Slashdot Mirror
No X Box for Xmas?
occam writes "Nagging question in gaming console industry seems to be whether MS will make its Xbox launch in fall (as promised). Knowing MS, it seems unlikely, especially since an unstable console isn't nearly as useful as an unstable office PC (with an army of IT heads running around to support it). Plus, despite the heavy-hitting nVidia hardware in the Xbox, every month is ground lost to the PS2 and potentially also the Nintendo Cube.
Daily radar has a good piece on the hurdles (even) MS faces with its Xbox launch, and why they'll try like heck to make their fall date.
The 7 reasons why Microsoft cannot afford to push back the launch of the Xbox.
Ironically, release in time for Christmas is not mentioned! So, there's an 8th reason MS needs to release on time."
Why are retail stores still selling PSX2s *above* the MSRP of $299? How can Sony get pissed when music retailers and web stores discounting their CDs and bitch about undercutting, while not flaming retailers for selling their stuff above MSRP? And why is there still a shortage of PSX2s? It's six months later? WTF Sony?
The DreamCast is dead. That is why the games are only $10-$20. I doubt that there will be any new development on it after this year. The real battle will be between Sony and Microsoft. My money is on Sony.
I don't know where you live, but hardly anybody I know has digital cable yet...and we're talking several cities in several states on both coasts. Many people have cable boxes so they can get pay per view/premium channels, but the regular channels still come through the cable sans box.
Can you see the obvious soulution to recording 2 channels at a time? (hint: you still couldn't record two premium channels)
nope looks like it will just be your Beowulf ccluster of REALDOLLS.
6. See comment #7. Yes, Nintendo will ship eventually no matter what. The only thing that will protect Xbox from Nintendo, is if the Xbox is a better console, not an early ship date.
5. I don't think this is a serious factor. Microsoft is a master at creating fake companies and organizations and planting news stories. They can make the public believe what they want whether its genuine or not.
4. If there's anything history has shown us in the console industry, its that prefering timing to quality never works out. Observe the Sega Saturn -- it beat the Playstation launch, but it was irrelevant because it didn't have enough quality titles. Similar problem with DreamCast.
3. During the majority lifetime of any console its technology is seriously obsolete. Consoles are sold on the quality of the content, not on the quality of the technology that makes them.
2. Not true -- first generation Xbox games are really going to be roughly 4th generation Windows games. Optimization for Direct X and x86 CPUs is a well known process with tremendous volume of industry experience available.
1. Microsoft care about its corporate image being tarnished by a delayed product???? You have to be kidding me.
Paul Hsieh, (who still does not know how to log into Slashdot without going crazy.)
I can honestly say that I believe the console market is alive and healthy! I haven't seen this much vitriol spewed over consoles since the good old SNES vs. Genesis days! Woohoo!
Actually the reports so far indicate that it'll retail for $200, possibly less. Microsoft has more than enough money to sell the system at a loss to gain marketshare.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
Irony \I"ron*y\, a. 1. Made or consisting of iron; partaking of iron; iron; as, irony chains; irony particles. [R.]
The "cue the foo posts in 3, 2, 1..." posts will commence with no subsequent foo posts in 3, 2, 1...
I can't attribute to this, but I've heard that "ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife" isn't ironic, it's moronic!
"Pinky, you've left the lens cap of your mind on again." - P&TB
"I can see my house from here!" - ST:
If you're the kind of person who judges the speed of a computer based on the "MHz" then sure, you'll think the X-Box is better hardware.
The PS2 is a completely different design. It has 10 dma channels with multiply-accumulate on the data stream, 3 vector processors configurable at runtime, and bus bandwidth that makes last years mainframes look rather average. It's a 2560 bit bus!
PS2 is doing everything correctly from a 3d streaming point of view: huge pipes and small buckets. The PC design that the X-Box uses is a flawed design: small pipes and huge buckets.
This isn't to say the X-Box gets lackluster performance. It's actually impressive. But it's a forced design. They compensate for the bad PC design by throwing more local texture memory onto the video processor, exploiting video processor features to avoid using the system processor, and generally doing everything they can to avoid the limited PC bus.
The struggle PS2 has is (a) people like you, judging computers based on mostly irrelevant figures like MHz and (b) games for the PS2 must be written to take into consideration the unique design.
PS2/Ethernet is coming Real Soon Now.
I believe we need to not just have 1 article feeling sorry for Microsoft we should have an entire website. VA Linux should underwrite "microsoftdotcom.org" because we're just not seeing enough attention given to the X Box. The reason the X Box hasn't materialized, indeed 99% of Microsoft's software hasn't materialized is because of the lack of fan sites. I'm now going to drive off a cliff out of sorrow for Microsoft.
There is absolutely no reason to assume that the Xbox will be delayed.
I'd say previous history <u>can</u> be a strong indicator, versus <b><i>absolutely no</b></i> reason.
Sure MS's latest OSs are an improvement, but keep in mind that W95 was supposed to be released in '94, Windows 2000 was originally slated to be released in '97, there is a history to consider. WinME was supposed to ship at the same time as W2K but there were problems there too.
I'm not saying that it will absolutely ship on time, but to say that there's no chance that it would be delayed is equally silly.
> Please shut up and maybe your verbal dribble will pass us by...complete fewking IDIOT
Fucking, good sir. Say it. FUCKING. Not fewking, not f***ing, FUCKING.
The only thing sadder than a flamer who can't flame is a swearer who can't swear.
Believe me what you will. But *fuck* completely empty political correctness.
--Dan
> Irony is, most commonly, "incongruity between
> the actual result of a sequence of events and
> the normal or expected result".
Lets use your definition, why don't we.
> * rain on your wedding day
Lets see. Do you imagine your wedding day will have rain? No, I believe the expected result of a wedding day is beautiful, sunny, life-affirming sunshine, perhaps with some brilliant and vast cloud formations on an almost blindingly blue sky.
Thunder and lightning on a continual background of a monsoon downpour is neither a normal nor expected image of one's wedding day. It's not even normal or expected weather in most locations on average, though it is known to happen ("I just never expected it'd happen to me!").
> * a free ride when you've already paid
Well, lets see. Consider a context in which you'd require a paid ride, i.e. a bus trip or a plane ride. Your normal and expected result if you *hadn't* paid was that you'd have been summarily kicked out and not given passage.
That you *did* pay, but turned out not being *required* to, *is indeed* neither normal nor expected.
> * the good advice you just didn't take
What's the normal expected result of receiving good advice? Isn't it following it? If you don't follow it, and get really hammered because of it, at the last second before the hammer falls don't you say, "Great, and I was actually *warned* about this...how ironic that the one time I recognize good advice, I don't follow it."
> * the black fly in your Chardonnay
I ask for a wedding ring. I receive a sekret decoder ring. Definitely not the normal or expected result.
Oops, not ironic. Fits your definition, but not ironic. Irony has some aspect of the betrayal by reality aspect which your definition doesn't cover.
Its when I ask for a wedding ring, the perfect size, the perfect model, everything is wonderful and I worked so hard to make it so...then it slips off her finger within 5 minutes and gets flushed down the toilet(in other words--I made it too perfect). That's irony--if I hadn't worked so hard, I'd have been happier.
It is indeed irony if you wouldn't have gotten a black fly in your drink if you hadn't ordered the Chardonnay, and is indeed *made* ironic that it's in the *more* expensive drink rather than in some cheap slop.
> * a death row pardon two minutes too late
Assuming a pardon is going to happen, it's normal and expected that it'll occur before the body is smoking with tens of thousands of volts.
If it happens after, *during* the process of execution...oops.
Remember, dramatic irony hinges on the fact that the reader knows something that the characters don't. A pardon must be delivered by someone--this someone doesn't know that the person is already in the process of being killed. An execution must be executed by someone--this person doesn't know that a pardon is forthcoming. The third party observer knows both, but can't do anything--thus the song.
