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Severed Hand of Skywalker · Aug 4, 2005, 10:54 AM

The MegaManEffect is an application that emulates an effect seen in the classic NES game Mega Man 2. When you launch an OS X application, the screen goes dark, stars sweep the night sky and your application’s icon is presented in a blue letter box bar with a cheesy 8-bit music introduction.

Sample:
http://gerbick.com/tmp/FinderScreenSnapz001.mov

http://mikezornek.com/cocoa/megamaneffect/

euphras · Aug 4, 2005, 10:58 AM

Uhmm, hell no thanks!

But that destop pic (first one) looks nice. Does anybody know where to get it?

ManOfSteal · Aug 4, 2005, 11:00 AM

Give me a Contra™ version and I'm installing immediately...

wdlove · Aug 4, 2005, 11:00 AM

That is a very cool effect.

Severed Hand of Skywalker · Aug 4, 2005, 11:04 AM

Originally Posted by euphras

Uhmm, hell no thanks!

But that destop pic (first one) looks nice. Does anybody know where to get it?

I agree I need that pic. I have a sneaking suspicion it is from this uk site that charges for them, can't remember the name.

Randman · Aug 4, 2005, 11:08 AM

Originally Posted by wdlove

That is a very cool effect.

That's using "cool" in a way I was unfamiliar with.

Severed Hand of Skywalker · Aug 4, 2005, 11:14 AM

Originally Posted by Randman

That's using "cool" in a way I was unfamiliar with.

"old school cool".

better?

andreas_g4 · Aug 4, 2005, 11:19 AM

Ha. I like it. Very cool.

Randman · Aug 4, 2005, 11:19 AM

MM was never cool, even in the day.

Severed Hand of Skywalker · Aug 4, 2005, 11:24 AM

Originally Posted by Randman

MM was never cool, even in the day.

Many would beg to differ on that one.

starman · Aug 4, 2005, 11:25 AM

Timeline

andreas_g4 · Aug 4, 2005, 11:29 AM

Originally Posted by Randman

MM was never cool, even in the day.

Not seconded. MegaMan was THE game on NES and Gameboy. It rocked. Period.

turtle777 · Aug 4, 2005, 11:33 AM

WTF ?

Why would ANYONE install that crap ? That's good enough for Vista, though.

-t

jasonsRX7 · Aug 4, 2005, 11:55 AM

Megaman was the ****

suvsr4terrorists · Aug 4, 2005, 12:26 PM

Megaman 2 was pretty sweet. The rest of the series was pretty lame.

Kevin · Aug 4, 2005, 01:24 PM

I remember when it would actually TAKE that long to launch an app in OS X.

lavar78 · Aug 4, 2005, 01:25 PM

Originally Posted by suvsr4terrorists

Megaman 2 was pretty sweet. The rest of the series was pretty lame.

The original was better because it was HARD! Beating that one-eyed creature was nearly impossible if you didn't use the Elec-Man pause/unpause trick.

The first sequel does have its charms, though. I definitely think it went downhill after that.

BTW, I still love that song. One of the most recognizable game tunes...

Stradlater · Aug 4, 2005, 01:44 PM

Originally Posted by lavar78

The original was better because it was HARD! Beating that one-eyed creature was nearly impossible if you didn't use the Elec-Man pause/unpause trick.

The first sequel does have its charms, though. I definitely think it went downhill after that.

BTW, I still love that song. One of the most recognizable game tunes...

I think, technically, #2 was harder until the U.S. version was released in all its "easy mode" glory.

loki74 · Aug 4, 2005, 01:44 PM

I would so...NOT ever use that thing. Pretty funny though.

Yes the older MM games were definately better. The lines and stuff in the most recent one (X-7 was it?) were incredibly corny... saw it at a friend's house and vowed never to buy it or play it. And it IIRC it was 3D. Whats with that? *yuck*

CharlesS · Aug 4, 2005, 02:02 PM

Originally Posted by turtle777

WTF ?

Why would ANYONE install that crap ? That's good enough for Vista, though.

-t

It was made for the 2004 ADHOC/MacHack conference. IIRC, I think it won runner-up or something in the contest. If you're expecting hacks in the ADHOC contest to be useful, you're going to be disappointed. They're usually quite amusing, though. I remember the one way back in the day that made the OS 9 Control Strip auto-magnify like the OS X Dock.

Severed Hand of Skywalker · Aug 4, 2005, 02:05 PM

I just used it once it was funny. I would be great to instal on someone's computer as a joke though.

suvsr4terrorists · Aug 4, 2005, 02:07 PM

I think it'd be cool if you could get it to do that only with certain apps. If you're going to boot up a game or something like that, it could get you all pumped up.

loki74 · Aug 4, 2005, 02:08 PM

Originally Posted by Severed Hand of Skywalker

I would be great to instal on someone's computer as a joke though.

lol, that it would.

(of course, you would need physical access. If they made a PC version, that would be extra cool cause you wouldnt necessarily need physical access to the Windows box!! Ok I'll shut up now as all this security bashing of windows has been done is so many other places

)

Chuckit · Aug 4, 2005, 02:46 PM

Originally Posted by suvsr4terrorists

Megaman 2 was pretty sweet. The rest of the series was pretty lame.

I thought 3 was as good as 2. All the rest were a big nosedive, though.

Severed Hand of Skywalker · Aug 4, 2005, 02:47 PM

Originally Posted by Chuckit

I thought 3 was as good as 2. All the rest were a big nosedive, though.

i don't remember which was which was either though but I remember there were a couple kick ass ones for Nintendo back in the day.

Paco500 · Aug 4, 2005, 03:37 PM

Originally Posted by Severed Hand of Skywalker

I agree I need that pic. I have a sneaking suspicion it is from this uk site that charges for them, can't remember the name.

