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Games Entertainment

Two Players, One Console, Cooperative Play? 203

boredme asks: "With the free time I'll have this summer, I thought I'd get in some quality couch-potato time. I'm married, no children, and our Playstation2 is nice because it can be both more interactive than TV and more social than a computer since it's in the living room. The problem is that the vast majority of two player games are sports or arena fighting games that only allow confrontational interaction; since I have a dozen extra years experience gaming, these competitive games get old very quickly for both of us. What suggestions for cooperative, (not online) multiplayer games do the Slashdot folks have?" Along a similar vein, the Gauntlet games (available for most platforms) offer similar opportunities for co-operative play, but no other titles come to mind right now. What co-op games do you have fun with that you can play using a single console?

"The perfect example of this is Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance. The whole game, with storyline, can be played through with one or two players alike. Others, like Jedi Starfighter, are close as they offer a small set of two-player missions that are distinct from the one-player missions. (Googling for this, by the way, has turned up very short lists at best.)

I'm primarily interested in PS2 games, but I still want to know what XBOX, GameCube, or even PS1 or PC games in this category are available. I'd even like to hear about sports games that offer a cooperative mode, or games not yet released."

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Two Players, One Console, Cooperative Play?

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  • Cookie and Cream (Score:5, Interesting)

    by metamatic ( 202216 ) on Friday June 20, 2003 @12:33PM (#6255424) Homepage Journal
    Cookie and Cream on PlayStation 2.

    Two cutesy Japanese-style bunnies must race up the screen before the timer gets to zero. Various obstacles and puzzles get in their way. The clever bit is that each player needs the help of the other--for example, one player might have to push some logs through the wall to the other side, where the other player can then jump across a river using the logs.
    • What about contra? best co-op game ever. Also like Baluders Gate for PS2 as a CO-OP. I have gauntlet dark legends for PS2 also. Great game.
    • Re:Cookie and Cream (Score:3, Interesting)

      by N0decam ( 630188 )
      Absolutely. My wife and I enjoyed playing it. Some of the puzzles were a little beyond her ability though, so we frequently swapped controllers so that I could do a frustrating part for her.

      SSX/SSX Tricky are also favorites around our house. My wife races down the mountain (and frequently beats me) while I try to do crazy tricks. Not really co-op though.

      She also enjoys "playing" graphical adventures with me - ie, helping to solve the puzzles, if not actually controlling the character on screen. "Esc
    • Marble Maddness!

      You might need to purchase a regular nintendo, but all told it will probably cost you around $7.50
    • I loved Cookie and Cream, but I don't recommend playing it with anyone you love. My friends and I tended to get frustrated with each other every time one of us saw what the other should have been doing but they didn't. There was much screaming and name-calling, but it was fun....
    • Cookie and Cream for sure! I am a hard core gamer and I loved it, and so did my parents and little sister. The ability (but not neccessity) to share one controller (right?) was also kind of interesting. I guess they realized that some people buy a console with only one controller and this is a great way to introduce them to multiplayer gaming.
  • by shayborg ( 650364 ) on Friday June 20, 2003 @12:34PM (#6255433)
    I own Jedi Starfighter for the PS2 and its cooperative mode is one of the better ones I've played. Most of the time you and your partner control two different ships but on occasionone of you is the pilot and the other is the gunner on the same ship. Definitely very cool.

    -- shayborg
  • Chu-Chu Rocket is a blast, if you can find a Dreamcast at a decent price. And my buddies and I had way too much fun with Super Monkey Ball last year at school.

    Also, Agetec has a game called The Adventures of Cookie and Cream [ign.com] out for PS2 that's basically a 2-player puzzle adventure. It might be just what you're looking for.

  • Halo and Ghost Recon come to mind.
    • Halo definitely!!!
    • Time Splitters 2 for both the XBox and PS2 come in coop story modes. The reason Halo is better is that if only 1 player is around the story can continue--in TS2 the single player and coop level starts are different.
    • As others have said, Halo is a pretty good cooporative game. Also:
      • Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance (PS2, but I think it's now on Xbox)
      • Simpsons Road Rage - has a head-to-head mode
      • Toejam and Earl - has a cool co-op mode that merges both halfs of the screen into one when both players are near each other
      • Unreal (tournament? championship?) - another FPS, but unlike Halo, it's got lots of bots that allow us to at least play a little capture the flag or deathmatch w/out (that's my biggest beef with Halo - no bots,
    • Besides Halo and Ghost Recon, feel free to pick up Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Brute Force, and Serious Sam.

