Life - Southeast Game Exchange MMXIX-2

Despite my best efforts, I still arrived at the second day of SeGE 2019 almost into the afternoon. My resolve to sleep in defeated my resolve to have more time for looking around. However, I was in enough time to eat lunch there.

Which brings me to my one major gripe about the new location. The concession food and beverages are way expensive. I can almost justify a fully loaded hot dog being around $5-6, but I am completely flabbergasted at the notion of $4 for a 20-liter bottle of soda. One could argue that I'd pay that much eating out anywhere, but at least restaurants offer combos with fries and refills on the drink. And I suppose the other gripe is that it feels short, but that's not a very strong complaint.

Whining done.

I did get more time to look around, although it was essentially reduced because in the last 0:30 of the day, most vendors were getting ready to pack or were already packing stuff away. Still, despite the larger size of the Greenville Convention Center's large room, I was still able to see everything - even if I wasn't able to play much of the free play stuff. The spread was the usual combination of video game stores, individual game sellers, art people and a few non-gaming booths, like a display with a drawing for Hilton. Some of the art was really cool and tempting, but owing to the size of the perler-on-canvas and burnt wood stuff, I would have no place to display them.

Mainly I looked around, but I did attend one panel: a publisher called Limited Run Games was holding a panel on their history and origins. I'd already purchased a game from them the day before, so I was interested to hear about them. They're a publisher that takes mainly digital-only games and gives them a limited physical run (hence their name). It was a most interesting panel, delving into why he and his compatriot decided to start it in the first place, how they managed to make it big publishing for the PS Vita, and other dealings they'd had. We even got heads up on a few future releases.

Also, there was a games giveaway - the people who asked questions played rock-paper-scissors to narrow the field - and I managed to snag Star Wars: Bounty Hunter (for the PS2 for the PS4) from it. By the time the panel was over, I went back to trying to find some good deals.

At the end, I was scrambling to find the Legend of Zelda: Triforce Heroes and Star Wars: Episode I Racer I'd seen; I managed to negotiate the former from $15 to $10, and found the later for $5. I already have Racer on Dreamcast and PC, but I wanted to see how it compared to the other versions. Triforce Heroes I was just curious about. Oh, and I got another over-sized Lantern ring, this year being the orange "Greed" one.

The only thing I regret missing was a loose Gameboy Advance SP that I could have either cleaned up and used, or opened up, looked at, and possibly fixed if it was broken. My overall budget was fairly limited, but I wasn't looking to add too many games to my collection, and I wouldn't have been able to get much of any hardware.

It was still a fun time. As always, I am resolved to do better in the cosplay contest next year. I'd also be interested in other cons happening at the GCC in the future - despite the risk of giving in and buying more comics than I need, for an example. I'll definitely keep this space posted if I do go to another convention in the future.

Life - Southeast Game Exchange MMXIX-1

The annual Southeast Game Exchange finally rolled around again, and I was semi-prepared this time. Sure, I didn't have as much spending money as I would have liked, but that was for a pretty good reason - the cosplay contest!

I can't remember when, but I started preparing for the contest in advance. I'm not super creative about this kind of stuff, so it was more of a "scavenge the right clothes" type costume. Some, like the jacket and pants, I already had. I managed to just barely get the right shirt in time. However, the key pieces of the ensemble - the tie and rubber hand - had to be sourced. (Oh, I also got my hair bleached. I would like to say it was entirely for the costume, but I also had to get a "natural" non-blue hair color for my day job.)

He likes the Mona Lisa

Having just finished catching up with the anime JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, I was insisted to go as the Part 4 villain, Yoshikage Kira. The synergy of needing a "natural" hair color, being a costume with relatively mundane parts, and having a simple prop all came together.

My original plan was to paint a wooden model hand and carry it around. However, a trip to Sally's revealed small, already ready rubber hands. All I had to do was add some fake nails and paint some blood/bone on the end for extra effect. It's a good thing that it was JUST a prop for effect, since my skills in applying nails would have failed any kind of technical inspection.

I actually spent most of the day at the cosplay stuff. After arriving too late for the speedrun panel, I had enough time to sign up for the contest, go to a panel, change into my costume, and look around a little bit before going back to hang out before the line-up.

