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LB log - 20140614

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I give credit to DarthPayne of our insulated and isolated chat channel for helping me see some light on something today.

For whatever reason (and completely unrelated to the conversation that was ongoing otherwise) he listed the Atari ST game "Time Bandit" as one of his Top 5 games of all time. I can't say I heard of it before, so I went over to trusty Youtube to provide an example of it. From watching one clip to another, the main thing I'm seeing is that the player never seems to ever reach a point where the game appears to be in danger of being over. There seems to be a life counter, and lives do seem to be lost when the screen flashes yellow after some collisions, but otherwise the player is seen to simply run around the screen from one area to the next without any resistance. This made me think of other games I played as a child which did give me some kind of challenge that many years ago but are in fact very simple to play now. Intellivision's Astrosmash is one primary example. Long story short, it made me come to realize how much time I've spent all these years on things which ultimately amount to little more than being "time wasters", and I mean that with as much negative connotation as I can convey in using that term. In respect of a video game, the border between something being a time waster and something else being elevated above that can be difficult to establish and maintain, but making that determination is something which at very least should be repeatedly made over time. I can justify playing a game in a variety of ways, but it's probably more important for me to reestablish that justification over time.

Watching some clips of this Time Bandit game brought that need for justification to my immediate attention. What DarthPayne saw in those clips was something that he considered one of his Top 5 games of all time. What I saw was some character run around on a bland tileset map while shooting a pair of bullets at various bland things. What he saw was a favorite memory, and what I saw was tedium.

Therefore, rather than plugging something in while I had an otherwise free moment today, I resumed around where I left off months ago in reading Anthony Trollope's novel about North America. It didn't take long for me to get drawn back into to the content.

On the subject of games which I still don't consider tedious quite yet - Songs started out OK but quickly went from bad to worse as the night dragged on while the IRC conversation distracted me from the game. At least I got a few decent plays and a new clear on record before that happened.

Lunar Beat. Extra Mode. Double play. "@" denotes Random chart modifier. All songs are of highest difficulty type unless specified.
First line, by column; song title, EX score percentage and letter grade rank, EX score value and pass/fail, judgment readout (just great, great, good, bad poor), highest combo reached, note count of chart under Extra Mode, original note count of chart, percentage increase of Extra Mode notes over original note count, timestamp.
Second line, by column; pass count / play count, EX score percentage difference from record, EX score value difference from record, judgment readout difference from record (if current play is new record), highest combo reached difference from record (if current play is new record), timestamp of old record (if current play is new record).

Code:
			EX% & Rank	EX.p/f	pg.gr.gd.bd.pr		combo	nc	onc	%+nc 	date
子供の落書き帳 @		34.57 D		1399.F	485.429.523.256.795	0071	2023			2014-06-14T23:27:40:195Z
0/11 			02.27-		0092-

U.N.オーエンはニコ @	48.93 C		2210.F	761.688.481.99.532	0094	2258			2014-06-14T23:30:54:622Z
0/10			09.43-		0426-

V2 @			63.61 B		2387.F	914.559.264.41.250	0216	1876	1686	011.26	2014-06-14T23:34:04:347Z
0/8			00.48+		0018+	48+78-22+2+44+		0092-				2014-03-05T04:04:37:936Z

turii panta rhei @	62.33 B		1940.F	700.540.234.25.150	0178	1556			2014-06-14T23:37:57:958Z
1/12			02.34-		0073-

shining polaris korsk @	56.56 B		1869.F	682.505.13.56.237	0121	1652			2014-06-14T23:42:19:983Z
9/11			04.14-		0137-

ひとりかくれんぼ @		72.24 A		1812.P	706.400.111.12.53	0152	1254	1111	012.87	2014-06-14T23:47:41:594Z
1/3			02.39+		0060+	26+8+24-8-9-		0120-				2014-05-25T01:43:39:013Z

never alone @		66.54 B		2654.F	1026.602.240.55.167	0273	1994			2014-06-14T23:53:32:487Z
0/8			00.60-		0024-

raison detre @		33.15 E		1722.F	581.560.717.312.1079	0037	2597			2014-06-14T23:56:51:174Z
0/7			03.09-		0161-

battle train @		35.66 D		1889.F	644.601.709.295.994	0089	2648			2014-06-15T00:02:02:387Z
0/11			01.09-		0058-

connective @		57.54 B		1846.F	66.520.324.27.149	0077	1604			2014-06-15T00:08:26:390Z
0/9			07.01-		0225-

alice... @		32.91 E		1345.F	439.467.547.212.765	0022	2043	1488	037.29	2014-06-15T00:23:46:932Z
0/1

halfway of promise @	64.14 B		1769.F	695.379.134.40.250	0171	1379			2014-06-15T00:29:54:649Z
0/13			01.88-		0052-

little wizard @		26.25 E		1535.F	517.501.932.465.1354	0077	2923			2014-06-15T00:35:42:403Z
0/8			03.91-		0229-

blust of wind @		38.58 D		1731.F	592.547.561.259.876	0025	2243			2014-06-15T00:44:21:391Z
0/14			08.73-		0392-

absolute A14 @		49.10 C		1814.F	652.510.412.116.383	0107	1847			2014-06-15T00:53:04:822Z
0/6			06.93-		0256-

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