DS Ultimate Forums - Blogs

vBulletin 4.0, My hopes, annoyances and non XHTML strictness

cheat-master30 — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 21:20:18 GMT

With vBulletin, some may say I am pretty much a fan to the most ridiculous degree for a message board software piece, while others may say Nintendo's similar business strategy has kinda made me immune to any real problems with things such as how long they're taking. But never the less, here in a nutshell is my beliefs on why Web 2.0 and XHTML strict, and many other requests = NO.

XHTML Strict; Killing the Poorly Technical Skilled Admin

Now, there will be criticisms of this idea, and people saying 'tough luck, upgrade is inevitable'. But for me, I will say even thinking of using XHTML strict is a very, very bad idea. One reason of course is that XHTML transition allows admins with very little HTML and CSS knowledge to paste in things and make minor adjustments easier, because if the board gets a bit messed up, there's no real worry because it's easily spottable and easily fixable. But XHTML Strict TERMINATES the page load if anything is incorrect, or is SUPPOSED to. Imagine Mr Newbie Administrator pasting in some Myspace layout code type stuff meant for XHTML Transitional or plain old HTML, and the whole board page going white as it tries to load. He'll think there's a freaking database problem or something, or that he's broke the forum beyond repair. Real great for customisation that is, since most current mods are very poorly HTML coded...

The other reason is that browsers are kinda bad at real XHTML, as served as object/xhtml. Firefox loads it fine. Internet Explorer dies and offers the page for download. Yeah, and Internet Explorer, like it or not does sadly make up about 70-80% of internet users, who locking out would just plain annoy to never use a vBulletin forum again, especially when they've got ten versions of the same page on the desktop and don't know of a program to open them...

Vanilla; Not the Way Forward

And that all somewhat might bring me to point two, that despite Vanilla and phpBB3 being brought up in vBulletin forums, none of them are anything like vB. Vanilla for example has a confusing layout with a horrible colour scheme, which even with a pure CSS layout (needed in vB 4.0) will not gain fans. Why? Because most people who run forums are not CSS gurus, they don't know how to style a forum through CSS or HTML edits, and changing colours and images through an Admin Panel is likely their max knowhow. This means that they'd get stuck with a horrible theme they can't really change too much (especially businesses who don't often use premades) without any knowledge of CSS. I might be fine, because I can layout a page in pure HTML and CSS with CSS structure, but the average admin is likely to look at the CSS, and without a point and click interface, give up on the spot.

To add to this, none of the forums mentioned have anywhere NEAR the features of vBulletin. PhpBB, after about five years is still nowhere near it, and Vanilla... well it's meant to be barebones. They can go with an unusual layout like that, they have no real feature considerations. Ironically, this applies to DSU as well, it's now got so much content that two navbars is getting too small to hold it, and I've got sub sections under sub sections... Same with Vanilla, they don't need every single feature of vBulletin jammed in the topic interface. And trust me, features do mean a lot to people.

Does this mean vBulletin 4 shouldn't use CSS layout? No, just that it's gonna need a different one to Vanilla and phpBB3 and whatever else you can find because of the amount of stuff that needs to go in.

Icons and Graphics

Ah yes, the typical arguments that the vBulletin layout sucks, and that the graphics suck too. I'll give you that the forum icons suck. Maybe some smilies. But to be honest, there are a great deal of images that I find perfectly adequate that always get complained about. Blog images look nice and modern. Editor buttons are fine for their purpose, and various other images like smilies look okay. Besides, why would anyone use a default style for anything? You don't buy Windows and keep the Windows desktop background and screensaver. You customise it to your liking, and as we've done here at DS Ultimate, this is what has been done. Many sites use either custom styles or premades, and won't even see the default images.

Oh, and irony about design mattering more than anything now being mentioned in a vBulletin.com post? That they compared online interface design to graphics and stuff for games consoles, and that all this matters... Well guess who's winning now in the console race eh? Nintendo release the Wii with innovation and brilliance, and modified Gamecube hardware. It sells more than the XBox360 and PS3 worldwide (nothing against the XBox, but plenty against the PS3). Same with the handheld line, which despite using less technical power has outsold all the fancier competitors since the original Gameboy...

