Slashdot Mirror
Grand Theft Auto Released For Free
Snover writes "It's already incredibly difficult to actually get to the site due to its extreme popularity, and can only get worse after the inevitable slashdotting, but Rockstar Games has updated their original hit, Grand Theft Auto, to run on 'modern' computers and released it for free to the public. It'd be nice if more gaming companies did this! Unfortunately, it (of course) is Windows-only and utilises the propietary DirectX API, but hey, free game for anyone that's paid the Microsoft tax! (The download speed, once you actually manage to connect to the site, is quite excellent -- it's maxing out my 2Mbps connection.)" Ah, what a classic game.
I've seen the opposite happen, where games are first freeware, then changed to a shareware or other license because they realized all the oodles of cash they could make off of it. I don't think that is a good practice and if more companies follow Rockstar's exmaple, they will have many more happy gamers that will gladly support their other products by purchasing them legitimately.
Ahh...the memories.
anyone tested it with winex yet? I really love that game!
Damn, I already paid for it :(
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Oh well, since most of them won't make money by doing it, probably they won't...but here's some wishful thinking ;)
Can anyone afford the OS to run it on?
Here, along with GTA London and GTA 2.
When I last looked at the site (a year ago, admittidly), it had GTA1 up for download then.
Quick look shows it has GTA2, Hidden & Dangerous, and many others available for free download. All you have to do is watch some ads on your screen whilst the files download.
Since nobody around here really gives a crap about what the various companies think anywho, would someone please put this up on Kazaa or one of the other P2P networks? If we can make a habit of doing this when binaries are available then future /.ings might be somewhat abated.
this site has already been shacknewsed, bluesnewsed, posted on several big news forums, and likely more high traffic locations. now slashdotted!
oh the pain.
"Free game for anyone who paid the Microsoft tax?"
A little bitter about this are we?
~S
How does a summary of a story about a free game become a microsoft bashing opportunity?
This is just about the most childish story post I have ever seen Hemos.
Free software is evil.
:P
Cop killing video games are evil! You have to repent to the lord Gates and be forgiven of your sins, washed away by the blood of the lame (Jobs).
Actually, never played the game myself. I remember ALL of the churches and law enforcement agencies in my area pitched a raving hissy fit though.
Karma: Chameleon (mostly due to the fact that you come and go).
Are they releasing the entire game, or just an updated executable? What made the original so good was the soundtrack ( IMHO ), and I'd love to hear all my old favorites again.
Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote.
Anyone else think these kinds of games are partly the reason why we're going to invade Iraq, North Korea, and various African countries once we're done there?
Nope. We were fighting wars long before video game came about; they just make us good at using the drones.
Violence breed violence and encourages hate. Why do we love to hate?
Because hate encourages violence, they hate us, and thus they visit violence upon us and we visit violence upon them.
This is why "love thy enemy" is such an important part of our culture. We bomb Afghanistan out of the stone age, and then hold their hand as they struggle to sort out all the damage their ex-ruler did. We did the same thing with Japan and Germany, and we'll do the same thing with Iraq.
An unknown suspect, or suspects, rammed the Rockstar Games server, waited for the admin to get out and then reversed over them several times.
police suspect slashdotting...
but people are playing the exact same games everywhere else in the world (the guys who did GTA are Scottish, BTW). Yet for some reason you don't see Scotland bombing every little country they can get away with, do you? Violent video games are not the reason.
Or do you think Saddam Hussein started making WMD's after too many rounds of Command & Conquer..?
What these guys have finally realized is that a game's value to its creator is first (obviously) as a revenue generator, but after newer versions have obsoleted the old product, it's more useful in terms of marketing as a giveaway. I for one, haven't ever purchased any of these games, but I'll give this a try, and who knows, they might just pick up a new customer. Enlightened self-interest works again!
Stop by my site where I write about ERP systems & more
Did anyone else find the full version somewhat lacking after playing the demo for weeks? It was just that after you had unlimited time, you actually needed to calm down and play nicely so that you'd stay alive.
With the demo, you had only a short amount of time, and you could _almost_ finish all four missions successfully in the time given, if you were really fast. Attempting to get all four in one insane speed-mayhem rush was the most fun I've had playing a video game, _ever_. The full version just didn't provide the same level of excitement.
Then how come the most popular games in the world are "The Sims" and "Myst"?
Anyone else think these kinds of games are partly the reason why we're going to invade Iraq, North Korea, and various African countries once we're done there?
Let us all join hands and sing "Kumbaya" then...
(hint: that won't help)
I pledge allegiance to the flag...
of the Corporate States of America...
http://www.fileshack.com/file.x?fid=2398
I'm guessing there are many other places also to download it from. But if you are willing to wait in line for it at fileshack, its another option.
Its not what it is, its something else.
That is extremely cool of them!
Remember when Sierra Online did this a few years back. They put out one of the Krondor games, plus a few others. It was cool to download a full game but it sort of became obvious why it ended up being free.
...All I can say is that my life is pretty strange...
Actually, if someone reverse engineered the network protocol and made a server for it that allowed persistent multiplayer GTA I that would be bloody fantastic. It seems that everyone is making MMORPGs now, but they're all spending too much effort on the graphics, and not enough on gameplay. (Except for a couple of notable entrenched examples which have crappy graphics, but have become extremely popular. You know what they are.)
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
But then concidering wine(x) is crap, most probably not.
I'm not a native speaker, so I am always happy to learn new idioms. Does "concidering" mean "drink some cider together"? Please concider this with me!
This sounds like a nice thing... altho I think what Carmack did was much cooler.. GPL the engine and still charge for the data file. If Rockstar games did this, they might even find plenty of volunteers ready to port this thing to OpenGL.
-- Knowledge shared is power lost. -- Aleister Crowley
free game for anyone that's paid the Microsoft tax!
