Random Hoo Haas + miscellaneous

[Q] What the hell?

Good question. This is essentially a compilation of what I find interesting: Art, stupid movies, video games and their production process, and other hoo haas.

[Q] What is what? Your hub confuses me!

Random Hoo Haas is your typical anything-and-everything humour site that thrives on nerdy pop culture. Video games, cartoons, toys, stupid pictures, rants - all that jazz.

Metal Slug: Missing in Action & OH! MY GOD!! Why'd They Change That? are akin to the likes of Lost Levels or X-CulT. Video game development stuff. Unused graphics, changed stuff from the final release. Crap like that.

Random Action Hour is cartoon overviews.

[Q] Who runs this place?

Ragey, for the most part. Super Galvatron owns his own Corner Shop and Super Shinobi II Beta Central, and has contributed more than half of Random Action Hour's content, so I consider it his. He also contributes to OH! MY GOD!! Why'd They Change That?. Sometimes other people contribute to various places. We're hosted by Flying Omelette!

[Q] When do you update? Why do you rarely update?

Not really. I'll update if there's content. I'm also a very lazy person, so until I can crack wise about a video game's difficulty or whatever, you can find entertainment elsewhere! Check the links.

[Q] A link is down! When are you going to fix it?

When I'm told about it. Believe it or not, I don't actually look at my site very much! Unless someone tells me, I probably won't notice. Pop me a message if you see anything that's not working.

[Q] May I use some of your content?

Ask!

[Q] Do you really mean what you say in your writings? / Should I take your opinion seriously?

Usually at the faintest degree, so treat them with an unhealthy dose of salt. It's mostly internet exaggeration, see!

[Q] Do you intend to be as offensive as you are?

Sadly not! I just like using funny words that have the misfortune of being negative.

[Q] I don't understand you!

The feeling is mutual!

[Q] I saw a page a while ago, but now I can't find it!

That can have two reasons! It could be because I took it down (I'm an arty-farty asshole who's never happy with anything), or because I renamed or reorganised some files. I'm never happy with the way I organise my site, either. Pop me an email and I'll try and lead you the right way!

[Q] What's up with your crazy e-mail address?

Long boring story.

[Q] And what about your name?

Belonged to a character I made. It was originally Rager, but that was just stupid, plus at least Ragey is apparently a real name.

[Q] What are all the pages you have taken down?

Well, I'll be honest! There was a rant about Getbackers and how it was a bit shit - a supposed review of Shadow the Hedgehog that was a bit shit - a rant on fanmade characters, which was a bit shit - a rant on a few of my more obnoxious fans, which was just plain rude and despite meant to be private it was pretty easy to find - some nonsense about an in-joke among my friends - several versions of the "about me" page, which I'm never happy with - scans of Super Mario Adventures, which I ditched because some other place had better scans - scans of a Shinobi comic, which were terrible and a CBR of the Sonic annual had better ones - a page for movies from 3D Movie Maker and other stuff, which I ditched because most of it was low quality - a page for art, one of the first pages on the site, which was also largely terrible - and probably a whole bunch of stuff on Metal Slug: Missing in Action that nobody cares about was ditched, too.

Satisfied?

[Q] Why were you hosted on a Tenchi Muyo! site?

That site belongs to a great bud of mine, who after some polite asking, gave me a gig of space to screw about with. He also runs AC Studios, for the interested. It's a Yahoo domain and they began dicking about with unexplained downtimes and whatnot, so I got sick of that and ditched the service. No hard feelings, though!

[Q] Why are you hosted on Flying Omelette?

I don't know! Apparently I made enough intelligent remarks throughout my three year series of idiocy to get in her good books, or something. I'm hardly complaining, though.

[Q] Why is the entire site's design so basic?

Because I'm not a very good webmaster.

[Q] Why aren't the sites made for 1024x768? Quit living in the past.

boo hoo cry me a river

Ironically, I've moved onto 1024x768, and now all the designs look wretched for 800x600. Which I hope to fix when I feel like it. Which is more than I felt before!

