Specifically, the original M.U.L.E. for the Atari 800 which supports up to 4 players.
one of the many innovative games produced by the old Electronic Arts (back when they promoted programmers and game designers like rock stars).
Well, EA didn't actually produce it, they only published it. M.U.L.E. is the product of Ozark Softscape: Dan Bunten, Bill Bunten, Jim Rushing, and Alan Watson. Unfortunately Trip Hawkins' legendary "game designers as rock stars" attitude was a myth played out only in magazine ads, not reality... unless he meant "rock stars" in the sense that the publisher keeps all the money and the artists get royally screwed.
Zelda 2 and Ultima 5 were released in the US the same year. Ultima 4 predates all Zelda games. Am I really suposed to believe there is something innovative about Zelda's story telling? The total omission of Adventure/Colossal Cave (for the genre) or Zork (for the advanced parser) is pretty unbelievable, too.
There are a lot of strange ommissions. No Brazil? No Mexico? No India? No Pakistan? No Japan? No Korea? Central and South America, Asia, Asia Minor, the Middle East are all but absent. These are huge regions of the world with vast populations that are basically ignored here. But, you know, whatever, as long as Luxembourg is included...
Something's not right. Nintendo and it's partners have announced something on the order 1200+ titles for the Wii's Virual Console. At a release rate of 10 titles per month it will take 10 years to release them all. Ten years? They're going to need step up the pace to stay credible.
What are you talking about? You "win" by accomplishing goals and trying to improve your performance. All the Will Wright "toys" have goals. And if you don't like the one's they provide, there is nothing stopping from making up your own. That's the main strength of sandbox games over games that mandate your every move. I do agree with you about Wright's games being toy-like, but that does preclude them from being game-like as well.
The press call him a "master" in the sense that he's a vocal, somewhat inscrutable dreamer -- a gaming mystic, if you will -- who has repeatedly reached a large level of success not producing cookie-cutter games, games which are popular with the masses and which have designs that excite other developers. It's that success that seperates him from other vocal visionaries like Crawford or Molyneux. Other visionaries, who aren't as vocal, will never be noticed by the mainstream press. It's simplistic but somebody has to be the "master" and Will Wright just happens to fit the bill.
Robert Rodriguez did his award-winning film "El Mariachi" for U$S 16.000. Kevin Smith did the award-winning cult-classic movie "Clerks" for U$S 27.000.
You forgot the part about where Robert Rodriguez got the investment capital. He got the money taking weird drugs as a guinea pig for a Mexican pharmaceutical company. Not recommended for the average Pedro. As for Clerks costing $27,000: that was just to pay for the sound track at $1000 a song, the going rate. Everyone worked for free on that job, but you can be sure the distributor paid plenty to get the movie the rest of the way to the theater, including negative pickup, duplication, marketing, and delivery. Budgets that don't include what it takes to get to exhibition, the most important step in a movie's life, are not real budgets.
Hollywood doesn't know how to make movies for less than a couple of millions, and probably doesn't care... because throwing those millions around probably simplifies the process of getting the movie done on time, and they collect a bundle anyway, so it makes no sense to them to spend too little.
So actually... making a movie that would ordinarily cost 3-5 M for 1.75 M doesn't impress me.
You've obviously never made a movie before. Hollywood doesn't throw money around willy-nilly. Every penny is budgeted and accounted for. Everyone knows their job and does it right the first time -- and they are well rewarded for it because Hollywood appreciates a good worker and has no time for fuck-ups. Bringing a movie in on time saves money, it doesn't waste it. Every day that a movie goes over budget costs a small fortune. Real movies (not garbage shot in mom's basement) cost real money. I suggest to anyone who thinks they can make a quality movie* in a reasonable amount of time for less than a million to try it. You won't succeed, but you'll learn a lot. If amatuer hour is all you want then you can cut corners. If you want a professional product, hire the pros and expect to pay a pro's rate. Aside from a few ego-maniacal "stars", movies are so expensive because of the shear number of expert crew and technical elements involved. The camera and lenses alone are probably worth more than you'll make in a decade.
... but the key to failure is trying to please everybody." -- Bill Cosby
Art by commitee rarely works. Yeah, you can finish the project, even make some money, but it probably won't be art anymore. Hollywood scared? Hardly. They invented the process.
What voice actors? Unfortunately Hollywood only hires "real" actors for their animated features. If they just hired actual voice talent, the casting would be cheaper, and the product would be better.