      Xbox is king of consoles as far as FPS's go. And they're all essentially co-op nowadays.

  • by Hitch ( 1361 ) <hitch@@@propheteer...org> on Friday June 20, 2003 @12:35PM (#6255439) Homepage
    purchased this game a while back with exactly this scenario in mind. My wife still declines to play it. It's weird...she loves sci-fi and fantasy, but the idea of an RPG of any sort strikes her as "over the geek-line". any other suggestions here would be *greatly* appreciated.
  • Well..... (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Dark Nexus ( 172808 )
    I know most of the EA sports games USED to allow 2 players (or 4, or even 5 back with the SNES) to play on the same team.

    I see no reason why they wouldn't still. NHL 2002 for PC still does.
  • "...our Playstation2 is nice because it can be both more interactive than TV and more social than a computer since it's in the living room."

    Am I the only one, who is terrified, by the "social" activities of today's era?

  • Some friends of mine snaged Brute Force for the xbox, and to listen to them, it blows their minds. I havn't played it yet, but they give rave reviews.
  • ...but the DC version of Half-Life had a co-op mode. I don't think it was ever released in stores, but it can be found on the web without too much difficulty.
    • PS2 Half-life also has co-op, at least in the "Decay" storyline. And most places that still have the game are selling it for less than 25 bucks!

      GTRacer
      - Halfway through Half-Life, I scratched the disk! What happens after you launch the rocket?!

      • -You get on another train but it crashes very quick, throwing you into a water level. You fight a big alien fish.

        -You fight some assassins (very badass black clad women).

        -You are caught in a trap by some grunts. They throw you in a garbage compactor.

        -You escape and have to go through a Rube Goldberg waste processing facility.

        -You discover that the facility has been experimenting on the aliens.

        -For a long time you fight your way across the surface towards the Lambda Core.

        -The military decides this is a
  • by Pfhor ( 40220 )
    Has some of the best COOP play for the XBox. It is supposed to only be getting better in halo 2.

    halo.bungie.net for more information.
  • Another approach (Score:1, Flamebait)

    by scot4875 ( 542869 )
    I dunno how many of these there'd be on the PS2, but there are lots of 4-player games on the 'Cube that let you play against 2 computer-controlled opponents. My SO and I generally go head-to-head against the computer players, so even though it's not a co-op game, per se, we can still cooperate and I don't have to just hand her ass to her over and over again. :)

    Smash Bros: Melee and Super Monkey Ball 1/2 are particularly good for this.

    --Jeremy
    • Also try Ikaruga [nintendo.com].

      It's a verticly scrolling shooter game in the same genre as Gradius or R-Type. And it has two player cooperative play.

      GREAT gameplay. My only gripe is that it was ported from an arcade game with a vertical (portrait) aspect ratio, so you either get black bars on the sides of your TV screen, or you get the top and bottom of your view cut off.
      • I was about to suggest the same game :) It's a lot of fun two player. It kinda gets away from the skill factor, but the challenge changes, from pattern memorization to team work.
  • I know Rogue Squadren III is not out yet, but in that game they offer all the missions of Rouge Squadren II, as multiplayer missions. Cooperative too.
    Factor 5 kicks ass.
  • This isn't 2 player co-op by any means, but it's a fun game to play with two people in the room. My wife is seriously addicted to it (though we haven't played head to head yet...I'm afraid I'd whomp her, which always leads to her getting completely sick of a game). that issue, btw, is one of the reasons various Tetris's are great - they have handicap mechanisms where I can play a few levels ahead of her and she can still be competetive.
    • This has been the only game my girlfriend and I have ever really gotten into together. Like the parent says, it's not exactly cooperative, but turns are short, and if you're very much into the game, it's often as much fun, if not more, to watch your S/O play than to play yourself.

