Slashdot Mirror

Here is a better link for anyone who did not know about the game: http://ghost.planets.gamespy.com/.

David Cole, DFC Intelligence: E3 really isn't that important. The buying public pays little to no attention to the news coming out of E3. It is at best a 'dress rehearsal for the big show that fall.' Sony stumbled out of the gate for both the PS One and PS2 launches. Microsoft had poor initial showings for the Xbox. The only time it matters is when a poor showing at E3 is indicative of what is going to be a poor product. If a company gets its act together between E3 and product launch, all is forgiven.

Gamespy recently had an interview with another composer, Jeremy Soule.

That's not the only one missing.. how about Guild Wars? It only won a few awards..

Just look at Guild Wars.

You might be interested in this total conversion for D3 then. Hexen:Edge of Chaos. http://edgeofchaos.planetdoom.gamespy.com/news.htm
It is taking them a long time to get this ready, and they had a setback with the loss of a few team members, but they seem to be picking up pace again. They even have the tacvit approval of Raven to do this...

http://archive.gamespy.com/stats/

Quake 3 is the tenth most played game online. Enemy Territory, based on the Q3 engine developped in the world of Wolfenstein (Id game) is the fourth most played game online !
They are always relevent and will be for a few more years.

Cache Links, Pics & Videos
(Score:2)
by eldavojohn (898314) * Foe of a Friend on Monday May 15, @10:38AM (#15334377)
(http://slashdot.org/~eldavojohn/journal/)

I kept getting a network error trying to access this site. I found a Google cache without the pictures, and page two anybody? I never got the page to load so I'm not sure how to mirror it. Gamerwithin wasn't even prepared for the pre-slashdotting! Anyone else get a mirror for this page?

If you want the screenshots, find some here at Gamespy.

If there's also more resources for it here such as trailors & videos.

Cache Links, Pics & Videos
(Score:2)
by eldavojohn (898314) * Foe of a Friend on Monday May 15, @10:38AM (#15334377)
(http://slashdot.org/~eldavojohn/journal/)

I kept getting a network error trying to access this site. I found a Google cache without the pictures, and page two anybody? I never got the page to load so I'm not sure how to mirror it. Gamerwithin wasn't even prepared for the pre-slashdotting! Anyone else get a mirror for this page?

If you want the screenshots, find some here at Gamespy.

If there's also more resources for it here such as trailors & videos.

It's too bad that Nintendo generally (and Miyamoto specifically) hate GTA.

GameSpy: What do you think of the Grand Theft Auto series?

Miyamoto: I have looked at Grand Theft Auto. The basic concept was very well done. Regardless of what the content of the game was, the level of freedom that you had in that one big city was a very good idea. Obviously it has gotten a lot of press because of the moral issues; but even aside from that, the game was done in such a way that gives it great gameplay. I think that is the reason that Grand Theft Auto is selling.

Granted, most of your choices are racing or sports games, but that's largely the case on a console, too.

So why aren't games such as Secret of Mana, Guitar Hero, two-player "tris" games (other than Microsoft's Tetris 3.1), and the like ported to PC more often? And why hasn't Bomberman for PC seen an update in the last 9 years? And why did Dance Dance Revolution for PC stop at 3rd Mix when the consoles are up to 9th Mix? And where's the Mario Party knockoff for PC like there were for PS1, PS2, and Xbox?

most fighters aren't ported to the PC

Why not? By refusing to port their products to the PC, SNK, Capcom, and other publishers of 1on1 fighting games are leaving themselves open to widespread thef^W pira^W copyright infringement of their games through ROM sites.

That's a great point. Braille is quite easy for sighted people to learn, and is fairly unambiguous.

As far as systems that are a little easier to write, but still machine-readable, a fun alternative might be the Fardraut font from Xevious and Solvalou.

http://hg101.classicgaming.gamespy.com/xevious/xev ious2.htm

I've got it as an actual font (called "CZP_Fardraut"), but I can't seem to find it anymore. I'm sure it's out there somewhere.