The Overrated Addon, the CMS

And now onto the most damn well annoyingly wanted thing ever, despite the sense it being as much sense as Nintendo's early taxi service, and the minor factor that at any rate, releasing it before 4.0 is out would just break the hearts of those who wanted it as soon as they even glance at it. This is because:

1. Jelsoft is not a CMS company, or a site management one. It has no real connection to their forum software, and to be honest, even a 1.0 basic released will be compared to about four years of CMS development by specialists.

2. If they try to be modular, non designers might well be stuck, because it's likely the creation of modules would be a vBulletin.org type thing, and many people either don't visit, trust or use third party add ons or said site. Plus, it'd have to be extremely easy to make modules for most to bother, even the current product system requires programming/coding knowledge to a decent degree.

3. If they try to go for one market or everything, people will likely not use it for either irrelevant features, bloat/excess server load, or the wrong features for their needs. Either way, they aren't going be able to conquer this market too easy, since the current CMSes already have a lot of hate from those who realise how frustrating they can be.

4. With the current design, people will think it outdated off the bat. Pretty much like their opinion of vB Advanced and their projects, and we all know Jelsoft/vBulletin want to keep the same general appearance for each generation of products. Like Nintendo's Wii and DS Lite consoles sharing the minimalist, sleek look nowadays.

5. CMSes take a lot of development time, and until 4.0 is out, even thinking of splitting the development time even further is right out the question with the current development speeds. Ever wondered why I'm glad Nintendo has only two lines of consoles? Because if they went to more, like vBulletin and more add ons, there would be way longer delays and less releases as development got split further and further, especially seeing that like the possible console mentioned here, Jelsoft's CMS would also be a major undertaking.

6. CMSes are more than the forum. Heck, think a forum has lots of stuff to think about? A CMS has about twenty ton more to think of, as many I know have news, forums, blogs, galleries and just about every other type of content you can think of. And adding the typical vB features, and stuff for each module? Massive, massive feature overkill.

With my usual CMS bashing out the way, I guess I'd better get to what I actually want from vBulletin 4.0, another long and important section of this extremely long, important and thoughtful article.

vBulletin 4.0; What I think should be a given

With the complaints about the usual vBulletin 4 arguments gone, I have now got some actually wanted arguments that people might like and things that the next version should actually spend it's time on. First up is improving everything that's already there...

1. Improve the lot that's there. Forget new stuff for the start, add the needed and absent minor features people have been complaining about for years that are needed to flesh out the existing forum. You know, report button for PMs, threads in social groups, albums with better controls for images... This should be the real first priority.

2. CSS layout (mainly)

But do NOT copy phpBB, punBB or Vanilla. They are not like vBulletin. They are pretty much featureless bulletin boards that can afford their current layouts because they lack in nearly anything needed in a forum, and a lot of people would agree that they are often rather... confusing. Instead, make a whole new layout, with about 99% CSS divs and what not for layout, make it valid to XHTML 1.0 Transitional and bring the forum style up to speed (and date). As I said before, DO NOT even touch XHTML Strict, because it will make modding the board a freaking nightmare. While you're at it, remove all inline styles from the templates like border = "0" and remove to an external CSS file. External CSS files should also be the default setting. Got all that?

3. Improve the editor

No one should ever need to see the vB code. Heck, they should see it almost like a word processing document type layout, where things such as tables, images with floating and all the rest are just drag and drop options that instantly display when posted. Attachments should be instantly viewable in the editor as well, not [attach] tags round some numbers (which looks messy at present). Oh, and while you're at it, improve the code generated. Too many messy font tags used when nice, pure CSS could be used instead to save valuable bandwidth and such like. All colours for example for font should be in the CSS, not the HTML source code. Same with sizes. And since they're in, add definition lists to the editor, since I already came up with perfectly valid BB code for them months (years?) ago.

