. If I have a disk in the FDD, will it read that disk automatically, or do I need to... do something? (I'm totally comfortable with DOS and BASIC, as I grew up with them and know them both inside and out -- I've just never owned a computer without a hard drive before, so that's more the source of my confusion here than anything else.) And actually, that brings up another question: if I have games in both cartridge slots, or a cartridge and a disk inserted into the system when it's powered on, how do I tell the system which one to read? Thanks again for all the answers to my stupid questions, everybody! It's greatly appreciated. -Tom
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Post by Wyrdwad on Apr 6, 2015 3:39:03 GMT -5
Hmmm... one more question. I know you were saying before that disk-based games are tricky due to RAM requirements and that I'd be better off waiting until I had the megaflashrom to play around with them, but I'm seeing some pretty cheap copies of Xak and Xak II online. Do you know if these require more than 64k RAM, or would I be able to play them as-is? (The boxes just say they require 128k VRAM, but my system has that, so I'm assuming they'll work just fine...) Also, how does one save in the Xak games? Would my save-data be written to the disk directly, or would I need an external tape drive or something? I might be better off waiting until I get the megaflashrom, if only to play the games in English as opposed to Japanese, but I'm also still in the honeymoon stage with this thing, so I'm psyched to use it as much as possible. -Tom
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Post by Wyrdwad on Apr 5, 2015 2:01:33 GMT -5
I followed that YouTube link from your post on MSX.org, actually! It's very pretty indeed.
And yay, I remember that Let's Play! I watched a good chunk of that a year or two ago -- it really is very helpful! I think the guy had a different YouTube username back then, though, as I don't remember the channel being named "megamarsvin" -- but that's definitely the Let's Play I watched.
Keep me apprised on the SRAM situation, and thanks again for all your help!
-Tom
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Post by Wyrdwad on Apr 4, 2015 23:58:08 GMT -5
Hmmm. I assume I'd need to use the flash rom to run the King Kong 2 patch, no? So that wouldn't work for the moment, but is definitely something to consider for next month. (In the meantime, I've been considering doing a straight run-through of the game using the level 50 cheat code, which I did for about an hour last night and it was super-fun!) Interesting to hear that Xanadu doesn't run on the flash rom, though. I wonder why not? Either way, sounds like I chose well in buying a cartridge copy of it. I'm even OK with the lack of La Valse Pour Xanadu -- blasphemous as this may be, I kind of... prefer the MSX music! It's really catchy. Does Xanadu require more than the base 64k of RAM to run, though? I'm pretty sure Shalom doesn't -- it should run right off the bat without any trouble -- but there isn't a whole lot of info I can find on Xanadu, so I'm hoping I'll be able to run it on my base MSX2+ prior to receiving the flash rom cartridge for extra memory. I'll probably risk it with the battery that's in there, since I have zero skills with soldering -- though there is a local game shop near me that does console and cartridge repair (mostly on classic Nintendo, Sega and Atari consoles and handhelds, though the guy who runs it claims MSX is supported), so maybe they'd be able to replace the battery for me? I'll have to ask, and also see how much they'd charge to do it. ...I have to admit, I'm really enjoying this system so far. It really was a frivolous purchase, but there's something oddly satisfying about playing these games on native hardware. There's definitely a visceral feel to it that's totally unlike the feel you get from emulating. And I am having an absolute blast with The Goonies! What a great game -- much better than the Famicom version, if you ask me. And much, MUCH harder, too! I'm on stage 4, and I am soooooo lost. -Tom
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Post by Wyrdwad on Apr 4, 2015 22:56:41 GMT -5
Hmmm... looked into it a little, and it sounds like Shalom is no problem since it has a gajillion different save options (including password)... but Xanadu is a curious case, as it appears to default to internal SRAM battery backup saves, like so many different NES and SNES games! I wonder if the copy I bought will still have a usable battery in it...? Apparently both games also allow for tape-drive saving, and Shalom can save to disk as well. So again, no problem on Shalom's part, but I am a bit concerned about Xanadu. Fingers crossed that I got a copy with a working battery, I guess! -Tom
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Post by Wyrdwad on Apr 4, 2015 18:55:36 GMT -5
My copy of King Kong 2 and my controller arrived as well now, and both work great. And I just scored a good deal on copies of Xanadu (the MSX1 cartridge version, not the crappy MSX2 version -- at least, I don't think so! But either way, I didn't pay a lot for it, so whatever) and Shalom, both of which I'm excited to play. I am concerned, though, about saving. I didn't realize, going into King Kong 2, that you can't save your game... unless you have a copy of Hinotori in the other cartridge slot. And a tape drvie on which to save it. Which is kind of lame. Both Shalom and Xanadu are lengthy games as well, so... can anyone tell me what I might need in order to save my progress in them? I'm assuming a floppy disk in the drive? I'm also assuming this'll all be a moot point once I get the megaflashrom, but until then, it would be nice to play these games without having to restart from the beginning every time. So any help you guys might be able to provide would be appreciated! Thanks! -Tom
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