User talk:Namcorules/Archive2

Archived discussions from December 2006 to June 2011 can now be located at User talk:Namcorules/Archive1. Namcorules 15:31, 18 June 2011 (UTC)

Before anyone decides to discuss anything on this new talk page...
...I would just like to make an apology to Prod and Procyon for demanding that they undid the pagemoves they performed on the guide for Namco's first 16-bit game, for not being familiar with the site's official policy for Japanese games being listed under their English names, and for boring them with a "ridiculous" in-depth explanation of two obscure cartoon series that nobody outside of the United Kingdom, Spain, and possibly Australia would care about. I only hope that they can forgive me too! Namcorules 16:00, 20 June 2011 (UTC)
 * NR, it's OK, there's little reason to apologize for all this stuff, but we do appreciate the thought. Naming guides incorrectly, or talking about something you really enjoyed watching are hardly offenses. What Prod and I really want you to understand however, is how to become a better author. When a user comes to our site, seeking advice on how to play a game that you have written about, such as Assault, Beraboh Man, Märchen Maze, Ordyne, Metal Hawk, Splatterhouse, and Valkyrie no Densetsu, and they see a giant wall of text with no images or paragraph breaks, and with untranslated Japanese text, they might say to themselves, "This isn't the kind of help I was looking for, I'll go and look somewhere else." We want them to say, "Wow, this is exactly what I was looking for, I'm going to come back to StrategyWiki every time I need help." That's what we're trying to help you with, to write guides that help the people who visit this site. We haven't banned you because you haven't done anything wrong.  Not listening to our advice isn't really a bannable offense.  But if we do give you advice, it's only because we want to help you, not make your life harder. I hope you'll take all of this to heart.  Pro  cyon  17:50, 20 June 2011 (UTC)
 * I hope I can take all of this to heart, as the main reason I decided to include Japanese text in the guide for the Valkyrie no Bouken sequel is so any other MAMErs who decide to take a look at it will be able to answer the Nazonazo Phantom and Sphinmoth's multiple-choice questions correctly on the fourth and seventh stages of the game. As I have mentioned in their section on the guide's "Getting Started" page, a knowledge of both main Japanese syllabic writing systems (or a memorization of the questions' answers) is essential to it. I also tried to translate the text with the Google Translator, but it only romanized it. Namcorules 16:01, 21 June 2011 (UTC)

Pac-Mania
None of the edits that occurred to the Getting Started page qualified as vandalism. You have to remember that StrategyWiki is a collaborative web site. Anyone may choose to modify the contents of a page as long as they are doing it in "good faith," meaning their intention is to genuinely improve the page, not vandalize it. You cannot claim "ownership" of a guide or particular pages on this site. If you strongly disagree with some of the changes made to a page that you have once edited, quietly correct them and don't worry about it. I sincerely hope you won't have any problems when I begin to edit some of your guides.  Pro cyon  18:04, 15 July 2011 (UTC)
 * I am fully aware of the fact that I cannot claim "ownership" of a guide or particular pages on this site; however, the edit that I corrected yesterday had not only referred to Namco's signature character as "she" in Pinky's section (along with Pinky himself), but it also referred to Spunky as "she" in his section when he, too, is of the male gender. Everyone should know that Sue is the only female member of the ghost gang! Namcorules 13:41, 16 July 2011 (UTC)
 * That's actually somewhat incorrect, although it depends on when you're talking about. Namco of America officially designated Pinky as a female around the time that Pac-Man World came out, so that could lead to some confusion.  Anyway, in all honesty, I know you care a lot about it, and that's fine, but sometimes you just have to accept that some people are going to think differently than you, or have different opinions, and that's ok.  If you feel strongly about it, go ahead and change it back.  Otherwise, don't worry about it too much.  Focus on what you think is important, and keep doing what makes you happy.   Pro  cyon  16:52, 16 July 2011 (UTC)
 * The time I am talking about is when Namco of Japan originally created the character in 1980 A.D., and all four original members of the ghost gang were assumed to be male. However, when their US distributor, Midway Games created the unauthorised sequel Ms. Pac-Man in the following year, they replaced Clyde with another orange ghost (the aforementioned Sue, whose colour was later changed to purple in Pac-Land to differentiate her from Clyde). The Pac-Man cartoon series produced by the H-B Corporation (who are more famous for The Flintstones, Top Cat, The Jetsons and Scooby Doo), also reflected the fact that Pinky was a male by giving him a gruff voice and a tough-guy personality. Namcorules 09:10, 17 July 2011 (UTC)

SC V?
Can I start the Soul Calibur V page Namco? --Passiondragon23 15:15, 15 August 2011 (UTC)
 * Why ask me? I'm not an administrator on this site, and probably never will be. I'm just a British MAME user who decided to sign up with this site in 2006 because I thought I possessed far too much knowledge about one of the largest videogame-developing entities in Japan (along with the earlier years of their 2 United States distributors as a result of it) to keep to myself. So, yes, go ahead with creating that page if you want to. Namcorules 15:30, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

Something I think you'd be interested in
Hey there Namcorules. Since you seem to have much knowledge of Namco's arcade titles, I was wondering if you'd like to take a read of this fan-concept for "the perfect Namco Museum title".

