Slashdot Mirror

They gave it 9.2 out of 10, including a subscore of 9.4 for "lasting appeal". Nice work, morons.

Well in Japan, "DS Brain Training for Adults" is apparently a huge seller.

Screw Tetris Attack... I want The New Tetris... ONLINE!

The 1993 PC game Syndicate by Bullfrog which was released for Super Nintendo would work awesome on the DS. That was a really fun game.

Your wish is Majesco's command.

Both have already been optioned by other studios.

Nintendo will not be showing anything at the Tokyo Game Show 2005. This is not really surprising because the company rarely exhibits at the event, considered by many to be the Japanese equivalent of the Electronics Entertainment Expo. That being true, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata opened TGS 2003 with a keynote speech and he's set to do the same at this year's event. The subject of his speech has not yet been revealed, but it's scheduled to take place on September 16 before the show officially kicks off. In 2003, Iwata spoke vaguely about the videogame industry and the future of game consoles. In two weeks, we expect him to talk about Revolution, possibly unveiling the top-secret controller. So although the Big N won't be on the show floor with games, it should be an exciting TGS for Nintendo fans all the same. Stay tuned for more, obviously.

No. TamagotchiDS is the new Tamagotchi, for the DS too!

From IGN:

"Nearly 15 percent of all DS owners bought Nintendogs in just a week, a virtually unprecedented adoption rate for any title on an established system," said Nintendo's Reggie Fils-Aime. "And it's also helping sell new DS hardware. Coupled with a price drop to $129.99, retailers are reporting DS sales up between one and a half and three times previous levels, and last week DS comfortably outsold our portable competitors."

http://ds.ign.com/articles/647/647328p1.html

A market that serves creative vision instead of suppressing it. An audience that prizes gameplay over glitz. A business that allows niche product to be commercially successful - not necessarily or even ideally on the same scale as the conventional market, but on a much more modest one: profitability with sales of a few tens of thousands of units, not millions.

So you think you're going to be able to convince the wider market to change the kinds of things they like?

There is no fricking way that (say) Electroplankton is going to be commercially successful, in any conceivable way the market could configure itself. A lot of things that lack widespread success really just are that way becuase they're just the kind of thing only a limited number of people would like. And this isn't a bad thing. I don't want to be expected to start playing games I don't like just because it's what the mainstream gamers want; I wouldn't expect mainstream gamers to start playing games they don't like because it's what I want. You aren't going to change the fact that people like grand theft auto. You could maybe do something about the areas of the game industry where people keep buying the same franchise year after year because they don't educate themselves as to alternatives, but some things are just popular because they're highly likable.

I think this article is misguided, even aside from the Wired-from-the-90s-style sensory overload layout. What we need is not a market that wants innovation. What we need is a market which allows innovation-- which has enough diversity that there is room for both a ramaging mainstream and a healthy "cult" market . What we don't need is for "the market" or "the audience" to fundamentally change its focuses, becuase that involves changing people's hearts and minds. If we focus on fundamentally changing the market, we're not going to get a lot done.

What we need to look at is the more meaningful goal of keeping the niche/alternative/"indie" market healthy-- making sure there's some way for the niche developers and the niche end-users to connect to one another. Right now there are barriers to that, in the increasing lack of diversity in the publisher market, in the way that it is increasingly difficult or impossible to get anyone to find out about or sell a game without a big corporate patron. Trying to identify these barriers to the health of the niche market and fix them is probably more likely to get us somewhere than just railing against the stagnant state of the mainstream market; the mainstream game publishing market got into its current nasty, stagnant state for a reason. Though, doing things this way will benefit the wider market as well-- it will allow the niche "games as art" market to do what it's done in the past, which is serve as an incubator for the stuff that turns out once the wider, "mainstream" market finds it to be the Next Big Thing, allowing the "mainstream" market to periodically refresh itself.

What we want to avoid if at all possible is a kind of a partitioning, like we've seen in say movies, between "commercial" and "indie". Okay, so there's lots of good indie films out there, but they're inherently limited in what they can do and who they can reach. When was the last time you saw an "indie" sci fi movie? They're not very common, because you need a special effects budget to do that. Indie music is a lot healthier but that's because music production can be potentially done on such a low budget without the quality being impacted; movies and games are something of a larger-scale endeavor. Freeware games are great and all but if your choice is between "buy what the mainstream wants" and "buy games that had no budget" that would be sad. I think there's room in the market for small or more adventurous publishers to coexist right among

Ah, here's an example. Link.

