I bet 95% of the people in here who bashed the console have never played it even once. The monochrome display and high price were what killed it, but if you've ever played it, the 3D effect is really interesting, and something you can't get on any other console (The Master System and Vectrex had add-ons that could do similar stuff, but these were very expensive and not well utilized). Even these days, where can you get REAL 3D out of a video game?
As for the headaches, there's a couple of focus knobs on the system that you have to fiddle with. If you're getting headaches, then you don't have the focus right. If you calibrate it properly, you'll never have any problems.
If Nintendo ever made a full-color Virtual Boy, I'd be the first in line to buy it.
It has been rumored that the Mario 128 demo eventually inspired (or perhaps even evolved into) Pikmin... basically the only carry-over is the idea of having a large number of characters moving around, but it certainly wouldn't surprise me if this was the case.
first you started to release the RE series on the PSX, and all was ok.. Then, you moved over to the GC
Well, you forgot the Dreamcast in there... Capcom released RE 2, 3, and Code Veronica for the DC. In fact, Code Veronica was originally a Dreamcast exclusive until they made PS2 and GC ports... so this isn't the first time Capcom has jumped a so-called exclusive title to another platform.
I'm surprised this wasn't mentioned, but the Goat Store is also releasing Cool Herders really soon, which would be the 4th title they've published for the system (The others being Feet of Fury, Inhabitants, and Maqiupai). I have my copy on pre-order and am very much looking forward to it. These releases may not be as extravagant as "regular" commercial releases, but they're still plenty of fun.
Instead of relying on Gamespot to know anything about hockey, lets just take a look at things ourselves:
NHL 2006 has Vincent Lecavalier on the cover... Vinny currently has 11 goals and 15 assists in 24 games, so he's averaging just over a point a game. He managed 66 points in 81 games in the 03-04 season, but it's difficult to compare this years NHL season to that one due to all the rule changes. His team has a somewhat mediocre 12-9-3 record at the moment, which isn't that great considering they're the defending Stanley Cup champions (And also considering that the rule changes should have helped a fast team like the Lightning). Overall I'd say he's doing well... I had expected him to do better, but I wouldn't call this a slump.
NHL 2K6 has Mats Sundin on the cover... Mats was hit in the face with a puck about 7 minutes into his first game this season, fracturing the orbital bone around his eye and causing him to miss a few weeks of play... this is a little disheartening for a player who is generally known as being very reliable (In the previous 9 seasons, he's only missed 23 games in total). However, now that he's back, he's generally been doing well. In the 10 games he's played, he's scored 3 goals and 6 assists (in 03-04, he had 75 points in 81 games). His team has a 12-8-2 record, which is somewhat average leaving them in 3rd place in their division.
Some better choices as cover material would include Jaromir Jagr (37 points in 24 games), Peter Forsberg (35 points in 20 games), Daniel Alfredsson (35 points in 19 games), or Dany Heatley (33 points in 19 games, including at least one point in every game so far this season)... although I think all of them (except maybe Alfredsson) have already had the cover treatment. Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin would also have been great choices, although as rookies, there was the risk that they'd bomb out of the league... Dominik Hasek would have also been a risk, as there were concerns that his age would hinder him.
I happen to be one of the weird guys out there who collects video games as a hobby, primarily for classic game systems like the Atari 2600 and Colecovision, but also more recent systems like the Sega Dreamcast. If this move is successful and the second-hand market is eliminated, my hobby is pretty much screwed. 10 years from now if I decide I want to play a game that was only released on the PS3, what will my options be? Finding a sealed copy that hasn't been imprinted on a system yet will be exceptionally difficult and expensive.
[QUOTE] The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) has spared us from being contaminated by such filth when he ordered us to stay clear of the saliva of dogs. If we ever come into contact with a dog's saliva we must wash the spot seven times, the first of which should be with sand or dirt. It is also possible to use a bacterial soap instead of sand or dirt.