But seriously- I want that desktop pic- anyone find it?

lavar78 · Aug 4, 2005, 03:44 PM

Originally Posted by Stradlater

I think, technically, #2 was harder until the U.S. version was released in all its "easy mode" glory.

That would explain it. Although, I still can't believe it could be harder than beating that cyclops thing.

After the challenge of the first, the second was ridiculously easy (at least here in the US).

Paco500 · Aug 4, 2005, 03:44 PM

Originally Posted by Severed Hand of Skywalker

I agree I need that pic. I have a sneaking suspicion it is from this uk site that charges for them, can't remember the name.

Is http://plasmadesign.co.uk the site you were thinking of? If it cam from there- I can't find it on the site.

Severed Hand of Skywalker · Aug 4, 2005, 03:59 PM

Originally Posted by Paco500

Is http://plasmadesign.co.uk the site you were thinking of? If it cam from there- I can't find it on the site.

That is what I was thinking. Guess not. Nice desktops anyway.

wataru · Aug 4, 2005, 06:44 PM

That app is freakin' hilarious.

budster101 · Aug 4, 2005, 06:57 PM

That was gay.

Scandalous Ion Cannon · Aug 4, 2005, 07:40 PM

Originally Posted by budster101

That was gay.

Prob why megaman was so popular

analogika · Aug 4, 2005, 08:06 PM

Originally Posted by wataru

That app is freakin' hilarious.

Indeed.

MindFad · Aug 4, 2005, 08:17 PM

I've had that app for ages. It is indeed an awesome app. I let the guy use the Mega Man head I think over a year ago for it, so I can definitely whip out the timeline here.

Mega Man is awesome, bitches.

CharlesS · Aug 4, 2005, 11:50 PM

Like I said, it was for the 2004 ADHOC conference, which would have been in late July 2004. So yes, that would be slightly over a year ago.

besson3c · Aug 4, 2005, 11:53 PM

Anybody care to speculate as to whether it would be easy to take his source code and turn this into a faceless app?

It would make a great prank tool!

Salty · Aug 5, 2005, 01:44 AM

I loved the Megaman X series... least up till they put it on the play station... then it just got weird... and I hated Sony so I never kept going with it... I used to have every secret for those games memorized... actually still do... I played them as ROMs a while ago... still very fun.

Chuckit · Aug 5, 2005, 02:49 AM

Originally Posted by besson3c

Anybody care to speculate as to whether it would be easy to take his source code and turn this into a faceless app?

You wouldn't need the source code. Just make the preference window not show on app launch in the nib and set LSUIElement to 1 in the plist. Should work perfectly.

besson3c · Aug 5, 2005, 02:53 AM

Originally Posted by Chuckit

You wouldn't need the source code. Just make the preference window not show on app launch in the nib and set LSUIElement to 1 in the plist. Should work perfectly.

Good deal!

Is there a way to make this a startup item for all OS X user accounts on a computer?

CharlesS · Aug 5, 2005, 04:04 AM

Originally Posted by besson3c

Good deal!

Is there a way to make this a startup item for all OS X user accounts on a computer?

Yeah, if you set it as the LoginHook in /var/root/Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow.plist.

edit: wait, don't do that. I forgot that a login hook would stop the login process until the hook exited, so you'd kill the ability to log in. Instead, you should make a short shell script that either launches the app in the background using the ampersand '&' character, or which launches the app using the "open" Terminal command. The latter would probably be preferable, since it would make sure the app ran as the currently logged-in user instead of root.

Salty · Aug 5, 2005, 04:39 AM

Ahh the things we couldn't do under OS 9...

suvsr4terrorists · Aug 5, 2005, 09:12 AM

What do you mean by that? I used to put 'joke' programs on my schools macs in OS9 in the startup folder. Then I used 'big secret' to hide them from the finder. Totally invisible (unless you use resedit) and starts up with the computer.

Paco500 · Aug 5, 2005, 09:52 AM

Originally Posted by suvsr4terrorists

What do you mean by that? I used to put 'joke' programs on my schools macs in OS9 in the startup folder. Then I used 'big secret' to hide them from the finder. Totally invisible (unless you use resedit) and starts up with the computer.

Yeah- I'd say there were substantially more "prank" apps and possibilities under OS 9- It was a whole lot easier to inject stuff on to people's systems w/o their knowledge- all you had to do to bypass the password was boot from a CD- OSX has actual security.

Anyone remember sexplosion?

suvsr4terrorists · Aug 5, 2005, 10:03 AM

How about "Conan the Librarian" or "mouseturds". Heh.

andreas_g4 · Aug 5, 2005, 03:31 PM

OS 9 rocked in this regard. Gravité, for example, was way too cool for humans, IMHO.

Anyways, I just dedusted my super advanced gaming console:

andreas_g4 · Aug 5, 2005, 03:34 PM

Originally Posted by Severed Hand of Skywalker

That is what I was thinking. Guess not. Nice desktops anyway.

Didn't know that site, but nothing beats pixelgirlpresents.com.

Garage81 · Aug 5, 2005, 04:02 PM

Originally Posted by MindFad

Mega Man is awesome, bitches.

quoted for truth.

Salty · Aug 5, 2005, 04:38 PM

You know... having a robot named Metal Man is really redundant...

OpenStep · Aug 5, 2005, 04:39 PM

besson3c · Aug 5, 2005, 04:46 PM

Originally Posted by Salty

You know... having a robot named Metal Man is really redundant...

It isn't nice to discriminate against robots that are constructed from non-metallic materials. Would you like it if everybody painted you with the same brush and called you "flesh boy" all the time?

Robot discrimination should not be tolerated, under any circumstances. We live in a land of equal opportunity for everybody.

Shame on you.