Update Log
2005

NOTE: Some links on this page may not work, as existing material in this section is merely an archive of old updates and is not altered in future versions.


Update: 12/31/05

I've made some major updates to the Who's Who of Image Arcane section. I went through it recently and realized that a lot of the information for the major characters was outdated. Some of it was incomplete. Some had factual errors. Some of it was only true of the old series and not consistent with the vision I have for the future series. And some was much too vague. I updated the information for most of the main characters (and even some of the minor ones), and I added information and pictures for missing characters.

I have also added a few more pages to the Scrapbook and the Sketch Gallery. ~FO


Update: 12/24/05

I put up a 31st Scrapbook Page. Sorry that one sort of turned into "furry central". A lot of weird creatures on that page. In other news, I started playing LandStalker. Eh, the first couple of dungeons weren't much of anything, but I'll have to play it more because I'm already a little stuck. I still don't think I'm going to be able to write any more game reviews until after the new year. ~FO


Update: 12/21/05

I'm up to 30 pages on the Scrapbook and 27 pages in the Sketch Gallery. I thought I was done for now, but I appear to be missing an entire folder of pictures. I remember specific pictures of certain characters that I had posted in the "Post a Picture" topics on the forums that I cannot find now. I may have accidentally deleted them when I ran a recent hard drive cleanup on my PC, but the funny thing is, I don't remember seeing those pictures anywhere even before I started the cleanup. Well, I guess I'll just have to dig them out of my archives and re-scan them. ~FO


Update: 12/17/05

I'm up to about 20 pages on the Scrapbook and the Sketch Gallery, and I've got more on the way. Other than that, I've been pretty much taking a hiatus from this site and playing games in general. I don't think I'll be able to get back into either until after the holidays are over. There's just too much I have to do right now. ~FO


Update: 12/11/05

I've been steadily adding new pages to the Image Arcane Scrapbook and B&W Gallery. I'm probably going to be working mostly on that for awhile.

I also updated Documentation of Game Glitches with a new entry for Skies of Arcadia Legends. ~FO


Update: 12/10/05

Legendary game designer David Crane of Pitfall! and A Boy and His Blob has written to the Q & A to clear up the issue on Blobert and the Shmoo. Oddities 10 has been updated accordingly. ~FO


Update: 12/9/05

Added another page to the Image Arcane Sketch Gallery, and I added two more pages to the Image Arcane Scrapbook. ~FO


Update: 12/8/05

I added two new pages to the Image Arcane Sketch Gallery. You can get to them by going to the first page and using the new links at the top. I also added a three-page Image Arcane Scrapbook to that section. The scrapbook contains color images from old comics, storyboard, and conceptual art clippings. ~FO


Update: 12/7/05

I added some new stuff to the Midi Conversions page. I added the cave theme from StarTropics, the cave theme and another Egypt theme for Zoda's Revenge, and the Area 6, Area 8, and Unused Track for Zanac.

I also added a Black & White Sketch Gallery to the Image Arcane section. ~FO


Update: 12/6/05

Update to the Hidden Game Music article. The mystery of the EVO song has been solved, thanks to site reader motherkojiro. ~FO


Update: 12/5/05

I finished Skies of Arcadia Legends. I don't have too much else to report right now. I'll probably start LandStalker soon, but I'm three game reviews behind. I might just draw Image Arcane stuff until I get those reviews written, and then I'll begin playing LandStalker. ~FO


Update: 11/26/05

I've made an adjustment to the "friends" section below. You'll notice it has shrunk. I've decided that I'm only going to link sites on the front page that fall under the following criteria:

  • Sites must have this one linked. It doesn't have to be on the front page, but a link somewhere would be nice.
  • Site must actually exist and have more content than just a front page. And especially more than just a front page that doesn't load.
  • Owner of the website must be or have been a friend of or contributor to this site and/or community. (Example: Someone who actively posts in the forums, someone who contributed stuff to the sections that accepted reader submissons, someone who writes regularly to the Q&A, or someone I just talked to through email a lot.)

    So, yeah, that's all I can think of.

    I apologize for my lack of updates in the area of game reviews lately. I've had a bad case of writer's block. I may need to replay one path of Eternal Darkness again before I can review it. Right now, I'm kind of into playing Skies of Arcadia. Sometimes, when I play long games, I start to feel worn out on them and need a break for a few days (that happened to me a lot with Resident Evil Zero because of how long I'd have to go between saves). If that happens to me with Skies, I'll break and attempt to get that Eternal Darkness replay and review done. If not, I'll just have to wait until I finish Skies and be backlogged three game reviews instead of two.

    If you want some quick impressions on these games:

    Eternal Darkness and Resident Evil Zero were both okay, and I liked them about the same. I'm leaning towards giving them the same score, but unlike ED, I had a new perspective on RE0 after finishing the Hard Mode. I had to use a lot of strategy and planning to beat Hard, and I could see where Easy and Normal were necessary to prepare me for that. Unlike ED, though, after beating the game three times, I still wasn't completely accustomed to RE0's controls. To sum it up, neither game is great, but both have some really good parts. Unfortunately, both games tend to get unintentionally funny when the cinema scenes and talking start, which can mitigate the "scare" factor.

    Skies of Arcadia Legends is okay, but it has an extremely slow start. I don't think the game really starts getting good until you get the best airship, and by the time I got there, I was well past the 20 hour mark. There are about a million reasons I could list why the beginning of the game is dull and then it suddenly gets more interesting and fun at that point, but I'll leave it to these for now:

    1. The story is rather typical RPG stuff, so when you're forced to do little else than follow along the storyline, it kind of feels like you're just pushing through the mandatory RPG stuff before you can get to the really good stuff.

    2. When you get the better airship and it becomes fortified with things that let it pass through barriers and stand a chance against enemy ships that patrol some areas, you suddenly have a whole world to explore. Since this game is about the "age of exploration", there's a lot of hidden stuff to discover, and that, to me, is a lot more fun than just fighting random battles. Speaking of which...

    3. Random battles, especially when flying your ship around, are too frequent and the battle system is rather dull. But by the time you get to the 20 hour mark, you should be leveled up enough to kill most of these things in one hit or they'll run away from you, which makes these battles go a bit faster.

    4. This one's hard to explain without giving away a major spoiler, but I'll try to be vague. If you really don't want anything spoiled though, then just stop reading this update...NOW...Anyway, one character is taken out of the story and another one steps in to replace him/her. I like the second character more. That character fits the party's chemistry better, has more of a personality, and is actually given motivation for what he/she does.

    That's all I have to report for now. ~FO the Blue Rogue


    Update: 11/26/05

    More midi conversion madness! Today, I added:

  • A new section for Conquest of the Crystal Palace.
  • A new section for Dragon Warrior 2.
  • Conflate, Dungeon, two new versions of the ending theme, Eolis, overworld, password, title, town, and Zenith to the Faxanadu section.
  • A new section for Heroes of the Lance.
  • Flying Warriors Title Theme to the Hiryu No Ken section.
  • Cave, Mosque, and Time Door themes to the Magic of Scheherazade section.


    Update: 11/25/05

    Made one more slight update to the midis page. I just found out that Masaharu "REZON" Iwata of Ogre Battle and Final Fantasy Tactics fame not only did the soundtrack for Over Horizon, but Might and Magic as well! (He also did the music for Conquest of the Crystal Palace, but I don't yet have any midis available for that game.) Mr. Iwata is now officially one of my favorite game music composers. ~FO


    Update: 11/24/05

    Well, I've gotten myself addicted to that NSF2MIDI program and the result is that my midi conversions page has just exploded. Here's everything I added or changed today:

  • Added title theme for Abadox.
  • Added boss theme, Dark Queen's tower, Karnath's lair, Ragnarok Canyon, title theme, unused track, and wookie hole to Battletoads.
  • Added a better ending theme midi, floating tower, Mt. Saber, ocean theme, pyramid theme, and town theme to Crystalis. I also replaced the final boss theme with a better midi.
  • Added guitar version of the boss theme to Destiny of an Emperor.
  • Added guitar version of the ending theme to Dragon Spirit (this is one is an improvement over the original conversion and is my favorite of those I've added today.) Also added the Zawel battle theme, and the music for Levels 1 through 7.
  • Added Lethe's Castle, Hecate's Cave, and a guitar version of Hinom Woods to Gargoyle's Quest 2.
  • Added the main theme of Flying Dragon to Hiryu No Ken.
  • Added a new section for Kid Icarus.
  • Added a new section for Metroid.
  • Added the castle theme to Might and Magic.
  • Added a new section for Rygar.
  • Added a new section for Shadowgate.
  • Added a new section for Street Fighter 2010.
  • Replaced the ending song and overworld midis of Willow with much better ones and added a different version of the Title Theme.
  • In cases where I know the names of the music's original composer(s), I gave credit under the game's title. ~FO


    Update: 11/21/05

    I added more stuff for Hiryu No Ken to the NES Midi Conversions page, and I added a new section on there for Willow. ~FO


    Update: 11/20/05

    So here I am, happily converting NES midis, when I decide that the next obvious choice for "obscure game with music I really like that's hard to find midis for" is Culture Brain's Little Ninja Brothers...only to find out that nobody appears to have an NSF available for this game! If anybody has an NSF for Little Ninja Brothers or knows where I can get one, could you be so kind as to email it to me? I'd greatly appreciate it. I'd rip the NSF myself, but the available instructions I've found for ripping NSFs are way beyond my understanding.

    I'm working on converting some more midis, but some games really don't work too well with NSF2MIDI. Dragon Spirit is one of them. I think my ending song midi came out pretty good, but most of the other songs sound too weak or distorted. I'll have to keep fiddling with it to see if changing the settings or using certain instruments will make them sound better. ~FO


    Update: 11/15/05

    I added a bunch of stuff to the NES MIDI conversions page. New midis for Deadly Towers, Gun.Smoke, and Magic of Scheherazade. I also replaced the Level 4 music of Over Horizon with a better midi. That one always bothered me, but I found it I could get it to sound slightly better by using piano. ~FO


    Update: 11/14/05

    NES MIDI CONVERSIONS!

    I replaced the old Midis page with a new one. Now instead of stealing other people's midis, I converted a bunch of my own. And I have plenty of songs here that you may not be able to find anywhere else. ~FO


    Update: 11/14/05

    FlyingOmelette.com Version 2.0 Has Been Launched!

    Here is a rundown of the changes made to the site:

