Zelda: Ocarina of Time: My Impressions...

a reply to: JamesChessman

Check this out. www.ebay.com...:g:IcUAAOSwtvxh8rp7

That should work. Download the software directly from VM Ware and activate it useing that key for $15. You can also get windows keys extremely cheap on eBay

originally posted by: TrollMagnet
a reply to: JamesChessman

Check this out. www.ebay.com...:g:IcUAAOSwtvxh8rp7

That should work. Download the software directly from VM Ware and activate it useing that key for $15. You can also get windows keys extremely cheap on eBay

^Thanks, OK it's cheap.

I kinda need to reflect on what exactly I want to do now.

For one thing, SixtyForce is supposed to be the actual best N64 emulator, and it can be seen if you run it side-by-side with another emulator, SixtyForce really does have slightly better colors & music. So it might still be worth buying the full version...

(And so if the idea here, is to buy VM Ware, to run a different OS and a different N64 emulator, then it might not be worthwhile, if SixtyForce is still the actual best one...)

(...And if the goal is to get around my one remaining issue of the audio cutting out, so I reset the audio occasionally, in SixtyForce: This might not really even be a problem; I had basically made peace with the situation, just resetting the audio when I walk by my desk lol.)


...

However, if the goal is to run a Virtual Machine, then on a matter of principle, why exactly would I buy VM Ware instead of a free option to run a VM? Virtual Box is free, and I'd expect I could download and set that up, if I really wanted to...

Is VM Ware specifically worth buying instead of a free choice like Virtual Box? Are there specific extra features that make it worth buying, instead of going the free route?

(I did previously think that Virtual Box has the computer use one OS at a time -- is this the difference that VM Ware is better?)

a reply to: JamesChessman

It was an alternative to the violent sick stuff out there. Didn't give bad imagery to young kids and they could still burn off that 'adventurism' in them. My first open world adventure game was actually an educational title called 'Tink Tonk And The Land of Buddy Bots' and it's other titles up to 'Ton'ks Fair' though the 1st one is my favorite and the Fair one was my other one due to the mini games.

Here is the 1st one which the C64 had the best sound and color though the 2nd video from the Atari has the best 'Let's Play' reaction: www.youtube.com...

www.youtube.com... I think they grew up in my generation as they prove you can be funny without resorting to swearing up a storm or be gross about it which was one of the reasons the YT Kids thing was put up. There WERE a lot of gross comments showing up in kids channels that don't belong.

a reply to: JamesChessman

VMWork Station offers accelerated graphics which actually DO work and have the option to scale things so most cases you get a much bigger picture though still not as good of a picture for PCEM but PCEM is not there yet with XP. I can ALMOST run XP perfectly but games it's slow though ironically not much drops in percentage just slow drawing. Mostly down to 90 percent. I thought it would be much lower like down to 50 or something which is when you get EXTREME stuttering because your CPU is being taxed heavily by that point.

PCEM also has a Macromedia/Quick Time lag bug which has been reported here as it only affects games that uses QuickTime player which a lot of educational titles do for example such as Logical Journey of the Zoombini's pre Learning Company buyout.

pcem-emulator.co.uk...

a reply to: JamesChessman

I could NEVER map out the controller on my USB 64 controller via Retroarch. The A and B buttons were reversed and a few other things were not right. I can't remember what but it made gameplay really funky. Couldn't control menus in MK64 very well as a result. Don't know why they never fixed it but somebody was on drugs or something.

originally posted by: SortingHat
a reply to: JamesChessman

It was an alternative to the violent sick stuff out there. Didn't give bad imagery to young kids and they could still burn off that 'adventurism' in them. My first open world adventure game was actually an educational title called 'Tink Tonk And The Land of Buddy Bots' and it's other titles up to 'Ton'ks Fair' though the 1st one is my favorite and the Fair one was my other one due to the mini games.

Here is the 1st one which the C64 had the best sound and color though the 2nd video from the Atari has the best 'Let's Play' reaction: www.youtube.com...

www.youtube.com... I think they grew up in my generation as they prove you can be funny without resorting to swearing up a storm or be gross about it which was one of the reasons the YT Kids thing was put up. There WERE a lot of gross comments showing up in kids channels that don't belong.