Sure. Try this link. It's the 320x240 one, but if you can get it locally so you can full-screen it, it's fine.

Failing that, it's the one labelled "GC Convention (Off-screen) (08/22/2005)" off of this page.

Sure. Try this link. It's the 320x240 one, but if you can get it locally so you can full-screen it, it's fine.

Failing that, it's the one labelled "GC Convention (Off-screen) (08/22/2005)" off of this page.

Strangely, it sounds rather like the patent text.

Sure, there may be 80 half-assed games.

Take a look at the reviews on IGN.

http://psp.ign.com/reviews/

I don't see too many decent games in there.

Considering most people do shop at Best Buy for their games, along with Amazon; I'm not impressed with their selection.

Admit it, most of the PSP games out right now are just rehashed PS2 games that are not designed for handheld play...

Apparently an Age Of Empires II port is is in development: http://ds.ign.com/objects/736/736742.html

Whee!

IGN has a good list of games that can be played by multiple people with only one cart using the GBA. This isn't wireless...it's wired multiplayer but it's still a pretty good and interesting list to check out. It's a bit dated so I'm sure they should have more on the list but I thought it might be of interest since we are talking about handhelds and multiplayer.

Here it is http://gameboy.ign.com/articles/358/358050p1.html

Whoa, you weren't fuckin' kidding. [Mirror]

You took the words out of my mouth! I'm another satisfied Karma owner and am quite disappointed by this news. Especially since the Karma 2 (mentioned here and here) never came to pass and now it probably never will. I remember the days when Karma was still fresh on the scene and the Rio devs would hang out in forums to listen to feature requests and help people out. The Karma couldn't have been more perfect: features (FLAC, ogg vorbis, cross-fade, excellent battery life, killer base) form factor (yes it passes the one-hand test), value (20 GB for under $250 at one point). Sure it was a niche player, but it will be a tough niche to fill again.

You took the words out of my mouth! I'm another satisfied Karma owner and am quite disappointed by this news. Especially since the Karma 2 (mentioned here and here) never came to pass and now it probably never will. I remember the days when Karma was still fresh on the scene and the Rio devs would hang out in forums to listen to feature requests and help people out. The Karma couldn't have been more perfect: features (FLAC, ogg vorbis, cross-fade, excellent battery life, killer base) form factor (yes it passes the one-hand test), value (20 GB for under $250 at one point). Sure it was a niche player, but it will be a tough niche to fill again.

IMO, the double screen was the best idea Nintendo could ever have. No more having to swap action and map screens...

And I'm not buying a PSP if my favorite game only comes for the DS...

From the link:

"The touch screen comes into play with a new ability where players can "shatter" weak bricks with their finger or stylus, or draw magical symbols to defeat enemy creatures."

Rune magic, anyone?

If you're interested in more on the Who/Skiffy thing, check out http://filmforce.ign.com/articles/592/592429p1.htm l

You should have a look at "Rebelstar Tactical Command"
http://gameboy.ign.com/objects/738/738202.html

It's a Gameboy Advance version in the works, by the actual authors of the original XCOM 1.

I just can't wait for it to be released.

From a thread on VNBoards.

In Citan's goodbye post he suggest people view the special credits by holding down the Ctrl+Alt keys while clicking the Credits button.

I did this and wow! The team was as cynical and depressed as many of those who complained about the game. You don't want to miss this. If you have access to the game, take a look. You have to wade through a lot of credits before you get to the team comments, but I'm so amazed this is in there. Here is an example from memory...not a direct quote:

"Pissing off players is what we do best. Best to stick to our strengths"

There are many other comments that just vent frustrations.

Computers have consistently exhibited rapid technological change that must be taken into account to avoid biased estimates of inflation.2 For example, a mainstream desktop computer that sold for $2,200 in 1993 may have included a 33 megahertz (MHz) central processing unit (CPU), 8 megabytes (MB) of dynamic random access memory (DRAM), a 210MB hard drive, a 15-inch monitor, as well as many other defining technological characteristics. In 1998, however, a desktop computer that sold for $2,200 could easily have been configured with a 450MHz CPU, 128MB of SDRAM, an 8,000MB hard drive, a 17-inch monitor, and included other advanced features unavailable in 1993, such as a DVD player and 3D-graphics capabilities. In this example the observed prices for the 1993 and 1998 computers are identical. However, technological change over this 5-year period has been remarkable: CPU speed (MHz) jumped 1,263 percent (this actually understates the change in CPU performance3), system memory increased 1,500 percent, hard drive capacity increased 3,700 percent, and monitor size increased 13 percent.

