As somebody who does mostly PC gaming, I did just this. Stopped at gamestop (oh the horror) and picked up a used game cube.
Sure, it's last weeks breakfast, but man, for somebody who doesn't really play consoles to begin with, I had a good time with Smash Bros, Zelda games, and DDR Mario Mix.
I'll probably get a WII in 4 or 5 years when the next gen comes out... that is, if they're not as scarce then as they are now.
The interesting thing I found about the old gamecube is that I spent just about $50 on the thing, which is good- but the used games were still damn close to $60 each. PC games that old either get removed from the shelf, or cost about $19.95 at your local game store. Not neccessarily a good thing.
Also- I can't imagine PS2 games being terribly cheaper than PS3 games (however I don't price them regularly, seeing as I don't own either), but it seems that a lot of the major titles (rock band, guitar hero) are being developed for both platforms. Seems game makers are not terribly interested in the piddly market for the PS3, and so there is no demand to upgrade to the PS3, because PS2 still plays a lot of new games.
I couldn't agree more! However. They're still idiots. The reason I know what I know today is because I WANTED to learn more about the items I interacted with. If you don't have the drive to discover for yourself chances are you won't even try if someone else knows the answer. All the fun of solving a problem is getting there.
Exactly! That's the problem I run into with people. I'm in IT, so I don't exactly know how to build a car from scratch... but when my car is acting funny, I do a little investigation and a little research. I end up taking it to a pro, but I find out just what was going on with my car. Over the years I've learned tons about my new car that I just wouldn't have known otherwise- and it's great info to have in the future too!
The problem is, people don't understand basic troubleshooting- in any situation, not just computers!
Engineering and the hard sciences (including programming) are less about being able to instantly reference huge volumes of memorized information, and more about taking a small amount of basic knowledge and putting it together in new ways.
Well said! I could program my way out of any problem, but I can't even remember my own phone number! I'd make a horrible doctor for that reason.
I work in computer repair, and a lot of our customers get the WGA notification that warns them they've "stolen" software when they just haven't actually run the check correctly. If anything fails during a windows update, it's likely to pop up. And god forbid a windows update fails due to random reason #2358. Personally, I'd like them to be a bit more accurate.
People call my store all the time accusing us of giving them stolen software. I explain that they have an OEM sticker on their PC and we'd never do that, but heck, Microsoft might get them to buy a second or third copy- so maybe that was their plan.
I agree with you there, that's the main reason I'm a Batman fan. I don't mind spiderman, but I just can't stand to watch superman- since there are many circumstances where they have to find ways to make him not super to make a story. It's always pointless.
Haha, I live in New Hampshire, and I've seen far too many people in SUVs or other cars get pissed when I go slow in the snow (I have had such a sobering experience that you describe).
The (not-so)-funny thing about it is that when they get pissed I'm going slow, they pass me at the nearest opening with 2 lanes. I watch them speed up from 25-30 to about 45, fish tail their way into the oncoming traffic lane, turn quick, end up perpendicular to the road, and then slowly take off again.
You'd think people like this would learn. Of course I can probably get up to 45 as long as there are no unexpected stops or turns. But it's the unexpected you should watch out for. Since you can't predict the unexpected- I advise you take everything carefully.
But then again, maybe I just have too much experience driving in actually bad conditions.
Anybody who claims they can magically stop on a dime with no warning in -or- out of the snow is clearly somebody who hasn't yet had a close-to-death experience in a car... or somebody that HAS had one, and doesn't heed good advice.
It really is a bumpy ride. For various reasons: Microsoft didn't quite polish the turd enough, hardware vendors don't care enough, what have you.
Some issues I've had.
Vista version of the Nvidia Control Panel have the "Force TV Detection" checkbox grayed out. No idea why. Same card on XP works fine.
While installing Vista, gives mysterous error that a HDD doesn't meet your requirements- if it's not set as the first HDD in your boot order. You have to set it as first boot device for the install, then move it off your boot order to setup dualboot with somebody else's boot.ini. I had to figure this out myself, as the error was non-descript, vague, and useless.
Nvidia nforce chip on a motherboard (not in use, just there) causes regular blue screens until you get the correct driver installed. (on Vista 64). It's kind of a game. See how close you can get to downloading and installing before the blue screen. Eventually you'll get it, but it's a mighty challange that may take you a few restarts.
Service Pack 1 is enjoyable. I just did a fresh rebuild last weekend, and, of course, shortly after drivering the computer, it was time to install SP1. It got stuck on the first shutdown. Just sat there.
