HOW-TO: N64 Controller Setup With Micro's N64 PCB Converter And Mayflash USB Adapter

I decided to upload this here from my RetroPie forums post on the same thing, just so it has another chance to be found on a random Google search.

I'm not sure how many people are actually running N64 games on their RPis or actually using the original controllers, or if anyone even knows about this PCB in general, but I wanted to post about it so if someone needs help down the road like I did, hopefully they will find this thread. This is the result of hours and hours of Google searching and trial and error. I know a lot of people use the Mayflash adapter but in the event that you have something else like Raphnet's adapter for example, these same principles will work.

NOTICE: I'm also running RetroPie 4.2

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N64 Controller with Micro's PCB Converter and Mayflash USB Adapter

What is it?

It's a PCB made to replace GameCube style joystick replacements. If you've ever replaced the original joysticks and were tricked into buying a GC-style replacement, you know how bad they truly are for accuracy in games. The stepping is very imprecise, meaning no dash-dancing in SSB, no spin attacks in Zelda, and certainly no precision platforming in Mario...

This PCB that comes with the GC-style joystick really sucks...

micro's PCB Converter board not only fixes all of that by adding a more accurate potentiometer and faster micro-controller, but adds a few features that are really handy such as being able to calibrate the joystick on startup, and inverting the joystick controls with the flick of an onboard switch! Keep in mind, I am using V3.0 of that PCB located at the end of that thread, but the same principles apply.

Why am I posting this here? 

Well, I had originally been using the GC-style joystick replacement, and it worked after tweaking the AnalogPeak and DeadZone values in InputAutoCfg.ini but it was way to sensitive. You can imagine my surprise when I installed the new PCB and it had gotten worse. Yeah, worse. Even adjusting the values again couldn't make Mario run full speed.

OK, well how do I fix it?! 

It's easy! First thing you should do after installing the new PCB is to calibrate the controller and test its values with sanni's Controller Test ROM. If you have a real N64 then you will need a flashcart, otherwise you will need a MESS Emulator. The controller enters calibration mode the second it has any power. That means if you are using a real N64, calibration starts upon powering the system. If you are emulating, it starts as soon as you plug in your USB adapter. I'm using the Mayflash 2-port USB adapter, but I assume it works with any adapter. It only needs power to calibrate!

Calibration:

Calibration of the joystick is easy with this PCB. The VERY first time you provide power you will be in calibration mode. If you screw up and need to re-enter calibration mode, you have two choices depending on how you soldered the PCB:

IF YOU SOLDERED THE L/Z COMBO PADS- Just hold L and Z while you power on the console/USB Adapter and re-do your calibration.

IF YOU DID NOT SOLDER L/Z COMBO PADS- You are going to have to open the controller and joystick assembly again. Flip the calibration switch on the PCB, and plug your controller into the console/USB Adapter. Power on and wait 2 seconds, then power off. Flip the calibration switch back to its original position. Next time you power up, you will be in calibration mode.

Now spin the joystick around, like you would playing a game. Do this for about 4 seconds so the micro-controller can program the stick's values. Now power off the system, or un-plug your USB adapter. Plug it back in/power on, and load the Controller Test ROM. Check to make sure you have full range on each axis. If you do not, re-calibrate the controller as explained above. Then re-check your values. If everything is good, move on to the next step!

RetroPie and mupen64plus - Troubleshooting buttons and analog range:

This is where you will either be fine, or not fine at all. First thing to do is to configure your controller in Emulation Station, then load up a game. I always choose Super Mario 64, but Zelda is a good candidate as well. Make sure you have full range in all directions, and make sure it is not too sensitive! Make sure if you are playing Zelda, that you can do spin attacks with ease. If you are good on all fronts, then great! Most likely however, you will not be done yet. You most likely will not have proper range, and your buttons will be mapped wrong. So what now? We need to edit some config files.

Button Mapping:

First, let's make sure our buttons are all mapped correctly. Mupen64Plus automatically configures controllers, but it's very hit or miss and often assigns two buttons to the same button. Exit back to RetroPie, and plug in a keyboard. Hit F4 to enter command line. We're looking for three files in particular: InputAutoCfg.ini,  autoconf.cfg and mupen64plus.cfg.  First, open up autoconf.cfg in nano:

sudo nano /opt/retropie/configs/all/autoconf.cfg

Look for a line that says mupen64plus_hotkeys and change it's value to 0. Now we have to open mupen64plus.cfg:

sudo nano /opt/retropie/configs/n64/mupen64plus.cfg

Scroll down to the [Input-SDL-Control] block, and find this line:

# Controller configuration mode: 0=Fully Manual, 1=Auto with named SDL Device, 2=Fully automatic

mode = 2

Change mode to 0. THIS NEEDS TO BE DONE. This turns off auto configuration of the controls, which is necessary so we can configure the proper controls ourselves without them being overwritten every time. You can do this for the rest of the input devices if you are using more than one controller. Press Ctrl+X, then Y to save changes, and Enter to overwrite the file with our changes. Now we need to get our joystick values and buttons. RetroPie has jstest installed by default I believe, so now run:

jstest /dev/input/js0

You will see a table with Axis' and Buttons, and what device we have plugged in. What you want to do here is to press all your buttons and axis' and write down what they correspond to, their values, and write down the name of the device. For example, my Mayflash adapter registers as HuiJia USB GamePad. The C Buttons use axis controls, so C Left might be -3, while C Right is +3. The L trigger might be button 6. Whatever values you get, make sure you write them down, and don't forget to mark down whether they are positive or negative! After you have all your buttons and axis' written down and the device name, we have to apply them to InputAutoCfg.ini. So open it up:

sudo nano /opt/retropie/configs/n64/InputAutoCfg.ini

You will see all the controllers that Mupen64Plus has stored. We're looking for our device name. If it is not there, we will have to create one ourselves. Here is an example of a pre-defined controller:

