The Backlog Check-in Vol. 422: 1/31/26: Dragon Quest VII Reimagined Edition

[isthatallyougot]

Hey! Spoilers!!!

Another really nice one. So how does this work exactly? You print out an image and use a tool/program to convert it into a background you craft on? I really have no idea. That does look like a cool boss form though. You should turn it into a gaming-adjacent business and sell stuff on etsy or ebay, etc. I imagine there'd be a good market for these creations, although I don't know if the time/return ratio would be worth it.

An early gaming story I'll share, to stay on theme, will be my first RPG. It was The Bard's Tale on the Commodore 64 - a good friend I met in middle school introduced me to it. We would map out the dungeons on graph paper, trade notes & stories of our adventures at school, and even do some pass-the-controller gaming with it. It was a blast, and definitely hooked me on the genre. One quirk about the game is that you can only save in town, at the guild. Each character was saved individually, so there was a nice exploit we found of pooling all the gold to one person, saving that person, then pooling it to the next, etc., until the entire party each had the full amount. Then reboot the game (I forget why this step was necessary) and do it again until you end up with way more money than you could ever spend. If you died, however, you did not lose your progress, you were just sent back to the guild and had to have a living character "drag" (as we called it) your bodies to the temple to get resurrected, then you still had all of your xp & loot. Well, I clearly remember one night being up WAY too late on a school night playing the game. I was deep in a dungeon, and all of my characters had been hit with insanity. This would cause you to get into random encounters with YOURSELF, as your party members would turn on each other. One problem: my characters were so high level & well equipped that they literally could not hit each other. So I would take a few steps, get into an encounter w/ myself, and watch as they attacked each other futilely. All the while I was just BEGGING them to die so I could save & quit. Very rarely, one of them would actually land a hit & do a tiny bit of damage, so this went on for I don't know how long until FINALLY everyone died & I could save. It was ridiculous, and I loved it.

Ha, that sounds funny, but also really tedious, lol.

[isthatallyougot]

Last thing, my half-brother (on my dad's side) passed away last weekend, and the funeral was yesterday. He and I weren't close; he was 15 years older than me and moved out when I was only 1 or 2 to live with his grandparents. He then went into the army once he hit 18, and when he got out & came back to town, we were just in different worlds. I do feel a little bad that I didn't try to connect with him once I was older, but we were very different people. I was more upset that my dad was having to go through this - he turned 90 last Oct, same month my half-brother turned 65. The only thing we ever really connected on that I remember was music, and then only occasionally, since I had different tastes from his at the time. He had requested some Led Zeppelin play at the service (which my mom did NOT like, and I thought was a little odd myself, but that may be my traditional Southern upbringing showing). What's odd is that I had put on a Zeppelin cd this past Saturday night and listened to it. It was a cd I had picked up in an estate sale a couple years back & was mainly testing it out to make sure it played ok - I *never* listen to them, even though I do kinda like them. Thinking I'll see what other albums of theirs I have, slowly pick up the rest & listen to them some more - I know it's a little late to try to relate to him now, but I guess until I'm gone it's not too late to learn more about him.

I'm not a huge Led Zeppelin fan overall, but they've got some tunes that are really nice. One I really love:



We're turning this into the gaming AND music board. Time for a re-launch?

[jfissel]

Hey! Spoilers!!!

Another really nice one. So how does this work exactly? You print out an image and use a tool/program to convert it into a background you craft on? I really have no idea. That does look like a cool boss form though. You should turn it into a gaming-adjacent business and sell stuff on etsy or ebay, etc. I imagine there'd be a good market for these creations, although I don't know if the time/return ratio would be worth it.

Yeah, there was an app called "KG Chart" back then that translates the colors in an image to existing colors in the various thread manufacturer's color palettes. It would create a key for the colors, so you can walk into a store like Michael's and look for "741 MD Tangerine" by X company (the light orange/brown color in Necrosaro). There may be better software options these days.