Link

Enjoy. Superjustinbros. 03:39, 23 August 2011 (UTC)


 * I followed your link to your weblog, Superjustinbros., and read your post from top to bottom - but tell me, how would some of the games on the third floor bump the PEGI rating up to 13+? And by the way, you forgot to include Blazer, Final Lap, World Stadium, Beraboh Man, Metal Hawk, World Court, Splatterhouse, Mirai Ninja, Face Off, Phelios, Winning Run, Dirt Fox, Finest Hour, Four Trax, Winning Run Suzuka GP, Dangerous Seed, Marvel Land, Galaxian³, Kyūkai Dōchūki, Final Lap 2, Pistol Daimyo no Bōken, Steel Gunner, Golly! Ghost!, Starblade, Solvalou, Steel Gunner 2, Golly! Ghost! 2, Suzuka 8 Hours, Bakuretsu Quiz Ma-Q no Daibōken, Final Lap 3, FA, Cosmo Gang the Puzzle, Exvania, Super World Court, Knuckle Heads, Lucky and Wild, Air Combat, Net-tō! Geki-tō! Quiz-tō!!, Numan Athletics, Ridge Racer, Great Sluggers, Tinkle Pit, Nebula's Ray, Great Sluggers '94, J-League Soccer V-Shoot, Gun Bullet, Ridge Racer 2, Ace Driver, The Outfoxies, Mach Breakers, Air Combat 22, Xevious 3D/G, Cyber Commando, Alpine Racer, Rave Racer, Dunk Mania, Soul Edge, Prime Goal EX, Prop Cycle, Soul Calibur, and Aqua Rush in your game lineup. Namcorules 15:25, 23 August 2011 (UTC)


 * I've added some of your recommendations to the list, some of which I had intended to add before but got a little carried away writing the list that I forgot to insert them. Some of the ones you listed above were already on the list prior to the update, such as Beraboh Man/Bravoman.
 * Its name was only changed to "Bravoman" when it was ported to the North American TurboGrafx-16 in 1990! Namcorules 16:18, 25 August 2011 (UTC)

The reason why I had stated that some of the games would "bump up" the PEGI age rating to T/13+ if this ever became a commercial release was because of several reasons, the most notable I can think of off the bat were Wonder Momo's "panty shots" and Yōkai Dōchūki's heavy religious theme.
 * Nice job putting Namco's last eight-bit game and their first sixteen-bit game next to each other there! Namcorules 16:18, 25 August 2011 (UTC)


 * As for the other games I have not included, here are their reasons.


 * World Stadium, World Court, Face Off, Kyūkai Dōchūki, Super World Court, Numan Athletics, Great Sluggers, League Soccer V-Shoot, Mach Breakers, Dunk Mania, Prime Goal EX, Prop Cycle - All sports games. Not that I have anything against sports games, but I just feel that this collection would be better off without those.
 * Splatterhouse - I heard the game, which starred a Jason Voorhees lookalike, got negative reviews on various websites. But that's just according to my knowledge. I just don't have much desire to include Splatterhouse.
 * Four Trax, Suzuka 8 Hours, Lucky and Wild, Ridge Racer, Ace Driver, Alpine Racer - Pole Position and Final Lap, along with their two and three sequels, both have essentially the same gameplay to these titles. And I feel as if there are enough racing games in this collection. Yeah, I'm a big fan of racing games, but still.
 * Galaxian³, Attack of the Zolgear, Solvalou and Xevious 3D/G - There are enough shooters in this collection.
 * Steel Gunner, Steel Gunner 2, Golly! Ghost!, Golly! Ghost! 2 - All of these games, the second two of which were electro-mechanical/videogame hybrids, used the external-light-gun-mounted-onto-console control format.
 * Cosmo Gang: The Puzzle - This collection already has two versions of the Sega Genesis/Super Famicom title Pac-Attack, which CGTP's gameplay had inspired (and replaced the Cosmo Gang characters with Pac-Man ones).
 * Knuckle Heads, Tekken, The Outfoxies, Soul Edge, Soul Calibur - All "versus" fighting games. While I do enjoy playing them from time to time, the feeling to feature these is the same as with the sports titles.
 * Bakuretsu Quiz Ma-Q Daibōken, Net-tō! Geki-tō! Quiz-tō!! - I quote the Angry Video Game Nerd: "Quizzes aren't fun! Quizzes make you feel like you're in school!" (He obviously didn't learn to read Japanese!)


 * Anyway, thank you for your time. Superjustinbros. 03:03, 24 August 2011 (UTC)
 * Because I am a native inhabitant of the United Kingdom, I am not familiar with the quotes of the Angry Video Game Nerd; but as I have mentioned in brackets above, he obviously has not learnt to read Japanese, which must be the reason why he thinks that quiz games aren't "fun" and make him feel like he is "back in school". The Nazonazo Phantom, from the fourth stage of Valkyrie no Densetsu, would also ask one of three multiple-choice questions when you met up with him - if you answered it correctly, he would give you four circles on your magic meter, but if you answered it incorrectly, he would take a full life-heart from you. Sphinmoth, however, only had a single multiple-choice question to ask when you met up with him at the end of the seventh stage; if you selected answer A, he would lift up his left leg to reveal a hidden staircase leading to a secret room where you would be drawn into a fight with two Purple Goblins, two Blue Kaokkusu and two red versions of the Tarosu. However, if you selected to answer B, he would lift up his right leg to reveal another hidden staircase leading to another secret room where you would be treated to each of the game cutscenes in a scrambled format - but if you selected answer C, he would not lift either of his legs up and you would be forced to replay the entire stage again, meaning that selecting answer C was not good. Namcorules 16:56, 25 August 2011 (UTC)
 * By "quiz games", I meant the ones where the whole game was nothing but answering questions. Valkyrie no Densetsu was an exception to this rule, given that it was more of a basic overhead-view platformer/shooter. Superjustinbros. 05:08, 28 August 2011 (UTC)
 * Therefore, you must be referring to Bakuretsu Quiz Ma-Q no Daibōken, Net-tō! Geki-tō! Quiz-tō!!, Kosodate Quiz My Angel and Derby Quiz My Dream Horse (the last two of which I did not mention above). Namcorules 13:50, 29 August 2011 (UTC)

