I've been editing the video from the 1,000-foot robot test. Since I've been busy lately with grant writing etc., I wasn't involved in activities like making the ribbon. So it wasn't until I was watching the video that I noticed the sentence written in block letters on the 2-inch wide ribbon (which alternates color in 50-foot strips of bright yellow and fluorescent orange) near the top:
ATTENTION PILOT: IF YOU CAN READ THIS, YOU'RE TOTALLY SCREWED.
Our sense of humor (or at least Nyein's) may not (or it may) be visible from far away, but it's there.
Hypochondria is a problem thanks to the Internet. There was that article a while ago on Slashdot about how doctors and hospitals don't see people thinking they have cramps or the flu, they get people who think they have appendicitis, cancer, and fatal familial insomnia and other insanely rare disorders. I know I have a bit of this (watch special about rare/deadly disease, start interpreting little things as "do I have this?").
That said, if these tests were really that accurate and could be done at home, that might help. People who are hypochondriacs could test their blood and find out they DON'T have cancer. After using such a definitive test a couple of times they might very well "get the picture" that their next headache is a headache and not a brain tumor.
On the other hand, if these things are sold to the public and have much of a false positive rate, that would be a BIG problem.
There is nothing wrong with variable pricing. I doubt Jobs would be against it if they wanted to sell tracks for 50 cents. The problem is when they say "Variable Pricing" what they mean is "Variable Pricing ABOVE $1".
Unreal Tournament was 6GB compressed. Next Generation games are going to be 20GB plus, and how we're going to fit them on DVD9's I don't know, they'll probably be a few of them. On the PS3, we're going to be using the majority of the space on those Blu-ray disks. So, online isn't really the best option in some instances.
Downloading 30Gb isn't really feasible. What online could be, is the back-channel to get additional content. Patches and things like that. I think what Valve has done is great. It'll be interesting to see where marketing fits in. Now they're going with EA in the future, the biggest publisher of all. You can't do one without the other, otherwise no-one knows about your game. Unless you have the huge marketing budgets that major retailers have when launching your game, so I think there's still a very important role for retailers.
That says it right there, doesn't it. MS is going to have a hard time keeping content on discs. People argue whether you need the space between BD-ROM and HD-DVD for video, but I think this is even more important on the video game side. This is one of those things that could become a big problem for MS.
What about Nintendo? For some reason I don't see it as such a big problem (maybe because they aren't focusing on HD this and HD that), but it could still be a problem.
As for the used game comment, I don't blame them. There are many times that I would like to buy a game used and have money go to the publisher to support the people who made the game. The problem is that shops like EB would just take that as an excuse to raise the price higher (used games already cost enough). I buy very few games these days because they just cost too much for the risk. I agree with him that the price of a DVD would be an ideal price ($20-$25), but I don't know how they'd achieve that (except making most games smaller, which in many cases might not be so bad:). There is no good system for this right now, but I think moving to a steam/iTunes like model (where you buy the game online and download it for $15 instead of buying a used copy for $15) makes a lot of sense. That would allow people to play older games, but without paying much, and still have the money go to the publisher. Plus these days it would be feasible to have people download PS type games (one or two CDs) here in the US (let it run overnight). It might be a while before you can do that with current and next-gen games due to bandwidth problems.
While there are some interesting questions, so many things weren't asked that I would have. What was the point of the "Jesus" question. Had any of you ever heard that before?
Why not ask some better questions. The interviewee even eludes to some interesting things that are never followed up on. Here are some suggestions:
Was there anything you had to cut that you really wanted to put in?
Were you told to add anything that you didn't want?
Were there any parts of the game that worked much better than you thought they would?
Did you help with any later versions?
Which version did you think was best (Apple II, Mac, Dos, Atari, Amiga, Whatever)
How many lines of code was it?
What was it written in (I'm guessing Assembly)
Were there any things you thought of after the game was published that you would have liked to add?
Etc.