      It's an incredibly addictive game that anyone can pick up and play, it's fun to watch, and the difficulty scales like you wouldn't believe.
  • Sorry, it's not a console game but a classic arcade game. It's my favorate cooperative game. Think two player astroids in color, with the two ships tied together. I doubt you can find it in the arcade anymore and I wouldn't suggest doing anything, uhmameuh, illegal.
  • by JMZero ( 449047 ) on Friday June 20, 2003 @12:42PM (#6255510) Homepage
    My wife and I play a fair bit of Super Monkey Ball 2 mini-games. Some are co-operative, some are competitive - but the competition doesn't get in the way of participation.

    Games like Crazy Taxi or Tony Hawk can be fun too - while I'm a lot better than my wife, the competition isn't direct so it works well.

    In sort of another vein, my wife likes playing Legend of Zelda, but she has enough difficulty playing it that often she wants me there helping/watching. Being able to dip around with the Tingle Tuner makes this work pretty good.
  • This has got some good two player co-op on the XBox...but of course nothing beats Halo.
  • useless title (Score:3, Interesting)

    by GiMP ( 10923 ) on Friday June 20, 2003 @12:43PM (#6255523)
    Tonight my wife and I are going to pickup a box of Monopoly from Toys R Us and/or a jigsaw puzzle.

    For video games, I think that the Lost Vikings series for the SNES let you play in co-op.. if not, it should've :)
    • Re: monopoly (Score:4, Interesting)

      by lightspawn ( 155347 ) on Friday June 20, 2003 @01:06PM (#6255804) Homepage
      Tonight my wife and I are going to pickup a box of Monopoly from Toys R Us and/or a jigsaw puzzle.

      NOOOOOOOOOO!

      What is it with you Americans and Monopoly [antimonopoly.com]? Each year, hundreds of new board games [boardgamegeek.com]are hoping for a little exposure, a little space on store shelves, and you keep buying Monopoly simpsons edition, Monopoly star wars edition, Monopoly yourcity edition, monopoly golf... Stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it! It's not even a good game, for crying out loud! Please just stop it! Or would you rather give Hasbro more money for domain disputes [clue.com]?
      • It might have something to do with the fact that all the games I saw on that site are like $30+, while you can buy Monopoly for $6.

        The prices tend to be higher when the people who design the games actually get paid... not to mention the fact that most good games are imported, and the economics of scale (Hasbro knows they can move N million units a year).

        But the new special editions people buy each other are probably around $30 too. And you know what? There's many PC / console games available for $5-$10
      • What is it with you Americans and Monopoly?

        Everyone has played it, and most people don't have any imagination to try something new. The worst part is, the game is boring, and takes days to play to completion.

        Growing up, my favorite boardgame was Scotland Yard [kumquat.com]. 5 detectives run around trying to catch Mr. X. A great mix of cooperative and competitive play. Fun, and doesn't take hours to play.

        Now my personal favorite boardgame (as a concept, not play value) is the 1980's version of "Life". You go to
        • They've been dumbing down the games in general. I remember playing Payday years ago, and when I bought it again recently, half of the gameplay was simply excised. Suck.

          Full House is another classic I remember from my youth.

      • I agree, Monopoly is not a great game by any means, it's just THE game that most Americans have been exposed to.

        Here in the US, board gaming seems to be something mostly done by hobbyists and bored couples, but in Germany (from what I understand) it's considered something to do with the whole family. As such, there are a TON of great German designers designing some incredible games that are making their way over into the states. Don't worry, the majority of them have domestic versions, so you don't have
  • by FroMan ( 111520 )
    My wife and I play storyline (rpgs) a lot.

    We'll both cuddle up on the couch and play. Even though only one person can control the game at once, you can keep the game so it involves both of you. Usually when reading the story line conversations we'll make comments about what we think is going on, some subtle point of intrigue that we think the other might have missed or something. Usually the person not with control will squeeze the other's foot or hand when they are done reading the current page of text
    • by Hitch ( 1361 )
      Also, playing with your spouse is a lot of fun.

      Yes, I have found this to be very much the case.

      she enjoys it as well.
      • Hmm, I missed that one.

        I was originally just going to say "squeeze the other", but figured I needed to put in "hand or foot" to keep it clean for folks.