Not quite. The problem of the microsoft tax is that you pay it, even if you do not buy their software.
I'm all in favor of trying to root out the causes of hate, but it's annoying when you ask a question like "why do we love to hate?" as though you yourself were a pixie floating free above the human condition who had never actually hated anyone or anything. The roots of hatred go a lot deeper than video games.
Anything worth doing is worth doing badly -- G.K. Chesterton
If I'm not mistaken, there was a site in the past (a year ago or so) which offered the game legally for free already. The only problem was you had to get the different pieces by clicking various banners and answering questions.
It sounds like a warez site, but it wasn't - they went bankrupt though and I can't really recall its name.
Anyway, it's always nice to get it without too much hassle.
..continue updating Windows 3.11 for all eternity? RedHat, their 1.0 release?
Hell, should Ford continue to produce parts for the Model T?
There ain't no such thing as a free lunch, and as such, programmers working for you need to be paid.
Any company that pays their programmers to work on free software, when the company's only source of revenue is selling software, will be visited by the Stockholder Inquisition. And rightfully so.
Once in awhile, you could probably get away with diverting a few programmers to work on something like this. It could be a useful PR ploy. (In this case, I can't see that happening. The latest GTAs have been selling like hotcakes, and if they make another, that will sell just as well from the looks of it.)
Now, what companies should consider doing is releasing the source itself, and washing their hands of the entire thing (save, perhaps, for a 'no profit for you!' license.)..
This gives them a PR boost (yay), saves money by not wasting the time of their programmers (yay!), and ultimately, stocks the industry with new talent. There's plenty of people out there who'd like to get into working on games. Buying a license to an engine usually isn't a good idea for them - they're usually too expensive and will be overwhelming.
If they had something to tinker on, for free, that'd be great. After all, in gaming, like any other programming discipline, the basics are the basics.
I get the feeling this may be just something that comes from Rockstar being a relatively cool company. Their UK offices are just round from my brother's in Leith, and from their thankyou note to the pond in VC (the pub down the road from the office, and best pub I've ever been to) they do seem fairly cool guys.
Now, if more companies were like this, and less corporately minded then maybe we'd see more of this kind of thing.
I can't get to the site, so apologies if it's answered there.
Are they releasing the source too, as I think ID did with Doom?
That way we can kill processes by crashing into them. But seriously, if there is source released, we can get it ported to Linux.
Get your own free personal location tracker
GTA1 runs great with WineX.
Yes. We're going to steal Iraqi cars and run over police officers with them.
*What* loyal customers would be rewarded with this? If they're loyal, they already bought the game!
Then how come the most popular games in the world are "The Sims" and "Myst"?
*cough* *cough* counter-strike *cough* *cough*
--
#include <malloc.h>
free(your.mind);
Judging by the fact that he has written software for "everything from a pocket pc to an as/400"... I'd say he's not afraid to learn. In fact, he says he's used Linux... so I'm sure he has learned it. But what he is saying is... he's not interested in jumping through hoops to run a single piece of software that someone already wrote.
And I tend to agree with him. I'm a developer and I like to spend my time doing things that no one else has done before.
--
"What do you want me to do? Whack a guy? Off a guy? Whack off a guy? Cause I'm married."
I seem to recall my freshman year of college, those with faster Pentium-based computers played Quake with cracked copies.
Those with slower machines opted for multiplayer GTA, which was also not paid for. Unlike Quake, I was led to believe that this was the norm for GTA, and that compared to the sales, the number of GTA "users" was staggering. But this might have something to do with the fact that stores refused to carry the product.
Anyway, this is hardly amazing news, as there were already patches for GTA back in the day that allowed for Glide accelerated graphics ( for all that fixed overhead angle texture-scaling ). Moving it to Direct3D is simply a small step in the same direction.
But, then again, there are dozens of classic software titles that could receive a similar treatment. But the companies don't want to let go of anything remotely valuable, and even make up excuses about having to support a free product. I would not be surprised if the GTA community takes up most of the support slack on this one, so maybe that will blow one of the most common developer's excuses right out of the water.
Man is the animal that laughs.
And occasionally whores for Karma.
Yeah right. Violence only breeds violence to a point. Eventually one of the two sides gives up. That is the goal of most violent struggles. It's like breaking in a horse.
The relative quality of your experiences does not change the fact that for the vast majority of the population, it is perceived that one has no option but to pay for Windows. Therefore, it's a tax. The term describes the current status quo quite well really.
I just love the sound of screaming ground drop apples in the morning.
KFG
It seems like that you do not understand the "Microsoft Tax" term.
It is called so because you pay it EVEN if you do NOT want Windows (or DOS in the old days).
Your Linux/Windows comparsion clearly falls into the "Troll" category.
Real life is overrated.
A modern game that will run on Linux :-)
http://apex-designs.net
Have fun.
_considering_ NWN runs better in wine then it does in windows (at least for me), I wouldn't say wine is crap.
Hey! That's my sig you're smoking there!
Wonderful.
I've just weaned my 11 year-old off the mindless violence that is (PS2) GTA Vice City, and now he gets to go back in time on his computer and kill people without even having to buy the game.
Of course, this comes at a time when I'm trying to get him interested in Metal Gear Solid 2 Substance so he can become a more productive sneaky assassin type.
Way to go, Konami!
Society loves video games, and a host of other fun activities that don't actually involve killing living people. Except maybe certain people in Iraq, Soviet Russia, Bosnia, Chechnya, Rwanda, the Old West, Nazi Germany, the White House, Cambodia....
Damn, well I guess I don't like killing other people, I can't say much for the rest of you whackos, just keep back.
*runs into his house locks the door and draws the blinds*
-- taking over the world, we are.
I've never payed a tax for my operating system either. I've never owned a copy of Windows.
