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Emulate Nintendo on Your MessagePad
Green and Geeky writes "That Marvel of a PDA, the Newton MessagePad, has always been a good product. It does a lot of things: plays MP3s, connects to the Internet wirelessly, can be used to bludgeon someone, fits in your pocket (if you're a giant), etc. Now, it plays Nintendo games. Strange, yes, but still pretty cool. I can't play Legend Zelda, Final Fantasy, or Dragon Warrior on my Palm V." And I don't need to waste money on a Game Boy Advance!
it's not the same without the original gamepad
-- When did Ignorance Become a Point of View?
if you mirror the home page, he's still gonna get slammed once people click on the links to other pages. esp. the ones with the screenshots.
slashdotted in 3...2...1
Sorry, I have a MP2100 and the famous Simpson's reference was not far from the truth at all. You had to be exceptionally careful with your handwriting, and still often had to correct it. It would misinterpret taps, and it was impossible to correct letters out of order(say, you forgot to cross your t- out of order scribbling got me 90% of the time).
Graffiti is not a "kludgy hack", its a system that is designed to quickly and accurately enter data, which is what a PDA needs; my Handspring was much better for most of the typical PDA usage- entering phone numbers or appointment times. Sure the Newton's natural system is faster for writing large amounts of text(assuming you have perfect handwriting) but people just didn't(and still don't) use PDAs for that sort of thing. They use- gasp- notebooks(and I don't mean the electronic kind)
Please help metamoderate.
Progress isn't guaranteed. Innovation, once it hits the marketplace, is not destined to take root. The Newton was the first PDA platform, and going on six years after its demise, it's still the best. It had, essentially, one deficiency, and that was in its size. This was easily rectifiable, especially with the technology of the day. It's death was the result of ego rather than sound business, and perhaps the largest mistake Jobs made in turning Apple around.
Now, even though we have machines who's hardware is more than equal to the old newton, none have its ease of use, utility or ease of development enjoyed by the Newton. It's utility as an everyday computer in the modern age is a testament to Apple's software engineers, who Got It Right the first time out, and a condemnation of Palm, Microsoft, Symbian and Sharp, who still can't approach it so many years after its demise.
SoupIsGood Food
Being ahead of your time is a good thing if you're a scientist but a bad thing if you're a publically traded commercial concern.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
I just sold my 2100 on eBay (for a decent sum, too) because I haven't used it in years, literally, and as I was packing it into its box, I felt a lil' sad, because, well, it was just so damn cool, ya know? I'm not even in the Cult of Newton, and I still love the little bastard.
If you buy a GBA with the intention of playing NES games on it, you are wasting money (and probably need to be smacked in the head). I'd say it's still a good deal if you want to play GBA games, though. ;-)
Karma: Terrifying (mostly affected by atrocities you've committed)
All an irate webmaster would have to do is say that Slashdot essentially copied his page (cache or no) and benefitted from it for their own subscribers. Smells like a lawsuit. Now you know why Slashdot doesn't cache.
I understand the reasoning for "playing it safe", but the slashdot effect is nothing to be taken lightly. It's really an "unintended" DDoS. Someday Slashdot is going to get sued because of it, and I'll be glad, because only then will we actually get some sort of mirror or cache links. The editors wield the power of the slashdot effect irresponsibly and recklessly.
What Slashdot ought to do is train (gasp!) their editors to evaluate each story they post and decide if there ought to be a mirror or cache provided. They could even contact the author or webmaster of the site before they post it!
Go ahead, mod me down.
Wild Eeep!
What apple needs to do is bring the newton back. It was way ahead of its time ( well, and expensive ) but now the public has caught up.. The time is right for the return of the only true PDA ever.. ( bastardized versions of windows or the clunky 'palm-OS' don't really count.. )
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Another example of the inconsiderate slashdotting factor.
Would it really be such a pain for pudge/whoever to setup a little mirror before slashdotting the fuck out of the poor guy?
That said, it seems like a good project... maybe I'll buy my friend Dr Mark a Newton now -- he never had a NES.
"Eat up Martha"
Join the Free Software Foundation
While some may want a mini-newt.. Most of us that have used netwtons, miss the size in the smaller 'modern' pda's.
Such tiny modern screens make it pain in the butt to use. Sure it fits in a shirt pocket ( though the newt fits in a SUIT pocket.. its inital target market ) but still...
---- Booth was a patriot ----
I've heard this before, and it just doesn't ring true for me. Graffiti requires you to be much more "exceptionally careful" with your handwriting. If you can make Graffiti work for you, you can certainly make the Newt's much more flexible handwriting recognition engine work with much less effort.
I think it's a conceptual problem, really. The Newton attempted to recognize all handwriting, and thus many users blamed the Newton when it couldn't decipher their illegible script. It was Apple's fault, not theirs.
But the Palms didn't even pretend that they'd recognize your handwriting. They simply forced users to learn a new way to write. If Graffiti failed to recognize what you wrote, well, then you must not be doing it right. So people blamed themselves instead of the device.
my Handspring was much better for most of the typical PDA usage- entering phone numbers or appointment times
I think entering phone numbers and appointment times became "typical PDA usage" because that's all you could conveniently do with Graffiti. That's my experience anyway, YMMV.
Sure the Newton's natural system is faster for writing large amounts of text(assuming you have perfect handwriting) but people just didn't(and still don't) use PDAs for that sort of thing.
I'd say that there's an amount of text between the size of a phone number and a "large amount of text" which is what the Newton was really designed for. Short notes, quick e-mails, reminders, that sort of thing. And lots of people have been very successful using it for just that.
Again, whatever works for you, works for you. But I personally really liked what the Newton did, and would've loved to see what a 2004 Newton OS and handheld would be like.
He who refuses to do arithmetic is doomed to talk nonsense.