I would have liked to see questions that weren't about Oregon Trail also. The guy mentioned that he was the guy behind Number Munchers. I LOVED that game (especially on the Mac with the little cut-scenes). But they also had a spelling/logic one as I remember too. I'd like to know more about these and other games he made.
While it was an interesting read, it smacked of amateurish journalism, pathetic attempts at humor, and a wasted opportunity. I agree with you completely. It is EXACTLY like something from a "Remember the 80s" special or some vapid show on the Fashion network.
1. The game commences with the player asked to choose among three choices: Banker from Boston, Carpenter from Ohio. and Farmer from Illinois. Was there ever any discussion of including a Slave Owner from Mississippi?
I wanted to have 3 difficulty levels representing different amounts of initial resources. We tied this into the real world by connecting these levels to 3 different professions. This was also an opportunity to get kids to think about the fact that the emigrants came from different places and had different backgrounds.
Although we did not choose to address slavery issues with this product, a decade later I worked on another historical simulation game called Pony Express Rider, published by McGraw-Hill Home Interactive. In this product we addressed the slavery issue quite directly.
After The Oregon Trail, but before Pony Express Rider, I designed and programmed two other historical simulation games (both published by MECC) that also dealt squarely with ethnic relations - Lewis & Clark Stayed Home, and Dr. Livingstone, I Presume? In Lewis & Clark you explore the American West, interacting with dozens of different Native American communities. In Dr. Livingstone you explore Africa, interacting with dozens of different African ethnic groups.
2. Were you ever informed that some religious schools in the south insisted their students select Carpenter from Ohio because Jesus was a carpenter? Was it your intent to cloak the Carpenter from Ohio in religious symbolism?
I had never heard this before, and any religious symbolism in the product is purely accidental. But I was born and raised in the Deep South, so I witnessed on many occasions the deep attachment that many southerners have to their religious beliefs.
3. [Stupid question about the general store owner's name being Matt]
I understand that Matt is short for Mathew, a name with a very long history. The son of the then-president of MECC was also named Matt, and our president was convinced that we named the store's proprietor after his son. Please don't let him know the real story - he would be so disappointed!
4. Matt's character has a pipe. If this game were designed today do you believe you would be required to remove the pipe from Matt's mouth? Did you feel any responsibility about the high rate of tobacco use among children of the 1980's?
If all those kids had taken up pipe smoking, then I would definitely feel guilty - but I think I'm in the clear! Honestly, if I were to design another Oregon Trail, I don't think we would see Matt using any form of tobacco.
Even back then, any references to tobacco could be controversial. We got away with the pipe for Matt (which was the visual designer's idea - not mine), but in Lewis & Clark I ran into a bigger controversy. The real Lewis & Clark took along tobacco as one of the items to trade with Native Americans. But I was told by the publisher to remove this trade item from the product.
5. How did your team settle on five as the requisite number of individuals attempting the trek on the Oregon Trail and were there any names that were disallowed from selection as choices? For instance are names like stinky, cooties, and gayey allowed?
I chose 5 as the number of individuals on your team strictly from the standpoint of game play, and not for any actual historical reasons. That's one of the rare exceptions, because I made of point of weaving real history or geography into almost all of my other design decisions.
We talked about building a filter to disallow certain terms as keyboard input. This was a concern not only for the name input, but even more so for the gravestone epitaph. However, as we were designing this product to fit on a 2-sided Apple II floppy disk, we didn't have the space to incorporate such a filter. This was just one of many features on our wish list that did not make it into the finished product.
The lack of a profanity filter came back to bite us. Some teachers began to complain that we had
I loved Oregon Trail, as I'm sure many others did. Do you're self a favor and DON'T read this article. While the guy gives good answers and manages to be civil, the "interviewer" asks questions like he's an 8 year old. Tell you what, I'll post back with the interview text only changing those terrible questions to more reasonable ones.
I discovered this blog recently thanks to a comment by a poster a short while ago. I worry that as people focus on this and try to figure out the person's identity, they will just disappear, much as "As Seen On TV" did from Slashdot shortly after becoming famous as an Apple insider.
