New phone gets me playing Final Fantasy Tactics again

A while back I noticed my iPhone 5 battery pushing the screen out, but the phone was still functional. That is until I made the mistake of putting my phone in my pocket. Eventually the screen wouldn't turn on anymore, so I had to wait until I switched to T-Mobile for a new phone -- iPhone 6s. Not a 6s Plus, which is fine because I wanted the smaller phone... which is still bigger than the 5... but I'm not hating the newer, bigger size. And, heck, Touch ID is damned cool. But to even use the phone, I had to go online to disable two-factor authentication and then make new security questions.

So while I was re-adding my apps (apparently that's the one thing Restore doesn't restore), I decided to try the iOS version of Final Fantasy Tactics again. And it's still fun; it's based on the PSP War of the Lions version, but without the slowdown (kinda; they just sped up everything), without the PSP multiplayer functions, and with a soundtrack sounding more like the PS1 version (good) and touch controls (bad).

That just made me want to play the PSP version again, but there were two major annoyances with it:

1. The slowdown during actions. I knew there was a patch that eliminated it so I finally got around to installing it and it was easier than I thought. There is also an "unstretch" patch that shrinks the game back to 340x240 but that just made the text harder to read. Though to its credit that patch keeps the cutscenes in widescreen. 
2. No soft reset. The PS1 version had it, and you'll want to do it anytime a battle doesn't go your way or you get in an unwanted random battle. To get around this, use Game VSH Menu.

Both work on the latest 6.61 PRO firmware, which supposedly has less plugin support. But these (and RemoteJoy) are the only ones that matter, so I'm happy.

Links:

• Latest PSP official firmware
• Latest PSP custom firmware (link to 6.61)
• Game VSH Menu
• Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions PSP slowdown patch

Annoyingly, with a PSPgo running CFW, the Bluetooth pairing of a Dual Shock controller is lost during the XMB. It'll activate only when a game is running. There's no patch that adds the reverb effects for the music in the PSP version, so it still sounds little better than an SNES game. And there's no patch for adding back in the battle quotes, despite them still being in the Japanese version.

I'm still probably going to get the Japanese PSP version while it's on sale on the PS Store, but I've read the most advanced port is on Android devices because the graphics are redone -- at least a little bit. Perhaps I'll get an Android tablet just for FFT and the other Final Fantasy remakes. Looking online, I just missed a half-off sale so I'm not in any hurry to get the tablet.

So I made my own RJ-45 cable.

Kind of a big deal to me, anyway...

http://forums.shoryuken.com/discussion/comment/10392471/#Comment_10392471

Long story short, get yourself the more expensive Ideal brand (YouTube demo) because it is absolutely goddammed impossible to get the wires in the proper slots otherwise. They're about $18 for 25, which is really all anyone needs. I got 100 of the regular kind for $10 and I can't use any of them.

Some more tips:

• Try to keep the exposed wires 1 inch, no more, no less. With some cables (particularly Nintendo), the first and last slots can be extremely difficult to thread the wire through, so if you  want to "give up" with one wire at one end, you can just push the sled into the main piece and it'll still look and crimp OK. 
• If you can't thread the wire through the liner hole, strip the wire and thread the copper, then pull. I used to be afraid it would pull the copper from the connector end and it wouldn't work anymore, but that hasn't been a problem.
• If the wires go through easily (like when I was using the USB cable that came with my Mad Catz FightStick), the wires can actually shift holes in the liner if you're not careful. Best to start with shorter wires (1 inch, or maybe 3 centimeters tops) and thread carefully.
• To ensure the crimping really does keep the thicker insulated cable in place, consider wrapping that part of the cable in electrical tape before inserting and crimping. 

Is it RJ-45 or RJ45? I dunno. 

People laughing at what they say

...when it's not even funny?

Totally annoying.

Actually, I think I mean people who laugh too damn much. Especially from what they themselves say.

To all YouTube commenter "comedians"...

To anyone who needs to reference plot lines to make your "jokes:"

Can you please just fuck off at least a little bit?

You're just spoiling it for the rest of us who don't want to illegally download the TV show or manga.

