***** Gather Battle controversy

A fanmade S***c game made by someone from Taiwan with the use of Little Fighters 2 engine with the gameplay being reminiscent of ***** Battle on Game Boy Advance. It has tons of stages and music to choose from, mostly originating from those games in the franchise. It's a fun game except that I discovered it late like this year or something. What attracted more people into discovering it was due to the fact that it has some malware.
The game started like tons of years ago until like a few years ago, the developer sort of freaked out upon discovering that his original character sprites were stolen. Unfortunately, the policy he set up was sort of negative. The sprites for the characters looked like the originals as if they were taken from The Spriters Resource or something and especially for fanmade ones made by others and yet he claimed them all to be his creation or some sort when they were actually made by the company or the fans. Another problem was that if you plan to cheat, mod or even hack the game, the malware would be activated and do some damage to the game even if you reinstall it. What it means is that the malware turns the game in unusual color and switches to the creepy music that is obviously from some game in the same franchise. The registry is modified and some parts of the game are modified permanently to make it unplayable.
Even worse is that you can't play the game in the virtual machine as it is smart enough to refuse to run. Not to mention that you need to be CONNECTED TO THE INTERNET TO PLAY, as well as to run the game as an Administrator. I don't know the reason on why do you need to run a fanmade game as an Administrator to fix something that prevents it from running but normally, a fanmade game doesn't require this kind of permission to run. And by the way, internet connection requirement for gaming has been around ever since the MMORPG days but it's spread to other kinds of games as well like today's modern arcade games mostly from Konami for instance as well as other game genres that provide MMO experience. This fanmade game on the other hand, I don't know what to explain about it. By right, there should be Multiplayer and Single Player game modes but I don't know if Little Fighters 2 today has Online Multiplayer support. For modern arcade games nowadays, it is unnecessary to require internet connection to start up but it is one bonus feature to prevent piracy or something. Another useful thing in modern games being online is that your player data will be stored on the game servers as well as the fact that they offer online multiplayer and other features that are online exclusive. The same requirement goes for games on IOS & Android nowadays in which you need to be connected to the internet at all times or you can't proceed any further. Unlike modern arcade games today where you can go smoothly offline, there's no way you can proceed further easily in IOS & Android games unless they offer offline support in which they are entire playable without needing internet connection.
Interestingly enough, the external actions were at the beginning 4 years ago in which administrator permissions were still needed to run the game although what they did was to make the log file in the drivers folder. Not to mention that the malware was effective like 2 years ago according to some wikis.
The way things work when starting the game are that the game contacts the server like asking for permission to run as well as to check the local conditions stored on the computer to see if the game will still activate them. Firstly, the game secretly opens some site to send your computer's IP to the developer's server which he can use that collection to alter or disable the game based on the conditions downloaded secretly to. Secondly, the game checks the Google Search history on your computer as well as to alter the registry without your consent. Lastly, there's the API call for raw HDD access to see if you try to hack, mod or even cheat in the game. Of course, cheats and hacks are more or less bad in video gaming but to go against modding is another question. If you get caught searching for hacks or cheats for this fanmade game, there's a chance that the game will close the browser window itself. Not to mention that other things will be modified and activated.
The only way to undo this bullshit is to contact the developer and prove that you are innocent and your computer will be whitelisted. Basically from the beginning, the game contacts the server and the server does something to the game data and further technical actions will be done to the game and your computer if you plan to look up hacks, cheats or mods for the game online. I guess that some of the stuffs are activated from the server or whatnot so the chances of reverse engineering this like trying to take out all the bullshit are difficult. I don't know if doing OS re-install or System Restore is going to help revert the computer back to the pre-infection phase or not.
Since the developer is situated in Taiwan, there wasn't any excuse not to use the English language and English voice acting. I wonder where did he learn Japanese from if that's the case? Also, the team is getting new developers for this fanmade game although I don't know if there will be promises to take out all that bullshit.
Speaking of Google Search history, I'm not sure if other search engines will be affected by that game like searching the same things on Bing, Duckduckgo, etc. but it is wrong to violate people's privacy through data collection, system monitoring and other stuffs.
In my opinion, the privacy violation just because the sprites are stolen or whatnot is akin to a cyber-crime. Not to mention the use of Japanese language along with Japanese voice acting had already made the developer look like a radicalized fan of the franchise. There are sprite-sheets taken from the game and posted to Deviantart so that anyone can use them without any worry although they are ripped from the older version of the game. One interesting discovery, some of the sprite-sheets contain sprites taken from other games as well like the giant fire shield-like bomb effect from Cave's Progear.
If there's a controversial side of a fanbase in which some of the fans had committed some crimes over a particular game franchise, it's probably the S***c franchise or perhaps those famous AAA game franchises. There was already a case like that 4 years ago over S***c Boom's release although the imprisonment of the fan who damaged the Gamestop store displays of that game wasn't enough or some sort and he also caused similar trouble at Walmart like using the same spray there over being banned from visiting the store again or something. Even as a fan of the franchise you like, it's best that you behave yourself like a decent person. It's rare for anyone to tell you to behave yourself over a particular stuff or place.