        I guess I don't have enough of a potty mind to catch all my "think-o's".
        • by Hitch ( 1361 )
          don't worry. I've got a dirty enough mind to go around. all in good fun. (and besides - unless your mind is a *little* dirty, even *my* comment seems harmless.)
  • What about The Adventures of Cookie & Cream [gamecritics.com]? It's a platformer that has some puzzles which require two players working in tandem. I've never played it, but I've always wanted to to since I heard about it.
  • All of the Sega Sports games I've owned (NBA 2003 being the latest) have all offered the opportunity for two players on one team (in fact, you might be able to get up to four, I'd have to check). They're also some of the best sports games I've ever played.

    Also, the upcoming Mario Kart for GameCube will allow a co-op mode, where one player will control the kart and the other will aim and shoot the powerups. Check out the preview over at IGN [ign.com]. The previews make it seem like it should be pretty cool!

  • by cjhuitt ( 466651 ) on Friday June 20, 2003 @12:50PM (#6255610)
    I haven't followed this very much, but from what I can tell, the new MarioKart DoubleDash title (for the gamecube, obviously) would allow two people to play together against the other computers. One of them would drive the cart, and the other would control the "extras" while riding on back.

    From past experience, even the competitive parts of the MarioKart games have been really fun - especially if you get into a hard race, and the players racing (if against other computers, mind) have to only hit the other computers in order to be able to advance to the next race.
  • The whole series consists of some of the best two-player games ever.
  • Sure, not _all_ of the game is real cooperative 2 player, but the game + SNES will probably cost you less than a new PC or console game.
  • Obviously there's the Gauntlet Games =)

    For the X-Box there's Halo, that's great co-op.
    Still introducing myself to the x-box though..so that's about all I can recomend co-op there =)

    Really, almost any game that *supports* co-op is good co-op. Go to the store and look at the back, often it'll say. I would imagine that a lot of FPSe'rs with a story line will support co-op (if it supports multiplayer) perahps the MoH series and Bond series excluded.
    • Really, almost any game that *supports* co-op is good co-op. Go to the store and look at the back, often it'll say.

      Ya know, I've tried that, but unfortunately I haven't come up with much. One problem, especially with the PS2, is that there are a whole lot of games on the shelves, and there are many more that have been pushed off of retail stores but you can still get online. Also, some games that claim to have a 2-player cooperative mode only have it for a limited portion of the game or for an entirely
      • I've spent quite a lot of time playing Halo in cooperative mode. You follow through the exact same campaign as the single player game, but there are two of you running around on the level. Between checkpoints, the two players can travel as far away from one another as they want. When one player reaches a checkpoint, the other is teleported to catch up with him.

        If one player dies, then he regenerates standing next to the surviving one rather than at the previous checkpoint. (Very useful for the "I'll ha
        • I should add that in addition to these basic mechanics of Halo's cooperative mode, many of the levels, weapons, and vehicles lend themselves very well to cooperative strategies.
          • Halo is fantastic multiplayer co-op. The co-op play is exactly the same as the single player games - except there are two of you and it's a great deal more fun (as has been previusly mentioned). A great deal of attention has actually been put into this mode and in my humble mind it's the finest dynamic of what is in my mind one of the finest games ever created (and is sadly often overlooked, or merely thought of as a cheap addon). Great little 'moments' arise when playing e.g. You're pinned down and getting
  • A friend and I played through TimeSplitters2 recently and are currently going through TimeSplitters1. Both games support co-op and are a lot of fun. Some of the levels get pretty hard and really require good teamwork.

    Brien Voorhees
  • by NanoGator ( 522640 ) on Friday June 20, 2003 @01:02PM (#6255760) Homepage Journal
    Anybody remember the Ninja Turtles coin-op game? That was a lot of fun to play with a friend. There was a whole slew of them. The Simpsons! Heh.

    In this day and age of consoles with 4 controller ports, gotta admit I'm saddened that this genre has disappeared. You didn't need no stinking split-screen.