You're also not funny. Had Bleach and now Naruto spoiled. Assholes.

Round 1

Went there again today (technically, yesterday) thanks to Kane.


Highlights:

• Tekken 7. Surprisingly long load times (longer than Street Fighter Alpha on PlayStation long), but good game. Rage Arts and Power Crush moves are good additions, and that slow motion thing is just icing on the cake.
• Ramen burger at L&L Hawaiian Barbecue. These things are never life-altering experiences, and they're not even my favorite kind of burger, but you've got to try them when they're there.
• Hatsune Miku. The arcade game had its own special controls and a new "slide" feature to replace the star notes. Dual notes were weird. I didn't get the $8 card yet. In the future I'll have to bring my headphones because you can plug them in. A lot of guys were doing that. The difficulty seemed pretty reasonable until Extreme when it just shoots up super high. Extreme, you definitely want to try the "one song, unlimited health" option rather than the "two songs and you're done, unless you outright fail the first song" mode.
• Ice cream claw game. I can pretty much get the ice cream cup on demand. One time I even got two ice creams with one claw! The game is four credits a pop, but since $10 = 40 credits = 25 cents per credit, that means I'm paying a dollar for those 4 FL oz cups (which is a generous two to three scoops if you ask me), so maybe I shouldn't get too excited.
• Wheel of Fortune. Quick and easy to play and I solved the puzzles two out of the three times I played. The answers were "BATTING AVERAGE" and "BATTERED FISH FILET." Got a good 102 tickets out of it. Would've gotten more if they didn't run out of tickets momentarily. They certainly could've made that "out of tickets" warning bigger.
• Water fountain. Free and cold just like the water fountain directly across from the principal's office.

Lowlights:

• The A/C was broken around the fighting game area. That made that area especially hot. We had two extra fans, which were pretty powerful (strong enough to catch passers-by off guard), but usually only one person gets any relief at all from those fans. There are emergency doors in that area, and they were open for about five minutes before the higher-ups decided being hot and miserable was good for business, so they closed those doors again.
• Lots of walking around. I didn't want to keep spending money to play games, and playing games meant sitting. And, well, anything to get away from the heat, right? To be fair, I found some relief near the always-empty Virtua Fighter cabinets. There's a nice fan, but only if you stand up. So you could either keep standing and be cool or sit down and be hot.
• The other ice cream treats outside of the ice cream cups were hard/impossible to win with the claw. The shape really matters here. I wanted to win a plush toy but they were hard to get too.
• Can't get anything good for 102 tickets. That Izanami-no-Okami figure was sweet, but it was 7,500. 

WTF:

• Some really pretty girl (like, Heather Graham pretty) who seemed to be alone asked me a couple questions on two non-consecutive occasions. Those questions were not about getting me to buy something or to join some cult, either. Had I realized the situation, I would've asked some questions on my own (like, "Are you here by yourself?") and pried, pried, pried. God-freaking-dammit. Oh well. Maybe I'll be more aware of these things when it's not past 1:00 a.m.

Weird-ass dream (2015-07-04)

Anti-drug PSA. A young boy and his younger brother find a skeleton in their house and excitedly yell, "Treasure!" So they and their mom end up searching the house. But instead they find drugs in the attic. And when they do, we see eyes peeping in from the windows.

Happy 4th...

Weird-ass dream (2015-06-22)

PE with the old Holy Angels crew! We were all kids again, except for Abby who I was going to congratulate on her recent wedding (and who I, IRL, was not "friends with" on Facebook and only learned about that fact secondhand from someone who was my friend).. huh.

After a warning about the weather from Coach Rios, we were split up into teams and we did various things. Chris O. was at bat and mostly kept hitting homers. Then it was me playing some shmup, except after skipping through the tutorial screens my time was up and I switched to Justin B.

Next thing I remember, I was all set to go home but naturally certain tech issues -- things that only I knew how to solve -- kept me from doing so. Some guy (not from HA) wanted his picture which was impossible but I remembered there was a video of him and I could take a screenshot from that video.

I guess I was so frustrated I woke up several hours earlier than I usually do...