;USB gamepad            CONFIG START
[USB gamepad]
plugged = True
plugin = 2
mouse = False
AnalogDeadzone = 4096,4096
AnalogPeak = 32768,32768
Mempak switch = 
Rumblepak switch = 
C Button U = axis(2-)
C Button D = axis(2+)
C Button L = axis(3-)
C Button R = axis(3+)
R Trig = button(5)
Start = button(9)
Z Trig = button(4)
A Button = button(2)
DPad U = hat(0 up)
DPad D = hat(0 down)
DPad R = hat(0 right)
DPad L = hat(0 left)
B Button = button(3)
Y Axis = axis(1-,1+)
X Axis = axis(0-,0+)
;USB gamepad            CONFIG END

Again, if you do not see your controller in this .ini file, copy this block and enter it at the end of the .ini file. Replace all the buttons and axis values with the ones you wrote down earlier. Also, you need to make sure that you replace the "USB gamepad" fields with your device's name. Do not change the AnalogPeak or Deadzone values yet. Ctrl+X and save your changes. Test your controls in a game. You should now have properly configured buttons, but if not just go back and make sure you have the correct values for your buttons and axises. Make sure your analog stick is working correctly as well.

Analog Troubleshooting:

If for some reason you still do not have correct analog range, then we will have to use jscal to re-calibrate the joystick. Go into command line with F4, and type:

jscal -c /dev/input/js0

It will now calibrate the joystick. Your input will be required, so pay attention. It will ask you to do minimum, center, and maximum values for all axises. For minimum, you want to have the lowest value you can get on an axis. For example, doing left and right on the analog stick, my minimum was all the way left. Center is self-explanatory; just keep the joystick centered. Maximum was all the way to the right. C Buttons are axises as well, so again in my case C Left was the minimum, no buttons pressed is center, and C Right was maximum. Your mileage will vary, but these are general guidelines to follow for any joystick. After it is done, try a game out again, and you should have the correct analog values.

Last Resort Tactics:

If you still do not have the correct values, try running jscal as is. That ended up being my solution after all of this. You can also solder the Range Extender pad on the PCB to try extending the analog ranges. That requires a bit of soldering to the joystick PCB as well as the N64 controller PCB, so be careful!!!! If all else fails, make sure you have properly soldered everything, and if THAT fails you can try mapping your N64 controller as a Xbox 360 controller or this slightly intimidating guide using some commands in Linux. Good luck!

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Hopefully this is useful for some people seeking help with their controller setups. If someone has anything to add, please let me know! Happy gaming!

YOU DIED - A Dark Souls Rant

DARK SOULS - A.K.A. FUCK YOU I HATE THE FUCKING WORLD!!!

Please do not mistake that caption as my overall opinion of this fine game. That is just a phrase I've repeatedly screamed whilst playing Dark Souls. I've heard a lot of people talk about this series as one of the best action role-playing game series to ever grace the gaming world, and I will absolutely agree with every single one of them.

Yes, it is mostly an RPG. You know that I hate RPGs with a fiery passion so hot that Hades himself would sweat profusely, but maybe I haven't really discussed in detail as to why I loathe them so intricately. I like RPGs, as long as the rewards for grinding for levels for excruciatingly long periods of time are worth it. I like a good immersive story, with memorable characters and locations. As long as there is a good payout for the shit I have to go through, I will like it.

What I do not like, is having to do mundane side quests or rather, deal with design choices that I do not agree with. I'm going to look back at Morrowind again and its first person perspective of what is essentially a tabletop RPG. To me, that is two things that do not fucking mix. Part of having the first person perspective is the immersion; I want to feel like I'm swinging a giant sword I could never possibly hope to wield in real life, or cast ludicrously powerful spells as if I was like fucking Merlin himself, or something. I'm not saying its a bad game at all. I just like my combat to be satisfying, and at least give me some feeling of control and dare I say it, FUN. Especially if it is one of the most prominent parts of the game...

Pretty much.

And after all, we do play games for fun right? To be immersed in the game world whether it is because of the gameplay, the story, or even the graphics themselves. Or am I completely fucking wrong? I'm going to go ahead and say NO, and FUCK YOU.

I complained that Morrowind was hard. Final Fantasy 1-3 on the NES is hard too. Those are all RPGs... sooooooooooo why am I here praising one of the hardest ones ever made? Well, I have a few reasons for that.

1 - DARK SOULS IS UNFORGIVING, BUT STILL FAIR.

Yeah, it really is. This is a game that, much like my previous post on Ninja Gaiden, requires a lot of skill to really win. You will need to learn how to block or parry the many and I say MANY attacks that will be dished out to you. There's no fucking stat requirement to dodge attacks. Sure there is POISE, but that is a stat you have complete control over, both in your leveling and equipment, and it isn't even really needed to be successful. Also, depending on your class build, you can go through the game without it and still have a marvelous time.

For example, I have a Ninja. It's based on the thief class. He's very fast and doesn't carry a lot of equipment, just enough to get the job done. He will die fast against strong enemies, but makes up for that by having high elemental and magic resistances. You could easily topple him if I try to block attacks with my shield. However, that whole being fast thing is where I rest my case, because all enemies have attack patterns and strategies, and Dark Souls happens to fair well towards skillful players who know how to roll out of harm's way.

Dying results in losing all the souls you have acquired, and souls are used for fucking pretty much everything, from upgrading weapons, buying weapons and items, and leveling your goddamn character. When you die, a green aura is left where you perished. Should you make the trek there and deal with newly respawned enemies and traps and survive, you can re-acquire them. If you die, they are gone forever. You could essentially grind for hours and hours of your precious life, only to have it taken away in a few minutes.

