Slashdot Mirror

Advertising, word of mouth, what your clan decides on

On the subject of word of mouth this game is a great example, you had me sold. I really
enjoy BF3, my shooting is really bad yet my points come from taking flags, if being sold
as being better than BF3 I went looking.

(Sorry about this post it wasn't meant to turn out this way).

My site for gaming info is Gamesfaq.com, Checking out Soldner for it's enjoyment level
(forums) and for it's platform (Linux, oh pls, oh pls).

You built it up to the point I was going to give it a try, it was my type of game.

Going to the site to see what it was all about, I'm afraid only two cheats (not really
cheats but tricks and easter eggs) and one review was given, titled "Soldner lowers
standards for games everywhere"" 04/11/05 Temp89 and one star.
http://www.gamefaqs.com/pc/561...

I've been going to this site for a long time for walkthroughs, a deader area I've never
encountered.

I believe you in it being better than BF3 and I really wanted to give it a try, yet with
really nothing written on it and zero forum questions, that type of activity over 11
years tells me that finding on-line players on a server would a rarity, or be only
one or two servers seeing any real active.

That game has been on gamesfaq.com for 11 years and never seen any real activity.
I didn't read the review I really didn't' want to know.

To answer your question, it was visiting this site that put the brakes on for me, as from
what I saw nobody not only didn't like it, nobody even cared enough to publish an FAQ.
Normally a race to be the first.

Truthfully, I had forgotten about Deus Ex coming out this month, despite owning most of the games in the franchise, otherwise I would've couched my phrasing a bit more carefully for exactly the reasons you pointed out. And you may well be proven right about Deus Ex being bigger in the end (it's certainly bigger in terms of budget), but it looks like I'm not alone in thinking No Man's Sky is a bigger launch.

It's been pretty obvious to me that Nintendo's value is in it's IP, not it's hardware. Games on other systems, movies, tv etc. are where the growth is.

It has been suggested before:
25 Jan 2007: http://www.cnet.com/forums/dis...
28 April 2012: http://www.slashgear.com/why-n...
20 Aug 2013: http://www.ign.com/boards/thre...
2 years ago: http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards...
7 Oct 2014: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
21 Nov 2014: http://www.polygon.com/2014/11...

http://www.thetoptens.com/reas...

The first Steam game I had did not come with a warning when I purchased it.

Maybe. My first steam game was Lost Planet in 2007; it was bought at EB in a box. I remember being pretty pissed off about the steam link at the time too. I don't recall if it was properly disclosed on the box or not. I didn't keep the box for it.

So at best I can piss and moan a bit about Lost Planet maybe one day join a class action over it and get a steam coupon (sarcasm); but even the original portal from 2008 has a disclaimer on the box that I bought in 2008.

The box image I can find online... does have a disclaimer; and even a URL to the agreement. I couldn't tell you if they updated the box art after i bought it or not. But it wouldn't surprise me if that's the original box art that I had.

http://www.gamefaqs.com/pc/939...

You might have a couple titles from half a decade ago too... and if they truly did lack any disclosure, you have a legitimate gripe about them; do you still have the boxes? Can you really demonstrate there was no disclosure at the time? I'm sincerely interested what title, and especially if you still have the box for it!?

Steam launched in 03 so my title from 07 certainly wasn't anywhere near the beginning. Wikipedia says 3rd party games didn't appear until 2005.

I'm trying to think if I got anything before Lost Planet that was steam based. I had Counter Strike and Half Life but those were straight up retail pre-steam I'm pretty sure. And I didnt' buy halflife 2 until like 2012.

I did point out that you get this Steam DRM even on a physical purchase of DVD in a box.

The boxes these days clearly disclose that a steam account is required etc on the outside of the box.

http://img.gamefaqs.net/box/7/...

"Requires Internet connection and free steam account to activate"

In a red box.

and most stores will never give you a refund at that point.

And then to paraphrase the text in the white box next to the red box -- If you do not agree with the Steam Subscriber Agreement (SSA) return it unopened. They even warn you not to open the box if you aren't ok with the the SSA. Granted the SSA isn't on the outside of the box, but in 2015, if you can't find the SSA on the internet... that's on you.