I can't remember exactly, but the categories were: child and/or teenagers, adult novice, adult advanced, and group. I am (still?) very glad that there is a novice category, since some of the costumes were extremely elaborate - stuff like sculpted swords, hand-made clothing, etc... I didn't win, but I did have a few people that recognized and/or liked my costume. Also, some people even asked to take pictures with me!

I feel like I should have started off in costume, for two reasons: (1) my small suitcase was still big enough to be annoying to wheel around, and (2) I could have been looking at video games while carrying the hand around, talking to it, and being a little bit in-character. Maybe next year?

Afterwards, it was 3:something, so I managed to find some time to actually look around. There were a ton of tables this time. I think the location (new location again) is even bigger - at least, the ceiling was way higher! (As were the concession prices...). My "haul" was GTA: San Andreas and Dragon Fantasy. The latter was from the Limited Run table, and I was motivated to get it because I wanted a nice little indie JRPG-like game. I might go back and get another, possibly.

I think tomorrow I will try to peruse more and play some of the free play stuff. There was VR, arcades, pinball, and a whole row I missed.

Math - The Joy of 8

Greetings! Long time no write? Oof. Thanks to my class and work, I'd gotten distracted ... a bit. I should remedy that with musings on some lovely properties of a certain number!

For this past Christmas, I got myself and some of my family members a subscription to The Great Courses Plus. I'd used a trial before and found a ton of stuff that I liked - music, math, literature, etc... I went through almost 3 courses on Calculus. Then, I forgot about it for a while. That is, until recently.

One of the courses is called "The Joy of Mathematics," with a various assortment of "Joy of X," with X being some topic in math. One lecture was titled "The Joy of 9." The basic gist of the lecture was exploring the fact that numbers divisible by 9 (i.e. 81, 171, 1611) were all made up of digits that added up to 9. Crazy, right?

Curious about this, I spent some time making a table of numbers to see what the results for the others were. Actually, I did a dumb my first attempt. I thought "Why not include one at the top?" at the same time that I had the numbers going 1-9 on the side. In the end, my chart was just an overly-complicated way of arriving at a basic times table. Derp.

My big OOF reconstructed

However, I eventually figured out a layout to see the lists of each number, with the corresponding "digital roots" next to each one. I found several interesting patterns, actually.

Tables of Numbers with Patterns - weeee

I found that half of the numbers (2, 4, 5, 7, 1) went through all 9 digits once before repeating that cycle. 3 and 6 were a little more interesting - they repeated "3, 6, 9" and "6, 3, 9" respectively. 1 didn't stray from what you'd expect - even after 9, since 10 gave 1 and the cycle began again. And, of course, 9 gave all 9s.

However, one of them stood out to me - 8. Unlike the other cycles, the digits were in order, but unlike 1, they were descending rather than ascending. It was then I realized another interesting property of counting up numbers - the last digit cycled consistently. On its own, that is a "well, duh" type fact. Of course they're going to repeat eventually, I'm adding the same number every time. But I didn't stop at that.

At the beginning, both the last digit and digital root were the same. Writing out the last digits for the rest, I wondered - when do the last digit and digital root coincide?

After the first time, I found that they coincided at 12*8, 23*8, and 34*8. Also, the order they came in was the same as the pattern for 8's digital roots - 8, 6, 4, 2! (Not factorial, I'm just expressing surprise.) It didn't include the zero of the last digit sequence for obvious reasons. Once I got to 45*8, the pattern started breaking down. The last digit was in fact 0, but the number itself was 360 - nonzero - and thus could not provide the matching digital root.

And that's cool, at least to me. No, it's not a neat, easy fact like "9 is divisible by numbers whose digits equal 9" that can be turned into a neat trick for parties, but it's a cool pattern nonetheless. With a little more time, I could find more points of coincidence between 8's digital roots and its last digits, maybe even try to find another hidden pattern, However, that's all from me for now.

8.

Life - The Rest of SeGE 2018

The second day of the 2018 Southeast Game Exchange concluded a few short hours ago. This time, I managed to make it at opening. There weren't as many people waiting outside to get in, but there was still a decent group of people. I saw a few random people that I remembered seeing the day before. Who knows, I might have run into them at my local video game store too.