Editing other people's comments
I noticed your discussion above with Superjustinbros, and would just like to point out that it's impolite to modify other people's comments on a talk page. By changing their comments you may inadvertently change what they mean. -- Prod (Talk) 18:21, 29 August 2011 (UTC)
 * I apologise if I have offended you by doing it, Prod - and I will try not to do it again in the future. Namcorules 14:57, 30 August 2011 (UTC)

Dangerous Seed pages
Hi NR. You do not have to worry, I was not at all offended by the inclusion of all the 16-bit titles. I just felt that it wasn't something that the average reader would be able to appreciate. Few people have the same love for all things Namco that you do. To be honest, I think it would be cool if you started a Namco wiki, since you are definitely a wealth of Namco information. While a lot of that information is in-scope for StrategyWiki, some of it is not. If you started a Namco wiki, you could house the additional information there. As for the Dangerous Seed pages, Prod has expressed some concern about deleting the original walkthrough pages too soon, but I will take a look and see if in fact there's no more reason to keep them around any more.

One last thing. I happen to notice that when you type, you have a tendency to add an extra M or N to the end of words sometimes. For example, you type "themm" when you mean "them," or "suddenn" when you mean "sudden". Which browser do you edit with? Because if you use Firefox, it will underline misspelled words for you and make it easier for you to correct them. If you have a chance, go through some of your pages, and see if you can spot your redoubled "M"s and "N"s. Thanks.  Pro cyon  17:00, 8 September 2011 (UTC)


 * I cannot help the fact that a lot of my consonants are being involuntarily redoubled at the moment - given that I am editing from Internet Explorer on an old laptop (which is also used by my Mum, Dad and sister), a lot of the keys are not as responsive as they used to be. It is also not easy to notice that your consonants are being involuntary redoubled at the end of words when you are using MAME as a visual aid for a guide. Namcorules 14:54, 9 September 2011 (UTC)


 * I'm sorry NR. Please understand that I'm not trying to be mean or single you out here, but I simply don't accept that explanation as an excuse. You know that I write a lot of guides, and I know how difficult it is to proof read my work while I am writing, but I make an effort to do so, so you should too. The other thing that is weird about your explanation is that I don't see any examples of when M and N are doubled up in the middle of your words, only the end. You can fix this problem if you want to. If you decide you simply don't want to, that says something about how important the quality of your work is to you.  Pro  cyon  14:59, 9 September 2011 (UTC)


 * You're not going to ban me for this, are you? Because it's not as if these redoublings are my own fault. Namcorules 15:30, 9 September 2011 (UTC)


 * A) No one will ever get banned for making typos.
 * B) The typos are ultimately your responsibility, as they are part of your contributions, even if you claim the hardware is at fault.
 * C) What did Prod tell you about altering other people's posts? ;)  Pro cyon  16:16, 9 September 2011 (UTC)


 * He told me that by changing their comments I may inadvertently change what they mean - I forgot. ;( Namcorules 16:30, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

Galaga '88 walkthrough
Hi NR. I know you're not going to like this very much, but I am considering rolling back the changes you made to Galaga '88/Walkthrough. I am considering this, not because what you wrote is bad, but because what was there was better, and much easier to read. It's one thing when there's no existing content on a page, and what you add can be considered a start. But you took a well-formatted page, and turned it into another block of text. I'm going to rollback the changes, and what I'd like you to do is to find a way to enhance the existing information rather than simply replacing it. Let me know if you have any problems, or would like some suggestions.  Pro cyon  15:40, 11 October 2011 (UTC)
 * Actually, I'm not going to roll it back, particularly because a) I don't know what information you took from that page and added to Galaga '88/Getting Started and because b) you look like the original author of the previous revision, at least according to the history. If you were the original author, I want to say that the first version of that page is much better than what you ended up replacing it with.  If you can at all get it back to the way the first version looked, I would appreciate it.  Thanks.   Pro  cyon  15:44, 11 October 2011 (UTC)
 * I'm surprised you didn't notice I have requested for "Image:G8 Hiyori.gif" should be renamed to "Image:G8 Hiyoko.gif"! Namcorules 14:42, 21 October 2011 (UTC)

For the last time...
...none of the pages on this site are "my" pages. Just like none of the pages on StrategyWiki are "your" pages. It doesn't matter who starts a page, ANYONE is free to edit ANY page. There is no ownership of work on StrategyWiki. You don't need permission or forgiveness to edit a page. No one needs your permission to edit a page that you created. Please understand this.  Pro cyon  16:44, 21 November 2011 (UTC)
 * When have I ever said that any of the pages on the site were "my" pages? And I am also fully aware of the fact that nobody needs my permission to edit a page that I created (which explains why the ghosts' names and genders on Pac-Mania's "Getting Started" keep being changed occasionally), but I thought that because you were an Administrator, I did need your permission to edit a page that you had created. By the way, I knew you would have some kind of problem with me inserting the fact that Super Pac-Man was the first game from Namco to use a Motorola M6809 microprocessor into the Getting Started page of the original Pac-Man - in fact, it used two, and six other Namco games used that hardware setup between 1983 and 1985. Namcorules 15:49, 22 November 2011 (UTC)
 * People with administrative privileges are no different than any other user, they're just trusted with additional permissions to fight vandalism and keep things running smoothly. Every user should be editing in good faith to improve the quality of the guides to help everyone. -- Prod (Talk) 16:13, 22 November 2011 (UTC)