However, even if you do die, VERY RARELY do you feel like it was the game's fault. Yes it does have a lot of questionable areas with even more questionable design choices (the fucking Dragonslayer archers in Anor Londo) but when you overcome the challenge, the reward is well worth it.

WELL WORTH IT

Dark Souls makes every encounter feel like a worthy battle, and this is especially true with bosses. There are a lot of bosses in Dark Souls, and each require quite a bit of pattern recognition and here's that word again: skill. They all have strategies that need to be utilized to take them down. It wasn't long ago that I was getting my ass handed to me by Ceaseless Discharge in the Demon Ruins, only to figure out that you can just make this behemoth fall to his death quite easily, sparing an otherwise grueling battle. Other bosses are not as easily taken down. The Capra Demon comes to mind...

Yes, you have to trek a lot. Yes, you will die many times and traverse through the same locations a million times, but once you finally get past a boss or a particularly frustrating dungeon segment is when the overwhelming feeling of joy sweeps you over, and you can throw up a giant middle finger to the past nuances and say FUCK YOU, I DID IT. You will be revisiting locations so much that you will know enemy locations and how they each attack, and how to bait them one by one or by then maybe you can just slaughter them all at once. You will feel like a king, and it's like all of a sudden, that one area that gave you countless hours of pure torture is now a place you walk through leisurely, picking fucking flowers and whistling along.

JUST.... FUCKING..... HRRRNNGGGGG!!!!!!!!!

2 - DARK SOULS IS FUCKING GORGEOUS TO LOOK AT.

While the game is a little older now, that doesn't take away from how fucking awe-inspiring it is. Atmospherically, this game is one of the best. It sucks you into the world of Lordran, to the point that "HMMM... MAYBE GODS DID EXIST HERE!"

"Isn't it a bit early in the morning to be talking about Gothic architecture?"

Yes, that was a Conker's Bad Fur Day quote, but look at that screenshot. That's Anor Londo, literally a place for Gods in the world of Dark Souls, and you get to go there. Personally, I myself like Blight Town the best, but just look at the landscape and fucking massive scope of this place! The sun piercing through the clouds, shining gold over a once prominent locale where GODS lived. I love the architecture, and the enemies in this area. Not to mention you get a great item that lets you warp between bonfires which saves a lot of time from walking everywhere! Fuckin' A!

Every area in Dark Souls is unique, and so well designed. The art direction is spot on. Places like the Catacombs and Depths feel tight, claustrophobic, and down right eerie, while areas like Darkroot Garden and the Painted World of Ariamis feel lush and open. Sen's Fortress and Blight Town are full of traps and tricky walkways. The contrast between say, going from Anor Londo to Sen's Fortress is staggering. It's quite refreshing to see the openness and overall bright tone of Anor Londo after struggling through Sen's Fortress. You can almost feel the fatigue of breathing in its dark-engulfed hallways.

And then we have our actual player models, which are fully realized with various weapons and armors. Wear some raggedy poor excuse for clothes, or go full black iron plated armor. Dual katanas? Sure, one in each hand, or one two-handed. Or maybe you want to wield a giant axe that you don't have enough strength for... watch it drag on the ground and encumber your movement. Every weapon has its own move set, and these are reflected in the player animations, which in turn gives more feeling. For fucks sake, I can't ever foresee that in any Elder Scrolls game. Not once was I swinging a sword around in Skyrim or Oblivion (and definitely not Morrowind...) and feeling like it had a sense of weight to it. It gets even better when you upgrade weapons and figure out how each one scales damage wise. Now it's like, "Woah. My greatsword is heavy and kind of slow to wield, but holy FUCK does it do some damage!" Maybe you want that sword to do lightning damage. Have a blacksmith modify it and watch it shock the living hell out of your foes. Each modifier you imbue or upgrade you purchase is reflected on the item. It's a great touch.

Also, the enemies are all varied and look pretty bad ass as well, especially memorable bosses like Dragonslayer Ornstein and Smough and Great Wolf Sif... who wields a giant fucking sword in his mouth. Sure you have your generic skeletons and rats and zombie-like enemies, but more unique enemies like black knights and crystal golems are cool to look at, and even more frightening to fight, especially when paired with the locales they reside in. It's just an orgasm to the eyes.

No, there is no picture for that.

3 - DARK SOULS HAS A TON OF REPLAY VALUE.

I bought the Prepare To Die Edition for $20 at Gamestop, and I couldn't be any happier. All the DLC and bug fixes in one disc. In fact, I've put probably well over 100 hours into Dark Souls, and I just found out that there are roughly four more areas I haven't even been to yet. That's only for my Thief class character too! I haven't mentioned that there are a few more class choices.

Its been hinted multiple times that I enjoy a more melee approach. To me, there's way more satisfaction to parrying an enemy attack, and then retaliating with a sword to the chest for a one hit kill. I'm not really one for spamming magic attacks. Yet, Dark Souls has a few classes for exactly that. I've found games like Skyrim to be lacking in one aspect while being strong in another, for example, the magic. Magic in Skyrim blows. Sure, it looks cool as hell to launch fireballs but it's not really as effective or nearly as satisfying as an axe or a good ol' trusty sword. Dark Souls mostly succeeds in this regard.

For starters, MOST magic in the game has a use, and regardless of choosing to go strictly melee, you will still want SOME of the spells in the game. Magic Weapon for example, is a great spell for any class, since it lets you deal magic damage with any weapon you wield. Dark Souls has a good number of spells and miracles to use. They are dependent on certain stats, but quite frankly you can put a few points into those for ANY class and now you have a knight who can shoot fireballs, or an archer who can heal nearby allies and turn invisible. Sure, you will be better off just picking the Sorcerer class if you go full magic, but there isn't much penalty for mixing it up, and that's a good thing.

