The world's first Nintendo DS 4 internal speaker mod?

Hey there, GameFaqs contributor einsteinecker here (I'm better known as mangatron in the anime world) So here we are, 10 months later from it's conception, (possibly) the world's first 4 Speaker Nintendo DS mod. Well, I've not the time to go through those 140,000+ search results, so for now I will lay claim to the title. It shouldn't have taken this long, but sickness, acquisition of HSDPA internet, writing FAQs for GameFaqs, and that other DS mod kept me quite busy till I eventually posted this on such a time of the year. So while I'd like to divulge on the details, I'll leave that for the full story here. On to the parts:

-A Nintendo DS Fat (grey and black first production run)
-2 Internal speakers from Palm Tungsten devices, or some DS Lite speaker parts from Dealextreme would be nice, except for the part where they are too large. Radioshack anyone?
-2 Copper wires measuring about 10 inches long in length, about half a millimeter thick
-Plastic (preferably rubber) tubing to fit the wires inside
-Triwing screwdriver (I used a flat tip optimized to fit the DS size)
-Flat tip screw driver (that's why I modified a flat tip for both triwing use and cross/horizontal screws)
-Some electric tape (personally I prefer Masking tape, with the right one it won't leave a mark in the long run)
-Super Glue. Super? Maybe there's something else called instant glue? What about Forever Glue? That might make a good name...
-Maybe a soldering gun, but I didn't use one. Simple, right?
-Rubber gloves or a static wrist-strap like for computers, that's if you work on the DS while it's on
-Hobby knives for cutting the new speaker holes.
-Speaker covers (those round black ones came from the Tungsten speakers)

Flash is used to try and show the cutouts where the new speakers are. The Palm T|X was used to lessen the flash reflection on the DS screens (darkest object I could find nearby, without it I have a ghastly picture)

Hmm, I don't know whether or not I should put instructions, I mean the pictures are plenty self explanatory, right? This isn't like deciding whether or not the voltage is correct, or replacing the wifi module, or replacing the screens. A couple of wire insertions and steady hands is all it takes... Or maybe I can put up some resources (really, I don't even know how to explain this in a DIY way, to me it's very simple, but yeah I know what's simple to me may not be simple to others, so...)

Those wires actually fit in there...

Ah heck, maybe I'll make it simple. Start by opening your DS. This site sounds like a good place to go. Start by removing the backing of the top screen, then the base of the lower screen, since we'll need the top exposed. The top of the DS, that is... ahem, I should note if you have any wifi game settings you'd might want to move it over to another DS since removing the battery for more than 15 seconds resets to factory defaults. Anyways, our first move would be to remove the mainboard down on the bottom half of the DS, and then hold the DS on it's side, mainboard facing you (like you're playing Hotel Dusk) and use your four fingers to lift the touchscreen up, in turn also lifting the mainboard from its roots.

For me, I started from the bottom working my way to the top. We'll start by cutting holes into the DS shell right where we want the speakers to go. And yes, I carved both holes while the mainboard was still in place. Simple right? Hint: start cutting on the outside. Once your foxholes have been dug, place your speakers as shown below. I secured them  with super glue.

 

 

Don't mind that Goldeneye game cart. There just wasn't any other FPS that year, that's all...

Now let's wire this place. As you can see in the pics, the rubberized tubing only went through the hinge part of the DS, my method of making this quick and simple (you know how hard it was to carve those holes?) I start by inserting the left speaker wiring through the hinge, followed by the right (take note the right wiring might need a bit longer wiring than the left speaker) Once the wiring is setup up on the bottom of the DS, place the mainboard in its spot and put the base of the DS back on. We're moving up top.

Hope the camera flash isn't too blinding...

The top screen of the DS is no laughing matter. As you can see, I severed the wire connecting the right (left) speaker to the circuit board. Of course such a thing can easily be worked around, so I'll caution you that you just might ruin your wiring. Now attach the wires to the main speakers, before I simply attached them to the main wiring itself but that didn't work in the long run. By attaching them to the main speakers themselves, opening and closing the DS won't interfere with the wiring too much. (yeah, I tried attaching them to the main wiring itself, wasn't a good result)

Note where the blue circled wires end.

So, with that done, I guess you can test it out! Except when you power on your DS for the first time, you will have to re-input all your data! Mwuahahaha!

Guess which is the 2 speaker loudness and the 4 speaker mod. Tested using a mono microphone setup though so the obvious is even less painfully obvious...