> * winning the lottery and dying the next day
You finally get exactly what you want, despite its inherent rarity. Then you're hit by a bus the next day.
It's not normal or expected to win the lottery.
It's not normal or expected to get hit by a bus.
If you get the former(an extreme good), you *really* don't expect the latter (an extreme bad) to happen shortly. Therefore it's ironic, by your definition.
> * a traffic jam when you're already late.
Have you ever *been* in this situation? You've got it calculated down to the microsecond exactly how late you're going to be, presuming traffic follows normal patterns and you speed a little.
When you don't NEED it to be normal and smooth, it is. When you desperately REQUIRE it to be easily traversable, it gels into gridlock.
> * a no-smoking sign on your cigarette break
Obviously not a smoker. Throw in "biological demand and expectation." It's a goddamn *CIGARETTE BREAK*, you've got all of two words to find an expectation in there.
> * meeting the man of your dreams and then meeting his beautiful wife
Perfect mates are depressingly rare. The idea that you'd finally find one, only to learn that exactly what you wanted was no longer accessible to you due to someone more perfect for them than you is quite ironic.
It's the betrayal by reality that really defines irony. It's the satisfaction of expectations, *along with a twist that makes those expectations unsatisfactory*. "Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it" is a perfect illustration of irony, and is more selective even than your standard.
I do find it ironic that english professors insist with such regularity that something is not ironic when it rather clearly can be understood as so with a minimum of situational context.
Yours Truly,
Dan Kaminsky, CISSP
http://www.doxpara.com
> Ironic doesn't mean unfortunate.
> It means unexpected. It's unfortunate
> to have rain on a wedding day, not ironic.
Unexpected for who? My primary point, which I think I proved, was that a simple definition of irony as "unexpected" is insufficient, even by those who think Ironic Isn't.
This is an interesting case of local vs. global context. Can something be locally ironic but globally predictable?
It's clearly *more* ironic when *more* people don't consider something unexpected. But, again, dramatic irony involves one set of people knowing and watching and the other set unknowing and experiencing. So there's clearly an aspect of separated knowledge in terms of the concept of irony.
Effectively, my point is that Alanis is singing about the personal perception of expected result (rain free wedding) vs. realistic possibility that actually "happened"(monsoon, which never happens on TV).
If it happened TO YOU, you'd consider it supremely ironic. You'd expect an insect in your alchohol if it was from some shady dive of a brewery, but not from a Chardonnay. You'd expect rain any other day but the one day that was supposed to be perfect for the rest of your life. And for the love of god, you'd expect to get your pardon before the executioner pulled the switch!
Irony is the betrayal by reality to an individual. It's intensely personal, and while the situation you listed was indeed much more ironic...I'm unsure it's really necessary for the personal perception of irony.
You effectively marked "active participation against the circumstance, when such circumstance wouldn't have been suffered without it" as the ironic agent. This is a definite contributer to irony, but I'm unconvinced it's a required one.
Yours Truly,
Dan Kaminsky, CISSP
http://www.doxpara.com
> I think you are confusing "expected" (as in,
> average or mean value) with "desired" (as in,
> dreamed or wished)
That doesn't help your case. On average, it doesn't rain at most people's weddings. On average, there aren't flies in expensive drinks. On average, you're not going to meet the perfect person (though I suppose there's argument that, due to psychological misdefinition, they're almost certain to already have someone...that's *why* they're perfect.)
--Dan
It looks to me that with the X-box being a simply a PIII 700 with a GeForce 3, 64MB of Ram and 32 MB of video texture RAM, as well as Ethernet and USB I.O, that the hardware alone will sufficiently beat a PS2. The Playstation 2 lacks ethernet out, has only 8MB of texture and 38MB of system RAM. and firewire/USB out.
That said, I love my PS2. I plop a disk in and play, no screwing around. The biggest dissapointment came when I discovered that I can't attach a usb keyboard and mouse for use with Quake III Revolution, which is a problem with Quake III, not the PS2. I'm also dubious that Sony will sell an ethernet card which doesn't require Sony ISP service, or some other subscription model... so if the X box is open enough to allow me to hook it up to my home network and play across the Internet I'll consider it a significant improvement over the PS2.
Except for lacking Ethernet, the hardware differences between the two appear to be noise and not significant. However, I'm willing to bet that the ease of porting x86 games over to the X-box (almost no porting whatsoever) will give this system the majority of games titles very quickly. I just hope my PS2 purchase doesn't bocome obsolete as quickly as all those Dreamcast owners...
All that said, I still love my PS2 and I hope Sony does the right thing.
--Maynard
Just a cursory examination of Ebay shows they are still selling $50-100 over retail.
Vermifax
Vermifax
Logout
...is the position XBox developers will be in if it's not ready when they are:
They will have a product they cannot sell, which they've been wondering whether or not they should port to PCs. Their answer will magically appear: We have to!
The port to PCs will be easier than to other consoles. That's what they'll do to raise some quick get-us-through-'til-launch cash. The result: When XBox eventually launches, its exclusive games will no longer be exclusive. (Some will even have already been rejected by the marketplace.)
Releasing a limited number of consoles will be a safer option: Then the we're-willing-to-wait-all-night-in-line crowd will get them. Once you've made a fool of yourself buying console, you're not going to tell everybody it sucks (or that the games suck). You'd just look like a fool. Early adopters always evangelize.
Eternal vigilance only works if you look in every direction.
I heard it'll be $300, and MS will take a $200 loss on every console sold.
___
___
If you think big enough, you'll never have to do it.
The PS2 has:
4 Mb of VRAM on the same die as the rasterisers.
32Mb of system RAM
2 Mb of IOP RAM (hosts the OS)
2 Mb of sound RAM (built in 4x compression)
Plus various small (4-16Kb) buffers, and a kick arse DMA controller to manage it all.
Oops... Now I think you meant "3rd party game developers"... Nevermind...
The enemies of Democracy are
Hmm... I can't comment on any of the unsubstantiated claims in this post, but I can say one thing, with a high degree of assurance.
Nintendo have somewhere in the vicinity of 20 developers for GameCube, which pales in comparison to Microsoft's hundereds.
More developers != better product (note for logically-challenged: more developers != worse product either). Especially in hardware, where understanding the whole (or large portions of it) is important.
Witness K7 vs Willamette. Intel had more than 5x the developers on that project than AMD had, and the result is well documented.
Have a nice day.
The enemies of Democracy are
The Ethernet card and the hard drive are both massive boons for the Xbox. Consoles lack virtual memory, and reading (as well as seeking) from the DVD drive is very expensive. You'll see the hard drive used more as a massive L3 cache than a place to store save game files. More cache means all the "mores": more variety in the models, more animations, more sound effects.
The PS2 actually only has 4 megs of texture memory, and lacks texture compression. Decent texture compression algorithms can easily get you 3.5 to 6:1 compression on your textures. The Dreamcast is the one that has 8 megs of texture RAM. Don't forget that the GeForce also has a very nice hardware T&L engine...
It might be worth mentioning that the PS2 has a mere 2 megs of sound memory, while the XBox's unified memory space lets us as developers decide how much space to use for everything. 256 hardware-accelerated 3D sound effects won't hurt either (Whereas the PS2 has 48 voices and if you want 3D you do the math yourself...)
Cheers,
A Playstation2, XBox and Gamecube programmer
In actuality, 99% of users wouldn't be able to use this feature, since they have only one cable decoder box. Since most cable is moving to digital cable where all channels are scrambled, you can only tune to one channel at a time through the ultimate TV box
too bad ultimatetv only works with directv satellite, so you would never be able to get it to work with a cable box. and you would need a dual lnb setup on the satellite (costs about $50ish depending) to use the 2 tuners.