Hmm. Didn't know that. Someone else posted with what the game actually was. As I said (at least in another post) I didn't get a Genesis until the CDX came out, and I didn't watch the Genesis until about the time Sonic 2 came out.
I agree. I'm on a Mac now where that doesn't seem to be a problem. But each release of Windows seems to require software to make it run correctly.
Windows 95/98/ME required defragmenting and a program to manage memory (I had MemTurbo, it did a FANTASTIC job of speeding up the computer).
Windows 2000/XP required a disk defragmenter to run well (Disk Keeper works great). You had to let it do it all the time or it got slow fast.
And this doesn't even mention the anti-virus software you had to have which slowed down ever year from having to scan more files for more viruses (Plus whatever Norton does that sucks CPU cycles. I think they have a loop that looks like "for(int i = 0; i Why do I need software to make my computer run like it should in the first place?
Ignoring the financial reasons that another poster already pointed out, this would be an anti-trust violation. When MS was on trial the pointed (rightly so) to Apple as their only real competitor in the OS arena.
They would NEVER be able to get that merger approved, even if they agreed to spin off Office and Entertainment divisions into separate companies.
I agree that Nintendo and Sony are doing the same thing do a degree, and I understand that the $1000 thing was a case of one retailer. But there was quite a bit of talk about MS doing that themselves, and I wouldn't put it past them.
As for bundles, it depends on price. If you want to sell your console without a bundle, then offer it cheap ($200). If you want to sell it in a bundle offer it more expensive but reasonable ($300, $350). But the idea of offering the console alone (not in a bundle of games) for $400 (hence the bundles start at $500+) is insane.
Bundles are fine if they are a value. But taking an already expensive console and adding on games and calling it a "value" is a complete sham.
I think I would prefer the bundle (especially if there are two or three versions depending on what game you want packed in). I think what Nintendo later did with the 'Cube (buy it for $xxx and you can choose one of these games (Mario, Metroid, or something else good) for free) was good. The ideal is offering that, and offering a non-bundled version too (you wouldn't have to do that if your bundle was $150 or less).
My main complaint is the base price point is too high. To charge $300 without including a game is pushing it. To charge $400 is outright mean.
I agree that the $400 version has a VERY fair cost compared to the $300 version (considering all it includes). But my complaint is the $300 version is overpriced, and thus the $400 version is overpriced.
Bundles are fine, done right. But at the prices MS if offering the XBox 360, I feel that it should be a bundle, and the bundles that 3rd parties are making are (due to the core cost) too much to be considered a value.
Didn't know that. The price was the original price adjusted to 2005 dollars, but I didn't realize there was a second game (even if it was mail-in). Another point against the XBox 360.
I didn't get a genesis until the CDX came out. That came with Sonic CD (awesome, best sonic game ever), the Sega Classics Collection (Shinobi, Columns, Golden Ax, and something else) and one other thing (I think).
I agree. I'm a geek, I love games, and I've been buying consoles on launch day since the original PlayStation. I would have done it for the 360 and PS3 is they had reasonable prices ($300 or less).
Now there is NO QUESTION that I won't be buying a 360 (maybe when the price drops to $300, or buy a used one from any unhappy early adopter). The PS3 is looking iffy (as much as I like Sony. But we don't know the official price yet). The revolution I know I will buy at launch, because I trust Nintendo. But then I also expect them to have a lower price (I'm guessing $250). They'd have to charge over $400 to make me wait.
I agree, the problem is self control. They are too far out there on price, and I think they'll take a hit for it. They want to launch in time for Christmas with the XBox. Unless they cut the price before the end of December, I predict "sluggish" sales of their new "hot must have console".
I agree with that fact. I (like most people) will balk more at a $300 price today than $200 ten years ago, even if the $300 is technically cheaper.
But my point was to shoot holes through any "It's higher because of inflation" and "It's such a great value" arguments. You can't arbitrarily raise the price of consoles $100 each generation and expect people to cough up the money.