"The complexity was orders of magnitude less as well."

That is absolutely wrong.

http://www.gamefaqs.com/nes/91...

There's your initial, modern way to do some ROM programming.

Bear in mind, these tools were not available back then. It was pure ASM and Hex Editing.

And ASM is anything BUT simple, sir.

Hacking a cartridge binary is not the same as developing the SW in the first place. E.g. testing "Super Mario" on an early Nintendo system is orders of magnitude simpler than testing an open world game like GTA V or Assasins Creed: Unity across all the supported platforms, especially PC.

"The complexity was orders of magnitude less as well."

That is absolutely wrong.

http://www.gamefaqs.com/nes/91...

There's your initial, modern way to do some ROM programming.

Bear in mind, these tools were not available back then. It was pure ASM and Hex Editing.

And ASM is anything BUT simple, sir.

CoD and Halo? Whaaat? Have you seen this?

Ah. Now I'm with you. I had the pronoun "they" in what you said referring to customers and not EA, and I did see chattel as cattle. Anyway, I found something to eat since then. I agree. They see us as their chattel, and that's why it's highly unlikely that I would ever buy anything from them. Take a look at this sampling of the crap they are planting on Gamefaqs: http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards....

Ever hear of "the exception that proves the rule"? Congratulations, you found it. One single incident of one single customer claiming to get a refund for one single incident.

Yeah you obviously don't understand what that means, you said nobody got refunds, which is false as I gave you an example of a person who got a refund and here are a couple more just to prove you wrong even more:
I got a refund for SimCity from Amazon a few days after release
Just contacted Amazon and they gave me a refund for the digital copy.

You're a gullible fool to think this unconfirmed anecdote from an anonymous person that Amazon would not confirm actually proves anything.

No there are plenty of examples but you are too braindead to just use Google. But of course you are just a corporate boot-licker and will unquestionably believe that anything written in a corporate 'policy' is gospel, go back to your corporate masters with their EULAs and policies and just do whatever they tell you you spineless weasel.

IDKFA was more than a phrase, it's how I started my games. http://www.gamefaqs.com/ is my source of faq's and other unknown tricks of a game.

My son brought me into CoD, he's good, and cheat free. I not only set an example by following his lead but I see no sense in cheating in these types of games and honestly I'm one that would benefit from doing so. I'm not a good shooter, if in an engagement I'll almost always lose be in on foot, armor, or aircraft. (were talking CoD or BF3).

I have a lot of BF3 friends and know a few cheat on the sly. Coming over a hill from an obscure direction (jet crashed) when one of my friends picked me off, it was slick and shouldn't of happened. They knew me after the kill and I figure they knew they had been caught, but I said nothing.

Even if I were to turn them in nothing shows they were cheating, they maintain an approvalable battle record.

I say this affirming the fact that some are cheating but not for progression, or any spectacular Rambo stuff. Just doing so in the back ground gaining very little from it.

Wizardry being dark, and scary encounters.

What I remember most from Ultima was agonizing over the start questions :)
http://www.gamefaqs.com/pc/562...
http://www.tk421.net/ultima/
http://www.beastwithin.org/use...

Just Google "movie theaters confiscating cell phones" and read all about it. It was a pretty common thing to do around and before 2009, apparently it's still a common thing to do for special screenings. From 2009 http://gizmodo.com/5314778/no-... http://boingboing.net/2009/07/... And these were from just 2012 http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards... http://www.avvo.com/legal-answ...

Tapped Out can't be more complex than, say, that pokemon tetris-jewel-whatever game on N64

Pokemon Trozei (DS): 128 Mbit.

let alone Ocarina of Time

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64): 256 Mbit. Ocarina of Time 3D (3DS): 3646 blocks.

That pokemon game had roughly the same full-motion video quality

The DS display is two 256x192 pixel screens with an 88px gap between them. It roughly compares to a WQVGA (240x400 to 240x432) phone display. But phones nowadays have displays at least twice as fine as that: WVGA is 480x800 to 480x864, iPhone is 640x960 to 640x1136, and HD phones are 720x1280 to 800x1280. Tablets have become as big as 1536x2048 (iPad) or 1600x2560 (Nexus 10). A bigger display needs bigger textures to match.