Guess what? GPLed software pays my bills very nicely indeed. I do very well out of converting businesses from paying through the nose for proprietary operating systems and software, to using Free (as in [beer|speech]) software. I get the work, because companies don't want to pay thousands of pounds every year to be forced to upgrade.
I get paid because I know how to make it work, just like you'd have to pay someone who knows how to make Windows work. The big difference is, I don't have to renew my MCSE every year, and I don't look for as much money as MCSEs. I like solutions, and happy customers, not big invoices.
'Microsoft Tax' refers to the fact that it can be difficult to avoid paying for a copy of Windows with a new PC even if you don't actually intend to use it. It's a complaint about Microsoft's business practices, not the fact that Windows isn't free.
yes, it's an slightly updated version from the one's they originally bought. aren't you paying attention?
why run from Vincenzo?
for the vast majority of the population, it is perceived that one has no option but to pay for Windows
except with a big BUT.
BUT, the general public does not see Windows as the scourge that most Linux users do. In fact, if you plopped down Linux in front of most users, in five minutes you would hear "I want Windows back".
I know there are two GTA's before GTA3, but I've never seen them (PS2 is my first game console after my 8bit NES) until recently. I saw the headline and the story and I automatically assumed they meant GTA3! Damn, what a disappointment, I would have liked to see the hi-res GTA3 without buying what I've already bought for the PS2. Oh well, guess it's a good time to check out where it all came from :-).
Im sitting here desperatly trying to get settlers (the first in the series) to run under dosemu (great project btw) and it occurred to me. Why doesn't Bluebyte release this under the GPL or something like that? It's not like they are selling huge quantities of this game.
It's almosed impossible to properly run this game with sound and everything on a modern PC unless your modern PC happends to have a legacy sb16 awe ISA card.
If they released old titles perhaps small communities would pop up not to mention the good will the company would get.
just my $.02
If all this should have a reason, we would be the last to know.
Thanks for your wonderfully inciteful input, but the fact remains that one cannot legally play the new public domain GTA 1 without paying Micro$oft. Would you prefer the term "Microsoft Toll"?
Finally, if a mandatory payment isn't a tax, then how do you define the word "tax"? And would "toll" suffice instead?
this is what you get after you put your details in
We have received your information; unfortunately, we cannot provide you with this download at this time.
they should put this BEFORE you register.
Why do we love to hate?
Well, I've already learned to love to hate you, so it must not have anything to do with games and more to do with what a vicious asshole i am.
why run from Vincenzo?
* NOTE: The information you provide on this form may be collected even if you are not eligible to download the game.
Anyone not eligible?
Dell and Gateway and all of the other big computer makers chose to include Microsoft products with their computers because they found that based on Microsoft's licensing practices (and don't give that bullshit of it being un-ethical, they can chose to sell their products for as much or as little as they damn well please) it's more economical to buy the liceses en masse. Are we going to start calling it the Logitech tax because we can't buy a computer without a mouse or keyboard--most likely made buy Logitech? Get off your fucking perch and stop preaching.
He's talking sales. He's wrong though. The most popular computer game in the world is Solitaire, or maybe Minesweeper. I can't prove it, but it makes sense.
All you proved is that the most popular online game is Counter-Strike, but I bet there are more than 120k players in Everquest... something like 400k players last time I checked, though I doubt they are all playing at once.
Robots are everywhere, and they eat old people's medicine for fuel.
Once they make the bulk of the $$, create sequels and release the orginal.. Create honest intrest in the new stuff.
Great for them, perhaps others can take the hint..
---- Booth was a patriot ----
buddha
If many prominent Canadians had been funding and encouraging them for years, maybe.
That's Keister , you insensitive clod.
If all this should have a reason, we would be the last to know.
Don't get me wrong, I commend Rockstar for distributing a great game like GTA free of charge, but why not give the source also while they are at it? Since the game engine is completely different than the one used in GTA3 and Vice City they really don't have to worry about competition arising from modifications to the source code of the original GTA.
:P ). The FreeSpace Source Code Project was formed and has made many enhancements to the game. They recently released FS2 Open version 3.5 which adds OpenGL support, the ability to add custom movies to mission briefings, many new weapons, damage decals, and ship trails just to name a few things.
One great example of how releasing the source brings benefits to fans of a game is Descent Freespace 2. Early last year Volition released the source code to the game. I know personally I enjoyed hacking around with it a bit for fun (and playing make believe that I coded games for a living instead of backend java apps
Releasing the source to GTA would undoubtedly spawn similar projects to enhance what is still a great game, and who knows some of the ideas the community may come up with could help Rockstar out with new innovations for latest games in the series.
This comment was generated by a Squadron of Ultra Ninjas
It seems like that you do not understand the "Microsoft Tax" term. It is called so because you pay it EVEN if you do NOT want Windows
Does that mean that Hemos doesn't understand the term [free game for anyone that's paid the Microsoft tax!] either?
Your favorite
I am truly impressed. There are so many old games that I would LOVE to see released like this just because they're classics. (Maxis kind of did the same by creating a java applet of the Original Sim City that will run off their site.)
Half of them are games once bought that no longer run on modern PCs. So I've already spent the money. Populous, Warcraft I, all the old sierra games, etc.
It's really nice of them to release an updated copy but I'd appreciate just releasing the source even more.
I don't mind supporting a company that does this one bit!
Way to go guys!
The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. - Benjamin Franklin
You can be kind of violent in Sims, don't let your Sim eat or make him swim to much :) The Sims is popular because it lets you play god. Myst was popular cause...I don't know why, but it was fun the first time I played it.
X(7): A program for managing terminal windows. See also screen(1).
That's nice.
Now what does that have to do with people having to pay for Windows even if they're not going to use it?