Enjoy your ear deafening 4 speaker DS mod! Next upgrade: inserting a subwoofer! Hoo-rah!

FAQs

-Q: What's the purpose of this mod?
-A: Well, as with all of my mods, it starts as a proof of concept kind of thing, then if it works, I turn it into a full fledged working mod. Those battery mods I've been doing are like that. That and connecting the DS to a computer is just... I don't know, not worth it? Because what I did before was connect my DS to my desktop computer with a 4 speaker setup, which was also connected to a surround sound system with two 3 foot tall 1980's era speakers. Now that's connecting it to the computer. But then your playing a handheld with its strings attached to a desktop computer... hence this mod.
-Q: So how loud is it?
-A: Very loud. DS players who own more than one type would know the DS Fat is louder than the DS Lite (unfortunately, I don't have a DSi to test). Surround sound enabled games like those from Nintendo (Metroid Prime Hunters, Mario Kart etc) sound even better with this 4 speaker mod.
-Q: How's the battery life?
-A: Hard to say. The battery that's in there right now is the one from purchase, and that means it's the first production run DS battery from 5 years ago! With the battery operating at less than half of it's rated capacity, I only get around 2-2/12 hours of gameplay now. So no telling how much juice is being used (although I noticed even less playing time when the volume is full blast.

Sneak preview of my other awesome mod: possibly the world's first built-in joystick mod for the DS Lite,  removable as well enabling the DS to close!

 

You have no idea how much better FPS gaming has been with this joystick mod.

Comments are open to anybody, Google members or not.

The story behind the making of the 4 Speaker Nintendo DS mod

So, on this last day of the year, I finally post this mod I started back in February, before that major stomach flu/food poisoning incident that crippled me for 3 months. Thanks to that sickness though, I realized no one lives forever, and so I said "This DS won't live forever either, so why not cut it up..."

I actually had second thoughts about this one. This wasn't the same as totally taking apart my Palm OS devices, or taking batteries from one device and moving it to another, this is my First Nintendo Ds, that grey and black first production run DS, the very same with a Metroid Demo and Thumb stylus strap. I have a sort of special feeling for first time devices, and I really hated cutting holes into this thing and removing screws.(My AfterBurned Original Indigo Gameboy Advance doesn't count, right?) But what I had going against my personal feelings, were several reasons:

-This DS is wearing out. I'm talking fading colors (the grey is turning white, an ominous sign of aging), serial bar code disappearing, battery that lasts about 1/4th of it's rated output, not to mention it's not really that bright and the colors just aren't up to the DS lite/DSi.
-It's heavy. Seriously, I'm not really up to holding up this thing for extended periods of time (the aforementioned sickness had me lose about 16 pounds and severely weakening my muscles).
-It's getting old to the point where a just-as-old game "Feel the Magic XY/XX" is having a working rate of 20% (The DS is having trouble reading the cart, despite the cartridge's contacts cleaned regularly). Cleaning the DS's Slot-1 contacts isn't having any results whatsoever.

The DS shows its age. Note the white-ish parts. With a little bit of work, I can turn it into a white DS!

So, rather than toss this nostalgic piece of history, I decided to mod it. Now, I really didn't think it was going to work, I also didn't like the part where the DS might end up in the grave before me, but I said what the heck, No turning back now. I succesfully ripped a battery from my Palm OS Tungsten E2 and put it in my HP iPAQ rz1715, I braved electric shocks to temporarily revive my Casio Exilim Camera, I heavily modified my HP iPAQ hx2415's D-pad into a gaming friendly version, I was on a roll to the point where  I ended up being known as the "Repairman" in the family.

The Casio Exilim camera in its current state.

Looks like an ordinary LG Chocolate cell phone, huh?

 

Until you find out I shoved my Gameboy Advance Micro's battery into it. Yes, I can make calls, take pictures, play music, etc. just like before the mod. And it charges through the phone.

So what we have here is a 4 speaker mod for the Nintendo DS. Originally I planned to add only 1 speaker (from the previously mentioned Tungsten E2), as well as using Fruit Ties for the cabling (don't ask). Later through several weeks of testing I find the Fruit Ties cable setup being too stiff, lacking flexibility to twist along with the upper screen. It was around this time that another one of my ancient devices, a Palm OS Tungsten E, died when I apparently forgot to charge it (it was kept on life support, constantly connected to a USB port for juice and itself being used for Palm application testing)

With another Tungsten speaker in hand, I sought out a dead electric water heater kettle and ripped the wiring out to give me the flexible cabling I needed. The end result: A beautiful sounding handheld gaming system using up double the battery life of the already paltry amount available.