Besides, I thought of another reason for updates. Often these games are released in parallel on Google Play Store and Apple's App Store. It takes a lot longer for Apple to approve updates then for EA to self-publish its own updates. So I guess EA might be pushing asset updates as a separate download because it can push asset updates faster than Apple's reviewers can push executable updates.

Counter-examples only work when they're correct.

The original Xbox put Microsoft billions of dollars in the hole over its life and largely failed to catch on outside of America (it famously had difficulty establishing a foothold in Asia against Nintendo and Sony). The 360 had similar issues making a profit for its first few years, but finally became profitable in the last few (despite suffering a major decline in sales that has allowed the PS3 to catch up to it (in fact, I think the latest numbers I saw showed that the PS3 had passed the 360)), though not enough to erase its own up front costs (most of which was the result of a billion-dollar write-off Microsoft had to make for RRoD warranty repairs), let alone the deficit incurred by the original Xbox. All told, Microsoft is still billions of dollars in the hole with the Xbox line.

A better counter-example would have been version 3 in the line: the Xbox One. After all, by all indications, it's virtually dead on arrival. For instance, a GameFAQs poll from last week asked gamers which consoles, between the PS4 and Xbox One, they had pre-ordered or planned to purchase within the next year. Looking solely at the gamers that have plans to make a purchase, roughly 88% of them indicated they'd be getting a PS4, while only about 20% indicated they'd be getting an Xbox One, even though this poll was taken after all of Microsoft's concessions.

All told, I think it's a shame, since I prefer to see good competition taking place in the space, rather than things being so lopsided. I thought the current generation was pretty decent in that regard (360 controlled mindshare for the first half of the cycle, PS3 controlled it for the back half), but that it could be even better in the future if both were more even throughout the life cycle of the next generation. Instead, we see a lopsided start once again.

If you copyright the design and concept, ect ect, then you have nothing to really worry about

You still have to worry about other incumbent copyright owners claiming you misappropriated their copyrighted design and concept.

board games and video game are two entirely different industries.

If tabletop games and video games are irreconcilable, then explain World Series of Poker for Xbox and Xbox 360. Or explain the GBA game that includes Risk, Battleship, and Clue(do). Or explain Catan 360. Or explain NES games like I Can Remember, Classic Concentration, and Concentration Room, which are essentially an old card game with different card graphics.

Has anyone tried to steal the board game Monopoly and rewrite it as video game

There was "Atlantik" in KDE Games 3.

(tho it is patented)

Monopoly is older than I am, and I'm old enough to drink beer. Therefore, any patent will have expired.

There's a big difference between (impotent) nerd rage and crafting antagonistic policies seemingly designed to alienate your core user base.

In the case of the rootkits, those were, in the grand scheme of things, a relatively small matter. They were only distributed on a small number of discs, were relatively simply removed eventually, and didn't have any long-term repercussions. We were rightly outraged, but we also have to admit that the issue never became a large one. It was a black eye, but other than people choosing to take a stand on principle, it didn't really preclude us from purchasing other CDs from Sony.

The Linux removal had longer-term repercussions, but it only affected a very small subset of the audience for the console. Definitely a dick move, but still not something worthy of generating general outrage in the broader community of gamers. We were, again, right in being outraged, but the only users it directly impacted were the extreme minority that were actually making use of Other OS.

In contrast to those, the policies for the Xbox One could be with us for the next 10 years and directly effect the primary audience for the device in an extremely negative fashion. They've created artificial limits on used games (sufficient enough to effectively destroy the market), artificial limits on sharing games, artificial limits on playing single player games (i.e. having to phone home daily), and on top of all that have yet to promise that any of our games (even the single players ones!) will work after the console has reached its end of life and the phone home servers have stopped responding. And all of that is before you even consider the concerns over privacy that now exist since the Kinect 2 has a built-in microphone and is required to be connected in order for the device to turn on or function: concerns which have taken on a whole new meaning in light of the PRISM leak.

