Category: Retro Gaming

Big Plans -OR- Fairly Transparent Filler

You know, maybe that post title is a little too harsh. I don’t really do filler these days, so it’s not like I need to poke fun at it the way I used to back when basically every post was filler.

As for the subject at hand, I wanted to take a moment to check in and talk about how the Year of Nintendo 64 is going. It’s largely a personal project, so it’s not like I’m taking notes and sharing this stuff with everyone I know. I’m not even committed to writing a full article about every game I play. That said, I still want to sort of chart a course for the rest of the year here, as a reminder to keep me on task, if nothing else.

I spent January rounding up a few new games that I’ll be mixing into the lineup of games that I already own. Truth be told, I didn’t actually own enough “beatable” 64 games to get me through the year, so making some acquisitions was a must. I reserve the right to change this at any time, but here’s the breakdown of what I’ll be playing each month:

  • January – Goldeneye 007
  • February – Body Harvest
  • March – Jet Force Gemini
  • April – Star Wars: Rogue Squadron
  • May – Quest 64
  • June – Doom 64
  • July – Gauntlet Legends
  • August – Bomberman 64
  • September – Donkey Kong 64
  • October – Army Men: Sarge’s Heroes
  • November – The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask
  • December – ?????

As you can see, I’ve come up slightly short. I do have a few other games that I could pop in there, but they’re either so short (Pokémon Snap) or I’ve played them recently enough (Banjo-Tooie) that I don’t feel like they’re a good fit for the project. They may still get some play, but they won’t be the main games. What really differentiates them? Nothing, I guess. My goal is one a month, I suppose that doesn’t mean I couldn’t play two in a month.

You know what? Nuts to it. I’mma pop some quarterly titles in there, because it’s an excuse to make another list. I know that the first quarter is almost up, but I just completed Super Mario 64 DS, and I’m willing to count that. Maybe I’ll play the original again anyway.

  • Q1 Bonus Round – Super Mario 64
  • Q2 Bonus Round – Pokémon Snap
  • Q3 Bonus Round – Mario Party 2
  • Q4 Bonus Round – Perfect Dark

There we go. Now if only I had social media’d this thing it might be more than me just concocting a weird excuse to play old games. I guess it’s still not too late, but I mean, we’re already in March. The hype phase is over. Whatever. My compulsion is to put words on a page, not to try to force people to read those words.

Monthend Video Game Wrap-Up: February 2014

Last month was so loaded down with entries in both of the main categories that I managed to forget to add a couple games, which will be included this month. Since I write these opening blurbs at the beginning of each month, I’m sitting here hoping that February’s list won’t be quite so full, but you just never know!

~ Now Playing ~

Super Mario 3D World (Wii U) – Yeah, still hacking away at this one. Technically, I’ve finished the game. I’ve beaten every level and collected every doo-dad, but this game makes you really go the extra mile for your 100% clear: you have to beat every level with all five characters. It may be a ridiculous task, but the game is so good that I’m happy to oblige. Except for the final two stages that are just crazy hard to the point of not really being fun anymore.

Continue reading Monthend Video Game Wrap-Up: February 2014

Year of N64 – February: Body Harvest

If GoldenEye 007 was one of my most played Nintendo 64 games, I suppose it makes sense to follow it up with one that I have never played and know virtually nothing about. For the sake of contrast, you see.

Indeed, I had never played Body Harvest before The Year of Our Lord 2014. I had barely even ever heard anything about the game. I remember reading an early preview of it Nintendo Power, but I don’t recall ever seeing any actual coverage of it in the magazine. Googling seems to confirm there was never full coverage of the game, just a few hints stuffed into the Classified Information section.

On top of that, Nintendo really gave Body Harvest the shaft. The game was originally supposed to be a launch title for the N64, with Nintendo as the publisher. But they didn’t like it, and dropped it, leaving the game sitting in limbo for a little over two years before it was finally picked up and released. The developer, DMA Design, later became the studio that people know much better as Rockstar North.

So if you think about it, if Nintendo had played nicer with DMA, maybe Grand Theft Auto would have been a Nintendo game, or at least multiplatform thing instead of a big hit for the Playstation. Maybe.

