September 27, 2009
"Remember when 1997 was four years ago?" --Yes, even that was quite some time ago...
One fine day on Dracula's Curse: THE MESSAGE BOARD!!!:
Eric Roman: "The Links section is loading slow for me...anyone else having this problem?"
(I think someone responded here.)
Eric Roman: "No wonder! It's 25 pages long and over 125k in size! Anyone think I should break the sections up into their own pages?"
Anapan: "Yes."
Originally mentioned in the first May update of 2002, begun at the turn of 200V, and RESET at the top of last summer, the DCTP Links revision is FINALLY COMPLETE!!! Nine collections lead the way to some very cool spots dedicated to CastleVania, Videogames, FLASH MOVIES!!!, and many more! The tenth and final collection, the Lynx Graveyard, is the final resting place of expired Favorites and their occasionally colorful descriptions.
Be sure to check 'em all out when you get a chance. I'm absolutely positive you'll get a kick out of what you'll find...unless some new 404s sprang up in the interim! Ack! I'd appreciate any heads-up on those! ^_^;
(Funny how I put so much effort into making you leave, isn't it?)

In Other News...
SAVE OUR GEO-SITES! ...TO DISK!!! In early August, I received a note from the ever-trusty SilverOnith that Geocities (owned by Yahoo! for who knows how long...) is shutting down! You could imagine my reaction to receiving this kind of news whilst in the middle of my Links rework... So what this pretty much means is that on October 26, 2009, each link pointing to the classic host will be pretty much as useful as forum drama. SAVE THEM NOW. SAVE YOUR FAVORITE (CV) GEO-SITES TO DISK! Cuz Slog-lord knows if the owners that abandoned them had done so for themselves... SAVE OUR GEO-SITES!
Hmm, the end of October seems to be a popular shut-down time. First members.aol, now this...

June 21(& 2), 2009
"The morning shadow has vanquished the horrible Iga game." --I swear I just made that up.
Following about 19 25 straight days of rockin', peace has finally returned to the frontside. From now on, though, you can still catch DCTP B-Day 11+1 on my Humor Me rundown. (I was actually aiming to knock that out on the 15th, but, y'know, Life.)
Earlier in the week, Silver Onith hit me with a couple'a MONSTER pics; I'll find them a good home. "HEH!! HEH!! HEH!!" (Effin' Ferryman...)
Good ideas always seem find me in the shower, scrubbing my scalp...
Last night, I had an idea for a CV forum thread which would collect and update a huge pile of links to CastleVania Flash movies (don't forget games!) from across the WorldWide. I gave it some more thought and decided to instead make a new section of it; FlashyVania would be split into its backstory, collection, and finally this list of movies worth seeing. There's a slight catch, however; unlike the original plan for the thread, which would collect everything (regardless of quality), those for this list would pass under the scrutiny of my animation eye.
It's all good, though. I'm sure this isn't the first such call for CV movies. I highly doubt it will be the last, but given the tendency of forums to spring and dissolve beneath our keys, it'll probably be the most enduring.
Though this idea hit last night, Humor Me and Links still remain on standby for their revisions.
Good thing .HTMLs don't complain. :p

June 8, 2009
A vacation from my weekdaily grind had recently afforded me the time to do a little overdue work on DCTP. As I had been concentrating on the points of those successive newsbits, I decided to save the long-windedness for another day. Whelp, this is my vacation's last day, so here goes!

CV in the News...
I heard the live-action CV movie's been cancelled. That could be a good thing...mayhaps by the time it comes up for another go around, they'll have found someone competent enough to take the project to the max. Or Konami will instead have decided to string together all the Lament of Innoncence and Curse of Darkness cutscenes. :P
I've yet to play CastleVania: Order of Ecclesia and CastleVania Judgment (and have no interest in either), so I can't give any further thoughts aside from what's been previously mentioned.
Wait, then again...Judgment's soundtrack has a couple'a pretty rockin' tunes. One of its versions of Dance of Illusion gets pretty frickin' FRIGHTENING. The scent of Battle Royale abounds, and there's a pretty interesting connection: Judgment was (disastrously) character-designed by the Death Note guy; in live-action adaptations, its main character is played by the same actor from Battle Royale, Tatsuya Fujiwara! That's my mans'n'em! (Whew....that was close. For a second there, it almost looked like I didn't know who I was talking about! Thanks Google! ror)
Last week's E3 revealed some pretty great news, depending on whether or not you're satisified with Igarashi running the macho spirit of CastleVania into the ground; CastleVania: Lords of Shadow looks to be The One to bring respect back to CastleVania like so much Star Trek, and (a wish came true!) IGA IS NOT DIRECTING IT!!! While he goes to play with the Rondo and Alucard tales some more, in this CastleVania corner, we've got Mister Hideo Kojima of Metal Gear Solid fame! "You like CastleVania, don't you?"
Hell, yeeah! Speaking of CastleVania Corner, I'll see you there!