I just logged into my old computer where these files are held and found a few things:

1. Necrosaro has 7503 stitches.
2. I had some grander plans for FF I creations - I have sprites saved of all 5 bosses in that game.
3. I created a Patapon logo pattern that would have been 25" x 13" when completed (with the same number of stitches per inch that those other 2 projects have).
4. I had downloaded several icon images of the 16 colossi from Shadow of the Colossus. So, not the colossi themselves but the icons that show up on the map to identify them. Also have a sigil image (the glowing thing you stab on their bodies).
5. Also found some Psychonauts images including the logo and Mr. Pokeylope from 2014 (pretty sure I wanted to make and send him to cane with a chip/speaker in the frame that would say his quote of "That's right, baby. Daddy's here. Everything's gonna be allllllright." in that deep voice straight from the game - my apologies cane for not following through on that. I believe he mentioned that was his favorite character from the game at some point). And I think I gave up because I couldn't find a chip/speaker and because his image is like 50 different colors, lol.

I sent this to J's PM, but I'll say again here - that looks fantastic (as does the other one). Reminds me that I started a pearler bead project 2-3 years back that I abandoned, so this may inspire me to literally dust it off & see if I can finish it. If so, I'll post the final results here.

An early gaming story I'll share, to stay on theme, will be my first RPG. It was The Bard's Tale on the Commodore 64 - a good friend I met in middle school introduced me to it. We would map out the dungeons on graph paper, trade notes & stories of our adventures at school, and even do some pass-the-controller gaming with it. It was a blast, and definitely hooked me on the genre. One quirk about the game is that you can only save in town, at the guild. Each character was saved individually, so there was a nice exploit we found of pooling all the gold to one person, saving that person, then pooling it to the next, etc., until the entire party each had the full amount. Then reboot the game (I forget why this step was necessary) and do it again until you end up with way more money than you could ever spend. If you died, however, you did not lose your progress, you were just sent back to the guild and had to have a living character "drag" (as we called it) your bodies to the temple to get resurrected, then you still had all of your xp & loot. Well, I clearly remember one night being up WAY too late on a school night playing the game. I was deep in a dungeon, and all of my characters had been hit with insanity. This would cause you to get into random encounters with YOURSELF, as your party members would turn on each other. One problem: my characters were so high level & well equipped that they literally could not hit each other. So I would take a few steps, get into an encounter w/ myself, and watch as they attacked each other futilely. All the while I was just BEGGING them to die so I could save & quit. Very rarely, one of them would actually land a hit & do a tiny bit of damage, so this went on for I don't know how long until FINALLY everyone died & I could save. It was ridiculous, and I loved it.

Yep, perler beads are another good way of making these sprite images.

Nice find on the gold exploit! Sounds like a fun time - I have not played that game myself.

[isthatallyougot]

Yeah, there was an app called "KG Chart" back then that translates the colors in an image to existing colors in the various thread manufacturer's color palettes. It would create a key for the colors, so you can walk into a store like Michael's and look for "741 MD Tangerine" by X company (the light orange/brown color in Necrosaro). There may be better software options these days.

I just logged into my old computer where these files are held and found a few things:

1. Necrosaro has 7503 stitches.
2. I had some grander plans for FF I creations - I have sprites saved of all 5 bosses in that game.
3. I created a Patapon logo pattern that would have been 25" x 13" when completed (with the same number of stitches per inch that those other 2 projects have).
4. I had downloaded several icon images of the 16 colossi from Shadow of the Colossus. So, not the colossi themselves but the icons that show up on the map to identify them. Also have a sigil image (the glowing thing you stab on their bodies).
5. Also found some Psychonauts images including the logo and Mr. Pokeylope from 2014 (pretty sure I wanted to make and send him to cane with a chip/speaker in the frame that would say his quote of "That's right, baby. Daddy's here. Everything's gonna be allllllright." in that deep voice straight from the game - my apologies cane for not following through on that. I believe he mentioned that was his favorite character from the game at some point). And I think I gave up because I couldn't find a chip/speaker and because his image is like 50 different colors, lol.

Ooh, Shadow of the Colossus would be really cool. I would love an image of Wander holding up his sword with extended rays, as an example. I also think that Okami could be amazing, although it would probably be more labor intensive, given the broad color palette. Really infinite possibilities for game-centric projects.

Thanks again for sharing. I know we mostly talk about games here, but it's nice to feel a little more of a personal identity/connection to you longtime digital friends in this way.

