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Microsoft Tablet PC Games
sushant_bhatia_progr writes "eWeek has an article on how Microsoft Corp. is readying a Tablet PC game software development kit and a new Tablet-PC-specific game, both meant to attract new developers and users for Tablet PCs." From the article: "The Redmond, Wash., software maker is co-developing both the SDK and the new game, called Arcs of Fire, in conjunction with software partner 3 Leaf Development. 3 Leaf officials did not respond to a request for comment. Microsoft expects to release a first beta of both the new game and the SDK in early January."
Bloody hell you're on a roll.
Just a short question: Is there actually anyone using a tablet-pc??
If Microsoft was mass, stupidity would be gravity.
How about a Tablet XBox?
This is reminisicent of the same philosophy m$ used to push win 3.x out on the business marketplace. The only reason a user would even open the windows shell was for minesweeper or solitaire. After all, most business apps up to that point were still programmed for DOS.
Tablet PCs are being pushed to the business world, but it'll take some play-time to get them broadly accepted.
In other news - tablet PC screen protector sales expected to surge.
Are they going after that niche market of manager types who are just not satisfied playing with their Crackberries, err, Blackberries during those long and boring meetings? Are they really selling enough Tablet PC's for this to matter a hill of beans in the first place, or just another paper tiger for Microsoft to say "we dominate this market too..."
They're underpowered and the screens are too small.
I want one with a 15.4" widescreen, that I can reorient to portrait mode. I want a really fast and reasonably cheap processor, like an AMD64. I can understand why the screens haven't ramped up yet, but why haven't they moved to faster processors and better memory, yet?
First up, a Nintendo DS emulator!
I'll turn into a supernova and burn up everything. Well I'll turn into a black little hole and you'll turn into string.
... I welcome our new game overlords.
But seriously, I do own a Tablet PC, the Toshiba M200 (a damn fine machine BTW). Tablet PCs are really not that good for gaming. There's no controls on board, the screen is not touch sensitive but eletroresistive (which is good for writing, bad for turning the machine into a Nintendo DS) and the battery life is already short enough without eating up massive CPU cycles into games.
With that said, I see absolutely no reason why a machine like the M200 (convertible) or slate models that can be "docked" into a keyboard and mouse location can't be used as a regular machine with regular gaming.
Other than, of course, the insane obsession laptop manufacturers have with including crappy video cards, like the Intel Extreme Graphics 2!!! Now with extra ram-shared crappyness! Because at intel, "w3 @re teh suxx0rz".
At least the M200 has a Geforce 5200 (although one with only 32MB of VRAM). If you ask me Microsoft pushing for decent video cards would do a million times more good than any pen input game SDK will ever do. But then again, I'm probably being as visionary as I was back in the Doom days ("Mouse?! Why would I ever need a mouse for an FPS game? My keyboard does everything I need, thank you very much").
-Jack Ash
Finally, a reason to buy a tablet PC!
"It's a wonderful idea. But it doesn't work." -- Tad Danielewski
It would make sense, as the purpose of the game is to get people to use their SDK, and what better way to show off how to use it than to open the source to the game, but TFA says nothing about source being opened. I'll guess we will just have to wait and see.
Monstar L
Microsoft has tried several times to make the tablet PC a viable product. (Among other things, like interactive TV.) If they really wanted it to take off, they'd release version 3.0 (or 3.1). Everyone knows that's when Microsoft products become useable.
Software sucks. Open Source sucks less.
Ubergizmo has a report about an electronic paper product coming out in 2006. It has a thickness of 3mm and delivers full color images. Competition for the Tablet PC?
Sig cancelled due to lack of interest
I just picked up a slow-as-molasses Tablet, on iSellSurplus, for $798 (but its ruggedized. It's a brand-new 866Mhz, 20Gb, w/ Win XP for Tablet PCs. I know it's slow, but as a teacher, I think it'll be handy for presentations, moving around the classroom, etc.
I'm still a little apprehensive, but I'm currently glad MS pushed the platform, and hasn't abandoned it (yet).
That said, they are great for reading books, taking notes, browsing webpages for information (after you set up the sites you visit most), watching movies, and playing "non-twitch" games (chess, cards, etc.).
Anybody trying to make games like Doom3 for the TabletPC will not make money. If you spend some time with a TabletPC, and see how people use them, you can probably come up with a dozen ideas for games that make sense (and could sell $$$). The person who talked about porting the SCUMM engine has the right idea.
Spell cheek you've failed me four the last thyme!
MS has announced that, due to their innovative inclusion of a touch screen to control games, their advertising slogan is simply "Touch." They are apparently seeking a popular female Japanese vocalist to appear in their ad campaign.