Being non-linear in nature, Dark Souls also does nothing to aid you in where to go. It's based on exploration on your OWN terms. I can remember making it to the bottom of Blight Town and never exploring it fully because it's such a hap hazardous area, but it holds one of the best swords and armor sets in the game. There's little things too like hidden areas and activating mechanisms to open shortcuts to new areas, or back to older ones for a little more leniency. Also, the game is not over once you beat it...

 
Once you beat the game, you can start a New Game Plus. New Game Plus increases the difficulty in an already difficult game, and lets you start with all your upgrades, stat upgrades, and extends your level cap! New Game Plus goes until you hit New Game Plus 7, and I'm willing to bet the difficulty spikes really fucking high too, but that just means more challenge to play with. It's like "Okay, you're pretty godly. Now let's see how godly you really are this time around!"

It's great. I love hard games, and this is like the cream of the crop here.

"IS THIS GUY DONE YET?"

Yeah, I think so. There's a lot to explain about the game, but I've listed the important ones. I've stated before how a game like Morrowind made me feel helpless and how much it sucked, but here I am gloating about Dark Souls, which tries its best to fuck you over. For me, Dark Souls gives a bigger and better pay off for my suffering. It doesn't have a captivating story by any means, but it has some damn good lore, driven by even better gameplay and graphics. It isn't a tabletop RPG in disguise, and it doesn't ever stop being hard as fucking nails, but that's the great thing about it. Dark Souls makes no false promises to its difficulty. The bosses are gigantic, leading to a sense of wonderment and the occasional "HOW THE FUCK WHERE DO I EVEN BEGIN?" Even the messages you run across in the game world that players leave are subtle hints. Some are deceiving, but thats also the great thing. You have real people trying to trick you as well. Dark Souls is truly a game that rewards the player for overcoming everything it throws at you.

I picked it up for a measly $20. You can probably get its precursor Demon Souls for the same price. Either way, both are great games to start at if you want to get into the series. One day, I will talk about Dark Souls II and my lack of enjoyment for it, but that will be another post for another day! I just wanted to talk about this first game, and why I love it so much, even if it embodies a lot of qualities I absolutely hate.

Hurt me more please. Fucking archers...

The Best Doom Wads - Metroid Dreadnought

Long time no see! And I mean that literally... the last post on this dust-covered blog was in December of 2014! We all celebrated Christmas and New Years, and forgot about allllllllll about this little blog didn't we? DIDN'T WE??!!!

Of course we fucking did. We all have lives I think, and that gets in the way of writing about shit no one will ever read anyway. I'm definitely guilty of that one. It's been a rough year already. Nothing really compares to LAST year, but this one was starting to get right up there.

This is 100% accurate.

I'm not going to talk about my shitty situation, because that's not why we are here! Besides, that is what Facebook is for these days. Instead, I want to talk about two of my favorite video games. It's a little interesting this time around however, because for once I can enjoy both of my favorite franchises in one neat little package!

HOW SO? Well I'm glad you asked! It's pretty well known that I loooooooooove Doom. I literally love it. If I could legally marry Doom I would. It is the only game that I know of that still has an active community of modders who love it more than me. I'm fucking serious. Mods are still being released for this goddamn game! Whether it's a high resolution texture pack, 3D models, or just altering the gameplay entirely, Doom is still quite relevant these days.

Hey you! You know what else became relevant recently? Oh yeah, Metroid did. And not in a good way. It seems Nintendo is intent on shitting all over one of their best franchises ever. Just fucking watch that so called "trailer" for Metroid Prime: Federation Force. I really have no idea what's going on over there at Nintendo, but I can say with confidence that, AS A FUCKING METROID FAN, THAT IS NOT WHAT WE WANT!

Seriously??? I know Metroid has never been a best seller for Nintendo over the years, but it has always been a game of 100% quality. Even Other M kept the spirit... sort of... But this game? A multiplayer Metroid game? Didn't Hunters try that on the DS already? And guess what? That game was pretty decent for an early DS game! Federation Force isn't even out, and already it has garnered so much hatred from long time Metroid fans.

I can't make this shit up!

Yeah, that's a petition, and you know what? I'm almost supportive of it. I have been waiting for a new Metroid game ever since I loathed through Other M, and Nintendo decides to come out with this shit? It really isn't that hard Nintendo. Make one a classic 2D side-scroller but with 3D, in the same vain as Zero Mission or Super Metroid, or you know... JUST MAKE ANOTHER FUCKING METROID PRIME!!!!!!

It really aggravates me to no end! It isn't rocket science! They know the formula to make a classic Metroid game, so why they won't make one is just mind boggling. As for Federation FARCE, why slap the "Prime" moniker on it? Why tarnish a great series?! WHY NINTENDO?? WHY?!!!! I could make so many arguments as to why Metroid is not a multiplayer game, but I'm about to prove myself wrong.

Remember earlier how I mentioned Doom? I'm sure you do... I mean, the title mentioned it. You had to have seen that... Let's get to the good stuff finally!

METROID DREADNOUGHT - A WAD BY TerminusEst13

As a guy who has played hundreds of WADs, it's a little hard to name off my favorite ones. Wild Weasel's Diaz WAD was my number one for a long time. Combined with the Equinox level set, it was pretty great. Then Brutal Doom took that shit over for the longest time. I just found this quite recently, and it just instantly took the cake. Terminus hasn't created a total conversion... he hasn't even made any levels for this mod. It's strictly a gameplay mod, but a fucking fine one at that! Some serious love went into this mod, and it really shows.

Thanks to Zandronum's ZDoom ACS scripting, this is a true Metroid mod. From the beams, the missiles, morph ball and bombs... even the goddamn movement is true to Metroid Prime in every single way. Jumping has the floaty-ness of Prime, and even the sounds. It really feels like Metroid Prime! I can't stress enough how cool that is, considering the fact that we are dealing with a game that is, oh I don't know... FUCKING 22 YEARS OLD.