I've had Netscape do this to Win2K also
I had Netscape lock NT4.0 solid once too. Shouldn't happen, but Netscape found a way. Never once had a any other sort of application-level crash (well, IE can blow at the explorer, but you can always get back to the login screen). The Matrox TV card drivers are flaky as hell, and I've had tons of problems with those. However, I've been using NT long enough to be very cautious about hardware (HCL *system* and SCSI only please).
As for the laptop battery issue, the fact that you have to remove the battery is a pure hardware issue. Have Linux's APM flake out on you and you'll see.
--
Business. Numbers. Money. People. Computer World.
Gordon Lightfoot?
Triumph?
Keep 'em coming,
(jfb)
To spur "enterprise Linux," Big Bang, the distributed two-phase commit.
This article is pretty fucking retarded. Take their reason four for example. The Dreamcast was released according to the schedule Sega had followed for years! The Genesis was released (a technically inferior product) way before Nintendo managed to release the SNES. The SNES had a larger palette and could output more colours on screen (65,536 and 256 respectively) than the Genesis (512 and 64 respectively). Sega tried to outdo Nintendo by releasing their SegaCD but the idea flopped because it didn't add any graphical capabilities to the system, merely some extra storage. The Genesis came out first however and managed to get its foot in the door which kept it alive dispite the SNES whomping it in most areas iincluding licensees. Sega heard the rumblings of a 32-bit console from Nintendo and thus popped out the Saturn before Nintendo's planned release date, Nintendo's console however was scrapped and its partner Sony took the technology and made the PSX. The Dreamcast's launch was intended to give them a leg up on Sony and Nintendo with their 128-bit products. Lots of people buying the PS2 already owned another console many of these are Dreamcasts.
The Xbox definitely has its work cut out for it in proving itself to be a major player in the console market. I don't think the technology is as problematic for sales as Dan Egger suggests. Everything has to do with games. A console needs to be widely accepted (the Saturn obviously wasn't) in order for people like Konami to develop their blockbusters for it. The important factor the PS2 has right now is that alot of developers have already released games and have lots in the works. The Xbox needs to show people some production shots of games people REALLY want and they need to show them off soon. No one cares how good the graphics look if the game sucks. I'm going to be picking up a PS2 so I can play the Final Fantasy series, I got my N64 off eBay for Zelda. I don't see myself grabbing an Xbox because there aren't any games planned for it that I'm dying to obsess over (I knew i would own a PS2 because FFX and XI were announced for it).
I'm a loner Dottie, a Rebel.
- MS have well over 100 developers developing games for X-Box, theres gonna be a flood of games (like the PS1) and most likely they'll all be of an unprecedented quality as far as console systems go
Isn't the Xbox reported to run a bastardized Win32 OS to begin with? I would imagine that not only will they have Xbox-specific games they'll have existing DirectX games ported with little effort..
>> Irony is, most commonly, "incongruity between
>> the actual result of a sequence of events and
>> the normal or expected result".
>
> Lets use your definition, why don't we.
[SNIP]
I think you are confusing "expected" (as in, average or mean value) with "desired" (as in, dreamed or wished)
arvind rulez
Yeah, same here...I loved that show.
"Welcome to the House of Next Tuesday!"
-- Veni, vidi, dormivi
. . ."ten thousand spoons" is what our lawyers will use on you for quoting Alanis without compensation. You may then petition for a knife, to end it. . .
I do agree that the size of the entertainment console market is large, but finite, and that the sooner one of Sony, Microsoft, or Nintendo comes in and claims their stake, the sooner the next-generation console will be over. However, given that there are over 30 million PS1 units out there (not counting N64 and DC owners not owning a PS1, and not counting the substantial growth in the industry as a whole), it is evident that most customers are still sitting on the sideline, and not rushing out to purchase the PS2. With two more consoles coming out in the short-term, and very few great games available for the PS2 just yet, I think most consumers are taking a "wait-and-see" attitude.
Science, like Nature, must also be tamed, with a view turned towards its preservation.
nope-for a while, we had one digital cable box, and several other TV's plugged in to the regular cable--all from one split line,and the regular cable and the digital cable all workd fine!
Slackware: old school feel, new school gear.
I think something like this has been stated before, but to rephrase it:
It's not imortant what a console is able to do, when it comes out or who build it.
As long as there are games for the console which are worth buying the console I'll go for it (the console will be outdated 12 months after me doing so anyway..)
I bought a PS when there where enough good games available
I would have bought a DC now if Sony wouldn't have pulled it back because there are enough good games now
I will buy a PS2 when there are enough good games available
I will buy a X-Box when there are enough good games avaiable.
What I don't give a damn about is: what are in the damn console or what will be in the next damn console.. as long as the games are worth buying that thing...
Is it ironic that everything she claims is irony in that song isn't?
Don't trust a bull's horn, a doberman's tooth, a runaway horse or me.
I have a Super Nintendo console copier with a built-in cd drive for loading rom images...does that count?
"That's Tron. He fights for the Users."
Lik Sang (www.lik-sang.com) is where I got mine, but the listing on the site disappeared a week after I got mine...maybe I got their last one :).
Anyway, the product is called "Gamestation" and is basically a SNES board, Game Doctor SF7, IDE controller, and CD drive all in one unit. Unsure of the actual manufacturer...the box has nothing but the word "Gamestation" and a picture of the unit, along with "Super Family Computer Video Game."
However, for many hours of rom loading fun, you can still get Bung's DoctorGB Game Boy copier products from Lik-Sang. I've got one...it rules. 'Specially since (with a 64mbit flashcard) you can load up a shitload of older games. I think I have 40 or so on my current load. All the nieces and nephews loved me at the last family reunion.
"That's Tron. He fights for the Users."
Microsoft has admitted that the Xbox will not be released in Europe before 2002. Read this article:
http://www.vnunet.com/News/1115777
Finally, somebody talking sense! I own a Sega Dreamcast, and so far there is only one PS2 game I've seen that looks better than my Dreamcast games, and that is Metal Gear Solid 2. Which isn't even out yet!
Sony DID screw up the PS2. Yes, it's sold 10 million units, the way it was hyped it would be hard not to. (Anybody else remember the Time magazine cover stating that the PS2 would revolutionize home entertainment?) But I still don't own a PS2, and it's because I'm unwilling to a) pay in advance and wait until one comes in or b) buy a $550 bundle with extra software and hardware I don't want. It is still NOT POSSIBLE to walk into a software store or Toys R Us, plunk down $300 and walk out with a PS2.
Add to this the fact that developers are still trying to figure out how to get the maximum performance out of it. The PS2 simply was not designed with easy development in mind. You may say, "Well, that's the price of power" except that the Sega Dreamcast, XBox and GameCube are all much easier to develop for and are similarly powerful.
It's true Microsoft doesn't have everyone. They don't have Square, yes that hurts. But Square isn't the only console RPG maker in existence - Game Arts did a FINE job on Grandia II for the Dreamcast. They may not get Namco. But they DO have Konami, and I will bet money that we'll see an XBox version of MGS2 eventually.
Anyone who thinks that XBox isn't as powerful as PS2 needs to watch the gameplay movies from Munch's Oddysee at oddworld.com.
Anyone who thinks that the XBox will become obsolete fails to take into account that standardized hardware platforms force designers and programmers to do more with less - just compare first-generation PSX games with those released near the end of its life cycle (like Chrono Cross). It's a world of difference, but THE HARDWARE HASN'T CHANGED.
And anyone who thinks that the XBox will bluescreen is an idiot.
Actually, the bastards that came to install the dish (so called "free install") tried to rip me off, so I plan to install it myself this weekend. I haven't encountered the problem yet, nor have had the opportunity to download the patch.