In conclusion: Don't contemplate taking a dog home as a pet. If, however, you do need to keep a dog for any of the reasons given above [basically working dogs], then you may do so. But take every precaution not to have contact with its saliva, and also arrange for a separate living space." [/QUOTE]
I'm not muslim, but it would seem to me that if you consider a dogs saliva so filthy that you must wash that diligently, then surely keeping a dog (unless it was absolutely necessary, ie seeing eye dogs) would probably be frowned upon at the very least. Simply keeping a dog as a loved pet like a Christian might while simply being diligent in avoiding it's saliva strikes me as being against the spirit of the faith in this instance.
I've known plenty of non-muslim people that used convenient "loopholes" like this to escape some of the views of their religions though, so it wouldn't surprise me too much if this was common amung muslims.
In any case, I guess it's safe to say that any scene that had Santas Little Helper licking Bart or Homer would probably be edited.
You do realize that if you put the control inside the wavebird-like sleeve, it still tilts when you tilt the addon sleve?
That's great, except that picture of a wavebird sleeve was just a mock-up. Supposedly, Nintendo has said they're going to make something along those lines, but I've never actually seen this mentioned anywhere official, just as rumors.
Also, someone said that Gamecube controllers would work, but I wouldn't be too sure about that. I was under the impression that the Gamecube ports on the top of the machine were purely for reverse compatibility when playing Gamecube games on the machine. Nintendo hasn't said anything about them working on actual Revolution games. I wouldn't hold my breath.
Gamepark actually encourages people to make homebrew apps, unlike other manufacturers.
You might want to be a little careful of this statement... You see, the company that you knew as Gamepark that made the original GP32 has since split up into two companies: "Gamepark Holdings" is the company that is working on the GP2X (Or GPX2, as some references call it... there was a contest to decide on a name, so there is some ambiguity). However the other company, known simply as "Gamepark" is working on a completely different handheld system called the XGP. From what I've heard, the XGP is likely going to be quite a bit powerful, with hardware 3D accelleration (basically a Korean PSP)... however, everything I've heard about it indicates that the XGP will NOT be an open platform in the way the GPX2 is striving to be.
So in other words, "Gamepark Holdings" is encouraging the homebrew community... "Gamepark" is not. At least, not yet.
after all is 100 a number given to 1 SF or a number given to 3 SF where two of the digits happened to be zero? you can't tell!
A more well informed person would never have written it that way in the first place if significant figures were important to the task at hand. If they were, then it would be better to write it as 1.00E+2, thus making it very obvious that there are indeed 3 significant figures rather than 1 or 2. Different teachers of mine have also used other methods here, such as "100." or putting bars over zeros when they're significant, but scientific notation works best as far as I'm concerned.
Back when I was in science classes in university, we usually threw out the sig figs and instead used an error range, such as 3.544±0.002... this seemed more accurate to me, since it specifies a range of 0.004 rather than tossing out a whole digit and being stuck with a potential range of 0.01 (With these values diverging more and more through successive calculations). This also allowed you to carry error ranges through complicated functions where the number of sig figs you should retain in the answer isn't always clear.
damm I just finish calculus1 and 2... too bad I didn't knew this... I dunno if my teacher would of agreed the use of i though... oh well I,l use it in my physics class
That's the difference between a bad teacher and a good teacher. A bad teacher will be upset because you didn't use the proper process, but a good teacher will be impressed by the fact that you found a shortcut that you weren't even taught in the first place. In my experience most teachers actually WANT you to learn, and stuff like this shows that you're paying attention.
I wouldn't be surprised if most teachers purposely didn't teach the short cuts in the hopes that at least ONE student would figure it out on their own. That's the difference between a good student and a great student.
So, what happens to their sales if high prices drive a larger percentage of consumers to the used bins? With less first release sales, they won't make as much money...
Well, except this can only go so far... if EVERYONE resigned to buying just used games, then there wouldn't BE any used games at all.
I think we all know where this whole situation is going to end up: Companies will still be pressured for deadlines and all the other stuff that's limited them in the past, they'll still spend the same amount of money on games and just pocket the difference in the name of profit.