Vista on laptops has a bug- if closing the lid is set to put the machine to sleep, then closing the lid during a shutdown causes the machine to sleep during shutdown. Next time you turn on your computer, you can watch it finish shutting down.
Fresh install of vista, load taskmgr, see how much memory is in use. 1.5gb in use. Fantastic! Thank god I have 4 gb installed. But wait.. what? 1.5gb in use? What? Why? I was supposed to use that memory for ME!!! Sorry Photoshop, you'll have to settle for less.
Hahaha, were you using that program? WHITE SCREEN OF DEATH TIME!! I dread the whitescreen of death more than the blue screen. I'm afraid to multitask, that's when it strikes!
Internet explorer: Did you just open a new tab, or press STOP to loading MSN.com? Me: Yes, but.. Internet Explorer: (White-faced) I'm not listening anymore. Go away!
"Video subsystem just recovered from a serious error." Oh, hey, there's a nice feature! Instead of a game locking up my machine and me having to restart- it resets the video adapter, and I'm good to go in minutes! Except, wait.. why can't I load my game? Oh- the game takes longer to initialize a screen than the video subsystem timeout? A quick registry tweak can turn down the threshold and fix this?
Yeah, no really, it's fine for the prime time. Hang on...
Yes, Vista, the program installed correctly, Thank you
As I was saying, this software is ready for prime time. It's really stepping up to the plate. Now, as soon as this 3kb file is done copying, I might head home. I started it a few hours back, so it should finish soon.
Not as easily if they're dynamically salted md5 hashes.
But more importantly, why on earth would you compare passwords? I'm sure a bunch of people have the password "sallyismygirlfriend" and not just me. Wait.. hang on. UNDO UNDO!!
Seriously, it's interesting. I personally am considering a wii because of this.
I started my gaming waaay waaay back in the day. My first completed game was Kingdom of Kroz II (CGA dos ascii game unless you had an advanced grahpics adapter, heck yeah), and from there I knew pc gaming was my thing.
Over time, I continued to follow how awesome games were getting. Duke Nukem was my fav- and once duke nukem 3d came out, I knew that gaming had changed forever! I was in love, and spent YEARS playing the the level editor for duke 3d.
Fast foward almost a decade. 3D fps games are still point and shoot. Except, in order to keep up with the extreme gamer appetite, they've become longer, more difficult, and more complex. This is great for those gamers who just keep playing and playing. But I quickly got burned out on FPS games. They started to bore me.
Yes, Games at the time of Duke 3D were a new breed of games. Yes, they were exciting! But if you released them again now, it wouldn't be so interesting. Games just haven't changed enough since then. It's still the same concept. Point. Shoot.
To add insult to injury, newer games- in an effort to help satiate the avid gamers, are becomming so difficult, that it's close to impossible to pick up these games as a casual gamer. They've made things harder and harder to keep up the pace, but gotten rid of the gateway- games. So now I'm stuck with easier games such as Roller coaster Tycoon 3 (amazin game). Things have gotten so bad- in some games, such as fallout 3, they've made it neccessary to make your aiming bad, because avid gamers are TOO GOOD at pointing and shooting. So they make aiming a "skill" and until you level it up, you don't shoot where you point. That's clever. So clever that I don't play them.
We need new fun. That's all there is to it. Pacman, Mario, Mr. Do. These all had fun qualities to them that make them playable, and replayable. Duke 3D (and 1 and 2 for that matter), Early Test Drive series, also fun.
The catch is, they were fun when they came out- and the constant remaking of them with higher difficulty is not fun. Please invent new games that are fun.
My Exceptions List (Newer games that are original enough to play): Command and Conquer Series Fable Myst Tron 2.0
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As somebody who does mostly PC gaming, I did just this. Stopped at gamestop (oh the horror) and picked up a used game cube.
Sure, it's last weeks breakfast, but man, for somebody who doesn't really play consoles to begin with, I had a good time with Smash Bros, Zelda games, and DDR Mario Mix.
I'll probably get a WII in 4 or 5 years when the next gen comes out... that is, if they're not as scarce then as they are now.
The interesting thing I found about the old gamecube is that I spent just about $50 on the thing, which is good- but the used games were still damn close to $60 each. PC games that old either get removed from the shelf, or cost about $19.95 at your local game store. Not neccessarily a good thing.