Continue reading Year of N64 – February: Body Harvest

Monthend Video Game Wrap-Up: January 2014

Another year is upon us, and with that year comes a long a whole buttload of new games that I’ve purchased on both Nintendo eShops and Steam. Because those year-end sales were absolutely mad. And not “angry” mad, but “British” mad. Of course, I’m not playing all of those games at once, so you won’t see them all here, and that kind of defeats the purpose of mentioning them at all.

2014 is going real swell so far.

As it turned out, January was absolutely swamped with short games that I was able to beat in a matter of hours. So this is a big one. Hold onto your butt.

~ Now Playing ~

Super Mario 3D World (Wii U) – The wait to Christmas was absolutely killer in 2013, because I was waiting for this very game. And yet, I did not burn through it in a week like I could have. No, I find that a new Mario game is best when savoured a few levels at a time, and man oh man, have I ever been savouring this one. This is the special kind of game that you buy a system for. Technically I have beaten it, but there’s so much more to do that I’ll leave it in Now Playing for the time being, and move it to Game Over once I’m good and done with it.

Dark Souls (360) – Yeah, I’m still at it. I play more than once a week though, so I’m way ahead of the weekly blogs.

Chibi-Robo: Photo Finder (3DS) – It can’t possibly live up to the standard that I set by the original Chibi-Robo game, but it’s still got a lot of the heart that made the first game a winner. The real problem here is the game’s main gimmick: taking pictures of stuff. It would come off a lot better if the 3DS’ camera wasn’t awful. Heck, it would probably even be a lot of fun with a decent camera. Alas. I have no idea how long this game is going to be, but I’ve filled up two museum displays so far.

Plants Vs. Zombies 2 (iOS) – My wife and I are racing to see who can get to the end first, and neither of us are making progress quickly. Me, because I play like once a month, and her because she’s stuck on a particularly hard level. She’s also quite a bit farther than I, so if she gets over that hump I might be in trouble! Oh, and EA? If you’re going to insist on locking stuff away behind micro-transactions, please make them reasonably priced. There’s no way I’m going to buy any extra plants or power-ups at $3 a pop. If they were $1 each, I’d probably already have them all.

Valdis Story: Abyssal City (PC) – This is like, my dream game (after Super Mario 3D World). It’s a colourful metroidvania with multiple playable characters, a focus on combat, and a Borderlands-style perk tree. Now if only I could play it with a controller from the comfort of my couch on an actual Video Game Machine. Sigh… PC exclusives make me sad. I really have come to loathe playing games on my computer.

Super Monkey Ball (iOS) – Logic would denote that playing a game whose main mechanic is tilting the playfield would work great with tilt controls. That’s not quite the case, as Monkey Ball on my iPhone is very difficult to play, and even harder to enjoy. If you need a Monkey Ball fix, I’d recommend just picking up one of the GameCube games. Maybe the one on Wii. I never played that one though. I’m on World 2 of 5, but I doubt I’ll bother finishing it.

Long Live the Queen (PC) – I’m not into text adventures or anime princesses, but for whatever reason, I felt like I needed to own this game. And it’s sort of blah. All you really do is choose which skills to learn between scripted events, and hope that Elodie doesn’t get murdered along the way. Finding all the ways she can die is probably the most fun you can have with this one though. To date, I’ve only played enough to suffer one death. Here’s a really good review that makes me wish I appreciated it more.

Body Harvest (N64) – Yes, I started my N64 game for February early, but my goal is simply to beat one per month, not to only play one a month. Also I’ve never played Body Harvest and have no idea how long it’ll take me to finish it. Currently I’m on part three of the second mission, and I’m fairly impressed. It’s long since become obsolete, but if I’d played this when it was new, my mind would have been blown wide open.

~ Game Over ~

Picross e3 (3DS) – It’s the weirdest thing, this game had been out for months, and I wasn’t even slightly inclined to buy it. Mostly because I was waiting until I’d finished Paint It Back, but also a little bit because I may have overloaded on picross in 2013. If that can even happen. Burned though it in a week though, because I’ve got to burn through something in a week.

Mario & Luigi: Dream Team (3DS) – Wifey gave me this for my birthday last year, and I played it until the game decided to send me back to all the corners of the map that I’d already explored for a big fetch quest, and my enthusiasm petered out. I spent most of January slowly slogging through the second half of the game, and I’ve got to say that the guiding principle behind the whole project must have been making everything twice as long as it needs to be.