[canedaddy]

I've got a nice early and formative gaming memory. My father and I have always had a very strained relationship, even in the best of times - we're just very different people. But there was one winter in Tennessee where my brother and I were out of school for winter weather - really pretty mild, but of course the South is far less prepared for snow and ice, and so we ended up missing more than a week of school due to some wintry mix. And my father, who was a brick mason, was also impacted when bad weather hit and so he was off for a significant amount of time as well. During this time, I (and my brother) played our 2600 all the time, and my dad who generally does not like that sort of thing at all spent some time with my brother and I playing Chopper Command. We sat and played it for hours until we got good enough to flip the score back to zero, and the game got really fast and pretty intense as you progressed. My dad was really into it, and it was a rare time where I felt a sort of bond with him. And I vividly remember those good times.

Also, my dad was really into music (particularly Elvis) and the tv sat in the middle of an entertainment center where there was also a record player and stereo system. And so often my brother and I would sit and alternate playing (or play with / against each other) while we also took turns playing our respective records. He had Michael Jackson's Thriller and Culture Club's Colour By Numbers among others and I usually listened to Synchronicity by The Police and Reach the Beach by the Fixx. So I guess that places me at around 13 or 14. But I remember my brother used to say that he had Reach the Beach stuck in his head because I would often play it while we were playing Adventure. That music really became ingrained within due to the focus on playing while the music sort of seeped deep into the subconscious, I suppose.

I love those stories. Wow. It's amazing how small moments or times like that can make sweet memories that last forever. As old as I am and as much as I've forgotten (almost everything!), I can still remember exactly how it felt one 4th of July when I was little... I was sick, so while the rest of the family went to watch the fireworks, my dad set up a lawn chair in the grass in front of my grandparents' house and we watched them from afar. Since I have a twin brother, it was one of the rare times when I got all the attention. Even though I was throwing up and didn't feel so hot, it's one of my favorite memories.

Thanks, cane! You want me to send it to you?

That would be awesome, but I'm in the stage of getting rid of cool possessions, not adding more (knowing I'll kick the bucket and no one wants to keep or deal with any of my "cool possessions," haha).

I have another story, but I'm not sure I have some of the details correct. 1989 prior to moving in the summertime, I'm pretty sure I wanted to get my name in the back of Nintendo Power for people who beat games and sent in scores with photo evidence. The game I chose was Wizards and Warriors, which I hadn't beat. Well, I finally made it through the game and took a picture of the end screen (the TV was one of those pieces of furniture in a wood console cabinet type deals from the 70s/80s). I don't know if I have the picture still, but it is possible it's with some other childhood things. Also, I don't remember if I even sent it in or if my name was ever published in an issue - might be able to search some of the scans available online.

EDIT: I just looked and didn't see my name. The first like 6 issues had that game and people listed, but after the first couple of months, the scores went to 999,999...and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have maxed out a score, lol. So either I didn't send it in, they didn't think my score was good enough, it didn't fit in the page, or they stopped printing scores for that game. Oh well.

Bro was a machine all the way back to the beginning! That is wild.

An early gaming story I'll share, to stay on theme, will be my first RPG. It was The Bard's Tale on the Commodore 64 - a good friend I met in middle school introduced me to it. We would map out the dungeons on graph paper, trade notes & stories of our adventures at school, and even do some pass-the-controller gaming with it. It was a blast, and definitely hooked me on the genre. One quirk about the game is that you can only save in town, at the guild. Each character was saved individually, so there was a nice exploit we found of pooling all the gold to one person, saving that person, then pooling it to the next, etc., until the entire party each had the full amount. Then reboot the game (I forget why this step was necessary) and do it again until you end up with way more money than you could ever spend. If you died, however, you did not lose your progress, you were just sent back to the guild and had to have a living character "drag" (as we called it) your bodies to the temple to get resurrected, then you still had all of your xp & loot. Well, I clearly remember one night being up WAY too late on a school night playing the game. I was deep in a dungeon, and all of my characters had been hit with insanity. This would cause you to get into random encounters with YOURSELF, as your party members would turn on each other. One problem: my characters were so high level & well equipped that they literally could not hit each other. So I would take a few steps, get into an encounter w/ myself, and watch as they attacked each other futilely. All the while I was just BEGGING them to die so I could save & quit. Very rarely, one of them would actually land a hit & do a tiny bit of damage, so this went on for I don't know how long until FINALLY everyone died & I could save. It was ridiculous, and I loved it.

