Lounge

Home of the "Virtual Bender"

Welcome fellow gamer! Our JAVA-based live chat brings gamers from around the globe to sit back and discuss everything from videogames to politics to what the Cubs are doing. Please note that this community is NOT part of our retail store nor a Customer Service area, and that store-related questions may not be answered. Please refer back to the store during business hours for all your shopping inquiries and needs. Have fun!

 

If you like IRC, check out http://www.mirc.com, where you can find an excellent dedicated program for IRC chats. The app you see here is NOT full featured and doesn't support some of IRC's more advanced options! If you prefer mIRC, then note that these chats are all running from EFnet servers.

A handy guide to the extensive features of #vbender, courtesy of channel admin "Ze_ro"
A note on syntax: In the following descriptions, I will provide the syntax for each of the commands that can be used. Anything that is enclosed in [square brackets] is optional and can be left out. Anything that appears in "italics" is a required field, which should be replaced with something else. So when I say: "!dp game", you should ACTUALLY type "!dp Demon Attack" or "!dp mario". These variables will be explained in the appropriate sections.
  • Digital Press Guide Search (bot: Kuribo)

    • Description: This script will search the Digital Press Guide for a game and display the results in the channel.
    • Syntax: !dp [--option=value ...] game
    • Options: This function supports a large number of options in order to alter the output. If no options are specified, the script will attempt to search the Guide for game and output the first 5 matches to the channel. Since the Guide is very large, there may be many more than 5 matches, so you may want to use one or more options in order to limit your search. By default, the search is limited to North American releases, and ignores alternate sections of the Guide (Such as Homebrew and Rumor Mill) in order to improve the clarity of the results. Here is a list of the available options (Note that any number of options can be combined):
      • --help : This will show a list of the available options.
      • --system=x : This option will restrict your search to a specific game system. Replace x with the name of the system. Generally, most systems are matched by short names such as "jag" or "3do". For example, "!dp --system=snes Mario" will search for all Super Nintendo games with "Mario" in their name. For a list of available systems, try "!dp --system=list".
      • --sort=rare : This will sort the output in order to show the rarest games first.
      • --sort=common : This will sort the output to show the LEAST rare games first.
      • --sort=expensive : This will sort the output to show the most expensive games first (This is not necessarily the same as the rarest games).
      • --sort=cheap : This will sort the output to show the cheapest games first.
      • --hardware : This will search hardware instead of games.
      • --foreign : Show only foreign games.
      • --homebrew : Show only homebrew games.
      • --proto : Show only prototype games.
      • --rumor : Show only games from the "Rumor Mill" sections of the Guide.
      • --cdonly : Show CD games only (This only makes sense for Jaguar, TurboGrafx-16, and NeoGeo. If you're looking for SegaCD games, use "--system=segacd" instead.)
      • --demos : Show only demos
      • --coinop : Show only games marked as coin-op conversions
      • --landmark : Show only games marked as being landmark games (Usually, these are launch titles or games that were otherwise important for some reason)
      • --good : Show only games marked as being good (In the paper version of the guide, these titles have a + next to them).
      • --all : Remove all filters and show ALL results (Note that there are some filters that are enabled by default in order to remove less useful search results. Using --all will often not get you what you want).
      • It should also be noted that if you leave out the name of a game to search for, the script will just look for ALL games. This may not sound useful, but the examples below will show how this can actually be used to your advantage.
    • Examples:
      • !dp Legend of Zelda (Searches for anything with "Legend of Zelda" in the title. This is the most common usage of this command)
      • !dp --system=saturn --good (Searches for all games that were marked as being good)
      • !dp --system=neogeo --sort=cheap (Shows the five least expensive NeoGeo games)
      • !dp --sort=rare Mario (Shows the five rarest titles with "Mario" in their name)
      • !dp --foreign --system=dc Rez (Shows all Dreamcast games with "Rez" in their name which were released outside of North America. Since Rez was not released in North America, it would not be shown if the --foreign option was not added)
    • Notes:
      • The search value is not case sensitive, but spacing and hyphenation can often cause problems... for example, searching for "Megaman" or "Mega-Man" will both fail, as the Guide calls the game "Mega Man". There are other games that can cause similar problems.
      • Since this script generates a lot of output, it's considered somewhat poor manners to use it while conversations are going on.
      • This script is primarily meant as a quick way to find the rarity of a game. If you are "just browsing", please use the web based search on Digital Press instead, as there are more options there, and you won't be flooding the channel.
      • This script accesses the Digital Press web site in order to get all it's data... if the Digital Press website is down for any reason, this script will produce an error message.