So the big questions are, why a speaker mod? It wasn't my first choice, actually. I tried to give the screen more brightness, or higher contrast (I find the DS Fat to be a nice size for my hands, if only it weren't so heavy). My additional lamps weren't lighting up, so I ended up brightening up the top screen with a more highly reflective mirror reflector taken from the previously mentioned Casio Exilim camera. My question is, why didn't Nintendo include this in the first place? (The mirror-like piece of plastic goes directly behind the LCD screen, mysteriously not present in my DS Fat) By lengthening it to go under the backlight, it was able to brighten up the screen, so much so it's close to the DS lite at it's lowest setting!

Intermission time. Guys, I have to ask, does your wife (or girlfriend for those with significant others) do this? Maybe a kiss? Or is this only in Japan...

After brightening up the top screen, I thought of several things, like adding a joystick in place of the D-pad, putting Dreamcast-like triggers in place of the L and R buttons, I even thought of making an extending antennae for the Wifi module. But those were make or break mods, modifications of existing components that if something broke, there's no going back. So I decided on "additions", add-ons with no modification to existing electrical components, thereby lowering the failure rate. At an earlier time, when I opened my DS to optimize the L and R buttons, I made note of that ridiculous amount of space inside the DS. Really, this system is so mod friendly, I wonder why there isn't much mods for it (a quick search on google several weeks ago only gave me links to PSP mods)

Adding a thin piece of anything hard like in the above pic helps the L and R buttons.

So my research told me that that Tungsten E2 can really be chopped up (I was more than happy to rip it apart, several years ago that was $200 down the drain with Palm's half assed approach to a minor "upgrade" from it's previous PalmOS devices. I later bought a Palm T|X to forgot those years). My Joystick and Dreamcast triggers ideas led me to look at that vast amount of space on the sides of the DS, one could probably fit  that PSP analog stick in there. So that brought me to that other new thing bugging me of late: being in a hot country, with killer humidity levels, the A/C is on usually during the times I do my gaming sessions. Sure, headphones make a big difference in both quality and enjoyment, but I've been sticking those in my ears for 2 decades now and I'm on a quest to preserve my already great hearing. That, and I just don't like the cabling getting in the way of anything, which is probably why I use a bluetooth headset for my cell phone.

The Tungsten E2 in its current state.

So I ultimately decided that my mod had to be a speaker mod. Additional speakers in the unit would not only look cool, but it would enhance those games with surround sound, as well as not require me to wear headphones. Look, I got nothing against headphones, I use both earbud and over the ear types, mostly while gaming on my laptop, but those, especially the massive ones that cover your ears completely like ear muffs, aren't friendly when it comes to ambiance, or rather the important sounds of everyday life (I can easily miss a text message or even a phone call with headphones on) With an increase in sound volume from the source, I won't need to use headphones, and I won't miss a call or message. Or the doorbell when the mailman has a package. Or the overflights of airliners landing at the nearby airport...

The speaker candidates. Left to right: speaker from HP iPAQ rz1715, speaker from Casio Exilim camera, speaker from Samsung Upstage phone, and an unnamed speaker from some Gamecube candy holder.

The Gamecube in question. Note the 3 holes.

So the birth of the 3 speaker DS, eventually evolving into the better 4 speaker DS.

The 3 speaker mod in it's earliest conception.

Fun facts (or the painful truth's)