Hardware specs
Hi NR. Hardware specs, such as which arcade was the first to use which processor, are out of scope for StrategyWiki. It's appropriate for Wikipedia, but this is not the kind of information our visitors come to look for. The only place where it is acceptable to mention this information is very briefly on the introduction to a game, and only for that game. In other words, if you want to talk about Super Pac-Man's processors, please just put one sentence about it on the Super Pac-Man front page, and no where else in the guide. Please especially do not include hardware information about one game on another game's guide (e.g. talking about Super Pac-Man's hardware in the Ms. Pac-Man guide.) Thanks.  Pro cyon  22:40, 25 November 2011 (UTC)

Pac-Land/Environments‎
I doubt that I need to inform you that I've been tracking all of the edits that you've done to the various Pac-Man pages and revising them. Until now, I've been content to simply proof read your edits and make any corrections I felt necessary. However, after reading the changes you made to Pac-Land/Environments‎, I have simply decided to revert the entire page, as the amount of grammatical mistakes I kept finding were simply too great for me to try and fix every single one. I was hoping that you'd examine the changes I made and learn from them, but since that doesn't seem to be the case, I will list some of the common issues that I continuously come across and correct. I do not want to discount or discard your contributions to the site, but I cannot approve of edits to existing content that add information at the expense of making them significantly harder to read or follow. You are welcome to edit Pac-Land/Environments‎ again, but if your edits continue to contain a large number of the errors listed above, I'm going to have to revert your work again. Please take all of this into consideration.  Pro cyon  19:11, 14 December 2011 (UTC)
 * By far, the number one most egregious issue is your insertion of commas where they absolutely don't belong. For example, in two consecutive sentences, you added the following commas:
 * "Some trees pass between Pac-Man_,_{1} and your view of him, but these obstructions are small_,_{2} and temporary."
 * "You should be more concerned_,_{3} about the ghosts_,_{4} whose positions are obscured by the trees"
 * You can't put the comma after "Pac-Man" because the sentence is trying to convey who the tress pass between. They pass between "Pac-Man and your view of him."  There is no break in that clause, it is one single object.
 * While technically you can put a comma between "small" and "and temporary" because it's a list of things, it's generally agreed upon that you shouldn't when the list is only composed of two items.
 * You definitely cannot put a comma between "concerned" and "about," that is absolutely incorrect. "Concerned about" is one single thought clause.
 * It is incorrect to put a comma between "ghosts" and "whose" because the "whose" is identifying which ghosts are the ones you need to be more concerned about. Putting a comma after ghosts changes the meaning of the sentence to the need to be concerned about ALL of the ghosts, because ALL of the ghosts are obscured by trees, and that is not a correct statement.
 * You cannot continuously reference where things came from. E.g. You already specified that the Lucky Pac symbol is an homage to the L Flag in New Rally X in the "Getting Started" page, and that is the appropriate place to put it.  You may not continue to point that out every single time the Lucky Pac symbol is mentioned.  Explain it once in the proper location, and no more.
 * There is extremely little value added to the guide by pointing out that the power pellets happen to work the same way as in all of the previous Pac-Man titles. It does not help the reader understand how they work any better than if the statement was not included.
 * Game summaries are meant to be just that: summaries. Summaries do not include every minute detail about a game.  Summaries only contain as much information as necessary to convey the basic concept of the game and no more.  Please stop padding the summaries with more and more information, unless you feel that something extremely important and obvious was missing.


 * You're not going to ban me for this, are you? Because if I have offended you with my edit, it was not my intention at all! Namcorules 15:50, 15 December 2011 (UTC)


 * You have not, nor would you ever, offend me with your edits.
 * Barring any malicious behavior on your part, which I would never expect from you, I can safely say that you are never going to be banned from this site.  Pro  cyon  15:56, 15 December 2011 (UTC)
 * In fairness, I should probably also say that, while I do not agree with all of the changes that you make to the guides, I do appreciate and see value in some of what you contribute. If I did not, I would have simply reverted every change that you made in their entirety.  Instead, I try to keep as much of your contributions as possible because there are pieces of information that you provide that are genuinely interesting.  It's just a matter of making a distinction between information that is useful versus information that decreases clarity.  I simply had too difficult of a time making those distinctions yesterday on Pac-Land/Environments‎, and concluded that I should communicate with you and give you another attempt at editing the page.   Pro  cyon  16:04, 15 December 2011 (UTC)

More advice
Hi NR. I just finished reviewing the edits to Pac-Land/Walkthrough, and they were very much improved. You do appear to insert more words than are necessary. Here are a few more tips.
 * You seem to add a lot of commas before the word "so," but this is correct only in some cases and not others. For example, if you say, "If you do A then B will occur, so do C," it is appropriate to put a comma before so since you are introducing a new clause.  However, if you say "Do A so that B occurs," it is not correct to put a comma before so, as it is explaining the reason behind doing A.
 * Similarly, there is no need to put a comma before "if" as it conveys more of the sentence subject. For example, "do A if you want B."  You should not put a comma before "if" because placing one there breaks the singular clause into two separate (even if related) concepts.
 * You see to like to convert verbs from the simple present tense (e.g. perform) to the future continuous tense (e.g. will be performing), but this doesn't make the guide any clearer. Readers understand that the guide is written from the perspective that the action is happening in the present.  If you put it in the future tense, they may not understand to expect that behavior to occur as they are playing, but some time in the future.
 * You also like to break contractions (e.g. don't) into their constituent parts (e.g. do not). While there's nothing wrong with this, there's nothing wrong with contractions.  Unless there is an obvious grammatical error with the contractions, it's usually more polite to leave the original author's style in place.  Once again, that is polite, but not required.
 * Finally, there are certain things that you seem to point out continuously that really aren't necessary. For example, it should be obvious to any reader who read the rest of the guide that Sue is the only ghost without a hat.  It's not necessary to continue pointing that out, and it might potentially insult the intelligence of the reader.  Furthermore, spelling out obvious consequences of an action, such as if you run out of time, you will lose a life, is also not necessary since you can largely assume that the reader already knows this, either through experience, or by reading the appropriate section of the guide about time.  Pro  cyon  19:47, 15 December 2011 (UTC)