General Data Protection Regulation in Europe to be effective this Friday

A new regulation in which every company has to comply will be effective this Friday and it's a good news for privacy advocates. It doesn't matter where we live but we already know this from emails, news and other sources like mail subscription where we receive emails posted by the companies on regular basis like every week or something for instance and there was one time where companies we've email-subscribed to would inform us of this upcoming regulation.
To continue receiving such news through email like that from companies, it is obvious that we need to opt in to do so.
Microsoft on the other hand has extended the compliance to users around the globe in addition to users in Europe as they had done tons of wrong things in the past regarding privacy violation like the ones done with Windows 10 which caused a bunch of lawsuits to be thrown at them for instance. By extending the compliance, Microsoft has another regulation to comply which is Data Subject Rights which include what data to collect, to correct that data, to delete it and even take it to somewhere else.
Even Apple will comply with this new regulation which is a good one for instance as they had established a website called Data Privacy Website where you can see, download and delete the data that is stored on the server. The opportunity will be extended to the rest of the globe although the opportunity is already available to users in Europe at this moment.
Perhaps, it's best to respect the privacy of the users from local and foreign countries and there are already scenarios that even cyber-criminals violate users' privacy regarding of where the users live. This is something people have to be aware of.

YouTube Partnership Program update

A month ago or something, one of the YouTubers had the guts to make a video vow to cause the violent trouble at YouTube headquarters over the new YouTube Partnership Program that affected many of the small channels including mine. Her videos were de-monetized as part of the change and that angered her into accusing YouTube of censorship or something. It's a wrong way to demand the people behind the change to make a bunch of explanations. Even if they explain something, they still feel threatened. The incident involved the female suspect who was confirmed dead from self-inflicted wound after having opened fire at the YouTube headquarters.
Sure, people didn't like the change that YouTube planned a few months ago but it doesn't mean someone can go there and cause trouble like that. It also doesn't mean that someone can make a bunch of online threats like that as they and their actions can be tracked upon the victims finding out the vows of threats made on the net. In fact, there was a similar but non-violent case that occurred 4 years ago in which a suspect was arrested for having damaged the shop property which was the game display and pepper-sprayed the employee of Gamestop over unacceptable change of the core portion of some parts of the product franchise. However, such topic like that can be saved for the next article as there are tons of things about him. Perhaps, this is due to the high-profile scandals YouTube would eventually go stricter than before.