That's it... take it allllll in. Look at that screenshot. That is a multiplayer map, perfectly re-created from Metroid Prime Hunters. Notice the visor, and the overall HUD. It's fucking beautiful. Terminus has somehow combined the essence of the Prime games with Doom, and it works! All the classic beams are here: The Power Beam, Spazer, Plasma, Ice, Wave, and even the Long Beam. Samus starts with some of her latent abilities such as the Morph Ball, Bombs, and the Charge Beam. Morph Ball works exactly like it did in the Prime games, and it is re-created in Doom really well! You can still charge your beam and roll into a ball to pop out a bunch of bombs. You can dash in Morph Ball form, just like in Prime. Spring Ball is here as well. It's so fucking incredible that Terminus did this AND kept the spirit of Metroid in a Doom WAD.

BUT THAT'S NOT ALL FOLKS! We also have the Space Jump. Just like Prime, it acts as a double jump. Included with that power up is the Wall Jump ability, and it works so goddamn good. The Speed Booster is here as well, and while it cannot be charged into a Shinespark, it can be used to mow through enemies. There's a special effect when it is used, and it looks great.

All the beams are beautiful, and representative of their classic counter parts. Even better, you can collect the Energy Converter, which works similarly to the Diffusion missiles from Metroid Fusion. When a beam is fully charged, you can use alternative fire to fire a beam/missile combo attack. For example, the Ice Beam's combo freezes multiple enemies in a certain radius, and keeps freezing them. The Spazer combo shoots fast and wide, and cuts through enemies. Each effect is amazingly done, and is absolutely beautiful. On top of the classic beams, Terminus has also added two secret ones: The Chroma Storm, and the Doom Cannon. The Chroma Storm is interesting in that it rapidly shoots small projectiles from each beam. As you hold down fire, it randomly cycles through your current collected beams. It's really neat. The Doom Cannon is basically a shotgun, and it's fucking powerful. It's super secret though, and can't be used unless you use a console command. Still, it's interesting to see Samus shooting bullets from her Arm Cannon.

All of the expansions are here. You can find missile expansions, super missile expansions, and even Energy Tanks. It's so fucking good... I can't stress it enough.

Oh wait, yes I can, because I'm forgetting to mention something... This is on Zandronum. That means you can play this in multiplayer, up to a fucking legendary 64 player deathmatch. Currently, there are only three measly maps for deathmatch, but this is the way to do Metroid multiplayer. I really can't describe it in words; It has to be experienced.

So you might be asking, is there ANY downside to this fantastic WAD? Unfortunately yes... Terminus is no longer developing it. I've done some serious Google searches for levels made for this WAD, and there is NOTHING. It's so heartbreaking... this would shine in single player. Doom has support for hub based levels, and this WAD could benefit from something like that. It could really become a great total conversion if enough people got on the ball and started making levels for this. I would love to see actual Metroid enemies added, and more abilities added. Everything else works flawlessly, so I could only imagine what Terminus could do with say, the Screw Attack!

This WAD is fun in Doom, but gets boring quick without a dedicated level set. The closest you can really get to the Metroid experience with this WAD, is to pair it with TeamTNT's Daedalus WAD. They work quite well together surprisingly, despite the lack of Metroid-type enemies.

But hey... what can you do?

Nothing...

Wait, what am I talking about? YOU CAN DO SOMETHING. You can make some levels for this magnificent bastard! I will really actually pay you to do it! Maybe! Probably not, but someone should do it! It is too good to NOT happen. I know it's an old game, but come on! FUCKING DO IT.

Now I am fully aware that there is a Metroid Prime mod for Halo on PC, but it's strictly multiplayer. This WAD has potential to be something great. Something that would rival Nintendo's efforts. I'm fucking serious. This could be right up there with Super Metroid. IT'S THAT GOOD.

You really need to find out for yourself! Download it here at ModDB. If you like it, try pairing it with TeamTNT's Daedalus. Wanna play the deathmatch maps online? Get them here.

Thank you Terminus. I love you.

Mercenary Kings Review

Continuing on the update train.  Over the summer and up til now, I've been apart of a YouTube channel that debuted called WinLoseTie.  The updates have come twice a week, and our first major playthrough has been a Randomized race of Pokemon FireRed.  We plan to add more randomization to each race we do in the Pokemon series, so by the time we hit Gen V, things are going to be wonky.

In addition to that, I've had my own Twitch.tv channel.  Over there, I spend time playing games like Doom, Hearthstone, Just Cause 2, Diablo 2, and a few other games, including practicing speed running Pokemon Red.

Streaming is an interesting experience.  I never get (m)any viewers, but it's always a joy to have someone in the chat to converse with.

A quick "programming" note.  For my personal writing, I'm going to try something new.  If you see an image or video embedded in the post, they'll be my own content, open sourced, or properly sourced (like the sprites from my Doom post).  I'll grab my own screen shots, and my own videos.  Granted, this may go up in smoke in a matter of posts, but it's an experiment I'm interested in trying.


Onto the task at hand.

The Game

Platforms - PC/Mac/PS4 (PC Played)
Developer - Tribute Games
Genre(s) - 2D Shooter/Platformer
Players - 1 - 4 Local and Online Co-Op

Elevator Pitch

"Picture 2D gameplay inspired by Contra mixed with the crazy guns of Borderlands."


Gameplay

So, we got the basics of the game down, let's flesh it out a bit.  I feel the Contra comparison is apt in terms of how the game plays, but not quite how the game feels, and that might come down to level design.  In Mercenary Kings, you may revisit the same levels over and over (and over and over), but each time the objectives will change.  The primary levels include a Jungle, War Torn City, Power Plant, Chemical Plant, and an ancient Temple.  There are a few variants for some of these (I know there are two different Jungles, and Power Plant-like maps, for example), which can help keep some of the monotony at bay.  Continuing along the lines of "different from Contra", you don't find guns in capsules or as random drops.  Instead, you use materials you find throughout the levels to craft your weapons.  You don't just build the weapons whole either, oh no.  You make monstrous creations of different parts to craft the gun that suits your desires.