The first panel was pretty nice - a guy came in and did two speedruns of Super Mario Bros. 3 for us: any% (no wrong warp), and plain ol' any%. The NWW run was basically what a lot of people had been doing for years - grabbing the two warp whistles and heading straight to World 8. The any% run proper was the cooler one. It features the same opening - grabbing the two whistles - but he then goes to World 7. Then there's some shenanigans with literally writing code in game, and he goes right to the credits. He even had some Pannenkoek-style diagrams to show what was going on under the hood.

Next, there was video game music trivia with some YouTubers, so naturally I had to go. The guy's channel is called NES Addict, so all the selections were from the console. There weren't very many "deep cuts," so I was able to recognize most of them, even if other people got their hands up first. The prizes were just silly McDonald's toys and their logo sticker - there was extra after, so I managed to snag a rare and desirable trophy.

The next next panel was "Reproduction vs Bootleg with BP Retro Power." I'd heard a lot of the stuff he talked about before - the difference was that he had examples of repro boards, among other things, to pass around. We even learned a few ways to tell fake stickers and/or boards from the real thing. It was cool.

After that, I stuck to the main floor for the rest of the day. One of the nice features was some free play consoles, so I tried out a little Cuphead co-op with a kid that was hanging around. We actually managed to get through a vegetable boss, but didn't get far with the next one. There was also Crazy Taxi and Spyro, among others.

My overall "haul" wasn't very big, but decent: an oversized Star Sapphire ring (because it was pink, you see), LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes (PS Vita), Mega Man Legacy Collection (3DS), and Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon (3DS). I even managed to haggle the first and latter games down from $6 to $5, and $15 to $10, respectively. The nice thing about non-store vendors is that ability to try plying them towards the end of the day.

I'm upset at myself, though, because there was a Waluigi amiibo for a decent price, and by the time I got back to it, it was gone. I'm no collector, but that would have been a nice one for my collection (consisting of a retro Mario one.)

Overall, I had a great time at the Southeast Game Exchange, and the $15 two-day pass was definitely worth it. I look forward to next year, and maybe actually having a decent cosplay for once.

Maybe.

Life - Southeast Game Exchange! Yay!

It's finally here! The Southeast Game Exchange started today (ending tomorrow). Thanks to some creative saving, trading in, and art commissioning, I'd managed to get a two-day pass in advance, as well as have some spending money. Part of me wishes it was just a LITTLE bit later so that I could have gotten my first paycheck, but it still worked out.

I must say, I think I liked the venue better than previously. It seemed like there was more room - although it was hard to tell when the corridors were full of people at the beginning. Also, I appreciate the reasonably priced concessions that were available. There were a lot of tables and video games to look at, as well as a few art tables. Part of me regrets not having a table this year, but it was nice to be free to walk around and attend the panels at my leisure.

Speaking of which, I went to two today: one by a voice actor and another by some cosplay ladies. Both were fairly entertaining and/or informative. I actually entered the cosplay contest in my green jacket, dress shirt, tie and glasses; it was probably too weak even for the 'novice' category. I'm definitely looking forward to the speedrunning panel tomorrow.

On the other hand, I did win an item; the door prize I won is an N64 game called Shadow Man. I've never heard of it, but it was nice to win something.

I regret being too intimidated to try playing the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe to try and beat the time best - it was one of the tournaments going on, and the only game there that I actually have any experience or skill in. Oh well! The time was pretty low anyway.

I never know what I want looking around a large collection of games like that; one thing'll remind me that I want a wired Xbox 360 controller, or an NES Mega Man will remind me that it'd be cool to find the Genesis collection one day. I think the key is to have a larger budget than I have right now, as well as a wish list and a pad of paper to write down if I want to compare prices. In fact, I can still do the latter.

Despite being terrible at them and not having my NES with me, I am enamored with the idea of getting an NES Mega Man game. Most of the ones I saw were around $30, which is almost all the money I have available. Maybe tomorrow I'll see something that I missed, or something that catches my eye more. We'll see.

I even got to see a college acquaintance!

It was a nice time.

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Image source: southeastgameexchange.com

Computers - Owa Tase Lenu Biam

Just as with classical music, personal tastes go through phases or times of different emphasis. I find that personally, my YouTube watching habits shift every few years. In my later years of college and right after graduation, I watched a lot of Let's Plays and other video game videos. Then I shifted to cubing. And speedrunning. And somewhere in there, lots of cool video game covers. Metal versions of beloved chip tunes rock.