-While working on the battery switch of the Tungsten E2 - Hp iPAQ rz1715, as well as reviving the Casio Exilim camera, I got shocked several times, giving me the taste of the reality of tasers. I had two super nasty shocks out of several: One when the Casio camera mysteriously had charged the camera's flash module, letting me have a taste of a full flash discharge, and the other when trying to fit the E2 battery into the rz1715, I held the negative contact with one hand and the other hand was holding the positive. The most brain numbing I ever got came, and the battery super heated to such a high level I literally threw the battery across the room.(Don't ask why I forgot about human conductivity...) I was that close to having it blow up in my face. So when working on the DS mod, I used rubber gloves and continually discharged any static I may have had (the DS had to be on when attaching the speakers, so as to test levels and usability when opening/closing the DS)
-I thought of using an even bigger screen in place of the current one on the top. Believe it or not, the backlight flex cable is exactly the same size as the one used for Palm's Tungsten series (hence why I tried to add them before this 4 speaker idea, it actually fit and lit up). I'm not surprised though, at a time when Sony declared LCD shortages and dropping out of the Palm race because of that, to see the same tech in two completely different devices didn't surprise me (same way an old iPAQ rz1715 had the same sized battery as the Tungsten E2 that came 2-3 years later)
-The DS Fat doesn't not have rubber conductive pads. It instead has a similar standard button layout of handheld devices of its time, silver metallic discs on top of a circuit board. Had it had the rubber conductive pads of the DS Lite, this would have been nice to mod a joystick into, as well as give more spring to the ABXY's step. Or perhaps that low layout is more ideal for modding...
-You might have noticed some odd carvings in the case. At the headphone port, I had to carve a curve large enough for my stereo headphones 3.5mm plug to fit into there (and by that, I mean those large, ear covering style headphones. To be honest, I found only my iPod headphones to fit in the space allowed by Nintendo (and YOU know how small the 3.5mm plug is on the iPod headphones)
-I thought of putting LEDs inside the case (a la Lock's Quest LE DS) to light up some crevices in the DS, but alas, given my battery situation and those rash of news of exploding batteries I decided to just forget about lighting up my DS and instead stay with the 4 speaker layout.
-I had several candidates for the speakers, although it was too rare to find two of the same [sized] speakers to use. Perhaps it was fate that led me to buy that Tungsten E2, which would probably be one of the few series of devices I have bought (the DS's being one of them, as well as my GBA's.)
-Believe it or not, I thought of adding a third screen. Yeah, it would have worked too. In fact, it is possible, just not in the way you are thinking. See, my idea involved adding one of the dead Tungsten E's on top of the DS, itself being powered by the DS's battery. The Palm device being separate, it would have been ideal for FAQ writing and viewing (I myself a FAQ contributor for GameFaqs). Alas, we are faced with that battery drain issue. It's a nice concept though... I just prefer Windows Mobile over PalmOS.

Look forward to my DS Lite joystick mod.

More test posts

More post testing for unmentioned tests.

Happy Holidays! How can the same thing happen to the same guy twice?

Hey Hey Hey it's a Happy Holiday! Yeah, it's that time of the year where family gathers and gives each other Nintendo 64 boxes, aka the N64 Kid, aka .... clothes. Really though, I know that clothes is the #1 gift to give for Christmas, but why? Especially when it's summer clothes, why give such a gift during winter time? (most countries, yeah I come from Germany) Anyways, per my usual tradition, I watch Die Hard 2: Die Harder this time of the year. I know, odd isn't it? There's a whole lot of other Christmas movies out there and I watch Die Hard 2? Hey, it's not the only movie I watch, it's just the one that has a funny story attached to it. You see, back in 2006 AFN Europe aired Die Hard 2 on their AFN Movies channel. Since this is a tradition of mine, I decided to watch theirs. Oh yeah, how fun that was. AFN Movies being a channel even kids can access, their version of Die Hard 2 was heavily censored LOL (curse words, complete lack of blood, and most notably, the famous Icicle in the eye stabbing. Remember that? Unedited you see the icicle in the guys eye, but not in the AFN one lol) Sure, I've seen Die Hard 2 plenty of times on broadcast in the USA, but I went into this one thinking AFN at least kept it original (PG13 isn't the only rated movies they air) After that I had to watch the DVD. No way was I going to sully the day with an edited version of a classic. XD So yeah, Happy Holidays and here's my recommended movies for this day of the year: Die Hard 1 Die Hard 2 Jingle all the way Home Alone 1 Home Alone 2 Wonderful Life Night at the Museum Coming up next: The first ever Nintendo DS 4 Speaker mod, made by me!

Image posting test

So, seems some changes went on in Blogger that I didn't even notice, and images won't show up on my other blog. So let's see if blog templates have an effect.

Water! Water everywhere! Who you gonna call?

Fire control?

Some of you may recall I'm in the Philippines right now. Tropical Storm Ketsana, Typhoon Ketsana, whatever the world wants to call it, I didn't like it. No, it wasn't the water, no it wasn't the ensuing widespread blackout for more than a day, no no no. It was the fact that I was even here to experience this nightmare, is what riles me.

