Blogging Games

I made a guide – How to transfer saves from the PSP to the PC and back!

February 23, 2013 by Nikola·0 Comments

Since this was a big issue for me over the last few days and google didn’t really help me out, I decided to help others who might run into this issue in the future. Thus, I wrote a guide on how to transfer saves from the PSP to the PC and back. I also made it into a static page, so you can find it on the menu above, or you can just click on the following link:

How to transfer saves from the PSP to the PC and back

It’s specific to the game Grandia and the emulator ePSXe, but I wrote it so it can be applied to other games and other emulators as well. I hope it’s easy enough to understand, but feel free to provide criticism on how to improve it.

Grandia [5] – To the PC and Back Again (The Twin Towers Freeze)

February 21, 2013 by Nikola·3 Comments

Last time on Grandia, I got seriously stuck. The EBOOT I’m using on my PSP turned out bugged, so it kept freezing at the Twin Towers animated cut scene. I tried using the PSP Go Pause Game feature to go around it, but it wouldn’t work. Well, I managed to navigate around it anyway, albeit in a very unconventional way.

How to Transfer saves from PSP to ePSXe?

You see, I have a PC and I’m no stranger to emulation. I dusted off my copy of ePSXe, updated it and got an ISO of Grandia with the same ID as the one I have on my PSP – SCUS94457. I know, I know, technically, this is piracy, but I paid 50€ for the German version of Grandia about 15 years ago, and that amount of money is around 8% of my current income, so sue me.

I’m kidding. Please don’t sue me. It’s totally a legal backup.

The two VMP files are the actual memory cards.

Anyway , I got the ISO, err, backup and loaded it up on ePSXe. I made sure the two memory card files in the memcard subfolder of ePSXe were created and then I connected my PSP Go to the PC. I found the original saves in PSP/SAVEDATA/SCUS94457 on my PSP Go and copied them to my PC.

Copying from the PSP Go to the ePSXe memory card is as simple as copying a file.

Then I got an awesome piece of software – MemCardRex. This tools allows you to edit different PS1 save formats, copy save slots from one memory card to another and even create new memory card files. It can edit and save a large amount of formats and read a few more. I loaded up my PSP Go save files in one tab and my ePSXe memory card file in the other and copied the Grandia saves. I was now able to continue my game on the ePSXe, so that’s what I did.

The Game

I got past the Twin Towers, since the dungeon ended as soon as the cut scene was over. What followed was the saddest part of the game and the second saddest moment in my gaming career, second only to the scene from Final Fantasy VII. The game was hinting that Sue was getting more and more exhausted since the End of The World, possibly even sooner, but it finally happened. She collapsed at the village of Dight.

I didn’t notice the hints on my first playthrough.

Justin needed a teleportation orb from the nearby Mysterious Vanishing Hill to get over the inner sea, though, so Sue did her usual grown up thing and sent him on his way. The Mysterious Vanishing Hill was a relatively short area, made even shorter with ePSXe’s ability to fast forward through battles by disabling the FPS limiter. I fought the two bosses there, got the orb and went back to Sue.

She decided to leave adventuring to Justin until she gets older. It’s hard to describe this, but it was a very touching scene and in the end, Justin decided to use the orb to help Sue get back to Parm. This means Sue wont be learning any more spells and I’m one awesome character short. On the game side, I got Sue’s skill books, so not all of it will be wasted, but story-wise, it was still a very sad moment.

Right in the feeler!

Since teleportation was out of the question, I needed a boat. Luckily, Gadwin had one, so he told me to meet him back at his house when we’re ready to leave. Getting there was a bit annoying, since the area was full of low-level enemies I couldn’t avoid.

I got to Gadwin and then it was revealed I’m gonna lose another awesome character. Gadwin challenged Justin to a duel and this time, I won. He taught me his secret Dragon Move and then said it’s time for him to go on his own Journey. Again, I got his skill books, but I still lost an awesome character.

Both battles are rigged, but it’s still a cool part of the game.

I went back to Dight and boarded Gadwin ship. Again, the game offered some touching moments during the voyage and Justin actually got serious for a bit, before a pretty girl ran into their boat, called Justin “her hero” and asked him to save her island from pirates. That’s where I stopped playing.