^Didn't see the last few posts, till now.

Yes I agree that Ocarina is a lovely action-adventure title, especially for young kids.

I grew up with the original Zelda 1, and I definitely enjoyed it for years.

I can only imagine how special and important, it could be, for a young kid to grow up with Ocarina, as a central part of his childhood.

I love how Ocarina lets us stop indefinitely, in different places. I haven't been playing lately, but when I was, I'd have Link stop in the courtyard, for example. Watch the day/night cycle, hear the daytime music and nighttime sounds, etc.

Another example place, to stop indefinitely, is that woman singing at night. By the wall.

I also enjoyed Link's village at night, it's all just nighttime sound effects + water noise, watching those glowing things in the air.





...So it's wonderful world-building, and it's a convincing world, that a kid could just have as a presence thru his childhood.

A kid could even just leave his N64 running Ocarina for years lol, and have Ocarina as a continuous world, on a little TV in his bedroom.

Too bad I think most people used to think it would be harmful to leave consoles running like that, but I think the cartridge-based consoles really should be fine to leave on...

originally posted by: SortingHat
a reply to: JamesChessman

VMWork Station offers accelerated graphics which actually DO work and have the option to scale things so most cases you get a much bigger picture though still not as good of a picture for PCEM but PCEM is not there yet with XP. I can ALMOST run XP perfectly but games it's slow though ironically not much drops in percentage just slow drawing. Mostly down to 90 percent. I thought it would be much lower like down to 50 or something which is when you get EXTREME stuttering because your CPU is being taxed heavily by that point.

PCEM also has a Macromedia/Quick Time lag bug which has been reported here as it only affects games that uses QuickTime player which a lot of educational titles do for example such as Logical Journey of the Zoombini's pre Learning Company buyout.

pcem-emulator.co.uk...

^I'm really not familiar with most of that.

However if you're describing a slow version of XP then I wouldn't want to experience that. I do have a nice XP computer running fine, and I would have kept using it online if most websites didn't just stop working with XP a few years ago.

But at any rate, I can run XP games etc. at the right speed... at least as fast as my old computer can.





But anyway if that's an indicator of VM Ware then no thanks haha.




If / when I get back to playing Ocarina, I'll just use SixtyForce again, and I'd just buy the full version for $18.

It's really worth it, for the best emulator, and I enjoy its performance, as I can keep Ocarina running constantly on my Desktop, any size window I want.

It just works for me so I'll go with that.





One basic problem with all these ideas of virtual machines is that AFAIK this is considering much more complicated set-ups, meanwhile SixtyForce does work for me, as the most simple option.

originally posted by: SortingHat
a reply to: JamesChessman

I could NEVER map out the controller on my USB 64 controller via Retroarch. The A and B buttons were reversed and a few other things were not right. I can't remember what but it made gameplay really funky. Couldn't control menus in MK64 very well as a result. Don't know why they never fixed it but somebody was on drugs or something.

^ROFL!!

Well I was wondering if it might be a compatibility problem with RetroArch and macOS maybe, but at any rate, yeah I just never saw how to get the N64 controller input, to get mapped right, or something.

For what it's worth, I'm not even talking about an actual N64 controller. I have a lovely computer gamepad that I use, in general.

So I've used it for different emulators etc., including that I've played Ocarina with diff. emulators, with this same gamepad.




But yeah RetroArch didn't work out with N64 controls for whatever reason.

I never really saw / found exactly what the problem was, or what the proper set-up was supposed to be.




But I can normally run emulators fine with my same gamepad so there's something unusual with RetroArch. So I just stopped messing it with it, after a few different attempts.




I think it might also be related to the menus' controls in RetroArch but whatever, the controls just seemed a mess for me, so I moved on.






Anyway re: Ocarina, I've started thinking about it again, maybe sometime in the near future. It's pretty sweet to have it running as a little window, on my Desktop, and enjoy the nature sound effects.




Funny enough, back when I last played Ocarina, and lost my progress, I then moved on to Virtua Racing 32x which is not obvious, but it's actually awesome gameplay.

So for what it's worth, I'd much rather speed polygonal race-cars around, at 330 km/hr... because it's constant speed and action. And sharpening one's skills in repeated races.