Remember when CD's were supposed to be cheaper? Yeah, we certainly saved a lot of money there...
"DreamCast was great technology for it's time - beyond anything the others had then. But it flopped due to lack of titles. I have one if you want it.:)"
I beg to disagree with that... the Dreamcast had plenty of excellent titles, including one of the best selections of launch titles to ever grace a system. Overall, within less than two years, the Dreamcast managed to get about 250 titles out for it, which I think is pretty good considering it's situation. The vast majority of those are generally high quality games too. Many big names were developing for the system, including Activision, Eidos (back when they didn't suck), Capcom, Namco, Ubisoft, Midway, Acclaim (okay, they sucked even then, but they were still making a bunch of games), SNK, and of course, Sega themselves. The main notable exception was EA, but Sega's own sports franchises replaced EA's quite handily in my opinion.
Generally, the two most accepted reasons as to why the Dreamcast failed are:
1) Rampant piracy. Due to the way the system was designed, people found ways to copy and burn games that would work without even needing a modchip. If you thought piracy was bad on the PSX, imagine if you never even had to bugger around modifying your console to get it to play burns. EVERYONE was pirating games, even those who had no idea what they were doing.
2) Sega's generally poor history drove many people away from the system. The failures of the SegaCD, 32X and Saturn still hung in the air, and a lot of people weren't willing to trust Sega this time around. Combine this with the fact that everyone seemed to love the PSX and knew that the PS2 was just around the corner, and very few people were willing to make the jump.
In case you hadn't already guessed, I'm a big fan of the system myself. It was a short ride, but a fun one. I'm looking forward to Nintendo's next console, but their history isn't looking so good either, with the N64 and Gamecube both being somewhat disappointing. Neither failed quite as bad as Sega's stuff, but still....
What on earth does DRM have to do with any of this? The PSP is incapable of reading standard DVD's, and DVD players are incapable of reading UMD's. Sony could have left out the DRM altogether and we'd STILL be stuck with the situation of two incompatible formats.
Lightgun games. Yeah, the PC has keyboard and mouse. Wake me up when I can plug a lighgun in and play a House Of The Dead or Time Crisis game the way it was meant to be played.
There are USB light guns out there to be had. I've never tried any of them myself, but this comparison might be interesting to you. It seems that these light guns are made primarily (completely?) with MAME in mind, so I have no idea how useful they are outside of emulators.. but once House of the Dead and Time Crisis are playable in MAME, you're set.
Besides, someone else already pointed out it was ported to the 1.xMhz SNES cpu (with help of the mode-7 hardware).
Forget Mode-7, the SNES version of Doom had a SuperFX chip in it. For those who don't already know, the SuperFX is a dedicated 3D chip that was used in games like Starfox to generate 3D graphics. So even though you can get a SNES version of Doom, it's not really a stock SNES in the strictest sense.
Oh, and the SNES's CPU (a 68C618) actually runs at 3.58 MHz. When the original article refers to a 16-bit system running at 7 MHz, they're most likely referring to the Genesis rather than the SNES (The 68000 in the Genesis actually runs at 7.67 MHz, but I've split enough hairs in this post already).
I downloaded some "all in one" rom package years ago, a few thousand nes roms. Sad thing was: 8 of 10 were crap.
That's because they were crap back in the days too. Keep in mind that "a few thousand" games is way more than anyone actually played back in the days... hundreds of those are just pirate games released in china and such (There were only around 600 or so domestic releases). Forget about GoodNES sets, look at the games that were actually popular releases and the ratio is much better.
Why do we keep seeing these news stories that just turn out to be an opinion from someone who has nothing to do with what's actually going on? Stuff like this should only really count as "news" if it's coming out of the mouth of someone at Microsoft.
"many conversations with Microsoft" aside, his guesses are probably no better than mine.
Am I the only one who misses the days when only the GOOD movies managed to get such honors? Nowadays, for every flavor of the month movie, there's also a video game version, cereals, comic books, action figures et al. released simultaneously even before the movie is "proven". I can't help but think it's an awfully big risk, especially with so many cookie-cutter movies out there (Considering the last MK movie, I'm certainly not expecting this one to be a blockbuster). But I guess they crunch the numbers ahead of time to make sure they don't lose their shirts.