Justin really knows how to kill the magic.

Half way through, though, I transferred my save back to the PSP, because I prefer a bug and stutter free experience, which apparently, ePSXe is unable to offer, even after all these years.

How to transfer saves from PC to the PSP

Sadly, MemCardRex can’t save to the PSP memory card format, only read from it. In order to transfer my saves there, I had to go with a different route. I downloaded the CWCheats plugin for my PSP Go. There are different versions of the plugin out there, but not all of them work on the PSP Go, so I had to find the right one. This plugin basically allows for hex cheats in PSP and POPS games, but it can also replace entire memory cards on the fly and it also allows ePSXe save file imports.

In order to get to that point, I had to rename my ePSXe save file to the GAME_IDE-#.mcr format, which ended up being:

[code]SCUS_94457-0.mcr[/code]

I renamed it to that and then copied the file to the seplugins/cwcheat/mc folder on my PSP. Then I made sure the plugin was working and I loaded up Grandia. Once I was at the title menu, I pushed and held Select for a few seconds, which caused the cwcheat menu to appear. From there, I was able to import the ePSXe save from the Manage Memory Cards menu. If the file doesn’t appear for you, make sure you named it correctly. It needs to be named after the game ID, which you can also read from the cwcheat menu while the game is running.

Anyway, I got past the freezing bug at Twin Towers and now I’m able to keep playing my game on the PSP Go.

Tomba! [1] – A Challenger Appears!

February 18, 2013 by Nikola·2 Comments

As I already said, Grandia bugged out on me, freezing at a certain spot. My plan was to transfer the saves to my PC and continue the game with an emulator, but in the meantime, I decided to start a fresh game on the PSP, a platformer, of a sort.

This game really brings me back!

Tomba! is a very strange game. It plays and controls like a 2D platformer, but it’s way more complicated than that. The whole idea of the game is that you explore the colorful world, find obstacles and then talk to interesting characters and collect items to help you deal with those obstacles. Basically, it’s a platforming adventure game that plays more like a mix of equal parts Super Mario, Castlevania and Monkey Island, of all things.

It’s really hard to explain, but I found the demo, which is the only thing I’ve ever played as a kid, extremely fun and interesting. In fact, I found it so interesting I decided to put Tomba! on my PSP now and play all the way through it.

The 100 Year Old Man

The plot of Tomba! is simple. You’re some sort of caveman kid who likes to eat pork and have fun. Somehow, you run into a bunch of evil pigs who knock you out and steal your grandpa’s golden bracelet. You really like that bracelet, so you decided to save the world and destroy the evil pig empire to get it back.

The colors!

I started the game and talked to the old man at the beginning, which got me my first few events:

Grandpa’s Bracelet
Clear the Fog
The 100 Year Old Man

The first one will be with me until the game ends, but the other two, I’ll solve really soon.

You can hold up to jump in that direction while swinging on a branch.

The beginning part was in the demo, so I remembered some of it. I jumped on the wall of the building behind me and got to the other side of the fence, where i got the Furious Tornado from the mailbox. Then I jumped back to the front and climbed the first three to talk to a hungry monkey:

A Hungry Monkey

Soon enough, I got to the fog and used the Furious Tornado to clear it. On the way there, I also found a frog which I need to take home, but to do that, I had to get through a lengthy area without getting hit, which I failed to do. I continued to go right and soon got to a mountain and climbed to the top of it. On my way there, I destroyed four eggs and picked up the chicks inside.

Take Me Home
Inside the Kokka Eggs

At the top of the mountain was the house of the 100-year-old man, so that was another event I cleared. He told me all about the dwarves and their troubles and gave me the 100-year-old key, which opens a bunch of chests, so I went back to collect the treasures inside those. On the way to the old man, I also found the AP Box, which requires me to gather 50 000 AP.

Cartoon cutscenes!

Tale of the Evil Pigs
Dwarf Elder
The AP Box

I also gave him the chicks from the Kokka Eggs, so that event was over. One of the treasure chests I went back for contained the 100 Year Old Bell, which teleports me to the 100 Year Old Man’s hut upon use and it has infinite uses. I also found a pair of Charity Wings. These are a single use item that transports me to any location I already visited.