The Internet definitely has a short memory, but this seems to be an issue that won't go away unless Microsoft outright changes its policies. The broader gaming community is up in arms over this, as opposed to it just being a geeky issue. As evidence, GameFAQs ran some polls recently which might indicate the current thoughts of gamers, leading up to and after E3.

Before E3 when they asked do you plan to buy a One?, only 5% indicated they would. The next day when they asked the same question of the PS4, about 40% indicated they planned to buy a PS4. So, before E3 the One was clearly out of favor among gamers, but that was to be expected, since MS' debut presentation barely showed any games at all, with them promising that the games would be shown at E3.

Indeed, MS' E3 presentation was very gaming focused and was clearly aimed at addressing the perceived deficiency in games, so, since E3 is one of the most important platforms for reaching the core gamer demographic, we'd assume that the One would see a decent improvement in terms of public perception post-E3. And after E3 GameFAQs had a similar poll to the earlier ones, this time asking about people's plans to pre-order the new consoles. The PS4 went from 40% planning to buy it before E3 to 57% after it, while the One went from 5% before to 7% after. Perhaps even more telling, only 23% of gamers think the One is better than the Wii U, despite the Wii U generally being considered a flop both commercially and among the gaming community.

Again, there's a big difference between angering a handful of people in a niche community and what they're doing here to alienate their primary demographic.

There's a big difference between (impotent) nerd rage and crafting antagonistic policies seemingly designed to alienate your core user base.

In the case of the rootkits, those were, in the grand scheme of things, a relatively small matter. They were only distributed on a small number of discs, were relatively simply removed eventually, and didn't have any long-term repercussions. We were rightly outraged, but we also have to admit that the issue never became a large one. It was a black eye, but other than people choosing to take a stand on principle, it didn't really preclude us from purchasing other CDs from Sony.

The Linux removal had longer-term repercussions, but it only affected a very small subset of the audience for the console. Definitely a dick move, but still not something worthy of generating general outrage in the broader community of gamers. We were, again, right in being outraged, but the only users it directly impacted were the extreme minority that were actually making use of Other OS.

In contrast to those, the policies for the Xbox One could be with us for the next 10 years and directly effect the primary audience for the device in an extremely negative fashion. They've created artificial limits on used games (sufficient enough to effectively destroy the market), artificial limits on sharing games, artificial limits on playing single player games (i.e. having to phone home daily), and on top of all that have yet to promise that any of our games (even the single players ones!) will work after the console has reached its end of life and the phone home servers have stopped responding. And all of that is before you even consider the concerns over privacy that now exist since the Kinect 2 has a built-in microphone and is required to be connected in order for the device to turn on or function: concerns which have taken on a whole new meaning in light of the PRISM leak.

The Internet definitely has a short memory, but this seems to be an issue that won't go away unless Microsoft outright changes its policies. The broader gaming community is up in arms over this, as opposed to it just being a geeky issue. As evidence, GameFAQs ran some polls recently which might indicate the current thoughts of gamers, leading up to and after E3.

Before E3 when they asked do you plan to buy a One?, only 5% indicated they would. The next day when they asked the same question of the PS4, about 40% indicated they planned to buy a PS4. So, before E3 the One was clearly out of favor among gamers, but that was to be expected, since MS' debut presentation barely showed any games at all, with them promising that the games would be shown at E3.

Indeed, MS' E3 presentation was very gaming focused and was clearly aimed at addressing the perceived deficiency in games, so, since E3 is one of the most important platforms for reaching the core gamer demographic, we'd assume that the One would see a decent improvement in terms of public perception post-E3. And after E3 GameFAQs had a similar poll to the earlier ones, this time asking about people's plans to pre-order the new consoles. The PS4 went from 40% planning to buy it before E3 to 57% after it, while the One went from 5% before to 7% after. Perhaps even more telling, only 23% of gamers think the One is better than the Wii U, despite the Wii U generally being considered a flop both commercially and among the gaming community.

Again, there's a big difference between angering a handful of people in a niche community and what they're doing here to alienate their primary demographic.

There's a big difference between (impotent) nerd rage and crafting antagonistic policies seemingly designed to alienate your core user base.

