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          Nestled along the western coast of South America, a great geographical scars cuts it's way through the lush tropical forests and scenery. That craggy stretch is the Andes and among it's snow topped peaks is a singular imposing sight...Aconcagua. Standing over 22,000 feet high and reigning as the second largest mountain in the world, Aconcagua has been the siren call to many a mountain climbing enthusiast and ultimately the reason for the demise of many; so what better thing to base around survival adventure game around! Made by a mostly unknown developer, released in Japan only near the end of the PS1's life cycle, and being a point and click survival adventure title, there were many things that have left Aconcagua to be forgotten in the annals of video game history but I feel that would be a shame to do. Because outside of it's shortcomings there's honestly a lot to appreciate in the game. It paved the way for future, over the top survival action games like 'Raw Danger' or 'Day of Disaster'; it probably used the PS1's graphically to the extent of it's hardware limits (or at least did some interesting visual trickery to make things look a little less shabby in comparison to the PS2 which was shortly to come out); and on top of that it's got some pretty amazing sound work and story telling to get across. So strap in, get your hiking boots on, and get ready for a leisurely paced romp through the 'White Sentinel'....Aconcagua.  Katoh is a Japanese journalist who was heading to Meruza for a chance to interview it's democratic patriot and future leader, Pachamama. Also he hopes one day to make sweet love to Aconcagua's tender peak.  Pachamama is a democratic patriot hoping to bring peace and civility back to her homeland of Meruza. Sadly it seems that not everyone out there shares her optimistic and altruistic outlook.  Steve is a brash and loud mouthed American engineer that just wants to get off this drat mountain before it kills him....or before anyone else kills him for that matter. Steve is a dick.  Julia is an American journalist that seems to be looking for the same hot scoop as Katoh, but something about her behavior just seems a bit suspicious.  Lopez is another plane survivor and an American business man. He's also burly and strong, and I feel very secure when he holds me in his arms...but that's only in my slash fic.  For extra untranslated fun, I recently did a live LP of an excellent Japan-only FMV game for the PS1. It's kind of a sci-fi murder mystery with action and intrigue and maybe a few finely dressed Terminators.... Part 1: Alive with live commentary Part 2: Still Alive (though I can't say the police are fairing as well) Part 3: Alive behind the wheel Part 4: Alive with smocks Part 5: Alive...or dead (Schrodinger's Atsuko) Part 6: Alive with explanations discworld is all I read fucked around with this message at 05:34 on Sep 10, 2018 |
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Jul 17, 2018 07:49
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| # ? Apr 23, 2024 20:24 |
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  We gotta bring democracy to Meruza....but first we need to get off this mountain.
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Jul 17, 2018 07:51
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Looks very interesting! I wonder though, Katoh is from Japan, but speaks English even to himself and Nakayama (who I assume is also from Japan since they're in the same news crew). And this game only came out in Japan. Kind of weird. I mean Metal Wolf Chaos was the same, but it made much more sense why the characters there spoke English all the time. And funnily enough I'd say the English in MWC was a lot more... weird, than the English I'm hearing in this game as of now (haven't even watched the whole episode yet).
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Jul 17, 2018 08:43
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You are right, this looks pretty good for a 3d PSX game and the English voice acting makes it a lot more accessible than Alive was, though I will always think it's weird how common point and click games were on the Japanese PSX, was the Playstation Mouse™ a more popular accessory there? This really is an old game, you could actually have knives on air planes before 9/11. Having multiple protagonists with different skills and tools is something I always love whenever it shows up, and so far it has made sense which one to use though the deep snow seemed a bit iffy, I guessed you'd need snowshoes or something not just a taller less wimpy character.
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Jul 17, 2018 10:49
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Zanzibar Ham posted:Looks very interesting! Hel posted:You are right, this looks pretty good for a 3d PSX game and the English voice acting makes it a lot more accessible than Alive was, though I will always think it's weird how common point and click games were on the Japanese PSX, was the Playstation Mouse™ a more popular accessory there? But yeah, while the game was made maybe a year before 9/11 struck, I still think most country's airlines would think twice about allowing a combat knife onto a plane. I mean, a pocket knife or a Swiss Army knife I could see being explained away, but a combat knife is definitely meant for a very specific purpose. And yeah...I mostly wanted an excuse early on to show off how damage and dangers exist in the game (even in some doofy spots); so it made sense to dunk on Steve and have him suffer a bit of hypothermia.