Tomba stores items in his stomach.

The Forest of 100 Flowers

Next up, I went past the 100 Year Old Man’s hut to the Forest of 100 Flowers. This is where I found my first dwarf and was told I need to bite a few of them to learn their language. This is what I did on my way to their village, so I was only missing one when I got there. I also discovered another event where I need to collect a certain amount of Leaf Butterflies. I got a total of six before I got to the village. At the village, I bit the last dwarf and learned the language. I also learned Seven dwarves as well as a dwarven child are missing. A female dwarf has also lost something in the forest and I need seven evil pig bags to defeat the pigs.

Beginner’s Dwarf Language
Save the Dwarves
A Lost Child
Evil Pig Bag
Leaf Butterflies

When I got back to the forest, everything was swarming with pigs and spores. I soon found a couple of the lost dwarves and discovered two new areas, where, after a while, I’ve found the rest of them.

Long story short, I got to the nearby mountain, found the dwarves, found the child, filled a bucket with water and doused some evil pig’s campfire. Then I fed the monkey, brought the frog home, rescued a puppy and went on to find some medicine for it (still looking). The dwarf elder gave me the first pig bag and I think I’ve found the first evil pig’s hideout with the telescope on top of the mountain.

The lair of the first evil pig?

All of this took me about an hour, maybe less. Next up, I’ll explore my current area for a bit to see if I missed anything and then I’ll go past the Phoenix Mountain to see what I can find there.

I got a bunch of event related items, but I’ve acquired some equipment upgrades such as the Jumping Pants which heighten my jump, as well as the wooden boomerang which is, I think, a stronger weapon. The hungry monkey tanked me for the bananas by teaching me how to run.

My first impressions of Tomba! are very positive. The game has aged really well and it still looks good, especially on the small PSP screen. The mechanics are unique even today, so It’s a refreshing change for me, after all these RPGs.

Pokemon Crystal [7] – The League Won!

February 17, 2013 by Nikola·2 Comments

Last time in Pokemon Crystal, I attempted the league with a level 45 party and failed horribly. It was obvious I had to train, so train I did.

As I already said, most of my Pokemon had it easy with training at the Victory Road. The cave mostly contained ground and rock Pokemon, with a couple of Golbats thrown in for good measure. My Pikachu simply destroyed everything with his Iron Tail, saving his Thunder and Thundershock for Golbat. Kingler handled it all with Surf and Crabhammer, once he finally got that awesome move. Heracross didn’t really have a super effective move to use, but thanks to his amazing power, he handled everything with regularly effective moves and the STAB bonus on his Horn Attack. Noctowl kicked ass with Confusion, but didn’t get to learn Extrasensory in time. Bayleef had it easy with Razor Leaf against the rock and ground types and a Headbutt or a Body Slam against Golbat.

The state of my final team.

The only Pokemon I had issues with was my Phanpy. It was getting more and more obvious I won’t get any use out of him in this game. He can’t evolve yet, since that only happens later in the anime. I got it late in the game, so his stats are low and none of his moves are really useful. In addition to that, his speed is low, so he usually acts after the enemy Pokemon, which means he usually doesn’t act at all. I tried giving him the Exp. Share, but that didn’t really help, since he would have to outlevel the rest of my group to be effective enough.

Kingler steals the last hit!

After about 30 minutes of grinding, I finally got most of my team (Phanpy not included) to about level 50 and then I gave it a few more attempts against the Elite Four. The first few attempts failed miserably, but this helped me learn which Pokemon the Elite Four actually have, so on my third attempt, I finally managed to get to Lance. After Karen, who used dark and ghost types mostly, Lance and his “dragon” types were easy. I say “dragon” because he used a Gyarados, a Charizard and an Aeordactyl, which Pikachu disposed of with a single hit of Thundershock. His other three Pokemon were all Dragonite, so I had some difficulty with them, but Heracross got rid of the first two and Kingler somehow managed to defeat the last one.

Champion for all eternity!

With that, Pokemon Crystal was won. As with Pokemon Yellow, I failed on my first try, just like Ash did, but then I went and won it anyway, just so I can get some closure. I know it would have probably been truer to the anime to just give up and go with the next region, but it just doesn’t feel right to leave the game at that.