In the case of the rootkits, those were, in the grand scheme of things, a relatively small matter. They were only distributed on a small number of discs, were relatively simply removed eventually, and didn't have any long-term repercussions. We were rightly outraged, but we also have to admit that the issue never became a large one. It was a black eye, but other than people choosing to take a stand on principle, it didn't really preclude us from purchasing other CDs from Sony.

The Linux removal had longer-term repercussions, but it only affected a very small subset of the audience for the console. Definitely a dick move, but still not something worthy of generating general outrage in the broader community of gamers. We were, again, right in being outraged, but the only users it directly impacted were the extreme minority that were actually making use of Other OS.

In contrast to those, the policies for the Xbox One could be with us for the next 10 years and directly effect the primary audience for the device in an extremely negative fashion. They've created artificial limits on used games (sufficient enough to effectively destroy the market), artificial limits on sharing games, artificial limits on playing single player games (i.e. having to phone home daily), and on top of all that have yet to promise that any of our games (even the single players ones!) will work after the console has reached its end of life and the phone home servers have stopped responding. And all of that is before you even consider the concerns over privacy that now exist since the Kinect 2 has a built-in microphone and is required to be connected in order for the device to turn on or function: concerns which have taken on a whole new meaning in light of the PRISM leak.

The Internet definitely has a short memory, but this seems to be an issue that won't go away unless Microsoft outright changes its policies. The broader gaming community is up in arms over this, as opposed to it just being a geeky issue. As evidence, GameFAQs ran some polls recently which might indicate the current thoughts of gamers, leading up to and after E3.

Before E3 when they asked do you plan to buy a One?, only 5% indicated they would. The next day when they asked the same question of the PS4, about 40% indicated they planned to buy a PS4. So, before E3 the One was clearly out of favor among gamers, but that was to be expected, since MS' debut presentation barely showed any games at all, with them promising that the games would be shown at E3.

Indeed, MS' E3 presentation was very gaming focused and was clearly aimed at addressing the perceived deficiency in games, so, since E3 is one of the most important platforms for reaching the core gamer demographic, we'd assume that the One would see a decent improvement in terms of public perception post-E3. And after E3 GameFAQs had a similar poll to the earlier ones, this time asking about people's plans to pre-order the new consoles. The PS4 went from 40% planning to buy it before E3 to 57% after it, while the One went from 5% before to 7% after. Perhaps even more telling, only 23% of gamers think the One is better than the Wii U, despite the Wii U generally being considered a flop both commercially and among the gaming community.

Again, there's a big difference between angering a handful of people in a niche community and what they're doing here to alienate their primary demographic.

There's a big difference between (impotent) nerd rage and crafting antagonistic policies seemingly designed to alienate your core user base.

In the case of the rootkits, those were, in the grand scheme of things, a relatively small matter. They were only distributed on a small number of discs, were relatively simply removed eventually, and didn't have any long-term repercussions. We were rightly outraged, but we also have to admit that the issue never became a large one. It was a black eye, but other than people choosing to take a stand on principle, it didn't really preclude us from purchasing other CDs from Sony.

The Linux removal had longer-term repercussions, but it only affected a very small subset of the audience for the console. Definitely a dick move, but still not something worthy of generating general outrage in the broader community of gamers. We were, again, right in being outraged, but the only users it directly impacted were the extreme minority that were actually making use of Other OS.

In contrast to those, the policies for the Xbox One could be with us for the next 10 years and directly effect the primary audience for the device in an extremely negative fashion. They've created artificial limits on used games (sufficient enough to effectively destroy the market), artificial limits on sharing games, artificial limits on playing single player games (i.e. having to phone home daily), and on top of all that have yet to promise that any of our games (even the single players ones!) will work after the console has reached its end of life and the phone home servers have stopped responding. And all of that is before you even consider the concerns over privacy that now exist since the Kinect 2 has a built-in microphone and is required to be connected in order for the device to turn on or function: concerns which have taken on a whole new meaning in light of the PRISM leak.

The Internet definitely has a short memory, but this seems to be an issue that won't go away unless Microsoft outright changes its policies. The broader gaming community is up in arms over this, as opposed to it just being a geeky issue. As evidence, GameFAQs ran some polls recently which might indicate the current thoughts of gamers, leading up to and after E3.