As alphabets go the letters aren't as distinctive as most, which would make learning it or reading it from a distance a bit of a hassle, but it's definitely possible. Also, the number system is nicely logical.

Two responses, one funny, one serious:

1: Anger Management's got prior art.

2: They'll probably use the technology with XBox Live. I don't know if you play many online games, but stress levels are quite high when playing intense competitive games. If you're serious, eliminating the cause would require eliminating the game. When Mario Kart can violent emotions, not to mention what more 'serious' games can do (see: chocolate milk), I think the only solution would be to make that zen game multiplayer. Call it a hunch but I don't see the CPL adopting that.

Yes right here. I'm using it right now and I just find it makes the game more realistic. When I remove someones shirt they should not have some stupid leather bra under as I believe in the past no one ever used bras. Anyways, enjoy.

If they wanted self-deprecation, they should have booked Jon Stewart, not the truthiest man on television.

He didn't play all those years of Dungeons and Dragons without learning something about courage.

Why do the three FFXI fans here always neglect to mention the week-plus outage FFXI had? WoW has yet to do that. Possibly because Blizzard isn't stupid enough to try and use the SMTP port for their MMORPG.

Battlefield (insert random number)

And the random number is .... 2142.

I remember in particular a biplane shoot-em-up that ran at ludicrous speed on a 486/33 in "turbo" mode.

Would that by any chance be 'sopwith'? http://sopwith.classicgaming.gamespy.com/
I remember trying to actually play that game with turbo enabled -- that was some hardcore fps :-)

The C&C Encyclopedia is a much better resource.

It doesn't matter which ending you take, the Soviet Union falls either way. Basically, the Soviet campaign just provides background information (the Nod stuff). Therefore:
RA -> C&C -> TS -> Firestorm -> C&C3
(RA ->) RA2 -> YR

There are various links to drool on: #1, #2, #3, and #4 for magazine scans, information, and discussions.

There are various links to drool on: #1, #2, #3, and #4 for magazine scans, information, and discussions.

Talk about perfect timing. Does anyone know of a Duke Nukem 3D map converter that goes from there to say Unreal? There's one but development only goes up to 2000 and it's incomplete. Of course there's the legality, but for those who already own the game, there shouldn't be a problem.

BTW anyone know if this is any good?

Talk about perfect timing. Does anyone know of a Duke Nukem 3D map converter that goes from there to say Unreal? There's one but development only goes up to 2000 and it's incomplete. Of course there's the legality, but for those who already own the game, there shouldn't be a problem.

BTW anyone know if this is any good?

No. Alex Ness posted this on his blog, and indicated that people should email him with expressions of interest.

From http://www.toysforbob.com/database/tfb_news.html (April 11, 2006)
"But maybe, just maybe, if enough of you people out there send me emails requesting that Toys For Bob dod a ligitimate sequel to Star Control 2, I'll be able to show them to Activision, along with a loaded handgun, and they will finally be convinced to roll the dice on this thing."

He also reposted a link to the gamespy petition:

http://starcontrol.classicgaming.gamespy.com/petit ion/

This petition circulated from Jan 03 - Dec 04 before it appears to have become innoperable. There's also been a similar effort in one of the forums used for a SC open source clone. What makes you think spamming Alex Ness will result in more favorable results??

How long, you ask? They've been out for years. Perhaps you'd be interested in the game "Battle Raper" (1 or 2): http://www.illusion.jp/preview/br2/index.html It's one of dozens of such games. It's even on GameSpy: http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/battle-raper-ii/

Apr 11 2006
Star Control Sequel - Get Out Of My Dreams..

You know what I haven't done in a while? Written any news. Some things have happened but nothing you would be that interested in. We've definitely hired a bunch of people in the last 6 months (See? I told you so.)

The game we've been working on for about a year is scheduled to come out in early November or so. What game are we working on? That's the funny thing. I can't tell you. I don't even know myself. What I mean is, "I don't even know, (comma) myself." Actually that doesn't make sense if I write it that way. I just didn't want you to think that I didn't know myself, even though I really don't. I wanted you to think that I didn't know what game we're working on, even though I really do.