The traditional Victory Screen. I think I’ll save these for later.

Technically, I could now also go through the Kanto region to beat the local gyms and then finally face Red, the trainer of the first generation, but I really don’t feel like doing that, since it has nothing to do with the anime.

Time for Generation III!

Grandia [4] – Saving Gumbo Village

February 16, 2013 by Nikola·2 Comments

As I said, my next location were the Lama Mountains, where coincidentally, I believe I got another mana egg or two, unless I remember it incorrectly. The area was a bit lengthy and It took me even longer to get through it due to not playing through all of it in one go, but eventually, I got to the other side, to Gumbo Village, which has one of the funniest parts in the story.

Wind is the first element for Sue, but it probably won’t be the only one.

As we walk in, everyone runs away from Justin and Feena, thinking they’re a couple. For some reason, that’s a big no-no in Gumbo Village. Eventually, we get to the mayor and Justin volunteers both Feena and himself to be “the heroic couple” of legends because hey, it’s fun and the villagers seem to like the idea. Soon after, it turns out that the thing that makes the couple heroic is that they’re going to be sacrificed to the dragon living at the local volcano. The dragon is somehow stopping the volcano from working properly, causing the usually nice and warm Gumbo Village to get called. Since a couple needs to be sacrificed for some unexplained reason, everyone denies even liking anyone else, which is why the villagers are acting crazy.

You know it’s a big catapult when you have time for a talk in the air.

Anyway, Justin and Feena sort of find this out when it’s already too late, and they get catapulted into the volcano. This got me into the next area, where I soon regrouped with Sue and Gadwin and then spent the next hour or two, or three, exploring it and getting all the items. Again, it would and should have been faster, but I’ve played it sporadically and in short bursts, so I was forced to keep retracing my steps. Eventually, I got some nice accessories, one of which gives me an extra swing with my regular attack and eventually got to the boss. The dragon was easy to deal with and before I knew it, I was back at Gumbo Village.

The dragon was an easy fight, just like all of the others.

Justin and Feena had a nice moment and then it was time to go to the next area – The Twin Towers. The Twin Towers are ancient ruins located beyond the nearby mountains. Since the mountains were poisonous (I’m guessing the volcano has something to do with that, I had to go by boat. As soon as I got there, it was obvious the Garyle forces where already there. I explored the outer area and managed to get into the inner area thanks to Justin saying they’re local guides hired by the army.

Eventually, I got to the central chamber, where Justin and Gadwin had a clash with Mullen (and failed), before Leen, Feena, Mullen and Justin managed to somehow activate a teleporter pad and got transfered underground into the ruins. Justin got paired with Leen, while Feena was stuck with Mullen. For the most part, the underground area was simple and I would have gone past it by now, if it weren’t for a serious problem.

Mullen seems sort of decent here.

The game freezes at the end of the Twin Towers. This, in all likelihood, has something to do with it being a eboot conversion of the regular PlayStation game, but I tried all I could think off with no luck. I’m stuck at the moment where Justin and Leen activate one of those communication crystals. Liete says “Welcome” and is just about to say “he who carries the spirit stone” when everything just stops. I tried pausing my game (PSP Go) and reloading that state, but it didn’t help. I tried changing my ISO driver – nothing.

The game freezes a few seconds after this.

I’m afraid there will be no more Grandia on the PSP for me. All is not lost, though. I did some research and I think it’s possible to transfer a PSP save to a PC emulator, so I’ll try to load up ePSXe in a couple of days and finish the game that way. For now, I have to pick another game to play on the PSP. I think I might go for something that isn’t a JRPG this time, but I can’t make any promises. That is my favorite console genre, after all.

Pokemon Crystal [6] – To the Pokemon League!

February 13, 2013 by Nikola·0 Comments

As promised, my next goal in Pokemon Crystal was Blackthorn City and the local dragon type gym. The way the story goes is that the gym actually belongs to Lance, the cool NPC I helped deal with Team Rocket, but while he’s away, his younger sister Clair is running it. It also turns out she’s kind of bratty, since she “couldn’t believe I beat her” and made me jump through hoops to get the badge. I actually had to go clear an extra dungeon before I finally had eight badges.