10-Yard Fight on Playstation 4 and Switch

The game was recently released in Japan as part of Hamster's Arcade Archives and who knows what's with Irem Software Engineering nowadays with no new games coming in from them although being a game company wasn't the main plan in the first place but the game development business pretty much migrated elsewhere with Granzella, the makers of Disaster Report series.
10-Yard Fight is a Rugby/American Football themed sports arcade game where you have to reach the goal for a touchdown through offensive play. However, the arcade version doesn't have the defensive play and that can turn people off as if they're better off with other American Football-themed video games where they can learn additional sports techniques pulled off by the in-game sports players.
This is one of those games I played in my childhood and I believe that I scored touchdowns in it before although things are as difficult as the real-life sports. It will take minutes for a goal to happen, usually in soccer, rugby, etc. For basketball, it may be a different story as it doesn't take a long time for a ball to reach through the hoop. Other sports video games I played were Nintendo's Tennis, Soccer, Baseball and Golf and even some third-party soccer game as those games were part of the unofficial compilation cartridge or system on a chip in which the entire thing is stored inside the clone system.
Sports-wise, I may as well go for baseball when possible although I'm unspeakably terrible at sports. I should be able to swim but I can never know where am I going as if I'm swimming blindly or something.

Phantom Breaker Battle Grounds Overdrive on Switch

I forgot to blog about the Switch release of Phantom Breaker Battle Grounds Overdrive which sort of came out like this year or something. It is likely to be based on the Playstation 4 port with additional contents, additional shaders, additional enemies on screen as well as different soundtrack. It's a shame that there were rarely gameplay videos of the entire game on the Playstation 4 at the time after the game's release although there were already tons of them of the other versions. I don't know the difference between the Switch and the Playstation 4 versions although I already made guesses that the Switch version is identical to the Playstation 4 version.
Perhaps, people were already interested with next-gen looking Playstation 4 games as if they fulfilled the standards of the next-gen console. This on the other hand, had graphical enhancements when ported to Playstation 4. Sure, it looks like an indie-style game that whatever enhancement is unnecessary but this is made by the actual company. The other games whose graphics are like one generation behind the Playstation 4 are probably Darius Burst Chronicle Saviours, Super Stardust Ultra as well as the other games originally released on Type X2 and Ringedge 2 for the arcades. Obviously, it is quite unnecessary for the developers to redo the graphics from scratch for the sake of fulfilling the standards of the next-gen console as those games started off in the arcades originally.
The bigger reason of playing Phantom Breaker and its spinoff is the guest characters like the ones from Steins Gate and Chaos Head series and the 5PB visual novel games are still on-going as we speak.

Galgun VR & Galgun 2

Galgun VR is like based on Galgun Double Piece which is more or less the sequel or the reboot to the original and things are getting quite worse and more disturbing in Galgun VR and of course, Galgun 2 which comes out on both Sony and Nintendo current consoles. The original one was disturbing enough to Microsoft that Inti-Creates was forced to alter some parts of the game to make things less disturbing but then even, this is where things have become more disturbing with later Galgun games. The same may probably go for Senran Kagura franchise and some of those games are getting close to being rated A for Adults-Only but why would I want to discover crap like these like it's beyond me. If I want something decent with nothing disturbing, I can go for that kind but I think it's already too late by the time I came up with that principle as people were already turned off over crap like this and if you get caught appreciating that, you'll be scolded or maybe ostracized.
The non-Japanese release of Galgun games has already increased the weirdness or radicalization level like it turned more people off while attracting even more filthy nerds who like perverted, violent and/or gore-ish shit. This kind of obsession is already quite disturbing to me although I already discovered the original Galgun like years ago during its debut on the Xbox 360. The series is rated CERO D or M for Mature at best. Sure, you can try to do good things in Galgun Double Piece like you can in various AAA western games like Fallout series although there are already items in Galgun Double Piece that can make you do disgusting shit to the on-screen students. The worse thing is that some of the nerds already had their future ruined due to that amount of over-obsession like the one who came up with the Mirai botnet for instance.
And of course, the custom outfits (either come with the game or DLC) for the students that are coming at you during the gameplay, some of the outfits have actual purposes while the others look kind of idea-less.
The reason for discovering the first Galgun game in the past is that the entire series is a rail-shooter except that you use the cupid gun to shoot the arrows at the students who are coming at the male protagonist. This is due to the fact that some angel has gone a little bit too far in targeting a boy and now it looks like the girls are after him due to his popularity like they have a crush on him or something. Without looking for true love as required by the game's story, he will be completely lonely at the end of the day. The sequel introduces newer characters like the devils trying to mess with the people in school in addition to the angels. I don't know what things are like in Galgun 2 but for Galgun Double Peace, you expect newer game engine for the Playstation 4 release.
Although Alchemist the publisher was like gone, the series continues with Inti-Creates being the main developers. They also come up with the other Megaman-style games including Mighty No.9 which is the spiritual successor to the Megaman franchise although it is mediocre in my opinion.