In Other News...
Near the end of last year, America Online, birthplace of THIS place, finally gave me a reason to hate on it. For whatever (UNEXPLAINED) reason, it had decided to terminate its members' FTP service, ditching them into the water as AOL sailed away, presumably towards further doom. Unfortunately, DCTP's Hidden Link™, once attached to the Raven in the enemies section, went with it. Here're my thoughts on the fiasco, written for ye olde jumpoff a couple of days before members.aol.com was scheduled to go down.
Well, it's back to work for me, but as m'man the great LeVar Burton put it, "I'll see ya next time!"

June 7, 2009
My Humor Me section is finally ready! Check out Sinyaso@aol (until its name changes for the better)!
The Modern Nightmare is nearly over... The final steps to the Humor Me overhaul are solving its new look and attaching the Navis to the bottoms of the new collections.
I also decided to return the CV buttons to the bottom of the Title Screen in case people forgot they were in the Contact page all this time. I sure as heck did... o_o !

June 5, 2009
Short of having their navigation menus attached until every collection is complete (mine being the last), the following (NEW!) Humor Me sections are now ready to check out! Jason's Game, Thomas' Outing, Super Joey V Cousin, Hande's Nightmare, BASE, Wavid's Wules, and Ralphy's Nonsense! Enjoy!

June 4, 2009
"See ya around the swamp!" --Roy Hess' favorite saying, according to the Dinosaurs trading card.
Party on, Grant! Originally built for last year's DCTP B-Day, DCTPBDAY11+1 is right on time for the 12th anniversary! Rock out the frontside with the Cast o' Vania to Dracula's Curse: THE WAVMIX!!!, a mashup of the classic (albeit over-remixed) Stage 1 theme from CastleVania plus the CastleVania III and Akumajo Densetsu (Japan-side!) versions of Deja Vu!

Who's rockin'? From the foreground to the back, check out:
BUNNYGIRL!!! Akane from Parodius!
True Man Blue, Gaibon!
The Monster, gettin' FunkFrank-y!
The REAL Alucard!
Browny's checkin' the scene!
The always-awesome Leviathan from CastleVania III!
One of my favorite fiends, the Axe Man!
Count Dracula is happy to be here, for a change!
Sypha Belnades is shakin' it!
Nathan Graves isn't too sure of himself around the enormous...
Lesser Demon from Akumajo Densetsu! Fear the TRUE Leviathan!!!
...like Maria Lenard, first Cool Character of the Week!
Another Cool Character Alum, the awesome Sword Lord!
Mega Man's head remains defeated!
Phalanx stops by from Capcom's awesome Demon's Crest to say hi!
Flame Demon does the bounce!
"Streets Belmont" stays holdin' it down!
One guy you haven't seen here in a while, the Bone Chucker from CV-DOS!
The Uber Skull Knight from Harmony of Dissonance!
SLOGRA IS THA MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNN!!!!!
Fish Man'll make ya...JUMP, JUMP!
Trevor C. Belmont does The Mario!
Skull Knight is NUMBER ONE!!!
Up in the air, check out my first CastleVania problem, Phantom Bat!
Waiting for the right moment to strike, The Grim Reaper!
Grant DaNasty rides that chandelier Otting-style!
Big Bad Phantom Bat is jammin'!
Malachi Cthulhu chills!
...and finally, with the sweet swerves, the Bone Dragon King does his thing!

Hope you enjoyed this DCTPBDAY! Stay tuned as Humor Me makes its return! Keep it CV, baby!

May 27, 2009
Just in time for DCTPBDAYXII, the main Humor Me rundown is back! In addition, preview the new Humor Me Navi! You'll find this on the bottom of the pages of those DCTPeeps with the most submissions. You'll be able to jump to the Special Features, too.

July 8, 2008
Another CV3-themed poem by Justin Gildow is the latest Written addition.
When we first discussed the title, I just thought it was cool that he was sticking to the oldskool spelling of Warakiya (as opposed to its real name, Wallachia/Valachia). As I got to reading it, though, I was really feeling the spirit of CastleVania III. Loved it. C'mon, let's go on this journey through Stage 1...

July 6, 2008
Heynow! Hope your ID4 weekend's been alright.
For now, a little bit of news that's been sending shockwaves throughout the CastleVania WorldWide this week...I would like to refer to this as "Dracula Xccident." Get it??? Aw, never mind...