As far as I know, Ulitmate TV doesn't have a box for regular cable. I bought it because for the price of a 20 hour Tivo, I get a 35 hour Ultimate TV recorder, a dual tuner satellite television system, and a usb port in the back of the box to connect my cable modem to (eventually).
As soon as there is a non MSFT option, I'll gladly throw the Ultimate TV thingy out the door, but until then, I'll be able to record NOVA and Tales of the Gun at the same time, and then watch whenever I want.
NOVA.
That's where the satellite system comes in. I'll be able to get WGBH out of Boston...
I'm not proud of buying a Micro$oft product, but in the PVR market, I was led to believe they had the best product/service combination.
Ultimate TV is a service offering from Microsoft, that like the X-box, has little to do with PC software. Well, I found out today that they fscked that up too.
Whaddyagonnado?
So, Alanis Morisette's song "Ironic" is about a bunch of non-ironic situations.
Now that's ironic.
Tee hee.
http://www.talknerdy.org
Big disappointments don't sell 10 million units. I'm not disappointed with mine, neither are my roommates upstairs, nor my brother, nor my girlfriend. They all like theirs.
How about you? Just a little bitter you didn't think to reserve a PS2?
Aye, that $24 billion is cash is really going to show a hit.
Of course you own a PS2... that is why you are defending it.
I have one too, and quite frankly, it didn't/doesn't live up to the hype. To say otherwise is a lie.
Never ceases to amaze me how people will defend the gaming system they bought to the ends of the earth.
GodHead- In all honesty, do you think the PS2 has lived up to its hype... or more importantly, your expectations? I put it on equal footing with my Dreamcast, which for $99 Has lived up to my expectations.
Anyone needs a PS2, let me know. All the stores here in Jersey have them in stock.
I'm really starting to hate articles like this, which are published with little effort to verify facts. Throughout the whole piece, the author keeps saying that developers won't sign on with the X-Box because of XXX or YYY.
Look at the X-Box developers list -- these companies are either already making games, or have signed on to DO game exclusively.
Another reason that the PS2 and GameCube won't be any competition is, well, pure numbers. The system specs of the X-Box, in a handy chart comparing them to the GameCube and PS2.
------------
CitizenC
You won't have to fork out another $30? What about the cost of the system itself? I imagine it will be much higher than the PS2.
Anyway I agree about the Dreamcast. I think it's the best console I've ever owned. But to me, the next big thing will be Gamecube.
maybe if they spent more time on getting the xbox ready for release and less time doctoring photos it'd be ready to ship! But seriously, MS really needs to beat Metal Gear Solid 2 and Gran Turismo 3 out of the gate. Like a lot of people I bought stinky ZOE just to play the MGS2 demo and boy does it wail. GT3 looks equally as killer. Once sony gets a few titles like this out on the market, there'll be a point where MS won't be able to catch up. Sony's release games weren't great, they've been a couple alright titles since, but the time is ripe for MS (or nintendo for that matter) to really come in and clean house, but like they say time is money...and market share.
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum viditur
Slashdot
New About Xbox, This Stuff Doesn't Matter
--
microsoft, it's what's for dinner
bq--3b7y4vyll6xi5x2rnrj7q.com
it's a sig, wtf?
The page you linked to mentions a patch. Have you tried that?
Interesting, I assumed digital cable was prevalent now since it's all I can get where I'm at (San Jose) and where I was (Columbus, Ohio)...
But you're right, it hasn't penetrated yet, here's an article on the subject.
To clarify your "solution" point though, AFAIK with digital cable all channels are scrambled, so you couldn't record two channels at once under any circumstances.
- Twid
- "When you want something with all your heart, the entire universe conspires to give it to you" -Paulo Coelho
> Whaddyagonnado?
But a TIVO. I'm surprised anyone would say that ultimate TV is better than Tivo. The only angle microsoft has on Tivo is the fact that it can record two shows at the same time, theoretically. (In actuality, 99% of users wouldn't be able to use this feature, since they have only one cable decoder box. Since most cable is moving to digital cable where all channels are scrambled, you can only tune to one channel at a time through the ultimate TV box.) (By the way, isn't their ad campaign the WORST?)
I have a sixty hour phillips Tivo and I'm very happy with it. I just got the 2.0 software downloaded and they have made many improvements. Tivo even hosts a open forum where they host a "hacking Tivo" board. And it runs Linux. You should be ashamed, hacker, for even considering an evil MSFT device.
To be fair though, there are some problems with Tivo's, too. Some people with old Tivo's are having stuttering problems with the new 2.0 software.
- Twid
- "When you want something with all your heart, the entire universe conspires to give it to you" -Paulo Coelho
from the article: "A Delay Would Damage Microsoft's Corporate Pride"
What corporate pride? Microsoft has never hit a release date with its OS, why start now? The closest they've ever been to an "on time" release was Windows 2000, which of course means they launched an OS with 63,000 known bugs. So if the X box is having trouble, they have two options. Release it late, or release it buggy. I have a feeling we'll see an Xbox by Christmas that doesn't begin to live up to its expectations.
chown us *your_base
There is no reasonable defense against an idiot with an agenda
:wq
I meant acutal production parts in the development cycle. Most console video parts are the last thing to arrive, as was the emotion engine.
There is absolutely no reason to assume that the Xbox will be delayed. Unstable OSs are pretty much a thing of the past with Windows on the PC. On the Xbox, there is only one hardware set to support and no need for all of the extra crap that might cause any problems.
Aside from the fact that the video processor is arriving a little late (Which it does in most video console development, like the Dreamcast, PS2, N64, and GameCube.) there has been no evidence that this will hold back release of the machine. If anything, having a video processor from Nvidia makes it more likely that the machine will release on time, because of existing relationships with chip fabs that allow for higher volumes of chip production early on as compared to the problems making the custom chips for the PS2.
If you want to insult Microsoft, go after their shady, anticompetitive business practices. Stability is no longer an issue, and given all of their careful work and partners on the Xbox, assuming it will be unstable and/or late is just idiotic.
I read somewhere that the real irony of that song is that none of the things mentioned in it are ironic. Maybe Alanis is more clever than we thought. :)
"Destroy science and religion. Science would re-emerge exactly the same; but not religion." - Penn Jillette, paraphrased
The biggest irony of that song is that is doesn't have anything ironic in it.
G.H.
Mod me down! I could STILL kick your butt at SF2!
Just wait till some crappy band steals your nic.
Ok troll eat FACTS!
- PS2 sold 10 million units. They *still* sell out in minutes and you *still* can't find them on shelves. Disappointment my ass.
- MS MIGHT have 100 diffrent people that said "Sure, we'll make a game" What they DON'T have is EXCLUSIVE titles. They have like 8-10. That's not enough.
- This is where I *know* you are a Troll. Nintendo usually produces most games in-house. And they are *ALL* good. Zelda. Mario. 007. Conker. etc.
And finally, you silly troll, you talk about the difference in graphics quality. You say this NEVER HAVING SEEN A GAME ON THE XBOX. You can't know the difference because the xbox doesn't even have _alpha_ hardware yet. They have "dev kits" not actual hardware so what we see on those screen shots is at best a guesstimate of what it will look like. But you can go play GT3 or the MGS2 demo -=NOW=- and see the quality of the PS2.
I normally do pet the trolls but this one got modded up. WTF?
G.H.
I own a PS2. Do you?
Just wait till some crappy band steals your nic.
You are obviously one of those pathetic DC owners who (wrongly) hate Sony for killing Sega. The troll I responed to was WRONG. Just like you are WRONG.
The PS2 is an AWESOME invention. To have power like that in a little box for $300 is AMAZING! When I first got into video games with my home pong set I could never have hoped for graphics like this. To say it didn't live up to the hype is also WRONG. They said graphics would be outstanding. Have you seen MGS2? I own it. Have you seen the screens for GT3? That's not on "pre-alpha" hardware - thats on the PS2.