So what happens when the movie ends up bombing? Close up the park and try to cut the losses, or keep the park around as a constant reminder of a failed movie?
Same thing with the infamous "Mode 7" in the Super NES system. Who can forget the So called 16 bit TurboGrafix 16?
Mode 7 is actually a hardware feature in the SNES. I haven't programmed the hardware myself, but Mode 7 is somehow responsible for most of the scaling and rotation effects that you see in games like Pilotwings and F-Zero. Sure it was hyped, but at least there was some actual basis for it, rather than Sega's claims of "blast processing".
As for the TG16... the problem wasn't so much that they claimed it was 16-bit, the problem was that people didn't (and still don't, apparently) know what "bits" really meant. Here's a hit: It doesn't mean anything at all. Any connection "bits" has to actual power or graphical ability is generally coincidental.
Anyhow, it's good to see that people are jaded and cynical enough to realize that most of what these companies say is hype rather than factual information. I wonder how long it'll be before this backfires on the companies and they get sued for false advertising or something.
With about 80 digits per line, 50 lines per page, and 40,000 digits per document, how many trees do ten pages kill?
You forgot the decimal point, which unfortunately causes the printout to overflow to an 11th page.
I guess the authors could have just thrown away the first 10 pages and kept the last one, which (conveniently enough) would contain all the information they wanted.
Here's an idea Sony: Instead of wasting money on pointless lawsuits that are going to piss off the people who are willing to go the the extra time and expense to get your product, how about putting that money towards speeding up the official European launch? If your product was actually available there, then people wouldn't be forced to do this.
Back when the N64 was in development, Nintendo kept saying that the controller was something amazing and revolutionary, and kept it really hush-hush until they decided to unveil. They're pretty tight-lipped about stuff like this, so don't expect to see anything until Nintendo actually WANTS you to see it.
On the plus side though, the N64 controllers were revolutionary in a number of ways... it was the first major console to use analog sticks (Well, since the Atari 5200 I guess), it had slots on the back for memory cards and rumble packs (an idea later adopted by Sega and Microsoft), the odd three-staved design allowed it to be held in a number of different configurations (an idea which never really caught on), the C-buttons sort of led to the Gamecube's C-stick, and the system did four-player out of the box (although I suppose this is more a feature of the system rather than the controllers). I know a lot of people didn't like the N64 controllers, but they did have a good amount of influence after all.
It could be that backwards compatybility in PS3 will be resolved similar to as in PS2: they took the original PS1 CPU and changed it a little bit for new role: acting as IO processor. However, when PS1 game was loaded, this IO habdled also.
Kind of off-topic from the current discussion, but Sony wasn't even the first to do something like this. Back in the good ol' days, Sega made a system called the Master System (aka, the Mark III) that ran on a Z80 processor... when Sega then went on to make the Genesis (aka, the Mega Drive), they used a Z80 as the sound processor, but included some hooks that allowed it to take over processing duties. Thus, they released a devise called the Power Base Converter that let you play Master System games on your Genesis. All the converter really did was short out some pins on the cartridge port to enable the Z80 (It also added the card port that the SMS had, but not much used that anyways). In fact, when Sega later created the Saturn, they used a 68000 as a sound processor, but I'm not aware of any ability for it to run Genesis software through it.
A little bit more on topic: I would suggest that the move towards PPC will really help Nintendo in that it will be much easier to port games to their system. One of the problems with the Gamecube at the moment is that a lot of so-called "multi-platform" games are really only XBox and PS2 games, since the developers decide the Gamecube isn't worth bothering with I guess. If all the systems are PPC, then porting will likely be quite a bit easier, so even the less popular consoles (whether or not it's Nintendo's this time around) will be more likely to get multi-system games ported to them.