4. Add Stuff for Big Boards

Pretty much as the title says, make it so massive forums have features that will cut down on the server load and the like. I have no idea what kind of features, but I hear Sphinx Search is recommended, so maybe a built in option to use that is in order? And a real archive while you're at it where old posts can be moved to and maybe just stored in plain, unalterable HTML files.

5. Add the new stuff!

You know, all those new things the suggestions forums are made to suggest? Add tons of them, but make them all disableable and somewhat useful, unlike some of the newest social networking features. My suggestions, in case you didn't get that were:

Improved Image Verification
Better forum home page/portal like function for those that want it.
Massive social group improvements
Default profile style selections
Invisionfree like image settings per image.
Better, non vague FAQ
More advanced statistics
Better template editor
Better rank requirements based on things other than post count
Better vB code management page
Multiple uploads
Totally dismiss template upgrades

And of course since it's requested, an option for how the vBulletin Admin CP is displayed. I'd say these options should be frames, tabs or category listings, like various other software.

So yeah, after all that writing, and all those opinions, that is how vBulletin 4 should and should not be, at least in the opinion of myself. If you liked or disliked this article, please comment and rate it as necessary.

Two Most Crappy Mario Kart Wii Special Effects

cheat-master30 — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 14:18:04 GMT

Since the game was likely rushed to market, it is pretty fair to assume that it could have done with a bit more polish in terms of design and effects. But in all the game, there are in my opinion a few things which look incredibly bad and should have been fixed:

1. The Leaf Piles

The Maple Treeway leaf piles look horrendous, simply because when you drive through them, and look back, they just magically reform into a complete circular pile of leaves from nothing, without any trace that they've been knocked over at all! You don't have a leaf pile for freaking sake just collapse and reform itself perfectly every single time, and this effect, while not seen very often by most people, looks incredibly jarring and out of place.

2. Bob-omb Cars

They go boom, but then they just pop back into existance three metres down the road with a literal pop type sound! When the heck have you heard of a bomb perfectly reform itself and keep driving? 100% recyclable bombs, the future of the Mushroom Kingdom?

And there you have it. Two very, very poorly programmed effects in Mario Kart Wii, and two that down right show the game may well have been a little rushed, since they look so ridiculous stupid in action... Could do way better Nintendo Special Effects team, could do way better...

Waluigi is real part i

darth_laser10 — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 01:46:48 GMT

AS YOU NOTICE THE LIES ABOUT WAluigi}
BEING IN SUPER(|:})64 DS ITS NO LIE!

1.WHEN I GOT MY ACTION REPLAY DS V.(2.25)
THERE WAS 2 SUPER(|:})64 DS.
I CHECKED IN THE 1ST ONE BUT NO WAluigi}THEN IT WAS THE 2ND ONE & THERE WAS WAluigi}

Boo:} DONT BELIEVE THIS LIE: 2-D BOX

PART II WALUIGI IS REAL COMING IN JULY-30-2008

Boss Tropes in Mario

cheat-master30 — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 22:00:37 GMT

Since reading TV Tropes out of minor boredom, I thought yesterday; what if Mario, the series could be made to fit every single trope in the boss battle category? Is there anything it HASN'T used in these 20 odd years of games? Well, now you're about to find out, with my definite list of tropes Mario fits in terms of boss battles, right from their wiki and explaining how each has been used in the Mario series.

Amazing Techicolour Battlefield

First on the list, the alternate dimension/crazy world final battle situation with bright glowing colours and total randomness. And Mario is even listed, thanks to Mario Kart's Rainbow Road fitting this very definition. On the other hand, this isn't all that fits. There's Bowser's last Battle in Mario 64, with the brightly coloured sky and organ music, and his final battle in his Galaxy Reactor in Super Mario Galaxy which pretty much comes under this. One down, one long list to go.

Anticlimax Boss

Aka, the wimpy boss that goes down in 2 minutes despite being right at the end of the game and sending out millions of evil minions to destroy the world. Well, this is a bit more difficult, since Mario ISN'T already listed. However, in Mario and Luigi Partners in Time, Shrowser fits this, because he's a non boss that you just dodge until he destroys himself via his attacks hitting the elder Princess Shroob possessing him. Next one down!