As for me being some silly Sony fan boy I am not. I am a gamer. If the games are good I will buy the system. As of yet I haven't heard about an EXCLUSIVE title I would want to play. So I play other systems. I have 3 OUTSTANDING games for my N64 - Zelda, Perfect Dark, and Harvest Moon 64. I also have 2 OUTSTANDING games for my PS2 - SSX and Tekken Tag. I only have 1 OUTSTANDING game for my DC - MvC2. I have DOZENS of OUTSTANDING games for my SNES. By your (odd) "logic" that makes my SNES the better system.
If the Xbox is good, it'll last with the PS2 and the Dolphin. If not M$ will have thrown away a great deal of money.
I personally think that a stripped down PC will not be as good as a dedicated game machine. But I will reserve judgement until I *SEE* the thing. The rest of you should do the same.
G.H.
My Boss is an Italian Plumber.
Just wait till some crappy band steals your nic.
I would say it has to be something unexpected that happens contrary to the traits involved, and not merely something happening against long odds.
t
Hmm... But compare todays PS1 titles with the ones it shipped with.
The same thing will happen to PS2.
Once developers learn to take advantage of the hardware, titles will become much better.
The shipping titles, that people were so dissapointed with, were probably developed in a hurry. Possibly even developed for the PS1, suddenly retargeted for the PS2.
And then it's the problem that curses *all* consoles.
If they wait too long, the wopping capabilities of the X-box won't be that cool anymore.
In half a year/one year, new hardware will surpass the X-box's "old" hardware by far.
/.Mattsson - My native language is not English, so please don't whine over linguistic errors. (That's lame anyway...)
Really, I don't see why people continue to quote DailyRadar as a source for anything related to gaming and/or take anything they say without a grain of salt. DR has shown themselves time and time again to very nearly be a windup toy for the PS2, even as it continued to disappoint. It's laughable that they are talking about X-Box's launch to be time critical in comparison to a console whose launch that is arguably one of the worst in history. MS does not have a good reputation for being on time, but rumors of a delay are most easily attributed to Console Evangelists that display a religious zealotry to their chosen platform.
The games that are produced for a console are what really matter in the long run, certainly more than timing. Timing helps, but it is not everything. Perhaps we should wait until the XBox and GameCube have actual, physical existence before we try to argue the superiority/inferiority of console platforms.
News Flash: Some readers of Slashdot use game consoles.
or like good friday on friday the 13th?
Get into the 3-D accelerator market and bundle it with a USB hub with controler ports and a card reader and a DVD/CD drive that can read PS 1/2 games. I gamble they can get a PS/2 down to a AGP board or an AGP/PCI dual board board solution with a MSRP of 299, or better yet if they want to increase PC marketshare, only have it on VAIO's
Read my plan to save the Bengals
There's nothing ironic about Christmas not being mentioned. Irony is, most commonly, "incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of events and the normal or expected result".
Here are some other things that are not ironic:
And I don't how the hell to classify "ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife"
--
No, he didn't write for News Radio, he's just an unimaginative plagurist.
The only "intuitive" interface is the nipple. After that, it's all learned.
"The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than that of whether a submarine can swim" -EWD
Please name the time, place, and circumstances under which you said you saw MGS on Xbox. The director/producer has already said "We're working on PS2 first. We'll start working on Xbox near when PS2 is done." (paraphrasing) So, how did you manage to see it?
Further, the Xbox may cache things to the hard drive, but from what I've been able to get out of developers, the Xbox docs seem to indicate that the hard drive will house only preferences, high scores, saved games as persistent data. To get things cached onto the hard drive, you'll still have to deal with initial load times. That is, the hard drive is not some magical device that eliminates load times; it only mitigates them.
And as for "no reason to buy a PS2" here were my reasons:
Now stop trolling. Thanks.
Curmudgeon Gamer: Not happy
Worse, they're launching in a recession. Selling at $500-$600 might have worked last year, but it it isn't going to work this Xmas. Microsoft may try to buy market share by selling a $600 box for $300. But that has antitrust implications. And they'll have to squeeze the retailers hard on margins.
There is no good reason to buy a PS2. For one, the graphics so far suck. My dreamcast has better looking games. The antialiasing on the PS2 is pathetic. I was fortunate enough to see a demo of Metal Gear Solid on the XBox and it blew the PS2 version away.. the difference was incredible.
PS2 has the slowest freakin load times.. usually compensated in the games by long long lame ass teaser screens.
XBox will have a hard drive.. meaning I don't have to fork out another $30 just to save my games.. also the hard drive will be great for lowering load times.
The only thing Sony did right was build up a bunch of hype over the biggest dissapointment system of the year. I love my dreamcast and urge anyone with $300 to burn to buy a dreamcast, a couple controllers and a handfull of games for the same price you would pay for a PS2.
-gerbik
It seems that most peiople are debating whether the ps2 is a threat or not. That's easy, it isn't and it won't be by the time the xbox launches at this pace. I want an xbox and especially a gamecube very badly, but I have no desire to get a ps2. The real competition is the gamecube and it should be obvious to anyone paying attention. Alot of people have said they don't care about the ps2 because they have a dreamcast and the games are better, and they are. The xbox might have more developers and probly will have more games at launch but that won't matter with the games nintendo will have. Mario, zelda, metroid, pokemon, waverace, and a star wars game. When people see these, not too mention that they will be able to use the already released gameboy advance with it, the temptation will be complete. The graphics look incredible, but the real kicker is of course the actual games. Banking on seeing character's everyone already loves in a new light is a good bet. What does the xbox have? Malice? I have never heard of any of the characters in any of the games that the xbox is going to be launching. Malice? never heard of it. Dead or Alive 3? Silent Hill 2? Maybe tony hawk and oddworld, but those are cheap gimicks compared to lineup of established games that are all but guaranteed to be of very high quality.
This Wiki Feeds You TV and Anime - vidwiki.org
Why do people forget that as failed as the Nintendo 64 was Nintendo still sold double the gaming software of it's closest competitor, EA? Sure, this is due in large part to Pokemon and the Game Boy, but don't forget that while the PSX outsold the N64 in units, the N64 sold more games for the past few years. Nintendo and Rare have made a good number of the best console games in the last generation and I can't wait to see what they do with the GC.
My point is this: Nintendo doesn't have to 'learn' anything. Some people just need to figure out that they really are in their own league. Sony and Microsoft are making computers to play video games, Nintendo is making games that just happen to run on a computer. I'm not saying Nintendo is going to "win" any kind of "console war", but they'll do just fine because they know how to make games that are fun, unlike a large number of the PS2's mature titles, which tend to seem like a chore you undertake just to get to the next cutscene.
The other thing that bothers me is the assumption that Nintendo's games are for kids. I'm 23, I've been playing video games since I was four, I play Q3A, UT, Metal Gear, Total Annihilation, and a whole bunch of other "mature" games, and I still think that Mario Tennis is one of the most fun games I've ever played. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is the best example of level design in any game, period. Video games are supposed to be fun, if they happen to have blood and guts or "mature" themes, fine, but that isn't necessary. However, if it makes you feel any better, there do appear to be a good number of rated M games headed to the Cube at or just after launch, although Nintendo will probably only publish one of those (Perfect Dark 2, maybe, although it's my candidate for 'most likely to be delayed').
As for the non-standard media, this is seen by many as a great move on Nintendo's part. Because you can't pick up black GameCube disks a Best Buy, it's harder to pirate the games (probably not impossible, but much harder). This is a nice selling point to developers trying to decide which console to publish for. Also, they are much cheaper to manufacture than the cartridges, and the licensing fees for the GC are said to be as good as, or better than the PS2 (source: IGN GC FAQ).