Apparently, Activision is going to finally reveal the secret identity of our game at E3, which is about a month away. Hopefully I will know what game it is beforehand because I am supposed to be demo-ing it down at the show. If you're down there and want to say hi, just try and find me. You never will. I'm extremely difficult to find. And I won't answer to my own name (Alex). If you think you see me and call out a different name, like say, Stefan Jacobs, look for the person that doesn't turn around. That person is probably me. You may think that makes me fairly easy to find but again, you are wrong (I can't remember the first time you were wrong but I'm assuming it's happened at least once). Most people, you will notice, will turn around to the name Stefan Jacobs.

So it's taken me my usual 3 paragraphs to get to the real meat of this news article. And here it comes: A Star Control Sequel. We (I) want us to do a Star Control sequel. Back in the early 90s, Paul and Fred and some other people made Star Control 2. Personally, I thought it was pretty amazing. It was like a drug to me. Not quite as much like a drug as the drugs were but very, very close. I know there are other people that loved this game too. Sometimes you email me and ask if we'll ever do a sequel. And I always tell you that I wish we could do a sequel but it's very hard to convince large publishing companies that a new Star Control would sell very well in the current video game market. But maybe, just maybe, if enough of you people out there send me emails requesting that Toys For Bob do a legitimate sequel to Star Control 2, I'll be able to show them to Activision, along with a loaded handgun, and they will finally be convinced to roll the dice on this thing.

Will you do that for me? Your old pal, Alex? If you were working at a video game development company who had 2 founders that had worked on a classic, epic space role-playing and combat game years ago for which you had recently re-acquired rights to and were hoping to convince your new parent company to let you make a sequel by asking for the public to send in requests for said sequel, I'd email you. There's actually even a petition online. I have no idea how to sign it but here it is: http://starcontrol.classicgaming.gamespy.com/petit ion/petition_signed.shtml

Apr 11 2006
Star Control Sequel - Get Out Of My Dreams..

You know what I haven't done in a while? Written any news. Some things have happened but nothing you would be that interested in. We've definitely hired a bunch of people in the last 6 months (See? I told you so.)

The game we've been working on for about a year is scheduled to come out in early November or so. What game are we working on? That's the funny thing. I can't tell you. I don't even know myself. What I mean is, "I don't even know, (comma) myself." Actually that doesn't make sense if I write it that way. I just didn't want you to think that I didn't know myself, even though I really don't. I wanted you to think that I didn't know what game we're working on, even though I really do.

Apparently, Activision is going to finally reveal the secret identity of our game at E3, which is about a month away. Hopefully I will know what game it is beforehand because I am supposed to be demo-ing it down at the show. If you're down there and want to say hi, just try and find me. You never will. I'm extremely difficult to find. And I won't answer to my own name (Alex). If you think you see me and call out a different name, like say, Stefan Jacobs, look for the person that doesn't turn around. That person is probably me. You may think that makes me fairly easy to find but again, you are wrong (I can't remember the first time you were wrong but I'm assuming it's happened at least once). Most people, you will notice, will turn around to the name Stefan Jacobs.

So it's taken me my usual 3 paragraphs to get to the real meat of this news article. And here it comes: A Star Control Sequel. We (I) want us to do a Star Control sequel. Back in the early 90s, Paul and Fred and some other people made Star Control 2. Personally, I thought it was pretty amazing. It was like a drug to me. Not quite as much like a drug as the drugs were but very, very close. I know there are other people that loved this game too. Sometimes you email me and ask if we'll ever do a sequel. And I always tell you that I wish we could do a sequel but it's very hard to convince large publishing companies that a new Star Control would sell very well in the current video game market. But maybe, just maybe, if enough of you people out there send me emails requesting that Toys For Bob do a legitimate sequel to Star Control 2, I'll be able to show them to Activision, along with a loaded handgun, and they will finally be convinced to roll the dice on this thing.