Sorry, but you're the AC-posting ass. There is nothing in the Wikipedia article that says multiplayer is 100% free. It says it is up to the game maker to charge or not charge, similar to the Wii. That said, the cited article is five months old, makes no reference to the actual cost of multiplayer play, and otherwise contains numerous errors about the specifics of the PS3. What I find odd, and what I posted about, and what you didn't attempt to answer, is that Sony seems to have made no mention of it during the show yesterday which was supposed to reveal everything about the online functionality of the PS3.
Sure, it can be done, but if they are going to charge so much for a console, the inclusion of relatively inexpensive WiFi seems like a no brainer. But then again, the whole notion of two versions of the same console is mind-boggling to me. The whole point of a stand-alone console should be the uniformity of the platform. "Upgradable" consoles just make everything more expensive for the consumer and more difficult for the developer.
Yeah, they say "FREE" browsing and "FREE" downloadable demos, but am I the only one didn't see anything about the cost of online play against other players? How much is Sony's version of X-Box Live?
PSP and PS3 integration is only possible with the WiFi version of the PS3. You are looking at an extra purchase if you buy the low-end version of the PS3. Dumb.
It's the only thing anybody really wants to see you do, Pete. A Halo movie is a turd waiting to happen. Whoever is holding up the rights to The Hobbit needs to stop fuckin around.
I suspect you're just trolling, but I'll bite. With very few exceptions each Nintendo "sequel" features innovation in gameplay over its predecessors. And Mario being "whored out into every possible genre that you can think of" doesn't really fit in with your conjecture that the games are the all the same.
The entire point of the television (and radio) broadcast license is very simple. We ALL own the air that is used to broadcast television, and we ALL have a fundamental right to use it for broadcast. However, a compromise was struck with government (the FCC) to regulate the broadcast spectrum to a few licensed broadcasters. We gave up our fundamental rights to broadcast in exchange for community services that licensed broadcasters are required to provide: news, election coverage, etc. The internet is completely differently because the internet infrastructure is a paid service, not a natural resource. Over-air broadcast style licensing therefore can not apply. Sadly, this is just a way to quash the latest mechanism of free-speech, free-speech being something the poor citizens in the EU don't enjoy, and something EU governments refuse to allow.
Slashdot Mirror
I've got three HDTVs in my house and I have absolutely no desire to purchase an X360 or a PS3. YMMV.
Specifically, the original M.U.L.E. for the Atari 800 which supports up to 4 players.
Well, EA didn't actually produce it, they only published it. M.U.L.E. is the product of Ozark Softscape: Dan Bunten, Bill Bunten, Jim Rushing, and Alan Watson. Unfortunately Trip Hawkins' legendary "game designers as rock stars" attitude was a myth played out only in magazine ads, not reality
AIDS is a condition, not a virus.
AIDS != HIV
Zelda 2 and Ultima 5 were released in the US the same year. Ultima 4 predates all Zelda games. Am I really suposed to believe there is something innovative about Zelda's story telling? The total omission of Adventure/Colossal Cave (for the genre) or Zork (for the advanced parser) is pretty unbelievable, too.
A hollow voice says, "Cretin!"
There are a lot of strange ommissions. No Brazil? No Mexico? No India? No Pakistan? No Japan? No Korea? Central and South America, Asia, Asia Minor, the Middle East are all but absent. These are huge regions of the world with vast populations that are basically ignored here. But, you know, whatever, as long as Luxembourg is included ...
Ethnocentrism much?
I find this usage appalling, and I hope that this terminology doesn't spread and dumb down the use of technical terms.
If you find that appalling, wait till you find out what they call a hacker.
Something's not right. Nintendo and it's partners have announced something on the order 1200+ titles for the Wii's Virual Console. At a release rate of 10 titles per month it will take 10 years to release them all. Ten years? They're going to need step up the pace to stay credible.
According to TFA, Will Wright had nothing to do with any of the expansions.
This is news? This matters? Nerds know better.
What are you talking about? You "win" by accomplishing goals and trying to improve your performance. All the Will Wright "toys" have goals. And if you don't like the one's they provide, there is nothing stopping from making up your own. That's the main strength of sandbox games over games that mandate your every move. I do agree with you about Wright's games being toy-like, but that does preclude them from being game-like as well.
The press call him a "master" in the sense that he's a vocal, somewhat inscrutable dreamer -- a gaming mystic, if you will -- who has repeatedly reached a large level of success not producing cookie-cutter games, games which are popular with the masses and which have designs that excite other developers. It's that success that seperates him from other vocal visionaries like Crawford or Molyneux. Other visionaries, who aren't as vocal, will never be noticed by the mainstream press. It's simplistic but somebody has to be the "master" and Will Wright just happens to fit the bill.