I'm also attached to Highland as resembling a small town by the Rocky Mtns. that I visited one time, so it's nostalgic for me in a strange way.



Anyway something like Virtua Racing is constant action and stimulation.

Ocarina really seems designed to be very slow-paced, it's great on a Desktop, but it's just a sleepy gameplay experience.

These are nearly opposite gameplay experiences...

a reply to: JamesChessman

Majoras Mask is like the total opposite. Unusual for a Zelda game. Majoras Mask was nicely packed especially the 3DS as there were things I both liked and disliked about the changes. It was such a godsend when you could warp to each hour instead of increments of 6 I think it was. Plus saying bye bye to the owl statue save situation. You have proper saves now!!!

I also liked how it was easier to obtain a certain mask that makes you invisible in a certain area to me it seems more logical to help you thru a puzzle if you don't want to BS around for an hour. It makes the mask feel more like a reward then a late game item that does very little good in the original.

a reply to: JamesChessman

YOu misrepresented my post about VMware.
Not sure if that was on purpose or what but I said VMWorkstation is a great XP experience as good as a mid range laptop anyways with a decent card and sound emulated and can run on modest host PC's once 3D is turned on. Oracle you can make it better then 128mb but you have to make the monitor count 8 for some reason or it won't go to 256 video memory so Oracle stinks:

VMworkstation/VMare pLayer emulates a Creative SBPCI128 sound chip it seems though sadly no option to change to SB16 but I have PCEM for that where VM fails but VM succeeds where PCEM fails.


Certainly much better then Oracle Virtual Box and you can run full racing games on it! (Not on Oracle)

I got NFS Underground to work just fine on it and for games that require a CD you put in no CD cracks that match the patch if you ever run into that problem like NFS High Stakes for instance. (No pun intended) to get around the DRM for many early 00 titles that otherwise would not run.

a reply to: SortingHat

^Well no, I didn't misrepresent anything on purpose, and I said I'm mostly unfamiliar with what you're talking about.

But at any rate, I've always had a nice Win XP desktop (from 1999) which runs fine, so that's what I thought of, when u mentioned the example of a virtual machine with a slower XP performance, it sounds awful to me.


And plus earlier in the thread, the whole reason for mentioning such virtual machines was because... I was previously running / playing Ocarina of Time, in OpenEmu, in an earlier version of macOS. Then once I upgraded macOS, it broke the N64 emulation in OpenEmu, for me, now, in macOS Monterey.

So AFAIK that was the original mention of virtual machines, to suggest I could use one to run a diff. OS, probably that same earlier version of macOS, so that I could resume playing N64 emulation with OpenEmu.




So from that perspective... if there's a VM that struggles a bit with Win XP then I'd expect it to be impossible to run a relatively modern version of macOS (as per the whole situation of trying to play Zelda).



But beyond it all, I just don't see a need... because I can still play Ocarina on what's apparently the BEST N64 emulator, SixtyForce.

So I think that's just what I'll go with.

It's supposed to be best colors & sound of N64 emulation, I ran it side-by-side and I could see it's the best emulator. Plus I like how I can keep it running continuously, on my Desktop, any size I want, it never stops when I do other stuff, it's great.

a reply to: JamesChessman

What do you think of Project 64 4.0? The new edition has a better graphics card but you have to use the right sound plugin or you get the sound always cutting out each time it loops.

originally posted by: SortingHat
a reply to: JamesChessman

What do you think of Project 64 4.0? The new edition has a better graphics card but you have to use the right sound plugin or you get the sound always cutting out each time it loops.

Well some months ago, I found that Project 64 just doesn't run in macOS because it's a Windows program. I haven't tried the new edition but I'd expect it to be the same?




Also I'm really NOT an N64 gamer... lol. Ocarina is really the only N64 title I was interested in. So I couldn't really say much beyond this one title and a few emulators I messed around with.



My Windows computers are broken but I used to use Fusion as a general emulator, never tried N64 though. My main interest is usually Sega Genesis titles.

Now in macOS, Fusion is not compatible, so I use OpenEmu as a general emulator (mainly Sega games).

It was late November last year, when I tried N64 in OpenEmu, and ironically it was perfect, in my older version of macOS, and it was upgrading macOS which broke the N64 emulation. It works but it glitches out with some terrible audio glitches, so it's unplayable.