 * If you run out of time in Pac-Land, Pac-Man will not die automatically; he will only die if Sue catches up with him. Namcorules 15:30, 16 December 2011 (UTC)


 * And that's why you drive me nuts sometimes...  Pro cyon  16:31, 16 December 2011 (UTC)


 * Hey, I've never said anything like that about you, Pro! Yes, I may have bored you when I pointed out that Babasama from Valkyrie no Densetsu looked like a character from a show that only Britons and Spaniards have heard of six months ago, but I have never said anything like that about you or any of the other administrators because it's not in my nature!Namcorules 16:59, 16 December 2011 (UTC)


 * No, you're right, and I apologize to you.  Pro  cyon  17:22, 16 December 2011 (UTC)

Dig Dug
Yea, based on your edit summary, that's what I figured. But having the acronym on the page with no other context would make it much more difficult for any other visitors to figure out as well. It's simpler to just omit the acronym than to try and explain it in the infobox. -- Prod (Talk) 16:23, 25 January 2012 (UTC)

Roman numerals
Games which do, or do not, display the year in roman numerals is definitely out-of-scope for this site. It is far more appropriate for Wikipedia. Please do not continue including that information. Thank you.  Pro cyon  16:24, 27 January 2012 (UTC)


 * I did not know that it was out-of-scope for the site to say when a game displays its year in Roman Numerals, Pro - but I did have a think about it when I noticed that you had removed that fact about Tower of Druaga being the first of only five Namco games to do so from Xevious yesterday. I only did it for readers who may not have an idea what they meant. Namcorules 16:49, 27 January 2012 (UTC)

Solvalou
Nice job on getting those 3D Solvalou models. They look good.  Pro cyon  19:31, 1 February 2012 (UTC)


 * As with the graphics (and sound) of many older Namco games, they still hold up well today - but because it took me a while to figure out that the site does not allow slashes in their image names, I have created a problem for myself when uploading four images for the title page of Xevious 3D/G. Because I forgot to correct the name of the attract cutscene's image in the destination file name box, I unfortunately uploaded it as "File:1051015253.jpg", when I'd originally intended to upload it as "File:Xevious 3DG attract intro.jpg". And, to make matters worse, when I created the category for that game's images, I said in the edit summary that I had requested for the name to be changed to "File:Xevious 3DG attract cutscene.jpg" rather than "File:Xevious 3DG attract intro.jpg". And all because I did not know that slashes are invalid characters! Namcorules 16:40, 7 February 2012 (UTC)

Welcome back!
Hey glad to see your edits in the change log again. Hope you were having fun on your break, not dealing with a family emergency or anything. Cheers! — najzere T 20:06, 7 April 2012 (UTC)
 * I'm sorry to say that I was not having fun on my break, Naj - in fact, I had not been feeling very well during those last three weeks, which rendered me unable to contribute to the site during that time. But it has passed now... Namcorules 15:36, 9 April 2012 (UTC)
 * Well I'm glad you're feeling better. Stay healthy! — najzere T 01:55, 10 April 2012 (UTC)

Table of contents
Hi NR. I saw that you plan on expanding Metro-Cross. That's great. Out of curiosity, do you think it would be possible for you to group stages together on a single page, say in groups of 4 or 8? That way you would only need 8 or 4 links respectively for the Walkthrough in the Table of Contents. You did a great job on The Return of Ishtar, but the Table of Contents is a little frightening. That's not your fault, it's just that it's difficult to look at and find the page you're looking for. Unfortunately, there aren't many good ways to group the rooms together.  Pro cyon  23:15, 1 May 2012 (UTC)


 * Before I wrote that guide, did you know that Forbidden Hall and Under the Moat cannot be reached by playing the game normally? They can only be reached by using the "Password Game Continue" option on the start screen, and their Room Passes are identical to those of Play Room (S32) and Museum (2C2) respectively for those who forget... Namcorules 14:47, 2 May 2012 (UTC)

The Return of Ishtar
Hello! Great work on the Return of Ishtar guide. What is left before it is considered finished? -- 20:36, 4 May 2012 (UTC)


 * I cannot remember; I try to include as much information as possible for every game I decide to write a guide for, but there always inevitably seems to be something that I happen to leave out, so that is why most of the guides on here that I have written from scratch are only at CS3 (except for Rolling Thunder and Yōkai Dōchūki, which have recently been rewritten by Procyon, to be upgraded to CS4). By the way, thanks for inserting the Continue Nav and ToC into the main-page of Metro-Cross - I cannot believe I forgot about those when I downgraded it to CS2. And is there a serious reason for why the old "BlueCloud" user interface was killed off for good on Thursday? Namcorules 12:48, 6 May 2012 (UTC)
 * The base mediawiki software is continuously updated, and every version tends to break our custom skins. This last version was a fairly significant change and made it much more difficult to fix BlueCloud (which was a fairly significant departure from the standard skins).  -- Prod (Talk) 19:26, 6 May 2012 (UTC)
 * I see. But it's not as if I do not like the new "Dolphin" interface or anything; it is just that I had used the old "BlueCloud" one since the day I joined up in December 2006, to change all mentions of the Supercat Coin to the correct "Gosenzo" in the Mappy guide, and I was a little sad to see it go after five-and-a-half years of being here. And yes, I did notice that something had gone wrong with it between 23rd April and 2nd May (which were to be its last nine days), because the text "Exception caught inside exception handler" kept appearing on the left. Namcorules (talk) 13:57, 9 May 2012 (UTC)