Also- I can't imagine PS2 games being terribly cheaper than PS3 games (however I don't price them regularly, seeing as I don't own either), but it seems that a lot of the major titles (rock band, guitar hero) are being developed for both platforms. Seems game makers are not terribly interested in the piddly market for the PS3, and so there is no demand to upgrade to the PS3, because PS2 still plays a lot of new games.
I couldn't agree more! However. They're still idiots. The reason I know what I know today is because I WANTED to learn more about the items I interacted with. If you don't have the drive to discover for yourself chances are you won't even try if someone else knows the answer. All the fun of solving a problem is getting there.
Exactly! That's the problem I run into with people. I'm in IT, so I don't exactly know how to build a car from scratch... but when my car is acting funny, I do a little investigation and a little research. I end up taking it to a pro, but I find out just what was going on with my car. Over the years I've learned tons about my new car that I just wouldn't have known otherwise- and it's great info to have in the future too!
The problem is, people don't understand basic troubleshooting- in any situation, not just computers!
Engineering and the hard sciences (including programming) are less about being able to instantly reference huge volumes of memorized information, and more about taking a small amount of basic knowledge and putting it together in new ways.
Well said! I could program my way out of any problem, but I can't even remember my own phone number! I'd make a horrible doctor for that reason.
I work in computer repair, and a lot of our customers get the WGA notification that warns them they've "stolen" software when they just haven't actually run the check correctly. If anything fails during a windows update, it's likely to pop up. And god forbid a windows update fails due to random reason #2358. Personally, I'd like them to be a bit more accurate.
People call my store all the time accusing us of giving them stolen software. I explain that they have an OEM sticker on their PC and we'd never do that, but heck, Microsoft might get them to buy a second or third copy- so maybe that was their plan.
For anybody else reading the comments, this is the one to read, don't bother reading any further.
Only 22 million is such a failure! I mean, think about it. It's only around $6 Billion in sales. Pshh, they'd make more money selling knit sweaters.
I agree with you there, that's the main reason I'm a Batman fan. I don't mind spiderman, but I just can't stand to watch superman- since there are many circumstances where they have to find ways to make him not super to make a story. It's always pointless.
Haha, I live in New Hampshire, and I've seen far too many people in SUVs or other cars get pissed when I go slow in the snow (I have had such a sobering experience that you describe).
The (not-so)-funny thing about it is that when they get pissed I'm going slow, they pass me at the nearest opening with 2 lanes. I watch them speed up from 25-30 to about 45, fish tail their way into the oncoming traffic lane, turn quick, end up perpendicular to the road, and then slowly take off again.
You'd think people like this would learn. Of course I can probably get up to 45 as long as there are no unexpected stops or turns. But it's the unexpected you should watch out for. Since you can't predict the unexpected- I advise you take everything carefully.
But then again, maybe I just have too much experience driving in actually bad conditions.
Anybody who claims they can magically stop on a dime with no warning in -or- out of the snow is clearly somebody who hasn't yet had a close-to-death experience in a car... or somebody that HAS had one, and doesn't heed good advice.
Unexpected stops being rare certainly doesn't prove you're a good driver, it just means you haven't died yet.
That happens to me a lot. I prefer safe distances before pulling back into the right lane. People always use that gap to zip around me.
I always feel like running people off the road, but, I guess that'd ruin the point of trying to be safe.
It really is a bumpy ride. For various reasons: Microsoft didn't quite polish the turd enough, hardware vendors don't care enough, what have you.
Some issues I've had.
Vista version of the Nvidia Control Panel have the "Force TV Detection" checkbox grayed out. No idea why. Same card on XP works fine.
While installing Vista, gives mysterous error that a HDD doesn't meet your requirements- if it's not set as the first HDD in your boot order. You have to set it as first boot device for the install, then move it off your boot order to setup dualboot with somebody else's boot.ini. I had to figure this out myself, as the error was non-descript, vague, and useless.
Nvidia nforce chip on a motherboard (not in use, just there) causes regular blue screens until you get the correct driver installed. (on Vista 64). It's kind of a game. See how close you can get to downloading and installing before the blue screen. Eventually you'll get it, but it's a mighty challange that may take you a few restarts.
Service Pack 1 is enjoyable. I just did a fresh rebuild last weekend, and, of course, shortly after drivering the computer, it was time to install SP1. It got stuck on the first shutdown. Just sat there.
Vista on laptops has a bug- if closing the lid is set to put the machine to sleep, then closing the lid during a shutdown causes the machine to sleep during shutdown. Next time you turn on your computer, you can watch it finish shutting down.