Slashdot Mirror
I bet 95% of the people in here who bashed the console have never played it even once. The monochrome display and high price were what killed it, but if you've ever played it, the 3D effect is really interesting, and something you can't get on any other console (The Master System and Vectrex had add-ons that could do similar stuff, but these were very expensive and not well utilized). Even these days, where can you get REAL 3D out of a video game?
As for the headaches, there's a couple of focus knobs on the system that you have to fiddle with. If you're getting headaches, then you don't have the focus right. If you calibrate it properly, you'll never have any problems.
If Nintendo ever made a full-color Virtual Boy, I'd be the first in line to buy it.
It has been rumored that the Mario 128 demo eventually inspired (or perhaps even evolved into) Pikmin... basically the only carry-over is the idea of having a large number of characters moving around, but it certainly wouldn't surprise me if this was the case.
first you started to release the RE series on the PSX, and all was ok.. Then, you moved over to the GC
Well, you forgot the Dreamcast in there... Capcom released RE 2, 3, and Code Veronica for the DC. In fact, Code Veronica was originally a Dreamcast exclusive until they made PS2 and GC ports... so this isn't the first time Capcom has jumped a so-called exclusive title to another platform.
I'm surprised this wasn't mentioned, but the Goat Store is also releasing Cool Herders really soon, which would be the 4th title they've published for the system (The others being Feet of Fury, Inhabitants, and Maqiupai). I have my copy on pre-order and am very much looking forward to it. These releases may not be as extravagant as "regular" commercial releases, but they're still plenty of fun.
Instead of relying on Gamespot to know anything about hockey, lets just take a look at things ourselves:
NHL 2006 has Vincent Lecavalier on the cover... Vinny currently has 11 goals and 15 assists in 24 games, so he's averaging just over a point a game. He managed 66 points in 81 games in the 03-04 season, but it's difficult to compare this years NHL season to that one due to all the rule changes. His team has a somewhat mediocre 12-9-3 record at the moment, which isn't that great considering they're the defending Stanley Cup champions (And also considering that the rule changes should have helped a fast team like the Lightning). Overall I'd say he's doing well... I had expected him to do better, but I wouldn't call this a slump.
NHL 2K6 has Mats Sundin on the cover... Mats was hit in the face with a puck about 7 minutes into his first game this season, fracturing the orbital bone around his eye and causing him to miss a few weeks of play... this is a little disheartening for a player who is generally known as being very reliable (In the previous 9 seasons, he's only missed 23 games in total). However, now that he's back, he's generally been doing well. In the 10 games he's played, he's scored 3 goals and 6 assists (in 03-04, he had 75 points in 81 games). His team has a 12-8-2 record, which is somewhat average leaving them in 3rd place in their division.
Some better choices as cover material would include Jaromir Jagr (37 points in 24 games), Peter Forsberg (35 points in 20 games), Daniel Alfredsson (35 points in 19 games), or Dany Heatley (33 points in 19 games, including at least one point in every game so far this season)... although I think all of them (except maybe Alfredsson) have already had the cover treatment. Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin would also have been great choices, although as rookies, there was the risk that they'd bomb out of the league... Dominik Hasek would have also been a risk, as there were concerns that his age would hinder him.
I happen to be one of the weird guys out there who collects video games as a hobby, primarily for classic game systems like the Atari 2600 and Colecovision, but also more recent systems like the Sega Dreamcast. If this move is successful and the second-hand market is eliminated, my hobby is pretty much screwed. 10 years from now if I decide I want to play a game that was only released on the PS3, what will my options be? Finding a sealed copy that hasn't been imprinted on a system yet will be exceptionally difficult and expensive.
[QUOTE] The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) has spared us from being contaminated by such filth when he ordered us to stay clear of the saliva of dogs. If we ever come into contact with a dog's saliva we must wash the spot seven times, the first of which should be with sand or dirt. It is also possible to use a bacterial soap instead of sand or dirt.