Late Game Character With Lots of Parts

So, what are we looking at here?  Well, it's my pistol Sniper with a Machine Gun stock.  You have a lot of stats to consider when building your gun, as changing something as simple as your magazine can affect more than your capacity and reload speed.  Some guns don't play nice with other parts, and as a general rule, the more bullets you carry, the less damage you do per shot.  The main gun stats here are

POW - Power - Determined by Receiver (type of gun you're using), Barrel, Magazine, and Ammo
RNG - Your Range.  Primarily Dictated by Barrel type
SPD - How many Rounds Per Second you fire.  A line of "--" means semi-automatic.
RLD - How long it takes to reload, if you don't try for the reload timer (more on that later).
CAP - Capacity, how many rounds you can fire before reloading.
ACC - Accuracy.  100% means you fire in a straight line, lower accuracy has more spread.
WT - Weight.  Determines your movement speed.

That's just the base stats.  As you can see, there's two more stat blocks we need to talk about. First though, I want to expand on the Reload Timer.

Early Game Character with poor Reload Speed.

Your reload time is how long it takes for the needle to travel the length of the whole bar.  If you have say a 6 second reload gun, that can take forever.  See those two colored zones though?  If you hit the reload button again in the yellow space, you reload right then, instead of waiting the remainder of the timer.  If you can hit it in the green though, not only do you reload now, but some of your next shots will be powered up, dealing more damage.  This is incredibly useful for reloading long reload speed guns, because you can avoid having to wait without your weapon.  If you hit the reload button at any other point in the bar though, you effectively jam your gun.  This means you can't fire your firearm for roughly twice the length of your normal reload time.

Back to the top image, looking at the second box on the left, we have our elemental damage.  Going clockwise from top left, we have Incendiary, Cryogenic, Electric, and Caustic.  Elemental damage is done on top of your base damage of the weapon, so my gun above does, roughly, 65 Cryogenic damage on a shot.  Breaking down the elements quickly looks like this...

Incendiary - Strong against human/plant enemies.
Cryogenic - Has a chance to freeze enemies solid for a few seconds.
Electric - Good against robotics.
Caustic - Good against enemies with heavy armor (my favorite element).

Caustic can allow you to deal damage to non-boss enemies who have shields, or other invulnerable states.  There are basic troops that carry a riot shield, so they reflect most bullets.  Caustic though, deals however much Caustic Damage your weapon deals, so you can deal a sort of chip damage to him.  Caustic has a secondary effect though: it can dissolve those shields, which makes the dude panic, and fire six shots in a row, and then reload for awhile.  When I first found this out, I laughted to myself, because it was such a neat touch.

The final box on the left is the really interesting one.  These are your weapon's ammo proficiency.  Get your weapon up to 100% in an ammo type, and you can equip it.  So, now for the ammo type breakdowns, starting from the top left, going clockwise...

Armor Piercing - Travels through walls and enemies.
Magnum (What I call it) - Larger rounds and deals more damage.
Spread - Shotgun ammo.
Missiles - Missiles with a homing property, no explosions on contact.
Shrapnel - Projectile that when it hits an enemy, wall, floor, or ceiling explodes into tiny shrapnel that travels in 8 directions.
Ball - Ammo that travels in an arc, and bounces upon contact with walls and floors.

During first few ranks of the game, you'll be mainly using default ammo with maybe different elemental properties, an ammo type that all weapons can use, but once you get about 2/3 through the game, you'll start to see ammo that combines two ammo types to make some hilarious combinations.  For example, the weapon in the first picture has Shrapnel/Ball ice ammo.  It travels, hits the wall or enemy, then shoots off 8 bouncing balls that can deal extra damage (both regular and ice) in addition to the impact damage.  One weapon I built uses what are called Sniper Missiles, missiles that have the Armor Piercing property.  Oh, and it was fired out of a machine gun.  So I was rapidly firing missiles that would find enemies through walls with a light homing capability.  Accuracy was truly overrated.  

Shrapnel Ball Ammo Bouncing Around.

If it feels like I spent too much time talking about the weapons, well, that's kind of the main draw of the game.  You spend a good portion of the game busting open item chests, picking up spoils, and taking on extra, hidden objectives on missions in order to earn more supplies to craft your weapons and armor (increases your health).  Late game can get repetitive because you need to fight bosses repeatedly to get the items you need.  

Repetition is a factor with this game.  You will be seeing the same level repeatedly, and you will be fighting pallet swap enemies.  This includes some of the bosses as well.  There is the Steel Soldier, which is a big walking knife/sword robot that's only vulnerable when you dodge his attacks or from behind, and 4 variants of him for starters (one for each element).  This goes on for quite a lot of the bosses actually.  The only really unique bossfights are the Violence Kings (Two sword fighters that work in tandem), the three different dog bosses (I'm drawing a blank on all of their names), and the Final Boss.  If enemy variety is something you crave from your games, you may want to pass this one over, unless the other factors draw you in.

Aesthetic

The art style is very reminescant of the Scott Pilgrim vs The World game, which may be due to the fact that the same team worked on both games.  I enjoy the almost caricature style portraits and sprites.  I'm a huge fan of aesthetics over fidelity, and this game has a style that I really dig.  

Music-wise, we get some chiptune styled tracks that vary from merely OK to pretty-toe-tappin'.  

Props to jhparktc for the upload.

That's more-or-less what you're going to get from the game audio wise.  

Sorry, what can I say, I'm not great when it comes to talking about graphics and music unless I absolutely love or hate them.  