My other
Is it me, or does the average Slashdotter want to see the XBox fail? Personally, I don't like witnessing Microsoft assimilate large industries into their borgness... but isn't Sony an even more evil company to have control the game industry? I remember John Carmack saying something like that.
Amen to that! I played River City Ransom for a couple hours last night, on my Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). The NES comes from circa 1985, and can currently be had for around $20 off of Ebay, with the works (controllers, cables, etc...) The games have tons of replay value (I have been playing them for around 12 years now), and they can be had for around an average of $5 each.
Yes, having the latest and greatest is always a fun thing for the gamer... but when you find yourself sitting around bored, waiting for next-gen game consoles... you need to do a reality check, and ask yourself: Am I having fun?
Don't forget the classics.
...you're wrong! $300 is the suggested price.
It's not just you. What they are saying here is:
1) We've speculated wildly that since the European shipments are unlikely to make the deadline this will extend to the rest of the world. Of course, we are ignoring the fact that the chips are in manufacturing, samples have been given to the developers, and the GeForce 3 chip that was finished up only after NVidia was done on their XBox commitments will start appearing on AGP cards in the next few months.
After saying all this, however
2) Microsoft have denied the rumour as the bunch of factless speculation it is.
but
3) Another console company has a long history of missing shipping dates to release stable and good quality product!
therefore
4) We don't trust Microsofts denial, and our speculation must be true!
Journalism at its finest once again.
"I Know You Are But What Am I?"
Sure, there won't be any more games released after another year or so, but what you're not understanding is that if the system is really fun to use now, it doesn't matter what happens in the future -- it will *always* be just as much fun. Many have claimed that they've been playing certain titles for over a year without ever getting bored. The whole gist behind video games is the fun factor (tm), which is very high (just read the reviews and comments everywhere) for the Dreamcast. Sure, there's a fight for domination in the next generation of gaming consoles, but let's not be so hasty that we all forget about what's out there *now* and give up the chance for entertainment *now* just to *speculate* about the future (aka vaporware).
If you celebrate Xmas, befriend me (538
In the truth table for fun and entertainment, where the inputs are the various existing video game consoles as well as future ones, the X Box remains a don't care for me as long as Sega's Dreamcast keeps releasing games. With Dreamcast titles being sold for $10 and $20 *retail*, and the rave reviews for the large majority of these games, it doesn't matter when the X Box comes out; I'll still have my DC!
If you celebrate Xmas, befriend me (538
Is there a tech company or organization that makes it's announced target date? I can think of only one or two instances that the release date and the announced date are within a month or so of each other. So, this is news?
Yes, I'm all for honest reports of instability, difficulty in a company, and other negative press, but to have 'missed their target date' for the primary purpose of the news article is a bit over the edge in zelatroy (and if that's not a word, it should be.)
I'm a Linux user and believe entirely in it's ability to do the job better, stronger, faster, cheaper than almost anything MS puts out, but if their pushing back the release date is to ensure a more stable platform, this is a bad thing? Maybe they're learning that people don't want an unstable platform and want to be able to depend on their machines, especially the newbie/technophobe and they're responding to user input. That would be a good thing and would prove the 'competition brings better market items' therom.
DanH
Cav Pilot's Reference Page
Cav Pilot's Reference Page
UNIX - Not just for Vestal Virgins anymore
With that in mind, I expect Microsoft to meet their schedule the Sony way: release just a handful of consoles so that 31337s can flood Slashdot and other forums with declarations of superiority. Everyone else and their grandma will be on a waiting list and realistically, won't get their box before late spring--which might be a blessing, because by then some of the initial bugs will be worked out. People are more likely to wait it out once they see that some X-boxes have already sold, even if not yet to them: just a few months of gratification delay and they'll be blowing away their once-cool PS2 friends.
Sure, PS2s will sell between now and the X-box rollout date, but that might have the effect of being a dare to the rest of the kids on the block who don't have a game station from this generation yet. All those kids will want the X-box.
But here are some arguments against waiting that the article didn't consider:
1. There is finally a real stampede of consumers buying DVD players, and it's not over yet. But if you have a player in your system already, that's one less reason to buy an X-box. I think DVD functionality appealed to the "prudent" side of current PS2 owners. Several of my friends said "I'll wait to buy a DVD player and get the PS2 instead"--and they did. Who will wait for the X-box depends on how long the wait is.
2. Computers can come a long way in two quarters, and the longer Microsoft waits to release their console, the more reasonable it will seem to just upgrade your PC.
Others?
Spork
It's running NetBSD!
The middle mind speaks!
You already did apologize. Her name is Shania.
/Brian
I'm curious as to which flavor of USB the XBox will have. My buddy claims it'll be 1.0, I don't think so... USB 1.0 has been out for years. Can anyone point us towards some better spec sheets?
But really, its a console... a fixed platform, as long as a developer thoroughly tests their game crashes (if any) should be VERY rare
This is the point I think a lot of people are overlooking. They hear "MS Console", and start talking about Blue Screen's and such, but I doubt you'll see much of it.
Dreamcast had some version of WindowsCE running it, and by all accounts it was very stable (if you don't count the bad batch of disks that went out at launch).
Really people, when you take all that shit out of windows and only run the core (no services, a couple processes, simple memory management), it's not that bad of an OS for gaming. As an Xbox developer, I haven't found that much to cry about - at all. There are some bugs, but they have workarounds and have to do with the graphics hardware. It basically feels like DOS with a bunch of Win32 libraries... You could never run Excel on it ;)
-- This sentence is false.
As we have discussed just a few hours earlier, it will be possible to turn the X Box into a useful Linux station, perhaps even without opening the case. Therefore, there's something useful to do with it.
Second point: I've heard that Microsoft's designated price for the X-Box is US $300 - which was considered a loss for Microsoft. More sales lead to more losses (well, I know that prices are affected by the demand, but there should be a few good months when Microsoft will lose money for every box it sells.
To summarize, the X-Box will be a bunch of cheap, groovy hardware (a rarity these days), and it will be bought just for that.
And it was not designed by MS but instead by a Japanese developer named Kazuhiko Nishi. MS only provided a version of their BASIC for the machine. Matsushita & Sony were the two most important manufacturers and Nishi used the abbreviation MSX saying that it meant Matsushita Sony X-machine.
A number of companies built MSX compatible computers during the eighties (MS was not one of them) and they were very popular in Asia and parts of Europe. They never took off in North America, probably due to the overwelming success of the C64 at the time.
The chip is produced by Nvidia, a partner, yes, but not Microsoft itself
Not previewing twice makes me one of the people in my .sig I guess :)
The ivory tower has never had to reach so h
Here we go again, an anti-MS article that just bashes because there are rumors they may be too late to launch for the Xmas season (which BTW, happened to Sony last year). The reason why , which everyone here seems to neglect to check out, is that the main graphics chip has not even been made yet. On paper, it is supposed to be able to render 2.1 million polygons per frame. In comparison, each velociraptor in the original Jurassic Park required 300,000. Not bad. BTW, for those of you with itchy flame triggers, I am getting this information from this month's Wired.
So, jump off the bandwagons, dismount your highhorses, whatever, and realize that youve once again been suckered into looking like idiots. This is one of the most complex graphics chips ever envisioned and having to produce it in sufficient quantities for Xmas when the fabs arent ready yet is going to be tough.
Microsoft or not, Im looking forward to seeing what this thing can do...
The ivory tower has never had to reach so h
whats all the hype about the X box? itl just be another console.. its not going to take over the pc, its not going to help microsoft defeat linux.. itl just win over console users.. not pc users.. i dont get what all the hype is about, gee, its another console, not some uber pc killer...
stuff
As the article says Sony has a head start, true theres not quite the killer games there yet but if they release some "must have" games before the X Box is released then PS2s will be the console to have and once someone has a console they will be less likely to change. Witness the bashing that goes on between owners of competing consoles, they act more like its a religion than a games console :-)
At the end of the day its the games that count and Sony will have a head start on that.
no sig.