Sure, I was born and raised in Germany, where the worst flooding I saw was one that engulfed my shoes. Shoes. Right now I'm looking out my window and I see beachfront property. Houses on water? How about houses in water, that's what it's like now. And it's The Sixth Day already. No, not something Arnold Governator is responsible for. In fact, when Grey Davis left house and the Governator came aboard, I never saw a power outage in the time I was in L.A. since then. So yeah, we could use a Governator in this country. In fact, get rid of this corrupt government including that not-so-bright 1-million-peso-dinners president. POOR HANDLING OF THIS FLOODING. Poor judgements made. Bad calls, missed calls, hell even iPhone style dropped calls all because of this government.

I don't like this country one bit. I never did. This government shot down any hopes of me changing my negative views on this country. I somehow feel that whenever the USA takes their military out of a country, the country changes for the worse. Maybe because with a USA Military presence, said country wouldn't want to screw themselves over in case of an international incident. Now, I can't include Germany in all this, even though I was there when the USA military had a strong presence (Frankfurt AM Main) till they are just down to two (well known) base locations. I've seen bases close down, and bring the jobs they brought to the local community down the drain. While I'd like to delve more into my life in Germany, right now I'm not home. Yes, right now I'm in an island, that is surrounded by water, and ironically it is also filled with water as well. Sure, some areas aren't flooded anymore, but why?

Why is it Day 6 and there's still water where I'm at? Thankfully, no water has entered the residence that I'm staying in, but seriously. How long will it take to have this water go away? I propose we MOAB bomb this water out. Oh, but then, they'd have to ask help from The Americans just to do that. If only this country wasn't so rotten...

/end rant.

So in the meantime, while I'm stationary in the upper floors, I fixed my DS PHat 3 speaker mod. I did that... by cutting a crucial wire. Wow.

More added information regarding Ayano's past

This is to continue the previous posts about Ayano from Luminous Arc 2 from my posts at GameFaqs. I know my previous posts were just snippets of that vast collection of notes I gathered in my research, but well, I opened a door, so might as well see what's inside. It's odd that there's no mention of an elemental wizard. Take Pip for example, not really an element major. Added to the fact that there is also no mention of Crests for wizards as well, so this leads me to believe wizards are probably users of a wide range of magic, not entirely stuck to one element, as opposed to the witches, pretty much using only one kind of element. there has been no mention or portrayal that I can remember in the game of a witch using a second type of magic. But then this whole thing is centered around those who have an aptitude to using magic are witches(female) and wizards(male), and as they eventually perform well with one element, that will ultimately decide their aptitude to that element. But so far I've only seen elements tied to the witches... Remember that the Crests must choose their witch, which according to the game specifically mentions "Witch". There, again, no mention of a Crest for Wizards. In fact, I don't recall any mention of a Lapistier for Wizzy's either... Now I'm well aware that there were some Navilian survivors, and I even contemplated that perhaps that Rune Knight may have lived for a bit more, but all this is confused by Beginning Day, which states it ended Navilian civilization 4000 years ago, around the time of Elicia's sealing. Mostly where my Phoenix Inferno theory comes from, but let's see why there may have been Navilian survivors: -The demon blade was created after Elicia's sealing, as it has strong ties to the Masters. Possibly created by Ayano. -Sophia is probably the only documented direct descendant of an Navilian. She wasn't just magically created... -The Navilians of course were the ones who made Carnava Palace, as there were, apparently survivors of Beginning Day who founded the whole country. -The seals were also created by them, which obviously happened after Elicia's sealing, as well as the Conclusion gate, which was eventually sunk into the sea. -They also left behind those clues, legends, and what not, the ones which Bharva eventually pieced together. -While I'm not sure if Ayano had the Mother Lapis made, the fact is it's tied to the Magic Association, which she has a hand in. On the other hand, the Nav's were the source behind the Queen's chair... >_> Here's where the fun begins. Let's start with Beginning Day. It apparently ended Nav civilization, yet some survived. Now we know Carnava isn't the only place on the planet with life, there are obviously other countries as well (Moose), but then again these countries most likely popped up after Beg. Day. Now we know there's a planet, but no mention of whether or not the Nav's occupied the entire planet. We do know that the planet is pretty much mostly rich in magic, since the Granseal draws its power from it. And yet, what is this Beg. Day and why end all(some) Nav life as we know it? Who remember's the Althea ending? Remember the words? If I remember correctly, it's something along the lines of "We are born of the flames, and to the flames we return." This is, in my belief, the Phoenix Theory, how life starts/ends. Obviously the Nav's got flamed up as a start, but why end them with the flames? That's where my Phoenix Inferno being cast 4000 years ago comes from, as it was stated that although Life magic was rumored to have ended them, I believe it was because of Elicia performing the Life Magic where the rumor comes from, but not exactly the cause of Nav demise.