In conclusion: Don't contemplate taking a dog home as a pet. If, however, you do need to keep a dog for any of the reasons given above [basically working dogs], then you may do so. But take every precaution not to have contact with its saliva, and also arrange for a separate living space." [/QUOTE]
I'm not muslim, but it would seem to me that if you consider a dogs saliva so filthy that you must wash that diligently, then surely keeping a dog (unless it was absolutely necessary, ie seeing eye dogs) would probably be frowned upon at the very least. Simply keeping a dog as a loved pet like a Christian might while simply being diligent in avoiding it's saliva strikes me as being against the spirit of the faith in this instance.
I've known plenty of non-muslim people that used convenient "loopholes" like this to escape some of the views of their religions though, so it wouldn't surprise me too much if this was common amung muslims.
In any case, I guess it's safe to say that any scene that had Santas Little Helper licking Bart or Homer would probably be edited.
You do realize that if you put the control inside the wavebird-like sleeve, it still tilts when you tilt the addon sleve?
That's great, except that picture of a wavebird sleeve was just a mock-up. Supposedly, Nintendo has said they're going to make something along those lines, but I've never actually seen this mentioned anywhere official, just as rumors.
Also, someone said that Gamecube controllers would work, but I wouldn't be too sure about that. I was under the impression that the Gamecube ports on the top of the machine were purely for reverse compatibility when playing Gamecube games on the machine. Nintendo hasn't said anything about them working on actual Revolution games. I wouldn't hold my breath.
Gamepark actually encourages people to make homebrew apps, unlike other manufacturers.
You might want to be a little careful of this statement... You see, the company that you knew as Gamepark that made the original GP32 has since split up into two companies: "Gamepark Holdings" is the company that is working on the GP2X (Or GPX2, as some references call it... there was a contest to decide on a name, so there is some ambiguity). However the other company, known simply as "Gamepark" is working on a completely different handheld system called the XGP. From what I've heard, the XGP is likely going to be quite a bit powerful, with hardware 3D accelleration (basically a Korean PSP)... however, everything I've heard about it indicates that the XGP will NOT be an open platform in the way the GPX2 is striving to be.
So in other words, "Gamepark Holdings" is encouraging the homebrew community... "Gamepark" is not. At least, not yet.
after all is 100 a number given to 1 SF or a number given to 3 SF where two of the digits happened to be zero? you can't tell!
A more well informed person would never have written it that way in the first place if significant figures were important to the task at hand. If they were, then it would be better to write it as 1.00E+2, thus making it very obvious that there are indeed 3 significant figures rather than 1 or 2. Different teachers of mine have also used other methods here, such as "100." or putting bars over zeros when they're significant, but scientific notation works best as far as I'm concerned.
Back when I was in science classes in university, we usually threw out the sig figs and instead used an error range, such as 3.544±0.002... this seemed more accurate to me, since it specifies a range of 0.004 rather than tossing out a whole digit and being stuck with a potential range of 0.01 (With these values diverging more and more through successive calculations). This also allowed you to carry error ranges through complicated functions where the number of sig figs you should retain in the answer isn't always clear.
damm I just finish calculus1 and 2... too bad I didn't knew this... I dunno if my teacher would of agreed the use of i though... oh well I,l use it in my physics class
That's the difference between a bad teacher and a good teacher. A bad teacher will be upset because you didn't use the proper process, but a good teacher will be impressed by the fact that you found a shortcut that you weren't even taught in the first place. In my experience most teachers actually WANT you to learn, and stuff like this shows that you're paying attention.
I wouldn't be surprised if most teachers purposely didn't teach the short cuts in the hopes that at least ONE student would figure it out on their own. That's the difference between a good student and a great student.
So, what happens to their sales if high prices drive a larger percentage of consumers to the used bins? With less first release sales, they won't make as much money...
Well, except this can only go so far... if EVERYONE resigned to buying just used games, then there wouldn't BE any used games at all.
I think we all know where this whole situation is going to end up: Companies will still be pressured for deadlines and all the other stuff that's limited them in the past, they'll still spend the same amount of money on games and just pocket the difference in the name of profit.
Remember when CD's were supposed to be cheaper? Yeah, we certainly saved a lot of money there...