Conclusion

I've enjoyed the game, as is apparent 40 hours I've put into it.  It's a fun little romp that's great with friends, but awfully grindy.  It's a fun enough game where you can turn off your brain and gun through things, and then experiment for 25 minutes on different gun combinations.  It's got a $20 price point, which some may think is too high for an indie game.  Personally, I feel like I've gotten good value from it, but I can understand how some would rather be more frugal.  

Get it here: Steam - Playstation Store

"Ada! Wait!"

The year is 1998. Fans are eagerly awaiting for the sequel to Resident Evil. Capcom held fans at bay with Resident Evil: Director's Cut, which offered new modes, new costumes, music, and a mostly uncensored intro sequence while Resident Evil 2 was nearing completion. Hopes were incredibly high, especially after screenshots were released, showing a more modern, urban setting. Zombies were now in the streets of Raccoon City, and more dangerous than ever.

Yeah... until it got scrapped.

Resident Evil 2 was almost ready to hit shelves, when Capcom said, "Fuck this game. This is garbage, and this isn't what we wanted. Let's fucking re-do the whole thing." And they did. In less than a year, Capcom completely overhauled Resident Evil 2 into something spectacular.

Resident Evil 2 - PlayStation/Nintendo 64 - 1998 - Not Just Another Zombie Game!

Resident Evil 2 is so fucking good, that fans have been hounding Capcom to remake it in HD, like the Gamecube release of Resident Evil. It's no wonder why either! Resident Evil 2 not only boasted higher production values in every single department, it absolutely eclipsed the original is every single fucking category.

 

Well, mostly. The voice acting is still sub-par, but it's much better than the original. The story this time around is much better as well, introducing us to some memorable characters like Leon S. Kennedy and Claire Redfield, sister to Chris Redfield from the first game. Umbrella is shown in a much more sinister way this time around, and have much more involvement in the events that unfold. They're still up to no good, but now they've infected the entire city with the new G-Virus. Talk about going from bad to fucking bat shit crazy. It wouldn't be as bad if they, you know, didn't own everything. Think of Umbrella as the Wal-Mart of the gaming world. You go to them for literally everything; medicines, clothing, even the fucking bullets you'll be blasting zombies with.

What sets this apart from its predecessor is the Hollywood production. Resident Evil 2 feels more like a big budget movie. There's a lot of action, a lot of drama, and a lot of fuckery going on. The set pieces are great, and the game moves at a rapid pace. A lot of things happen in Resident Evil 2, and they're all pretty important and make Raccoon City feel like a real place, and THAT is scary. Could you imagine an outbreak like that happening in the U.S.? A real one I mean... not this Ebola shit.

Did you know there's a cure now? That's a whole other argument though...

Right then... let's get to the cast:

Leon S. Kennedy - "ADA! FUCKING WAIT!!!"

Leon is rather unlucky. He had to show up for an outbreak on his first day on the job. Poor guy probably didn't even get to eat his first donut yet. He's quite the badass though... taking bullets for bitches and shit...

Claire Redfield - The best step mom ever.

Oh Claire... I wonder if Chris played a prank on you since, you know, he's not in a city infested with zombies. Claire takes care of business. I bet she's great in bed too. She seems to connect with Sherry.

Sherry Birkin - Her parents fucking suck.

Poor Sherry. Her father created the G-Virus and turned everyone into monsters, and her mother is too preoccupied with shooting people, looking for William, and dying. Someone call Child Protective Services. Despite all the chaos, Sherry is quite brave. She also has the G-Virus sample everyone is after, and doesn't even know it. Ba-zinga!

William Birkin - THE MAN WHO SEES ALL.

That's a terrible joke. The creator of the G-Virus, and overall dipshit. After being shot to near death, he injects himself with the G-Virus, and tries to kill everyone. If only he didn't knock that container over...

Annette Birkin - Not so devoted mother.

For real. She cares more about William than she does Sherry. William is a fucking monster now. Get your shit together, you have a daughter to protect. She makes things really hard for everyone along the way. She's just a huge bitch in general.

Ada Wong - The best fake death you've ever seen.

If you go with the canon, she dies a horrific death. If you don't, she still dies a horrific death. How the fuck she lived to see Resident Evil 4 is beyond me. She falls in love with Leon, or maybe that's just another trick. Women are good at that one.

Brian Irons - Crooked cop extraordinaire.

The chief of the Raccoon Police Department, who's in cahoots with Umbrella. Pretty sinister guy he is, until William plants an embryo inside him and it escapes in the goriest way possible. Guess you get what you deserve, dick.

Ben - The pen is extremely inferior to the sword.

Ben is a reporter, who finds out about Umbrella's secrets and is on his way to expose them. You know, until the whole city decides to be turned into zombies. He hides in a jail cell because that's always fucking safe right? Suffers the same fate as Irons.

Kendo Gun Shop Owner - "I ain't got no clue darlin!"

Is it ironic that the owner of a gun shop doesn't kill a single fucking zombie? He doesn't know why the city is infested with zombies, and apparently can't see them breaking through the front window. He leaves a shotgun behind for Leon, or the pathetic bow gun for Claire.

Marvin - WITNESS MY TRUE FORM!

Marvin gives us our first keycard of the game, and then turns into a zombie right in front of your face. Blow his head off. He seemed like a cool guy too...

Hunk - The 4th Survivor

Somehow survives William's fury in the sewers. He's there to take the G-Virus back to Umbrella. He's playable through a bonus scenario, and it's fucking hard.

Truck Driver - "GUY'S A MANIAC! WHY'D HE BITE ME?!"

Apparently doesn't recognize a crazed zombie in front of his face. Gets bitten, turns into a zombie, crashes his truck, and separates Claire and Leon. That bastard.

As you can see, Resident Evil 2 has quite the colorful cast. My favorite is Leon, because like Barry Burton in the first game, he has a certain stupid charm. He's overly serious, and for the right reasons. I mean, there's only a viral outbreak going on after all. He tells Ada to wait so many times that it borders on hilarity. She probably faked her death to get away from him.

