Left positive reviews and mentioned positive safety of Vizzed on the following sites:

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Username for all three was: dnhtchns

Thank you for everything you've done here.

Aww... you blew up my e-mail!

That's okay, I got a carton of eggs, poked holes in the shells, and let them sit in the sun for three days. I put on a gas mask (those eggs stink)  and hid the eggs inside your house. I call it the Rancid Easter Hunt. Good luck!!

All right, you've sold yet another subscription.... I have no shame about it, though, I was only in it for the Viz.

Dungeon Keeper has been released as freeware by Bullfrog and can be downloaded at http://archive.org/details/DungeonKeeper_1020. This is an amazing game were you play as the evil keeper of a dungeon that you must build and enhance to fend off roving heroes and even other keepers. It's a DOS-based game and carries all the inherent problems running on newer systems. I have no life, so I will likely respond to any PMs asking for help on this subject.


Another free to download game is The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall at http://www.elderscrolls.com/daggerfall/. That's right, it's Skyrim's older, clunkier, downright hardcore brother. How hardcore, you ask? A reviewer for a popular gaming magazine played it for a review when it was released as freeware. The opening dungeon can be insanely difficult for a novice player, and out of twenty attempts he beat it twice. Not the game, the opening dungeon. This download comes with a DOS emulator and is should be pre-packaged to run with it, but again, I will respond to any PMs asking for help running the game; I may even have some advice for those frustrated by the opening parts.


Edit* I feel I should really mention that Daggerfall is absolutely HUGE. If you thought Skyrim was big, then think again. The graphics are obviously nowhere near the quality of recent games, but the random generation of landscapes, towns, and dungeons is amazing. I could be wrong but I think only a few royal towns and the opening dungeon are fixed in terms of layout. If you are tempted to play a spell casting character then the Mage's Guild will allow you to design your own spells once you become a member.

I think fast forward is one of the best features of the GBA and SNES emulators. It's right up there with save states for being bloody useful. And I agree with several of the above posters about the Pokémon games. They are almost insufferably slow without the fast forward, at least for me. I can't think of it as the space bar though because I use an Xbox 360 controller. I like to assign it to the right trigger and think of it as the "get on with it" command.

I'm really surprised that no one else has brought this up yet, but the offense has to be self inflicted here.

devinlv17 : Most people would be well within their rights to argue with you over
moral standing, but I've had that argument so many times that I took the
liberty of filling in the blanks on both sides. Instead, I'm going to
point out the logical fallacies that I see:

You went and looked these things up. No one brought them to you, made you watch, made you do these things. You went looking for them, and then decided that it was detestable. No one can pretend that these exhibited behaviours are anything new. The briefest glimpse at history will confirm that it has mostly been done before. So what is wrong with these people? The question, as well as the intuitive answer, insinuates the idea that this is not how the world is, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

Singelli : You made an excellent point in you fist post. However:  "Your victims aren't real?  So what.  I'll give you that your victims weren't real.  That doesn't mean your mind did not enjoy partaking in the action of murder." The final paragraph in that post is what takes the legs out from under your argument and makes it self-contradictory. Here's why: if the victims aren't real, then there are no victims. If there are no victims, then there is no murder. If there is no murder, then my mind cannot take enjoyment in it.

It's been a long time since I've manually downloaded anything nasty like that. I say manually because often now those mal/spy ware programs are either packaged into other programs' installations, or set to download to your computer through a website's java scripting much like a tracking cookie. The latter are probably the most prevalent because most people don't know to check.

I use an XBox 360 controller, and it was dead easy to set up. All one
needs are the drivers from Microsoft; other than that it's plug and
play.

I always use the controller in the RGR mostly because it
feels more natural. I like to use it for most games, in fact. The only game I'm playing now that I don't use the controller for is Fallout New Vegas. It's always been easier for me to control a first-person game through the mouse.

I currently have a katana and wakizashi, a han-bo. My wife has a katana, a pair of sai, and a Franklin Mint Excalibur.

Yeah, I'll admit it, at first I only came here for the games. I was a registered member of this sight for nearly a month before I made my first post in the Newbie Forum. I have a deep mistrust of most online communities, but I have to say, I'm impressed by everything I've seen thus far.

And I don't just mean the games.

I would change my name to Rincewind, or Coffin Henry... or perhaps Ridcully or Vetinari. They are all characters from the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett. If you like fantasy or humor then it's definitely worth reading.

I know it's bad for me, but my favorite is still Rockstar or Redbull.

I sincerely sympathize with your predicament. It's never easy struggling through depression, and it's much harder if those around you are the uncaring type. I have contemplated suicide several times through my life so far. On the surface, it seems like it would solve many problems, but after some contemplation, one usually concludes that it would leave far too many new problems for other people that I care about to deal with.

I believe the previous posters have offered some good advice: seek counselling, talk to your mother, inquire about mood stabilizing medication.

Most of my advice, however, is going to be about your step father. I have had two of them in my life. One was abusive, and if I ever see him again he had better pray to everything holy that I don't recognize him. The second was very kind, and had earned my respect and my love. His passing was an event that left this planet a little darker. I digress.

