Consumer electronics manufacturers, AFAIK, have never really been able to manipulate the market the way that an organization such as the RIAA has been able to for decades. Even when they decide to work together on a new standard (3DO, for example) for mutual benefit, it can fail miserably. The RIAA, on the other hand, seems to be used to getting whatever the hell they want out of the market. If you take that analogy and extend it to a similar hardware situation, you have Nintendo consoles which, since the Super Famicom/Super NES, have been assembled with screws that are obviously chosen so that no "normal" screwdriver can open them. Sure, with some tricks and effort you can get into them, but with some tricks and effort you can reverse-engineer the inner workings of a binary-only program, too. It's just as obvious to companies like Nintendo that consumers shouldn't be allowed to open up the box as it is to you and I that we should be able to. The problem is that no matter what we think, there's no law (or it's not enforced) stopping them from putting strange screws on the box, and there's plenty of work toward making it illegal to open up the box, or at least to do anything the company doesn't like once we crack the case. I suppose it's now illegal under the DMCA to take a pair of pliers to the little plastic tabs in a Super NES because they "control access" to Super Famicom software...
MAME will probably never run Windows, for the simple reason that it exists to emulate arcade games. However, MESS, a console/computer emulator based on MAME, might do it someday; it already emulates a PC with CGA or MDA graphics.
It's a rather unique RTS game for the Genesis. It's not quite the same as a traditional PC-style RTS, as you actually have direct control over one unit. Each player has a base, and there are various mini-bases that can be captured by either player and used to pick up units. It's been a while since I've played, so I don't remember exactly how it goes.
This is going to sound a bit goofy, but I think that having the language support an unlimited number of registers is a good thing. Anyone who actually thinks a computer has infinite memory shouldn't be programming anyway, and even if some of these "registers" are virtualized outside the CPU, it still provides some flexibility in how a programmer uses the architecture, and how a CPU or machine might be optimized to run this sort of virtual code (e.g. providing fast internal "register memory" addressable with special instructions). In fact, I think some of the Hitachi SuperH series (and probably others as well) can be configured to use part of the cache as work memory, which would probably work well for this sort of virtualization. Also, even if the language doesn't limit the number of registers, that doesn't stop a programmer from finding ways to use as few registers as possible. Still, I think there should be some concern about how well this assembly language maps to real hardware. Even so, some people just like the way assembly language works and probably won't mind virtualization too much.
(With apologies to Dave Barry, regarding "Read This First!)
This fine console runs only games that require no thought.
WARNING! Strategic analysis or storyline reflection performed while playing the following games does not count as "thought":
Front Mission 1-3
Ogre Battle
Tactics Ogre
Vandal Hearts 1-2
Vanguard Bandits
Final Fantasy Tactics
Final Fantasy 1-9
SaGa (Final Fantasy Legend) 1-3
Phantasy Star 1-4
Breath of Fire 1-3
Lunar: The Silver Star
Lunar: Eternal Blue
Herzog Zwei (had to throw at least one semi-obscure Genesis title in there:P)
If the copyright on the DVD is invalid, can you invoke DMCA?
IANAL, but the phrase the DMCA uses is "a work protected under this title", i.e. Title 17, the Title of United States code that concerns copyright. So I doubt an invalid copyright could have any kind of protection under DMCA.
My question is about another interesting bit in the DMCA:
The prohibition contained in the preceding sentence shall take effect at the end of the 2-year period beginning on the date of the enactment of this chapter.
The sentence preceding this is the prohibition on circumventing access protection mechanisms. When was the two-year mark passed, exactly?
As far as I can tell, Taco's only comments on this were "Snoop Baron writes:" and "i-need-a-new-language-like-i-need-a-third-arm". Which one of those were you attacking again?
Unfortunately, I don't have the text of the license with me, only the CD itself, which doesn't show (as far as I can tell) the license, and decided DirectX 7 wasn't newer than DirectX 3. Basically the main thing that bugged me about this particular license was that it said, more or less, that I was only allowed to run it on a Microsoft operating system. The other thing was that, surprise surprise, I agreed to some legalese in fine print on the back page of the manual (why do they expect people besides operators to need a manual for arcade games?) by running the software.
Or they'll avoid the 3DO pitfall altogether and integrate PS2 as a "feature" in medium-high-end consumer electronics (think "The big-screen TV with PS2 and DVD player built in!"; depsite their flaws, it seems a lot of TV/VCR hybrids get sold...). I think this was what Sony is shooting for; I can't see how anyone can profit from cloning the console outright without cutting some serious corners when Sony (who partially owns the company making the chips IIRC) is selling the PS2 at $300.
