Planet TLLTS

Wow! I’ve heard a bit about how good this game is for some time but man, am I blown away. This has got to be one of the most involving and exciting games I have played in a long time. Orginally released on the Super Nintendo, Chrono Trigger is an epic quest across time that has fantastic role playing elements combined with a terrific storyline. I cannot believe how awesome this game is.

Your main character starts off the morning with plans to visit the centennial festival. There you play some games and complete some mini-quests which actually alter the storyline a bit later on down the line depending on the choices you make. You meet up with you friend, a female mechanic who has created a teleporter. You are the first brave sole to take a try. Success compells another female companion who you hook up with to jump on in there but she gets kicked out of time and you have to go rescue her. Your quest continues through about 5 different eras in history each with links to one another. How this all ties together is just utterly fascinating. The character development is top notch.

There are so many twists and turns in this games and events that happen which just floor me. I don’t want to give any of the surprises away so I will say little more. Suffice to add that when it feels like the game might be reaching a climax you learn that you still have a long way to go.

The combat system is really cool. From the start you have the choice to use traditional turn based combat or ongoing combat. The latter has you making choices and attacking while the enemy is doing the same with no pause and no break, so you have to be on your toes. I suspect it was unique for its time and I have not played many other games that utilize this type of system. It’s almost Balder’s Gate in some ways, but you cannot pause the flow.

This game is an absolute must have for the DS. You can pick it up just about anywhere that sells older or used games. I recommend trying to find it new, but don’t pay more than $20. I saw it at Kmart for $19.99 unopened.

You can also find the rom on line for the snes emulator, but come on, you know you want to get it legitimately.

You hear so much about Zelda and Final Fantasy, it’s a shame a game like this never received the mainstream recongnition it deserved. Chrono Trigger is truly a treasure.

There is a sequel, Chrono Cross, for the Playstation.

Sunday after meeting we decided to do some Christmas shopping as the kids were not with us. We stopped by Wally World to see what we could check off the lists.

While there the wife took interest in the Wii Fit Plus. Now aparently she had wanted one for some time, unbeknownst to me. I, on the other hand had no interest in a Wii Fit. But as her birthday is the 21st and seeing an opportunity to not have to make multiple trips, I said hey, if that is what you want well then let’s get it. So we did. That along with a flat screen tv (we entered the 21st century) and a cheap dvd player. We had to buy a new one because we lost the remote and being a cheap player it was almost as expensive as buying a universal remote.

Now the wife and kids took to the Wii fit right off the bat. I on the other hand showed some vague interest but had server issues to deal with. When I finally got to try it out it changed my opinion and I was hooked. It’s a blast and very challenging!

To start you have to do a body test and it caclulates your bmi and gives you a Wii Fit age. I screwed up on mine the first time and ended up with a Wii fit age of 56. I was also fat as hell. This bummed me out a bit so the wife evenutally convinced me to do it again. Now my Wii fit age is 33, 4 years younger, but I am still a lard butt. Well, gotta get on the running more, hit the Wii fit on a regular basis and eat reasonably.

Popcap makes some very interesting and very entertaining games. Right now I am playing Plants vs Zombies and it is a blast. Getting it to work under Linux was not a chore, but I had to use wine. Popcap only makes their games for Windows and OS X right now but I hope someday they see the light and put out native Linux versions. For now, it’s wine to the rescue.

If you are interested in a Popcap game check around on the web to see if it will work under wine. Or, you can go the next step and download the demo. Most Popcap games should have a demo. Fire that up under wine and take it for a spin. That is what I did for Plants vs Zombies.

Regardless of which route you start out on I do suggest you look around for others who have tried it under Linux and see their results and work around in case you run into some problems. For instance, the first time I tried PvZ I had that full screen mode does not work well. My experience proved this out when I tested it under Intrepid. Now I am running it under Karmic and it seems fine at full screen, but I do like windowed mode a bit better.

Now if you elect to purchase the game you might run into some difficulty. Popcap uses an online registration in the game that allows you to enter you purchase id to register. This registration did not work for me so I had to go with the manual registration. You take that order id and plug it into a form on their website. The second hurdle is that this form requires active x components, so you need IE. That was easy to get around using the IEs4Linux project. A quick download and about 2 minutes later I was registering online and getting the unlock code.

It’s that easy!

Yeah, it’s a proprietary app, that it is and there is no native Linux version yet, but one day I hope that will change. Enjoy!