Nice trolling yourself....he clearly does "understand the 'Microsoft Tax' term"
/., so he's obviously heard about the Microsoft Tax many, many times. Get off your high horse buddy. Linux is not better than Windows at everything. Just like Windows is not better than Linux. (Perhaps I should throw in Mac OS for more confusion.) He pointed out legitimate shortcomings in Linux. That most people, except the worst Linux fanatics, accept as a fact, and something that should be improved on. Of course, no-one listens to the extreme Mac zealots either.
In fact he said: "I do think it sucks that you have to pay for windows even if you're not going to use it."
And he reads
I'm out of my mind right now, but feel free to leave a message.....
Milage varies. I have little trouble getting things working in Linux. Now that I've learned it well, it is Windows that is a hassle for me. It is difficult to buy even bare machines so I build my own. Otherwise I have to pay significant money for something I'm not going to use. Therefore it is a tax to me. Yes it is, I have to expend labor not to pay it....which is preferable since I won't pay for something that I'm going to use for a drink coaster as soon as I get it out of the box.
Since you're going to use Windows, it is a purchase price. It is a big difference and the term tax is merited no matter how much you personally like and want Windows.
I've posted up a Gnutella 2 link on Sharelive. Download using Shareaza.
So because your friend doesn't know what he's doing and your too lazy to learn linux and would rather spend $200, that somehow proves something?
" I hate this term. Goddamn do I hate this term."
Deal with it. How would you feel if every single PC sold came with Linux and you had to pay for it if you wanted it or not? Oh and contrary to popular belief, not every linux user knows how or wants to build their own PC's. MS earned that term with their strong armed OEM bundling tactics. So if you don't like it, tough fscking cookies.
Sorry I don't buy your "pay $200 and everything is rosy" routine and your post reeks of being a Microsoftie.
If you wanna get rich, you know that payback is a bitch
No you see this is really a secret recuiting game like in the TV show Clerks....
X(7): A program for managing terminal windows. See also screen(1).
Well, it is not completely free, but if you by Return to Wolfenstein, it does come with a copy of the original Wolf 3D. At no extra charge even!
Download my free songs!
What tax? I've never heard of any tax... You mean you actually have to pay to use Windows? Ups...:)
The general publics attitude is irrelavant in the case of person who just wants a bare box minus the cost of Windows. Anything unwanted you have to pay for is a scourge. The fact that you or the general public like it doesn't matter. The general public isn't using a Linux or BSD user's personal machine.
For the medium term, bare boxes are a perfectly acceptable vendor alternative. They're still obligated to exchange defective hardware but most Linux users can support themselves. The "we can't support it." argument doesn't matter either. The vendor doesn't need to know what I'm running. Just fork over the box and I'll worry about the OS.
I think you misunderstand the term.
I agree with your sentiment. Windows 2000 is the best OS Microsoft has ever put out. Absolute cream of the crop. Wonderful system. And, I would/have paid for it.
I've also paid for nine other copies of Windows for my three working computers. I was taxed. I keep my manuals, and moved not too long ago. On a whim, I located all my former Windows licenses. Nine. I've never had more than three Windows computers at one time, and I have NINE Windows licenses. Seven of them are OEM, five of those are a variant of Windows 95, two Windows 98. The other two are from Windows 95 and 98 that I bought on release day.
I was a loyal customer. Yet, without my cognizance, Microsoft managed to weasel seven useless, duplicate, licenses out of me. Pardon me if I want a refund.
I'm as mimsy as the next borogove but your mome raths are completely outgrabe.
coughtrollcoughcough
well you did get to enjoy it all this time, thats what you paid for
Actually, all he proved was that the most popular online game at GameSpy is Counter-Strike. But everyone knows GameSpy is mostly filled w/ FPS players anyways.
I'm out of my mind right now, but feel free to leave a message.....
Because hate encourages violence, they hate us, and thus they visit violence upon us and we visit violence upon them.
Sure, it's become a cycle, but the U.S. and Britain helped to start it by forcibly removing the Palestinians from Palestine and helping to create Israel on land that had been farmed by the Palestinians' ancestors for 75 generations (before which it was Jewish land and the Jews were forcibly removed by the Roman Empire).
I'm not saying anyone can fix the problem, but I am saying that people don't just start hating for no apparent reason; they have valid reasons for hating the U.S.
However, I do agree with your point that video games and the war on Iraq are not at all related.
"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." - Mark Twain
I suggest creating a BitTorrent for it. BitTorrent is open source software written in an open language for both Linux and Windows. Here is a link to a great BitTorrent site. BitTorrent makes better use of your bandwidth than Kazaa or GNUtella. It is important to note that BitTorrent is just a swarming and segmented downloading technology that allows someone with limited bandwidth to provide a large file to 1000s of downloaders.
Already done:i ew.php? pid=3517
http://www.intimidated.f2s.com/sharelive/v
-- Grey d'Miyu, not just another pretty color.
"(and don't give that bullshit of it being un-ethical, they can chose to sell their products for as much or as little as they damn well please)"
Then I'll give you that "bullshit" about it being illegal instead. Dell and Gateway essentially had no choice but to sell Microsoft and only Microsoft on every machine, whether the customer asked for it or not. This is an illegal abuse of Microsoft's monopoly, and even the appeals court sees this as the case.
"Are we going to start calling it the Logitech tax because we can't buy a computer without a mouse or keyboard--most likely made buy Logitech?"
Even if Logitech had a monopoly, they don't say that manufacturers must sell every computer with Logitech mice and only Logitech mice, whether the customer wants them or not.
I will boycott his until they release a Mac version!
That'll show'em...
Iraq has never attacked the USA!
Iraq has never attacked the USA!
Are you really so brainwashed that you cannot see that simple fact? Oh wait, only people in other countries get brainwashed, not people in the USA. We have an objective view of the world, while everyone else does not. Ha! Ok, so this answers my question. You are brainwashed. Yes, the USA bombed the hell out of the already war torn Afganistan. Nothing they hadn't seen already... just more death and destruction, and yet again the ruling government changes hands. Yes, the USA rebuilt Japan and Germany, but the same isn't being done for Afganistan. The new Afgani leader is not being given enough economic aid to properly rebuild a society's infustructure, as was done in Japan, for example. Instead, the USA concerned itself with liberal issues such as a women's right to wear whatever clothes she wishes.