The latest addition to that smattering of topics is computer tech and news. In particular, the Canadian-based channel Linus Tech Tips. It's a bit of 'living vicariously through someone else' seeing some of their over-the-top, high-performance, high-price builds. So much technical language and part details get thrown around. Despite my ignorance of a lot of the things they talk about, I can still enjoy the videos and laugh at their shenanigans.

But that reminds me of how poor my computer knowledge has been (and still is, somewhat).

In high-school, I dared to teach a computer science class, despite my only experience being (1) time spent playing games, (2) maybe a little DOS and Windows 3.1 knowledge, and (3) currently enrolled (at that time) in the only college-level computer class I've taken.

Suffice to say, the class was mostly a disaster. I'd never attempted doing a class like that before, so the lesson plans were made fairly last-minute. And because I was also their contemporary, it was difficult for me to stay in charge of class, if at all. One thing I 'll grant myself was the hands-on that I did for the first class - bringing in an actual computer, and opening it up.

That is what really got me thinking about how little I knew or had done. I had a basic computer, so there was no talk of bigger, better power supplies. I hadn't done any serious gaming, so there wasn't any talk of different CPUs, GPUs, or overclocking. I didn't even know the name "PCIe" for the slots used to connect things to the motherboard until last year.

Watching the tech shows and putting together my desktop computer was a good learning experience. In addition to the usual adding of RAM, I finally got to install a graphics card into a computer, while being aware of what the thing does. I even ran a benchmark like a real techie!

Maybe I'll even get to overclock and/or liquid cool something one day!

Not any time soon though. It's too scary.

Final Fantasy Quest - A Brief Detour to Neverland

Hey! Guess who finished Final Fantasy XV finally? Hey! Guess who hasn't gone through his in-game pictures to find good ones for the article or even come up with a decent draft for it yet?

Me. The answer is me.

However, I also had the fortune of spotting Final Fantasy: Unlimited, vol. 1 at my local library. I'd read about this anime and wondered about it, but I didn't go any further because it didn't seem like there was a strong connection to the Final Fantasy games themselves. And I think I thought it was only in Japanese or not released her, or something like that.

Turns out, it did get an English release. I even spotted it at a local bookstore, but it was for an entire set, and since I didn't know if it was good, bad, etc... I didn't plunk down the money for it.

Getting the first five episodes at the library, however, is a different story. I was actually hoping for the Final Fantasy V anime, but as far as I know, that was only ever released on VHS. Anyway, that one was semi-generic and a little embarrassing at the start. I hadn't any idea what to expect with Final Fantasy: Unlimited.

FF me? How rude.

Certainly, it is an anime. There's weird stuff, characters being goofy, overly elaborate weapon preparation sequences, and even a few potential waifus. I'm no anime expert, so I couldn't tell you if it was generic or not. However, unlike with the FFV anime, it doesn't smack of generic TO ME at least.

Right off the bat, the theme song is pretty good. While the other music in the show was composed by other people, they pulled in the one and only Nobuo Uematsu for the theme song. The art is nice looking too, with great backgrounds and (what I assume is) decent animations for the characters themselves.

5 episodes later...

I want more. More overly elaborate summoning-gun loading sequences with a few recognizable FF summon (I know Shiva and Ixion for sure). I want to know more about the mysterious Kaze who wields the strange gun. What's the waifu Lisa's motivation? Will the kids find their parents? What's the deal with the weird kid with delusions of godhood who shows up in some scenes with his villainous lackeys? I'll have to wait to find the answers to those questions.

The least able, but most amusing, of FF:U's villains

For now, I can say that I like the show overall. The music is cool, the action is fun, and the kids aren't so annoying as to make me want to cover my ears. My favorite villain is the incompetent lackey Fungus. With his pompous attitude, pipe-smoking and accent in the English dub, he remind me somewhat of the stuffy British character one might see in Danger Mouse or a Gilbert and Sullivan opera. He's something of a mix of Sky-Byte from Transformers: Robots in Disguise and Papyrus from Undertale. A goofy villain you can't help but like a bit.

Anyway, my experience with Final Fantasy: Unlimited's first five episodes was a good one. I hope I get to see more soon.