lets take a look at your cited sources.

your sources:
http://www.the-magicbox.com/topten.htm
this shows that sales during the first week of august the DS outsold the psp. cool, but if you look at the total numbers for the year, the psp is only behind by 100,000 sales.

also, your link shows that there is a very close gap in the japanese market, but we all know how nintendogs "supposedly" boosted DS sales in that region, so why is the gap so close still?

http://psp.ign.com/articles/637/637526p1.html
the article doesnt cite any sources, or give a date for its figures. those could be figures from march for all we know. not your fault, you just didnt realize that is the mark of a bad reporter.

for example:
http://www.pspworld.com/sony-psp/psp/psp-by-the-nu mbers-001026.php

Try 2 million PSP sales to 6 million DS sales, with DS sales outpacing PSP sales by a factor of 2:1 in Japan since March. 1 million of those DS sales were in Europe, primarily the UK. Stats posted just under a month ago when last we got a peek at financials.

The DS outsold the PSP in ALL regions by a factor of 2:1 including the US. Worldwide it was 3:1. If the PSP manages to equal DS sales in Europe when it's released it will only narrow the lead down to 2:1. Titles on the PSP simply are not moving off shelves at any real pace. Swallow the pill already Sony fans.

We'll see what happens when PS3 pricing is announced. If it's also $400 (or more), as seems likely to me given the sheer cost of all its hardware (and Sony's confidence), then people will likely see the XBox pricing in a better light - similar price & similar features, or a stripped-down version for people who don't need the fancy stuff. Where's the problem?

P.S. I note that Premium system preorders have already hit #1 on Amazon UK & FR (Core system is #197), so I don't think MS are that far off the mark...

This was seen in the skies over Tokyo in the 1960s. At least the beak is the same.

You may be right, but anyone who bought a Playstation or Genesis at launch paid almost that much in today's terms. Others, like the Saturn, 3DO, NeoGeo and even the original Atari VCS, cost far more.

Then there's all those gamers who pay $400+ just for a high-speed graphics card, not to mention the rest of the PC. Considering that the 360 and PS3 both include a top-flight graphics chip at least as powerful as anything around, getting the entire system for $400 (plus a wireless controller etc) is quite a good deal from that perspective.

I still haven't seen any games and it's like 2 months from launch.

Here's a list; here's another; yet another here. Finding them took all of 20 seconds on Google.

Hopefully it takes a normal 3.5" IDE drive just like the PS2 does.

It does not.
2.5" internal, and easily-swappable like the 360's. (I do believe it's aimed at an internal bay and not attached to the outside, though.)

It is, however, supposedly going to be a much larger drive (rumored 80GB, but who knows?) and come with Linux pre-installed (and hopefully a useful suite of apps and PVR-type software) to be a more interesting optional add-on, though. Hopefully they won't fart around with it like the PS2's drive so that it'll be actively pursued by developers and made useful for we consumers.

No. Actually you're completely wrong. (well you could also be right about old xbox games expecting a harddrive. I don't know for sure. It just depends)

"(Microsoft has) implemented compatibility purely through emulation (at the CPU level). It looks like emulation profiles for each game are going to be stored on the hard drive, and I imagine that a certain number will ship with the system. They already have the infrastructure to distribute more profiles via Live, and more and more can be made available online periodically."

Second page of this IGN article:
http://xbox.ign.com/articles/639/639136p1.html

I also remember reading other Microsoft quotes about this in various other places but I don't feel like finding them all right this very second.

I think you're trying to make a counterpoint to my argument, but I'm not sure because you seem to be making my point exactly. There *is* a world of difference between actually experiencing someone jabbing a screwdriver into their skull, than having some 2nd-hand experience of it via some character when you know it's not real.

If you think the difference between a RPG and a FPS game are significant, you're a little behind the times my friend, at least as regards this discussion. Most RPG's now are full 3D immersive worlds. For a pointer to how this one looks ... link...

Let me ask you this: if (while you're playing a RPG or FPS game), I say "I'll give you $1000 (real cash) if you make your guy jump off that cliff and die", would you do it ? Well perhaps you would and perhaps you wouldn't, I guess it depends on your character and where you are in the game. If, however, I take you to the top of the Empire State Building and offer you the same cash to jump off (payable afterwards, of course), I very much doubt you would jump.