Authority Equals Asskicking

Not hard to prove. This is because nearly every boss in the series is an evil aristocrat type named 'King, Queen, Lord, Count, Major, General, Elder or Baron [something]'. That pretty much counts as authority, and Bowser is pretty much the UR example, being the last boss of nearly every major Mario game. Wart, Shadow Queen, Grodus, Princess Shroob and Smithy fit this as well.

Bait and Switch Boss

Basically, Cackletta in Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga. You fight the easyish Bowletta, then when you think you've won... you get instant killed by a bob-omb and eaten whole, then fight Cackletta's spirit/ghost. Also possibly Princess Shroob, who just happened to have a twin sister that you just HAPPENED to have unleashed! Bad luck!

Battleship Raid

The boss forming most of the actual level and having you jump and solve puzzles on or around them. Again, easy answer in mecha Bowser in Super Mario Galaxy, who pretty much IS the level, and instead of being a real boss is more a tricky platforming segment with enemies, puzzles, firebars and laser beams.

Bonus Boss

Aka, the secret optional bosses you face in various games, which again lists a few Mario examples from Paper Mario. There was one in the first two Mario games, including Bonetail, and TWO in Super Paper Mario (Wracktail and Shadoo) and one in Super Mario RPG (Culex). Heck, Super Mario Galaxy had multiple (end boss of the Engine Room, all Garden area bosses, Kingfin). Easily done and dusted.

Boss Dissonance

Easier or harder bosses than the rest. Ironically, Mario is listed as having far easier bosses than levels, so my job kind of got taken here.

Boss Room

Again, lists Bowser, but the whole series uses this, like with Big Bully, Chief Chilly and Topmaniac's arena to defeat them with...

Boss Rush

Sigh, again I have nothing new to add since Super Smash Bros uses this, and that's a Nintendo including Mario spinoff.

Boss Subtitles

Sadly, only Smash Bros uses this. I can't think of a Mario example for this sadly.

Braggart Boss

Popple and Jr Troopa fit this really well, being arrogant, trying to one up the hero and pretty much being easily beaten in the end. Of course, I actually thought this would be Tolstar, since he's literally a braggart and a bit full of himself. Next!

Bullfight Boss

Topmaniac is listed, rightly so. Although his speed of 'charging' is everyone else's strolling speed, ironically. But it's already a trope Mario has likely used a few times before.

Chasing Your Tail

Chasing the boss' back/tail to hit it's weakpoint was already given an obvious Mario example, in Dino Piranha from Super Mario Galaxy (and Fiery Dino Piranha by extension), so it's quite clear Mario fits this one a few times.

Climax Boss

Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga is listed with a few examples here, but in a true long battle climax, I'd say every Mario game and RPG ends with one of these that goes way past what is listed, notably both Mario and Luigi games having great examples of this. Heck, even the hopeless boss fight thing is true, thanks to the hundreds of people posting online that Cackletta/Princess Shroob obliterated their entire party thanks to them not training.

Colossus Climb

Megaleg, where Mario had to climb up the robot and blow up the core with some Bullet Bills. This is listed, although it's likely not the only example (with Mecha Bowser possibly toeing this line in Super Mario Galaxy).

Cowardly Boss

Popple has been listed, and there have been more examples. Although again, my job has been answered.

Dual Boss

Bowser and Bowser Jr in Mario Sunshine and New Super Mario Bros, and a lot of examples as listed from Super Mario RPG fits this. Not hard to find more examples either, at least I don't think (The Underchomp comes to mind here).

Degraded Boss

Now, as for weakened bosses that make a reappearance in the game later as typical enemies, I'll be honest and say that there aren't too many, although the Undergrunt Gunner would be closest, since it went from guarding stars to guarding a cannon in Deep Dark Galaxy in Super Mario Galaxy.