Fresh install of vista, load taskmgr, see how much memory is in use. 1.5gb in use. Fantastic! Thank god I have 4 gb installed. But wait.. what? 1.5gb in use? What? Why? I was supposed to use that memory for ME!!! Sorry Photoshop, you'll have to settle for less.
Hahaha, were you using that program? WHITE SCREEN OF DEATH TIME!! I dread the whitescreen of death more than the blue screen. I'm afraid to multitask, that's when it strikes!
Internet explorer: Did you just open a new tab, or press STOP to loading MSN.com?
Me: Yes, but..
Internet Explorer: (White-faced) I'm not listening anymore. Go away!
"Video subsystem just recovered from a serious error." Oh, hey, there's a nice feature! Instead of a game locking up my machine and me having to restart- it resets the video adapter, and I'm good to go in minutes! Except, wait.. why can't I load my game? Oh- the game takes longer to initialize a screen than the video subsystem timeout? A quick registry tweak can turn down the threshold and fix this?
Yeah, no really, it's fine for the prime time. Hang on...
Yes, Vista, the program installed correctly, Thank you
As I was saying, this software is ready for prime time. It's really stepping up to the plate. Now, as soon as this 3kb file is done copying, I might head home. I started it a few hours back, so it should finish soon.
Personally, I rent.
Based on the turk 2.3 code...
Oh, good, opensteam. Perfect. Nobody worry anymore. This solution is bound to pop up. Continue buying your games folks, nothing to see here.
I believe we call this propaganda.. or FUD, misinformation. So long as another version of the story exists, nobody knows what to believe.
I call BS I am beyond minimum requirements, I don't get near that on 800x600.
What are your specs?
Have you tried GTA4? I get a nice 3fps with a Crysis killing machine. I think I'll need two of these in SLI.
I'm the password man, the password man, I'm the password man, the password man.
I can password back as fast as you can! I can password back as fast as you can!
Seriously! Over 9000!? Using /b/ memes to prove we don't need internet censorship might not be the best way to go about this...
More info, Really, don't click this.
911 Is great, for areas that have a 911. For the rest of us..?? Will they allow all emergency numbers?
Car has flipped, but the battery is still connected- good thing I can't make an emergency phone call!
Anonymous Abortions!? Oh my!
Not as easily if they're dynamically salted md5 hashes.
But more importantly, why on earth would you compare passwords? I'm sure a bunch of people have the password "sallyismygirlfriend" and not just me. Wait.. hang on. UNDO UNDO!!
Yes, but moreover, I've enjoyed the recent games as much as the originals. That was my point.
Seriously, it's interesting. I personally am considering a wii because of this.
I started my gaming waaay waaay back in the day. My first completed game was Kingdom of Kroz II (CGA dos ascii game unless you had an advanced grahpics adapter, heck yeah), and from there I knew pc gaming was my thing.
Over time, I continued to follow how awesome games were getting. Duke Nukem was my fav- and once duke nukem 3d came out, I knew that gaming had changed forever! I was in love, and spent YEARS playing the the level editor for duke 3d.
Fast foward almost a decade. 3D fps games are still point and shoot. Except, in order to keep up with the extreme gamer appetite, they've become longer, more difficult, and more complex. This is great for those gamers who just keep playing and playing. But I quickly got burned out on FPS games. They started to bore me.
Yes, Games at the time of Duke 3D were a new breed of games. Yes, they were exciting! But if you released them again now, it wouldn't be so interesting. Games just haven't changed enough since then. It's still the same concept. Point. Shoot.
To add insult to injury, newer games- in an effort to help satiate the avid gamers, are becomming so difficult, that it's close to impossible to pick up these games as a casual gamer. They've made things harder and harder to keep up the pace, but gotten rid of the gateway- games. So now I'm stuck with easier games such as Roller coaster Tycoon 3 (amazin game). Things have gotten so bad- in some games, such as fallout 3, they've made it neccessary to make your aiming bad, because avid gamers are TOO GOOD at pointing and shooting. So they make aiming a "skill" and until you level it up, you don't shoot where you point. That's clever. So clever that I don't play them.
We need new fun. That's all there is to it. Pacman, Mario, Mr. Do. These all had fun qualities to them that make them playable, and replayable. Duke 3D (and 1 and 2 for that matter), Early Test Drive series, also fun.
The catch is, they were fun when they came out- and the constant remaking of them with higher difficulty is not fun. Please invent new games that are fun.
My Exceptions List (Newer games that are original enough to play): Command and Conquer Series
Fable
Myst
Tron 2.0