[Q] Do you have anything against Flying Omelette?

Well, I'm hosted here, aren't I? Aside from some immature misunderstandings on my part at first like a million years ago (well, two at the most), there's no beef between us. Unless I'm missing something!

[Q] What do you have against the Metal Slug Database?

Nothing personal. I'm just not a big fan of the fact it's yet another of the millions of game sites that focus entirely on news and downloads, ignoring the actual games themselves entirely except for screenshots, concept art and maybe a video. And also the fact that the designs always look bloated and the forums are a themed GameFAQs. But in the end, it could be worse, and the rare times I talk to him, Enomosiki and I get along okay albeit being total assholes to each other. :]

[Q] Why do you hate Metal Slug: Missing in Action?

I don't, actually! I kept avoiding looking at it for a long time because of all the people telling me pointless crap to add that I just hated it because of that; but when I finally looked over it, it wasn't all that bad! I would love to cover Metal Slug 6 and get to the bottom of Metal Slug Advance some time, but yeah, it's more the fact I hate the fans of it who love to tell me of things that are already noted on it. Yeah, I know you can get the backwards shooting animations in the first game. It's written there quite clearly.

[Q] Who are all these guys you mention, like Galvatron, Steve, Aodhán and so on?

Friends, relatives, strangers, or on the rare occasion, asshats!

[Q] Why Random Hoo Haas and Random Action Hour? Are you prejudiced towards the predictable?

The former was merely something that sounded good, while the latter was just a cheap and easy way of mimicking Marvel Action Hour without having to draw a new word. Random can sometimes be good, but unless it's done well then it comes across as lack of comedic skill.

[Q] Have I seen you before?

I hope not! Stalkers weird me out, man. I did show up in the letters page of  Nintendo Official Magazine, though. (Issue 135, December 2003) [scan, provided by Galvatron]

Metal Slug: Missing in Action

[Q] How do I see all this stuff myself?

To be honest, I've no idea. I think BIOS files are necessary for it, like uni-BIOS or debug BIOS or something, but all I know is that in the end, you just tick "Developer mode" on Kawaks and set it to Console mode and you're set, just pause with the coin button, press it again, and fiddle with the menus.

[Q] How do you find unused graphics?

For the arcade games, I use the tile viewer that is built into Kawaks. It's pretty simple to use, once you get used to it and know what you're doing. Metal Slug 5 has a built-in sprite viewer, which is just too good.

As for the handheld games, I use YY-CHR for that. It is also fairly simple once you get used to it; the only real problem is with the games themselves, as they all have different ways of storing their graphics, and as such, can be difficult to browse or rip from. Metal Slug Advance has got to be one of the worst offenders, but 1st Mission comes a close second. Metal Slug 7 merely requires Tahaxan to extract the files and something a bit more advanced like Tile Molester or GGD to view them. No idea what's the crack with Metal Slug 6, though. Anyone care to find out?

[Q] Do you have any rules against submissions?

For the love of God, make sure I haven't mentioned it anywhere before telling me about something. I am fully aware about the backwards shooting animations in the first Metal Slug! I've written about them at length, and made GIFs of them! I DO NOT NEED TO KNOW MORE

[Q] Why do you rarely update?

There's only so much stuff one can find in the games. Get me a beta and I'll have something worth discussing!

[Q] What's the beef with Metal Slug Advance Alpha?

It's a public domain GBA ROM, of the beginning of Mission 1 from Metal Slug 1, with no obstacles, music, or sound. A badly resized Marco sprite is at your control, with his only moves being a fall, a walk, and a stand motionless power. As with most public domain ROMs, it's pretty crap. Totally not official.

[Q] What's the beef with Metal Slug Advance?

Well, it's a bit shit, isn't it? It's a rushed product that had the chance to be good, but like all modern games in the series, failed to hit the mark by several thousand yards. And they didn't do a very good job of hiding the fact it could've been better.