Will you do that for me? Your old pal, Alex? If you were working at a video game development company who had 2 founders that had worked on a classic, epic space role-playing and combat game years ago for which you had recently re-acquired rights to and were hoping to convince your new parent company to let you make a sequel by asking for the public to send in requests for said sequel, I'd email you. There's actually even a petition online. I have no idea how to sign it but here it is: http://starcontrol.classicgaming.gamespy.com/petit ion/petition_signed.shtml

Apr 11 2006
Star Control Sequel - Get Out Of My Dreams..

You know what I haven't done in a while? Written any news. Some things have happened but nothing you would be that interested in. We've definitely hired a bunch of people in the last 6 months (See? I told you so.)

The game we've been working on for about a year is scheduled to come out in early November or so. What game are we working on? That's the funny thing. I can't tell you. I don't even know myself. What I mean is, "I don't even know, (comma) myself." Actually that doesn't make sense if I write it that way. I just didn't want you to think that I didn't know myself, even though I really don't. I wanted you to think that I didn't know what game we're working on, even though I really do.

Apparently, Activision is going to finally reveal the secret identity of our game at E3, which is about a month away. Hopefully I will know what game it is beforehand because I am supposed to be demo-ing it down at the show. If you're down there and want to say hi, just try and find me. You never will. I'm extremely difficult to find. And I won't answer to my own name (Alex). If you think you see me and call out a different name, like say, Stefan Jacobs, look for the person that doesn't turn around. That person is probably me. You may think that makes me fairly easy to find but again, you are wrong (I can't remember the first time you were wrong but I'm assuming it's happened at least once). Most people, you will notice, will turn around to the name Stefan Jacobs.

So it's taken me my usual 3 paragraphs to get to the real meat of this news article. And here it comes: A Star Control Sequel. We (I) want us to do a Star Control sequel. Back in the early 90s, Paul and Fred and some other people made Star Control 2. Personally, I thought it was pretty amazing. It was like a drug to me. Not quite as much like a drug as the drugs were but very, very close. I know there are other people that loved this game too. Sometimes you email me and ask if we'll ever do a sequel. And I always tell you that I wish we could do a sequel but it's very hard to convince large publishing companies that a new Star Control would sell very well in the current video game market. But maybe, just maybe, if enough of you people out there send me emails requesting that Toys For Bob do a legitimate sequel to Star Control 2, I'll be able to show them to Activision, along with a loaded handgun, and they will finally be convinced to roll the dice on this thing.

Will you do that for me? Your old pal, Alex? If you were working at a video game development company who had 2 founders that had worked on a classic, epic space role-playing and combat game years ago for which you had recently re-acquired rights to and were hoping to convince your new parent company to let you make a sequel by asking for the public to send in requests for said sequel, I'd email you. There's actually even a petition online. I have no idea how to sign it but here it is: http://starcontrol.classicgaming.gamespy.com/petit ion/petition_signed.shtml

This is exactly why I am looking forward to Spore, which is driven almost entirely by user created content.

I suppose something remotely on-topic is required here, so: I own Oblivion on 360. I choose not to buy the content at that price.

Excellent point! I did not realize that Bethesda was also providing (and charging) for the offical PC mod. Shame on you, Bethesda! ;)

In my earlier post, I pointed out that, on the Xbox 360, there are no player mods available. However, for contrast, I should have linked to one of the mod lists for the PC version. Note: these are unofficial, but are also free.

Oblivion Mods

I bought this the day it arrived in stores without hesitation, being a major fan of Morrowind and its expansions and have not stopped playing it since. There is one, MAJOR thing the author forgot in his piece: mods. While the Xbox360 version will ensure that you can play the game smoothly at high graphical settings, the PC version will ensure that you can play the game the way you prefer through mods, which is something pretty major. A couple things I do not like about Oblivion:

1. Interface is gigantic (as it was made for both console & PC but no effort was made to make a smaller interface for PC) and the world map forces you to view it through a keyhole.
2. Magic users imo get too little mana to work with, this is especially fustrating in combat situations
3. Wild life attacks you for no reason; when you (IRL) walk through the forest, rats do not attack you unless theyre rabid or some shit. Same for crabs and such. In Oblivion, all animals harbor an extreme hatred towards people apparently and attack on sight regardless of their place on the food chain. Kinda dumb.