"DreamCast was great technology for it's time - beyond anything the others had then. But it flopped due to lack of titles. I have one if you want it. :)"
I beg to disagree with that... the Dreamcast had plenty of excellent titles, including one of the best selections of launch titles to ever grace a system. Overall, within less than two years, the Dreamcast managed to get about 250 titles out for it, which I think is pretty good considering it's situation. The vast majority of those are generally high quality games too. Many big names were developing for the system, including Activision, Eidos (back when they didn't suck), Capcom, Namco, Ubisoft, Midway, Acclaim (okay, they sucked even then, but they were still making a bunch of games), SNK, and of course, Sega themselves. The main notable exception was EA, but Sega's own sports franchises replaced EA's quite handily in my opinion.
Generally, the two most accepted reasons as to why the Dreamcast failed are:
1) Rampant piracy. Due to the way the system was designed, people found ways to copy and burn games that would work without even needing a modchip. If you thought piracy was bad on the PSX, imagine if you never even had to bugger around modifying your console to get it to play burns. EVERYONE was pirating games, even those who had no idea what they were doing.
2) Sega's generally poor history drove many people away from the system. The failures of the SegaCD, 32X and Saturn still hung in the air, and a lot of people weren't willing to trust Sega this time around. Combine this with the fact that everyone seemed to love the PSX and knew that the PS2 was just around the corner, and very few people were willing to make the jump.
In case you hadn't already guessed, I'm a big fan of the system myself. It was a short ride, but a fun one. I'm looking forward to Nintendo's next console, but their history isn't looking so good either, with the N64 and Gamecube both being somewhat disappointing. Neither failed quite as bad as Sega's stuff, but still....
What on earth does DRM have to do with any of this? The PSP is incapable of reading standard DVD's, and DVD players are incapable of reading UMD's. Sony could have left out the DRM altogether and we'd STILL be stuck with the situation of two incompatible formats.
Lightgun games. Yeah, the PC has keyboard and mouse. Wake me up when I can plug a lighgun in and play a House Of The Dead or Time Crisis game the way it was meant to be played.
There are USB light guns out there to be had. I've never tried any of them myself, but this comparison might be interesting to you. It seems that these light guns are made primarily (completely?) with MAME in mind, so I have no idea how useful they are outside of emulators.. but once House of the Dead and Time Crisis are playable in MAME, you're set.
Besides, someone else already pointed out it was ported to the 1.xMhz SNES cpu (with help of the mode-7 hardware).
Forget Mode-7, the SNES version of Doom had a SuperFX chip in it. For those who don't already know, the SuperFX is a dedicated 3D chip that was used in games like Starfox to generate 3D graphics. So even though you can get a SNES version of Doom, it's not really a stock SNES in the strictest sense.
Oh, and the SNES's CPU (a 68C618) actually runs at 3.58 MHz. When the original article refers to a 16-bit system running at 7 MHz, they're most likely referring to the Genesis rather than the SNES (The 68000 in the Genesis actually runs at 7.67 MHz, but I've split enough hairs in this post already).
I downloaded some "all in one" rom package years ago, a few thousand nes roms. Sad thing was: 8 of 10 were crap.
That's because they were crap back in the days too. Keep in mind that "a few thousand" games is way more than anyone actually played back in the days... hundreds of those are just pirate games released in china and such (There were only around 600 or so domestic releases). Forget about GoodNES sets, look at the games that were actually popular releases and the ratio is much better.
Why do we keep seeing these news stories that just turn out to be an opinion from someone who has nothing to do with what's actually going on? Stuff like this should only really count as "news" if it's coming out of the mouth of someone at Microsoft.
"many conversations with Microsoft" aside, his guesses are probably no better than mine.
Am I the only one who misses the days when only the GOOD movies managed to get such honors? Nowadays, for every flavor of the month movie, there's also a video game version, cereals, comic books, action figures et al. released simultaneously even before the movie is "proven". I can't help but think it's an awfully big risk, especially with so many cookie-cutter movies out there (Considering the last MK movie, I'm certainly not expecting this one to be a blockbuster). But I guess they crunch the numbers ahead of time to make sure they don't lose their shirts.