RetroArch runs but controls were all messed up.

SixtyForce legit seems the best N64 emulator of all, which is what it claims, and seems developed by devoted fans. I ran side-by-side windows of SixtyForce next to OpenEmu, and SixtyForce legit has slightly best colors and sound.

It costs $18 for full version with saving, but this is really worth it for the best emulator.

It has one glitch of audio going silent but I just have to restart the audio and that's OK. macOS has some crazy compatibility problems apparently but resetting the audio when I walk by my desk, is OK.

I'm not sure when I'll restart Ocarina but I'll go with that, I think.

I still think Ocarina is a very sleepy game but it was cool on my Desktop, like a window of nature scenery and music.

Do you have any of the newer Nintendo consoles? The Switch and 3DS offer them on there. Plus you could take them with you when you travel. A thought...

TheBorg :-)

originally posted by: TheBorg
Do you have any of the newer Nintendo consoles? The Switch and 3DS offer them on there. Plus you could take them with you when you travel. A thought...

TheBorg :-)

Haha thanks but I'm so uninterested in Switch. I know it's become a scene all by itself, and it's def. in the top 3 big consoles.

Still the damn controllers don't look comfortable. Then I guess I could buy my own controllers but I'm still not interested in any of the big 3 consoles anymore. PlayStation, Xbox, NIN.

What can I say, haha.




Nowadays I'm learning the Chinese game "Go," and I play that and chess, more than any other games.

The 90's maxed-out the possibilities of 2D gaming, and I've played a few of the best 3D games... but modern 3D games have become a boring noise of 3D graphics imo.





Now the 3DS, I've considered buying for the... 3D version of Ecco the Dolphin. I'd buy a nice aquamarine 3DS for that.






I'd also love to get 3DS emulation working, for that one game, supposedly it uses Magic Eye style graphics, on a 2D screen. But I've never seen it actually happening... It also sounds kind of impossible but the idea sure is great though...

I'm in macOS by the way, if you might actually be familiar with 3DS emulation, if that really is possible, then I'd love to do that.

Nowadays I really only want to play games on my iMac. (Apple's desktop computer.)

originally posted by: JamesChessman

originally posted by: TheBorg
Do you have any of the newer Nintendo consoles? The Switch and 3DS offer them on there. Plus you could take them with you when you travel. A thought...

TheBorg :-)

Nowadays I really only want to play games on my iMac. (Apple's desktop computer.)

^Not only I love my Mac, including her beautiful screen, which is legit better than any other monitor or TV I've owned:

But also, I've been rocking this beautiful Logitech wireless gamepad, since like 2005, lol. And it's basically the best-feeling controller that I can imagine.

There's no name on it, but it seems to be called G-RC14, because it looks just like it:

It's just a wonderful feeling to hold it, it's slightly heavy in a way that feels great. It's smooth and ergonomic, so the weight feels smooth and nice, like it's washing over the hands.




...I'm also a big fan of SEGA Saturn's 3D gamepad, aka its NiGHTS into Dreams gamepad. It feels wonderful with NiGHTS and Christmas NiGHTS on Saturn.




^I've actually played very few Saturn titles, in general! But I'm pretty sure that NiGHTS is already the BEST use of the NiGHTS controller... so I don't think the NiGHTS gamepad, has a better controller experience, with any other games...






^So really, those are the BEST gamepads I've ever felt, in my life.

(After Saturn, of course, SEGA later released Dreamcast, and really its controller was trash. DC had some GREAT games that I've enjoyed with friends in the past, but I never liked its gamepad!)






...So even just in terms of controllers, I feel I've basically maxed out the BEST possible gamepads, in 2005!








...So I probably sound like a sad, miserable old man, LOL!!

But damn, I really think I've had the BEST gamepads since 2005, and my iMac def. has the BEST screen, of my life, the last few years.

So I can't imagine being interested in any more videogame hardware, at this point!!

I heard that one of the modern consoles is emphasizing haptic feedback... well I'll pass on that.





Plus the modern consoles are basically just COMPUTER TOWERS at this point anyway, so the whole existence of consoles seems pointless now (because I think most modern games can just be played on an actual computer, can't they?).