  • The most important and exciting update is in the Video Game Music Downloads Page. The section has been completely reorganized to make it easier to find what you want. I also added some downloads for Eternal Darkness, Resident Evil Zero, and Tenchi Muyo. I upgraded the mono RE0 mp3 to a much better-sounding stereo one. I also added the Donkey Kong 64 Rap, and the two mp3's from Indiana Jones & the Infernal Machine to the page. The Indiana Jones mp3's that were available before were replaced with better-sounding, true stereo ones. I also put the mp3 of the English ending song of Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits and the wma of Sona Mi Areru Ec Sancitu for Panzer Dragoon Saga on that page, which were carried over from my Top 50 Favorite Game Ending Songs article. (I'm only going to duplicate songs from the Top 50 on the Downloads page if the game they're from already has a section devoted to it there.)
  • The second-most exciting update is two additions to the Hidden Game Music oddities page. I was using NSF2MIDI to convert some midis of the music from Battletoads and Might and Magic when I discovered that both of them appear to have an unused song! I was especially delighted to find out about the hidden Might and Magic track because it's one of my top favorite games.
  • Third most-important update is that I removed Dr. Mario from my Top 100 Favorite Games article and added Samurai Shodown.
  • Implemented a slightly new layout for the frontpage. The sections for Video Games, Image Arcane, and Miscellaneous have been reorganized.
  • All midis have been removed from the game reviews and the Top 100 Favorite Games article.
  • I decided to annihilate the About FO page, and pretty much all that remains of it are a few pictures of myself and Crawl. I realized when looking through my old update logs that my site has had a somewhat troubled history and most of the problems can be traced right back to artistic differences with certain message board communities. Therefore, I decided to remove that crap about my internet history because I don't want to discuss it nor be associated with it anymore. If I ever do write up another history for myself, it'll strictly be about videogame and Image Arcane-related stuff. (Note: This is not a license for any remaining members of the Renuldar-Star, Team-VZQ, N-Sider, Game Pond, or NES Scene communities to rewrite my history, as some of you have tried doing. If I catch you doing it, I will set the record straight and I don't care if it upsets you, angers you, makes your wallpaper peel, your dog run away, your car break down, etc., I will make no apologies.)
  • Added some mp3s to the Albert Odyssey Gallery.
  • The Artwork Page, Site Directory, DVD Collection, Ezboard Avatars Archive, Video Game Collection, Old Site Index, Kitchen Sink, Midis Page, Videogame Rip-Offs Index, Site FAQ, and Transformers Collection have all been removed.
  • The final updates that were still on the Old Site Index were moved to the Old Update Log.
  • Defender review was added to the Atari 2600 Reviews section.
  • The Image Arcane index page has been completely reorganized.
  • Slightly updated Aurora's page in the Image Arcane section. She now has a last name.
  • Made a slight update to the pages for Eddy Blythe and Kin-Liu. You can now click the top image for a larger picture.
  • The Who's Who of Image Arcane now has convenient links to the separate sections at the top of every page.
  • Removed all entries that were highlighted in yellow from the Cameos Database. Also took away all those annoying little "NEW" images because that section probably won't be updated ever again.
  • The Cameos Database, Caption Contest, Switched at Birth, and Game of the Month sections have been placed in a Museum for Dead Site Sections.
  • Donkey Kong 64 Bananza added to the Game Shrines section.
  • Operation C review added to the Game Boy Reviews section.
  • Updated the section for Disney's Chip n Dale Rescue Rangers in the Documentation of Game Glitches.
  • The Switched at Birth pages were removed from the Oddities page, and placed in their own section.
  • The Game Glossary, Things We've Learned from RPGs, and Game Rip-Offs articles have all been moved to the Oddities Section. The Oddities page has been split into two sections, one that has articles featuring reader submissions, and one that doesn't.
  • Credited some midi sequencers who were previously listed as "unknown" on the Kid Icarus Midis Page.
  • The Links page was updated. If you requested that I change the link to your site, it's been done. Also, I removed a ton of sites that have disappeared and changed the links of sites that moved.
  • Reviews for Donkey Kong 64 and Indiana Jones & the Infernal Machine were added to the N64 reviews page.
  • Shadowgate review added to the NES reviews page.
  • The Poetry Preserve was reorganized so that everything is now in alphabetical order.
  • The Video Game Reviews page now has a "Reviews by System" section at the top. These links take you to the old review listings for each console.
  • Legend of the Mystical Ninja review added to the Super NES reviews page.
  • A Commdore VIC20 reviews page was added with the review for Radar Rat Race.
  • Aside from technical stuff (deleting unused files, reorganzing existing files into consolidated folders, etc.), I believe that is all the changes that were made. ~FO


    Update: 11/3/05

    I am extraordinaly pissed off right now.

    Yesterday, I had a helluva lot of trouble recording that Resident Evil 0 mp3. I had to restart about 7 times because it either came out too distorted or too muffled. I couldn't figure out what the problem was. (I also had this problem back when I was recording those Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine mp3s, too.)

    I finally figured out what the problem was. I downloaded the mp3 and listened to it at work, and realized it was in mono when it should have been in stereo. You see, awhile ago, my computer got taken apart for a reason too complicated for me to explain right now. When I put it back together, somehow I managed to connect the MONO recording cables instead of the STEREO ones, and that's why I was having so much trouble. This pisses me off for three reasons:

    1. It took about 7 attempts to make that RE0 mp3 and now I have to do it AGAIN.

    2. This also means I have to redo the Indiana Jones mp3s, as they're not in true stereo.

    3. I have no idea where the stereo cables went. This apartment is so small and so cluttered, it would be much easier for me to just buy new ones than to tear it apart looking for the old ones.

    I think once I get a new set of stereo cables I'm gonna throw the mono ones away so this will never ever happen again. ~FO


    Update: 11/2/05

    RESIDENT EVIL ZERO END CREDITS THEME (MP3)

    Nice little ending credits song there. Some good piano work.

    I'm still making progress on archiving the site and fixing the sections that need to be fixed. I would like to make the announcement that at the present time, the only section of FlyingOmelette.com that is still active is the reviews section. Once the changes made by the site clean-up procedure have been put into place, I don't have any plans to update any of the other sections ever again. And at this point in time, I can't even guarantee I'll continue writing reviews for much longer as I'm putting more thought into going back to college. I will try to, because I think it's good for me to keep writing, even if not everyone agrees.

    Here is a breakdown of the changes that will be made:

  • All "Switched at Birth?" articles will be removed from the Oddities section and placed into a new section called the "Dead Zone" (or something like that), along with the Cameos Database and the Caption Contests. The Dead Zone will exist only as an archive of sections that relied heavily on reader submissions, but will no longer be updated and will only continue to exist so long as I don't need the server space for other ventures.

  • The following pages are going to be removed completely: The Ezboard Avatars archive, Transformers collection, Game collection, DVD collection, Artwork page, the Midis page, the old index page, the old site directory, and the old site FAQ.

  • I am contemplating writing a new Site FAQ, but I'm trying to figure out a way to address the questions that annoy me the most without sounding extremely rude in response. The problem is, some of those questions actually are already answered in the existing Site FAQ, but since some people aren't reading it (*cough*), I guess I can't really expect they'll read the new one, either. Generally speaking, the things that annoy me the most are when demands are made for me to do something that you could very easily do yourself.

    Example #1: "Why don't you invite (insert name here) to the forums?" I don't invite anyone to the forums, everyone who goes there does of their own choosing. If you want someone invited, invite them yourself.

    Example #2: "Why don't you submit (insert whatever here) to Deathamster's Nest, or update it yourself since you're an admin?" As stated in the existing Site FAQ, I only host the site out of a gesture of kindness to my friends who were frustrated with the setup they originally had at Geocities. I do not update it, and I'm not an admin (and don't respond with "Yes you are" unless you want a random inanimate object hurled at you.) If there is something you want submitted, there is no reason why you can't send it to the email address that's in plain view on their site youself (currently their site is defunct, but that doesn't mean I'm going to take over for them. I have more than enough to do here.)

  • All midis will be removed from the game reviews and all midi files that were on the Midis page but not used elsewhere will be removed. I will probably keep the midis that are used for the Game Shrines, the Top 50 Ending Songs article, and the Game Music Oddities pages so long as the original sequencers don't mind if I do. If you do mind, just drop me an email and I'll remove them ASAP. The main reason I am removing the other midis is because they are just taking up too much space here and you can already go to www.vgmusic.com if you want to find them. It's also one less thing I have to worry about doing when writing game reviews now.

  • "Rip-Offs" has been discontinued and the three existing articles will be lumped in with the rest of the articles in the Game Oddities section.

  • The "Game of the Month" Archive will be probably be placed in the Dead Zone.

  • The "Reader-Submitted" Oddities articles will stay (for now), but will be placed in a separate subsection of the Oddities for articles that contain reader submissions. The Video Game Glossary and the "Things We've Learned From RPGs" article will also go under this subsection.

  • The Image Arcane section will get a makeover. There will be a new index page with easy access to the Who's Who and Character Pages. The Who's Who will have links on each page that will give you quick access to the other pages.

  • I will probably slightly alter my Top 100 Games List. I want to add Samurai Shodown to it.

  • The front page will have a slightly new format to make accessing the different sections of the site easier.

  • Any link exchange/change requests will be done at the time of the clean-up.

    That's all I can think of for now. ~FO


    Update: 10/17/05

    www.FlyingOmelette.com is on hiatus.

    Previous message removed for, yep, you guessed it, legal reasons again. Right now I'm initiating a massive clean-up project on FlyingOmelette.com. I have tons of unused files on this site that need to be deleted. And there are other files that I want consolidated into one folder. I'm also planning to get rid of some old pages and sections that I don't want anymore. These include the Artwork page, the lists of my game and Transformers collections (I don't keep these updated enough and although I still like them, I'm not into collecting Transformers toys anymore), the ezboard avatars archive, the old index page, the midis page (as well as all midi files from the site that are not my own conversions), the Cameos Database, and possibly the Switched at Birth pages. I've been thinking of instead of getting rid of "SAB" altogether, I might just compile a few pages of the very best ones.

    I estimate at least a month before all the changes are put into place. At that time, I'll probably begin reviews of Eternal Darkness and Resident Evil 0. ~FO


    Update: 10/06/05

    I've compiled links and short descriptions of all of my game reviews onto one page here:

    FlyingOmelete.com Game Reviews Page

    No new reviews have been added, but now it's much easier to find all of them, even the old crappy ones. ~FO


    Update: 10/04/05

    Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine Review Revision 2

    Okay, I think that version is MUCH better and an easier read. ~FO


    Update: 10/03/05

    I read through that Infernal Machine review and realized I have some really awkward sentences and a few typos in it. I kept revising it and revising it until I got sick of reading it over and over again, and just posted what I had to the site. I should have given myself another day or two to proofread it. I'll try to have it fixed by Wednesday night. ~FO


    Update: 9/29/05

    INDIANA JONES & THE INFERNAL MACHINE REVIEW

    Q&A updated. That's all for now. ~FO


    Update: 9/25/05

    Added Genkivideogames.com, Fryingbear.com, and ytmnd.com to the Links page. Updated Q&A (normally I wouldn't announce that, but it's been over a week.) Me? Still feeling grouchy and bitter. I completed all three paths of Eternal Darkness and thought it was a pretty good game. I started playing Resident Evil 0, and so far it doesn't seem anywhere near as good as ED, although it did have some interesting puzzles.

    One thing I keep getting asked about RE0 is if the whole game takes place on a train because apparently that's the impression a lot of "professional" reviews gave people about it. Well, actually, only the very first part takes place on a train. True that it can take a few hours before you reach the mansion, depending on how accustomed you are to the RE-style controls and how long it takes you to figure out the puzzles, but already it seems the mansion is a lot larger and more involved than the train. ~FO


    Update: 9/18/05

    Added some stuff to Documentation of Game Glitches for Indiana Jones & the Infernal Machine. (No big surprise there.) I think that's the last of them not counting all the minor graphics glitches and every single time the game froze. ~FO


    Update: 9/16/05

    FlyingOmelette.com Purge Notice!

    On or near November 1, 2005, the following sections of FlyingOmelette.com will be completely removed:

    The Cameos and References Database
    The Switched at Birth? Oddities Pages
    Any other "Reader-Submitted" Oddities Pages
    The "Things We've Learned From RPGs" Article
    The Video Game Glossary

    I STRONGLY suggest that if there is anything in those sections that you want to keep that you get it now. Once those sections are removed they will not be put back up and any requests for me to send you anything that was contained in those sections will not be answered.

    Due to issues that I cannot discuss here, FlyingOmelette.com must be purged of all reader submissions by 2006. The Q&A is the only section of the site that will continue to accept reader submissions and will stay. I am not certain what to do about the Caption Contests at this time, but just about everything else will go. The sections listed above have far too many reader submissions for me to go through and purge them all by hand. It would take far too long, therefore, I'm removing them altogether. ~FO


    Update: 9/15/05

    Been feeling kind of down and out lately, so except for Q&A, I probably won't update much until I figure out what to do about it.

    Still playing Eternal Darkness and beat the Chattur'gha path. I'm working on the Ulyaoth path now. I do like this game a lot, although it has its ups and downs. Ever since I first played Shadowgate, I've been a fan of puzzle-based adventure games and this one certainly has its share of confounding puzzles. (So did Indiana Jones & the Infernal Machine, but at least Eternal Darkness doesn't crash or glitch every half hour or so...well, if you're not counting the sanity effects, but those go away after a few moments.) But combat in a lot of cases is rather simple. If you're running low on energy, it's usually very easy to walk out of the room, heal, then walk back in and finish off your foe(s) as they take cumulative damage. The puzzles and atmosphere are where the game really shines. The final area, which looks absolutely fantastic (especially the view over the city from atop the towers), has some interesting puzzles, but most of the rooms are kinda dull and you have to go through so many of them. ~FO


    Update: 9/9/05

    For those of you who like the Indiana Jones theme, I have a special treat in store:

    Indiana Jones & the Infernal Machine Main Title Theme (MP3)

    Indiana Jones & the Infernal Machine Credits Theme (MP3)

    Rather impressive for N64 music. I guess that MusYx tool can really work wonders.