Confirmation of my GameFaqs post regarding Master Mattias

This is a backup of the post I did at GameFaqs' board for Luminous Arc 2. Ah that B-witched article, I remember talking about those with some of the early players. Sparked quite a few Kaph followers XD In response to Nargrakhan's contributions: Don't take these the wrong way, I'm not trying to disprove you but rather clarify some things you might not know about. From what I remember there weren't really apprentices to possibly all of the witches. This is due to the Crest choosing its witch, which I really don't see them training their replacements immediately after that lol. We'll also note that Sadie has been alove for a long time, and who knows how long the Wind Crest stuck to her. As for the Verdure witch, as I stated earlier she really wouldn't have trained an apprentice had she had the position just recently. We'll also note that Pop most likely was born around, or after the Granend Event 15 years earlier, and she of course worked hard enough for the Nature Crest thingy to accept her. I honestly believe the Flame and Shadow Frost witch positions were filled in yet either, as it hasn't been explained what caused the SF's demise, had there been one. We also know that Stevey and Gaston were good friends with Mattias, so no words from them about Roland's mother just gets thrown in the large pile of stories with "heroes with no mothers". As for the Flame witch position, I really don't think that has been filled for a while prior to Granend Event, or maybe not ever at all. We'll note Althea has been training since Ayano found her (Squirrel Barbecue event), and the fact that the other students weren't really fond of Althea, kind of make me think that Fire position wasn't going to be filled anytime soon, further slowed by Fatima pilfering the Crest. I also don't believe that Sadie has done an Unity before. As we heard from Josie, there's hasn't been two Masters present at the same time. For Sadie to unite with Mattias and then Roland would kind of really destroy the purpose of swearing ones loyalty, especially something as sacred as Uniting. Add to the fact that Sadie is kind of anti-social, we also take into account that Roland's initiation was the only one where she was present, as it was only till after the Granend Event that she held onto the second piece of Mother Lapis. Thinking about it, Sadie only deemed Roland worthy of the trial after battling, and losing to him. Perhaps Sadie battled with Mattias 15 years earlier to see if he's worthy of a kiss, and maybe he lost. Maybe I should note that, if I remember it correctly, Mattias had just become a master about a year before Granend Event. But, it wasn't long after that he had his "mental fits" where he found out about the Demon Blade. Remember what happened? He shut himself out many times from the outside world, and according to the previous Brilliant witch, who tried to help him only to be brushed off. This leads me to believe Mattias wasn't friendly with anybody, much less having bonded with anyone. But I'm not done lol. Recall Mattias's above situation. He wasn't really Master long, where he ends up training Fatima. This also leads me to believe that there has not been a Shadow Frost witch in a while, much less one present at the time, due to Mattias specifically training Fatima for the sole purpose of using Frozen Void, which we all know would eventually kill Fatima. So it really would not have been possible for an existing SF witch to be present, if Mattias' plan was "Train Fatima, have SF Crest recognize her, bond with her and eventually use her to destroy the world behind the gate", which of course, was his plan from the start. Don't forget one of Mattias' last words: *to Roland* "You have something I didn't(could never) have: Friends" (clarification needed) which further leads us to believe there was no bonding with him.

Confirmation of my Ayano story FAQ at gamefaqs part1

This is to confirm my post at the Gamefaqs boards for Luminous Arc 2 concerning Witch titles, in case someone sees fit to rip me.

Hmm, it has been more than half a year since I wrote that brain fried post, so not even I remember where I pulled the Sadie reference from >__<;

I do suggest you read the following, it's excerpts from my undisclosed guide, which is a great read for LA2 players who were befuddled by the story (or lack of storytelling)

To address some of your questions/comments, Althea more so a witch than Ayano simply for the fact that in that modern world, there has to be 6 element witches, with that Fire spot quite vacant. Of course, after all those years there hasn't been a successor of the one that died 15 years ago, and you can bet when Althea unlocked her latent potential that the fire crest, at that moment being held by a girl most coldest in the world, scurried over to the nearest burning superior intellect nearby.

