Here's the scenario:

Rob V and i are at a hotel in the middle of the desert an hour south of vegas for a kite buggy event. I brought my gamecube, and the tv in our room has AV inputs, but the room remote is a simplied remote that doesn't have a tv/video button, and the hotel doesn't have any remotes that will work, NOR does the TV have a tv/video button.

SO, we have a powerbook, a Treo (palm OS with IR) and a crappy dialup, and no way to play the Gamecube. We know about Omniremote, but we don't have anyway to create a databse for it that will work with our TV. We found ORDesktop which has a huge database of remotes in it that can be saved out for Omnirmote, but the trial version won't allow us to save it out and we don't wanna waste $20 on the off chance it won't work. We even have the actual hex code for the button we need, but no way to transmit it. We have an RCA TV... so if anyone has any ideas... or ORDesktop ... PLEASE HELP! We wanna play zelda!!!

I had that same problem once I just bought a rf modulator and used a needle nose to get around the stupid plastic things they have on the ends of the cable to try and stop you from getting the cable off. Spend 10 bucks and get playing Zelda.

that's the problem... there is no store to buy anything anywhere near here. Just a hotel sundries shop. If there was we'd have bought a modulator or universal remote a long time ago =].

anyone else??? boredom is setting in!

anyone know of a program for mac where you can enter IR codes and it will transmit them from the IR port?

Sorry I just assumed there was a target or something.

I had this same problem once except with a VCR instead of a GameCube.

As I remember, it turned out that I could set the alarm on the TV to come on to the video port, so I set the alarm for one minute from now and, sure enough, it worked.

Hey, On my mom's tv, she can press channel down, and channel 0 is the video input.

Speaking of which.. I just found a stash of CAN$2 (yes, that's about US$1.30 each) IR keyboards. No info, other than that they use IR, and have a built-in mousepad thingie as well.. Mmm..

I'm with Bitt on this one. I happen to own an RCA TV, and not its remote, and that is exactly what I was able to do.

Oh, if our astronauts can assemble a CO2 scrubber out of some spare parts and junk laying/floating around, surely we can somehow send that needed ir signal that may or may not involve taking the tv apart.

we did it. it took a win2k server remote connection and some brainstorming, but it turns out the database files for ORDesktop are already in pdb format, so we just tossed the ones for the RCA tv on Rob's (cruzths) palm and voila! Zelda all night long!

Zelda all night long!

Okay... I'm on the island with the group of kids and the schoolteacher. They have challenged me to a game of hide and seek. One of the kids is at the top of a tall pine tree. Let's ignore the question, just for a moment, of why there is a pine tree on a tiny tropical island and get to the real problem at hand. I can't seem to get to the kid to say "ha, gotcha". I can see him from a distance, from several vantage points, but I can't get close enough to interact with him. Anyone gotten this one yet?

Oh, and Loren, what do you think of the character animation of those "pig guards", the big burly ones who catch you and throw you into prison. I love their walk cycles, the way their lips move, and the flowing movement of the thingamagigs they're carrying. I was very impressed.

You can do the move where you roll into the tree thus shaking it and knocking the kid out. The problem I had with that one was I could get to the top of the tree and stand next to the kid but he wouldn't notice me and start running.

You can do the move where you roll into the tree thus shaking it and knocking the kid out.

AH! Thank you. I tried whacking the tree with my sword, but didn't try the roll attack.

Now to find the other three...

Do you want to know where they are?

You find out a little later one reason why there are any trees at all on these islands.

msaeger, how the heck did you get to the top of that tree? or did you just do that challenge later after getting the leaf?

Don't know if you guys know about this, but Game FAQ's has walkthroughs already.

WARNING: The above link contains major spoilers!!

I knew there were ones available, but most are woefully incomplete. I needed help on one small thing (the only time I've checked the walkthroughs for this game), and it didn't have anything on it. Most of these FAQs are there because people got the Japanese imports of the games, and I think some things are either different, or they were in Japanese

Besides, it's fun to talk about it to "real" people

Yeah I did it after getting the leaf. I think it's great how we can do these things in whatever order we want. Like I got one of the maps to the triforce pieces and I haven't even been told about them in the game yet.

Yeah, I've been doing a lot of that too. I've also got that map. I just got the master sword, but instead of going on, I'm just going around to all the islands and doing as much as I can now.