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Jul 17, 2018 16:23
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Why do you think they made this a point and click game and not say, tank controls or free roaming? I guess it makes it easier to control where the player can and can't go. Plus it would require a more complex UI prob. Good on them for not making it tank controls though.
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Jul 19, 2018 12:15
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  And we suddenly get a hearty hot spraying of political intrigue in our collective faces! coleman francis posted:Why do you think they made this a point and click game and not say, tank controls or free roaming? I guess it makes it easier to control where the player can and can't go. Plus it would require a more complex UI prob. Good on them for not making it tank controls though.
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Jul 23, 2018 06:40
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Surely this man with covered face pointing an assault rifle at us is here to rescue us! You can really tell how much Pachamama has become accustomed to people trying to kill her. The action set pieces are a neat idea.
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Jul 23, 2018 21:53
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Ugh the oil on the door with the bodyguard sitting right there was a facepalm. You could at least move him geez. I hate when games force you to make blatantly dumb decisions like this. Edit: Just saw the last episode. I actually really like it. A life raft is indeed something you'd find from a regular passenger plane, and the way it goes down is just the right combination of ridiculous and awesome. Keldulas fucked around with this message at 00:42 on Jul 24, 2018 |
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Jul 24, 2018 00:18
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^^^ A part of me started to question in retrospect why they didn't try to get the gun from the bodyguard and try to use that more, but it's probably for the best that untrained people are wielding fire arms. Keldulas posted:Ugh the oil on the door with the bodyguard sitting right there was a facepalm. You could at least move him geez. I hate when games force you to make blatantly dumb decisions like this. coleman francis posted:Surely this man with covered face pointing an assault rifle at us is here to rescue us! discworld is all I read fucked around with this message at 00:52 on Jul 24, 2018 |
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Jul 24, 2018 00:44
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At least the bodyguard's condition isn't our fault. Edit: Also I'd be really annoyed if no one goes to at least take the guns with them.
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Jul 24, 2018 00:45
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discworld is all I read posted:
Having the characters work together was nice and the action sequence seemed like it worked out ok, but the single skipole seemed a bit out of place, not that it was needed but that there only was one in the helicopter in the first place.
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Jul 29, 2018 09:04
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 So we've learned the basics of problem solving with random items strewn about the mountain, now it's time we find 'alternative' ways of solving our problems. Hel posted:Having the characters work together was nice and the action sequence seemed like it worked out ok, but the single skipole seemed a bit out of place, not that it was needed but that there only was one in the helicopter in the first place.
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Jul 30, 2018 05:49
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Even with you putting that in the title, that was really really fast with that. However, it STILL annoys me that she never takes a gun, if she's going to resort to that, don't leave behind crap like that. Kato, did you already forget that you JUST did something similar to this? It's not like the life raft you threw at the helicopter was any better than that. Journalism is definitely a cutthroat field apparently. Though given how utterly deaf the soldiers are apparently, maybe they could've snuck by anyways. A plane wing crashing down and an explosion aren't exactly quiet things..... Other than that above though, honestly I do say that this is probably one of the more logical adventure games I've seen. Everything is straightforward, the one problem I can see throwing people off is the abrupt thing to just directly eliminating problems like that.
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Jul 30, 2018 07:54
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People don't kill people, oxygen kills people. Someone keep tabs of how many people each character kills. Can you get the oxygen tank from Steve before you climb up, or do you have to climb up first to trigger a flag? Heavy Oxygen Tank? Perfecty portable. First Aid Kit? Woah man, I can't lug that thing around. Seems like a weird design choice.
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Jul 31, 2018 02:17
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coleman francis posted:People don't kill people, oxygen kills people. But you're right, it doesn't make sense that carrying around a big gently caress-off metal canister is more reasonable than any first aid. It's honestly surprising to me that they didn't just use a smaller oxygen tank model or something.
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Jul 31, 2018 03:02
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Eh kill tally sounds amusing. Though given that the 2nd oxygen tank can be performed by anyone, should we just tally that to Julie since she's the one that did it? Edit: Decided to just count by how the LP assigns them. Bodyguard: 1 (figured why not) Katoh: 3 (including the helicopter as 1) Julie: 7 (the cutscene only shows 3 as confirmed kills in the avalanche) So far it's a race between the journalists, with Julie in a strong lead! Keldulas fucked around with this message at 05:59 on Jul 31, 2018 |
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Jul 31, 2018 05:53
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So if Pachamama would have caused the avalanche, she'd be tied for kills; I'm just not sure if the game would give you that as an option really. I suppose I could go back and try it.