Before E3 when they asked do you plan to buy a One?, only 5% indicated they would. The next day when they asked the same question of the PS4, about 40% indicated they planned to buy a PS4. So, before E3 the One was clearly out of favor among gamers, but that was to be expected, since MS' debut presentation barely showed any games at all, with them promising that the games would be shown at E3.

Indeed, MS' E3 presentation was very gaming focused and was clearly aimed at addressing the perceived deficiency in games, so, since E3 is one of the most important platforms for reaching the core gamer demographic, we'd assume that the One would see a decent improvement in terms of public perception post-E3. And after E3 GameFAQs had a similar poll to the earlier ones, this time asking about people's plans to pre-order the new consoles. The PS4 went from 40% planning to buy it before E3 to 57% after it, while the One went from 5% before to 7% after. Perhaps even more telling, only 23% of gamers think the One is better than the Wii U, despite the Wii U generally being considered a flop both commercially and among the gaming community.

Again, there's a big difference between angering a handful of people in a niche community and what they're doing here to alienate their primary demographic.

Are you serious? I have a very hard time believing anyone could watch a movie on a C64. It was amazing just to have an 8 second audio clip play on those things like "last V-8, return to base immediately!"

According to Billboard most of the 2 Billion views were removed because the videos were moved off the channel. Only a few million views were removed because of spamming. Basically the views were moved from the UMG channel to the Vevo channel. http://www.gamefaqs.com/ps2/945498-shin-megami-tensei-persona-4/faqs/53550

There is no question: anyone who spends more than a few minutes/day reading will agree reading books on LCD is really tiring

Having recently read the first two Game of Thrones books entirely on my iPad, I cordially disagree. That said, I'll readily agree that the eInk reading experience is a superior one. I wouldn't say that an LCD is tiring for me, but I would say that eInk is more pleasant. Maybe some people keep their tablet's brightness set way too high? Mine has never caused me issues with extended viewing.

As for the quantity of reading most people engage in, I was actually surprised by the results of a GameFAQs poll that inquired regarding reading habits among the site's visitors. I figured that among gamers, particularly the younger crowd it seems like that site attracts, that reading levels would be split between a very small minority of avid readers and everyone else who read essentially nothing at all. Turns out I was wrong, since about 40% were reading on a pretty regular basis and only 20% hadn't even read a book in the last year. It definitely was worse than I would have liked, but it was nowhere close to what I was expecting.

well there is this
http://www.gamefaqs.com/features/help/entry.html?cat=24

and this
http://www.pro-music.org/Content/questions/DosAndDonts.php#Q13

and this
http://www.uky.edu/UKIT/security/policy_riaa.htm

and so on... but more over, why in the world would it make any sense to make copyright infringement only kick in after 24 hours? who would write a law like that? nobody would, because nobody has. it's an urban legend, continually circulated, just like all urban legends.

It theory you are correct, but practice was different. I actually worked in gamedev industry in Russia ten years ago, and our publisher sold our game (first one that was released in Russia in 2001, in the west in 2003) for 60 roubles ($2), the same price pirated Western games were sold at. Note that we weren't aware of pirated copies of our game on sale, but I don't know whether this needs to be attributed to anti-piracy policy of our publisher (not strictly legal) + software protection measures (Starforce) or affordable price, or both.

Anyway, my point is that there was a "flat rate" of 60 roubles/2 USD for game CDs back then set by pirates - they didn't go lower despite they probably could. Our publisher sold games it had rights to at the same price and didn't have much problems with piracy. It wasn't particularly profitable (like, our first game sold 300 000 copies in Russia for 2 USD each), but the budget for it was even smaller (I estimate it well below 100k USD judging by our salaries during making it - well, we were students anyway and were happy to see any money from making games, for most of us that was the first money we earned).