CV in the News...
Little over a week ago, the word got out about another CastleVania game en route; it's gonna be a FIGHTING GAME!!! Of course, we've dreamt of CV Fighter II for years; long before the make-your-own-fighter-engine MUGEN popped up at the turn of the century. However, once this dream was realized---in the...how should I put this...fashion it was realized---the CV WorldWide's discord was nearly unanimous...
Many felt the circle had been mooned.
The harmony of disagreement was dissonant.
Their resulting aria; of sorrow.
Their portrait was further ruined.
Their nights of CV were symphoniously of'd!
Okay, so that last one didn't work out...
So what went wrong? How 'bout we start (and end) with each character's ridiculous makeover? According to the grainy magazine scans that were unleashed a few days ago:
CV3 Alucard's metamorphosis into FF7's Sephiroth is apparently complete.
GothLoli Maria rips a page from Death Note, donning hottie Misa Amane's handlebars plus a plus-signed, fat-thigh exposing garb. (IRONY!!!: This, I thought before learning Takeshi Obata, creator of Hikaru no Go and Death Note, was actually involved!)
Gilded Count Dracula wears a vest ornamented with tiny cannons (I WISH I WAS LYING.)
Simon Belmont doesn't expect to do well in this game; too busy showing off his pecs and six-pack; one of the worst design moves since the effeminization of Trevor for Curse of Darkness...?
I don't think this is what we had in mind when we first closed our eyes to imagine CastleVania characters battling it out. As for myself, I was thinking more along the lines of this...
Another problem the CVWW appears to have with CastleVania Judgment (its name, by the way), and this complaint I don't quite get, is it's slated for release on the revolutionary Nintendo Wii...
Revolutionary, in my opinion, because Nintendo applied Power Glove technology towards a fresher, sexier GamePrism and pretty much 300'd competition when it first dropped in November of 2006. Personally, I liked the idea that you were no longer sitting on your ever-widening can to play games; you GOT UP AND PLAYED!!! I would go on to praise the Virtual Console system, but, most unfortunately, it's not completely what I looked forward to. Look, if any level of my long-ingrained familiarity with a game is suddenly derailed in the middle of my enjoyment, there's a big problem. Yeah, I'm glaring at YOU, SotN on Dracula X Chronicles!!! Luckily, my NES and Super NES still continue to emulate games 100%.
But I digress...
Right, so The Wii is expecting a CastleVania delivery outside of the VCS. This, after Koji Igarashi, whom we have previously established as being Director of Background Laziness back at the Portrait of Ruin Labs (now rechristened Order of Ecclesia Labs), claimed to have HATED the system! Some seasons ago, rash Iga had cited The Wii as gimmicky...and the PSP as a device for more mature gamers. One boarder on a CVDF thread about Judgment implied the outlandish design direction expresses Igarashi's hatred of being forced into the project. I feel it could possibly be his method of more-than-subtle sabotage.
I've got this aching hunch that, while Judgment will come far along, as did DreamCastleVania, it will eventually find a way into its niche in Mr. P's Cancelled Section. But not because of Konami's arrogance that its American branch was putting out quality work (as one DreamCastleVania extinction scenario puts it), but because of the Granfaloon that has risen from the woodwork to abhor and argue over it.
But, then again, perhaps this will instead egg them on to complete it...?
Stay tuned.

June 26, 2008
Following ultimate finalizing and tuning, access to Ying Girl: Humor Me! has been restored to the Humor Me section!
This week's operation du jour is indeed DCTP's Links! While reviewing the Videogame section (to be renamed as such), I noticed that my Contra Hard Corps link was leading to parts of DCTP I didn't know were still up! I fixed the wiring between there and the Contra: INSANELY DIFFICULT CORPS listing at Miscmix, so those links now connect to its home on Terrible Hands.

June 23, 2008
The Humor Me front continues to see more bit-by-bit progress.
My trigger finger has suddenly reinterested itself in a project I haven't touched since August of 200V; updating the Links. That September, a visitor had actually gone through the trouble of checking each and submitting a report! It was a MAJOR help, but, for some puzzling (and probably stupid) reason, I got the butterfingers and lost it to the 0s and 1s of my hard drive...

CV in the News...
Oh yeah, did someone say new CastleVania? Unfortunately, the story behind the upcoming Nintendo DS game, which is said to take place after SYMPHONY OF THE NIGHT, is that RICHTER has gone missing, and there's this chick that has to go find out why.
Wait, wasn't that half the premise of SYMPHONY OF THE NIGHT?!
Look forward to the game design laziness that damned Ruin THIS OCTOBER!!!