You know whats great about these annoyances? The game has been out for almost 2 weeks and mods have fixed each of these annoyances; theres a mod that makes the interface a nice size for PCs as well as making the map fullscreen, makes wild life act like real animals, and I personally made a mod that gives characters more mana per levels of intelligence (the games mana equation works as such: mana = Intelligence x 2, my mod just changes that multiplier; its a simple fix until I can make a script that involves the actual character level). And these are mostly just tweaks, give it another six months to a year and we'll have some original user content as well; quests, new lands, you name it. This is what made Morrowind go from a game I played for a month to a game I played for atleast 6 months, since I could go online and find new ways to enhance the game when I got bored.

This is a great game and it will only get better with time.

For those looking for mods, the two main sites I know of right now are:
Tes Source
PlanetElderscrolls

Or you could adapt a method used in the good ol' days of the AFK bot-tastic Star Wars Galaxies, described here :-

http://archive.gamespy.com/fargo/august03/autorpg/

I know Blizzard frown on these things, but maybe if you buy a Sony CD and root-kit yourself, you can run the 'Auto-Camp 2000' undetected, have a break from the game and come back Uber!

A bold plan I know... And necessarily helpful; sorry!

http://archive.gamespy.com/reviews/november01/maje stic/

Instead of starting the reflexive games and violence discussions all over again, just go the article and look for example at the cool games on page 2

I played an online game similar to the strange attractors game, I was playing for hours launching things into orbit, waiting to see where they would end up, very addictive!

The rumble box game looks even more freaking out, reminds me of the IKEA / MacDonalds ball-boxes they use at the kids' corner, but then mixed with destructable robots, coolness garanteed!

Slashdot has always been the KOA Kampground of overweight pear-shaped losers who profess to be highly intelligent yet somehow fail to even take five minutes to go have a look at what it is they are railing against. GO HAVE A LOOK AT THE PATENT. LOOK AT THE PRIOR ART REFERENCES CITED BY THE EXAMINER DURING PROSECUTION. LOOK AT THE *CLAIMS* TO SEE WHAT IS ACTUALLY BEING PATENTED, LOSERS.

Go here: http://www.pat2pdf.org/ (it's free, just like you guys like stuff) and enter the patent number "6,999,083" and you will receive a steamy fresh PDF of the patent. And, oh my, what's this?

References Cited:
Tom Ham, "Half-Life: Spectator Tech", June 2001, http://www.gamespy.com/articles/june01/hlmod3b/.*

Remember kids, you may educate yourselves for FREE on internet and it won't require you to leave your Mom's basement.

- It's the first ping-pong game to have come out in years.

Want a bet?

Here's one

Here's another

And another

And another (it's one of the included games in Eye Toy: Play 2)

There's more, and I could keep going. There was even one in Japan that I'm forgetting the name of that came with a set of ping pong paddle controllers with sensors built in so you could play in first-person (similar to the way the Eye Toy game works, but without needing an Eye Toy).

Most of these have not been released in the US, sure, but you don't think there's a reason for that? Do you think Rockstar knows something about Ping Pong that every other publisher doesn't? Maybe. But then again, maybe not.

- It's probably also the first ping-pong game to have decent graphics.

Take a look at the screenshots in the first link. All modern ping pong games look at least pretty good. The Rockstar game will probably look better just because it's on the Xbox 360, but it won't be the first ping pong game with "decent" graphics. They all have decent graphics.

- Whilst ping-pong isn't going to attract many gamers into GTA, it could be a hit amongst asian gamers.

And as you can see, this is hardly an underserved market. It's really not much different than Capcom deciding to make a basketball game and some guy in Japan says "this could be popular among Americans. Basketball is popular there." Ummm... hello? NBA Live? NBA 2K6? NBA Street? NBA Ballers? How many games in a particular genre do you need?