Final Boss

This is pretty much Bowser 90% of the time. Although Wart, Tatanga, Wario, Donkey Kong, Smithy, Shadow Queen, Princess Shroob, Super Dimentio and various others have been the final boss in a Mario game before. Enough said really.

Final Exam Boss

Now, it may be arguable that most Mario games have had examples of a Final Exam level for Bowser's final Castle/lair, but those that come to mind are Super Mario Galaxy's. His reactor has planets based on the Reactors, Melty Molten Galaxy, Space Junk Galaxy and the like, and his final boss battle uses quite a few techniques you learnt (hitting green plants into him, how to break boulders and the typical Bowser battle technique). As said there, Paper Mario 2 also has elements of this in the final level, and arguable Castle Bleck from Super Paper Mario has various elements, including facing the whole villain team.

Fisticuffs Boss

Not really relevant, because Mario pretty much never uses weapons except sometimes a Hammer. So every boss in a non RPG since Super Mario Bros 3 is technically one except Super Mario Land...

Flunky Boss

Boss's with minions helping them? Again, Super Mario RPG loved this, and Super Mario Galaxy seems to love it as well with Kamella, Topmaniac, Baron Brrr and Kingfin.

For Massive Damage

Every boss in Mario has one obvious, hurting weakness. Heck, even Luigi's Mansion has this, with the ghost's hearts having to be exposed to suck them into the Poltergust.

Giant Space Flea From Nowhere

In all technicality, every boss bar a few in the non RPGs is this, and even a lot of the RPGs are. But in the games, Chill Bully, Undergrunt Gunner, Baron Brrr and Kingfin have no real backstory given to any degree at all (although Kingfin is arguably too cool to need a story or past). Baron Brrr in my opinion is pretty much the most obvious example of 'what the hell have you got to do with anything?'

He Was Right There All Along

EVERY Boss bar about two in Super Mario Galaxy is hiding out of view at the start of the battle and has to be revealed by entering the boss arena. Dino Piranha kind of. King Kaliente, Bugaboom, Kamella, Bouldergeist, Kingfin and Bowser himself pretty much define this in all their appearances.

Hi Altitude Battle

Moltz The Very Goonie. What's a more high altitude battle than one in complete free fall with no ground? Nothing, that's what.

High Speed Battle

Sadly, I have no recall of this ever happening, although I haven't played all the games (and maybe Luigi riding the Poltergust in hidden mansion boss battles might count?)

Hopeless Boss Fight

The RPGs have many. Bowletta is a clear example from Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga, since after a few times you die anyway thanks to a bob-omb which instantly kills both characters and brings on the real final boss fight.

Jaws First Person Perspective

The cut scene where you first see Kingfin in Super Mario Galaxy is just this:

Load Bearing Boss

In Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga, defeating Cackletta as Bowletta causes Bowser's Castle to start collapsing and the characters to have to run (and fly) to safety. Similarly, defeating Smithy in Mario RPG supposedly causes Exor to disintegrate...

Mook Promotion

Ironically, Mario Kart Wii does this to a Red Topman, making him from a four foot high creature the size of a dog to about a twenty foot one the size of a car which you battle in space while riding karts or bikes.

Perfect Run Final Boss

A hidden boss after 100% completion and beating the normal one isn't common in the Mario series, but arguable done with Super Smash Bros Brawl and Wario Land 2's bosses.

Except Wario Land 2 had about four bosses not really connected to the plot fought after Captain Syrup after secret levels...

Playing Tennis with the Boss

Named after what a certain video reviewer said about Super Mario Galaxy's bosses according to their wiki, King Kaliente is the obvious example here, although I swear it's been done in Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga with some Koopalings and Cackletta...

Puzzle Boss

Bowser in the old games, and likely ones like the Big Bully which while weak, have to be taken out by the environment. And Tap Tap the Red Nose, which has to be made to fall through the floor into the lava. Heck, even Roger the Potted Ghost who has to be pushed to it's doom off the platform...

Recurring Boss

Done in all forms by bosses like Bowser and Bowser Jr. Done blatantly without upgrade by Topmaniac and the Undergrunt Gunner...