Clair was mostly a pushover, thanks to Noctowl and Heracross.

Clair was easy to beat, by the way, even though she used dragon Pokemon. Her three Dragonairs weren’t able to touch me damage-wise and her Kingdra soon fell to Heracross and Noctowl. I couldn’t use most of my Pokemon, though, since the dragon type is highly resistant to most common types.

With that out of the way, I could finally go to the Pokemon League, but before I did that, I decided to go to the Tin Tower, since it was unlocked now that I beat Team Rocket. In there, after some trainer battles, I encountered Suicine, but I wasn’t able to catch it and instead ended up defeating it. I don’t think I’ll work on getting all the legendary Pokemon in Pokemon Crystal, since the only legendaries that truly feel legendary to me are the three birds of the first generation and maybe Lugia.

The entrance to the Kanto region is right next to the main character’s house.

To finally get to the league, I had to go to the Kanto region first, and the road towards it was right next to my house in New Bark Town. Soon enough, I got to the Victory Road. Compared to Yellow, the place was basically a hallway, which I welcome with open arms. I never liked long twisting passages in my dungeons. Give me optional areas, but let me know they’re optional areas.

Eventually, I got to the league and the training started. I took some time to get my entire team to around 45, which was simply with most of my Pokemon. Pikachu handled the rock types of Victory Road with Iron Tail, Kingler used Surf, Bayleef dominated with Razor Leaf and even Noctowl started kicking ass once it learned Confusion. Heracross and Phanpy had some difficulties, but nothing Exp. Share couldn’t handle.

Level 46 is probably the low end of the recommended level group.

My team was trained and I was ready. Or not!

Apparently, level 45 with my team composition was nowhere near enough to beat the Elite Four of Pokemon Crystal. I didn’t even get to see all of them.

Will, the first of the four used Psychic Pokemon, so I had to train up Pikachu to at least one-hit knockout some of them, but even so, Exeggutor and Jynx would usually ruin my team. Eventually, I got through it and after a few attempts, I was able to beat Will on a regular basis, but that didn’t help.

The Pokemon League building quickly turned into a respawn area.

Koga, the gym leader of Pokemon Yellow and a user of Bug Pokemon sounded easy, but I apparently have insanely bad luck with poison, so he would usually finish me off before I could get to Bruno, user of Rock and Fighting types. I actually didn’t get past Bruno yet. The Elite Four really are the Elite Four in Pokemon Crystal, apparently.

Next up, training. Lot’s and lot’s of training.

Pokemon Crystal [5] – Lake of Rage and Mahogany Gym

February 12, 2013 by Nikola·0 Comments

This time in Pokemon Crystal, as promised, I went straight towards Lake of Rage. Of course, I couldn’t fly there yet, so instead, I flew to Ecruteak City and went east, over Route 42, towards Mahogany Town. There was a Gym there, but I couldn’t challenge it until I dealt with the situation at the Lake of Rage.

To this day, the red Gyarados is the only “shiny” Pokemon I ever caught (and probably ever will), so I caught it again, just for fun. Of course, I won’t be using it, but it’s something I don’t mind keeping in one of my boxes.

The forest maze had some useful items.

The lake itself, I’ve managed to clear relatively quickly, but thanks to fast-forwarding everything, I missed the part where Lance tells me where to go next, so I spent some time wandering around the area, exploring the forest maze to the northwest and finding a hidden hut with a TM. Eventually, I figured out I needed to go back to Mahogany Town.

In a house there, Lance uncovered an underground passage to a Team Rocket base, so I spent the next twenty-or-so minutes fighting Rattatas and various other weak Pokemon. Eventually, I got through it and got back out, finally unlocking the Mahogany Gym.

This time, Team Rocket was more of a company than a crime organization.

The gym type was Ice, so Pikachu really kicked some ass. Overall, I can’t say I had any trouble with clearing it. I got my seventh badge and was ready to go to the next city. To get to Blackthorn City, I had to go through an ice cave filled with sliding and boulder puzzles. Luckily, the random encounters weren’t too frequent, so I managed to solve the puzzles and get through in a relatively short amount of time.