About Ayano, she is in fact a witch, just not in the class of human witches. The human witches are those born after the 4000 yr ago event, with the 6 elementals thing most likely created by Ayano to help police the world. Let's remember this through some in-game facts:

-Navilians have a high knowledge of magic, making them all pretty much magic users, because,
--Their language is great for spellcasting.
-But their language died out 4000 years ago when,
--The "Beginning Day" event happens. All life dies out when, guess what? I believe someone cast Phoenix Inferno!(or a navilian version of it) While it doesn't exactly say Phoenix Inferno(it's Phoenix Theory) is the cause, the facts are:
--Phoenix Inferno destroys all in it's wake (its a world destroyer class magic), probably thanks to a girl and her lover,
---The last Rune Knight, who was around over 4000 years ago! I kinda remember that the Phoenix Inferno can only be cast when the witch and her master are one and in tune, but wait! The title of Master only appeared after the Beginning Day event, so in that time it was most likely not a Master but rather the Rune Knight.
-With (most likely) Phoenix Inferno wiping out all the Navilians, Ayano makes it her mission that the language dies along with them, and to create a new order of magic users to ensure magic does not destroy again. The 6 elemental witches are titles second only to the Mage Queen, one element controlled by one person each, most likely again a method conceived by Ayano to ensure one witch does not control all elements.
-Don't forget, Ayano is the Director of the Magic Association.
-The Rev Magic Academy has been around for over 4000 years.
-Ayano owns the Rev academy because the building is hers (most likely all the other Magic Heritage sites as well).
--She owns those places since 1, she has a ton of money, and 2, being the last Navilian on the planet pretty much gave her everything lol...
-In short, Ayano is a witch, but that of before the Beginning Day event. In their time she is just a plain magic researcher who helped spearhead Elicia's work.

continue below decks.

Confirmation of my Ayano story FAQ at gamefaqs part2

This is to confirm my post at Gamefaqs Luminous Arc 2 board concerning Witch titles.

Fun facts: (a bit of theories, but they make sense if you add up all the horribly scattered pieces throughout the game)

-Did you figure it out yet? I'm not sure, but I believe Ayano was the one who cast the Phoenix Inferno that caused Beginning Day. It makes sense when she is the only survivor, and Rune Knight guy, most likely her lover, dies out early since he wasn't cursed by Elicia, and Ayano, later on, pretty much is sick of immortality, if I remember her words correctly she made note of how "she doesn't have any friends because they [would]/did die eventually, leaving her alone again". Would make sense that she doesn't want any more friends if her lover, Mr Rune Knight, died, breaking her heart.
-How did that guy die anyways? Well, Phoenix Inferno destroys all, ja? Remember how when Althea cast it, Roland pretty much had no way to survive, had it not been for Ayano's charm? Ayano most likely created the charm to avoid a repeat of her inability to protect her lover(she probably learned a thing or two from her own immortality curse). Anyways, how did that guy die? Well, say when Ayano cast Phoenix Inferno, she knew not even herself would survive, but when she cast it, Elicia in all her power cursed Ayano with longevity, which pretty much canceled out Phoenix Inferno, making her the sole survivor!
-But wait! Wasn't PI supposed to kill all? Well, not Elicia, remember she has 2 forms. Ayano most likely cast it on the humanized Elicia, pretty much weakening her, enabling Ayano to finally seal Ahrtania along with her. Remember how the game ends? Roland and co weaken the humanized Elicia, then kill off her Queen form with PI.
-Althea most likely knew this due to her being pretty much a duplicate of Elicia.
-Ayano probably had the Mother Lapis created with the heart and soul of her lover, Mr Rune Knight. Remember that the Master position was created with the intent of leading the magic association, and that Mother Lapis would choose said master wisely, one who fits the bill. But why even bother?
-"Nothing lasts forever." Words from Ayano's very own cute mouth. She most likely knew that the Great Seals weren't going to last forever, so she created the Master position so that said Master dude would eventually find his lover witch, make out with her, become one etc so that when Elicia woke up again, there would be a Phoenix Inferno waiting for her all over again. LOL!

I better stop lol. It's 4 AM and I can keep going on and on, except.... these were all taken from my unreleased guide, the absolute answer to all the unexplained story elements of Luminous Arc 2. From these posts, you can pretty much see that this game is probably a whole lot deeper than they meant to show. What, maybe not enough budget or not enough space, whatever the case I feel strongly about my above speculation, which, at this moment is not confirmed but gee whiz, you gotta admit. 230+ hours into this game, I spent a great deal of that ripping the story apart enough to conclude those above findings. time will tell if I'm correct or not...