Gone Home (PC) – A game about wandering around a house, trying to find out where your family has disappeared to. It’s a cute little game with a lot of heart, but it’s not something I’d necessarily recommend. Not at full price anyway. If you see it on sale and narrative-based wandering games are your bag, go for it. Maybe I’d have liked more it if my PC had been able to run it at full speed.

Attack of the Friday Monsters! A Tokyo Tale (3DS) – Gameplay-wise, it’s very similar to Gone Home, but I liked this one so much better. Maybe because it has a more fantastical story, or maybe because it’s much more lively. I don’t know, but I really enjoyed this one. I just don’t like that you have to grind for collectables to truly finish it. :p

Bugs Vs. Tanks! (3DS) – Exactly what it sounds like; you play as an officer in a battalion of tanks that have been shrunken down, and have to combat insects to survive. It’s not a superb game by any means, and can get somewhat frustrating at times, but it’s fun. Also, it’s one of the exceptionally rare 3DS games where the 3D effect actually adds something.

Brain Age Express: Sudoku (DSi) – I finally finished all the sudoku puzzles in there. Guess I wipe it now and start again? Nah, probably not.

Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP (PC) – I actually finished this game in December, but totally forgot about it. That’s because despite the fact that I want to say I like it, it’s a pretty forgettable game. Also it has a stupid mechanic where you have to wait entire days to make certain critical events happen, and that’s just a huge pain in the butt. And making me wait to play a game more often than not makes me forget about the game altogether. It’s still pretty good, though.

~ Reruns ~

Kirby’s Dream Land (GB) – I tend to play through this one every few months or so. It only takes half an hour, and I think it’s pretty fun despite the simplicity. Also I love the music.

Super Mario Land (GB) – Same as above.

GoldenEye 007 (N64) – It felt really good to go back to a game that I spent so much time with, but have never pick up again since. I even wrote a whole thing about it. The word for it may or may not be “retrospective.”

Year of N64 – January: GoldenEye 007

Let’s not beat around the bush here; everybody’s played Goldeneye 007 for the Nintendo 64. Everyone. It’s that one game that was a must-have if you owned an N64, and if you didn’t own an N64, you probably bought one so that you didn’t look like a fool when your friends came over and asked why you weren’t playing GoldenEye. So you probably don’t really need me to tell you all that much about what it is.

Being the first game in TE’s Year of Nintendo 64 though, I’ve made a paper-thin commitment to write something about it. And now that I think about it, I guess that it’s old enough now that there are kids who are so young that they’ve never played it. That’s a little spooky, and makes me feel very old. But then, a lot of things make me feel old, so let’s not dwell on that.

Today, I want to take a look at GoldenEye from the perspective of someone who hasn’t played the game in over ten years, and see how the real deal holds up against the GoldenEye that is perched upon a pedestal in my memories.

Continue reading Year of N64 – January: GoldenEye 007

Something blurry this way comes

I’ve had a bit of a fascination with Nintendo 64 lately, though why this is happening is a complete mystery to me. Nostalgia probably has a lot to do with it, as is usual for a lot of the things I do. It’s been on my mind for a while now, but only a couple days ago did I actually take the initiative to dust the thing off and give it some playtime.

The N64 is the one pre-2000 console that I’ve never packed away, but it hasn’t so much as been plugged in for well over a decade now. So imagine my surprise when it decided that it didn’t want to play nice with my TV. That is, everything was connected properly, but the N64 refused to output anything to the TV. I don’t know why; maybe it’s because it’s an old machine, maybe it’s because the TV is too new. Maybe Ijust wasn’t putting the jacks into the correct plugs, but I’m pretty much an expert at plugging video game machines in, so I doubt it’s that one. I did eventually get it working, but I have no idea what I did that made the two decide to finally cooperate.

The next hurdle was deciding what to play. My Super Mario 64 and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time cartridges have mysteriously disappeared, so my first choice wasn’t plausible, and I couldn’t play Zelda either. I would be more worried about them, but I have multiple other ways to play legit copies of those games, so it’s not a big deal.