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Jul 31, 2018 07:21
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Julia still has 4 which are hers and no one can take them from her. Whereas Kato has 2 locked (though counting the helicopter as only 1 doesn't feel right, it's only confirmed at 1) since no one else can climb. As for the avalanche kills, the animation has the oxygen tank being thrown from off-screen, and then Kato saying 'take cover'. So I'm pretty sure the game would let anyone do those kills since there's no difference in animations.
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Aug 1, 2018 07:28
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 Will the communication station prove to be a possible means for our plucky group to get the word out that Pachamama is safe and in desperate need of transportation down the mountain? Or will it prove to be a situation that not even stabbing everything in sight can solve?
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Aug 6, 2018 04:47
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God this one was hard to watch. It's nice that they put another puzzle reliant on people being placed in different places, but the run speed and the glacial interface kind of wears on me. 2 more for Julia for 9.
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Aug 6, 2018 10:34
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discworld is all I read posted:
OMG the alarm sound is just someone going "wee-woo" into a microphone, right? All other sound work has been pretty good so this just stood out way too much.
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Aug 6, 2018 15:40
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Hel posted:OMG the alarm sound is just someone going "wee-woo" into a microphone, right? All other sound work has been pretty good so this just stood out way too much.
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Aug 6, 2018 16:57
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The wee woo heard around the world. God that had me gigglin'
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Aug 6, 2018 22:32
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 So we now find ourselves in the second disc of the game (and yeah, if you can believe it this game is both half way over and two discs somehow). Feelings of paranoia run high as the gang wonders what could have caused the army to catch up to them so fast...could there be a traitor in their midst? Only time will tell; for now, they just try their best to put more ground between them and the government troops and that means taking a bit of a detour through a disused mine. coleman francis posted:The wee woo heard around the world.
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Aug 13, 2018 06:42
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3 for Lopez. Honestly, it sort of makes sense to me that this game is short yet has to be on two discs. It's a PS1 game after all with voice-acting and a lot of cutscenes so it takes up a bunch of space. And narratively speaking, the story can't be that long considering the relatively simple goal and time limit in place. It was kind of nice to finally see Lopez doing things, and for Kato to be the non-essential member for once. Gives a bit of variance. This area honestly seems reasonably designed to me, I just find the point-and-click with a controller thing to be the real problem. The jerkiness of the pointer makes this just look really awkward to control in general. As for the story beats... it's kind of there? On the surface it's kind of reasonable overall, but the writing isn't good enough to make the arguments interesting to listen to unfortunately.
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Aug 13, 2018 11:12
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Lopez would seem like the most likely traitor candidate. Buzz cut, tall and physically fit. Never seems to say much. Man he must be playing the long game. He's already helped kill quite a few comrades. Maybe that's not the real Pachamama, did someone say clones!? Steve has the knowledge required to plant a bomb on the plane though and he sure seems jumpy, like he's hiding something hmmmmmmmm?!
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Aug 14, 2018 14:53
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discworld is all I read posted:I'm still not 100% sure if people didn't realize that was just me... I had thought it was the man at the communications station grumbling about the faulty alarm Anyway, while it probably is going to eventually be revealed that there's a traitor in their midst, it occurred to me that the intel leak could easily have come from within the base they contacted. I mean, there's no real reason for any of the group to keep helping everybody else escape while killing people that would be on their side. Though it might be possible they're trying to set up a situation where civil war breaks out without actually getting rid of Pachamama.
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Aug 14, 2018 15:01
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To be honest, if we ignore all logic my main suspect would be Katoh, the Japanese journalist we've never seen actually speak Japanese in voiced scenes, even to himself or when chatting with his Japanese work-buddy. But the reason it can't be him is that we know 100% that he was on the plane, and if he was working for that despot then either 1. he went on a plane he knew would blow up? no way, he doesn't seem like he could be so fanatically loyal, which brings me to 2. he didn't know about the bomb, but even so is still remaining loyal, which again, he doesn't seem like he'd be like that. I'm gonna guess Lopez because he ran into the group after troopers arrived on the scene, and also he was alone in that comm room and we only have his word that he actually smashed everything up good. Otherwise maybe it was Steve? Julia was stuck in the wreck, so unless she somehow managed to do that after the crash we can assume she was really on it while it was in the air as well. I am guessing she's some kind of CIA/secret agent type though.
