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Playstation on Linux UPDATED
Namaste writes, "As reported on MacNN. Connectix who after a recent legal victory over Sony has signed an OEM agreement with Red Hat in which Connectix Virtual Game Station (VGS) will ship bundled with Red Hat Linux. The press release can be found here. The Macintosh version has been out for a while and seems to be quite a hit.
Both the Linux and Win2k versions with be shipping in March. " Update: 02/16 03:21 by H :OK, this issue got confused: Red Hat won't be bundling VGS with Red Hat. Instead, Connectix will be bundling Red Hat with their Virtual PC emulator. VPC is not released for Linux at this time. I'll make sure Rob gets some more coffee before posting again. *grin*
First of all, this explains the odd news I read yesterday that Connectix is going to ship a copy of RH with VirtualPC for Mac. That just seemed weird, now I see that it was a bastard child of this slightly more rational deal.
Secondly, what's the deal with RedHat including more and more non-OS software on their CDs?
--
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Isn't there a difference between the Virtual PC and the Virtual Game Station? As far as I can tell, this won't let you play Playstation games under Linux... it'll just let you run x86 Linux on a Macintosh... for which you can use Mac PPC and get better performance...
:)
Of course, I could be wrong.
What is the license? What is the cost? What are the required system specs (speed)? Will I be able to get this is Debian/other distribution, or do I have to buy the offical redHad? Will it work in FreeBSD linux emullation? Will it take advantage of SMP to allow two slower (not half speed) CPUs to do the same work?
I can make some guesses: Not open source, $40, PII-250 with 32 meg of ram, Yes, Yes, NO. Those are guesses, but they seem reasonable. I'd say that at least one is wrong though.
Too bad I couldn't find any of that information in the press release.
Why couldn't someone port this, or Bleem to the x-box...or hell to the dreamcast ( which uses a WindowsCE developement environment ) and actually make a Playstation emulator for another console...how would that change things? is it even possible, could a regular CD hold the emulator and the game? Just a crazy off the cuff thought...
The press release refers to virtual PCV, which apparently allows you to run your Mac stuff on Linux and PCs. Is there a correct link out there ?
Donte Alistair Anderson Roberts - hi son!
Karma: Chameleon
The press release doesn't mention VGS at all. Could we possibly check for editorial accuracy before posting these, please?
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Don't imitate. Enervate.
Yep, someone really fscked the hampster on this one.
- Jeff A. Campbell
- VelociNews (http://www.velocinews.com)
- Jeff
Virtual PC (which is what's getting shipped here) and Virtual Game Station are two completely different pieces of software. The latter just lets you run playstation games on your computer (mac). The former will let you run x86 operating systems, usually MS Windows, under emulation on the mac. The part where you're wrong is that although you're running it on a ppc chip which is comparatively faster than the equivalent-mhz intel chip, it's not nearly enough to make up for the speed hit you're taking with all the emulation. You can turn a first generation mac into a second generation.
None of this has to do with RedHat, except that Redhat linux is getting bundled with the linux version of Virtual PC.
"If one is really a superior person, the fact is likely to leak out without too much assistance" -- John Andrew Holmes
Nothing about software for Linux, nothing about VGS.
(To be fair, it took a couple of read-throughs to figure out what the hell they were trying to say...)
Software made for the PSX/N64/Dreamcast has to be licensed by their respective manufacturers.. well approved in some fashion (or else the manufacturer gets pissed off and, well, no publisher wants that, so they always submit games for approval.)
so,.. if one were to make a playstation emulator for the Dreamcast,.. Sega would have to approve it first, and they're not going to do that. so they would have to distribute it without Sega's approval.. now they have Sony AND Sega on their ass...
then you think about the fact that if someone owns a Dreamcast/N64/whatever they very well might own a PSX anyway,.. so really it's better to just target the PC market.
but what i want to know is, does anybody have a hack to get a Dual Shock working on a PC and will this emulator make use of it?
...dave
Think different? I'd be happy if most people would just think...
Playstation CDs use a regular iso9660 filesystem. Try grabbing a PSX disc and sticking it in your CDROM drive... you'll be able to see all the files that make up the game.
