I'm putting Sports Talk Baseball back in the pile.
I'm putting Sports Talk Baseball back in the pile.
On claims getting canceled/abandoned, I had said March 1 would be the deadline, so I'm inclined to stick to that. (The good news is that February's a short month. :) )
I certainly don't think we should give a 60-day grace period later in the year, or even a 30-day one; the closer we get to the end, the less weight "claims" will have at all, since the overriding priority will be getting it all done.
Of course, anyone who wants to get a game earlier (from the list above, that is) is welcome to PM the person who's claimed it. If you don't hear back from them within a few days to a week, I see no reason not to cancel the claim immediately.
I wish I had some strategic counsel to offer. :(Quote:
Originally Posted by Night Driver
Might I humbly suggest starting a separate, sticky thread for those with claims about to expire to come forward? It might draw more attention than where it is now.
I wish I had some advice to give as well because I think whoever picks this game up is going to struggle with it just as I have. I know that there are people on Sega-16 who claim that this is their favorite baseball game on the Genesis. They must have a handle on some critical facet of the game that has eluded me. Hopefully, one of these folks will step up to the plate and knock this game out of the park for us, so that what follows will be just a footnote to this project.Quote:
Originally Posted by goldenband
That said, I spent quite a bit of time with the game over the course of this week and the conclusion that I reached is that the pitcher/batter confrontation is random. Probably not truly random. I assume that there are variables (most likely based on the individual pitcher and batter statistics stored in the game) that govern the outcome, but those variables are external to the gameplay, and so, from the perspective of the player, the outcome of the pitcher/batter confrontation appears essentially random.
One thing is clear: the outcome of the pitcher/batter confrontation is not based on player skill. Attempting to employ any particular strategy when pitching or hitting is pointless. Hitting only requires contact, and pitching only requires the ball to reach the batter's box. Whatever the outcome after those two criteria have been satisfied is determined by variables that have not been influenced by the player's actions. To test this conclusion, I basically stopped pitching in the game. I just left my pitcher in the center of the mound and threw balls straight over the plate, gift-wrapped--no curve, no mustard--and it didn't make any difference whatsoever. Batters were equally as likely to hit a pop-fly over the infield as they were a weak grounder to second; as likely to whiff for a strike, as they were to hit a home run.
Here's what this all boils down to. I'm playing a 15-game season. You play five 3-game series against opponents in your division. The team with the highest winning percentage after those fifteen games wins the division and goes on to the playoffs. Now, if the game is anything like real baseball, you've got to figure that you must win ~60% (9) of your games to guarantee that you win the division. There are several possible combinations, but at worst, you know you must win four of those series 2-1, and one series 1-2.
Fine, but here's the kicker. You can only save your game at the end of a 3-game series. Obviously, there is no point in continuing on if you lose any series 0-3. If you lose a series 1-2, you've made things tight, but you still have room to maneuver. Lose a second series 1-2, and again, you best just start over because the chances of you sweeping a later series 3-0 is minimal. This is one game where I don't have any qualms about abusing saves. In fact, it's probably expected of you. However, there's only so many times you can start over with something you have no real control over before you've simply had enough.
There's also only so much of a treatise like this you can read before you've had enough, so I'll stop now. I will probably continue to mess with this game, off and on, over the course of this project, but I'm not giving it anymore dedicated time. Because I'm also having trouble with Wimbledon, I've got to cut one of the games loose.
BTW, I'll make up for this.
I feel for you Night Driver. I saw all the positive feedback on Sports Talk here and tried it out and hated it worse than about any baseball game I've ever played. Also, base running seems way off. I liked RBI Baseball much better.
[QUOTE=goldenband;554428]We're just about at the end of the first month, and it's time for a bit of housekeeping:
We have a bunch of claims that date from 1/1/2013 or earlier (i.e. the old thread). That's fine, and I'm not worried in the case of people who've beaten other games, have been posting regularly, or who have at least poked their heads in.
But the following people haven't posted in this thread at all since the start of the year (or since making their claims in the old thread), so an update would be appreciated.
(Apologies if anyone's included in this list who shouldn't be; I'm mostly relying on memory, since I'm not going to search every single person's username individually.)
JAFP78 - Last Battle
JAFP78 - Quackshot – Starring Donald Duck
Well, I´m in the list and not only have I posted here as I have finished Fifa Soccer, and also posted it here...I know that´s not difficult at all but still I´d like to be remembered:p
Like I said in the previous post I was dealing with last battle but lost my patience after a couple of hours, well I would ask if anyone thinks that using the chapter select code is cheating, IMO since it only lets you choose up to the chapter you reached before, I consider it a continue but you do have to enter a code so what do you guys think?:confused:
I can see the merit in that idea, but I'm kind of inclined to say that if folks aren't reading this thread to begin with, then etc. But we'll see, or maybe I'll send out a mass PM if my mailbox isn't too full.Quote:
Originally Posted by DaddyMulk
My apologies! I figured I'd overlook at least one person. I've removed you from that list.Quote:
Originally Posted by JAFP78
Is the chapter select code mentioned in the manual? If so, it's 100% fair game.Quote:
Originally Posted by JAFP78
EDIT: After a quick glance through, it looks like it's not mentioned.