Metro-Cross
Way to go on CS3! I'm amazed at how quickly you completed the basic walkthrough content. -- 16:03, 22 May 2012 (UTC)


 * Thanks, NMH! Given that the guide was only one page long before (and because it is a Namco Pac-Land game - a Motorola M6809 and a Hitachi HD-63701 running at 1.536 MHz, modified to support a 2048-colour palette), I felt it deserved a proper write-up. And, before I wrote the final page of it today, did you know that the thirtieth round only gives players five seconds to clear it in? The "under-10-seconds-remaining-explosions" will already be appearing around the Runner at the start - and you cannot afford to be stunned by anything as you run through it! Namcorules (talk) 16:28, 22 May 2012 (UTC)


 * You're welcome! :) That's nuts! Only 5 seconds? Wow. Is it difficult? Do you get unlimited retries? -- 16:32, 22 May 2012 (UTC)


 * It is not that difficult once you know what to do, and you do have unlimited continues (like every other Namco game that allows them), but I always set the "Allow Continue" dipswitch in an emulated MAME ROMset to "No" if I can, because I only believe in winning a game in one coin (and going for the highest possible score of course). Namcorules (talk) 16:45, 22 May 2012 (UTC)


 * Ahaha, self imposed hardcore mode, eh? I try to do that with the games I play the most, too. Like with Mega Man X I try to do speed runs with no continues, no upgrades, and I force myself to only use the Mega Buster to kill enemies and bosses. That way if you beat it you can be like, "I did it with my hands behind my back while sitting upside down and my eyes were closed." -- 16:50, 22 May 2012 (UTC)

Baraduke content
Were you planning on migrating the floor information you removed from /walkthrough (here) to the world 1 page? -- 19:13, 28 May 2012 (UTC)


 * Not only was I planning to merge the information I had removed from that page to the page for the first world, I was also planning to expand upon it given that it is the only game from Namco that used one of their programmable sound generators for speech (the first Paccet saying "I'm Your Friend", and the bosses' pained screams of death). Namcorules (talk) 08:10, 29 May 2012 (UTC)

Amoeba spelling
Is File:BK Ameba A.gif supposed to be "ameba" or "amoeba"? -- 15:04, 19 June 2012 (UTC)


 * There is no "O" in this kind of "Ameba" - however, the Katakana for the name literally reads as "Amēba". Namcorules (talk) 15:08, 19 June 2012 (UTC)

Bakutotsu Kijūtei completed
Congrats! Thanks for all your hard work. -- 17:59, 27 June 2012 (UTC)

Repeat warning
After reviewing your edits to Sky Kid, I have to reiterate my insistence that you cut down on the amount of hardware spec reporting for Namco games. The name of the site is StrategyWiki, not HardwareWiki. If the information you contribute pertains to anything other than how to be a better player, and what you need to know to beat a game, it needs to be kept to a minimum. Thank you. Out of curiosity, have you ever considered starting your own Namco Wiki?  Pro cyon  03:30, 28 June 2012 (UTC)


 * I thought you would be pleased that I had mentioned the fact that Sky Kid Deluxe was the first game from Namco to use a Yamaha YM-2151 FM sound chip - especially as it was the first one to run at 3.579580 MHz! :'( Namcorules (talk) 09:55, 28 June 2012 (UTC)


 * Also, because you have entitled this section of the page "Repeat warning", it has made me think that I could be facing a block: due to the amount of times I have mentioned the Intel 8080, the Zilog Z80 and Z8002, the Motorola M6809 and 68000, and the Hitachi HD-63701 and HD-63705 in my editing, along with the only one of Yamaha's FMsound chips that Namco used in their games between 1986 and 1993. It is not like I've been filling the pages of this site up with false information, or even nonsensical gibberish - because that is not why I joined up in 2006!


 * That's exactly my point. I'm not pleased by this, and for the amount that I've communicated with you about this subject, one would think you'd know that.  You make a lot of good contributions, but you place more emphasis on what's important to you instead of what readers come to StrategyWiki to read.  When I see some of the edits you make, where you go on and on about hardware, I picture readers' eyes glazing over and leaving the site to go find the information they want somewhere else.  And that is expressly what I do not want.  Personally, I don't care about what processors run which arcade games, what FM sound chips they contain, and what speed they run at, especially to the six hundredth digit.  As far as I'm concerned, it's irrelevant.  Having said that, that doesn't mean you can't write about it here, it just has to be the appropriate amount.  My response continues below.  Pro  cyon 

And no, I have never considered starting my own Namco Wiki; mostly because somebody else had the same idea first, and its article for my personal favourite Namco game (the reason why it is: because its eponymous main character is a caricature of the company's founder), was created under its TurboGrafx-16 name of "Bravoman". I would also not be surprised if an article for Genpei Tōma Den was created on it under the SPS1 name of "The Genji and Heike Clans", and one for Valkyrie no Densetsu under the SPS1 name of "Legend of the Valkyrie"; but if this response could be considered "boring" or "ridiculous" by you in any way, I'm sorry for wasting your time. Namcorules (talk) 14:45, 28 June 2012 (UTC)