Maybe you can tell me something. What the heck are all the platforms for? You know, the look-out type things dotted all over the map. Usually they've got a few enemies on the top of them, and usually some pots or something. I recently got a chart that tells me where all of them are, but what use is this? What do I get for visiting all of them? More rupees? Which brings me into my only complaints about the game:

1) It is so incredibly easy to get rupees. Up until I got the 1000 capacity wallet, I would be at the max (200) level all the time. during that time I must have gotten about 2000 rupees from chests and things, not meaning to, but thinking I'd be getting something else. You rarely have to buy anything in this game, so it's a bit strange to have all these rupees just handed to you at every turn.

2) Not related to the rest of what I've said, but there is one thing about the last 3 Zelda games that annoys me sooo much. Why does everything need to be explained soooo much! There are several ways this annoys me:
-every time I get a joy pendant from a chest, it takes a few seconds to tell me what it is. I think I know what it is by now.
-when there are challenges that take several tries to complete, I don't need a full explanation every time I do it.

That's what I've been most annoyed by. Plus, anything that needs conducting takes forever. Most of the time I sail half-way against the wind to avoid taking the time to change its direction.

Okay, I've vented. Now I can get back to playing

Why does everything need to be explained soooo much!

In case you're forgetful (perhaps you're coming back to the game after a long hiatus), or in case you're taking over the play from someone else's savegame. It doesn't really bother me because most of the time I can click past the explanations in less than a second.

I can click past the explanations in less than a second

But that's the problem, there's no choice. Most of these explanations don't let you press B to skip through it faster. I'll be playing the end of the game and still getting 3 screens of rolling text explaining what a joy pendant is. That's frustrating.

Funny, I've been pressing A...

A is works when whatever is being said to you has been said, so that it moves to the next screen of text. If you press B, it skips the scrolling so it all gets printed at once, but not all the time.

I haven't found any use for the platforms so far other than rupees, bombs and stuff like that.

I have noticed the rupee problem on about all the zelda games like the first one you basically just need them to get the blue ring and then to buy potions. This game makes it even worse because you don't even have to buy potions.

I am guessing they explain stuff so much because they are making the game so someone who has never played a zelda game can play it but your right they do go overboard. I have no idea why they have to do the big production every time you get an item I will agree that is annoying it would be good if they just did it the first time you got that item.

Hm... I'm stuck on Dragon Roost Island. I threw the little girl bird up to the ledge, then heard she was kidnapped, and now can't seem to do anything useful to save her. Can I complete that quest without leaving the island, or should I be setting sail now?

do you have a bottle?

bottle
water
flower

That's very nice. How the heck was I supposed to know that? The only hint I'd been given about the bottle was on the other island, with the guy in the potion shop. I thought I was just saving the bottle for when I got back there.

Oh wait.

The birds all kept telling me things were dried out and that even the bomb flowers were dried up. Argh, obscure puzzle. Okay, okay.

Grrr....

/me goes to try it.

Thanks.

Don't worry, that's one of the few puzzles that is that obscure. Aside from a couple others, the rest is pretty easy. It took me a while to remember that the birds were telling me that.

Don't worry, that's one of the few puzzles that is that obscure.

Yeah, I'm getting that impression. After that one particular puzzle, the rest of the island was very do-able.

In fact, I think I'll go so far as to say: watering that flower marks the beginning of one of the best sequences of puzzles and scenery in any adventure game I've ever played. There was something about that whole section that kept me captivated and on the edge of my seat all the way up through the showdown with the final boss at the end. Each major puzzle, when you solved it, had you patting yourself on the back for your own cleverness. Which is probably the biggest compliment I can give to the game's designers... Since each puzzle is scripted carefully and I'm just along for the ride, the designers must have been doing something very right.

And the eye candy for that whole section... Wow. The naysayers who said the cartoon rendering was bad just haven't gotten that far in the game yet.

And the eye candy for that whole section... Wow. The naysayers who said the cartoon rendering was bad just haven't gotten that far in the game yet.

I don't think they cared about it looking good or not they were complaining that it looks kiddie because it looks like a cartoon and isn't grotesque. I am guessing it was alot of immature 13 year olds whining because I haven't heard anyone I would consider an adult complain about it.