    Speaking of which, I finally completed this game. I got all the treasures and unlocked the secret stage. I finished the secret stage and got all the treasures in there, too, and that unlocked the Museum. The Museum contains an art gallery and sound test, and that's how I was able to record those MP3's. I'll be reviewing this game soon.

    I've started playing Eternal Darkness for the Gamecube. Eh...too soon to give any real impressions of it. I do know that I'm not really finding it scary so far, but maybe I've been desensitized a bit after playing games like Shadow Man, Aidyn Chronicles, Shadowgate 64, Kagero, Koudelka, King's Field, and even some parts of Indiana Jones & the Infernal Machine.


    Update: 9/6/05

    I've slightly changed how I'm doing things with the Q&A. I've numbered the questions. That way I can keep track of how many questions there are on the page and how many I've received and answered overall. Once a page has 20 questions on it, it will be prepared for archiving and I'll begin a new one soon after. ~FO


    Update: 9/4/05

    Well, I've decided against my better judgment to reinstate the forums. Basically, a lot of people had an opinion on this, and most seemed to like having a convenient link from the forums to the site and back again. (No offense, but don't people use bookmarks anymore?)

    Anyway, things will be slightly different this time around. From now on, I do whatever the hell I want with this site, regardless of what the community, or anybody in it thinks. If I ask for specific advice on how to do something (feedback on a review, for instance), I will gladly take all comments and criticism into consideration, but don't expect that I'm going to run like crazy to change something because it makes you angry, or doesn't match your ceiling tiles, or something else like that.

    And, really, seriously, I don't want to keep whining about it, but quit bitching at me over the reader submissions issue. If Renuldar-Star hadn't accepted reader submissions, I wouldn't have bothered with it, and it's arguable that this community wouldn't even exist today. Considering that a good large portion of members of the community have, at one point or another, submitted something to this site, you have little room to make me feel like I've been doing something horribly wrong that I should have never, ever done. And please do not use the excuse that I should only accept submissions from the community because some of you found the forums through the website! I also don't like the insidious implication that everyone who emails me submissions yet doesn't post at the boards is somehow a complete moron. I got into this very same argument several years ago on ShnooWorld. Only in that case, it was people on that board implying that everyone on my board who wasn't also a ShnooWorld member was a moron. It's offensive and elitist. That made me leave that board. And that's what's making me want to drop the forums from the site.

    If I'm not making myself clear on this matter, please feel free to email me to discuss it. ~FO


    Update: 9/3/05

    Updated Documentation of Game Glitches. I added new stuff for Indiana Jones & the Infernal Machine, and I added a few things for Secret of Evermore, Super Mario Bros., and Super Mario Bros. 3 that I had forgotten about until now. ~FO


    Update: 9/2/05

    I've been entertaining thoughts of reinstating the forums, but right now I'm about 75% convinced it's not really a good idea. In fact, it appears practically nothing has changed there since I severed the link, so I'm not sure what benefit there'd be to reinstating it, except that maybe people would stop emailing me to ask for the URL. (Shortcut URL still works: forums.flyingomelette.com.)

    Anyway, I'll think it over more thoroughly during the 3-day weekend. Whether or not I bring back the forums, I'd still like to continue doing the "Q&A" for now.

    And to the forum members who are located in the areas affected by Hurricane Katrina, I hope you're safe and stay well.

    As for my gameplay progress, I'm severely stuck on the King Nub's Tomb level of Indiana Jones & the Infernal Machine. I keep getting stuck on this game, then put it away for awhile, then pick it up again later and figure out what to do right away. I hope that's what happens this time as I'm getting tired of this level already. This game is also glitchy enough to fill a whole webpage. ~FO



    Update: 8/25/05

    Documentation of Game Glitches has been updated with two new ones for Mega Man 2 and one for Indiana Jones & the Infernal Machine (new entries are always the last ones.) One of the glitches for Mega Man 2 required so much explanation, I devoted a whole page to it. I'll update Q&A later. The glitch stuff took me all night to do. ~FO



    Update: 8/22/05

    The captions on the screenshots in the Super Mario 64, Donkey Kong 64, and Alundra 2 reviews were converted into alt tags because it was pointed out to me that they didn't look right on resolutions higher than 800 x 600. (Thanks go to SethraShnoo for bringing that to my attention.) The Q&A was updated. ~FO



    Update: 8/21/05

    The Q & A page is up with our very first question and response. Note that I probably will not announce every single time the Q & A is updated here, as most sites I visit that have them don't do that, either. But I've provided a convenient link to it at the top of the page so it can be easily checked whenever someone visits. ~FO



    Update: 8/20/05

    Okay, I finally have an email set up for the new Q & A section. I will worry about putting the actual Q & A page up when I've got some content for it. The email address to use for the Q & A is:

    epost@flyingomelette.com

    Be aware that any messages sent to epost@flyingomelette.com are subject to being used publicly on this site in the Q & A section.

    If you wish to contact me privately, you must use the fo@flyingomelette.com address. Messages sent to that address will be kept confidential.

    We'll give this a trial run and see how it goes. Also, what I choose to respond to is at my discretion. Spam will not be tolerated. ~FO



    Update: 8/20/05

    After nearly 10 years I have finally come to the decision to end FlyingOmelette.com's association with the Renuldar-Star/Port Saiid community. This is a bold new venture for FlyingOmelette.com, which has been very community-based since its creation in 1999. I feel, however, that this will allow the site to grow and mature, and will be better for it in the long run. There are also a number of growing concerns regarding the forums. I have been avoiding confrontation with these issues, but at some point, you have to face the music:

    1. It has become too expensive to run both the domain and the forums. Ezboard's services are too pricey and unreliable for what you get.

    2. I am planning to return to college to take courses in journalism. When this happens, I will not have time for the forums anymore. When it comes to taking classes, working a full-time job, running the domain, posting at and maintaining the forums, and my other personal hobbies, the forums are the lowest rung of the ladder of importance.

    3. Without the community's influence, I feel I will have greater freedom to do more with the site.

    In place of the forums, I will be starting up a new Q&A section. I will be creating an email address just for the Q&A. If you want to contact me and have your emails featured publicly on the Q&A, you will need to write to that address. Everything sent to my personal address will be kept confidential. I'll be giving the Q&A a trial run and see how it goes for awhile. ~FO



    Update: 8/19/05

    DOCUMENTATION OF GAME GLITCHES

    This is a documentation of all the game glitches I've seen (that I can remember). This also includes some mysteries, oversights, and special codes.

    I have a feeling that before I'm done with Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine, I'm going to have a lot more to add to that list. ~FO



    Update: 8/15/05

    I updated the link to Fenrir's Sprite Domain.

    I'm up to Level 5 on Indiana Jones & the Infernal Machine. Hooray! Yet another 3D game with large open confusing worlds and absolutely no mapping feature of any kind! But even worse, I have never played a game that has crashed and glitched up as often as this one does. Even Aidyn Chronicles, which was infamous for crashing, did not lock up on me anywhere near as much as Inferal Machine has. Aidyn froze on me in only two places during the whole time I played it. Infernal Machine froze four times on Level 3, once on Level 5, and I got stuck in a floor on Level 4 and had to reset to get out. At one point in Level 5, the framerate dropped dramatically and I lost use of all the buttons. Luckily, I was able to correct that problem by jumping in the water and returning to shore. Still, WTF? Did they not playtest this game or did they just not care?

    This game really is not all that good. If you want to play a similar game to this one, specifically on the N64, I'd recommend Shadow Man over it. But it's funny because it does have some good puzzle-solving and jumping sequences. That's probably the main reason I haven't just given up on it.

    Oh, and this game had the most hilarious graphic glitch since the floating palm tree in Aidyn Chronicles: At the bottom of Level 3 there is an elevator in a cave that is operated by pulling a switch. The switch causes a large cog to slide into place with a gear and both start spinning. Well, one time I went to this cave and the large cog had not repositioned itself correctly from the last time I was there. This caused the animation to skip when I pulled the switch and the large cog ended up spinning on the wrong axis!! I hope I can get a screencap of that eventually. (Thankfully, the elevator still worked.) ~FO



    Update: 8/14/05

    DONKEY KONG 64 REVIEW

    Want to comment on this review? GO HERE!

    Now I've gotta get back to playing Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine. I only made it to level 3, but it's fairly big level. I found two of the four candles, but the game locked up on me twice in this area. I just love these modern games that do that. ~FO



    Update: 8/7/05

    DONKEY KONG 64 BANANZA!

    Okay, sorry for the really bad pun. I couldn't help myself. Anyway, this is a similar thing to my Arc the Lad 4 Shrine. I threw together some fun pages about Donkey Kong 64. This section includes a featurette on the Donkey Kong arcade game, a list of known cameos and references for DK64, some information on bizarre glitches with screencaps that show how to perform them, an article about Chunky Kong, and some other random oddities. Now once I get a review written for this game, I can officially end my obsession with it.

    In other news, I added a new banner to the "Miscellaneous" section below because with just plain text, it didn't stand out enough for my liking. I also added a link to Galbadia Hotel to the Links page. ~FO



    Update: 8/3/05

    LEGEND OF THE MYSTICAL NINJA REVIEW

    Finished it! Finally! Want to comment on this review? GO HERE!

    In other news, I beat Donkey Kong 64. The final boss was pretty good. Hard at first, but gets easier once you know what to do in each phase. I kind of felt like the final part with Chunky relied more on luck, though. Maybe I just couldn't figure out how to time it correctly, but even if I didn't, I "lucked" through it. In terms of 3D platformers I've finished, I liked this game more than Blinx and Conker, but not as much as Super Mario 64, Banjo-Kazooie, and Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon. I think Rare just went overboard with the switching and collecting (though it's not as bad as I had originally thought it would be...some of the things you "collect" happen as a result of collecting other things, like the banana medals you get for finding 75 regular bananas.) And the game didn't have a noticeable difficulty curve like Super Mario 64 did. In SM64, the worlds on the first floor of the castle were definitely the easiest. The worlds on the middle floor were a bit harder, and the worlds at the top were definitely the hardest. It didn't seem like any given level in DK64 was harder than any other. It's just that certain random tasks scattered throughout the worlds could be really tough (the races, the "Beaver Bother" and "Fly Swatter" mini-games, and that one Diddy Kong room in Crystal Caves with the four barrels on the middle platform gave me more trouble than anything else). ~FO



    Update: 8/1/05

    I fixed a problem with my Update Log. Some posts that I thought I had put in there were missing, but I restored them. If, for any reason, you were looking for something in a recent update and didn't find it in there, it should be there now.

    I also re-linked some of my old favorite site articles and sections in the right column below in the videogames section. These are all old articles and they haven't been updated. Just wanted to balance out the table a little more. I'll eventually need to figure out a better way to organize that section.

    Okay, I currently have everything in Donkey Kong 64. No kidding. I have every Gold Banana (all 201), regular banana, Banana Medal, Battle Crown, Banana Fairy, and Blueprint Piece in the game. The only thing I have yet to do is beat the final boss, and I've gotten to what I believe to be the last phase of it. What this means is that I'll need to catch up on reviewing. I didn't expect to get everything in this game by now, and I still haven't finished that Mystical Ninja review. I hope to have it done by Wednesday night. ~FO


    Update: 7/30/05

    I added J.R. City, IronicConsumer.com, RogerEbert.com, and retroCRUSH.com to the Links page.


    Update: 7/29/05

    Post of the Day!!


    Chunky Kong is the greatest Kong ever.

    Seriously, I'm liking DK64 more than I really should, and I think part of it's because of him. Chunky just makes me laugh! I've made it as far as Creepy Castle and Crystal Caves. I've got almost all of the previous stages completely cleared out except I'm missing one of Tiny's Gold Bananas in Angry Aztec (the damn beetle race one), one of Lanky's in Fungi Forest (the rabbit race one), and one of Diddy's in Fungi Forest (the !@%#^%^$! owl race one). I was holding off on doing those ones until the weekend when I'm more rested up and just working on collecting the easy stuff for now.