 * That doesn't mean that you can't start a different Namco wiki, where you would be free to talk about what processors are found in which games, and name the articles however you like. The truth is, we will have to rename Beraboh Man to Bravoman on this site as well, because that is the American name, and as such, is the name that our readers will best know the game by.  It's important when it comes to search engine ranking, and it is this site's policy, especially if it means matching Wikipedia's article naming convention, where the name of the article is Bravoman.  That's something else we've spoken to you about many times (e.g. Yōkai Dōchūki vs. Shadow Land), but again, you choose to focus on what is more important to you and it leads to conflicts.  I no longer try to get you to understand our position, I just repeat it to you as many times as necessary.   Pro  cyon  02:20, 29 June 2012 (UTC)


 * But the original arcade version of Beraboh Man was never actually released as "Bravoman" in the United States - it was only ported to the TurboGrafx-16 in 1990, and that version of the game is not identical to the arcade one! For a start, it contains ten fewer stages (22 as opposed to 32), has inferior graphics due to the lack of the NS1board's 5121-colour palette, and inferior sound due to the lack of the NS1's stereophonic Yamaha YM-2151, PSG and DAC. The last time you had become this cross with me, it was because I had stated that Valkyrie no Densetsu's elderly male sorcerer, Babasama, looked like a humanized version of someone Americans have never heard of... Namcorules (talk) 08:20, 29 June 2012 (UTC)


 * Also, the twenty-two stages found in the TurboGrafx-16 version are completely different to the thirty-two from the arcade version, and all the characters were renamed for Western audiences (including the one who later got an NS1 game of his own in 1990); the Totems were also featured as bosses in the TurboGrafx-16 version (when they were just regular enemies in the arcade version) and the end credits are also different from the arcade version -obviously because the people who produced that game originally did not go on to produce the TurboGrafx-16 port... Namcorules (talk) 14:45, 29 June 2012 (UTC)


 * Just going to chip in here. The only difference you mentioned that actually matters between the two games is the difference in stages (both number of stages as well as content of them). Character names and differences in graphics/sound are irrelevant information when it comes to a user actually wanting to find information on how to beat the game. If the stages that exist in both games do not actually differ layout-wise (e.g. there are only cosmetic differences such as the totems being called bosses, or stages in some versions containing a few extra things but in general the level is the same), then you should mostly follow the American release (as we feature guides for games released in the English language primarily) and mention the differences in the original Japanese version via sidebars and list the additional stages in a subtoc. If the stages differ substantially to the point where the strategy to beat the stage in the American release is entirely different than the strategy to beat the stage in the Japanese release, then perhaps the game deserves to be split up into an individual guide per release. Please see here for a recap of what I just said.
 * I honestly don't see why you are failing to actually acknowledge our viewpoint. You know from multiple messages that you have even posted that certain things you are doing (hardware information and differences) do not matter here and yet you not only add them anyway (which for a sentence on the main page is fine), but you seem to focus on it instead of focusing on what our readers care about, which is a guide of how to beat a game. I would like to have a more live discussion with you given the chance, perhaps on Skype, so that we can work out something so that Procyon and others such as myself do not have to constantly remind you of our policies and so that we may finally see eye-to-eye. Please reply with whether or not you'd be willing to do this, and if you are I will work with Procyon and others to see if it could a) just be more than you and me, and b) figure out what time to have it. -- 16:48, 29 June 2012 (UTC)


 * The stages in the TurboGrafx-16 version of Beraboh Man do differ layout-wise to the point where what you have to do to clear them is entirely different to what you had to do in the arcade version; in fact, Fukubiki Man (who is the eponymous main character's sort-of partner) has to be rescued by him in one stage, which never had to be done in the arcade version. There is nothing stopping anybody from creating a guide for the TG16 version under the US name of "Bravoman" (like how a guide for the Famicom version of Warp & Warp had been created under the name of Warpman) - it's just that nobody who uses the site has thought of doing it yet, and maybe never will. I have never played the TG16 version (only the arcade version in MAME, as me and my family have never been to Japan) so cannot create it myself, especially as I do not know what all of the characters were renamed to in that version; I have always been more of an arcade game fan, which is how I have come to know all about their controls systems, hardware specifications, and sound chips. And I apologise, Skizzerz, but I do not have a Skype account - mostly because I do not want strangers seeing my face, but also because my younger sister (who's always been more into classic console games, which I do not mind, as that way both ends of the emulation spectrum are covered even though certain NES, SNES and MegaDrive games are playable in MAME through the PlayChoice10, Nintendo Super System and MegaTech systems) has one already, and my parents decided that one Skyper was enough. Please understand this! Namcorules (talk) 09:31, 30 June 2012 (UTC)

Very well, we'll let the current Beraboh Man guide stand as is and set up Bravoman separately. No further discussion is necessary. NR, please keep the hardware info to a minimum. Thank you.  Pro cyon  17:28, 30 June 2012 (UTC)