---
Mobile posting is tough on the thumbs...

Opera mini 3.10 test

Well well, a bit late for this, but this is a test for those quotation errors of the previous posts. Let's see if Opera Mini can survive the rigors of mobile blogging.

That's
Where's
There's
What's it accelerate? (lol)
How's

Posted via Yahoo Mail Full browsing via Opera Mini 3.10 via Esmertec's java running on a Palm Treo 750 with Windows Mobile 6 ROW WWE 2.27.

In sickness and in health...

Is that how it goes? I wouldn't know, I haven't gotten married. Yet? Er, anyways, I figured this would be the right time to explain that awefully long absence I had since my last transmission online (I believe that was on the GameFaqs forum for Luminous Arc 2)

That week, 3rd week of February, I encountered my worst stomach flu/food poisoning yet. That marks the 5th time I've gotten sick while in this country (Philippines) and you'd think that by now I'd be just about sick of this country. (If you know about that joke from NGE(Evangelion) about Germany being the worst, that is nothing more than a joke because this Philippines wins hands down for basically the most unhealthiest country that [I've been to so far].) While I'm not going to lament the serious lack of hygiene or the utter lameness of cleanliness, this country really needs some heavy sanitation done on it. I mean, the way the food is handled in this country... really makes me say "I'm definitely a foreigner..."

Putting my thoughts on this country aside, the sickness lasted over 3 months, at times it got so bad I just had to lie in bed, now and then unable to have even the strength to hold my DS Lite (The DS Phat just seemed to have gotten even heavier). Now I've lost a heck of a lot of weight, I eat less and even more of less (or more or less lesser), and, well, I'm back to where I started, but lost 3 months in the process, and this is the first time I've taken so much medicine (orally and external application.) Not to mention nowadays I just have no apettite for food, in some cases I am under orders to eat at least a bite of something (forcing me to cook my own food since buying food made out there is like, a death sentence or something) While I understand that I can't work without some form of food for energy, I just can't help but wonder, is this country worth it? The work that brings me here, is that something I should continue doing? (There's something funny about Germans working in southeast asia, My uncle worked in Singapore for a bit.)

I ponder the worth of this country, and whether or not the citizens even care about their own country (I mean the air quality, the AIR quality!! I didn't even mention the food. Ok now I did...)

Hopefully now, with wireless broadband and a little luck, I hope to be back in full gear and ready to post some interesting things that happened during my rehab. Well, that and I had to help a few people over at the XDA developers forum. So from my Blackberry Curve browsing to my DS hardware modifications, to my degraded health, I will survive.

And yes, I still am working on those Luminous Arc 2 guides. They are... coming along nicely >_>

(Edited due to mobile blog posting being a major piss ant.)

This is a Blackberry 8320 test.

The only way I can tell for sure whether or not the problem is my Treo, Isummon my Blackberry Curve 8320 with a T-mobile brand plastered all over the bottom. Here goes:

It&#39;s not&#39;s there&#39;s that&#39;s what&#39;s

These keys are tough to press.

Unicode or it's just me?

So, it seems we have some browser issues. It could be that I didn&#39;t set the encoding right, or it&#39;s my laptop, with the region set to Japan (files are in Japanese lol)

So, I&#39;ve set Netfront encoding to Unicode, so let&#39;s see how this goes.

Treo 750v post via Netfront 3.5.

I&#39;m sure you see the previous post... Opera browser seems like a real bad test.

So after all that, it still was unnecessary

Let&#39;s see how Netfront would react.

Palm Treo 750v post

Well well, seems dumbphones will stay dumb, if that previous double post was any indication. So, being a whole lot faster with a better browser to boot, this could be a start of a beautiful form of mobile blogging. Fun, modern times I say...

(this post brought to you via a Palm Treo 750v with Vodaphone&#39;s WM6 ROM on a 3G network using the Opera 8.6 browser.Till they sorted out the incompatibility mess of the 9.5 version.)

Netfront is probably better, but I wanted to try Opera for the first time (for WM, since I&#39;ve used Opera Mini on the Blackberry before)

On a side note, if this looks like a double post, that&#39;s due to the &quot;send&quot; button being right below the message box. Way to go, Yahoo...

This is a test post.

this message has been brought to you via a samsung 3G dumbphone. posts will be done on my treo and blackberry from now on.

This is a test post.

this message has been brought to you via a samsung 3G dumbphone. posts will be done on my treo and blackberry from now on.