    But by far my favorite thing about this game was getting to unlock the arcade version of Donkey Kong. I was a huge fan of that game back in the 80's and it's largely responsible for making me a gamer. It's nice to finally have a home version that's arcade-accurate, with the one minor exception that the stages don't progress in the same order. But at least the elements of the stages and the increases in the challenge on consecutive loops are all kept in-tact and all four stages are present. ~FO


    Update: 7/28/05

    It seems like the hype over that Top 50 article is already dying down, so I don't think it will be a problem. If anyone on the forums notices the site loading too slowly, incorrectly, or not at all, I'd appreciate it if you'd let me know.

    Most of the sites that are posting links to this article are making it very clear that it's a personal favorite list, and I thank those that have represented it accurately. But there are a few that are touting it as "The Top 50 Greatest Game Ending Songs of All Time!1!1!1!1!" or something similar, but the article clearly states that's not what it is. I also hope everyone enjoys the downloads I made available there.

    In other news, I'll still be on hiatus until the end of the week. I hope to work on my review for The Legend of the Mystical Ninja over the weekend, but I'm not making promises. I'm extremely tired and feel a bit sick from working all of this overtime. But at least I'll get a nice fat paycheck out of it. :D ~FO


    Update: 7/27/05

    Oh crap. I'm not sure how or why, but somehow an internet newsfeed service picked up my Top 50 Favorite Game Ending Songs article and now it's getting posted around the internet on sites, blogs, and message boards left and right. I'll have to keep an eye on my bandwidth levels to make sure the downloads from that page don't cause any problems.

    It's not that I don't appreciate the hits, but I have to wonder what it is about that particular article that's brought it so much attention. Especially since it's already several months old and this isn't even a professional website. Oh well. At least it wasn't like that retroCRUSH.com disaster where Robert Berry's "Worst Movie Love Scenes" article was posted everywhere and he wasn't credited for it.

    Message Board Post of the Day


    Update: 7/24/05

    Message Board Posts of the Day (Jack Thompson Stuff)

    I added StephenFilms.com to the Links page.


    Update: 7/20/05

    My site's going on a short hiatus because I have to work overtime all next week. If I post any updates it will only be for notes on my progress with Donkey Kong 64 and "message board post of the day".

    I also changed the wording at the top of the main page. Since I'm unsure when I'll be able to return to college, I removed the dialogue that referred to it. (I had planned to go in the fall of this year...now that seems highly unlikely.) I also converted that line about reader contributions to a general "I cannot guarantee the accuracy blah, blah, blah", as the old one seemed to suggest that my own information is always 100% accurate and it's just the submissions that aren't. I didn't mean for it to sound that way and I apologize if it caused any confusion. ~FO


    Update: 7/18/05

    Ladies and gentleman, yesterday's "Post of the Day" was a joke. That's not a real passage from any Harry Potter book.

    And here's the Message Board Posts for Today

    I started playing Donkey Kong 64. It's okay so far, but rather bland. (Well, the game is okay, but that opening rap song made me want to hide under my futon, and the scenes with Candy are downright creepy. I always did think Candy Kong was rather creepy, but it only makes it worse when she's making all kinds of double entendres about instruments and melons.) Switching Kongs and backtracking all the time to collect everything gets annoying after awhile. The worlds are so huge, it's hard to keep track of where you're going and where you've been. Games like this definitely need in-game auto-maps. ~FO


    Update: 7/17/05

    Message Board Post of the Day
    My Best "Wedding Crashers" Trailer Yet!

    I put up a character page for Eddy Blythe in the Image Arcane section. ~FO


    Update: 7/16/05

    I put up a review for Operation C (GB). Want to comment on this review? Go here!

    In other news, I updated the Links Page. I added ArkFullofSorrow.com, changed the link for The Bent Kangaroo to TheBentKangaroo.com, and re-added MarioPortal.com as that site finally reappeared after having disappeared for awhile.

    And now, once I am finished downloading this Donkey Kong Country remix mp3, I am going to reboot my PC because for some reason my browser isn't caching anything, and it's driving me nuts. ~FO


    Update: 7/14/05

    I put up a review for Shadowgate (NES). Want to comment on this review? Go here!

    In other news, I reorganized the main page a bit. I put the links to the Update Log, Forums, Old Site Archive, Email, and Links Page into their own "Miscellaneous" section, and the "OTHER" link at the top now takes you to that section. The "FRIENDS" link at the top takes you to the stat counter and links at the bottom of the page (which is where "OTHER" used to lead to).

    Chester and Sesa crash a wedding
    Same thing, but with Chancey and the Calico King
    And again with James FP and CB007 (Ghaleon)


    Update: 7/12/05


    This is actually an older drawing of Eddy and Jade Blythe that I recolored tonight. Click for larger image.

    I know the front page is getting a bit bogged down with images. I'll dump all the older updates into the Update Log tomorrow. ~FO


    Update: 7/11/05

    Message Board Topic of the Day
    If You Could Rename the Final Fantasy Games


    Update: 7/10/05

    Message Board Post of the Day

    An update on my gaming news and what I plan to review in the near future:

    Shadowgate (NES) - I recently played through this in about a half an hour without getting a game over. I could beat it in less time than that, but I wanted to take my time and re-read all the dialogue. This is one of my favorite NES games, but it's going to be difficult to review since I'll have to pull about 90% of it from my memory of the first time I played through it. Thankfully, it was quite a memorable experience. I definitely recommend trying this game if you've never played it before.

    Operation C (GB) - I beat this game years ago, and I'm almost positive I once got so in-practice with it that I beat it without losing a life. However, I couldn't remember much about it. Upon replaying it over the past couple of days, I was quite surprised to find out it's actually a pretty decent game and a welcome addition to the Contra series. It most resembles NES Contra and Super C in graphics, gameplay, level design, and music, but it's got enough new stuff that it doesn't feel like rehash. It's also at least as challenging as those games, meaning it's not the most difficult game in the world, but not ridiculously easy, either. Recommended for fans of Contra and Super C and those just looking for a good Game Boy title.

    Super Mario Land (GB) - "Bleh" is the best way I can describe this game. Even though this was one of the first Game Boy games I ever owned, I never liked it that much. Awkward controls, bland level design, and the game's pace just seems to drag on and on even though it's really short (possibly because nothing much challenging or exciting ever happens and you have to make your jumps so slowly and carefully). I beat the game twice in a row (first and second quest) without getting a game over. I never understood why this game stayed on top of the Nintendo Power Game Boy Top 10 chart for so long. Even before I had a large library of Game Boy games, I managed to find much better things to play, like Gargoyle's Quest, Ninja Boy, Operation C, Kirby's Pinball Land, and Kid Dracula. ~FO


    Update: 7/9/05

    Did you ever notice that when you find a library full of books that you can read in a videogame, there is always that one book that makes you raise an eyebrow or two? First we had that "Spicy the Dumped" fiasco in Arc the Lad 4 and now this. ~FO


    Update: 7/8/05

    I reviewed Radar Rat Race for the Commodore VIC20. Want to comment on this review? Go here!

    Message Board Posts of the Day
    Forgot to Post This One the Other Day


    Update: 7/7/05

    Message Board Post of the Day

    (Sorry. You're only going to get that if you read the forums on at least a somewhat-regular basis.)

    Put up a character page for Kin-Liu in the Image Arcane section. ~FO


    Update: 7/5/05


    Harken and Kin-Liu sketch I did today. Click for larger image.

    I put up a character page for Aurora in the Image Arcane section.


    Neato! I got Radar Rat Race to run on Pfau Zeh, a Commodore VIC20 emulator. I actually own this game and was playing it on my working VIC20 the past couple of days. I liked this game a lot when I was a kid, but I don't find it quite so entertaining anymore. Moon Patrol is still my favorite VIC20 game, but I can't get that to run on Pfau Zeh. But still, it's a fun nostalgic blast, and I have one important memory from this game - it might have been the first time I discovered a unique trick on my own:


    When you die in this game, you turn into the word "EEEK!" If you hit a rat, the "EEEK!" is red. If you hit a cat, the "EEEK!" is blue. But I discovered a way to make a white "EEEK!", so whenever anyone would play this game at my house, I'd challenge them to figure out how to make the white "EEEK!". It's really simple, but I don't think anyone ever figured it out before I told them the answer: Run up to a cat, then turn and drop stars. If you did it right, the cat will be covered in stars. Then turn and run into the cat, and there you go! (This only works if a cat is covered in stars, it doesn't work with the rats.) ~FO


    Update: 7/4/05

    I reviewed Defender for the Atari 2600! Want to comment on this review? Go here!

    In other news, I've canceled my plans to write that history of 'Cleo and Christopher for now. I might still get around to it eventually, but I don't want to make promises, so I took if off the above schedule.

    Now, assuming that my nerves don't get the better of me and I don't end up tearing them down again, I'm going to try once again to put up the Image Arcane character pages. This time, however, I'm going to drastically limit what I put up. On the previous pages, I was trying to archive every single picture I still have scattered in my scrapbooks and boxes, which is a colossal waste of time and space. This time, I'm only putting up the best of what I have. I prefer to stick with versions of the characters that are identical or very close to the current "canon" designs. I've started with a page dedicated to Tomi Forrester.


    Update: 7/3/05

    I got the sound composers for Castlevania 3 and Dragon Spirit for my Top 50 Favorite Game Ending Songs article thanks to The Video Game Credits Database Project.


    Aurora the Dark Mage without her cloaking hat. I stated in this character's "Who's Who" entry that no one had ever seen her without her hat, but I thought that was rather ridiculous, so it was about time I designed what she looked like without it. (I basically just combined her design with that of an older character that I don't use anymore. I think the results are pretty satisfactory.)


    Update: 7/2/05


    Tomi and Deuce sketches I did today

    The latest issue of EGM has confirmed that the cousin-marrying thing in Arc the Lad: Generation aka End of Darkness is true. Since I had heard about this only through Japanese websites, I was hoping it was a translation error on my part, but apparently, it's not. Thank you, Sony and Cattle Call. When compared to the most mega-popular RPGs, Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits may not have all that many fans, but you've just slapped every one of them in the face. And unlike Twilight of the Spirits, which did get some very positive reviews, every review I've seen of End of Darkness has been negative, with complaints against everything from the gameplay to the story. So what exactly was the point of this game besides making some quick cash? Is there some competition amongst game developers these days to see who can fuck up a sequel the worst? And if money was the only incentive, then wouldn't it make more sense to not completely desecrate the characters so that fans of them would want the game, if only because they're in it?

    In other news, I think I may have finally solved a mystery that's bugged me for many years now. I really like a lot of the music in the SNES RPG, Breath of Fire, but I was perturbed that no one is credited for composing it in the game's ending. When I hear good soundtracks, I like to know who composed them. However, I was browsing the website of game music composer Yoko Shimomura (Street Fighter 2, Super Mario RPG, Live-a-Live, Legend of Mana, Parasite Eve, Kingdom Hearts), and noticed that the 1993 SFC entry on her works page appears to translate to Breath of Fire (which was released in Japan in 1993). I actually had theorized that she might have worked on Breath of Fire because I know she composed music for Capcom games before and it seemed like it was consistant with her style, but I didn't know for sure until now. I'm really happy to discover this because she's one of my favorite game music composers, right up there with Nobuo Uematsu, Yasunori Mitsuda, Yuzo Koshiro, Hiroki Kikuta, Hirokazu "Hip" Tanaka, Hitoshi Sakimoto, and Kohei Tanaka.

    And speaking of which, I updated my Top 50 Game Ending Songs article so that all the music composers that I know of are properly credited. I managed to get the missing names by perusing SNESmusic.org. ~FO


    Update: 6/26/05

    A big thank you and round of applause for CB007, who volunteered to archive what's left of our Game Progress Topics at his website. We lost a lot of our Game Progress posts in the 2005 Ezboard hacker attack, but everything that still exists has been archived to CB007's site for permanent viewing. ~FO


    Update: 6/23/05

    I added some things to the MP3 Downloads Page: "Cathena", "Maluise Tower", and "Peisus Library" from Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits, and "Hall of Champions" from Dungeon Master.