- PS2 was a big disappointment everywhere in the world... it is not likely to pose a large threat or gain much more ground.
T ID=949
Looks like you have difficulty discerning between what you WANT to happen and what is actually HAPPENING.
No More of a disappointment than every other over-hyped console at launch. SNES and N64 suffered similiar fates initially.
Do you REALLY believe that that a system that has sold 10 Million units in about a year is in danger of going away? DC sold 7 million worldwide in it's entire lifespan, and a chunk of that came just recently, when the price was cut dramatically.
Besides all of that, it all comes down to games. PS2 has no shortage of those: http://www.sonyweb.com/release/index.html - MS have well over 100 developers developing games for X-Box, theres gonna be a flood of games (like the PS1) and most likely they'll all be of an unprecedented quality as far as console systems go.
*sigh* PS2 has EVERY. DEVELOPER. 3rd party anyway. XBOX can't touch that. - Nintendo have somewhere in the vicinity of 20 developers for GameCube, which pales in comparison to Microsoft's hundereds.
http://www.pir8.com/forums/viewthread.php?FID=31&
Well I think the x box won't loose ground as long is has the games to back it up look at the original psx system it came out just before the N64. The N64 was way better grafix wise and still was loosing out because it had no games because it was hard to develop for at the time Note: The new Ncube has been focased toward being developmently friendly and so has the xbox but the PS2 didn't follow suite Now I recall hearing the sega is going to develop something along the rage of 90% of the games for the x box including DOA3 witch looks sweet in the video that the x box released. That game alone could hall in alot of gamers and it killed the PS2's and dreamcast(I own one and my friend owns a PS2 we don't notice much of a difference in gfx just that when the PS2 finaly loads the gfx's are usualy smoother in games like UT) gfx.
Knowing MS, it seems unlikely, especially since an unstable console isn't nearly as useful as an unstable office PC (with an army of IT heads running around to support it).
Okay. Whatever. I guess Hemos doesn't realize that the Xbox is not a Windows box. The OS is not Windows 9x. It is not a PC. This is a console. If there is any microsoft OS, it's a stripped down to the base bones and totally customized for the hardware it's running on.
Also, I would wager that the Windows-based OS is only one potential operating enviroment--just like the Windows CE OS in the Dreamcast was optional as well.
I think Slashdot has a long way to go to understanding the wayconsoles are set up, and what Microsoft is *actually* doing with the Xbox.
What's a sig?
Hey! I like(d) Triumph.
Hey, we're talking Micro$oft here. If it looks like they're not gonna make it they'll just release a calendar update for Windows marking Xmas 2001 somewhere in the summer of 2003 and within weeks everyone will have accepted it.
CPU is a 733Mhz PIII, and there is no "texture memory" - the 64Mb is for all video, sound and system needs. Hardware specs
You don't have to wait for Xmas for new electronic toys. Check out Interactive Shelby, Tiger's new Furby-on-a-halfshell. ("My shell opens and closes especially if I'm scared or surprised")
NYTimes article has discovered a new toy shopping season: advertisements for new toys in the spring could lead to demands not just for chocolate eggs and jelly beans but for electronic clams and robots as well.
Only one more shopping day till Easter.
Or, on the other hand, it might be that there is a serious problem with the X-Box design requiring a rethink. Perhaps the green cylon light does not work. Gasp.
Or (and this is my personal theory) there really is no X-Box. There never was. It was all vaporware to compete with Nintendo and SONY's offerings, given an arbitrary product launch timeline to place it between the two products. From what I've seen on the gaming sites, the X-Box is just a screen-shot generating device invented by Microsoft's PR department.
i read that article at daily radar weeks ago! geez. . .
!-- wit --!
No, they aren't. Irony is when what something seems at face value is actually opposite from the truth. Here are two simple examples of irony:
1. A giant man named "Tiny".
2. The song "Little Things" by Good Charlotte, in which they describe life-changing events, such as their Mother's mental problems, their father abandoning them, and the social humiliation of being poor as "little things".
By the way, "dramatic irony" is when the audience knows something the characters don't which enables the audience to interpret events differently from the characters.
Ironic doesn't mean unfortunate. It means unexpected. It's unfortunate to have rain on a wedding day, not ironic. It would be ironic if someone from the the Pacific NorthWest had their wedding in Death Valley to avoid the rain, and were greeted with a rare downpour, while back at home where they would have had the wedding, the skies are clear. That's f!cking ironic.
1996 was a bad year for language, does anyone remember Jon Tesh's commentary about the women's gymnastics competition? It inspired a little song that goes something like this...
Bela Karoli, behind the gate
Watched Nadia and Mary-Lou do great
So when Keri Strugg won the Gold
It hearkened back to days of old
and 'aint it histrionic?
don't you think
It's like when
We cried "Remember the Main!"
You know the war
We once had with Spain
I sure hope
It don't happen again
'Cause I really love the Spanish.
(obviously to the tune of isn't it ironic)
My other sig is extremely clever...
Usage Note: The words ironic, irony, and ironically are sometimes used of events and circumstances that might better be described as simply "coincidental" or "improbable," in that they suggest no particular lessons about human vanity or folly. Thus 78 percent of the Usage Panel rejects the use of ironically in the sentence In 1969 Susie moved from Ithaca to California where she met her husband-to-be, who, ironically, also came from upstate New York (though some Panelists noted that this particular usage might be acceptable if Susie had in fact moved to California in order to find a husband, in which case the story could be taken as exemplifying the folly of supposing that we can know what fate has in store for us). By contrast, 73 percent accepted the sentence Ironically, even as the government was fulminating against American policy, American jeans and videocassettes were the hottest items in the stalls of the market, where the incongruity can be seen as an example of human inconsistency.
My other sig is extremely clever...
X-Box runs a VERY cut down version of the Windows 2000 kernel. It won't have any GUI (or at least not the regular Windows one) or anything... just a base for any DirectX code pretty much.
You pop the disc in and it plays... to the user it shouldn't be very different from any other console unless MS screw up and it crashes.
But really, its a console... a fixed platform, as long as a developer thoroughly tests their game crashes (if any) should be VERY rare.
I apoligize for my statement on PS2's... it seems that the general opinion is they are still selling in large numbers. I based my original statement on the fact that where I live (Sydney, Australia) there were plenty on the shelves at launch date which people pretty much ignored as well as articles which have been posted on the internet (some, even on Slashdot... perhaps I should have used some salt). The X-Box titles?? Several have been announced and I would estimate that the number of nameless titles which have been announce would be well into double-digits. The X-Box actually has been demonstrated in real time by some guys at Bungie. They played Halo on the actual X-Box (controller and everything) for an audience and a long video of this is available on the internet.
Sure, here is the list of X-Box developers, as you can see there is well over 100.
The list of 3rd party developers for Gamecube can be found here. I think you mis-interpreted what I was saying about the GameCube (or I didn't express it well enough). Whilst the GameCube will DEFINATELY have AWESOME games which I and I'm sure many many other people can't wait to play, it will lack a surge of games which is what seemed to put the PS1 ahead of the N64 at the time. Whilst alot of the PS1 games were crap you have to understand that the average gamer is not even hardcore enough to recognise the quality of a game often and therefore choose quantity over quality.
The PS2 is getting a new model with a HD in Japan this week and it will also be sold as an addon at an unspecified later date.
My main point was that X-Box would recieve better sales due to the sheer number of developers compared to other consoles, innovative or not.