While such freedom is important, it is hardly core to building a solid productive society. For that you need plumbing, electricity, transportation, telecommunications, health care, education, and industry. Meat and potatoes, not the cherry on top.
Drug production is more popular than ever, in parts of Afganistan. In fact, the drug trade was kept under control during Taliban rule. Now Afganistan and surrounding countries have increased problems with opiate traffiking and addiction. I don't believe in a war on drugs, especially when drugs like pot are included... but opiates are far more serious. So yeah, the USA really helped out with that country.
USA the republic is long since dead. Long live USA the empire! Just in case you don't know your history, after empire comes the fall.
Actually, their servers seem to be standing up pretty well. There were ~200 posts when I tried to download it. It took me a couple of tries on each page but I got through. I would estimate 10 minutes of filling out forms and clicking reload and about 30 minutes to download at > 200KB/s.
I have great faith in fools - self confidence my friends call it. - Edgar Allan Poe
if the official server wouldn't be down all the thime. are there already mirrors available?
On the net and kAzAa, Gnutella, etc, there are MUCH smaller versions of GTA1, 28meg, full game.
What's with the 300+ megs??
The relative quality of your experiences does not change the fact that for the vast majority of the population, it is perceived that one has no option but to pay for Windows. Therefore, it's a tax. (Emphasis added.)
No, therefore it is perceived as a tax by some people around here. It's like saying I pay the "McDonalds tax" because I perceive that I'm forced to eat at McDonalds rather than growing my own food for "free". Well, the simple fact is it's my choice to take the easy way out and eat at McDonalds vs. planting seeds and raising animals and growing everything I need to sustain myself. In our modern world it may seem impossible to us to do anything else, but plenty of people do.
Similarly, it's a choice if you choose to purchase a computer with Windows pre-installed. Neither of my PC's came with it installed - I built my desktop PC and I bought my laptop second-hand (w/ no OS installed due to licensing issues). In both cases I did not pay MS until I *chose* to purchase their OS. I do not consider this a tax; I could just as easily have chosen to install Linux and paid nothing (in fact, I do run Linux on a dual boot).
I think some Slashdotters just expect everything to be free, and consider it "a tax" when it's not, even when they themselves choose to pay that "tax". Well, certain things are free and certain things aren't, and you can choose to use only free things or you can choose to only pay for things or you can mix it up. But if you do choose to pay for something, it's obviously because of some sort of added value you perceived in the product, whether it's allowing you to use certain software you need or the fonts look better or whatever. That's pretty much the way capitalist society works; people pay for things if they're worth paying for (or if they're perceived to be worth paying for). So don't go around whining about a "tax" that you yourself chose to pay because the commercial product does things for you that Linux won't.
Crap...I would love to give this a try but I have not had a windows machine for years -- and I am giving up trying to find my misplaced "disk 5" floppy of Win 95. 1-4 + 6-* does not work! I wonder what would happen if I called Redmond and told them I need them to ship me a replacement :)
(+1 Funny) only if I laugh out loud.
Waited an hour in line to download. Finally my hour wait ends, a download window pops up, so I click ok. What would you expect the download to be? None other than the latest MS bloated media player. By the time I noticed it was half installed, probably screwed up a bunch of stuf canceling it -_-
Any rate tactics like this are cr*p. I'd expect this from Banzi Buddy and the P2P types but this is a new low for file planet. BTW, the dl option is a link, kill whatever pops up then click the link to dl.
wtf?
"There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death." Proverbs 16:25 (NKJV)
But.
:(
Downloaded fine, installed a little choppy (had to manually kill the decompression process before I could run the setup.exe), went into the game.
The game runs extremely choppy on my machine* and sound is muffled. Just to add insult to injury, it no longer looks for a music CD in the drive. So much for Music to Carjack To.
(*: P4 2.4, Win2K, DX9, 512 megs, GF3, TBSC)
if the answer isn't violence, neither is your silence / freedom of expression doesn't make it alright
Gamer's Hell has got mirrors up. Feel free to slashdot FileHell!
One of the reasons why the original GTA is near the top of my "Fave games" list, is that it was increadibly hard. With the modern concept, of being able to "save" wherever you want, or maybe just alot, hardcore gaming has virtually dissapeared. GTA Managed to get around this, by having huge levels, that took ages to complete.
:)
The last of the 6 levels, required you to get $5,000,000 iirc, a task that took all afternoon. I've never met anyone in RL who actually managed to complete the whole game without cheating. Everyone who i knew who played it, just used to use the large amounts of cheats to mess around and have fun. In any of the online conversations i've had about it, i've also never come accross anyone who finished it without cheating. Is there anyone else out there who was hardcore enough to complete this game?
I had it on the PSX when it first came out, and i managed to finish it about 6months later. The greatest gaming achievement of my life? Well, if i go another 5 years without finding anyone else who managed to complete it, then i'd have to say yes
Long live hardcore gaming! \o/
You do realise the game is 3D right?
The buildings *are* texture mapped cubes
I agree completely, although I've been modded up to 5 once or twice, it's extremely rare, even though the majority of my comments are on topic (I usually get modded down as a troll if I say something the mod's disagree with).
"There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death." Proverbs 16:25 (NKJV)
Won't somebody please think of the children?!?!?!
You do realise the game is 3D right?
The buildings *are* texture mapped cubes
Yes, but it is (was) software rendered. I think the parent poster knew it was in 3D.
We are everywhere.
Maxis has published some of the old SimWhatever games, in boxes containing 3 games. I got the one containing SimTower, City, and Isle. Interesting to see how dated SimCity 95 (real version 2.0 I think) looks compared to SimIsle and SimTower.