Sequential Boss

Every Mario RPG, with the battles against Smithy, Grodus then Bowser, Princess Shroob in three battles without break (four if including the spaceship stuff) and the part against Count Bleck then Super Dimentio in Super Paper Mario. Bowser also does this in Super Mario Galaxy, with three different attack stages.

Skippable Boss

Naval Piranha, and every 3D platform boss in the series.

SNK Boss

Many RPG bonus or end bosses, and those examples from the Wario spinoffs and such like I outlined in my last blog entry as the hardest Mario bosses ever fought.

Sub Boss

The Red Topman enemies in Super Mario Galaxy and the final Undergrunt Gunner battle fit this well.

That One Boss

Spiked/Titan/Battle Koopa from Wario Land and Bouldergeist from Super Mario Galaxy. The latter was an example given I think...

Tragic Boss

None, the Mario series is short on story behind it's characters.

Training Boss

There are plenty in the RPGs which even give you obvious cues and information on how to attack them and dodge their attacks, like Fawful and Tolstar in Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga.

Trick Boss

It gives Bowletta from Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga as an example here. Doopliss may also count in Paper Mario 2... you've got half a chapter after 'beating' him where he steals your identity...

Turns Red

Every boss in Super Mario Galaxy, as I said before does this in some way. Someone there obviously agrees.

Oh, and unlike many games, most of Mario Galaxy's bosses literally do turn red.

Wakeup Boss

They say Hooktail is an example, but to me, I'd say Bouldergeist, as well as a hard boss in Super mario Galaxy's example of when to actually concentrate on what you're doing and when you actually have a chance of dying.

Warmup Boss

One per RPG. Enough said.

So yeah, apart from 2, who'd know the Mario series pretty much used every story trick related to bosses and boss battles across it's history? Well I did...

References:

Tv Tropes Boss Battle Page

Mario Wiki

whats a blog?

xxxmariofanxxx — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 23:07:53 GMT

title! i dont get what blogs are!?!?!

The Three Things that Annoy about Mario Kart Wii

cheat-master30 — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 22:25:42 GMT

As a Time Trialer, and someone who would likely get As as the ranking for all their times if they had Nintendo Wifi connection, there are a few bloody annoying things that I really don't like about this. And yes, I do like the game. Never the less, without much ado...

1. Starting in Last Place

Because in GP mode, this basically means the player has to spend about half a lap (depending on difficulty) BATTLING their way to first place before even thinking of trying to defend themselves, and makes courses without walls near the start incredibly aggravating for those using light or medium weight characters when the ten ton heavyweights smash them off the road right at the beginning thanks to drafting and heavy vehicles. Oh, and in vs mode, if I'm bored and trying to beat a time against CPUs, it means I lose two seconds at the beginning starting way before the start line and without being able to use wheelies for fear of the computer barging my character around. Well, on the bright side... it does make the Grumble Volcano uber shortcut take about 2 seconds less to do and makes it possible to reverse off the cliff towards the jump point...

2. CPUs cheating like hell with kart/bike stats

How the hell is it fair that a low acceleration vehicle can reach top speed in about a second or two without a stand still mini turbo? Or that the Torpedo/Aero Glider can drive around the course in manual with impeccable control and timing and not get totally flattened by every single stage obstacle that would decimate even a good human player? Nintendo, cut it out. Make it so the computers have the exact same advantages and disadvantages as human players.

3. Team Players Suck

Or to be more precise, YOUR team sucks. The other team... well they might get one crap player and five top 6 ranked players each race, and regardless of you doing well, it seems like every ten seconds your team gets dead last in every single race. Of course, this does seem to at least partly be team rubber band; the team that's got the first and second place likely has the sucky other players to give the opposition an unfair chance. However, what this basically means is the same as you getting put on the team of total losers in school sports or something while the other team utterly destroy your team mates and leave you a one man hope for the underdogs. And I've had times where I had a DRAW despite both FIRST and SECOND place being on my team. Yeah, that sucks. Or lost despite me winning personally all four races.

