a brand-new form of public humiliation

[devi]

Late last night in the pub I was waxing nostalgic to miss_newham about talkers and BBSs and all things telnet-based, and remembering a world where that was practically all there was to the internet. When I got to college in 1994 there was one single computer connected to the Web in the whole university. There were always massive queues at it, and when you finally got to use it, you'd sit there for half an hour waiting for a little picture of an envelope to download...

Anyway, in my half-drunk and achy state I blurted out that the first thing I ever looked up on the web was (oh god) Robert Jordan. Yes, the Wheel of Time fantasy author. (Oh god the shame.) And I was wondering if other people had similar embarrassments in their past, like that first record you bought that you never want people to find out about.

What was the first thing you (consciously, deliberately) searched for on the web? Set homepages that just popped up, like your college homepage, don't count. Go on, I've owned up, now it's your turn.

Comments

[atommickbrane.livejournal.com]

Reliable dragon punches? Do tell!

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

[Using the keypad notation - look at the numeric keypad on your pooter.]

There are three tricks to doing a reliable DP. Most beginners get all three wrong, but more experienced players who fail are likely messing up point 3 only. Always practice with 'jab' punches, because you want to be able to spot easily when you've pressed the button at the wrong moment. Also, have your character face left until you're moderately good at them, because left-facing DP is easier for most people.

* The move may be advertised as 421J, but really it's 21J, because it's easy to hold the stick at 1 without needing the right timing.

* If you mentally envisage the move as involving a change of stick direction from 1-2 to 2-1, you will screw it up more, because you will focus on "hitting" the 2 and overshoot or undershoot. Instead, think of it as being a single short drag of the stick round the outside edge of the ring to point 1. The starting point of the drag will then come quite naturally. The endpoint is fairly easy too because diagonals are easy to find - give the stick a hard and very positive pull at the end. Ideally, the position of the back of your hand should be such that position 1 is the most 'comfortable' anyway, so you naturally slide into it. If in doubt, overshoot, because then you'll get a fireball, which will at least tell you what's wrong !

* The thing to focus on consciously is the timing of the button press. People who mess up dragon punches always assume they're messing up the controller move when really they're getting the button timing wrong. You can practice the button timing using Guile/Charlie sonic booms or Blanka's ball, because it's simultaneous.

If you still have trouble, one useful exercise is to practice not doing fireballs ! Start the stick at 2 and roll it rapidly forward, hitting Jab. If you get a fireball, you've overshot ! Once you can do this reliably and not get a fireball, start the stick at 4 and then do it and you'll get a dragon punch.

Once you get over 75% or so reliability, try doing 214J~21J ! If done correctly, this will give you a fast fireball into dragon punch sequence. Using the above technique it feels horrible when you get it wrong, but feels very natural when you get it right because even though the movement is almost continuous, there's a psychological pause at the end of the fireball part.

For all you Zero-3 players, 214J~21J is more importantly used for two of Guy's supercombis. (Who, me, biassed ?!)