I've often wondered how much code Maxis can reuse in all these different "Sim" games, since the basic ideas in all of them are pretty similar.
Electronic Arts, which has done things I don't like, did at least release a whole bunch of their earlier games in simplified "manual-less" packages for about $5 (once they hit the street). BioForge
Many of the older games have timing loops, which expect to take a certain time, but newer CPUs basically optimize those loops out, so they seem to take 0 time. I know that the old Origin game Strike Commander wouldn't run on a Pentium 100 without rebooting into the BIOS, and turning off the CPU cache.
So, to go along with the "never assume the input length is less than a constant", we have "never assume that there's a minimum time to complete an operation."
Wow, great news! I guess when you sell over 8 million copies of your new game, you can afford to let an older one go!
I've never played any game in the GTA series, but have been intrigued by it and have wanted to try it out. When the site recovers from being slashdotted, I will download GTA1 and give it a try. I love games where you get to play the role of a bad guy! Rockstar might just have gained another customer here.
I wish more companies would release their older games for free. There are only two others I know of: Id Software (Wolfenstein 3D, Doom) open-sourced their older game engines (but without levels/content), and Bill Budge completely released his Apple ][ games (Pinball Construction Set, etc.) to the public domain!
Will Rockstar Games allow peer-to-peer networks to legally carry their GTA1 download, now that they have released it for free? If so, it would ease a huge burden on their site.
Also, will abandonware sites be allowed to carry the game without fear of legal hassle? That would be great if abandonware sites could set up a special collection of "freed" games that would be legally free to download and share.
Dr. Demento On The 'Net!
Thanks for your wonderfully inciteful input, but the fact remains that one cannot legally play the new public domain GTA 1 without paying Micro$oft. Would you prefer the term "Microsoft Toll"?
Yes you can. It's called WineX. I was just doing it 5 minutes ago.
(P.S. The proper spelling is "insightful".)
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
Right. ABC news. A company supported by SUV ads and owned by large companies which have dubious relationships with the government.
They seem to be focusing on certain parts of Afghanistan only. Mazar-e Sharif and Kabul.
Much of it is irrelevant too.
Malike Bamiyi wanted my assistance.
Counterstrike is the most popular ONLINE FPS. Anyone with any knowledge of the game industry realizes that, despite what the hardcore gamers think, the VAST majority of people don't play online games. So you're incorrect. And so are the people who modded you up.
So Balmer was just speaking in tongues?
As you posted it at -1 (not logged in), I can only think there must be no good readon for your post.
XML causes global warming.
You're talking about a game released five years ago. OGG didn't exist and MP3 was practically unheard of.
Note to M1-ers: a curt but otherwise insightful message is not "Flamebait" or "Troll".
Caesar? You can find the original Caesar at this site.
Who cares about caotic anarchy, death, destruction, starvation, drug abuse, etc... when you can sing and dance!
ed2k://|file|GTAINSTALLER.zip|344378270|cb0feda0e2 39041889b462cf3a566d0e|/
:)
Enjoy
It's too bad companies don't have an incentive to release their copyrighted works into the public domain.
Hrm. Here's a thought on copyright reform:
Make all copyrights viable for 100 years from the date of the creation, period. The first year, the author is capable of receiving full royalties on their works. The next year, a 1% "copyright tax" is levied, to help administrate the copyright system, and as a sort of "copyright social security". Each year thereafter, that tax is increased by 1% - so you receive 100% of your revenue the first year, 99% the second, 98% the third, and so on. Make it a special 'income tax' for copyright holders.
Now, here's the cinch: As copyright holder, you can choose to release your work into the public domain at any time. By doing so, you get back a percentage of the money you paid into the system in taxes, based on the number of years left (i.e., if you had 19 years left until the copyright expired, releasing it into the public domain 19 years early would give you 19% of the total taxes you paid in over the last 81 years).
Any remaining money can be thrown at whatever bullshit "arts endowment" projects Congress seems to hold so dear, so long as the law stipulates that ONLY that money can go into the NEA. I.e., let the system feed back into itself.
What do you think, Sirs?
-Hentai [in vita non pacem est]
I'm not saying anyone can fix the problem
;) ) to the survivors of our new 51st-60th states.
Actually, that's just it. ANYONE can stop a vicious cycle--from the inside.
From outside the vicious cycle of hate, all we can do is bomb them randomly and offer our symathies (and tax breaks
The phrase "For free" is not good English. One can receive something for _nothing_ or just _free_.
What gives you the right to go and attack these countries just because they are your flavour of the month?!
You're an idiot--and quite possibly an athiest troll-zealot. I never said (in that post) that we should go to war. And we certainly shouldn't go to war willy-nilly.
What we SHOULD do is love our enemies and show the same compassion towards them that we do to our own citizens. Jesus Christ never said "don't go to war." He told us to realize that God judges us not just on our actions, but on our thoughts--and that we should never give up doing the right thing, always give more than is asked, and (by way of Paul) that if we do fight, to do so honorably and ethically.
Oh, and I have heard bits and pieces about Afghanistan. I suspect that, after we bomb the snot out of Iraq and they're no longer a concern, Afghanistan will be back to being a semi-regular staple of foreign policy.
Oh, and where exactly did you hear that the Taliban had control of some of Afghanistan again? I haven't heard that one, and I didn't expect it.
Just when will it stop?
When the first-world stops being so damn greedy and lazy and gives the second- and third- worlds the level playing field that we all deserve.
Our chance to "leave it alone" was lost to our civiliation when the first colonies were founded. We have to see this through to an end before we have the right to stop working to make every former colonial state into a real country with a stable government--and even then, we'll still have a reason to keep on helping out however we can.
...old though it may be, Nintendo has done something similar with The Ocarina of Time and a previously unreleased Remix for experts called OOT: Master Quest.