Eventually I settled on Goldeneye 007, which felt like the right choice, but I was a little worried that it would be the hardest game to get back into because of the N64 controller. And let me tell you, getting used to playing a first-person shooter with the N64 controller after about 12 years of dual-stick controls is not a task for the weak-willed. I fumbled my way through the Dam stage as quickly as I could, accepting that this was not going to be an easy or competent playthrough. By the time I hit the first Surface stage, the controls were starting to feel almost natural again. As I reached the end of the game, I felt like I had regained enough of my skill to maybe even play it again on Secret Agent difficulty. Or maybe I’d just go back and try to unlock all the Agent-level cheats. I still haven’t decided.

Playing through Goldeneye again has been a lot of fun, though I must admit that I’m not sure what to hit up next. The truth of the matter is that I’ve got a hankering to try out some games that I don’t own, so I’ve been poking around the internets to see if I can score some N64 games on the cheap. So far I haven’t turned up much, and I’m finding it odd that for a console that gets no respect, N64 games don’t come dirt-cheap. I mean, we’re still only talking about $15-$25 bucks, but I was hoping that I’d be able to find some in the $5 range (that are not sports games). It’s hard to justify spending $20 on an old game that’s probably not as good as I remember it being when I could just as likely put that $20 towards a decent current-gen game. At least none of the ones I want are hitting crazy SNES prices.

I was pretty happy when I found a copy of Army Men: Sarge’s Heroes for $10 on eBay. I know it’s not a very good game, but I spent a lot of time playing it when it was new, so the value is there for me. Hell, that’s what I’d be paying for a Virtual Console version anyway. You know, if Nintendo hadn’t completely dropped the ball on the N64 side of Virtual Console. Yes, we got the Marios and Zeldas, but I’m in it for the curiosities right now. I’m in it for games like Doom 64, Bomberman 64, and Quest 64. Games I may have rented in the day but never beat. Oh, hey there it is. Apparently I’ve gotten myself back into Nintendo 64 for some silly, past due sense of closure.

I also found copies of Body Harvest and Jet Force Gemini for $10 and $15 apiece in the local used games shop. A quick look on eBay shows that I may have been able to get them for a dollar or two less with good timing and a lucky bid, but I’m willing to pay the difference for convenience. Body Harvest is a game that I never played back in the day, but seems to be one of the better N64 titles, and I did rent JFG once, but none of my friends liked it so I had to dump on it too to fit in. It seems like something I’d enjoy though, so here’s to second chances.

Anyhow, I’m declaring now that my big video-games-style goal for the year is to beat one [1] Nintendo 64 game each month. Whether they’re new games or games I already own and have beaten before, it doesn’t matter. Just one a month. I need to get this 64-bit monkey off my back. Also I might publish a review of each one. Maybe. It’s the Year of Nintendo 64 here on TE. Hold onto your butts, it’s gonna be mediocre.

Monthend Video Game Wrap-up: November 2013

The good news is that winter is here and I no longer have to feel bad about spending all my time inside playing video games. The bad news is that… well, there isn’t any bad news at the moment. It’s December that’s got all that holiday business to it; November is fairly smooth sailing as far as having free time goes.

That said, real life tried its best to get in the way, but November was still a fairly productive month for gaming. This month, I continued my recent trend of finding games that I could finish in an afternoon, and I think I’ll be keeping that up for a while. It’s fun to dive into epic games that take the better part of a year to finish, but sometimes the thing that really hits the spot is a game that I can start and finish in one sitting.

I don’t have any new categories for this feature this month, so that’s good. I figured that my tendency to obsessively categorize things would have me introducing a new one each month. But that doesn’t seem to be the case… yet.

~ Now Playing ~

Adventure Time: Explore The Dungeon Because I DON’T KNOW! (Wii U) – It was a small pain in the butt to actually secure a copy, but it was worth it. Between the abundance of Adventure Time charm and having another game that The Wife will play with me, I’m pretty happy with this game. It’s also a lot of fun too, being a dungeon crawler that hearkens back to old-school fare like Gauntlet. Games like this aren’t really made any more, which is too bad because I quite enjoy them. We’re currently 50 floors down.

Continue reading Monthend Video Game Wrap-up: November 2013

Monthend Video Game Wrap-up: October 2013

Hey! It’s this thing again! Now it’s officially a recurring feature! That was my plan all along, of course, but I’m kind of a flake so who even knew if I was going to even get around to writing up a second entry. That said, I’ll probably stop caring about this stupid thing by the time 2014 rolls around.