    Update: 6/22/05

    Because of the Ezboard Apocalypse fiasco, I haven't been doing "Message Board Post of the Day" lately. However, in going through old posts, I found a few "classics" worth revisiting:

    Thanks a lot, Pero.
    Prerequisites for title of "Devotion to Classic Gaming"
    Rather strange dilemma
    This whole entire topic deserves an encore
    Oh, the things you can do with cut-up old pieces of comics you drew when you were 12
    Funniest damn post on Deathamster's Nest

    Other Random Stuff:

    Sketch I did today of Nucleo and Pibby
    FlyingOmelette.com sees all, knows all


    Update: 6/19/05

    I've updated the Who's Who of Image Arcane. Added the following character entries: Bluejay, Caeser, Christopher Pigeon, Cykada, Frimpet, Griffin, Grimm, King Cobra Condor, Kraken, Kynkoan, Linda Swiftly, Mongoose, Pibby, Sea Serpent, Snakeroot, Song Savis, and Zumo. ~FO

    If I may digress for a moment, I wanted to say that I've been feeling a lot happier about working on this site than I have been in a long time. Ever since I joined The Minerva Project way back in 1995 (wow, 10 years ago!!), I've always thought it would be great to run a site like that - one that was devoted to writing, drawing, and creativity, but had game-related stuff on the side, like reviews and special features. Now, I feel like I'm finally living that dream. Thanks again, to everyone, for all of your help and support over the years. ~FO


    Update: 6/19/05

    Since the Cameos Database was purged, I had one other order of business to take care of and that was the Links page. I have removed all sites that no longer exist, and I removed some sites I no longer visit that did not have me linked. I added two links to the "Friends" section: NES News and evo-STAR. I added two links to the "Ezboards" section: CB007's Ezboard and Sweetbee's Forums.

    A word of warning - I have a section devoted to sites that have me linked, but the links still go to the old Geocities page. That is okay for now, but if Geocities ever deletes my site there, I'll be removing those sites if the links pages are not updated to point to the current domain (I realize some of those sites haven't been updated in years, but some of them have.) If you update your link, I'll bump you up into the "Friends" section and give your site a brief description.

    In other news, I'm currently in the process of updating the "Who's Who of Image Arcane". I'm missing some important characters from that page, like Kraken and Zumo, and I now have color pictures of them scanned and ready to go. I'll probably complete that project before starting on the history of Christopher Paladin and Nucleo McRaven that I'd mentioned earlier.

    I'd also like to take a moment just to thank the members of the Deathamster's Nest website and message board and the Port Saiid community in general for all of the support and help you've given me over the past few years, and particularly in the past few months. I'm extremely proud to be part of such a wonderful, strong community of great people and sorry if that embarrassed you to read that, but it had to be said. And thanks again to all people who are not members of the community, but have been supportive of the site by sending emailed submissions and helpful and encouraging information through the years.

    "Nerves of steel
    Heart of gold
    May you be
    Forever bold"
    - Flying Omelette


    Update: 6/18/05

    SUCCESS!!

    Thanks to some help from CB007, I believe we have managed to purge all information that was submitted by those "dirty thieves" </gollum>. Hopefully, now, FlyingOmelette.com can move on to the future. ~FO

    "Roads? Where we're going, we don't need roads." - Dr. Emmett Brown


    Update: 6/18/05

    I've begun the long painstaking process of removing the information from the Cameos Database that had been stolen from other websites. I apologize sincerely to the webmasters and FAQ writers whose information had been pilfered. In some cases, I have given full credit to the sites and their respective webmasters for the information. In other cases where I do not know where the information was stolen from, or do not know the name of the author who originally penned the information, I have simply removed them. If I, or any auxiliary staff member of www.FlyingOmelette.com ever decides to begin updating the Cameos & References Database again, we will be much more careful about the information that we accept. If you believe something from your site or FAQ was stolen and you either want credit or don't want it on this site, please contact me to discuss it.

    Also, if in the case we ever do begin updates of the Cameos Database again, there will be absolutely no piggybacking on existing entries. "Piggybacking" is when you submit some useless information in the effort to make a cameo submission more "complete" and to share credit with the person who originally submitted it. Uh-uh. It is not necessary to explain in full detail everything about a cameo. Just that it exists and what game it exists in is good enough. I am also in the process of removing piggybacked information and restoring full credit to the person who originally submitted the entry.

    Finally, the users who submitted stolen information to the Cameos Database will eventually have all other site submissions removed from FlyingOmelette.com, as I have no way of knowing if those other submissions were taken from other websites, too, and I'd rather not have anything posted to this site that was submitted by people who steal other's hard work and abuse my trust. ~FO



    6/15/05


    Dear Employer of Flying Omelette. It has been brought to our attention that back in March of this year 2005, your company therapist made several slanderous statements towards the administrator of FlyingOmelette.com, to Image Arcane and the R.A.U., and to the FlyingOmelette.com website and community. You scoffed at the writing and drawing skills of the staff of this award-winning website, and basically took a shit on 20 years of work without even having so much as looked at any of it. You have since refused all requests for a written statement of apology to us. We of the R.A.U. have only one thing to say to you:


    PLPLPLPLPLPLPLPLPLPLPLPLPLPLPLPLPLPLPLPLPLPLPLPLPLPLPLPLPLPL!!!!!


    The preceding announcement was brought to you by Port Saiid Productions. Thank you and have a great evening.



    6/13/05

    Did some slight reorganizing of the main page here. I removed the "Update Log" and "Links to Other Sites" pages from the game and cartoon articles section and moved them to the special section below it. Since those aren't exactly editorials, they were more appropriate there. I also moved the "Poetry Preserve" to the Image Arcane section because I felt it didn't have enough to do with videogames or cartoons to be placed in with those articles. The original intention for some of the poems were to be songs for Image Arcane anyway, so it made sense to put it there.

    Preliminary sketch of Nucleo McRaven and Christopher Paladin that I just did tonight. I'm also putting together an article that explains the history of these two characters, which are my top two favorites from Image Arcane. ~FO



    6/3/05

    When I changed the format of this site awhile ago, I had a Q & A up that explained why I made the changes. This was up for about a month, but since I wasn't archiving the new updates yet, I eventually took it down. I figured it was up as long as it needed to be. It appears this is not the case. I assumed after a month everyone who visits this site regularly would have seen it and read it, but for whatever reasons, some people apparently did not, and this has caused some confusion. So, once again, I'll present another Q & A, and this time, it won't get taken down (although it'll eventually be retired to the update logs, but at least it will always be here.)

    Q: Why are you no longer accepting reader submissions?

    A: There are a number of problems with reader submissions now. So many, in fact, I have to break this answer down into numbered sections.

    1. Too many submissions for me to be able to handle anymore. If I was still trying to add all the reader submissions that I receive on a daily basis to the site, I'd basically have only time to do that and nothing else. It's like having a second job that you don't get paid to do.

    2. Legal troubles - For awhile, we were on an honor system here. We were a small enough site that when we got submissions (especially for Cameos or Switched at Birth), we knew it was stuff that we had actually found ourselves, through playing the games or watching the cartoons, etc. But eventually I began having substantial trouble with people stealing large amounts of information from other websites and submitting it as their own. Because the users had gleaned this information off of other websites without actually confirming that any of it was true by playing the games themselves, much of it turned out to be erroneous, resulting in an overwhelming amount of false and misleading entries in the Cameos Database. It is also really, really poor nettiquette to steal information from someone else's site or FAQs without contacting the author for permission. As far as SAB is concerned...If someone finds a similarity they think is worthy of submission, I wouldn't expect them to scour the entire internet to make sure no one else has mentioned it somewhere. But I've actually had people email me multiple submissions taken directly from similar features on other websites. How do I know this? Because sometimes the URLs of the images give it away. Other times, people have even told me things like, "Here's a website with a bunch of stuff you can add to SAB!", as if it's perfectly okay for me to just go ahead and take it. And since I've become familiar with a number of such sites that exist, I can tell if you're just taking the images from those sites and emailing them to me.

    3. This is something personal, but I've gotten emails from people saying things like, "You should quit writing reviews. I just want to see Cameos and SAB updates!", and quite frankly, I find that disturbing. I may not be the most talented person in the world, but I am a creative one, and if people think the best parts of my site are those I have nothing to do with besides just posting information sent to me, then that makes me feel like a human dictaphone. If I can't use this site as an outlet for my creativity, then I may as well not be here at all.

    4. My heart just simply was not in it anymore. It was fun for a few years, but the fun just went out of it and I got bored with it. Even before the changes to the site were made, updates had been few and very far-between. I had contemplated closing the site several times, but changing the format renewed my interest in working on it. The new format gives me so much more freedom to do what I want that I've felt much happier about this place than I had in several years. I understand why people would be disappointed by this news, but I'm not quite sure why some have practically taken up arms against me and some of my friends over it. This is nothing unusual, folks. Many of my favorite sites that I used to follow since I got on the internet in 1995 either no longer exist or are no longer updated. Yes, it saddens me, but I don't go sending the webmasters and their friends harassing and threatening emails.

    5. Image Arcane - I can tell a lot of people do not read the "About Flying Omelette" page. I can tell this for two reasons: 1. A lot of times people still refer to me as "he", "him", and "his" in both their emails and on message board postings. 2. Anyone who seems to think this Image Arcane stuff came out of nowhere did not read the part about my internet history. Image Arcane is the original reason I got on the internet in the first place. I worked for a site called "The Minerva Project". When that site closed down, it was around that time I quit drawing and writing. The site's closure was not the real reason I quit, it had more to do with a lot of personal problems that I won't discuss here. I understand that Image Arcane is not something that will appeal to most of my readers. I know that you came here for the game-related stuff, not for a fan comic, and that's okay. Cest la vie. But it's a calling that I cannot tear myself away from. It's a huge part of who I am, something that I've worked on for over 20 years now, and working on it (heck, just looking through my old crappy stuff for that matter) brings me a lot more happiness than anything I'd worked on here in the past few years. And I simply do not have time to work on both the cartoon and the site.

    I'd like to thank everyone who played by the rules and sent in submissions to the site. I don't want you to think I don't appreciate it, because I do. But my heart is just not in it anymore.

    Q: So, will there never, ever be another update to Cameos or SAB?

    A: I don't really know for sure. If inspiration ever hits me and I just feel like doing another SAB article, I'll do one. However, I'm going to be much more strict about what I'll accept for entries. The entries must be particularly uncanny or funny or I won't accept them. Any submissions that do not include pictures will be immediately discarded because I am not going to spend hours using Google image search trying to find stuff when the half the times I don't even know what I'm looking for anymore. And any entries that I know were stolen from other sites without permission will be rejected. As for Cameos...well, that section is a total mess right now. It'll take a lot of work to get it fixed up at this point. I was thinking of taking some of the more interesting ones and eventually expanding them into Oddities features (Re: Random EarthBound Insanity!), but that won't happen for awhile.

    Q: So what parts of the site are still active?

    A: I still write game reviews, but as you can see, I don't write them too often, but I do plan to continue writing them, so that's definitely something to look forward to. I'll also write other articles as the inspiration hits me. Things like "My Favorite Autobots" and "Top 50 Game Ending Songs" are things that I just get the inspiration to do on a whim, so I do them. And I think that results in higher-quality updates as opposed to trying to force myself to write something all the time (like I was with Game of the Month). The Poetry Preserve, which I recently added, is something that will probably not be updated frequently because I do not write lyrics that often, and it's not something I'm too into doing anymore. That section was mainly added for archiving purposes.

    Q: This is all the fault of Crawl and 1000, BJ Strykes, James FP, CodieKitty, or (*insert name of other friend of FO here*), isn't it?

    A: No, and don't harass them about it! It's true that some of my friends suggested that I should do other things with this site, and it's true that I trust my friends' judgment (sometimes more than I do my own), but ultimately what I do with this site is my decision and my decision alone. And also, no one made any suggestions before *I* specifically asked what people would think if I quit doing this part of the site in favor of doing that, so the ideas for the changes originated from me.

    Q: What happened to your forums?

    A: A hacker attacked all of ezboard.com and wiped out the posts of almost every ezboard in existence, not just mine. There's a slim possiblity we could get some of the posts restored, but even if we don't, we'll just cut our losses and move on from here.

    I can't think of anything else to say about the site right now. If more questions pop up, I'll address them, but for now, I hope this clears up most of the confusion.



    6/2/05

    I took down the Image Arcane character pages for now. I have to give serious thought as to what I'm doing with the series right now. Basically, I want to revamp that entire section. My original intention was to create a portfolio of my work, past-to-present, to show the evolution of my characters and my drawing skills, but now I'm not sure that's really necessary because it could be a very long time before I'd ever need such a portfolio for anything.