So, you can make the distinction between harm in a game to a character (which is just a software construct) and harm to yourself. If you can't make the same distinction between the software construct and harm to another, it is a more fundamental problem with your personality than anything to do with video games.

I *really* wish I'd written this before, I think it sums up everything.

Simon.

Ign has some more info:
http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/642/642647p1.html

Looks pricey!

$50 for the wireless controller and then $12 more for the damn battery, and what's the $20 Play and Charge kit?

Does that mean you could spend up to $82 per controller for all the bells and whistles?? Yikes!

Taking into account that a memory card ($39.99 U.S./?34.99/£22.99) is required for saving games, a headset ($19.99 U.S./?19.99/£14.99) is necessary for Xbox Live play, a second controller sells for $39.99 (?34.99/£24.99), and a remote goes for $29.99 (?29.99/£19.99), totaling $130, the premium price appears the better deal. The above tally doesn't include a MS HD, which costs an additional $99 (totaling $229).

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/642/642656p1.html

£280 for the top tier model isn't too bad. So IGN reports http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/642/642656p1.html

The IGN article has more info on the differences in the two versions. http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/642/642656p1.html/

Microsoft bought Rare in 2002. What rock have you been under?
http://cube.ign.com/articles/371/371768p1.html

Yeah. I even believe its from the Merlin server in DAoC.

But its certainly from Dark Ages of Camelot and Cloudsong is a cloak. Its pretty good, but certainly not the best in the game. The thing about it is that you can risk camp for it for a couple of days if you are unlucky.
But this guy has nothing to cry over since he is a necro...they are pve gods.. :D

And the vnboards is here:
http://vnboards.ign.com/ - lots of this kind of stuff there :p

"Nintendo did produce the GBA adabptor for the Cube, and GB adabptor for the SNES. They can make what the they want, and what will benifit them."

Yeah, but those were peripherals, each costing over $50. It's a lot more feasible when you're getting reimbursed that much for the hardware. An NES slot on the SNES would have required a lot of hardware changes and probably would have increased the cost of the console considerably.

"If the revolution handles cube games, it will be a first for nintendo. Just because they say it now, does not mean it will be true."

First of all, backward compatibility is one of the few confirmed details about the Revolution. It would be suicide for Nintendo to draw so much attention to a feature that isn't already finalized. Secondly, what is the purpose of this if it doesn't support GameCube games? The Revolution will support wireless controllers and SD Flash memory by default, so there's no purpose for all that extra hardware, other than backward compatibility.

Nintendo has repeatedly emphasized backward compatibility. There is no way that any company would announce a feature more than six separate times, build it into a prototype, wave it around in front of thousands of people, and then drop it. It would be sheer lunacy.

"Nintendo did produce the GBA adabptor for the Cube, and GB adabptor for the SNES. They can make what the they want, and what will benifit them."

Yeah, but those were peripherals, each costing over $50. It's a lot more feasible when you're getting reimbursed that much for the hardware. An NES slot on the SNES would have required a lot of hardware changes and probably would have increased the cost of the console considerably.

"If the revolution handles cube games, it will be a first for nintendo. Just because they say it now, does not mean it will be true."

First of all, backward compatibility is one of the few confirmed details about the Revolution. It would be suicide for Nintendo to draw so much attention to a feature that isn't already finalized. Secondly, what is the purpose of this if it doesn't support GameCube games? The Revolution will support wireless controllers and SD Flash memory by default, so there's no purpose for all that extra hardware, other than backward compatibility.

Nintendo has repeatedly emphasized backward compatibility. There is no way that any company would announce a feature more than six separate times, build it into a prototype, wave it around in front of thousands of people, and then drop it. It would be sheer lunacy.

"Nintendo did produce the GBA adabptor for the Cube, and GB adabptor for the SNES. They can make what the they want, and what will benifit them."

Yeah, but those were peripherals, each costing over $50. It's a lot more feasible when you're getting reimbursed that much for the hardware. An NES slot on the SNES would have required a lot of hardware changes and probably would have increased the cost of the console considerably.

"If the revolution handles cube games, it will be a first for nintendo. Just because they say it now, does not mean it will be true."

First of all, backward compatibility is one of the few confirmed details about the Revolution. It would be suicide for Nintendo to draw so much attention to a feature that isn't already finalized. Secondly, what is the purpose of this if it doesn't support GameCube games? The Revolution will support wireless controllers and SD Flash memory by default, so there's no purpose for all that extra hardware, other than backward compatibility.