All in all though, just had to get out on paper my most aggravating points about Mario Kart Wii that need to be changed in future updates.

ultramario2.0

ultramario2.0 — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 20:29:58 GMT

This is a short update to my blog. I made a paper mario comic. NintenDan made me some new custom sprites. *applause* I haven't been around because of the 4-H fair. ML2 got an action replay gc, too. Nothing else too interesting has happened, really.

Metroid Prime Hunters-Cheaters Everywhere!

Pancakeman — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 12:53:48 GMT

Well, many know you can use the Action Replay DS (ARDS) on the DS games, but for most WiFi games such as Metroid Prime Hunters (MPH), the fun is taken right from the opponents. Don't forget-these are real people. They want to have fun, too. The minor differences between version 1.0 and version 1.1 in most games results in alternate ARDS codes for the new version. A third version would be unnaturally catastrophic! However, the chaos in MPH codes begin with the fact that most people have the first version. The game was an instant hit worldwide. People like me had no idea such a game came out until the second version arrived. With basically nobody able to create these new codes or convert the old ones, I was lost. Codejunkies codes gives us a small taste of the amazing codes this game offers. Just look at my brother-he got a used v1.0 MPH game. When he got a couple awsome codes, I was jealous. Knowing this, half the population who plays MPH has v1.0 and cheats. The other half has no ARDS and/or v1.1. Note to those who use Metroid Prime Hunters cheats on WiFi: Turn it off. Nobody likes a cheater.

My text Pictures

ninjablooper — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 15:53:26 GMT

██______██
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Mario M

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Luigi L

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Yoshi Y

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Wario W

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Waluigi W

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Mario

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Fire ball

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Koopa

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Koopa shell

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Ninja

Don't use with out my permission.

Super Smash Bros. DSU Characters

MarioLuigi2 — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 21:36:51 GMT

Here are the Normal characters
Mario
Luigi
Link
Zelda
Samus
Yoshi
Donkeykong
Fox
Falco
kirby
Pikachu
Mewtwo
Ness
lucas
C.Falcon
Dr.Mario
Diddy kong
Peach
Count Bleck
Bowser Jr./Shadow Mario
Bowser
Ice climbers
Mr.Game&Watch
Marth
Roy
Ike

--------------26 starters------------

Unlockable Characters(Spoliers!)
Metal Mario
PacMan
Sonic
Shadow
Tails
Paper Mario
Evil Dr.Mario
Birdo
Ganondorf
Snake
Pit
Dark Meta knight
Pichu
MarioLuigi2
Ultramario2.0
NinjaBlooper
Tomas112
Mcgahee3
link 70222
Phantom link
cheatsguy777
Platuim Dialaga
Mr.L(Real character and Member!)
Cheat-Master30
So dont ask if you want to be in the game because all the spots are filled! sorry!

So a total of... 50 characters! *Cough,Cough,BetaBrawlcharacteramout,Cough,Cough* and dont worry we have all of the character's sprite sheets!Except for the Member characters!

Trainer Toolkit...Worth the money?

Pancakeman — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 16:36:11 GMT

Everybody knows you can buy Datel's Action Replay DS (ARDS) to cheat on your favorite games and become the "Ultimate Gamer of your Dreams", but you shortly thirst for more, better codes than Codejunkies beginner codes. Therefore, you have two paths- go online and search for newer codes or buy Datel's new Trainer Toolkit (TT) to make your own codes. With TT, you can create codes and not even have to share them online with friends or web buddies. Otherwise you would have to ask for the codes from someone else and wait a long time for the single code you wanted, but apparently don't need anymore. What a waste of time. Why not just get TT? Why not just spend your money?

Trainer Toolkit probably sounds pretty good right now, right? Heres the catch: TT is $50, more than double the amount of ARDS, plus you have to get both. Now, if you already own ARDS or got it via bithdays, gift cards, holidays, etc. you do not have to pay the whole $70. But, With the amazing codes and friends around this site, for example, you most likely do not need it. You can even ask those who have gotten TT how to make codes. With TT, all they have to do is "take this, put it together with that, add on this little bit...". They can at least teach you the basics such as addresses, values, code types, etc. It may take a while, but they will have their own little "Padawan"-you.