Consider this:
- PS2 was a big disappointment everywhere in the world... it is not likely to pose a large threat or gain much more ground.
- MS have well over 100 developers developing games for X-Box, theres gonna be a flood of games (like the PS1) and most likely they'll all be of an unprecedented quality as far as console systems go.
- Nintendo have somewhere in the vicinity of 20 developers for GameCube, which pales in comparison to Microsoft's hundereds.
The Playstation 2 doesn't pose a threat to MS... when you look at the difference in graphics quality it is clear the X-Box is almost a full generation ahead of the PS2. What MS do want to be careful about however is the GameCube. Nintendo have been working on the GameCube alot longer than any other console thats due out and Nintendo are usually capable of delivering at least decent launch titles. As long as MS doesn't get the X-Box out too far after GameCube's launch they can really release whenever they like. It would probably even be best for MS to coincide with GameCube's release since the two machines will be side-by-side, and in comparison the X-Box ought to look technically superior.
Even Microsoft knows some boundries are better left uncrossed and a thing has a limit to how far it can be streched. Good they realize before it's too late.
There's always sufficient, but not always at the right place nor for the right folks.
But this is a very different situation. The X-Box hardware has had it's final specs revealed. Each day it's delayed is another day closer to being obselete. In a way, hardware is a perishable good.
However, Win2k (NT5) is a vary different project then NT5 would have been had it been released 4 years earlier. In that time they were adding new features and trying to eliminate the bugs.
Delaying software _can_ lead to a better product. Delaying hardware that you can't improve is just rendering it out of date.
Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
You are right to a point, it was called the Playstation PS, note the missing X for what we call the PSX. They are seperate and completely different. The PS you speak of never arrived.
Nobody has forgotten anything, regarding consoles. Other than the early adopters, the console crowd largely buys from the vendor with the most/best games. Sega never had a chance with the Dreamcast because Sega could never get enough quality titles to market, which is exactly what hurt N64. Sony, a newcomer in the market, had a flood of good games and they now own the market. With the backward compatability of of the PS2 console Sony has made sure that they will; continue to own the market.
The only hope Microsoft has is if they can buy sony, or if they make Xbox games playable on a PC.
You can tell a college man, but you can't tell him much.
Profits are made from licensing the games.
"Nintendo competes on its own playing field (The Gamecube is targeted to children rather than the typical early adopter gamer market), but its release could cause problems for the Xbox."
Targeted to children? I've heard that Rare is already working on a Conker game for the Gamecube. I think Nintendo has learnt their lesson in targeting only children. If i buy any of the next generation consoles, i'm probably going to buy the Gamecube.
Shameless Self Promotion : Webhosting at Blender Networks.
but I'm wondering why this place based an entire article on the following snippet:
"However, we've been lied to many times in the past by console makers (*coff* Nintendo), so we can't put too much faith in Microsoft's denials."
So, because we were lied to by Nintendo, this means that Microsoft saying they're going to hit their target is invalid? Considering we're talking about Microsoft, wouldn't it have made more sense to say "However, we've been misled in the past about Microsoft's ability to hit their ship dates, so we can't put too much faith in Microsoft's denials."
If you're going to get paid to do articles, at least base them on something directly relevant.
it didn't/doesn't live up to the hype
Does anything EVER live up to the 'hype'? Isn't that why it's called hype in the first place.
This is an understatement. The Sega CD added hardware for sprite scaling/rotation etc, and of course you got FMV. Other bonuses were an extra 68000 processor, Red Book audio and more sound channels. Still, it's true that the improvements were hardly enough to make a a SNES-beater. And Nintendo kept promising and promising that "The (vapourware) SNES CD-rom will be here Real Soon Now".
1994: "No, don't buy a Sega CD, wait for the SNES CD-ROM"
1999/2000: "No, don't by a Dreamcast, wait for the [PS2/X-box/GameCube]"
History repeats itself, eh?
--
How funny, the last reason the article mention is that a delayed release will hurt MS's corporate pride...
If that happens everytime they release something behind the scheduled date they can't have much of that comodity left by now.
.sig? Get your own damn
This was Microsoft's last attempt at a home computer/gaming console designed in the mid-eighties(?). It was going to be built by a consortium of Japanese companies and run a propriety MS graphic OS. Lots of Press Releases and FUD, but it never saw the light of day. Everytime I hear about the XBox, I think of the GSX.
BTW, a Google search turned up zilch, so I could have the initials wrong, but I'm pretty sure that's what it was called.
-----------------
www.lucernesys.comHorizon: Calendar-based personal finance
A FUD campaign <STRONG>against</STRONG> microsoft.
M$ is finally specializing in the only thing that it was ever good at ... making a gaming platform :) Of course, if they follow their pattern, only 3rd party games will be any good. And, unlike other platforms, you may have to reboot this sucker every hour or two ... heh. I wonder if you will be required to register it with a m$ workstation before it will work?
-CrackElf
"Blake is an idealist, Jenna. He cannot afford to think." - Kerr Avon, Star One, Blakes 7
I can get a ps2 locally at Gamestop for $299. I dont know what is going on where you live.
:P
LOL I saw some copies of Fantasma for psx for $10
"Never, never suspect the dreams within the dreams of dreaming children." ~The Amazon Quartet
Do you know where one can procure such a device?
"Never, never suspect the dreams within the dreams of dreaming children." ~The Amazon Quartet
Specifically, the free ride, the pardon and the lottery ticket. Depending on the situation, the some of the others may be as well.
On another note: Did you used to write for "News Radio"? Because this exact same joke was on last night's (re-run) episode.
--
324006
The CD-ROM for the Super Nintendo *did* come out. It was in development by Sony, they decided to make it a stand alone machine, and yes, it's called the Playstation.
My IP is 192.168.1.100 Hack it if you want.
I believe M$ has said they prefer original games rather than a bunch of quick PC ports.
My IP is 192.168.1.100 Hack it if you want.
I'm not sure if M$ can afford to ship a buggy product for the sake of being on-time. Even though these devices with be internet-ready, not everyone will be able to connect if there has to be a software update. For a game system, i think that a hard drive might be the worst thing to put in there. Older systems had to be as close to bug-free as possible before they shipped, because there was no way to fix them (besides a recall) if something went wrong. I can't wait for the first developer to release a xbox or ps2 game with the attitude that they will just release a patch.
Microsoft not getting these out by x-mas time is realy just a bad idea. The amount of money they have spent on their console game vs income will show on their 2001 financial reports.
now imagine 9 million grandma's all at their local store fighting to get there grandson/daughter one of theese machine. This would make Microsoft look good come year end, and get more people to buy stock.
do i personaly think they will get it out before x-mas? how man years late was nt5.0? 4? almost 5?
do they ever stop playing pinball?
-- botsex is {grep;touch;strip;unzip;head;mount}
One possible issue this article doesn't mention is that the launch developers expect the console to come out on time and in turn make a good deal of money off of their launch titles. If the the box is delayed, revenue is delayed for the developers. They likely wouldn't forget this when they chose a system to develop future titles for.
Yep.
Security is a top level concern in these gaming
consoles.
Uh-huh.
And well it should be.
Uh-huh.
I believe that micro$oft has a secret weapon that is very obvious but that we're all forgetting: we are talking about micro$oft here. Micro$oft, the king of poor code, rip offs and if anything else incredible at comebacks. Micro$oft may never be the innovators they say they are (gui, internet, etc...) however when they want to do something (such as become the most widely used OS or browser) they have the ambition and money to throw every thing into it and regain ground in a hurry. I personally will buy the x-box once it comes out because i know for a fact that micro$oft is not going to burn out like sega did with the dreamcast... they haven't yet and i don't expect them to anytime soon. (Also, i've heard that sega has already reached an agreement with micro$oft to do game development for them).
can't sleep slashdot will eat me