June 14, 2008
"Don't get all wrapped up going after the mummy!" --Charlotte Aulin, CastleVania: Portrait of Ruin
Happy X and X+1 to DCTP!!!
I'll whine about how I didn't have anything very special for the last two birthdays some other life.
Beginning with the grand return of FlashyVania on 5-26-2008, overhaul on the Humor Me front has been proceeding quite aggressively, especially during the past week. I feel like I've gotten more done recently than in the entirety of the previous year, I think. This renovation has been no easy task, I'll tell ya.
When all is done and said, the following folks will wallow in their own collections: Eric Roman (heynow, that's me!!!), Jason Gaines (I know that guy!), Johnny Norris (heck, his was the FIRST collection of its kind!), Thomas Otting (...gotta FWOOP it!), Ying Girl (hers the SECOND!), Joey V, Hande, RYU/Sol the Gr8 (BASEFACE!), Wavid, (The Great) Ralphy Boy, and Jenova_9 (CVIII: The Untold Story).

June of 2008 looks like it could be good month for DCTP.

Now, let's see if I can salvage some meaning from the fragments of the May 20something update of 2007 that never was...

May 2X, 2007 (rewritten on 6-14-2008, based on unfinished notes from the time period...)

CastleVania III: Dracula's Curse
THE ANIMATED MOVIE!!!???

You gahdamn right!!! A few seasons ago, amongst word of CastleVania movies, a picture circulated that appeared to be of a CastleVania III context and was said to be production artwork for an upcoming CV3 animated movie. The image, featuring an 'Alucard' with a sword and a 'Grant' resembling a ghoul, was met with mixed feelings across the CastleVania WorldWide... Nevertheless, it's true!!! Check out Project 51 Productions' site for their upcoming project, CastleVania: Dracula's Curse!!! A great thing about these folks, they've opened their labs to accepting ideas and submissions for some of the monstrous characters that'll appear! Shoot, they've even linked up DCTP! Hecka sweet! Thanks, guys! Thanks also due to Xadion on The CastleVania Dungeon's message boards for this hot info!

In the edits department, as of 2-26-2007, the Allies section has been proofread, so it should be up to par with my current standards (especially after further editing on 6-14-2008).
Originally submitted eleven months ago (DAMN!!!), another naughty Venus Weed rises at the garden on 1-18-2007, compliments of the one and only Hot Dog, so watch out for it.
FlashyVania is being revised... (6-14-2008: Glad to say that this one is done!)
Opening is being revised... (6-14-2008: This, on the other hand, still holds true.)

CV in the News...
"Don't get all wrapped up in going after the mummy???" You've gotta be kidding me, Charlotte. Actually, her deadpan remark is pretty helpful. Charlotte is pretty helpful. Pretty...
I join many others in saying that I had an absolute blast with CastleVania: Portrait of Ruin.
That is, while it lasted. Indeed, there was much to gush over:
An inspiring, action-packed animated introduction: THIS IS CASTLEVANIA!!!
Decked out in Simon's Quest colors, Jonathan is every bit the MANLY MAN I've been wanting to play as ever since white-haired, prissy palefaces took the stage.
Charlotte's spells: CRAZY.
Exotic locales. The City of Haze I found VERY NICE; so much so that I initially overlooked the serious Copy-and-Paste job that screws the experience of the game world. I like how the paunchy romantical dude there sounds a lot like me when he says "DIE!" (Come to think of it, most of the in-game voice acting is some of the best yet; there's even a code to switch the voices to Japanese! Hold L when you press Game Start. "SHOOOWTIME!")
A great storyline I could really get into; I actually felt sorry for Wind.
Lots of great dialogue and tons of quotables.
Several tunes made it into the MixCDs of 2007. I even warmed up to "Invitation of a Crazed Moon", the gameshowey tune used in early trailers that I didn't really like. "Piercing Silence," one of the boss themes, rocks Dream Theater-style!
The Cave Troll Chupacabra is now the TOUGHEST and most LETHAL CV enemy EVER, EVER, EVER!!!
Numerous surprises abound.
...but even as you went along enjoying these things and more, lesser things revealed themselves...HARD.
Pastes of enemies from Dracula X Rondo (and, hell, SYMPHONY!) seem out of place in their environments. Frozen Shades in a PRISON?! SERIOUSLY? "Aw, but Eric! Jail is cold!" AW, SHUT UP!!! THE FREEZING DEPTHS OF THE GROUND WATER VEIN IN SYMPHONY WAS A MORE SENSIBLE PLACE FOR THEM TO SHOW UP AND YOU KNOW IT!!!!!!
The first encounter with Slogra was so non-special it was almost as sad as Wind's story.
There were plenty of other gripes to be had against this highly anticipated title, but I think the one thing that REALLY got me down as I played was the repetition of rooms that SCREAMED LAZINESS on the part of the game's framers. I've come to refer to this half-assedness as simply, "IGA's Level Editor."
Honestly, in 2006, on 64-bit technology, the difference between one room and another SHOULD NOT BE INCLUSION OF A BED SPRITE.
Prompted by IGA's Level Editor, with renewed eyes I hopped into the sack with CastleVania: Harmony of Dissonance after conquering Ruin. During those happy weeks in early 2007, I saw the love Koji Igarashi's choice crew put into its new Gameboy Advance MetroidVania for 2002. As for CastleVania: Portrait of Ruin, the game that was supposed to celebrate CastleVania's 20th Anniversary, it was not so. The quantity of Ruin's worlds NEVER made up for the lack of quality. WORST experience of the game: Nation of Fools.
...and the option of returning to that ordeal as five other players didn't bring me back.
Well, there's always the 40th Anniversary...