       

  • Upcoming Video Game Releases (bot: Kuribo)

    • Description: This function will list video games that will be released soon for any current video game system.
    • Syntax: !games system
    • Options: Replace system with the name of the system that you want to see upcoming releases for. Valid systems are: DS, GBA, GC, MAC, MOBILE, PC, PS2, PS3, PSP, WII, XBOX, X360.
    • Examples:
      • !games xbox (Shows the next 10 Xbox games that are scheduled to be released)
      • !games PC (Shows the next 10 PC games that are scheduled to be released)
    • Notes: Results are collected from Game Rankings.com, so if the dates are wrong, don't blame me.

     

  • Game Reviews (bot: Kuribo)

    • Description: This function show average review scores for a game.
    • Syntax: !review [--system=x] game
    • Options: Replace game with the name of the game you're looking for. If more than one game matches your request, then the first three will be shown. Optionally, you can also use the --system=x parameter to restrict your search to games for a specific system (very helpful if you're looking for something a specific EA sports game or a Tom Clancy game). For a list of valid systems, try "!review --system=list".
    • Examples:
      • !review Bullet Witch (Show review scores for Bullet Witch)
      • !review --system=pc elder scrolls (Shows review scores for any PC game with "elder scrolls" in it's name)
    • Notes: Reviews are pulled from Game Rankings.com. Game Rankings only lists North American releases, and does not have reviews for anything older than the Genesis... so don't bother looking for 2600 games or Vib Ribbon, because you won't get anything.

     

  • eBay Reporting (bot: Kuribo)

    • Description: This script attempts to retrieve information about eBay auctions.
    • Syntax: Simply post the URL to an auction.
    • Options: There are no options for this script.

     

  • Xbox Live Gamertags (bot: Kuribo)

    • Description: This script will show information about an Xbox Live user
    • Syntax: !gamertag username
    • Options: Replace username with a valid Xbox Live Gamertag.
    • Examples:
      • !gamertag Abstract Zero (This will show you my current gamer score, last game played, etc)

       

  • #VBender Encyclopedia (bot: katamari)

    • Viewing Definitions

      • Description: This will print a definition that has been added to the database.
      • Syntax: ?? word
      • Options: Replace word with the word you want a definition of. Note that it HAS to be a single word, as the script is not capable of handling phrases! However, there are a few instances where definitions have been added with underscores instead of spaces (see the examples).
      • Examples:
        • ?? genesis (Shows the definition for "genesis".)
        • ?? blast_processing (Shows the definition for "blast_processing", note the use of an underscore rather than a space. If a space was used, it would have looked for a definition for "blast" instead, and likely just fail.)
      • Notes: I have added definitions for most common (and many uncommon) video gaming related terms, so if you hear something you're unsure of, try this and you may be enlightened.

       

    • Searching Definitions

      • Description: This will search the database for a word or phrase. This can be very helpful if you're looking for a term, but can't find it.
      • Syntax: ** query
      • Options: Replace query with the word or phrase you want to find in the database.
      • Examples:
        • ** sega (Lists all definitions that have the word "sega" in them)
      • Notes: Unlike the rest of the commands in this section, this one DOES work properly even with spaces in the search term.

       

    • Editing Definitions

      • Description: This command provides a number of ways of adding, removing, or editing definitions.
      • Syntax: !learn action word definition
      • Options: Replace action with either add (If you want to add a new definition), del (if you want to delete an existing definition), or rep (if you want to replace an existing definition). Replace word with the appropriate word, and definition with the desired definition (not required if using the del option).
      • Examples:
        • !learn add Kamino Some really annoying guy. (Adds a definition for "Kamino" which reads "Some really annoying guy.")
        • !learn rep Kamino No, seriously, he's REALLY annoying sometimes! (Replaces the previous definition with a new one)
        • !learn del Kamino (Deletes the definition for "Kamino")
      • Notes: Again, word has to be a single word! If you try to do something like "!learn add super nintendo This was the second console system made by Nintendo", then you will end up defining "super" rather than "super nintendo" as you probably wanted. If you HAVE to have a space in the name, I recommend using an underscore instead. EFnet has a limitation on the length of a single line on IRC, so if your definition is too long, it may end up being truncated. It's worth pointing out that you can add multiple definitions for things, but I don't recommend doing this as it makes deleting or replacing definitions somewhat more complicated. Lastly, please do not abuse the delete function, as some people have spent a good amount of time thinking up some of the definitions that are included in the database.