I remember the price of the XBox being balked at because it was so high. Now after a little initial hoop-lah we seem to hear almost nothing about the ridiculous price of the 360.
I wouldn't mind if the $400 version included a game or two, or at least a second controller. But instead I am paying $100 ($50 if you remove the "price" of XBL) to uncripple a $300 piece of hardware.
Am I the only one who things that $300 pieces of hardware shouldn't be crippled for the sake of making you pay more? $50 hardware, sure. But $300?
At many places, the only way to get a 360 may be to preorder in bundles costing up to $1000. For that you get games (close to their retail price), maybe a controller (close to the retail price), etc. So instead of buying a $400 console and the two $70 games you want, you can either buy the version that includes one of the games you want (and one you don't) and pay $70 above what you should (for the game that you don't want), or buy the version that includes 4 games (and pointless extra stuff) just so you can get the two you want. That costs the price of those two games you don't want ($140) plus some extra.
I expect Nintendo to release at $250 and clean up.
That said, let's look at the fact. According to IGN the NES launched for (an adjusted) $351.91. For that price you got two games (Mario and Duck Hunt), the console, two controllers, and a light gun (you even got R.O.B. if you bought one of the earliest ones in the US).
The XBox 360 is launching at $399 (for the REAL version, not the "XBox three-shitty" as Penny Arcade has termed the cheaper one. For that price you get the console, one controller, a headset, and a one year subscription to live. If you assume that live costs $50 a year, that means that the same price as the NES (adjusted), you get.. two fewer games, one less controller, and no lightgun.
The Sega Genesis which cost $389.67 at launch (again, adjusted) came with two controllers and Sonic. Again, you got two controllers and a game.
The N64 cost $242.75 at launch. So for what the XBox 360 will cost you could have bought the N64, Mario ($60 lets say), Pilotwings ($60 lets say), and a controller ($30 lets say). Two games, two controllers for that price.
Now let's look at the GameCube. $210 at launch leaves us with an extra $190 (three games) before we hit the price of the XBox 360 without a game. Add the price of a game to the 360 ($60-70) and you could buy two controllers for the 'cube, or a controller and a memory card.
Now MS is doing better than the NeoGeo ($1040), the 3DO ($920), and the Atari VCS ($810). But with the exception of the Atari (the first real home system), the other two FAILED in the marketplace (largely due to high price).
The NeoGeo had games costing upwards of $200 at the time. Sure they were arcade PERFECT, but most people didn't buy $200 games. I hope MS is smarter than that. They will probably only charge $80 for their games.
Linux Weekly News (an excellent place, you should support them) just did part one of The Grumpy Editor's Guide to Personal Finance Managers. I don't think it is available to non-subscribers yet, but it should be on Thursday then you can take a look at it. It gives an overview of all the current offerings and setting them up and such. I'll put up the last paragraph here because it has a simple sum-up and tells you what's coming in part two:
Your editor's final comment is this: for many years, there was only one free personal finance application of any note: GnuCash. It is now interesting to see there are three viable programs out there. The situation has changed significantly - for the better - over the past year. Come back for the second part (to be published, probably, near the beginning of October) to complete the tour of what these programs can do, and a final recommendation from the editor.
I eventually gave up on Money though -- nicer interface but it wasn't as powerful.
I've tried them both. I currently use Quicken as I'm on a Mac (where they have a monopoly, I don't know WHY MS doesn't release Money for the Mac). I like Quicken better, as it seems to do what I want it to more (as opposed to doing things that I DON'T want for me, or trying to be a major financial center when I just want to track my checkbook). That said, Money's interface (the entering checks like checks) parts is MUCH nicer than Quicken's ledger.
Not what you were looking for, but consider it. You can run open source software on it, you can even run Linux on it. Most of the big games get ported eventually. Best of all, it has Quicken (which I use myself) and other big name software (including an excellent version of Office). You won't have to re-enter all your data (as another poster talked about), you can just import it.
Seriously, give it a try for a while. It's too bad Apple removed that 30 day free trial of a Mac Mini.