    It might be best to just try to get some scripts done and some more modernized sketches of the characters... ~FO



    6/1/05

    WE SURVIVED THE...

    * EZBOARD APOCALYPSE *

    Message Board Quote of the Day #1 (on complaints about the "closure" of FlyingOmelette.com):
    James FP: "Things I've learned from internet people: When a site no longer accepts reader submissions and retires some of its sections, that site can be considered entirely closed. Pay no attention to little things like a brand new Samurai Shodown review, a new poetry section, or a new Top 50 favorite game ending songs article complete with lots of juicy downloads, all added within the past few months. Those don't actually exist and are just a figment of your imagination. Updates relating to the admin's personal webcomic don't count, either."

    Message Board Quote of the Day #2 (on the recent "Ezboard Apocalypse"):
    CB007 (as Doc Brown): "Changes to the timeline were made by mistake during my adventures in the past. THAT is the cause of this problem."
    The Melee Master 2: "Um.....I don't think going back to the past changed the way this forum is now. Something is wrong with EZ Board.com."



    5/31/05

    I updated the Who's Who of Image Arcane article. I color-coded the entries, broke up the pages into alphabetized sections, and I rearranged every entry so that they're all in alphabetical order now. I still have quite a few characters to add to this, eventually....

    I'm making an update to say where the updates went. They're now in a brand new Update Log. Heh. ~FO

    Quote of the Moment: "First of all I would like to make one thing perfectly clear...I never explain anything." - Mary Poppins



    5/30/05

    So you think you're a Romeo
    Playing a part in a picture-show
    Take the long way home
    Take the long way home

    'Cuz you're the joke of the neighborhood
    Why should you care if you're feeling good
    Take the long way home
    Take the long way home

    But there are times that you feel you're part of the scenery
    All the greenery is comin' down, boy
    And then your wife seems to think you're part of the furniture
    Oh, it's peculiar, she used to be so nice

    When lonely days turn to lonely nights
    You take a trip to the city lights
    Take the long way home
    Take the long way home

    You never see what you want to see
    Forever playing to the gallery
    Take the long way home
    Take the long way home

    And when you're up on the stage, it's so unbelievable
    Unforgettable, how they adore you
    But then your wife seems to think you're losing your sanity
    Oh, the calamity...is there no way out?

    Does it feel that your life's become a catastrophe?
    Oh, it has to be for you to grow, boy
    When you look through the years and see what you could have been
    Oh, what you might have been, if you'd had more time

    So, when the day comes to settle down
    Who's to blame if you're not around?
    You took the long way home
    You took the long way home
    You took the long way home
    You took the long way home

    Long way home...
    Long way home...

    Dedicated to over 10 years of the Port Saiid/FlyingOmelette.com community
    (1995-Present)



    5/24/05

    Finished my page for Snakeroot, my big badass plant monster! I also added one more picture to the last page for Jack Sheen.

    "I'm crossing that bridge with lessons I've learned
    I'm playing with fire and not getting burned
    I may not know what you're going through
    But time is the space between me and you
    There is a light through that window
    Hold on, say yes, while people say no
    Life carries on" - Seal



    5/22/05

    Message Board Post of the Day



    5/21/05

    We have a new section called Message Board Rules & Regulations. Please take time to read it.

    Also, bear in mind, folks, that I am semi-retired from message boads. I still visit my own and a few owned by people I've been very close friends with over the years, but I just don't have time and energy to visit a million-and-one message boards or very active message boards anymore.



    5/18/05

    Message Board Post of the Day



    5/17/05

    Message Board Post of the Day



    5/15/05

    Message Board Post of the Day

    Since it's taking me forever and a day to get anything done on my character pages for Image Arcane, I decided to throw together a Crash Course:

    WHO'S WHO OF IMAGE ARCANE

    This is a list of characters with a small picture and short description of each.

    EDIT: I updated the front page of this article with a quick Q&A.

    EDIT: Updated the front page again with a few more Q&A's. Also fixed the existing Q&A's because for some reason, I started labeling them "A" and "B" instead of "Q" and "A" after awhile. I also fixed Darkona's description. I had too many grammatical errors in that one.



    5/14/05
    Message Board Post of the Day



    5/13/05
    Message Board Post of the Day


    Frizz welcomes you to FlyingOmelette.com.



    5/9/05
    Message Board Post of the Day



    5/8/05

    I've removed two sections from the old site archive. They are:

    1. The Guestbook and Guestbook Archive - I thank everyone who signed the guestbook, but I just don't feel like maintaining one anymore. Most people I know who still have guestbooks get more spam and weird entries in them than legitimate ones, and I just don't feel like wasting my time deleting such entries from mine. And without an open guestbook, I see no reason to keep the archive, either.

    2. The Site Awards Page - The OPCFG Award this site won has been relocated to the bottom of this page. I have no plans to give out the Golden Ridley Award anymore. If you are the webmaster of one of the sites that won this award, feel free to continue displaying it if you so desire.

    Now for the real updates: I added GameBrink.com, an import store, to the Links page. I also finally finished a huge project I've been working on. It took forever to upload all of this because of the number of large files involved:

    FLYING OMELETTE'S TOP 50 FAVORITE GAME ENDING SONGS

    Why a Top 50 Favorite Game Ending Songs you might ask? I have often given thought to writing a Top 100 Favorite Game Songs article, but there are way too many songs I like to narrow it down. However, limiting it to a specific type of music, in this case, ending songs, makes such an endeavor a whole lot easier. And besides, one problem I had is that ending songs would dominate my list anyway. Anyway, there are plenty of good downloads in various formats available on that page, so check it out.

    Want to comment on this article? GO HERE!



    5/7/05

    Added five new poems to the Poetry Preserve (see below for link), including "Once Upon a Nightmare", "Memories of You", "Caught Up in the Past", "Searching For You", and "Highway". I've reached the bottom of the barrel now. Unless I inadvertently dig up something I've forgotten about, that'll be the last of the poetry until if and when I write again, but I don't write lyrics that often. I also corrected the title of "Theme From Image Arcane" to "Lost Pages of History", as I found an old lyrics sheet that had the proper title on it.



    5/6/05

    I added eight new poems to the Poetry Preserve (see last update for link). They include "The Man in Black", "As Long as the River Runs By", "Shadows of the Mind", "Unresolved Destiny", "Distorted Night", "The Untamed Lands", "There is Always Hope", and "Samurai".



    5/4/05

    FLYING OMELETTE'S POETRY PRESERVE

    Okay, it might seem like I totally ripped off The Shnoo's Eyerie at Deathamster's Nest, and yeah, I kind of did, but I have a few reasons for this:

    1. Deathamster's Nest appears to be dead. Unless I see someone update again soon, I can assume that anything new I'd submit won't ever get posted.

    2. Even if it wasn't dead, I kind of prefer having my poems on my own site now because I have more control over them if I want to change or remove them. Also, with having them on my own site, I can now give explanations of their meanings or why I wrote them.

    3. It gave me an excuse to finally use that Secret of Mana background I created from an emulator and ROM a long time ago.

    Anyway, I've archived thirty of my best poems, most of which are completely mine, and some that I co-wrote.



    4/27/05

    Message Board Post of the Day



    4/26/05
    Just a quick note on what's been going on. I've put a temporary hold on Image Arcane. My scanner doesn't work with the newer PC, and I have to get a new monitor for the older PC. We have a working monitor, but it's really old and the screen keeps fluctuating, which gives me a headache, and the screen is too small for me. I don't like having to squint at what I'm typing. Once I get a new monitor, I will put Image Arcane back on track.

    On the video game front, I'm still working on Harvest Moon 64 and I'm liking it a LOT more than I did when I first started playing. It's kind of like Inindo: Way of the Ninja in that you have to try to get past how ugly the game looks and it's like Azure Dreams in that you have to give it some time and effort before you can start to really enjoy it. Although it's not radically different from the SNES Harvest Moon, it's a definite improvement, with a lot more stuff to do (especially in winter), and a greenhouse that allows you to take care of vegetables year-round without losing time (since time doesn't pass while you're indoors.)



    4/23/05
    SAMURAI SHODOWN (SNES) REVIEW

    Want to comment on this review? GO HERE!

    At present time, I am not updating the Cameos Database, but I just found out something about an old favorite of mine that I never knew before: Might and Magic has Star Trek references:

      

    The message in the above left picture can be found in Doom Castle. It is the title of an episode of the original Star Trek series. The second picture contains a certain very famous Vulcan quote.



    4/22/05
    Message Board Post of the Day #1
    Message Board Post of the Day #2
    Who should've been Time magazine's "Man of the 20th Century"?


    Update: 4/15/05
    Closed. (End of Flying Omelette's Kitchen Version 1) ~FO

    Update: 4/13/05
    I put up a Game of the Month article. ~FO

    Update: 4/10/05
    I've updated the Links page. If you requested a Link Exchange or an update of your old link, check to make sure it's been done. If it's not, then email me again to let me know (right now it's best if you EMAIL me for Link Exchanges as opposed to requesting on the forums.)

    About a week ago, I announced that the site was on indefinite hiatus, but I took the announcement down when I realized I had posted it on April Fool's Day. I figured people would think it was an April Fool's Day joke (albeit a really lame one). But it's not. I'm not sure what I'm doing about the site right now. I really do want to write that Samurai Shodown review, and I want to get "Game of the Month" done, but lately I've been devoting my free time to other things and haven't felt much like updating. In order to balance my time between this site and my other projects, I'll probably have to sacrifice review quality a bit. Most people may not notice. But I just can't submit myself to this idea of slaving over one review for months on end, proofing it, asking for feedback before posting it, and being really obsessive over making sure it's perfect. People who do that may turn out better reviews than mine, but I'm not in a competition here. I think I'm a better writer than I was when I first started (case in point: that laughably bad Ys 3 review from '99), so even if I went back to just churning out a review in an hour, it would still be better than my old crap.

    As for games, I haven't played much lately. I started playing Harvest Moon 64 after I finished Samurai Shodown, but I wasn't too impressed with it. It's almost exactly the same game as SNES Harvest Moon, only with (much) worse graphics. They're blurry, the textures are smeared, and the colors aren't very bright. The N64 is supposedly more powerful than the SNES, so why can't this game look at least as good as, say, Super Mario RPG? I'm also not too keen on the 3/4 view, because I often miss when striking rocks with the hammer. At least they got rid of the tool shed, though, so switching items isn't as annoying as it was before. But I do wish they'd give you more daylight time. ~FO

    Update: 4/1/05

    I sailed on the wings of time to be with you
    I followed this dream of mine and I'll see it through
    It was a dream and a promise that I intend to keep
    Right here within my soul so deep

    Hold onto those dreams you dare not to forget
    Hold them dear to you
    When there are no open roads, don't give up yet
    We'll blaze a trail right through
    Straight like an arrow
    We will fly to the farthest skies
    Once this journey starts
    There won't be any looking behind us again
    Forward, to the stars, full speed ahead ~FO

    Update: 3/29/05
    I took down the Image Arcane stuff. Just decided it would be better for now. ~FO

    Update: 3/27/05
    First of all, I wanted to apologize for not responding to my emails lately. I've been neglecting the site. I've gotten several requests for link exchanges or to update my current links, and I will be getting back to everyone soon on that. What I have been doing:

    1. The job situation: If you caught any of that fiasco before I took it down, just as a follow-up, my employment appears to be safe for now. The whole thing was initiated by a psycho in another department. My manager told me that if anyone does anything like that to me again, I should go straight to him with it and he'll take care of it. My manager's a really cool guy who's been trying to put an end to bullcrap like that. So, I'm safely employed and I'm no longer being heckled, but that still means the time I have to work on this site is limited until if and when I can go down to a part-time job. I'll continue to update sections like "Switched at Birth?" and the Cameos Database, but they'll be slow-coming.

    2. The game situation: I'm still addicted to Samurai Shodown. I'm almost done with it. The only character I haven't beaten it with on the hardest difficulty setting is Ukyo, but since Wan-Fu is MUCH harder to use and I managed it with him, I should be accomplishing that goal shortly. And then, a review.