[Q] I'm not credited for a discovery! What are you going to do about it?

Not much, really. I used to have a Thanks page where I attempted to list everyone who contributed in some way, but it was just awkward constantly updating it so I removed it. I'm a bit of a dick, really.

Random Action Hour

[Q] What is Random Action Hour?

There's the belief that it's simply about covering video game based cartoons and way too much Transformers (never too much of a good thing eh wot), but it originally started off with Galvatron's Street Fighter coverage, as none existed at all on the internet, and since only very basic coverage existed for Mega Man, I followed suit, with hopes from both of us that it'd get people interested in the show. Since you can actually watch both of the cartoons online now, I guess so!

And that's why I, personally, have more interest in covering more obscure not-video game stuff, as everyone knows a Double Dragon cartoon exists, but is it really worth watching, at all? On the contrary, have you ever heard of Funny Bones? The internet altogether barely knows of the show, and that's why I've more interest in covering it than Sonic X.

[Q] How long does it take to finish writing about an episode?

It varies. For me, it can take from an hour to three hours, depending on how much multi-tasking and side-tracking I do.

[Q] Why haven't you covered _____?

Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm is a frequently suggested series, and I wouldn't mind doing it since it's only thirteen episodes long, but there are several problems. Neither Galvatron or I know anything about the series (aside from Raiden being awesome), which goes against our non-existent policy of only covering something if we know a fair amount. Next is the fact that the DVD releases seem to be missing the thirteenth episode, and that's no good.

Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge is hideously expensive and doesn't have Anakaris talking to penguins. Screw that.

I'd like to cover a Sonic cartoon eventually, but the one I want most, Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, has yet to reduce to a sensible price. The others are meh in comparison, and in the case of Sonic X, hasn't got all the episodes released.

Mega Man NT Warrior is a show I haven't watched, don't intend to, and hasn't got all the episodes released.

The other Mario cartoons, to my knowledge, haven't got all their episodes on DVD either.

Viewtiful Joe also lacks all the episodes, and I'm a dub-preferring man.

Of course, there's always the chance of at least one episode being covered in a One-Off, which I certainly wouldn't mind doing for some of them.

[Q] How did you manage to keep a daily update routine going for over a month?

Having a healthy backlog. :]

[Q] Where can I watch these for myself?

Thanks to the redesign, all the show pages contain info on that very question!

[Q] Why aren't you linking to the watchable episodes online?

Because that's what the How Do I Watch This section is all about. Support the damn industry! I won't record crap for you.

OH! MY GOD!! Why'd They Change That?

[Q] What's this?

MS:MIA Lite, really. Or MS:MIA Off-Topic. It's about other games, see.

[Q] Why is just about everything Nintendo related?

I wish I could have more variety, but SEGA stuff is covered at SoST, Lost Levels covers NES prototypes, and X-CulT covers just about anything else. So that leaves me with the scraps. And then there's the matter that Nintendo seem to be the only people that change shit drastically enough to be interesting during production.

[Q] Can I submit something?

As with all of my sites, fire away. You know the address.

[Q] Can I pinch anything from here?

Most certainly. Metal Slug: Missing in Action and the Super Shinobi 2 Beta Central are the main draws to this place (and people still look for the World of Illusion beta coverage no matter how much I think it's badly written and crap), so I'd probably go as far as to say the stuff covered in OMGWTCT is just waiting for a more fitting and popular place to pick it up and expand upon it.

[Q] Hey, some other place already covered [whatever game it is you're nagging about]!

True, but we attempt to be new. Like for New Super Mario Bros., X-CulT mostly just went on and on about levels you don't see in the game, whereas I looked at the early videos, the removal of the 2-Player co-operative, and so on. In detail.

[Q] What's that bottom right image on the hub thumbnail?

Metroid Zero Mission. Despite the fact I no longer have it documented (it's over at X-CulT), I put it there because I had already featured a Mario game, but wanted some variety.