Joined: 26 Aug 2003 Posts: 4192 Location: Oakland, CA
Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2007 5:51 pm Post subject: Letters to the Editor: February 2007
Welcome back to the bag, monkeys! I don't know what I mean by that!
This letter comes to us from Gabriel Day. Gabriel writes:
Gabriel Day wrote:
Just read your piece on "Final Fantasy 64". I'm always happy when someone manages to put a little factual clarity on one of gaming's big mysteries.
Cutting through jungles of hearsay to find buried facts can be difficult task (especially with the massive amount of rumors that Final Fantasy games tend to attract!), and you guys did an excellent job of accumulating what little factual evidence exists.
Thanks, and keep up the good work!
-blacksands
I don't know what the -blacksands part means, it might be a clue to one of those viral marketing puzzles maybe. But hey, thank you Gabriel, we certainly will keep up the good work!
This next letter comes to us from Jim Woolley. Jim writes,
Jim Woolley wrote:
Hello,
I have always been impressed with the content of your website. As a fan, I have given you guys a link that appears on thousands of pages on GSCentral.org -- a site devoted to all game enhancer codes ever created, with 2.1+ million codes.
If you could return the favour, it would be appreciated.
Cheers,
Jim
a.k.a. Rune
GSCentral.org Administrator
No!
This next letter comes from a cave man named Ug Ug:
Ug Ug wrote:
Hi there,
The Wikipedia article on Secret of Mana claims that
the game was originally intended to be one of the
first titles for the SNES CD addon that would
eventually become the Playstation.
"Secret of Mana was originally going to be a launch
title for the SNES CD add-on. After the project was
dropped, the game had to be altered to fit onto a
standard game cartridge. The game received a graphical
downgrade and as much as 40% of the original content
was removed."
Secret of Mana is one of my favorite games of all
time. As such, I was wondering whether the Lost
Levels staff have ever considered looking in to the
claim that 40% of the original content was cut. If
so, what was that content, and so on. As one of the
buggier SNES games, it's certainly believable that
something catastrophic happened at the end of the
development cycle.
A Google translation (not very good, but there's way
too much kanji for me in the original article...) of
the Japanese Wikipedia article on the subject seems to
indicate that game development was pushed by the
wayside for some combination of Final Fantasy IV
and/or Chrono Trigger work.
Anyway, just curious. Thanks for your time.
This is beyond my level of expertise and interest, maybe some of you folks out there might have something to say?
That's all for now, tune in for more letters as they come in!
Joined: 26 Aug 2003 Posts: 4192 Location: Oakland, CA
Posted: Thu Feb 15, 2007 5:30 pm Post subject:
Sam Smith was my valentine.
This new letter comes to us from Adam Reynolds. Adam writes:
Adam Reynolds wrote:
Hey guys, i just recently checked out your site for the first time. I must say i am impressed, and I admire the work you do. Im so tired of going to forums and reading rumors that have absoutly no ground. Its a relief to finally see a site that does cold hard research. Thanks to you guys, I didn't buy a copy of the Mother prototype off of ebay because of the "illegal copy glitch". I would love to be doing what you guys are doing. Any openings? ha, JUST KIDDING., but seriously you guys are awesome. Keep up the good work.
Joined: 30 Nov 2003 Posts: 323 Location: Doritos Inc.
Posted: Fri Feb 16, 2007 8:37 am Post subject:
This what Adam would have written if I were not a member here:
Hey guys, i just recently checked out your stunningly incedible and non-stupid site for the first time. I must say i am extremely impressed, and I greatly admire the work you do. Im so tired of going to forums and reading rumors started by idiots named Wonderbutt that have absoutly no ground beef. Its a relief to finally see a site that does cold hard research. Thanks to you guys, I didn't buy a copy of the Mother prototype off of ebay from that Wonderbutt loser because of the "illegal copy glitch". I would love to be playing Twister wih you guys are doing. Any butter? ha, JUST KIDDING., but seriously you guys are GODS...nay, you are a bunch of Zeuses and Odins. Keep up the good work.
Ug Ug's question about Secret of Mana being a SNES-CD Project that was cut by 40% comes from the Wikipedia article (which he states). The articles cited reference for this is the user-submitted "Trivia" section for the game on MobyGames. And even that does not say that it was cut by 40%, only that it was retooled to work on the SNES which was the cause of the slowdown and monster limitations.