    3. The website situation: Another reason I've been neglecting the site is because I've been going through a lot of my old artwork and scanning some of the better stuff I still have lying around. Most of what I have are cartoon characters created for either my Image Arcane comic series or for a website I used to belong to called The Minerva Project. I've given some thought to writing again, but it's a very time-consuming thing, and I wouldn't want to do it unless I thought I could do it very well. (Some of my old stuff was pure crap.) However, I've put together a small section of my site devoted to Image Arcane in Cartoon Corner. It's mostly just old character sketches with descriptions of each one. No full comic strips, as I no longer have any of them. Not sure how interested anyone would be in such a thing, but this is my website devoted to things I like, and that was a huge part of who I am. ~FO

    Update: 3/16/05
    Missing Oddities Page 45 has finally been completed. Yes, it's another "Switched at Birth?" page.

    Added some Viewtiful Joe cameos to the Cameos Database. ~FO

    Update: 3/12/05
    I put up Game of the Month for March. I know I said before that I wanted to try to get these done by the first weekend of each month, but last week I was too upset over my job situation to write anything. I did something a little different this month. I hope it turned out okay.

    In other news, a dummy is me. I didn't realize until very recently that you can find out who sequenced a midi by looking at the file info in Winamp (assuming that the sequencer put his/her name in there.) Now, I can finally give credit for almost all of those midis marked "unknown". Remember that if I placed a midi you sequenced on this site that you don't want on here, just email me and I'll remove it.

    In gaming news, I'm still addicted to SNES Samurai Shodown. I should be done with it by the end of next week, and I hope to start on a review of it then. Yes, I've said that for about the past 20 games I've played, but I'm serious this time. ~FO

    Update: 3/4/05
    Allright, I'm taking down the crap about my workplace for the last time and I won't be discussing it neither here nor on the forums anymore. I just want to enjoy my weekend as much as possible while thinking about that place and this situation as little as possible. Somehow, the big wheel will keep on turning. ~FO

    Update: 2/28/05
    Okay, okay, it's the last day of February, so there's your Game of the Month article. As I said, I'll try to start doing these at the beginning of the month again from now on. My goal is to get them done by the first weekend of the month. I just don't always have time and energy to write in the middle of the week. Blame my job. ~FO

    Update: 2/26/05
    I made a small update to the Cameos Database. I also added a few new entries to the Game Glossary (in the Kitchen Sink section, I don't feel like linking it here), and I added VG Cats to the Links page. I'll get Game of the Month done later today and this time I hope to make good on my promise to get back to doing that at the beginning of the month starting in March. There shouldn't be too many more website setbacks now that everything's been transferred to the new server from the old one and from Boomspeed. I'm also still working on an SAB page, but to be honest, I'm getting really bored with doing "Switched at Birth". After this page is done, from now on, I'm only going to accept entries in which the resemblances are particularly strong, uncanny, or funny.

    In gaming news, I've been having a blast playing Samurai Shodown for the Super NES over the past week. I beat the game on the hardest setting with Jubei and I plan to do the same with Kyoshiro over the weekend. This is the most fun I've had with a game since Arc the Lad 4. ~FO

    Update: 2/19/05
    I bought a cable that allows me to record game music directly from my games to the PC in stereo (before, all I could do is record in mono), but for some reason, the ones that were recorded in mono sound better to me than the stereo ones. I was going to replace all the mono mp3s with stereo ones, but now I'm not so sure it'd be a good idea. And the Kagero songs are going to be mono no matter what because that's how they are on the disc. I'm wondering if it would make a difference if I tried using the microphone port instead of the line-in port, but the last time I used the microphone port, I ended up with a bunch of mp3s that had really heavy distortion. I might just need to fiddle with the settings a bit more... ~FO

    Update: 2/13/05
    Updated the Links page. Changed DJ Warmech's site to the Nintendo University of Classic Gaming. And now...

    Bear witness to the Greatest Topic in the History of Port Saiid!

    ~FO

    Update: 2/12/05
    The Cameos Database is back on-line! We're still in the process of weeding out suspicious and false entries, though. I also made a slight adjustment to the "About FO" page. Although I still kept my internet history up there, I felt like removing references to specific names and events, and I may eventually remove my internet history from that page entirely. I had originally put all that garbage up there for two reasons: 1. In case anyone was actually curious about my internet history. 2. Because some people I've tangled with on message boards in the past had a habit of blatantly trying to rewrite the community's history, and I felt SOMEONE had to get the facts straight once and for all. But by now, I just feel like that stuff is a bunch of crap I'd rather just not think about anymore, but I'll leave the page as is for now.

    Oh, and I added a bunch of stuff to my Arc 4 Oddities Page. ~FO

    Update: 2/11/05


    Folks, now I know how the apes felt when they saw the Monolith in the beginning of 2001.

    Thanks go to Fenrir X for creating that image. ~FO

    Update: 2/5/05
    Mostly, all I've been doing is updating the Cameos Database, trying to get it into the new format and mark suspicious entries for confirmation or deletion. Once it's ready, I'll relink it on the main page. (You can still get to it via the shortcut URL or the site directory.) I also updated the links page. If you requested an URL change, it's been done. I also added back a few sites that changed URLs, since I've figured out where they moved to.


    But the main thing I really wanted to talk about here is that I actually received a letter from someone who worked on the English translation of Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits about my mini-shrine!

    Hi there--

    I've been checking out your Video Game Oddities page now and then for a while now, but I guess it had been some time since I'd last been by; on my visit yesterday I discovered your minishrine coverage of Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits, and especially your love of Bebedora.

    As one of the translators of this game (I did Darc's chapters 1 through 3), I want to thank you for your appreciation of the game and tell you how much I and the other translator working on Darc really enjoyed translating for Bebedora. Even before we were through, we were musing about Bebedora tie-ins like stuffed animals, cellphone straps, and bobbleheads, and how much we'd love to get our hands on any one of those. We'd send our favorite Bebs quotes (yes, we gave her a nickname) back and forth as we came across them in our day's work. I think it's safe to say we fell as hard for her as you did.

    Actually, for as much work as this game required (it seemed to be never-ending, honestly), it was kind of fun, overall. I got to work with a lot of great characters and fit in some amusing lines here and there--even if some of them were cut out in the end. (I especially liked my Planet of the Apes reference, shown in the official guidebook but unfortunately excised from the final cut of the game.) Unlike what I've heard about the translation of previous Arc games, I managed to inject some interest and humor while still keeping the English version true to the original.

    Anyway, your Arc 4 site was a miniblast from the past for me. Thanks again and keep up the good work!

    Nora

    --
    Nora Stevens Heath
    J-E translations: www.fumizuki.com

    This is the first time in all the years I've worked on this site that I've ever received a letter from someone who actually worked on a game. And to receive one from someone who worked with my favorite videogame character of all time is just more than I could ever ask for. I am incredibly starstruck over this!


    On the gaming front, I finally beat that motherblastin' @#$%&*! final boss of Blinx the Time Sweeper. Holy granddaddy of pearl, was that thing difficult to beat! And I thought I had trouble with the final boss of Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits! Geez, maybe I should do a FAQ for the Blinx boss, too. I've beaten some really tough final bosses, but the main difference with this one is that the fight relies on a LOT of luck, whereas with most other difficult final bosses I've conquered, it was a matter of learning their attacks and patterns, and then working out a strategy for dealing with and/or getting better at avoiding them. The Blinx boss has four forms, and in order to wipe out the third form, you need to hit him once with each kind of time control power. The problem is that you're practically forced to collect all the time controls while the boss is still in Phase 1, and you only have 10 minutes for the battle total. If the right combinations of crystals don't fall in time, you're pretty much screwed. I also found it almost necessary to get two extra pause controls to deal with the boss's second form. If you don't pause him when he's vulnerable, it's nearly impossible to hit both of his halves in time.

    The funny thing is...when I finally won, I think I may have won by a glitch. Normally, you have to hit the boss's second form twice before he moves onto Phase 3. But I only hit him once in that form and he immediately went to Phase 3. This made things much easier because (A) I had more time to deal with this 3rd and 4th forms, (B) because I didn't take as much damage from Phase 2 as I normally would have while waiting for him to become vulnerable a second time, and (C) because it left me with a surplus of spiked balls in reserve to use on the final form.

    In the end, I'd still stay that Blinx is only a 2-star game at the most. I appreciate the difficulty of the final boss, but I didn't like that such a big part of it relies on luck and that I possibly only won by a glitch that I may never be able to repeat...But I also have no real desire to replay the game, either.

    I also finished Alone in the Dark: One-Eyed Jack's Revenge for the Sega Saturn. Ugh. This game was impossible to play without using a FAQ because of (a) horrible controls, (b) the ability to screw up your game if you missed a crucial item or backed yourself into a no-way-out corner, and (b) glitches that could cause you to end up too far into the game too fast. However, I did get quite a few laughs out of this game, because of unintentionally hilarious voice acting and an even more unintentionally hilarious ending. I'm under the impression this game was supposed to be "scary", but gimme a break...There's a part where you dress up as Santa Claus, and when you play as the little girl, she kills zombies by making them slip and fall on ice cubes. This is about as scary as the Home Alone movies.

    Expect reviews of Blinx, Alone in the Dark 2, Arc the Lad 4, Kartia, Moon Patrol, and Cannon Spike sometime in the future, but don't hold your breath as I tend to take my time with these things. ~FO

    Update: 1/31/05
    Yes! With only one day in January left, I finally do Game of the Month! I rule!! ~FO

    Update: 1/30/05
    Nevermind. Crawl was just trying to offer what he thought would be a good solution to the current problems, but it's just not going to work and he said to go back to doing things the way I was doing them. ~FO

    Update: 1/30/05
    One more thing I wanted to say: I apologize for my rude behavior in that last announcement (which I've removed). I didn't mean to give anyone who correctly follows the submission and refution guidelines the impression that I was calling them a "moron" or an "asshole". Nor did I mean to imply that everyone who has ever sent in a submission that turned out to be false is a "moron", either. (I've had to remove a number of my own over the years, so no one is infallible.) It's mostly just a few people doing it, and to be very specific and give one example of the kind of thing I'm talknig about: Somebody wrote in to inform me that "The Legend of Stafy" wasn't a real game and wasn't very polite about it. I've since found evidence that this game series does indeed exist (appears to be Japan and Europe-only), and in fact, it is already up to the third (!) in the series! Same person also complained about another cameo being "a bunch of crap", but then an unaltered screenshot was produced that proved otherwise. THAT'S the type of thing that's annoying me.

    Hopefully, after this cleanup is over, I'll be more careful about what I put on the Database from now on and we won't have to go through this kind of thing again. ~FO

    Update: 1/30/05
    Allright. A number of people have written in to me to ask if they could host the Cameos Database on their own site and take over for me. I truly, honestly appreciate that. I'd really hate to see all of my hard work go down the drain. Even if there is a number of "garbage" entries, a lot of what is there is very good, and I'd hate to lose all of it. But I'm hanging on a very frayed rope right now about it, so I'm going to lay down a few MORE rules:

    1. Until I get the Database completely fixed and prepared for the next real update, I'm leaving the link off the main page. I will upload the html files again later today (I didn't delete the image folders yet because a lot of the images in the database are used for other sections of the site, ie, Switched at Birth), but you'll either have to use the subdomain URL or the Directory to get to them if you really want to.

    2. From now on, in the case of any debated entries, the bottom line will be: What Crawl and 1000 says goes. I trust Crawl's opinions more than I do anyone else's. If something is under debate and Crawl says it should go, it gets dropped. If Crawl says it should stay, it stays. No if's, and's, or but's about it.

    3. Everything that I have not seen actual proof for with my own eyes or ears is being reduced to Status: Unverified. I initially had some people and sites deemed "Reliable Source", but as it turns out, even a number of entries from those sources have been refuted. Remember that no source is infallible, but I'm just not in the mood to be taking chances anymore.