Not willing to go Mac? Can you run Quicken (maybe an older version) well in Wine? What about running VMWare or Bochs and running it inside Windows in there? You don't need the performance so it should be quite useable.
Pollution from cars is one thing I've wondered about. Sure there are millions of cars and they do produce a lot of pollution. But doesn't a normal lawnmower produce like 30x the pollution of a late model car? If so, why not make a better lawn mower? There are millions of those cutting yards in homes, baseball and football fields, parks, medians on the highway, etc. Seems that it would be much easier to cut the pollution of the lawnmower in half than it would be to reduce the same amount of pollution from cars.
Either way, an interesting product. Id' like to see it on the market, but it seems like one of those things we hear about and "wow, that's great" and we never hear about it again (either because it's a scam, isn't worth the money for the little benefit, or whatever).
I think the DS is the better of the two. It's more innovative and has some amazing titles. I can't wait so see what Nintendo has in store.
That said, at this point the PSP is starting to come into it's own. It is starting to get some games that are the kind I want (note: I own both). While there have been some nice games (Hot Shots Golf used up a lot of my time), Burnout: Legends just came out. Lots of content, fun to play, looks FANTASTIC. SSX on Tour is looking very interesting to me. GTA: Liberty City Stories will sell a ton and might be great.
While the DS has better pick up and play games and short games. The PSP is a PS2 to go. The kind of games seem to be quite different. While that at first made me less interested in the PSP, I've come to a realization. I don't play my consoles much any more. I just don't have that kind of time that I like to devote to it. But I love the ability to play between classes on campus, when I have nothing to do at work, etc. Even just sitting at home and watching TV while playing. I really LIKE this ability, and I can see myself playing the PSP more and more if they have games I like. Since I can put the PSP on hold at any point, I don't have to worry about if I can pause/save when something is happeneing.
I've played my DS more. I'm starting to like my PSP more. They are both good consoles, and I think they have such different market segments (at least for me) that it's not a problem. The DS has more "GameBoy" games, while the PSP has more "Console" games.
If I had to choose one? The DS. I've played it more so far, found more games I like so far. And while I have no doubt there will be good games for the PSP, I always know I can count on my Nintendo consoles for great (and interesting) games. But it would be a hard choice. If you had asked me 3-4 months ago, the choice would have been MUCH easier.
Exactly. It failed to take the market back over. It failed to be number one or two and push the third console into obscurity. It failed in a market share sense.
The GC has been the most obscure of the three consoles right now. You hear in the (mainstream) media about the PS2 and the XBox, but not much about the GC.
That said, I agree with you. In the "Was it a good console with good games" respect, it succedded by a long shot. As I said, I have a 'Cube and love it the most of the three current consoles (I own 'em all).
I have to say, I was TOTALLY surprised when I saw it this morning. At first I thought Slashdot pointed to a joke, then I thought it was the remote for the system (to play DVDs, etc) and looked all over the page for the REAL thing.
But reading the description and seeing the video, I am "stoked". In many ways, it's like EyeToy taken to the next level. I can't wait to try it.
I agree that the GC failed (even though I played it more than anything else this generation), but it Nintendo is still here. They took a gamble with the DS and I believe that it payed off. It took a little while to get the first great games, but they are out now with more coming. Nintendo keeps its commitments, and I can't wait to see what they do with this. Even if 3rd parties aren't big on it (sad), I know I can count on Nintendo for hours of fun. If Nintendo consoles turn into what the Atari 2600 was before Activision (only games were made by Atari), that's OK with me.
But this has a chance of doing two things. First, it could cause big problems for Sony and MS. The other option, is it could split the field into the "Nintendoites" (Have a Nintendo, fun, innovative games) and the "Gamerz" (Great graphics, more of the same, not unlike the PC is becoming, with the occasional great game).
I've wanted a Revolution the most of the next generation even knowing almost nothing based on Nintendo's reputation. The XBox 360 and PS3 announcements (especially price) have pushed me further. This threw me off the cliff BIG TIME.