And of course, this user submitted triva does not back this up with any references.
Not saying it's not true, but it's sure lacking on the proof.
[Edit]
After digging some more, it looks like Super Play (UK Magazine that focused on the SNES) had an issue where they discussed it being retooled for cartridge release with Ted Woolsey (most probably in issue 25 which had Secret of Mana as the cover story)
I still can't find anything anywhere that gives an exact percent, if anything, that was cut.
Ug Ug's question about Secret of Mana being a SNES-CD Project that was cut by 40% comes from the Wikipedia article (which he states). The articles cited reference for this is the user-submitted "Trivia" section for the game on MobyGames. And even that does not say that it was cut by 40%, only that it was retooled to work on the SNES which was the cause of the slowdown and monster limitations.
And of course, this user submitted triva does not back this up with any references.
Not saying it's not true, but it's sure lacking on the proof.
[Edit]
After digging some more, it looks like Super Play (UK Magazine that focused on the SNES) had an issue where they discussed it being retooled for cartridge release with Ted Woolsey (most probably in issue 25 which had Secret of Mana as the cover story)
I still can't find anything anywhere that gives an exact percent, if anything, that was cut.
I saw Ted Woolsey in the bathroom the other day. He tried to throw his paper towel away and missed, all while holding the door, and said "wooah!"
Indeed the Wiki article does source another site. IIRC the claim at that site was originally the "40%" figure I quoted, but I could be wrong here.
I sat through the intro to SoM today, and I just couldn't help but convince myself further that SoM was originally intended for the SNES CD. Look, for example, at the fluidity of animation of the, uh...Well, I guess they're supposed to be the gay pink dragon things flying around Upperland. Very few things are that clean on the SNES. Quite a few frames for such a simple motion. Was this originally intended to be an anime intro or something? Consider also the background. It's obviously the box art for the game. There's really no good excuse for it to be as grainy as it is other than that it got severely scaled down in Photoshop (or something similar).
The other common argument is that SoM is as glitchtastic as it is because the "port" to cart was a hack job, but I don't know if I buy that one given that the SNES CD was just supposed to pass data along to the SNES hardware.
This is the kind of thing that'd be a great DS release. Squeenix could even do this and SD3. That'd be a lucky day...
Edit: was just playing with the box art in Photoshop. The intro to SoM uses the SNES' 512x448 mode. Resizing a nice, clear picture of the box art results in what's still a very very clear picture (as you might imagine; just wanted to see it for myself).
Joined: 20 Sep 2004 Posts: 43 Location: Philadelphia area
Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2007 6:01 am Post subject:
ug_luvz_trance wrote:
Howdy. Ug here.
Indeed the Wiki article does source another site. IIRC the claim at that site was originally the "40%" figure I quoted, but I could be wrong here.
I sat through the intro to SoM today, and I just couldn't help but convince myself further that SoM was originally intended for the SNES CD. Look, for example, at the fluidity of animation of the, uh...Well, I guess they're supposed to be the gay pink dragon things flying around Upperland. Very few things are that clean on the SNES. Quite a few frames for such a simple motion. Was this originally intended to be an anime intro or something? Consider also the background. It's obviously the box art for the game. There's really no good excuse for it to be as grainy as it is other than that it got severely scaled down in Photoshop (or something similar).
The other common argument is that SoM is as glitchtastic as it is because the "port" to cart was a hack job, but I don't know if I buy that one given that the SNES CD was just supposed to pass data along to the SNES hardware.
This is the kind of thing that'd be a great DS release. Squeenix could even do this and SD3. That'd be a lucky day...
Edit: was just playing with the box art in Photoshop. The intro to SoM uses the SNES' 512x448 mode. Resizing a nice, clear picture of the box art results in what's still a very very clear picture (as you might imagine; just wanted to see it for myself).
I'm not totally sure if this is the case, but could it be there were just more colors in the image than the SNES could handle well? Or perhaps it's just that the imaging technology of the time was not as good at resizing stuff as the software today is.
Joined: 28 Aug 2003 Posts: 743 Location: Henderson, NV
Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2007 6:48 am Post subject:
Fun fact: the Japanese version of the game uses a different version of the same picture (it's differently sized, IIRC). If I had my SNES with me, I'd check...
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