If you reserve Zelda: Wind Waker you get a free OOT/MQ disc at any store that is participating.
I picked mine up, and it's pretty much exactly what it sounds like. OOT remixed for the gamecube and pretty much given away free to Zelda fans. I love seeing things like this.
Square has been remixing their early Final fantasy classics and selling them for about $30. This is fine, I suppose, if you are truly a fan of the old games. But I'm thinking the games are so old they really aren't even worth $30 unless you are just a Final Fantasy Fan that absolutely WANTS to replay the original in a remixed form. And while the games are great, I think the number of people who will pay $30 is much smaller than the number who would play the game if it were included free with something like Final Fantasy X-2.
I love retrogaming, and I embrace every attempt the developers make at giving me the option to play my classic favorites. But oviously I would like to see more companies go the "Free Classics" route.
"Everything you know is wrong. (And stupid.)"
Moderation Totals: Wrong=2, Stupid=3, Total=5.
Iraq has never attacked the USA!
Who said I was talking about Iraq or the USA?
"Us" is my civilization--which would be roughly 100 nation-states with a linage, through direct population or through civilizing colonialism--and "them" is "random petty nutballs who want to get away with what they can."
Ok, so this answers my question. You are brainwashed. Yes, the USA bombed the hell out of the already war torn Afganistan. Nothing they hadn't seen already... just more death and destruction, and yet again the ruling government changes hands. Yes, the USA rebuilt Japan and Germany, but the same isn't being done for Afganistan. The new Afgani leader is not being given enough economic aid to properly rebuild a society's infustructure, as was done in Japan, for example. Instead, the USA concerned itself with liberal issues such as a women's right to wear whatever clothes she wishes.
You're right. We should be doing more--and rebuilding the enemy will be an important phase in the War on Terrorism--but first there's a little matter of actually beating the enemy first.
I tell you what. I'm a US citizen. I'll write a letter, tomorrow, to my President, my Representative, and my two Senators, urging them to make Afghanistan their #1 foreign-aid priority--before any other country, period--and to see that we give them as big a share of the US aid-dollar pie as they ask for.
USA the republic is long since dead. Long live USA the empire! Just in case you don't know your history, after empire comes the fall.
Yeah, I mean, just look at China and Japan, and how they got torn apart--or Britain! Or France!
Modern Empires don't 'fall' in the classic sense. They grant their subject-states autonomy, and they endure for far longer than any historical empire.
It'll be a grand day when the US has no need of a military, no need to spend foreign-aid, and no reason to worry about attacks of any kind--from terrorists or other nations. I hope to see this day within my lifetime.
But before that day comes, it would be a sin to not do everything we can to make the whole world a better place. At the risk of having racist undertones, the Rich Country has a burden to raising up all the rest of the world to share and enjoy the fruit of the Rich Country's luck and labor.
Actually, "inciteful" would, indeed, be considered witty. Inciting others to more Microsoft bashing.
incite - "To provoke and urge on: troublemakers who incite riots; inciting workers to strike"
To Copy from One is Plagiarism; To Copy from Many is Research.
Im in the same boat, and I for one am glad that I can just use my computer at home w/o it being a Sisyphean task.
When you are at High School all day, and spend the rest of your day fixing your computer, that is leisure time. But when you fix computers all day, coming home and fixing your computer is just seems like work.
Manipulate the moderator system! Mod someone as "overrated" today.
And I dont even know one casual Windows user who even knows what the registry is.
A home user shouldn't have to worry about security holes in their OS that a truck could drive through.
FUD. MS has just as many holes as linux, and that is just improving as time goes by. We'll revisit this discussion once Win2003 comes out, no doubt.
A home user shouldn't have to reinstall their OS and apps once or twice a year because the system gets crufty and slows down.
That is why home users should start using WinXP. Once I started using Win2000 at home I stopped swearing at my computer. But ya, Win9x sucks compared to contemporary OS's. Comparing Win95 to the current distro of Linux hardly seems fair, however.
A home user shouldn't have to worry about their OS vendor tracking what they do with their machine, or what software is loaded on it.
I dont think they do. Most people dont even know what spyware is. Friday I had to write a huge email and will probably be in meetings Monday because of all the users blissfully installing Hotbar's web tracking shit. So no, they really dont worry about this stuff.
A home user shouldn't have to agree to dodgy EULAs granting disturbing rights to their OS vendor in order to download and install "critical" updates and necessary service packs.
More FUD. I havent ever had trouble with an EULA, and they dont put the 'first born child' clause in there.
I'd rather have my $200 and be the one who's in control of my computer.
Thats why Im glad MS is still around. It gives us non-linux users a choice.
Manipulate the moderator system! Mod someone as "overrated" today.
Print Shop -- there's a name I haven't heard in years.
Are they still making updates to that program?
Karnal
Listen. I paid $19,000 for a car. When I bought it, it came with four tires. Now, if i wanted, I could take off those tires and drive on the rims. You don't NEED tires to use a car. I could put on my own tires.
They aren't allowed to sell me a car with no tires. It would invalidate my warranty...you know, the thing where an insurance company vouches that this car isn't going to break within 32000 miles, or they'll cover the cost of repairs.
And you know what? The tires they put on were really shitty, cheap Eagle MVP4s that, to be honest, I didn't keep for more than a few months before swapping them out for some really sticky Dunlop V rated all-weathers.
But I still don't refer to this shit as the "Tire Tax."
Hey freaks: now you're ju
If you are having problems launching setup.exe in WindowsXP, rename the install folder from GTAINSTALLER to something like GTA and it'll run succesfully.
God, that is such a piss poor analogy. The blindingly obvious difference here is that a car cannot operate properly without tires, WHEREAS a computer can operate perfectly fine WITHOUT Windows. Please, take Logic 101 and come back to us.
You can't kill the boogey man.