    Update: 1/29/05
    I have up a new article in Cartoon Corner called A Tribute to Urusei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer. This is my all-time favorite animated movie, and I wanted to take a break from working on the site transfer to write some stuff about it. I started off by explaining the general idea of the movie and introducing all of the main characters. I plan to do a full review and a screencap gallery eventually, too, but I also need to get Game of the Month done while it's actually still January and continue work on the site transfer, so I might not complete those right away. ~FO

    Update: 1/28/05
    Yay! I got some free time at work today and uploaded some more wma's and mp3's! Check out the Download Page for Albert Odyssey Aria, Albert Odyssey Karnait Theme, Albert Odyssey Radoria's Castle, Alundra 2 Kindra Forest, and Alundra 2 Puerto Medusa. I said before that I wasn't going to upload the Alundra 2 Kindra Forest theme until I redid it because it has slight distortion, but it might be a LONG time before I'll ever do that because I'm so far behind on a lot of things due to the site transfer (which I'm still in the process of doing - I've got to get all those Boomspeed files completely transferred over so I can cancel that account.) So, I uploaded the mp3 I had anyway. The distortion is only very slight and only in one small piece of the music. You might not even notice it, depending on your sound system. My thought is, if you like that piece of music, you can download it now to listen to it, and then get the better mp3 later when I make one available. Eventually, I want to make stereo versions of all the "mono" mp3's, but time is just too limited right now. ~FO

    Update: 1/25/05
    I'm working hard to get the known erroneous information in the Cameos Database corrected. Already, a number of pages have been updated, and all suspicious or known-to-be-false entries have been highlighted in yellow. I already uploaded a new version of the index page that outlines the new rules and guidelines for submissions, but the three most important are these:

    1. Cameos can no longer be verified without proof. All cameos that were verified without proof have been reduced to Status: Unverified.

    2. Please submit only cameos and references for games that you've played and thus, you have seen the cameos in the game with your own eyes (or heard them if they're musical.) Ripping information off of other websites is VERY HIGHLY discouraged (1) because it's plagiarism if you don't credit your source, and (2) because you have no way of knowing if the information you're stealing is correct. I've gotten a ton of false and erroneous entries that I have to clean up from people doing this.

    3. "Intra-Series" has been done away with. It's been replaced with "Specific Reference" and "Character Cameo". "Specific Reference" is when one game in a series makes a VERY particular reference to another game within the same series. The reference should be something small and not overly important to the plot or gameplay. A "Character Cameo" is when a character in a game series makes a very brief appearance in another game within the same series, or is hidden somewhere within the game. Again, it shouldn't be directly related to the gameplay or plot. I understand it's sometimes hard to draw the line between what is "Specific Reference" and "Character Cameo" and what is just "series continuity", but I'm hoping to become better at judging these in the future and rejecting entries that fall under "series continuity".

    Oh, and one other rule I didn't mention on the new Cameos index page...If, by chance, you send me a cameo or cameos that I reject, please do not continue to send them to me over and over and over again! I confess that I put a lot of "garbage" entries up on the site only because when I refused to put them up the first time, they kept getting sent to me again and again and again. Well, that's not going to work anymore, so don't bother doing it! ~FO

    Update: 1/16/05
    Allright, let's go over a few things about the Cameos Database.

    #1. Be VERY careful with Intra-Series cameos! The appearance of the "cameo" character should not be directly related to the plot or the gameplay in any way. Preferably, the appearance should be in a hidden or completely optional portion of the game.

    Example 1: Intra-Series Cameo: Bo and Karn in Breath of Fire 2 are a cameo because the island where you find them is optional. There is no need to go there and you get nothing from it. And their appearance makes no sense in the plot since this game's story takes place hundreds (maybe thousands) of years after Breath of Fire 1. Presumably, they shouldn't have lived that long. They're only there as a cameo.

    Example 2: Not an Intra-Series Cameo: Nina appearing in a cutscene in Breath of Fire 2. Nina's appearance here is important to the plot, and you cannot avoid the part of the game where you see her. Unlike Bo and Karn, she appears in "spirit" form, so her existence in the story makes sense. This is not a cameo, it's story continuity within the series.

    There are lots of Intra-Series Cameos already listed in the database that fall under Example 2, and I will eventually try to weed them out. I will continue accepting Intra-Series cameos, but they MUST fall under Example 1's criteria.

    #2. I'm sort of being put in a no-win situation here. If I accept fan-written FAQs and reviews as reliable sources, then I get people writing in to tell me that the information contained in those FAQs is erroneous and I shouldn't use anything other than official sources to verify entries. And it's hard for me to blame them because I've seen my day's worth of fake codes and false information floating around, even on supposedly-reliable websites. However, if I don't consider FAQs as legitimate sources, then I get people writing in to tell me, "How could you have that listed as unverified? It's mentioned in every FAQ and review for the game!! You're an idiot!" It's stuff like this that's making me want to quit updating that section of the site.

    #3. The bottom line here, folks, is that the Cameos Database was meant to be for fun. Of course, I cannot guarantee the accuracy of ALL the information present in it. Very few sites can absolutely guarantee 100% that all the information they contain is correct. Even the news isn't right about everything. And even with all the evidence provided for some of the "true" entries, if you still choose to disbelieve it, then that's your choice and you're more than welcome to it. I don't see the point in getting pissed off over stuff like this. I've said this before, I'll say it again, if you think something listed there is incorrect, simply write in and tell me why you think it's false, and provide evidence if you have it. It's that simple. And most importantly of all, just have fun with it!! I'd personally hate to stop doing that section of the site, because I learned a lot of fascinating things I'd never known before, both about games I've played and ones I haven't, and in the case of the latter, some of this stuff makes me more interested in playing the games than normal game reviews would. ~FO

    Update: 1/15/05
    I updated the Links page. I removed some sites that were no longer around.

    A note on the Cameos Database: This section is going to need another major overhaul, and quite frankly, I've been debating the idea of getting rid of it altogether. If the Cameos Database is kept on as part of the site, then the following new rule will be put into place:

    Rule #1: Fan-written FAQs and Guides will no longer be considered reliable sources for verifying information. The reason is because I'm getting far too many emails from people debunking entries that were previously verified by FAQs. I don't have time right now to correct the entries that have been rebutted, but when I do, the ones that have been proven false will be slated for removal and all entries that have been verified by FAQs will be reduced to Status: Unverified. Also, any entries that were verified without proof being sent in will be reduced to Status: Unverified.

    Rule #2: No more Intra-Series Cameos. All Intra-Series Cameos are going to be removed from the Database once I have time to start updating again.

    At this point, I honestly think the best thing to do would be to get rid of this section entirely, but I won't go to that extreme right now. ~FO

    Update: 1/14/05
    I updated the Directory. I can't believe that all this time, I never had the Midis page linked there!

    I added one more entry to the Arc the Lad 4 SAB article. Bebedora certainly has her share of look-a-likes... ~FO

    Update: 1/13/05
    I'm working on getting the Transformers Animations back up. (What the hell was up with those really gay descriptions I had on the old page?? Geez, I'm glad I did take that down. What was I smoking back then?) As I said before, I'm only putting up the really good animations that weren't so badly affected by tracking glitches, or ones that I just like a whole lot. Maybe someday, if I get time and motivation, I'll redo them with the DVD's, since I now own a Playstation2, but I don't have time for it right now. ~FO

    Update: 1/12/05
    I made a major update to my Autobots article. I added four new characters, a ton of screen captures, and I fixed up the descriptions for some of the other characters that were already on there. I think eventually, I might expand that section into a page and gallery for each character, but I don't have time to do it right now because I seriously have to work on getting the Boomspeed files transferred. ~FO

    Update: 1/11/05
    I added a picture of Bebedora to the Artwork Page. ~FO

    I got rid of the RAM files from the Albert Odyssey Gallery and replaced them with MP3's. I'll eventually be adding more MP3's from this game to the site. I figured it was pointless to keep the RAM's, since you can just visit the page at RPGFan.com where I found them. ~FO

    Update: 1/10/05
    In case you didn't hear about it on the forums, I have switched my hosting service to another provider. This one gives me over 7,000 MB of space for a pretty low montly cost. What this means is that my worries about what I was going to do when I ran out of space are over. Because of this, I am going to work on transferring all of my stuff from my Boomspeed account to FlyingOmlette.com, and once that's completed, I will cancel my Boomspeed account since I will no longer need it. Also, with the vastly increased space, I now have room for all of those MP3's and WMA's I wanted to upload. Therefore, every MP3 and WMA that I had on this site has been put back up on the downloads page. The only one I didn't put back up was the Alundra 2 Kindra Forest Theme because I did notice a bit of distortion in that one when I last listened to it, and I want to redo it before I put it back up. If you previously downloaded the Arc the Lad 4 stuff in MP3 format and liked them, you may want to download them again in WMA format. The WMA's, which I have available now, sound a lot better than those MP3's did.

    This also means that I can bring back the Transformers Animations. While I certainly have the space to bring back all of them, I think for now I'm only going to put back up the ones that looked really good. A lot of them had tracking glitches and some were just kinda ugly (sorry, I used the VHS tapes to make them instead of the DVD's, but I didn't have a Playstation2 at the time), and I don't want to waste anyone's time with crappy gifs. ~FO

    Update: 1/5/05
    Okay. The Autobots article is fixed. Unless Boomspeed goes down, the pictures should now work. And I changed the picture of Cosmos to a much better one, too.

    I'm having a bit of trouble with the pictures on that Autobots page. The picture topics on my forums have caused my Ripway account to exceed its bandwidth limit and therefore, the pictures in that article may not work for you. I'll move them to either FlyingOmelette.com or Boomspeed later.

    Also, a few days ago, I had answered some Frequently Asked Questions I received about that Arc the Lad Generation article. I took it down off the main page because I felt I was giving that game too much attention. Well, what I did instead was move the Q&A to the actual article.

    I'm sorry, but I'm not backing down on this one. Sony and Cattle Call created two of the best and funniest RPG characters I've seen in almost 20 years of playing videogames, and now, for no reason I can possibly come up with, they're gonna let a crappy on-line game destroy them. Screw that! ~FO

    Update: 1/4/05
    I fixed up my Favorite Autobots page a little bit. I replaced the picture of Huffer with a better one and I fixed up his description a bit. I also added a little to Jazz and Wheeljack's descriptions. I'm thinking of adding a few more characters to that page, but I have to gather my thoughts on the Autobots I wish to add first. ~FO

    Update: 1/3/05
    I decided to add a separate page for my MP3s and WMAs of the Month. That will make it much easier for you to find and download what I currently have available as opposed to searching through my site updates and update log for them. ~FO

    I added one new entry to the Arc the Lad Switched at Birth? article. ~FO

    Okay. Once again, I have rewritten my Kabuki Quantum Fighter review. The whole reason I wanted to rewrite that review is because I felt I was still being too hard on it. I hated the last paragraph of the old review that called the game "poorly-designed". I felt that that was placing in the same boat with games like Hydlide, Heroes of the Lance, and Incantation, and Kabuki Quantum Fighter really isn't THAT bad. However, Crawl and I got into a huge disagreement over the rewrite. He felt that the review made a bolder statement with that final line in and it made more sense as a category-based review. Well, yes, the review does make a bolder statement with that line, but the point of removing it is that it's not necessarily the statement that I, personally, want to make. However, I reached a compromise. I told everyone I'd finalize the review (which basically means I reworded and rewrote it so that it makes more sense now without the category headings...if it STILL doesn't make sense to you, then I am sorry, because that is the best I can do. If you want to think I'm incompetant in the essay format, so be it. That's your opinion. To paraphrase Qwipster, everyone's a critic, even of critics.) The compromise is that, despite the fact that I'm uncomfortable with it, I changed the final paragraph so that it's now closer to the old one (complete with the "poorly-designed" part), and my end of the bargain is that I don't have to put the review back into category format.

    But as Vampyrus said, it's ****ing Kabuki Quantum Fighter, people. It's a game that you can either find for a $1.50 somewhere or just download a ROM. It's not like the fate of the universe is hinging on my review. ~FO

    Update: 1/2/05
    MASSIVE update today! I added a TON of stuff to the Cameos Database. I am almost done with the September submissions. I added a few new entries to the Aliens Switched at Birth? article. Two of them were carried over from the Arc the Lad SAB article, and one is brand new. I also updated Things We've Learned From RPGs with a few new submissions. ~FO

    Update: 1/2/05
    Updated the Links page. Added Links to "Rolling Thunder Online" and "Out of the Blue" to the Friends/Link Exchange section. ~FO

    Update: 1/2/05
    I added THREE new entries to the Arc the Lad Switched at Birth? article. ~FO

    Update: 1/1/05
    Okay, I got rid of the poll. The majority has spoken - I guess I'll keep the reviews for now, but I still might need to think about how I can improve my writing for future reviews. Instead, I made a fun poll:

    (NOTE: Poll removed because it doesn't work anymore.)

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