Just like the first game, we also have our selection of targets to shoot up:

Zombies - A household name!

Still deadly, but more common place. At this point it would be weird to not have zombies in the world. They still love flesh, and they're still dead.

Zombie Dogs - All bark and no bite.

There's like 6 dogs in the game. Still a pain in the ass, but easily out ran. Someone fill the dog dish up and spare the humans for Christ's sake.

Lickers - One hell of an ice cream eater.

Boasting quite a large tongue, these fuckers are deadly. Thought the Hunters from the first game were hard? These things mutate later on in the game, and get much stronger. They can lob your head off with one strike as well. Could probably eat a lollipop like a champ.

B.O.W.s - Not your average crop killer.

Seen later in the game, these guys like to spit poison and slap you around with their tentacles. Like any plant though, they don't stand a chance against flames. Light em up with flame rounds, or pop em with the magnum. Or go for the can of Raid.

William Offspring Monster - Because what else can you call it?

Started as an embryo, and ended up as a hulking monster. Likes to puke up baby offspring monsters that crawl on you.

Giant Alligator - Nuff said.

How this thing lives in the raccoon city sewers is beyond me... Can eat the player whole if you're not careful. He loves to eat canisters, so shoot it when he gobbles it down and his head will turn to mush.

Mr. X - Tyrant in a fucking trench coat.

Remember the Tyrant you killed in the first game? Yeah, Umbrella made a few more and sent them after you. These guys are strong. Thank God you only have to face one of them. Sports TWO giant mutated claws at the end, and is MUCH faster than the first Tyrant. He still hates rocket launchers though.

 

Resident Evil 2 is vastly different from the first game in numerous ways. The best change is the scenario system. For example, if you beat the game with Leon, you can load it up after and play Claire's B scenario. The events of the game unfold in a totally different way. This led fans to figure out which pair of scenarios are canon, and as it turns out, Leon B and Claire A are the canon scenarios. Either way you go though, the game is quite entertaining. You're still solving absurd puzzles and killing monsters. There's a lot of dramatic scenes, and a lot of intense action sequences.

One of the other awesome additions are the weapons. Like the first game, Claire and Leon both get their own weapons to use, with slightly better results. Leon can collect custom parts to upgrade his shotgun and magnum, while Claire has the grenade launcher with 3 different ammo types to use, each being more effective depending on the type of enemy. B.O.W.s are weak against flame, while zombies and lickers are weak against acid type rounds. Leon's weapons get insanely powerful, and this time around, ammo is much more plentiful. You can live off the magnum near the end of the game, and you can use the shotty as soon as you get it. The pistol becomes useless after getting it. Claire isn't so lucky however. Sure she gets the grenade launcher, and you'll be using it the whole game pretty much, but her alternative is the shitty bow gun. It shoots in a spread pattern, does pitiful damage, and the ammo is fucking scarce. Claire can get the submachine gun, and the spark gun, but both are very limited in use, and subtract points from your overall rank.

Yes, the ranking system is back, and it's even more strict. If you want an A rank, you better avoid the submachine gun AND the spark gun. This makes Claire's scenarios kind of shallow, since Leon can upgrade both of his better weapons without penalty, but that just means Claire's scenarios are much harder to complete. Not that the game is very hard, seeing as how it throws ludicrous amounts of healing herbs at you, but you still get penalized for healing too much.

The graphics this time around are a touch better. The presentation is slick, and the FMVs are awesome, especially this one. The voice acting is much better, but is still laughable at times, namely Leon's interactions with Ada. He's such a ham. The soundtrack is also famous in its own right. It's excellent, and filled with hauntingly catchy tunes. The save room music is enough to get you into it. Then there's Ada's Theme. It's absolutely beautiful. It fits so perfectly with Ada and Leon's relationship in the game.

Along with the scenario system, you also get two bonus scenarios you can unlock. There's The 4th Survivor, which shows Hunk's side after retrieving the G-Virus. It's fucking hard as shit to complete, due to having no items to pick up. What he has in his inventory is what you get. It's fun, but goddamn is it hard. However, it has nothing on the Tofu scenario.

Silly? Yes. Hard? You bet your fucking ass it is.

Tofu is a concept character Capcom created to test hitboxes in Resident Evil 2. But did they leave him out of the game? Nooooooooooooooo.... He's playable after you beat each scenario 3 times. Why is Tofu's scenario so hard? He doesn't get anything. He doesn't get a single healing item. He doesn't even start off with a fucking gun. He gets the knife, and that's it. It's the ultimate challenge for players, and it doesn't get any harder than this. If you can beat this you deserve a fucking medal.

On top of those two modes, if you're playing the Dual Shock version, you can also unlock Extreme Battle mode. Jesus how many fucking extras did they cram into this game? It's a cool mode though. Various locales from the game act as levels, and you just have to survive. Ada, and even Chris Redfield is playable in this mode. Chris is cool because he sports his outfit from the first game, and even the same weapons. However, he's the hardest person to use due to his low damage tolerance. It's still a really cool extra though.

All in all, Resident Evil 2 is the ultimate package. Not only is the story excellent AND with great pacing, but all the features it added, the soundtrack, the better graphics... it's just gaming at its finest. The replay value this game offers is incredible, so you won't be bored anytime soon with it. It's so shocking too. I wonder how the scrapped project would have been if it had actually been finished and released. Apparently, copies of it exist on the internet, and can be played with an emulator, but I haven't tried it myself. Maybe one day I'll try it. For now, anyone who is a fan of the RE series and hasn't played this... FUCKING PLAY IT. It's great. It's fantastic. It's so good that fans are remaking it ON THEIR OWN.

And now, without further adieu, I leave you with this:

Next post, I look at Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, and we discuss one of the most menacing enemies ever made! Stay tuned!