Robert Rodriguez did his award-winning film "El Mariachi" for U$S 16.000. Kevin Smith did the award-winning cult-classic movie "Clerks" for U$S 27.000.
You forgot the part about where Robert Rodriguez got the investment capital. He got the money taking weird drugs as a guinea pig for a Mexican pharmaceutical company. Not recommended for the average Pedro. As for Clerks costing $27,000: that was just to pay for the sound track at $1000 a song, the going rate. Everyone worked for free on that job, but you can be sure the distributor paid plenty to get the movie the rest of the way to the theater, including negative pickup, duplication, marketing, and delivery. Budgets that don't include what it takes to get to exhibition, the most important step in a movie's life, are not real budgets.
Hollywood doesn't know how to make movies for less than a couple of millions, and probably doesn't care... because throwing those millions around probably simplifies the process of getting the movie done on time, and they collect a bundle anyway, so it makes no sense to them to spend too little.
So actually... making a movie that would ordinarily cost 3-5 M for 1.75 M doesn't impress me.
You've obviously never made a movie before. Hollywood doesn't throw money around willy-nilly. Every penny is budgeted and accounted for. Everyone knows their job and does it right the first time -- and they are well rewarded for it because Hollywood appreciates a good worker and has no time for fuck-ups. Bringing a movie in on time saves money, it doesn't waste it. Every day that a movie goes over budget costs a small fortune. Real movies (not garbage shot in mom's basement) cost real money. I suggest to anyone who thinks they can make a quality movie* in a reasonable amount of time for less than a million to try it. You won't succeed, but you'll learn a lot. If amatuer hour is all you want then you can cut corners. If you want a professional product, hire the pros and expect to pay a pro's rate. Aside from a few ego-maniacal "stars", movies are so expensive because of the shear number of expert crew and technical elements involved. The camera and lenses alone are probably worth more than you'll make in a decade.
*cult classic != quality movie
... but the key to failure is trying to please everybody."
-- Bill Cosby
Art by commitee rarely works. Yeah, you can finish the project, even make some money, but it probably won't be art anymore. Hollywood scared? Hardly. They invented the process.
What voice actors? Unfortunately Hollywood only hires "real" actors for their animated features. If they just hired actual voice talent, the casting would be cheaper, and the product would be better.
Sorry, but you're the AC-posting ass. There is nothing in the Wikipedia article that says multiplayer is 100% free. It says it is up to the game maker to charge or not charge, similar to the Wii. That said, the cited article is five months old, makes no reference to the actual cost of multiplayer play, and otherwise contains numerous errors about the specifics of the PS3. What I find odd, and what I posted about, and what you didn't attempt to answer, is that Sony seems to have made no mention of it during the show yesterday which was supposed to reveal everything about the online functionality of the PS3.
Sure, it can be done, but if they are going to charge so much for a console, the inclusion of relatively inexpensive WiFi seems like a no brainer. But then again, the whole notion of two versions of the same console is mind-boggling to me. The whole point of a stand-alone console should be the uniformity of the platform. "Upgradable" consoles just make everything more expensive for the consumer and more difficult for the developer.
Yeah, they say "FREE" browsing and "FREE" downloadable demos, but am I the only one didn't see anything about the cost of online play against other players? How much is Sony's version of X-Box Live?
PSP and PS3 integration is only possible with the WiFi version of the PS3. You are looking at an extra purchase if you buy the low-end version of the PS3. Dumb.
It's the only thing anybody really wants to see you do, Pete. A Halo movie is a turd waiting to happen. Whoever is holding up the rights to The Hobbit needs to stop fuckin around.
I suspect you're just trolling, but I'll bite. With very few exceptions each Nintendo "sequel" features innovation in gameplay over its predecessors. And Mario being "whored out into every possible genre that you can think of" doesn't really fit in with your conjecture that the games are the all the same.
So dildo's are now "for kids"? Sicko.
...the PS3 was supposed make "media center" PCs obsolete? WTF Sony?
The entire point of the television (and radio) broadcast license is very simple. We ALL own the air that is used to broadcast television, and we ALL have a fundamental right to use it for broadcast. However, a compromise was struck with government (the FCC) to regulate the broadcast spectrum to a few licensed broadcasters. We gave up our fundamental rights to broadcast in exchange for community services that licensed broadcasters are required to provide: news, election coverage, etc. The internet is completely differently because the internet infrastructure is a paid service, not a natural resource. Over-air broadcast style licensing therefore can not apply. Sadly, this is just a way to quash the latest mechanism of free-speech, free-speech being something the poor citizens in the EU don't enjoy, and something EU governments refuse to allow.
I think you got it backwards. A PS3 is something you buy for your HDTV, not the other way around.