More Psikyo games released on Switch by Zerodiv

Common things about Psikyo games ported to Switch are that they don't have online leaderboards, wallpapers that are HD-ish with new HUD along with other stuffs presentation-wise. There's also the opportunity to play in vertical mode on the Switch console. However, there are some minor things that you may need to notice in terms of conversion method. Strikers 1945 II on Switch has missing frames for the explosions as if the game is based on the Playstation port.
During the time of Psikyo games on the 32-bit arcade system with the SH2 CPUs, they tend to have pre-rendered computer graphics with later Psikyo games going even more with that in a weird way like Sol Divide and Space Bomber for instance over weird gameplay and design concept like they were trying to test out the potential of the computer graphics on that system at the time. There were other games that were not shmup games on that same system as well but you can find some development surprises.
The IPs of Psikyo classics are now with Zerodiv and many of those classics are being re-released on Switch while ensuring that the presentation is more accurate. There might be PS2 Psikyo compilations although some of them have inaccurate presentations while having re-arranged music.

Ikaruga on Switch

Zero Gunner 2 on Switch has widescreen support, altered explosion and smoke effects as the game was like remade from scratch by Zerodiv but the way they ported it to Switch caused more minor flaws. Ikaruga falls on the same era as Zero Gunner 2 as they started on Sega Naomi in the arcades before getting console releases on Dreamcast. Ikaruga was also released on other gaming platforms and the Xbox 360 version via XBLA enhances the graphics with Nesica X Live version enhancing the game even more. The Steam version is like definitive if you ask me as it is based on Nesica X Live arcade version which is based on XBLA version. The Switch version is commonly comparable to the Steam version. Like other versions of the game, you get vertical screen orientation support as well as various modes.
I hope the conversion for the Switch version is a decent one when it comes out at the end of this month as from what I saw of gameplay videos of Zero Gunner 2 Switch version, I was disappointed from the way that game was ported with strange way of objects falling for instance.

Gameplay report at Bugis+ Virtualand (May 5)

It's already an offense to come up with a disturbing player name or nickname in the first place and especially that impersonating someone in gaming will get you banned/account-terminated. There should be a policy against disturbing player names in gaming services/platforms. There might be cases like the offending codenames in the Linux OSes that they were eventually changed to more decent ones due to complaints. In fact, was it even controversial/offensive to take part in KAC with a player name that impersonates a fictional character? That's not a real nickname at all but this is something I shouldn't be concerned of although I got turned off by that disturbance. One disclaimer, I always came up with decent player names for games in the arcades so it shouldn't be a problem.
To blacklist offending words when it comes to player name is no easy feat for game developers and even game developers should have a policy against disturbing nicknames/alias of theirs when it comes to crediting. Should there be a disturbing alias representing one of the game developers, I fear that things may sound fraudulent like that.
See a disturbing player name, avoid the person who came up with that. So think before you complain against anything disturbing you see and so far, I didn't file any complaint over what happened on that day in the arcades so it's safe that way. I don't know what happens if you come up with a policy against disturbing player name in the arcades you're running for instance.
One special free time, I tried out King of Fighters 97 without any knowledge of the move list. Not to mention that I wasn't used to the Neo Geo-style control layout and somehow, I forgot some of the moves that I wasn't able to make it that far. But like always, I'm not a goodie at fighting game genre.