Sly Dog Studios

Tic Tac Toe AI and Donkey Kong Kill Screen

Roth — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 08:41:45 +0000

Wanna hear complaining about busted headphones and piss smelling bathrooms? You can get that here! Updates on the puzzle game, AI in Tic Tac Toe, and a bit of the game Shawn is designing get mentioned. Donkey Kong gets discussed as I saw a really cool tips video. The link for that can be found below. Oh! The featured song is called Evil Stormy Night.

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Here’s the link to the kill screen/tips for Donkey Kong by Tom Votava.

NES Tips – Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Roth — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 18:29:10 +0000

Episode #: 004
Original Date: October 28, 2006
Running Time: 8:59

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is unique amongst the other games on the NES. Instead of constantly bludgeoning the enemies on the game, the player is required to dodge them as best as he can, only destroying the baddies during the Hyde segments. This manner of play isn’t as well done as it could be due to the mechanics of the player controls. Still, there is a charm to it that will last until about the third level, at which time it tends to get a bit boring, in my humble opinion. Also, it is nothing like the book. At all.

This episode of NES Tips was the first to be made around a holiday, that being Halloween. I made sure to include something about that before getting to the actual tips. The ‘Gameface’ was replaced by a pumpkin gameface as well. This is also the first game that was covered in the tips series which had more than one ending, and explains how to get both of them. The most challenging thing was figuring out when to present the Hyde levels. I didn’t want to have it appear at the beginning, so I opted to explain it later in the video as if I had forgotten to mention it. I think it turned out alright.

Ninja Gaiden 3 Easiness and Mom’s Old Apartment

Roth — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 09:38:27 +0000

I got a book for cheap… yay! You wouldn’t care what book it is, honestly. Housework was a hinderance today, so nothing got done. I talk about what changes I might make to the palette program, and mention an MMC3 game someone else is working on. I noticed a few interesting comments about the NES version of Ninja Gaiden 3 and the trilogy in general, and have a few thoughts on that. Finally, there is a memory lane about a night I spent at my mom’s apartment when I was a kid, bearing my NES.

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Here’s a link to the topic about the MMC3 game using parallax scrolling by sdwave.

Go to the GameFAQs NES forum and check out the topic called Ninja Gaiden III – FINALLY!

Two-Player TTT and a Jekyll/Hyde Memory

Roth — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 08:40:14 +0000

Since the Internet was out at my house yesterday, there was no DogCast. Some virtual console games were purchased, which is talked about, along with a cheap John Wayne DVD set. The video of 2-player Tic Tac Toe can be seen below, as well as the screenshot of the palette tool. As an aside, I just noticed I forgot to make the cursor change colors between 1st and 2nd players on TTT (will get it later). I talk about playing Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, which leads into a short memory segment about that game.

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A Good Easter and Jekyll/Hyde Book

Roth — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 07:51:24 +0000

Hoping everyone had a good Easter, I talk about some of the things we did on Sunday. Tic Tac Toe 2-player is finished, and a tool for the puzzle game is mentioned. A talk about how the NES game of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is nothing like the book, and some neat things in a couple of books that I have read are brought up.

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NES Tips – Jaws

Roth — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 06:31:14 +0000

Episode #: 003
Original Date: October 22, 2006
Running Time: 5:55

This game is one of the more underrated on the NES. It is a rather short romp, but is unique amongst the other games on the system. Putting a bit of time into learning how to play it and what the different items and power-ups do for you is essential.

There isn’t much to say about this episode, honestly. However, I noticed that there is one portion of the video in which I forgot to give a shout-out to somebody. The glitch I described towards the end of the vid, where you can stay towards the top of the screen and not get hurt by Jaws while shooting him… I learned this from an old friend Matt (a.k.a. Commander Campkill). Besides that, there is really nothing extra special that I need to mention. Have a looky!

Rocky Flicks and the Contra Waterfall Race

Roth — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 06:25:08 +0000

A bit about the Rocky movies is talked about, with some mention of them being better than the Star Wars films. A little (very) about dev is talked about, as there were a lot of distractions during the daytime on this day. The awesomeness of the waterfall race on Contra gets discussed.

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EA is Worst Company and Tetris Memory Lane

Roth — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 09:02:07 +0000

Apparently, Electronic Arts is the worst company in America, or something. Link below. While the cats were going crazy, dev news entails more Tic Tac Toe updates, along with minor puzzle game and secret game talk (i.e. not much about those two). The show finishes off with a trip down memory lane involving Tetris, with the pic I talked about below as well. Say, what’s with the garbled portion during the show?

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The Consumerist: The Voters Have Spoken: EA Is Your Worst Company In America For 2012!

Mark Hamill NES Gaming and New-Gen Ninja Gaiden 3

Roth — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 08:36:14 +0000

Working hard at work since this week brings Good Friday, and I have to be done with everything on Thursday. I talk about the kids going to their doctor appointments today and me getting one little thing done dev-wise. Shawn has gotten some more graphics done for the game he is designing, however. The fact that Mark Hamill talked about NES on Twitter some months ago is brought up. The Twitter post in question is embedded below. Also, general wonderings about the new Ninja Gaiden 3 getting bad reviews.

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@NathanHamill JAWS & LITTLE MERMAID- the only 2 games I ever beat! Sad, but true. Actually, pretty darn funny!

— Mark Hamill (@HamillHimself) September 6, 2011

Netflix Greatness and Google Maps is Awesoime

Roth — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 08:21:08 +0000

Feeling like Netflix gets a bum rap from some people, I talk about some of the good stuff available on it that I like to watch. A few items of dev stuff for Tic Tac Toe gets mentioned. To finish off the podcast, the Google Maps Dragon Warrior look is brought up. It looks like it is no longer active, unfortunately. However, I dug up the pic of my house in street mode, and it can be seen below.

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