It's up to you, ladies and gentlemen. Do you take path one, or path two. As for me, I chose to learn I learned in less than a week. It isn't that hard to learn. I can even go back and get TT with knowledge of how ARDS codes work.

UPDATE: Trainer Toolkit now stands on $39.99, ten bucks less than when it arrived. I will most likely be getting it soon, or wait for price to drop again. What will you do?

Super Smash Bros. DSU Stages

MarioLuigi2 — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 16:12:25 GMT

Hey i have more info!
Here are the nomal Stages in SSBDSU
Peach's castle
Bowser's castle
Pokemon stadiem
Donkeykong25M
JungleJapes
Hyrule Temple
Yoshi's Island
Dr.Mario
Game&Watch
-------------------------
and now unlockable stages(Spoilers!)
Bridge of Elden
Subcon
Evil Dr.Mario's lab
Green hill Zone
BattleField
Final Dest.
PacMan
The Stages below are Custom Member Stages.
DSU-ML2
Gamecube controller-NinjaB
Ghost Ship-PhantomL
The Secret Golden Hammer Bro. valley-UM2.0
These members below have not posted there custom Stage on The SSBDSU Socal group yet.
Tomas112
Mcgahee3
link 70222
cheatsguy777
Platuim Dialaga
Cheat-Master30

Next is Characters!

Super Smash Bros. DSU Info

MarioLuigi2 — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 16:00:04 GMT

Hello people of DSU! this is my first Blog post and what my blog is going to contain, is info about the future DSU game, Super Smash Bros. DSU.
------------------------
so first of all the staff of the game is me(Duhh!)
Second is Cheatsguy777!
Then third is these guys!
Mr.L
Phantom link
Tomas112
mcgahee3
link 70222
ninjablooper
ultramario2.0
Platinum Dialga
-------------------------

MarioLuigi2-Head Devolper
Cheatsguy777-Co-Devolper
Mr.L-Member in the game
Phantom link-Member in the game
Tomas112-Member in the game
mcgahee3-Member in the game
link 70222-Member in the game
ninjablooper-Member in the game
ultramario2.0-Member in the game
Platinum Dialga-Member in the game

Why Free isn't So 'Free'

cheat-master30 — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 10:29:06 GMT

Free layouts, free add ons, free polls and free images... the resource for amateurs and newbies all over. But as I can say below, there is something you should always know about these sites, and that is that they are indeed banking on the n00bishness of the webmasters and the non knowledge of HTML, and that they are often sneakily trying to insert ads and backlinks into the sites of those that use them.

First though, note this from a popular Myspace resource site:

Code:

get your own layout here.

First, note how in this example, all the styling for the image is kept in the code for the page so that you'll have a bit more difficulty removing the backlink from the image. Also note how while their graphics are not links on their own site, the given code sneakily adds both a hidden link back to their site from your profile (which could get your profile banned from Google) and links the image back to one as well.

Code:

And then this... This looks very much like two images, one of which is a fixed banner linking back to their site, the second the image itself, and both link back to the same place, likely with some kind of tracking or referrer script to see who's using what images and how many people click each image.

So as you can tell, rather sneakily these sites are adding hidden text, links and refers to their sites from the various people's profiles which their images/icons and layout are used on, classic black hat SEO behind the scenes here, which explains exactly how NOT free these icons and stuff often are...

But that's not too bad, compared to other stuff. I have heard services putting advertiser links into the pages of those that use their services, and Bravenet often adds pop ups to pages with it's services added. Free does not exist, or at least in terms of services/content. Remember that there is always a price.

Proof of Mod Harassment.

Minx.eh — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 02:56:49 GMT

I decided to make this public as all this stuff can easily be accessed via visitor message view and the rest. *Shrug*

Screenshots of Shoutbox Abuse: http://s250.photobucket.com/albums/g...ltimateLooser/

I'm sending it to cheat myself, but if you wanna keep or use it feel free.