    Fortunately, there is a Ninja Turtles game for the GameCube in the works.
  • by x00101010x ( 631764 ) on Friday June 20, 2003 @01:02PM (#6255766) Homepage
    At E3 (electronic entertainment expo) the big thing in the nintendo area was cooperative play.
    No use to the author since but for cube owners (preferably with a few GBAs and link cables) it'll be great as soon as these hit the market (i think a few were targeted for christmas release).
    There were 3 that stood out to me...
    A pacman game where 3 players control ghosts on the TV in pretty 3D and a 4th player controls pacman on his/her GBA.
    A legend of zelda: wind waker spinoff called Tetra's Trackers where 4 players play competatively in scavenger hunt type missions (for the first few levels at least). I don't know if there may be some cooperative play (a la mario party) later on, but the games are simple enough that the playing field is pretty even for veteran gamers and newbies alike.
    And a new Final Fantasy game that's kind of diablo like gameplay for up to 4 players. All cooperative and played with GBAs plugged into the cube with status screens/menus on the GBA.

    No good for sony users and not in time for summer, but something to look forward to. Seems like cooperative play may be the next big thing (from what I saw from the heavyweights at E3).
  • There's nothing quite like you and your buddy taking on and destroying hundreds of enemies. Plus, the cooperative mode forces coordination between players and has this sweet two-player musou attack.
  • I love cooperative games and really wish game producers put more effort into making cooperative play a priority. It seems like co-op availability especially went downhill when all of the games went to 3-D. I'm bummed that Doom3 won't have co-op since my friends and I had an absolute blast playing Doom1&2 together back in the day.

    I recently scoured usenet for game titles that support cooperative play. Here are the notes I compiled resulting from that search in case it's helpful (I haven't played any
  • Since you're willing to look at PC games, I should mention the few that I know.

    Starcraft
    Diablo 2
    Kohan
    Unreal

    All of those can be set up as to-player cooperative. At the same time, the enemies in some of them are pretty dumb. Starcraft or Kohan would probably be your best bet because the strategy generally requires that you communicate with each other. My wife and I used to play a lot of cooperative Starcraft.

    On the PS1, I can remember Gauntlet and Legend of Mana. In Legend of Mana, though, the second p
  • It's a great game, it's made by the same people that made Goldeneye for N64. After goldeneye they started their own company.

    It's a shooter game similar to goldeneye. But instead you travel through time. It has high replay value too. On easy you can beat it well easy. On normal it's much harder. But you'll beat it. Now hard heh it's near impossible :p

    It also has a great multiplayer part where you can play in teams against bots. It also has some crazy singleplayer mini games.

    Higly recommended.
  • I will never play these games in public but the DDR games are a lot of fun and reasonable exercise. (I sweat more playing DDR than I do inline skating.) Since you want games you can play at home and not suffer the humiliation that you would in pubic. I've found it's very hard to get friends over to play the game the first time but after two weeks I'm averaging two friends a night on Mondays though Thursdays who want to play.

    I bought from here: http://buynshop.com/newindex.php?parentid=29 [buynshop.com] and had a good ex

  • If you have two PC's:
    Diablo 2 is a great cooperative game. I played it with a friend and his wife (on three computers) and we played through the levels (not online).

    Another good one is Doom 2. The good thing is if you don't already have two computers (or even one) is you can probably put some together for free with used parts because Doom 2 is such an old game. It's a pretty fun game with lots of cooperative playing. And if you get bored you can turn on each other and turn it into a deathmatch. ("Ok o
  • by notque ( 636838 ) on Friday June 20, 2003 @01:29PM (#6256084) Homepage Journal
    Play Tony Hawk 2-4 all of the time. Granted, I am much more skilled at the game, but she enjoys watching me fall more than anything.

    She will score 60,000 points in a trick, I will be on the verge of 2 million, and I fall.

    Nothing more entertaining to her than that.

    I'd also suggest Marble Maddness on Nintendo

    Snake Rattle and Roll was also a wonderful 2 player game.
  • by analog_line ( 465182 ) on Friday June 20, 2003 @01:36PM (#6256157)
    Either of those for PS2 are great cooperative games. Not exactly tons of thought needed, but great for a couple people to play cooperatively. Whenever I bring it over for the weekend hang-out sessions, it always ends up being in there most of the night and with people fighting for the controller. It's even more fun when you use the unlock codes to unlock all the characters that you normally can't get without playing an insane number of times through. Yeah, there are lots of cool things that unlocking doesn't do, but having zillions of characters to choose from makes it more fun.
  • by xenocide2 ( 231786 ) on Friday June 20, 2003 @01:52PM (#6256336) Homepage
    I'm married, no children

    I'd even like to hear about sports games that offer a cooperative mode, or games not yet released.