Nintendo has repeatedly emphasized backward compatibility. There is no way that any company would announce a feature more than six separate times, build it into a prototype, wave it around in front of thousands of people, and then drop it. It would be sheer lunacy.

"Nintendo did produce the GBA adabptor for the Cube, and GB adabptor for the SNES. They can make what the they want, and what will benifit them."

Yeah, but those were peripherals, each costing over $50. It's a lot more feasible when you're getting reimbursed that much for the hardware. An NES slot on the SNES would have required a lot of hardware changes and probably would have increased the cost of the console considerably.

"If the revolution handles cube games, it will be a first for nintendo. Just because they say it now, does not mean it will be true."

First of all, backward compatibility is one of the few confirmed details about the Revolution. It would be suicide for Nintendo to draw so much attention to a feature that isn't already finalized. Secondly, what is the purpose of this if it doesn't support GameCube games? The Revolution will support wireless controllers and SD Flash memory by default, so there's no purpose for all that extra hardware, other than backward compatibility.

Nintendo has repeatedly emphasized backward compatibility. There is no way that any company would announce a feature more than six separate times, build it into a prototype, wave it around in front of thousands of people, and then drop it. It would be sheer lunacy.

"Nintendo did produce the GBA adabptor for the Cube, and GB adabptor for the SNES. They can make what the they want, and what will benifit them."

Yeah, but those were peripherals, each costing over $50. It's a lot more feasible when you're getting reimbursed that much for the hardware. An NES slot on the SNES would have required a lot of hardware changes and probably would have increased the cost of the console considerably.

"If the revolution handles cube games, it will be a first for nintendo. Just because they say it now, does not mean it will be true."

First of all, backward compatibility is one of the few confirmed details about the Revolution. It would be suicide for Nintendo to draw so much attention to a feature that isn't already finalized. Secondly, what is the purpose of this if it doesn't support GameCube games? The Revolution will support wireless controllers and SD Flash memory by default, so there's no purpose for all that extra hardware, other than backward compatibility.

Nintendo has repeatedly emphasized backward compatibility. There is no way that any company would announce a feature more than six separate times, build it into a prototype, wave it around in front of thousands of people, and then drop it. It would be sheer lunacy.

"Nintendo did produce the GBA adabptor for the Cube, and GB adabptor for the SNES. They can make what the they want, and what will benifit them."

Yeah, but those were peripherals, each costing over $50. It's a lot more feasible when you're getting reimbursed that much for the hardware. An NES slot on the SNES would have required a lot of hardware changes and probably would have increased the cost of the console considerably.

"If the revolution handles cube games, it will be a first for nintendo. Just because they say it now, does not mean it will be true."

First of all, backward compatibility is one of the few confirmed details about the Revolution. It would be suicide for Nintendo to draw so much attention to a feature that isn't already finalized. Secondly, what is the purpose of this if it doesn't support GameCube games? The Revolution will support wireless controllers and SD Flash memory by default, so there's no purpose for all that extra hardware, other than backward compatibility.

Nintendo has repeatedly emphasized backward compatibility. There is no way that any company would announce a feature more than six separate times, build it into a prototype, wave it around in front of thousands of people, and then drop it. It would be sheer lunacy.

"Nintendo did produce the GBA adabptor for the Cube, and GB adabptor for the SNES. They can make what the they want, and what will benifit them."

Yeah, but those were peripherals, each costing over $50. It's a lot more feasible when you're getting reimbursed that much for the hardware. An NES slot on the SNES would have required a lot of hardware changes and probably would have increased the cost of the console considerably.

"If the revolution handles cube games, it will be a first for nintendo. Just because they say it now, does not mean it will be true."

First of all, backward compatibility is one of the few confirmed details about the Revolution. It would be suicide for Nintendo to draw so much attention to a feature that isn't already finalized. Secondly, what is the purpose of this if it doesn't support GameCube games? The Revolution will support wireless controllers and SD Flash memory by default, so there's no purpose for all that extra hardware, other than backward compatibility.

Nintendo has repeatedly emphasized backward compatibility. There is no way that any company would announce a feature more than six separate times, build it into a prototype, wave it around in front of thousands of people, and then drop it. It would be sheer lunacy.

Well the story I read mentions developers...not analysts, but you are right in that there is no official word from Sony on such a date change.

not only that, guess who's filing the suit?

yup, our lovable friend jack thompson http://ps2.ign.com/articles/640/640942p1.html

i can't wait to see this scumbucket in hell