The Ice Path was actually fun to get through.

Once I was out, I got to the city, but I couldn’t tackle the gym yet. I had to unlock it by completely defeating Team Rocket. To do that, I went to the Radio Tower at Goldenrod City. Before that, however, It was time to catch my final team member – Phanpy. He appeared at Route 46 in the morning, so it took me a while to find one. Even worse, he has a tendency to run away from battles, so I had to waste a couple of Ultra Balls before I could finally catch it. I spent some time leveling it, before I finally went to Goldenrod City.

Pretty soon, the old canceling annoyance started.

Ash’s Donphan – Move List

Tackle
Rollout
Take Down
Defense Curl
Earthquake
Hidden Power
Hyper Beam

Phanpy won’t be evolving to Donphan in this game, but I plan to use the stronger moves anyway, since I have no idea which moves he used in his unevolved form. The move list isn’t very interesting anyway, so I’m not sure how much I’ll like this one. Still, the plan is to keep everyone in the same level range, so that’s what I’ll be doing.

I finally got around to bringing Togepi to the Professor – I got an Everstone for Bayleef.

The Tower was a huge area I had to visit twice to completely clear. First, I had to go to the top of the unlocked area to get a key to another dungeon at the Goldenrod Underground. Clearing that dungeon then got me a Key Card which unlocked the second area of the Radio Tower. Once that final area was cleared and the new Team Rocket boss was defeated, the Team Rocket side quest was finally over.

Next up, Blackthorn Gym.

Pokemon Crystal [4] – Olivine Lighthouse

February 11, 2013 by Nikola·0 Comments

After Ecruteak, Pokemon Crystal starts to twist around for a bit. I got to the next city, which was Olivine, but the gym leader was gone to the top of the Olivine lighthouse, where a Pokemon was sick. In order to have her battle me, I had to go to the next city, Cianwood, and get some medicine for the Pokemon. This is where a problem appeared.

You see, Cianwood is the island City/Gym of Pokemon Crystal. I had the Surf HM as well as the badge needed to use it, but I didn’t have a water Pokemon. I decided to bring back Kingler from Yellow, pretty much the same way as I did with Pikachu. I caught a Krabby with the Good Rod I got at Olivine City, saved my game and loaded up Pikasav.

I reduced Krabby’s level to 5, taught him all the moves Kingler knew and copied Kingler’s stat values. Once that was over and I loaded up my game, I spent about twenty minutes leveling my new/old Kingler until it caught up in levels with the rest of my party, meaning I got him up to around level 31. I guess I’m gonna have a full team in Pokemon Crystal after all.

I also got a free Pokemon at Olivine. To the box!

I surfed all the way to Cianwood, got the medicine and cleared the gym while I was there. This one was full of fighting type Pokemon, with Chuck, the leader, having a dual water/fighting type in the form of Polywag (or Polywhirl or whatever, I keep forgetting the name of that one). I’m still leveling all of my Pokemon equally, though this was a bit tough here, with my Noctowl being hit pretty hard due to being half-normal type. Still, even Noctowl managed to defeat a Pokemon or two, so everyone remained within a level of each other.

Chikorita evolved and I’m still forced to keep cancelling it’s evolution.

Oh, did I mention I caught a Noctowl? Well, I caught a Noctowl! It’s a pretty awesome Pokemon, and while attempting to catch it, I realized Route 37 was an amazing place to train at night, with some very easy Pokemon as well as some very high-exp Pokemon to fight against. Noctowl is pretty cool, what with being able to learn Psychic moves and all.

Ash’s Noctowl – List of Available Moves

Peck
Hypnosis
Foresight
Tackle
Confusion
Sky Attack
Air Slash
Extrasensory

Sadly, due to game constraints, I won’t be able to learn a lot of these moves. Fly will probably be the only flying move I’ll teach it and it’s going to need to learn Flash as well, since there’s no way I’m wasting Pikachu’s move slot on that one. Outside of that, I might teach it Confusion or even Extrasensory if I get to that point.