That is awesome.

Last thing, my half-brother (on my dad's side) passed away last weekend, and the funeral was yesterday. He and I weren't close; he was 15 years older than me and moved out when I was only 1 or 2 to live with his grandparents. He then went into the army once he hit 18, and when he got out & came back to town, we were just in different worlds. I do feel a little bad that I didn't try to connect with him once I was older, but we were very different people. I was more upset that my dad was having to go through this - he turned 90 last Oct, same month my half-brother turned 65. The only thing we ever really connected on that I remember was music, and then only occasionally, since I had different tastes from his at the time. He had requested some Led Zeppelin play at the service (which my mom did NOT like, and I thought was a little odd myself, but that may be my traditional Southern upbringing showing). What's odd is that I had put on a Zeppelin cd this past Saturday night and listened to it. It was a cd I had picked up in an estate sale a couple years back & was mainly testing it out to make sure it played ok - I *never* listen to them, even though I do kinda like them. Thinking I'll see what other albums of theirs I have, slowly pick up the rest & listen to them some more - I know it's a little late to try to relate to him now, but I guess until I'm gone it's not too late to learn more about him.

Man. Sorry for your loss. Very tough for your dad to see his son go before him, I'm sure. (As for Led Zeppelin, I wasn't a fan when I was young, but I decided a few years ago to give their albums a good listen from the first one on, and they are pretty dang great. I've put them on many times since. Physical Graffiti is a fave.)

One of my brother's best friends (a guy I hung out with plenty of times too, including on my recent 60th birthday trip) died last week. He lived alone in Switzerland, and his family hadn't heard from him in a while. They checked on him and found him dead in his chair. Heartbreaking. Another reminder that you never know when your time is coming so plan accordingly.

[isthatallyougot]

I've got a nice early and formative gaming memory. My father and I have always had a very strained relationship, even in the best of times - we're just very different people. But there was one winter in Tennessee where my brother and I were out of school for winter weather - really pretty mild, but of course the South is far less prepared for snow and ice, and so we ended up missing more than a week of school due to some wintry mix. And my father, who was a brick mason, was also impacted when bad weather hit and so he was off for a significant amount of time as well. During this time, I (and my brother) played our 2600 all the time, and my dad who generally does not like that sort of thing at all spent some time with my brother and I playing Chopper Command. We sat and played it for hours until we got good enough to flip the score back to zero, and the game got really fast and pretty intense as you progressed. My dad was really into it, and it was a rare time where I felt a sort of bond with him. And I vividly remember those good times.

Also, my dad was really into music (particularly Elvis) and the tv sat in the middle of an entertainment center where there was also a record player and stereo system. And so often my brother and I would sit and alternate playing (or play with / against each other) while we also took turns playing our respective records. He had Michael Jackson's Thriller and Culture Club's Colour By Numbers among others and I usually listened to Synchronicity by The Police and Reach the Beach by the Fixx. So I guess that places me at around 13 or 14. But I remember my brother used to say that he had Reach the Beach stuck in his head because I would often play it while we were playing Adventure. That music really became ingrained within due to the focus on playing while the music sort of seeped deep into the subconscious, I suppose.

I love those stories. Wow. It's amazing how small moments or times like that can make sweet memories that last forever. As old as I am and as much as I've forgotten (almost everything!), I can still remember exactly how it felt one 4th of July when I was little... I was sick, so while the rest of the family went to watch the fireworks, my dad set up a lawn chair in the grass in front of my grandparents' house and we watched them from afar. Since I have a twin brother, it was one of the rare times when I got all the attention. Even though I was throwing up and didn't feel so hot, it's one of my favorite memories.

Twin dynamics can be challenging, I'm sure. It's beautiful when some memories and ancient impressions seem to transcend time and place and the natural erosion that comes along with surface changes in life.