In the interest of further categorizing and complicating things, I’ve decided that MVGW needs a third header. I felt like “Now Playing” and “Game Over” were pretty self-explanatory, but you might wonder about what exactly the new “Reruns” header is for. It, my friends, is reserved for short games which I have played before and which were started and finished within the month. You can think of it as a subsection of “Game Over” if you’d like.

~ Now Playing ~

Pokémon Y (3DS) – Just assume that this is the only game I played after the 11th. Aside from short breaks to collect the Spooky furniture series in Animal Crossing. I have, of course, beaten the story, but I still have a bunch of post-game stuff to do and plenty of empty pokédex entries.

Continue reading Monthend Video Game Wrap-up: October 2013

Pew pew pews

Podcasts are not a thing I typically do. It’s hard for me to justify spending up to an hour and a half just listening to people ramble on about stuff, and it’s nearly impossible to really absorb the content of a podcast while doing something else. At least, that’s how it is for me. I have found that work is a great time to listen to podcasts, because my job is mostly numbers, and it’s easy to listen to what the people are saying in my ear while I muck around on my spreadsheets or whatever.

Obviously, the bus rides to and from work are a great time for this as well.

I have made a point to listen to the new Retronauts every week, because I really like the three regular hosts, and I think they do a very good job of covering a lot of video game-related topics that I’m already pretty interested in, or will interest me enough to hear people ramble about them for so long.

Last week’s episode was about fan translations, and while I’ve already played a few of the games that they highlighted on the show, I did take it upon myself to try out a few that I hadn’t already touched. I’m not trying to hock video games today, though. What was really important about this show was the guest stars: Chris Antista and Brett Elston

These dudes run another podcast called Laser Time (well, Brett guests on Laser Time, and hosts VGMpire), which I decided to look into for no real reason at all other than I was kinda interested in listening to another podcast. I hit the damn jackpot here too, because I ended up loving Laser Time.

Apparently a lot of people involved work in the video game industry, but the podcast isn’t about video games all the time. Or even most of the time maybe? I’ve listened to five episodes so far, and four of those have been about movies. In fact, I’d wager to say that it’s more about retro stuff and pop-culture in general than video games. This is the X-Entertainment podcast that never existed.

I should mention that it’s also pretty consistently funny. And when it’s not funny, it’s educational in a pop-culture sort of way. I love it, and I’m fairly sure that I’m going to have burned through all the back episodes by the end of the year if I keep listening to them at the rate I have been.

If that sounds like your kind of thing, maybe go check that out. I’ve already provided a link to the main podcast page, but if you poke around on the website a bit, you’ll notice that there are a few other podcasts hosted there. Maybe one of those will resonate with you if Laser Time doesn’t.

Tactical Disadvantage: Golgorand Execution Site

Over the last couple months, I’ve been slowly playing through Final Fantasy Tactics. The original PS1 version, at that. I’ve never managed to finish this version of the game, and working my way through it, it’s not overly difficult to see why.

What is overly difficult is getting past a few choice battles. The first is near the end of Chapter 2, and places you in a battle that can seem unwinnable for a new player. Up until now, you’ve been in mostly fair fights. You’ll have seen all of the basic classes, and had mostly fair fights. In this fight, you’re pitted against a squad of eight to your five characters, which features three knights, two archers, and two of a new enemy: time mages. There’s also a special “boss” character, but let’s look at the normal guys first.

The archers are going to be fairly benign. Or at least, they’ll seem that way compared to the danger the rest of the enemies pose. They don’t have much in the way of attack power yet, and arrows are generally easier to evade than physical attacks if you’re equipped properly. At least it seems that way to me. They can use some weaker charge attacks, but that charge time gives you an opening to close in on them and attack or prep a healing spell before they actually hit you. You can also cancel the charge attacks by knocking the archers with Dash or Throw Stone, making them even less threatening.

The knights are probably the biggest direct threat. They do huge damage, and have a lot of HP, which generally means that you’re going to have to use a few turns to knock each of them out. That is, assuming that they don’t block your attacks. I find that these knights are especially fond of trying to break your equipment, so be wary of that. Black magic is a decent way to both carve off huge chunks of their HP and circumvent those pesky shields, but if they get close to your mage, he/she is pretty boned.

