h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

By complete coincidence, I've found out a little about the naming of Zell - I'm not trying to usurp you, RFJS, promise!

It seems (though I don't know this for certain) he was originally going to be called "Xell" in the Region 2 version. This is based on a picture on the back of the box, which has a screenshot of a battle with the HP and ATBs of Squall, Selphie, and "Xell". I can't tell for certain that it's him rather than, say, Rinoa renamed oddly, as the pic is actually the Ifrit summoning. However, it does seem most likely he was originally going to be "Xell", then renamed after the cover was produced - at a guess, because they thought it would be unsure how to pronounce, whereas "Zell" is obvious.

Oh, and I'll write the bit about Triple Triad, if you like. May try to include some diagrams.

Oh...and what's "fora"?

Diagrams... *Raises eyebrows*. Should be good. Would that be given higher or lower priority than the FF9 Entry?

'Fora' = 'forums'; RFJS__ = pretentious pedant.

Thanks for the info; very interesting. Googling produced some German sites, one of which referred to 'Xell (de) / Zell (us, jap)'.

Well...depends. If I can make the diagrams work easily, it'll get higher priority. If they don't work, it'll be shunted down to sometime in the far future.

So "fora" is the proper plural? Must remember...I'm a pedant as well. I go around correcting people who think "quote" is a noun.

Glad you liked the info. I'm sure you won't mind me leaving you the privilige of researching the kanji behind it...

I can't see there being kanji behind it; there's no 'l' in Japanese, and I suspect it isn't a Chinese word either.

I just spotted A3524050. Regarding the word 'trial' -- are you hoping to develop it as an Entry in its own right, or as something to be added to the FF8 Entry? And so, can I link to it?

Well, it depends really. I was originally going to make it into a small section to go into the main entry, but the thing is that I can easily write enough - especially once diagrams are included, which seem to work (although aren't perfect) - for a smallish entry on it's own. So it may be better to leave it seperate and link from/to it from/to this one. However, if you think that's just too much, I shall prune it and incorporate it in here.

As for "trial" - well, I just wanted to see if the pics would work. I'll remove that part of the title now.

Having said the diagrams seem to work, I just tried viewing the page in the other skins (I use Clasic GOO) and it doesn't align with the same set-up as for Classic Goo. So I may have to drop the diagrams, unless someone can give me advice...or I can hunt down/create some links to pics.

I'd been wondering about whether that would happen... I reckon tables are your best bet.

You can't use offsite images, owing to the BBC's censorship policy.

I recommend keeping it as a separate Entry, which is also what I was thinking of for Chocobo World. Then you can include all the detail you want, and there'll be no break in writing style.

I was actually considering images on other pages; I would just link to those pages. However, this is academic as your ingenious suggestion of tables seems to work successfully. Thank you, and I shall soon be developing it further. I'll keep it a seperate entry as you suggest; I'll link in next time I edit it.

Oh, by the way...have you any suggestions for Triple Triad tactics? Firstly, it might make a good part to put into the entry; and secondly, I need to work out some reasonable ones if I want to have a chance of creating a decision making process for my programme. I'm reasonably good at the game (though have a tendency to make horrendous mistakes), but if I could get input from other sources, it'd be great.

I'm afraid not; I'm not terribly into cards, and in both FF8 and FF9 I tended to ignore the card games for most of the game and just get on with the story, thus failing to build up decent card collections.

But you could try the in-depth FAQs at http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/psx/game/197343.html .


I don't know whether you'll want to mention this or not, given that I shall, but there was a standalone PC version of Triple Triad in FF8 Desktop Accessories (Japan only); see http://db.gamefaqs.com/computer/doswin/file/final_fantasy_viii_desktop_accessories.txt

The name of the weapons magazines is the imaginative "Weapons Monthly: March Issue", with months ranging from March to August (I think...); then a "First Issue", which contains four of the six ultimate weapons.

Cheers. I hadn't got around to checking the titles (since I haven't any saves on my laptop, I haven't got around to checking the Debug Rooms yet, and I wasn't sure whether the FAQ I was using used the official translations), but I'll add them for the next update.

Regarding the Triple Triad conversion, I just came across this, though I don't know whether it'll be useful or not.
http://ttg.qhimm.com/

I've found an explanation of the Zell/Xell difference in http://www.mobygames.com/game/trivia/gameId,1149/ , some way down.