The only real difference is the PSX CD has a certain area of the disc that usually cannot be accessed by normal CDROM drives, and this is used for a (weak) copy protection and regioning system. I'm not sure of the entire details on this since it's been a while since I read anything about it, but I think I'm close.
Why would Connectix sell a version of Virtual PC that runs an x86 Linux (besides that they can at little cost)? You can already run LinuxPPC or YellowDog on ppc, and while there are some occasional hardware issues and there's no binary compatibility with x86, it's much MUCH faster not to do the bloody emulation. Is it so we can all run the latest Corel WordPerfect binaries? Does anyone really want this?
And why the heck would you spend $100 on the linux version when you can just spend $50 get the DOS version, wipe the virtual hard disk and install your own version of linux? Once you do that and burn your own cd with it, there's even no hit for doing reinstalls. I suppose there's always a market for people who want to waste money, but this is silly.
"If one is really a superior person, the fact is likely to leak out without too much assistance" -- John Andrew Holmes
Did you notice the price difference between the ones shopping with Win2k, and ones shipping with linux? With Win2k it's $329, and with Linux it's $99
Most mac users will jump on the linux version for no other purpose then to not pay the $229 Microsoft tax. Maybe they will actually try linux and like it, and maybe install a native Linux like LinuxPPC 2000.
But when the sales figures go though the roof on the linux versions compared to the Win2k version, I'd like to see if it's becasue they want to avoid the Mircosoft tax and they are just using Windows licenses they already own, or if they actually want to run a x86 linux on their machine.
It's known to you what we need; we want to slurp strong drinks.
It's never been more true than today. how appropriate. guess I'll have to wait getting completely pissed out of my skull til friday. bloody thieving bank...
//rdj
PS becannt is with a k
No one can understand the truth until he drinks of coffee's frothy goodness.
--Sheikh Abd-Al-Kadir, 1587
What is the license?
;-)
The liscense is the typical "Give us $100 and we'll let you have one copy".
What is the cost?
$100. See above.
If it's like the Windows98 version, it'll be a G3, MacOS8, half a gig of hard disk space, 64 megs of ram, and a cd rom.
Will I be able to get this is Debian/other distribution, or do I have to buy the offical redHad?
It only comes with RedHat. If you want Debian, then you have to erase RedHat and install Debian instead.
Will it work in FreeBSD linux emullation?
No, it only works in MacOS.
Will it take advantage of SMP to allow two slower (not half speed) CPUs to do the same work?
Not until Apple fully supports SMP at the system level.
I can make some guesses: Not open source, $40, PII-250 with 32 meg of ram, Yes, Yes, NO. Those are guesses, but they seem reasonable. I'd say that at least one is wrong though.
Nope, wrong on all counts.
Too bad I couldn't find any of that information in the press release.
It's too bad CmdrTaco mislead you by saying this is the Virtual Game Station, instead of Virtual PC. At least we know the stellar fact-checking journalism we've come to expect from Slashdot hasn't changed with the recent mergers/acquisitions, right?
"If one is really a superior person, the fact is likely to leak out without too much assistance" -- John Andrew Holmes
I still pay the Microsoft Tax so I can play the games I like that are not now nor are they every likely to be available under Linux by any other means. I don't like it, but it's faster than finishing off WINE to the point where it works for me.
Is this the wrong reason to use Windows? BillyG still gets my $$. I'm still counted as a 'Windows Customer'. With that in mind, is getting to play the games you want CHEAPLY AND LEGALLY the 'wrong reason' to install Linux?
Don't think so.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't PSX 5 years old? I've tried playing some games on the Playstation, but the graphics are horrible. Even on a 32-inch TV, you can barely see what you're doing. Some games don't even come close to
PC quality: Quake 2, NFS and MotoRacer come to mind.
I buy console systems because it's often cheaper to get a console system than a full fledged PC to do the same things. I really don't need super realistic 3d immersive raytraced 32bpp colors when I am trying to shoot everything that moves.
Can these "emulators" render the graphics any better?
Well with things like WINE they use the native access of the OS to do all the cool stuff. Theoretically if they are just emulating the base stuff then perhaps it will look the same.
Slashdot social engineering at it's finest
Yes I can finally stop booting into windows to use Bleem!
Does Bleem run under WINE?
Slashdot social engineering at it's finest
Hemos
The firewall between the world, Rob's posts, and total chaos.