Prior art: http://www.gamefaqs.com/ps/197112-diablo/data I first played diablo on a ps1 before I ever played it on pc. The pc version was vastly superior, but the ps1 version was playable.

backing up data you own is in the law in the US
see 'are emulators legal' on gamefaqs.comhttp://www.gamefaqs.com/features/help/entry.html?cat=24
that pertains to software and movies are software(yes they are they can't be played back without decryption which is done in hardware or software thus requiring code to run)

You're not the only one that likes having a bit more to chew on than what mobile or social games can offer. The GameFAQs poll of the day today was over this very topic. I'll let the results speak for themselves:

http://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/index.html?poll=4404

To say the least, I'd say that in this age where mobile games are growing, the way that the consoles can stand out best is by providing a richer and deeper experience, partially through length, but also through the use of the specialized or better hardware that they're able to leverage over mobile. That may be as simple as a controller or building something that only works on a TV.

This reminds me of this Mass Effect 2 bit.

So your console died and you didn't call Nintendo? They do have a replacement program the last I checked where they transfer your data to the new console...

From Nintendo's website:

How long is my warranty in the US or Canada and how do I check the warranty status?

Nintendo systems carry a standard twelve-month warranty, which is one of the longest standard warranties in the video game industry. For more information and to look up your system's warranty status, click here.

How can I pay for my repair if is not under warranty?

We accept Visa or MasterCard, or for some options you can send in a check or money order with your repair. The payment options and pricing will depend on the type of repair selected. If you have a question about payment, please call 1-800-255-3700.

You can probably still send it in.

Here's a walkthrough, if anyone is interested (doubtful, I know). From that page: "The game was acquired and produced by Don Daglow and published by EA in 1986 for the Commodore 64, Apple II and PC."

The AI code doesn't have to be run remotely. You could just have it spawn weapons, healthpacks and enemies in the correct places using an encrypted positioning system. Then the crackers would have to meticulously play through the game itemizing every single xyz position for every spawn.

http://www.gamefaqs.com/

http://www.gamefaqs.com/computer/doswin/home/565117.html Blight?

Surely you must be joking. The golden standard for fighting games is 60 and nothing else.
Heres a faq for Tekken 5 Also have a look here and here

The next question is: what exactly would the mechanism of "console gaming dying" be anyway? I would argue that the death of console gaming would/will have look like one of the following scenarios:

1. Most of the "major" games will be released for the PC and not the consoles.
2. New major consoles will not be released, eventually the consoles out there would lag so far behind PC that 1 would happen
3. All major consoles will become so PC like that they will be indistinguishable and it will be pointless to talk about PC vs console

1 doesn't seem to be happening, and I don't really see many signs that it will happen any time soon, there seem to be more releases of significant games for consoles than PC. I think everyone but the most ridiculous fanboys of a given console would agree that games -should- be released on all platforms that can support the game. I want to choose what platform to game on based on my needs and equipment, being denied a gaming experience because I don't have the right hardware, or having to choose hardware based on -artificial- game availability is not a good situation. (Emphasis on artificial. Obviously MS isn't going to release their Halo games on a nintendo console, and obviously I'm not expecting to run Crysis 2 on an NES.) So I hope that more games continue to be released on all platforms, PC and console.

2. Consoles obviously aren't as powerful as PCs, but again, 1 seems far from happening. Already, the idea with MS at least seems to be delaying the next console for longer. If the next generation (and I mean the -actual- next generation, not the current xbox 360/PS3/wii generation which is sometimes mistakenly referred to as "next gen") is still a loss for the console makers, I suppose they might decide to not release another one. Games would continue coming out for them for a while, but eventually enough customers would migrate away from the PC to where the consoles become obsolete. Games are to this day coming out for the PS2, and the next generation of consoles is undoubtedly going to be released, so it will be quite a few years before console gaming dries up completely.

3. Doesn't seem very likely to me. Consoles are aimed squarely at people who want to plug in and play immediately, without messing around with hardware or software configurations. I think MS is having enough headaches with the optional hard-drive in the 360 that they're going to move away from even that, back to "one console, one hardware configuration." I don't see any signs from nintendo that they'll start making games that can run on both their hardware and other hardware, and given the sales of the wii, even with this recent decrease, they'd be nuts to do so any time soon.

So I don't really see -how- console gaming could be dying. Slowing down temporarily, sure, but it's not like console gaming is a living thing, where if it's vitals (sales) drop low enough, the beast is going to die and not be revived.