January 9, 2007
YES.

January 8, 2007
"Do you still remember...December's foggy freeze?" --Jethro Tull
Welcome to the DCTPX record.
During one of my introspective goings-through the site during the nights of mid-December, I fixed a few things here and there. Realized images were missing on SotN Drac's Cool Character of the Week feature.
On my last BDay, Justin Gildow, aka ORCHID SSR, honored me with a pair of CVIII poems. Give them a read over at the slightly revised Written section.
Up in my autobiomatical Auth--I meant, Epitaph corner, the DCTMADL was updated with 999 additions and other wishes. 2006 was the quietest year for anime ever. For some reason, I doubt I'll ever catch a glimpse of Gattender outside the Newtypes of over five years ago.
What's up with the Miscmix includes the "Slogra Episode" of the DYNAKYRIS Digital Radio Show in (a now FULLY described) Download Deeze!, some new additions and changes to the Potent Quotables!, and, since its mysterious disappearance a generation ago, the clip of RZA spittin' rhymes in Reunited is back in action at More than misc the eye.

CV in the News...
I GOT CASTLEVANIA: PORTRAIT OF RUIN!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!
However, Nintendo DS Lites have sold out everywhere in New York City, so I've yet to play it. I'm back to that December 1991 scenario: I've got the game before I've got my hands on the Super Nintendo box wrapped up nicely in my room's wardrobe I've been guarding for nearly two months...!
Can't wait, can't wait, can't wait. I've got the August 2006 promo video on my i'mPopular MultiMedia Player (which I got for Christmas), and I watch it at least twice a day.
As much as that gameshowey theme music from the eariler Ruin vids annoys me, I couldn't help but whistle it during work last month. "It's a good 20th Anniversary game," says Jason from across the hall, who preordered and got the bonus treats; a CV 20th Anniversary MixCD, Portrait of Ruin styluses, and a retrospective art booklet, all wrapped up in flimsy cardboard, a nice mockup of a wax seal bearing the cross-and-batwing crest of the 2002-on CastleVania franchise. As a proofreading mothereffer, I couldn't help but notice on all the CircleVania pages of the art book, that the game is labelled as "Ciricle of the Moon." Nice one, folks. Very nice.
Shoutout to JILost. I've contributed my Dracula Battle Perfect Selection and (extremely horrid) Dracula X Remixies albums to his cause.
I made a noat to mention Goat, so I'm gonnoa mention Goat.
A couple'a years agoat--I goatta stop doin' that--, a couple'a years ago, a Videogame music remixer known as Goat set off on a project to recompose the soundtrack of Dracula's Curse with his own instrumental flavors. The project was dubbed Unchosen Paths. I had downloaded a few cuts a long time ago, and found them, aside from hard for the media players to interpret, rather overwhelming. Not in the better sense, however. Pools of Rust, Goat's Stream arrangement, was the only survivor of the WimpAMP playlist runthroughs, and currently the only track housed under my Start Menu's Goat group. Hint, hint; in the future, I intend to download the eventually completed Unchosen Paths and study the project as a whole. Check out Goat's Castle to stay tuned to the progress of Unchosen Paths.

In Other News...
Couldn't figure out a postage stamp for this update.
Hmmmm..., in The WorldWide's earlier days, I recall there being some sort of decorum regarding posting links to other websites onto your own. Like, you had to get permission from the site you're linking to throw them on there. Surely, I've broken this rule countless times during my own romp, but has the proliferation of message boards and blawgs reduced this practice to a mere legend?
Also, Happy Feet is an awesome, awesome movie.