Compounding this issue are the time mages. While not immediately dangerous, the two time mages here sling Haste and Slow like there’s no tomorrow. Haste is less of an issue, because it only affects one enemy, but when they start Slowing your guys, that means anyone affected will probably take twice as many hits before getting to act. At that rate, they might not even get a chance. The worst part is that the time mages are up on an archway, so you’ve got to climb up there if you’re not targeting them with magic, basically guaranteeing them time to inflict Slow on you. That and they aren’t nearly as squishy as they should be.

The biggest hurdle in this battle, however, is Gafgarion. A Dark Knight, he’s got a tidy bundle of HP and high attack power. More importantly, he’s got a special attack called Shadowblade that hits hard and actually heals him for as much damage as he caused. This is a huge problem, as it’s hard to deal enough damage to him to overcome the healing he gets from it each turn.

Taking out Gafgarion should always be first priority. The other units are numerous and troublesome, but none of them can heal themselves as efficiently as Gafgarion. My personal favourite strategy is to have a white mage with Regenerator as a reaction ability and Holy. Stick her under the arch, and right off the bat cast Holy on Gafgarion, which should be able to go off before anyone can hit her. Holy will take down Gafgarion in one hit, but the white mage’s MP will likely be drained, so I keep a Monk next to her to use Chakra and recover some MP ASAP.

Of course, FFT offers an endless variety of ways to tackle any battle, but that’s my favourite way to start this one off. Summons would probably have a similar effect, but who even uses summoners anyway?

The rest of the battle will be tricky, but not quite as difficult once the main damage-dealer is gone. I would recommend trying to take out the knights as quickly as possible. If you’re rocking a knight yourself, Weapon Break + Concentrate is a fairly good strategy, as breaking their swords will make them mostly useless. I think they can still use their Break skills with their swords broken, but at the very least, they won’t be doing much in the way of damage anymore. They might even decide to retreat instead of engaging your troops with their bare hands.

The archers should probably be your next priority, but you can ignore them until the end, because they’re dumb and weak. I generally save the time mages for last, despite their buffs being one of the biggest threats in the fight. Really, if they’ve got no teammates to Haste, they aren’t going to be much danger to your well-being.

Agrias is a great teammate to bring into this battle, having just recruited her as a full party member after the previous battle. If you take a little time to earn her another Holy Sword skill or two before you enter this battle, all the better. Saving up the 500 JP for Crush Punch is the best bet, as it has an added benefit of possibly killing the target instantly, but her default Stasis Sword skill has a chance to inflict Stop. It’s not quite as good in the long run, but keeping even one enemy from doing anything for a couple turns amounts to a lot of breathing room in this particular fight. The bonus effects don’t stick often enough to be reliable, but all of her Holy Sword skills do pretty great damage for this point in the game.

It’s worth noting that since Agrias is not a real party member and Mustadio has gone off to do his own thing, this is the first battle where you don’t have a guest character to bump up your number of guys on the field. They’re not always very smart, but at least it’s nice to have that extra lump of HP eating hits, and without the threat of having him/her vanish forever if you take too long to revive them. You can really feel the lack of a guest here.

I also like having a geomancer for this fight. Elemental skills don’t do a ot of damage, but they still aren’t pathetically weak yet. There is a lot of stone here, and that gives you the Carve Model effect, which may petrify an opponent. It may be a little more efficient to just bring an oracle instead and cast the Petrify spell, but oracle is one of those classes that I never really bother to use.

I also always try to have Ramza unlock the ninja class by this point, as the speed boost and innate Two Swords ability are super handy tricks to have up your sleeve. You won’t be able to buy any actual ninja swords yet, which kind of undermines its usefulness, but it’s always a good idea to earn ninja for one or two units ASAP.

Again, FFT lets you play pretty much any way you want, but I always stick to the same patterns when I play it, and the above thoughts describe the way I always try to tackle this fight. Some people have fun doing it in different ways each time, but I’m a creature of habit.

I’ll post some thoughts on other tough battles in the future. Think of Tactical Disadvantage as my own sort of rip-off of Parish’s Anatomy of a Game series, just not quite as in-depth.

(Remember, this is written with the original FFT in mind! There may be some things that don’t align properly if you’re applying it to The War of The Lions port on PSP or iOS!)