^Then again, I AM really just out-of-the-loop, because I haven't really engaged in CURRENT gaming for many years now. So it's easy for me to imagine that ANY games can be played on a computer, because that's how things work for ME personally... because I really only play OLDER games.

So really, my interest is too limited (to older games), so that I really have no idea... what games might really NEED a console over a computer, at this point, and why.

I mean, I'm sure there are some performance reasons with the newest games, sure, but that's totally outside my sphere.






Like I've mentioned earlier, my MOST gameplay is CHESS and the Chinese game Go. So it's not exactly blasting out 3D graphics, haha.

And then my limited, remaining interest in console titles, I do have my favorite consoles, and also, I can emulate practically any games (since they're all older games).

Zelda: Ocarina was legit the only ONE most-advanced 3D game that I ever tried to emulate. And I don't think there was anything else that I was interested in, like that.










...Maybe I should make a thread sometime, asking people what videogames they think are worthwhile, because it's MOSTLY all seemed a gross mess of 3D graphics, in general, for 20-25 years. Imo.





I had a housemate who used to play Gears of War (Xbox) and I can see that the 3D graphics are very powerful & realistic. Unfortunately I find it very boring and ugly-looking, usually.

The housemate used to play with a headset, so he would be alone in his bedroom, shouting into his headset, lol!

So HE clearly had a blast, and I definitely got a good exposure to GoW, so I think I understand what it is. But I just couldn't be less interested in GoW, or ANY other 3D FPS.




...Also I do have some occasional love for Doom, maybe once or twice a year, I'll get into it. So it's not a problem of the genre (FPS) because I can dig it, sometimes.

But damn, it's been like 20 years, with 3D FPS being such a HUGE genre, and I'm so bored by it. Everything mostly looks the same: Boring, brownish, powerful 3D graphics, realistic. Ugly, gross, boring.






And I DO understand that game companies are just going to keep creating the genres that SELL, so I get it, but I just find it so goddam boring.

I feel the same way about the last couple decades of Marvel / superhero Hollywood movies, it's all the same powerful 3D graphics, and I feel like I'm not even seeing anything (because it's such obvious CGI effects, there's almost nothing real).











So that's the gloomy truth of it all. I'm 40 and I MOSTLY haven't been interested in ANY CURRENT GAMES, since the 90's.

I just occasionally pick up my favorite games AND occasionally play random oddball old games, and also, hacks (like Sonic 2 hacks). And homebrew games too (mainly on Sega Genesis). This stuff can be a blast to download and try all this random homemade stuff.







Also I don't want to sound overly negative. I tend to think that 2D gaming was mostly maxed-out in the 90's. There wasn't much more to do with 2D graphics!


And then apparently I just have some fundamental dislike of modern style 3D graphics, in games and even in Hollywood movies, that's apparently a personal thing that I have.





But I think it's undeniable that 80's and 90's was probably a golden age of game dev. CREATIVITY within its limits (of 2D graphics).

Saturn NiGHTS was the best, favorite evolution of the classic Sonic titles (on Genesis etc.). But NiGHTS didn't sell, and I think that marked an end of Sega's wild creativity. Sonic's series then launched into 3D cartoon platforming, it sells, but it's cheap and boring, uninspired. (Mario's series has similarly become bland cartoon platformers, good-selling and boring.)

So that's my distaste for bland 3D cartoon platformers, and for the endless glut of 3D FPS. And that's probably MOST videogames of the last 20-25 years, lol.





Anyways I'm happy with my Mac and my consoles, regardless of being bored by modern games, I'm OK with that, lol.

I keep chess and Go on my Desktop, so I keep these games at center of my life, and they are probably undisputed as the 2 best, most intelligent traditional games. They're like a meditation to play, it's healthy and calming and nourishing... and a person can keep playing and keep improving, forever.

So I'm happy with THAT, and beyond that, I never ran out of games to play, whether old favorites, or new random oddball games from the 90's (or hacks / homebrew on Genesis).









...TLDR I'm old and boring now, lol!!

My problem with modern 'retro' games is they put artificial limits which makes it all that more glaring. I don't have any beef with 2D games if they 'max' it out like how A Link Between Worlds has a 'fake' 3D sort of Super Mario RPG like. Super Mario RPG shows you can max out 2D with beautiful backgrounds.