So what happens when the movie ends up bombing? Close up the park and try to cut the losses, or keep the park around as a constant reminder of a failed movie?
Same thing with the infamous "Mode 7" in the Super NES system. Who can forget the So called 16 bit TurboGrafix 16?
Mode 7 is actually a hardware feature in the SNES. I haven't programmed the hardware myself, but Mode 7 is somehow responsible for most of the scaling and rotation effects that you see in games like Pilotwings and F-Zero. Sure it was hyped, but at least there was some actual basis for it, rather than Sega's claims of "blast processing".
As for the TG16... the problem wasn't so much that they claimed it was 16-bit, the problem was that people didn't (and still don't, apparently) know what "bits" really meant. Here's a hit: It doesn't mean anything at all. Any connection "bits" has to actual power or graphical ability is generally coincidental.
Anyhow, it's good to see that people are jaded and cynical enough to realize that most of what these companies say is hype rather than factual information. I wonder how long it'll be before this backfires on the companies and they get sued for false advertising or something.
With about 80 digits per line, 50 lines per page, and 40,000 digits per document, how many trees do ten pages kill?
You forgot the decimal point, which unfortunately causes the printout to overflow to an 11th page.
I guess the authors could have just thrown away the first 10 pages and kept the last one, which (conveniently enough) would contain all the information they wanted.
Here's an idea Sony: Instead of wasting money on pointless lawsuits that are going to piss off the people who are willing to go the the extra time and expense to get your product, how about putting that money towards speeding up the official European launch? If your product was actually available there, then people wouldn't be forced to do this.
It would be nice to have a translation so we don't have to sit around making uninformed comments about what we can't understand...
Somehow, I don't think a translation would keep them away.
Back when the N64 was in development, Nintendo kept saying that the controller was something amazing and revolutionary, and kept it really hush-hush until they decided to unveil. They're pretty tight-lipped about stuff like this, so don't expect to see anything until Nintendo actually WANTS you to see it.
On the plus side though, the N64 controllers were revolutionary in a number of ways... it was the first major console to use analog sticks (Well, since the Atari 5200 I guess), it had slots on the back for memory cards and rumble packs (an idea later adopted by Sega and Microsoft), the odd three-staved design allowed it to be held in a number of different configurations (an idea which never really caught on), the C-buttons sort of led to the Gamecube's C-stick, and the system did four-player out of the box (although I suppose this is more a feature of the system rather than the controllers). I know a lot of people didn't like the N64 controllers, but they did have a good amount of influence after all.
It could be that backwards compatybility in PS3 will be resolved similar to as in PS2: they took the original PS1 CPU and changed it a little bit for new role: acting as IO processor. However, when PS1 game was loaded, this IO habdled also.
Kind of off-topic from the current discussion, but Sony wasn't even the first to do something like this. Back in the good ol' days, Sega made a system called the Master System (aka, the Mark III) that ran on a Z80 processor... when Sega then went on to make the Genesis (aka, the Mega Drive), they used a Z80 as the sound processor, but included some hooks that allowed it to take over processing duties. Thus, they released a devise called the Power Base Converter that let you play Master System games on your Genesis. All the converter really did was short out some pins on the cartridge port to enable the Z80 (It also added the card port that the SMS had, but not much used that anyways). In fact, when Sega later created the Saturn, they used a 68000 as a sound processor, but I'm not aware of any ability for it to run Genesis software through it.
A little bit more on topic: I would suggest that the move towards PPC will really help Nintendo in that it will be much easier to port games to their system. One of the problems with the Gamecube at the moment is that a lot of so-called "multi-platform" games are really only XBox and PS2 games, since the developers decide the Gamecube isn't worth bothering with I guess. If all the systems are PPC, then porting will likely be quite a bit easier, so even the less popular consoles (whether or not it's Nintendo's this time around) will be more likely to get multi-system games ported to them.