And anyway, Asians don't own Xbox 360's. This game is not for them. And nobody there is going to buy an Xbox 360 just to play an American-style ping pong game.

- It's the first ping-pong game to have come out in years.

Want a bet?

Here's one

Here's another

And another

And another (it's one of the included games in Eye Toy: Play 2)

There's more, and I could keep going. There was even one in Japan that I'm forgetting the name of that came with a set of ping pong paddle controllers with sensors built in so you could play in first-person (similar to the way the Eye Toy game works, but without needing an Eye Toy).

Most of these have not been released in the US, sure, but you don't think there's a reason for that? Do you think Rockstar knows something about Ping Pong that every other publisher doesn't? Maybe. But then again, maybe not.

- It's probably also the first ping-pong game to have decent graphics.

Take a look at the screenshots in the first link. All modern ping pong games look at least pretty good. The Rockstar game will probably look better just because it's on the Xbox 360, but it won't be the first ping pong game with "decent" graphics. They all have decent graphics.

- Whilst ping-pong isn't going to attract many gamers into GTA, it could be a hit amongst asian gamers.

And as you can see, this is hardly an underserved market. It's really not much different than Capcom deciding to make a basketball game and some guy in Japan says "this could be popular among Americans. Basketball is popular there." Ummm... hello? NBA Live? NBA 2K6? NBA Street? NBA Ballers? How many games in a particular genre do you need?

And anyway, Asians don't own Xbox 360's. This game is not for them. And nobody there is going to buy an Xbox 360 just to play an American-style ping pong game.

"Justin Bailey" is not a person. It doesn't actually refer to anything at all.

Read all about it here and/or here

Hawkins wanted a company that embraced the artistic vision behind the film company, United Artists, a firm founded by Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, et al. Bing Gordon proposed "Electronic Artists," but Steve Hayes countered, "We're not the artists, they are..." meaning that EA was a publisher and not a developer. (In fact, EA's first in-house game was Skate or Die produced in 1987.)

Toads?

When I saw the subject line I immediately thought of BattleToads rampaging across Australia smashing thing with huge fists and feet.

And the number one Gaming Scandal of all time...
But this is the L-shaped Tetris block. Good God. It's undefeated.
The L-Shaped Block is the Most Feared

And the number one Gaming Scandal of all time...
But this is the L-shaped Tetris block. Good God. It's undefeated.
The L-Shaped Block is the Most Feared

And the number one Gaming Scandal of all time...
But this is the L-shaped Tetris block. Good God. It's undefeated.
The L-Shaped Block is the Most Feared

It wouldn't surprise me. Tetris Attack was just a remake of Panel de Pon for US markets.

Now I have a conflict. I have a Gameboy Color and I really love Tetris Attack. I'd like to get Tetris Attack, but it's only available in Black & White. There is, however, a color version available, except that it's Pokemon (*shudder*) Puzzle Challenge. To go for the Black and White and be free (but ugly), or stare at the annoying Pokemon in exchange for color? ARRGGGHH!

Why don't you just set up Teamspeak or Roger Wilco or Ventrilo or something?

They already did, called the SmartJoy Frag ;)

http://xbox.gamespy.com/articles/565/565000p1.html

A miracle boon for PC gamers gone console! Not without its limits, but not bad for what it does.

Halo for PC came out long after the Xbox version and it still managed to sell very well. I think you're underestimating how many people would like to play Halo 2 on PC. Granted the xbox version of Halo couldn't be played online like the PC version, but I'm sure the Halo 2 PC version will add some new features that will make it better than the xbox version.

Also note that Gamespy stats show that Halo is still being played by lots of people on PCs. Good games sell for a long time.

Full Frontal Nerdity? Ok. http://archive.gamespy.com/comics/nodwick/ffn/ffn. htm

http://archive.gamespy.com/articles/june03/dumbest moments/index7.shtml