By the way, let’s not forget Kingler

Ash’s Kingler – List of Available Moves

Harden
ViceGrip
Leer
Stomp
Watergun
Bubble
Crabhammer
Hyper Beam

Kingler is going to get hurt by the HM requirements even more than Noctowl, what with someone having to learn Surf, Whirpool and eventually Waterfall. I believe there’s a move deleter in this game, but I’m not sure if I’m able to get rid of any HM moves early enough in the game to matter. I do really want him to learn Crabhammer, though, simply for it being Kingler’s signature move.

Back to the Game

To get back to the game, I got the medicine, beat the gym, went back to Olivine to cure the Olivine lighthouse Pokemon and then promptly beat the gym leader here. The gym didn’t have any trainers, so it was quick and easy. All she had were some steel Pokemon, which Kingler easily took care off with Surf. I have Fly now!

Having a proper map makes the game infinitely better than Yellow.

Next up, Mahogany Town and the Lake of Rage. I’m gonna catch myself a shiny Gyarados.

Pokemon Crystal [3] – Ecruteak City Gym

February 10, 2013 by Nikola·0 Comments

Last time in Pokemon Crystal, my way forward was blocked by a Sudowoodo. The game made it very obvious I need to get a watering can from a flower shop in Ecruteak City. I guess that’s how the game introduces me to the berry growing feature at the same time, but I’m not really interested in that part since, thanks to fast forward, there’s no way I’ll keep playing this game for days. I needed the gym badge to get the can to, so the whole Sudowoodo thing also served as a type of checkpoint, stopping me from moving on before I do everything that needs doing in Goldenrod City. Since I had the badge, spoke to the girl next to Sudowoodo and found out about the water thing, I got the can faster than it took me to write all of this.

My Croatian/Slavic readers might chuckle at this one.

I got past Sudowoodo and caught it for my collection (just as I did with all the legendaries in Pokemon Yellow) and moved on past Routes 36 and 37, to Ecruteak City. The Ecruteak Gym was ghost type, so none of my Pokemon were especially useful, but all of them were able to do decent damage to the enemy Pokemon. I ended up using all three of my Pokemon equally, with Pikachu taking the final battle against Morty. I got the badge and a TM, so I was no ready for the next gym. Before that, though, I can finally evolve my Chikorita, so that’s what I’m going to do next.

There’s one more thing I also need to do. I need to go back to Route 37, or move on to Route 38 and catch a Noctowl. I believe Ash caught it earlier in the anime, but Route 37 was the earliest I could get one in the game. I think it only appears at night, though, since I haven’t encountered one yet. In any case, Noctowl will be a critical part of my team, since I’ll be learning Fly relatively soon. After that, there’s only Phanpy left, really. I could possibly get Larvitar, but not permanently, and I don’t think there’s even a way to catch one before completing the game.

Morty was relatively easy, but Chikorita is yet to shine.

So, it turns out, if I did my research right, there’s only five Pokemon, including Pikachu, that I can get in Pokemon Crystal if I follow Ash’s story as closely as possible. With trade or cheats, I can get all of them, but the annoying part is, ash get’s all three of the starters as well as an excellent bug type before he gets to the first two gyms, so I think that would really take the fun out of the game. This is why I decided on only picking one starter. I keep saying this, but it’s quickly becoming obvious the game and the anime aren’t very related. It’s the same world, but it doesn’t even follow the exact same rules. I mean, Pikachu beat Onyx.

I started my own game in XNA!

February 7, 2013 by Nikola·0 Comments

Over the last few days, I finally forced myself to start “properly” working on a game of my own. I say “properly” because I have no idea what that actually means in this context.

In any case, I’m making a game and I’ll try to finish it. It’s not going to be amazing and it certainly isn’t going to be very complex, but it will be mine and I’ll learn a lot by doing it.

Anyway, if you’d like to follow the progress (which will be very slow) and learn as I’m learning, or you just like to point out people’s mistakes, which for me is also learning, feel free to follow my bitbucket repository. There’s almost nothing there now, but things will get better, I promise. I’m writing it in MonoGame, which is the new and amazing open version of the now abandoned XNA framework.

Tanked – An arcade game in MonoGame/XNA

Just in case it isn’t clear, I’m writing this article to give myself the illusion of accountability.

Oh, by the way, here’s what it looks like right now:

Impressive!

Amazing, right!?