Meanwhile I've started working on Andre Agassi Tennis, which -- unbelievably -- has no tiebreaks, not even in the first two sets. Tiebreaks were adopted in tennis in the 1970s, and were utterly standard by the end of the 1980s, so I've no idea why they wouldn't be included, unless Jimmy Van Alen killed the designers' parents or something.
The gameplay is bizarre, and I lost my first match 6-0 6-0, but got the hang of things partway through the second set of my second match, and won that 0-6 8-6 9-7.
Unfortunately I think the game doesn't use passwords. They're not mentioned in the manual, and I haven't found a game option for them, but one online review mentions them -- I assume it's just bad/lazy journalism, though.
So in order to win the game I think I'll have to win 16 matches in one sitting (four tournaments @ 4 rounds each), which will be taxing indeed. But at least the matches are only 3 sets.
Finished Streets of Rage 2 on normal difficulty.
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8335/8...88a88baaec.jpg
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8513/8...39e80c772c.jpg
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8505/8...893689908a.jpg
Shiver me timbers! Cutthroat Island has finally been sent to Davy Jone's locker.
http://i1311.photobucket.com/albums/...psa268eddc.jpg
Oh, and I was able to collect all of the treasure chests for the special contest as well! Pity that the deadline was 12/31/96.
http://i1311.photobucket.com/albums/...ps913b2fb5.jpg
The game has a total of 12 stages. The major shame about it is that most players will likely give up around Stage 2 or 4, which are both on the rails dodge-fests, and very annoying to play through if you don't know what you're doing. As much as people complain about the speed bike segment in Battletoads, at least you have (going from memory here) around 12 lives, when you include continues, to acclimate yourself to the controls, the stage flow, etc. Not here. Fail 3 times on the mine cart sequence in Stage 2, and you're done. And since you have zero time to react and dodge, you just have to slog through and memorize the pattern (which is pretty easy, once you know it), restarting the game multiple times. Stage 4 is even worse because the trick to beating it is such a snap once you discover it, but you can easily lose all of your lives in a matter of seconds before you do.
Things become more bearable after that, but the game is far from a pushover. Continues can be earned for every 30,000 points scored (statistically impossible prior to about Stage 6), and 1ups appear with more frequency, though often the risk factor involved is greater than the reward. Stage 7, a jungle area, is a prime example of this: You can either run along the bottom to complete the stage (taking some hits from the quicksand, but likely only losing 1 life or so), or you can climb into the treetops, where 1ups and life restores can be found. Just don't miss a single jump out of the dozens you'll have to make, or you'll be dead from the fall.
Controls *do* work a lot of time if you're willing to put the effort into learning them. Important things to remember: 1) Get the hang of getting into the duck stance and using the roll attack a lot; a lot of the boss fights are unbearable without this. 2) You need to double-tap a direction and hold VERY quickly to get into a run stance. This is tons of fun when you have to use it to get enough distance to leap between tiny, tiny platforms repeatedly. 3) Ducking is done by holding down and pressing C when you're on a plane where you can move up and down, and just by holding down when you're on a flat plane. If you can't remember this, you'll take a lot of cheap bat hits, or else wind up barrel-rolling into pits. 4) "Special moves" are pretty much useless. You earn them by beating certain stages, and most require you to be holding a second blade, a virtually nonexistent power-up. Don't even worry about them.
Far from the worst game I've ever played, but miles away from the best. A bit more forgiveness in the beginning would be nice, because the back half of the game is definitely more fun than the front half. Pro-tip to myself: Stay the hell away from Software Creations on the Genesis in the future. I've now played through 3 of their wretched titles, and I think that's enough.
(Note: I'll throw up some screenshots of the contest rules/questions just for archival sake, as soon as I've figured out how to post smaller screenshots)
Niiiice. :) I suspect that I'll refer to this post of yours sometime in the future -- maybe I'll take CI on next year, if we do a similar drive in 2014.Quote:
Originally Posted by DaddyMulk
(If this year's drive is successful, I was thinking that 2014 could add PAL exclusives + all the US/EU Sega CD and 32X games -- but let's not count our chickens until the roosters are in and ready for chicken love.)
hey guys sorry about not posting updates early i just moved and don't have internet set up at my place yet. anyways i just got to the lake shrine in landstaker and played a couple of games in madden 95. it might be slow but progress is being made.
Thanks for the update! That's all I need to take you off the endangered-species list. :)
Yeah, I don´t think its mentioned, to be honest, its not really a chapter select, you can only select up to where you passed, so its a continue in reality, not a level select like in sonic (had to mention because some may not know the game or code in question) what do you think, fair or unfair?Quote:
Originally Posted by goldenband
I´ve got more news, but I´ll leave it to post 100:D
If you have to do a code to make it available, it's basically considered a cheat. If the game gave you the option to continue like so many others do, it would just be there to use when you die, or get back to the title screen. But having to press certain button combinations at the proper time/screen to "unlock" it, puts it pretty much in the same category as things like Thunder Force III's weapon code, or Sonic the Hedgehog's level skip.