OOT was my first Zelda game. I discovered it by accident actually. BOTW is my favorite one due to the horses. I hardly ever fast travel unless I'm all out of arrows and need them in an emergency. Dad has an idea that fast travel should be only for towers you've unlocked only so you can have an initial start but still have to use the geography to your advantage from thereon.

This fast travel stuff is cheating and they should've made water traversal more intuitive. I mean seriously you can't use a boat oar on a raft but instead have to rely on a stupid Korok leaf? Like what kid is ever going to figure that out? What's the odds most new players will immediately try to use a boat oar when they see a raft?

originally posted by: Sooga
My problem with modern 'retro' games is they put artificial limits which makes it all that more glaring. I don't have any beef with 2D games if they 'max' it out like how A Link Between Worlds has a 'fake' 3D sort of Super Mario RPG like. Super Mario RPG shows you can max out 2D with beautiful backgrounds.

OOT was my first Zelda game. I discovered it by accident actually. BOTW is my favorite one due to the horses. I hardly ever fast travel unless I'm all out of arrows and need them in an emergency. Dad has an idea that fast travel should be only for towers you've unlocked only so you can have an initial start but still have to use the geography to your advantage from thereon.

This fast travel stuff is cheating and they should've made water traversal more intuitive. I mean seriously you can't use a boat oar on a raft but instead have to rely on a stupid Korok leaf? Like what kid is ever going to figure that out? What's the odds most new players will immediately try to use a boat oar when they see a raft?

^I agree; I dislike the feeling in Ocarina that every step was intended to be one stuck-situation, after another, after another. I expect that later Zelda titles probably continue this same gameplay experience.



...I actually grew up with ORIGINAL Legend of Zelda on NES: It wasn't really about puzzles and getting stuck constantly, it was really about nature-exploration. Every sequel has gotten away from that original experience.

But Ocarina does have some of that same spirit (from the 1st title), as Ocarina does largely emphasize exploration, and nature scenery, so I enjoy that (because it's simulating nature, with limited 3D graphics, so it's artistic and interesting to see).

But aside from enjoying Ocarina as a window on my Desktop, I legit think that I'm done with the Zelda series. I think Nintendo lost track of what was special about the series, originally it was mostly just nature-exploration.



...In a way, Ocarina emphasized to me how much I miss just walking around in nature, in REAL LIFE...

And something else I've found enjoyable in recent years is... playing around with Google Earth, it can be a blast to explore different landscapes, including Street-View, which uses photo's to simulate walking through different places. This is along the lines of Ocarina's nature-exploration, because: digital-exploration of (real-life) landscapes.

My favorite place is Estes Park, Colorado, a beautiful town by the Rocky Mtn National Park, elevation makes the air thin and cool, and that makes the sun always bright, even when it's cloudy! It's a magic place, and fun to look at with Google Earth.




As for Zelda and videogames in general, I don't really know where it's all going, anymore. There are SO MANY games now but they MOSTLY seem so goddam uninspired... and I'm not even sure what I would even want, anymore. The modern "retro" titles don't really appeal to me, nor does the glut of shooters, and cartoon platformers. Or sports titles.

I think videogames have mostly stagnated in terms of creativity, and maybe it's inevitable, because maybe the market has just exhausted its possibilities? Idk...

Alright I've been working more lately... and plus I glanced at Virtua Racing Deluxe again, JP version, and I saw that nothing happens in Mirror Mode, even when placing 1st, there's no trophy, and no time recorded.

So I saw that I'm legit done with Virtua Racing Deluxe, unfortunately. So it was a good time to revisit Ocarina, and so I finally bought the full version of Sixtyforce.

It's dope.



It's $15.00 and with tax it was just $16.20.

It's completely worth it for the best N64 emulator.

Re: Ocarina: I beat the 1st dungeon quickly (The Deku Tree) and I'm bored already LOL, but I do love having Ocarina on my Desktop as a continuous nature scenery.






Buying the full version of Sixtyforce removes the logo from the corner, and allows saving.

The save-states are working for me, but not the automatic in-game saving, but that's OK lol since the save states work.