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Consumer electronics manufacturers, AFAIK, have never really been able to manipulate the market the way that an organization such as the RIAA has been able to for decades. Even when they decide to work together on a new standard (3DO, for example) for mutual benefit, it can fail miserably. The RIAA, on the other hand, seems to be used to getting whatever the hell they want out of the market. If you take that analogy and extend it to a similar hardware situation, you have Nintendo consoles which, since the Super Famicom/Super NES, have been assembled with screws that are obviously chosen so that no "normal" screwdriver can open them. Sure, with some tricks and effort you can get into them, but with some tricks and effort you can reverse-engineer the inner workings of a binary-only program, too. It's just as obvious to companies like Nintendo that consumers shouldn't be allowed to open up the box as it is to you and I that we should be able to. The problem is that no matter what we think, there's no law (or it's not enforced) stopping them from putting strange screws on the box, and there's plenty of work toward making it illegal to open up the box, or at least to do anything the company doesn't like once we crack the case. I suppose it's now illegal under the DMCA to take a pair of pliers to the little plastic tabs in a Super NES because they "control access" to Super Famicom software...
MAME will probably never run Windows, for the simple reason that it exists to emulate arcade games. However, MESS, a console/computer emulator based on MAME, might do it someday; it already emulates a PC with CGA or MDA graphics.
It's a rather unique RTS game for the Genesis. It's not quite the same as a traditional PC-style RTS, as you actually have direct control over one unit. Each player has a base, and there are various mini-bases that can be captured by either player and used to pick up units. It's been a while since I've played, so I don't remember exactly how it goes.
This is going to sound a bit goofy, but I think that having the language support an unlimited number of registers is a good thing. Anyone who actually thinks a computer has infinite memory shouldn't be programming anyway, and even if some of these "registers" are virtualized outside the CPU, it still provides some flexibility in how a programmer uses the architecture, and how a CPU or machine might be optimized to run this sort of virtual code (e.g. providing fast internal "register memory" addressable with special instructions). In fact, I think some of the Hitachi SuperH series (and probably others as well) can be configured to use part of the cache as work memory, which would probably work well for this sort of virtualization. Also, even if the language doesn't limit the number of registers, that doesn't stop a programmer from finding ways to use as few registers as possible. Still, I think there should be some concern about how well this assembly language maps to real hardware. Even so, some people just like the way assembly language works and probably won't mind virtualization too much.
(With apologies to Dave Barry, regarding "Read This First!)
:P)
This fine console runs only games that require no thought.
WARNING! Strategic analysis or storyline reflection performed while playing the following games does not count as "thought":
Front Mission 1-3
Ogre Battle
Tactics Ogre
Vandal Hearts 1-2
Vanguard Bandits
Final Fantasy Tactics
Final Fantasy 1-9
SaGa (Final Fantasy Legend) 1-3
Phantasy Star 1-4
Breath of Fire 1-3
Lunar: The Silver Star
Lunar: Eternal Blue
Herzog Zwei (had to throw at least one semi-obscure Genesis title in there
Okay, honest question here: did you forget about British imperialism spreading the language, or am I just overestimating its effect?
If the copyright on the DVD is invalid, can you invoke DMCA?
IANAL, but the phrase the DMCA uses is "a work protected under this title", i.e. Title 17, the Title of United States code that concerns copyright. So I doubt an invalid copyright could have any kind of protection under DMCA.
My question is about another interesting bit in the DMCA:
The sentence preceding this is the prohibition on circumventing access protection mechanisms. When was the two-year mark passed, exactly?
As far as I can tell, Taco's only comments on this were "Snoop Baron writes:" and "i-need-a-new-language-like-i-need-a-third-arm". Which one of those were you attacking again?
Unfortunately, I don't have the text of the license with me, only the CD itself, which doesn't show (as far as I can tell) the license, and decided DirectX 7 wasn't newer than DirectX 3. Basically the main thing that bugged me about this particular license was that it said, more or less, that I was only allowed to run it on a Microsoft operating system. The other thing was that, surprise surprise, I agreed to some legalese in fine print on the back page of the manual (why do they expect people besides operators to need a manual for arcade games?) by running the software.
That's a great word. Was it a typo, or intentional?
Or they'll avoid the 3DO pitfall altogether and integrate PS2 as a "feature" in medium-high-end consumer electronics (think "The big-screen TV with PS2 and DVD player built in!"; depsite their flaws, it seems a lot of TV/VCR hybrids get sold...). I think this was what Sony is shooting for; I can't see how anyone can profit from cloning the console outright without cutting some serious corners when Sony (who partially owns the company making the chips IIRC) is selling the PS2 at $300.