       

  • User Tracking (Last Time Seen) (bot: katamari)

    • Description: This will tell you the last time a user was seen in the channel, and the message they left when they quit.
    • Syntax: !seen user
    • Options: Replace user with the nickname of the person you are looking for. You can also use an asterisk as a wildcard.
    • Examples:
      • !seen Ze_ro (Will show the last time Ze_ro was in the channel)
    • Notes: This script will attempt to track nickname changes and report accordingly, but is not foolproof.

     

  • User Tracking (Last Time Active) (bot: katamari)

    • Description: This will tell you the last time a user was active in the channel.
    • Syntax: !lastspoke user
    • Options: Replace user with the nickname of the person in question.
    • Examples:
      • !lastspoke Ze_ro (Will show the last time Ze_ro was active)
    • Notes: If a person joined the channel but hasn't typed anything, then this script will tell you when they joined. Also note that this script will only work on people that are currently in the channel. If they aren't present, you should use !seen instead.

     

  • Adding Quotes (bot: katamari)

    • Description: This will add a quote to the database.
    • Syntax: !addquote quote
    • Options: Just replace quote with the actual quote itself. Note to #vbender old-timers: There was a time way back when a different bot was using a different script to catalog quotes, and it required you to enter a person's nickname twice. It doesn't work like that anymore, so just cut and paste the line you want and don't add in the nickname again or it'll get added into the quote too!
    • Examples:
      • !addquote Archimedes: "EUREKA!" was actually do to him inventing the martini
      • !addquote i'm surprised Esperanto isn't the official language of scientology or some wierd bullshit like that
    • Notes: The syntax on this command is quite strict. In the above examples, it looks like I've put the person's name twice, but the one in angle brackets is actually necessary, otherwise when the quote is shown, no name will be shown along with it. Also note that QUOTES CANNOT BE DELETED!

     

  • Reading Quotes (bot: katamari)

    • Description: Retrieve a quote from the quote database.
    • Syntax: !quote [search string]
    • Options: Simply typing !quote will result in a random quote. If you're looking for a specific quote, then replace [search string] with either a person's name, and/or something that you think might be in that quote.
    • Examples:
      • !quote huge log (Look for a quote that has "huge log" in it somewhere)
      • !quote Sothy (Show a random quote from Sothy)
    • Notes: If you get a crappy quote, blame Kamino. Also, it should be pointed out that if you put a space in your search terms, that space will be taken literally. So if you wanted to find a quote that said " tentacle rape FTW", and you typed !quote Sph1nx rape, you wouldn't get it... but if you typed !quote tentacle rape, you would.

     

  • Idle Kings (bot: Kuribo)

    • Description: This will list the 10 people in the channel with the highest idle times.
    • Syntax: !idle
    • Options: There are no options for this command.
    • Notes: If the bot is disconnected for any reason, these idle times are reset to zero.

 

Past IRC Benders

"Virtual Bender: Many a Contest"
Held on October 17th, 2003 - lots of giveaways and the usual drunken madness.

"DP Survivor: To Tell The Truth"
This was a big game surrounding the next-to-last Immunity given to a player on the DP Survivor game on October 15, 2002. Sound confusing? Well get this. The only people in the game were pretending to have been in the movie "Shawshank Redemption", one of whom actually was, and the three players trying to figure out which one that was. All of this meets with hilarious results, of course.

"Virtual Bender: Toga Party"
Transcripts from the toga party/game chat/drinking get together that took place on February 8, 2002. Note: Another 6 hour event!

"Virtual Bender" 2001
Transcripts from the holiday/game chat/drinking get together that took place on December 7, 2001. Note: this was a six hour chat, the file is large.

 

Comments? Click HERE

Go to Digital Press HQ
Return to Digital Press Home

Last updated: Wednesday, May 13, 2009 07:33 PM