    I know of a game that some would consider a sport, definately cooperative, and is probably the only way to remedy the lack of children. I don't think its been released in stores, too many security cameras ;)
  • Um, Halo (Score:2, Informative)

    by pellis23 ( 120853 )
    Um, Halo has a fantastic 2-player Co-op mode. Of course, it's xbox only.
  • You Don't Know Jack (Score:3, Informative)

    by frenchgates ( 531731 ) on Friday June 20, 2003 @02:02PM (#6256461)
    My wife and I love these. While it isn't cooperative, you can pick up PS1 versions of YDKJ games for 5 bucks, and they are a blast but don't require both players to have similar hand eye skills (although the Jack Attacks might be an exception.)
  • A favorite of mine is playing SSX Tricky with my gf. You can play competetively, but usually we will just take turns trying to get gold for every character, unlocking trick books, and figuring out the best path to take. It's pretty fun rooting each other on, too. :-)

    Anything in the Guantlet series is fun, but it tends to get old failry quickly. And you can play Tekken Tag in co-op mode, which is always a blast...especially if you get another couple to play the other team.
  • My wife and I love playing all the Diablo games, she usually plays an archer of some sort and I'm either a thug (ugh, ugh, slash, slash) or magician. It works well, she throws in the hired grunt into the middle of combat while she sits back and shoots arrows over my head. Except in Diablo 1 where you can hit the other person, which isn't fun in-game but is good for a laugh out-of-game ("ouch, that hurt! Here's some popcorn on your head!".
  • For Gamecube.. (Score:2, Informative)

    by Ruis ( 21357 )
    Monkey Ball (1 & 2), Mario Party 4
  • Serious Sam (Score:3, Informative)

    by jensend ( 71114 ) on Friday June 20, 2003 @03:03PM (#6257129)
    Serious Sam (both the first and second encounters) are the only PC titles I've seen with multiplayer play on one computer (split-screen), and their cooperative mode is fun. I would assume they've got the same cooperative mode in the xbox version.
  • Dance Dance Revolution
  • by Isao ( 153092 )
    Halo [bungie.net] for XBOX, coming soon to PC. Cooperative is MUCH better than single play - so good, my partner (who HATES FPS's) actually likes playing.
  • It's an older PS1 game, but you should still be able to find it. Tiny little devils rotating dice to score points.....very addictive.

    Plus, it's still kinda cool to squash the other guy, even on cooperative mode! :)

  • Return to Castle Wolfenstein [activision.com] has a cooperative mission mode
  • The games my wife and I have had success with in cooperative mode:

    1. Cookies and Cream (mentioned many times already, and yes, you will have to help with ugly jumping puzzles).
    2. Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance - really simple RPG lite.
    3. Gauntlet, although the later levels are too big and annoying.
    4. Any 2 player puzzle game with adjustable difficulty. Bubble Bobble, Tetris, and Pokemon Puzzle League (yes, you can laugh, but it's a great puzzler)

    On the PC we have played both Diablo I and II (with expansions
  • It's a board game on your TV!
  • I agree, Gauntlet is good. My girlfriend and I played through it on the N64 a few years ago, now we're going through it on the PS2. She's not that great at games (although she did get pretty good at Mario Kart 64 after we played it for hundreds and hundreds of hours :-) ), and I like the mindless slashing and exploring in Gauntlet. Plus there are a few pretty funny things in there, such as when you find the egg -- "Red Warrior is now poultry" and you turn into a chicken running around squawking.

    And also
  • It's not completely cooperative, if you actually keep track of points, but it's mostly cooperative, in the same sense as Contra.

  • You might keep an eye on the above game, based on the 70's TV series (no idea if the game as any good though). It features a two-player mode where one person does the driving while the other does the shooting (with a light gun). What's more, each is responsible for collecting power-ups for the other (the shooter fires at driving bonuses, the driver runs over gun enhancements), so the players have to cooperate for each of them to complete their goals.

The Tao is like a glob pattern: used but never used up. It is like the extern void: filled with infinite possibilities.

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