Nope! Didn't miss a thing. Only thing is that you actually read the link, unlike the Slashdot editor who posted this...
I'm all for 0-day articlez, d00dz, but let's try and get this stuff right, okay? This is really gonna piss a lotta people off if slashdot keeps it up. (I'll betcha anything that someone already submitted this article earlier, with the facts straight, and it was rejected.) I can tell you all that a few trends are going to develop if the editors don't smarten up:
Inaccurate article info posted about previously-submitted material ----> people who actually make an effort to be accurate stop submitting articles to Slashdot
Old articles reposted ----> readership declines. (oh, is today a repeat?)
Andover.Net buys Slashdot ----> slashdot editors spend more time "networking," writing code, less time maintaining site.
More moderator controls ----> people pour red hot grits all over Natalie Portman.
Suggestion: send all articles through a filter, whereby all links in the article are checked against those that have already been posted on slashdot in the past. Then you can colour code 'em so that the slashdot editors know which have already been posted about, and which haven't.
Additionally, I'd recommend actually following the link, and totally ignoring what the original person posted. After following the link, if you think you're going to post it on Slashdot, come back and check what they wrote. If they got it wrong, write something else but give them kudos for finding the link.
Another suggestion I've heard several people mention is a seperate slashdot page that lists every possible submission in the submission queue. Let people with moderation points go in there and moderate up or down the articles themselves. (This doesn't mean that the higher-karmaed articles necessarily have to be added; just that they'd be more likely to be looked at by the editors.)
Also, I know it's been said many a time before, but I'd just like to repeat that getting people from other time zones to be editors would be a good thing. Weekends are pretty slow otherwise.
One last wee little suggestion; give any "extra" editors a posting limit for the day. This way, they'll be more inclined to weed through the crap, rather than just posting the crap along with the good.
Comments?
James
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http://chat.carleton.ca/~jhelfert
I know what an Operating System is. My quesiton was "Has RedHat dropped their committment (?) to include only Open Source software on their CDs"?
.debs.
I think that there are some things by default that cannot go into all CDs. I know that when I tried to order a Red Hat CD there were two versions. One was the "GPL" cd the other was the standard version. The starndard version contains a number of other goodies that you have to pay for because otherwise Red Hat would violate liscencing term.
Debian dosn't distribute the non-free or other restricted directores in their CDs because that would violate some liscencing. If you want those programs you have to download the additional
Slashdot social engineering at it's finest
Hemos wrote:
OK, this issue got confused: Red Hat won't be bundling VGS with Red Hat. Instead, Connectix will be bundling Red Hat with their Virtual PC emulator. VPC is not released for Linux at this time. I'll make sure Rob gets some more coffee before posting again. *grin*
The second to last sentence should say:
VGS (Virtual Game Station) is not released for Linux at this time.
Having Virtual PC for Linux wouldn't make much sense . A PC emulating a PC? Riiiight.
Ben
It seems like Sony just won't be an IBM-ish pansy when it comes to others reverse engineering their gear... So instead, they are going to Johnny Cochran Connectix out of existence (sue them till they run out of money) even if they have to use the Chewbacca offense...
South Park Johnny Cochran: Chewbacca is a Wookie.. who lives on Kashyykk... with Ewoks.. now does that make any sense?!?!?!
Then you must aquit.
Sony - get a life - make PlayStation 2 and don't worry! Your stuff is going to get legally REd eventually.. sorry to break it to you. Call IBM and cry on their fuckin shoulder.
guns kill people like spoons make Rosie O'Donnell fat.
(I submitted this as an article a while ago, but it was rejected)
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The shareholder is always right.
Instead of worrying about whether someone will buy products for "the wrong reasons," it seems more sensible to help them see that there are *multiple* reasons to buy products that are flexible and have good licenses, and that price is just one of them.
...
:)
For instance, if you have three computers at home (and there surely are quite a few of both the Free and non-free types who do), you can morally / legally install GPLed software on all of them. I'll put that in the "better" category.
If you can purchase it for less in the first place, so much the better -- that's what I'll put in the "good" category.
And in the "best" category in my view is that Free licenses (pick yor favorite) allow code to improve and evolve. Elements can be combined, value added, new uses found
None are bad, all are good.
Tim
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5