I may be mistaken, but if the incident you described in your first post is commonplace, then you need to be aware. It sounds like your step father is using the "Intimidator" control drama to steal your energy. Does he often hit you, or does he often tell you that you are useless, or should be ashamed? These are classic intimidator tactics, and it's a serious situation when someone who is supposed to be in a parental role becomes a bully. There is hope, though! Intimidators can be stopped by breaking the control drama. The next time he says anything demeaning, stand up for yourself. (Yes, it can be scary; I had to walk through no end of anxiety when first using this tactic.)  Tell him that he can no longer intimidate you because your not afraid. Then go and tell your mother that you are tired of constantly defending yourself from unwarranted abuse. Finally, if you are still in school, talk to your school counsellor. Tell them about the problems you have with your step-father. No one should have to deal with these kinds of problems at home, and I hope that my advice helps.

For more information about control dramas, the way people steal each other's energy, please read The Celestine Prophecies by James Redfield. I promise it will be worth while.

I wholly agree with everyone who said FLCL and Paranoia Agent.

FLCL was bizarre both in its plot and its animation style which regularly switched from anime style to manga frame style. And one of the previous posters pretty well summed it up with "alien woman wants to molest young boy". It may also be worth including "she turned his dad into her personal slave".

As for Paranoia agent... let's just say Satoshi Kon had a strange, strange mind. Everyone who liked the Mind-F@!# of Paranoia Agent should check out his other works:

"Paprika" : Technology that allows one to enter other's dreams seems responsible for people randomly going crazy and killing themselves. Is it actually possible to trap someone in a "dream state" while they retain consciousness?

"Perfect Blue" : A pop idol turned actress is increasingly stressed by the roles she must play to attain worth as an actress. But that's nothing compared to her stalker problem.

"Tokyo Godfathers" : Three bums find a baby abandoned in a dumpster on Christmas Eve.... nuff said. Some people might think it's a chick flick, but those people should be directed to the next anime in line.

"Millennium Actress" : A TV interviewer and his camera man enter the memories of a famous actress as she relives her past. It's definitely a chick flick.

Several answers come to mind. I was always fond of Sephiroth from FF7. And Tails from the Sonic series. I even had the Game Gear game that featured Tails as the main character when I was a kid. But my favorite characters all come from the same sources.

3) Guybrush Threepwood, the star of the Monkey Island series. No matter the challenge Guybrush Thriftwand... I mean Threepgood can usually find the solution in a rubber chicken with a pulley in the middle, or a well placed insult. If all else fails, there's always root beer and voodoo.

2) Sam and Max, the Freelance Police. It's amazing how far casual indifference to danger, heavy ordinance, and lateral thinking can get you. Sam and Max have been the stars of comic books, games, and a very short lived television series which I think was cancelled due to unparalleled cartoon genius.

And, coming in first place:

Deathspank, Hero to the Downtrodden, Vanquisher of Evil, and Friend of Orphans.... well, friend may be a little strong... The trilogy of games that features Deathspank has earned my respect for a strange reason. The character is... slightly retarded, but in an undeniably funny and entertaining way, yet when viewed as a whole, the trilogy makes an excellent example of how a righteous vigor to attain justice and eliminate all evil can become a larger evil than anything else could be. I suppose it may not be immediately apparent because I'm not sure if it was intended by the designers. My comments won't do much justice, though, so here's a video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=1tywlgOMzIc

There are lots of ways to earn the Viz, but many more ways to spend it. So what do you plan on doing with it?
Buy weapons and armor, or spend it on Netplay perhaps. Maybe there's someone here that spends all their Viz renting games they've never heard of.

As for myself, I've got my eyes set on that PSX console on the market. Yeah... still got quite a ways to go.

I like most game genres. I can only think of two genres that I really don't care for: Sports/Racing and anything with The Sims. I guess I'm just not controlling enough to enjoy micro-managing someone else's life.

My favorite genre has to be RPGs. Like an Alzeihmer's patient with amnesia, I am constantly drawn back to games like Legend of Dragoon, FF7, Fallout (any), TES (Daggerfall and Skyrim). I don't usually care if it's turn based or real-time, just so long as Capcom stayed well out of areas concerning dialogue and plot.

Omega from FF5 for the win.

Ruby WEAPON can be tough... grind only one character. To enter a fight with Ruby with all 3 characters alive is suicide. You need master summon, final attack, revive, counter, magic counter, restore, barrier, mp absorb, and w-summon on your only conscious character (W-Magic and Item help too). Connect MP Absorb to the Master Summon, Magic Counter to Restore, and Final Attack to Revive. The tactic is to set up a Wall and Regen on yourself then W-Summon KoTR because it is the only thing I have found that does more than a couple hundred points of damage. He will counter with Ultima and you will likely not survive 2 ultimas unless you have a Wall or M-barrier. If you can survive that, then rinse and repeat until destruction. If you can't... that's what the Final Attack + Revive combo is for. Also, you need the Master Summon Materia because it will take more than 5x KoTR to kill Ruby....

As for Emerald, I hear that the main trick is to go in with as little materia equipped as possible. Less materia means more HP, plus it has an attack called Tam Air Storm that does 1100 hp worth damage per materia your characters are equipped with... but I still haven't done this one.


In short, the WEAPONS can be prepared for... You can do everything right in FF5, and Omega will still mop the floor with you.