MAME versions
Hi NR. I noted in your edit summary that you said you are using MAME 0.78, which is a little concerning. If you are at all concerned with accuracy (and I know that you are), you should always be using the most up to date version of MAME available. Emulation accuracy improves constantly, so if you wish to play arcade games as close to the original hardware as possible, you should not rely on older versions of MAME. The update history for the Thunder Ceptor driver alone is as follows: It's minor, but if, for example, you referenced the road colors in TC2 from an older version of MAME than 0.139u1, than you would be referencing the wrong colors. I highly recommend that you always utilize the most recent build of MAME available. There is little to no reason not to.  Pro cyon  22:53, 11 July 2012 (UTC)
 * 0.139u1: Phil Bennett fixed incorrect road transparency in Thunder Ceptor and incorrect road colours in Thunder Ceptor II. Atari Ace removed global variables from NAMCO sound core.
 * 0.127u7: Aaron Giles fixed Thunder Ceptor crashes out when run as the second game (Multisession bug).
 * 0.123u1: Fixed proms loading ($1000, 1400). Changed palettesize to 4096 colors.
 * 0.122u7: Changed HD63701 CPU5 clock speed to 6144000 Hz.
 * 0.122u5: Zsolt Vasvari cleaned up Thunder Ceptor memory maps.
 * 0.121u2: BUT added 3D glasses support to the Thunder Ceptor driver.
 * 0.107u3: Brian Troha properly documented and connected the CUS60 MCU code to Thunder Ceptor.
 * 0.93: Added clock parameter to Namco CUS30 sound (24000 Hz).
 * 0.89: Replaced Namco sound with Namco CUS30.
 * 0.77u2: BUT added Thunder Ceptor. Added background scroll, M6809 CPU1 interrupt handling and stereo sound. Added 3rd and 4th button.
 * 25th November 2003: BUT added Thunder Ceptor to the Thunder Ceptor 2 driver.
 * 15th November 2003: BUT fixed the background layers and added support for transparent road color in the Thunder Ceptor 2 driver.
 * 0.76u2: David Haywood and BUT decoded BG graphics in Thunder Ceptor II but BG's still aren't hooked up yet, improved existing graphics a bit.
 * 0.76u1: BUT added Thunder Ceptor II (Namco 1986). TODO: Support background layer (decode first).


 * Is it wrong to use an older version of MAME as a visual aid for a guide on here? You make it sound like it is! Namcorules (talk) 14:49, 12 July 2012 (UTC)


 * Yes, it is. Procyon just made that clear: an older version of MAME may display games improperly (and will for Thunder Ceptor). -- 15:40, 12 July 2012 (UTC)


 * I know that an older version of MAME may display games, including the two Thunder Ceptor games, improperly (especially as I found out that they both start with "The video emulation isn't 100% accurate" in 0.78), but it's not like I was going to reference the ground colours in my not-yet-created guide to 3-D Thunder Ceptor II anyway! Namcorules (talk) 16:00, 12 July 2012 (UTC)


 * Good! =) -- 16:06, 12 July 2012 (UTC)


 * No, it's not "wrong" as in impermissible, it's "wrong" as in it doesn't make any sense. For someone who prides themselves on accurate details, it makes no sense why you would intentionally choose a version of MAME with less accurate emulation.  Even the screenshots that you take may contain inaccuracies that have since been corrected (especially since 2003) in the most recent versions.  Emulation is not like consoles, it is never fixed with one set of specs, it constantly evolves as technology improves.   Pro  cyon  00:43, 13 July 2012 (UTC)

Romanization of Kyuukai Douchuuki
Hi NR. We have to discuss your decision to move the Kyuukai Douchuuki guide. If you look at other romanized titles throughout the site, we try to make every title capable of being typed out on a standard English keyboard with no need for special characters. That means using "ou" instead of "ō" and "uu" instead of "ū". Additionally, when the game in question is an arcade game that is emulated by MAME, the guide name should agree with the spelling provided by MAME itself. This drastically improves our search engine rank when someone Googles the name of a game and makes your hard work more visible to others. I am aware that Wikipedia does not follow these guidelines, and that is simply where StrategyWiki and Wikipedia differ. For these reasons, we will have to adjust your Kyuukai Douchuuki guide accordingly. Please feel free to help us with the move. Thank you for your understanding.  Pro cyon  15:52, 31 August 2012 (UTC)


 * That means you will also have to move Genpei Tōma Den back to Genpei ToumaDen and Bakutotsu Kijūtei back to Bakutotsu Kijuutei - but at least I have not been overdoing it on the hardware information now! Namcorules (talk) 16:01, 31 August 2012 (UTC)


 * Sounds good. I'll add it to my todo list so it gets done. Using the MAME spelling seems like a good idea. Is there a site that has the standard MAME spellings listed somewhere? -- 07:14, 1 September 2012 (UTC)


 * You could just use that "All Games" list in the emulator itself for reference (unless, of course, the game you are looking for is not emulated in your version of it): that's better than looking for a site that may not exist. Namcorules (talk) 08:58, 1 September 2012 (UTC)


 * All games list? There is no list in the official release of MAME (if you don't have a ROM it simply closes itself; there is no menu). Which front end are you using? -- 18:23, 2 September 2012 (UTC)


 * Actually there are a couple of solutions to this:


 * There is a way to generate a list from the executable NMH. I think the parameter is -listall or -listgames or something like that.  Running with -help or -? should tell you the right one to use.  Then you can pipe the output to a text file.
 * Additionally, the latest versions of MAME come up with an in game menu if you build the SDL version. The list starts out random, but as you start typing letters, it begins to show the game it thinks you're trying to spell.
 * But there's actually no need to do that, as there are a number of online MAME databases. MAWS used to be the absolute best until it got hacked, and now it shows no signs of ever returning.  Then there's arcade-history.com which helps maintain the history.dat file for MAME.  They combined with KLOV not too long ago, and their listings are pretty comprehensive, as well as tied to MAME's naming.
 * There are a couple of others, but when in doubt, just grab the latest version of MAME, and a GUI like MAMEIV which will parse the game names out of the executable's data and display them in the list of available games.  Pro cyon  19:05, 2 September 2012 (UTC)