For the next next question I'd like to propose one of the following: do game journalists feel the need to declare "X is dying" -entirely- because it gets attention they're not getting otherwise? Do even they think that a trend like "sales declining" should be extrapolated to ridiculous extremes like "IT'S GOING TO DIE COMPLETELY!!!" Is rational commentary on videogames dying or did it ever even exist in the first place?

My favorite SMB2 exploits are detailed here.

The Guardian Legend NES game had a password system to save your progress. If you entered all Js as your password, you started in a strange location 80% of the way through the game with almost no health. I think the area was reachable in normal gameplay, but you needed a key that you didn't receive when using the password. (Therefore, you were locked in when using the password.) My friends and I spent much time wondering what it all meant.

Recently, zoogelio has reverse-engineered the password system and figured out how to get to off-map areas (he calls it the Lost Frontier, finding all sorts of glitches and weird places.

I still remember L-Block winning the 2008 GameFAQs Character Battle.

One of the things that happens with art is that some people get it, and some people don't. It's clear that it didn't appeal to you, and that's too bad. I won't ruin the game here, but suffice to say - there is much, much more to it than you've covered here. Read up on it and find out what you've been missing.

The other downside of the Lynx was that the games sucked. Hard. And even when they didn't suck, somehow the developers found a way to make it suck anyway.

For example, imagine that you've just written a a great adventure game, with good atmosphere and interesting gameplay. How can you make this game suck in a truly epic fashion? Easy: just forget to include a save function! (look at 1st question in FAQ).

Sometimes there's a reason why things fail.

Apparently, the power plant would be completed in 2020, have an expected output of 1600 megawatts, last for 50 years, and cost only $28 Million.

Personally, I think that while our Coal Plants are dirty, they should last well up until 2050, when Fusion Power is expected to showcase.

An several of these were pinned up to his wall:
http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/genmessage.php?board=585451&topic=44127983

http://www.gamefaqs.com/computer/doswin/file/565007/38043 :)

I guess I should stop my run of Angelo Search since Final Fantasy VIII came out.

First, you have to discover Genetic Mutations. It costs a lot of RP, though.

A 3D Defender has already been done:

http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/ps2/home/561519.html

They could just use the microwave to defreeze it as well, according to Day of the Tentacle walkthrough.

Actually, being a text-based Infocom adventure, it was pretty tame. See the walk-through

I would say that Final Fantasy XII is the worst (single player) offender of this nature.

In previous games in the Final Fantasy genre, the great rewards were predictable. A side quest would be handed to the player (or uncovered via exploration), a dungeon would be explored, some bonus plot would be uncovered, a boss would be fought, and a reward given. The plot in the side quests helped remind you that you were still advancing your main goal (to save X or fight Y) and worked as a needed tie-in to the main game. And, if you did everything right, your reward was guaranteed, even if difficult. Once you beat the boss or solved the puzzle or fetched the ingredient, you were done.

In Final Fantasy XII, the greatest rewards are dependent upon random chance. They are either rare drops, chests that only appear 1% of the time, or worse, bought in the market only after selling certain specific combinations of ultra-rare drops (Don't believe me? Think this is absurd? Read this guide to acquiring the "Tournesol"). The side quests that lead to these chests/areas/bosses/etc. rarely have a tie-in with the main plot, and the reward only appears a small percentage of the time. But then on your 42nd try, you get the reward, and start rationalizing: "Oh, that wasn't so difficult. Maybe next time I'll be even luckier!".

Final Fantasy XII is the first FF game that I have not thoroughly completed (nobody counts XI), and I do not plan to. And, unlike the rest of the series, I never plan to go back and play it again. Its replay value, for me, is nonexistent. I can't un-purchase the game from Square, but this experience will make me think twice about ever going after FF XIII.

You can apparently get 3 more installations if you run out (at the discretion of EA customer support) - but that's hardly any better.

I just don't get it. I recently wanted to post to the GameFAQs message boards, so I went to register for a new account. Unfortunately, they required my name, address, date of birth, and gender before I could register, and providing false information for these was against their terms of service. It's insane, just to post to a message board. I'm guessing it's due to CNet owning them now. Oh well, just have to find somewhere else.