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Aug 14, 2018 15:54
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Yeah, it's seem questionable that anyone in the government would be that loyal to actively send themselves to their deaths. I suppose they could have intended to parachute off, but then they'd just be stuck up on the mountain (and a part of me is assuming that parachuting up there wouldn't be safe). So that makes me wonder if they ever actually showed Lopez during the opening cutscene on the plane; I feel like I remember seeing Steve, Katoh (and Katoh's friend), Julia, Pachamama (and her bodyguard), and maybe a few other random people but I really don't remember Lopez. I guess he could have been elsewhere on the plane and it doesn't really seem reasonable that the military would just dump him off on the mountain to just follow Pachamama and company when they have active troops patrolling the mountain...but yeah, he seems out of place. Though having watched too many episodes of Case Closed, it's difficult to accept such obvious things as anything other than a red herring.
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Aug 14, 2018 18:35
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Logically speaking I don't think there's a traitor. The only overt thing is the government knowing where they're meeting up. Any number of things could account for that including the captive radio man who was in the SAME ROOM AS THEM when they were declaring their plans. Granted, they already did dumb things in regards with proximity (bodyguard and lighting oil on the door....)
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Aug 15, 2018 00:14
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 It's time for some hidden truths to be revealed and it might be kinda what you expect...Katoh really, really likes this mountain
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Aug 20, 2018 05:46
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Lol, I can't remember another time a video game was this honest about american foreign policy. It's gonna suck when Julia is later sent to kill Pachamama because she too wants state owned companies to enrich her people and not u.s. ceos.
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Aug 20, 2018 15:15
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Well they get to be honest because it was a Japanese developer that made it. The way Kato crosses that ice wall makes no sense to me. For the pickaxe thing, isn't that normally vertical so you're also getting to use your handholds as footholds....? If he needs the axe in the first place to cross, there's no way his foot should be able to make it's own holds. I do like the content of this update though, it actually feels like they were coherently making use of the multiple people thing.
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Aug 21, 2018 08:53
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Yeah, in retrospect, none of the American characters are ummm positively portrayed. You have a murderous CIA agent, a foul-mouthed and whiny coward, and a simple, strongman who constantly mentions he's only good trait is being strong. Thankfully the competent, level-headed man from Nippon is there to guide everyone and the Latin American democratic martyr is there to be the moral compass otherwise everyone would be seriously hosed.
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Aug 21, 2018 09:12
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 So we might finally have a way to get down to the capitol to stop the civil war. The problem is that standing between us and this helicopter are a few dozen guerrillas on edge from government troops attacking them and a whole mess of trigger happy soldiers looking to fill us with lead...guess there's only one thing to do in this situation. Murder everyone in our way!
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Aug 27, 2018 03:50
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Spoiler tag since I'm the one right after the post. Well, Lopez was the most logical choice for that twist at least. Everyone else was basically confirmed to be on the plane but him, and he had the best opportunity to leak the location of their first evacuation helicopter. I'm not sure where Lopez was telling Julia to fly them, but if it's a spot of a 3rd party, it makes sense for him to help everyone avoid the government soldiers too. May as well update the kill counter. Bodyguard: 1 Katoh: 6 Julia: 11 Lopez: 4 Steve: 2 confirmed, I think the rest just ran away. It's kind of showing how they keep repeating puzzles, since Julia keeps using her knife a LOT.
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Aug 27, 2018 08:37
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I feel like there was some other tell that something was up with ol' Lopez but it was a bit subtle... But yeah, it's a bit sad how often they went back to the well of either stabbing folks or oxygen tank explosion. I mean, there are some inklings of better ideas and puzzles like having to find the necessary items for the truck bomb or having Pachamama distract guards and gather intel. But it's a bit too little, too late cause, yeah, this is the last full video and everything comes to a head with the next part (though I technically had to split out the end boss battle and ending into a separate video that I might just post at the same time as the next update; I'll have to see). discworld is all I read fucked around with this message at 03:09 on Aug 28, 2018 |
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Aug 27, 2018 09:30
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I sort of feel the game was at it's best in the Part 6 video. A good balance of puzzles, no repeating, they sensibly change the environment on you to spice things up, and it doesn't have the insane wrestling with the camera like the bit before entering the mines.
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Aug 28, 2018 03:04
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| # ? Apr 23, 2024 20:24 |
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Lopez must've been on some funny picnics
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Aug 28, 2018 22:18
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