The demo CD was a locked full copy. Once you paid for it, you could play the full version.
The Slashcode puts a space in the middle; hence the invalid link.
The hash is correct. I've checked it against my download and on Jigle.
This post contains benzene, nitrosamines, formaldehyde and hydrogen cyanide.
Either that, or you yearn for the nostalgic days when the Taliban were in power in Afghanistan and would patrol the streets to beat women if they weren't veiled, or men if they didn't have beards of the correct length.
So all of a sudden the U.S. is the world's moral guardian.
Malike Bamiyi wanted my assistance.
You're an idiot
Yeah, I just realised I completely misinterpreted your post.
Jesus Christ never said...
Look, maybe you believe in J.C., but not everyone does, and he shouldn't be used as an excuse to go to or not go to war. People are criticizing the 'evildoers' for using their religion to justify killing people, but you've got to take a step back and try to see that using your religion to justify war (sorry, I'm not saying that you are....) is doing exactly the same thing. If you look at the whole thing in perspective, both sides seem to be acting just as stupidly as each other.
Our chance to "leave it alone" was lost to our civiliation when the first colonies were founded. We have to see this through to an end before we have the right to stop working to make every former colonial state into a real country with a stable government--and even then, we'll still have a reason to keep on helping out however we can.
Look, I'm in the UK, and I will be the first to admit that the cause of many (most?) of the imbalances and problems in the world are the fault of the British empire.
However, I do not believe that the only way to correct these problems is to continue acting imperially.
Malike Bamiyi wanted my assistance.
Oh, and where exactly did you hear that the Taliban had control of some of Afghanistan again? I haven't heard that one, and I didn't expect it.
Oh, yeah. I think it was on Newsnight a while ago. You might be able to find something about it on the news.bbc.co.uk
Malike Bamiyi wanted my assistance.
Yeah, I just realised I completely misinterpreted your post.
S'all right.
he shouldn't be used as an excuse to go to or not go to war.
You're right. He (and all other religions) should be used only to require a moral and ethical behavior in War.
However, I do not believe that the only way to correct these problems is to continue acting imperially.
Neither do I. But it would be irresponsible to not do anything.
I just installed it on my (hey, I'm being truthful) XP box. Ran the GTA settings file for setup. Ran the game. Not only does the game run very sluggish, but when I change video modes to ANYTHING 16-bit and even some of the 32-bit modes, my computer restarts. I've never seen this behavior before with any piece of software...game or otherwise. The ORIGINAL version ran better than that on this machine!
I wouldn't waste your time trying to download it.
It runs great on the highest resolution with 32bit colour on my old PIII 450 with a 64MB GFX card running W98 using DX8.1
You tried new gfx card drivers?
This post contains benzene, nitrosamines, formaldehyde and hydrogen cyanide.
I had to download the file 4 times from rockstars server to get it right. the first 3 times it was corrupted and i dont even rmember the number of times that it wouldnt even go through.
2 39041889b462cf3a566d0e|/
MD5 Hash: 4f9a85123002a5f34833b6ff2ff0de90
eMule Link: ed2k://|file|GTAINSTALLER.ZIP|344378270|cb0feda0e
for some reason there is a space in the ed2k link when i preview between a 2 and 3. if you see that just remove it and it should work. have fun blowin stuff up old skool style
~Tommy Boomfiger http://www.gotapex.com/forums
In my opinion: Paul is the antichrist. He hijacked Jesus's message, and turned it into the fundie crap most Christians follow today. Jesus taught real world lessons that can improve society as of now! So many things Paul says contradict the teachings of Jesus. Jesus taught tolerance, Paul spoke of intolerance. Jesus preached peace, Paul preached the sword.
Most of Jesus's teachings make sense, though they may be difficult or impractical (e.g. turn the cheak). Paul's teachings are nothing more than brain rot, circular reasoning, and intolerance.
The Gospel of Mark is probably the only reliable part of the New Testament, being written soon after the death of Jesus. Everything else was added by frauds, or copied from Mark.
I have a P3 1 GHz, 640 Mb RAM, 32 MB GeForece2 GTS, XP, DX9. nvidia 29.42 drivers. The ones higher than that (that I've tried) caused graphical glitches just sitting at the desktop. I think I tried 32.xx and 40.xx or something around there. I doubt these drivers are causing a problem as all of my many other games run great. I swear it feels exactly the same as the original. My character moves so slowly it's like he's walking through water. And of course the rebooting I mentioned.
You're an idiot, I hope you realize this. You won't, in fact, you'll probably accuse me and many others of beings idiots ourselves, but who gives a shit? I mean, really, who? Once, just once before I die, I would just like to see one US hating idiot stand up and say, "Yes, I'm an idiot. The only reason I'm not speaking German, Russian, Japanese, or some other language of a one time world threat is because of the USA. I owe them my very ability to be an ingrate for all they have provided for me, both in saving my sorry (insert weak nationality here) ass/providing me the freedoms I take for granted every day as one of their own citizens and for being brave enough to risk their own men and women in a cause that is just and right, to forever ensure we will have the freedoms we take for granted, which we seek to use to spite those who tirelessly seek to provide them to us. Yes, I am an Oxygen Thief." Just once, just one fucking time, that's all I ask. I don't even care if they say the whole thing, a simple recognition that America is all that has stood between them and oppression is all I ask. Well, we can dream.
Request: ECM unit, 1000 km fullerene cable, 1 tactical nuclear weapon. Reason: Birthday party for foreign dignitary.
Check out Freespace 2, which is probably the the best mission based space sim of the last 5 years. Volition released its source and there's a linux port on the way.
It ran extremely choppy on my machine as well. I tried doing everyhing possible to get it to run, and finally got it fixed.
What worked for me was turning off hardware accelleration on my sound card. Hope this helps.
Taken down "due to Rockstar Games request"
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.