I want my Revolution!
PS: I LOVED the virtual boy. I think it was mismarketed. It had its problems, and it failed, but I still loved it. Mario Crash, Wario Land, Mario Tennis, and more. Some great games on that platform.
At least three other reporters expressed some dismay at the high price point and asked if consumers would really accept the console at that price, and whether a second, cheaper SKU without the harddrive would be offered at some point. Maruyama was confident that the price made sense, and said that while a second, cheaper SKU in the future was not out of the question, the launch would feature only the one with the harddrive, mainly to support the beta launch of Final Fantasy XI on Xbox 360 this winter.
So in the US, we get two versions (the real one, and the crippled one), but in Japan they only get the real one. It will be interesting to see how the crippled version sells in the US. I wonder if Europe will get the crippled version?
I've got to agree that the high price is a problem (here, there, and everywhere). But the little "XBox 360 Bar" is an interesting idea. That would probably help (as would the fact that the XBox 360 isn't a new system from a first timer, but a second gen).
But, it's the Revolution details I want to know about (it has been said we'll learn more tomorrow).
Slashdot Mirror
I've been editing the video from the 1,000-foot robot test. Since I've been busy lately with grant writing etc., I wasn't involved in activities like making the ribbon. So it wasn't until I was watching the video that I noticed the sentence written in block letters on the 2-inch wide ribbon (which alternates color in 50-foot strips of bright yellow and fluorescent orange) near the top:
ATTENTION PILOT: IF YOU CAN READ THIS, YOU'RE TOTALLY SCREWED.
Our sense of humor (or at least Nyein's) may not (or it may) be visible from far away, but it's there.
That said, if these tests were really that accurate and could be done at home, that might help. People who are hypochondriacs could test their blood and find out they DON'T have cancer. After using such a definitive test a couple of times they might very well "get the picture" that their next headache is a headache and not a brain tumor.
On the other hand, if these things are sold to the public and have much of a false positive rate, that would be a BIG problem.
There is nothing wrong with variable pricing. I doubt Jobs would be against it if they wanted to sell tracks for 50 cents. The problem is when they say "Variable Pricing" what they mean is "Variable Pricing ABOVE $1".
Unreal Tournament was 6GB compressed. Next Generation games are going to be 20GB plus, and how we're going to fit them on DVD9's I don't know, they'll probably be a few of them. On the PS3, we're going to be using the majority of the space on those Blu-ray disks. So, online isn't really the best option in some instances.
Downloading 30Gb isn't really feasible. What online could be, is the back-channel to get additional content. Patches and things like that. I think what Valve has done is great. It'll be interesting to see where marketing fits in. Now they're going with EA in the future, the biggest publisher of all. You can't do one without the other, otherwise no-one knows about your game. Unless you have the huge marketing budgets that major retailers have when launching your game, so I think there's still a very important role for retailers.
That says it right there, doesn't it. MS is going to have a hard time keeping content on discs. People argue whether you need the space between BD-ROM and HD-DVD for video, but I think this is even more important on the video game side. This is one of those things that could become a big problem for MS.
What about Nintendo? For some reason I don't see it as such a big problem (maybe because they aren't focusing on HD this and HD that), but it could still be a problem.
As for the used game comment, I don't blame them. There are many times that I would like to buy a game used and have money go to the publisher to support the people who made the game. The problem is that shops like EB would just take that as an excuse to raise the price higher (used games already cost enough). I buy very few games these days because they just cost too much for the risk. I agree with him that the price of a DVD would be an ideal price ($20-$25), but I don't know how they'd achieve that (except making most games smaller, which in many cases might not be so bad :). There is no good system for this right now, but I think moving to a steam/iTunes like model (where you buy the game online and download it for $15 instead of buying a used copy for $15) makes a lot of sense. That would allow people to play older games, but without paying much, and still have the money go to the publisher. Plus these days it would be feasible to have people download PS type games (one or two CDs) here in the US (let it run overnight). It might be a while before you can do that with current and next-gen games due to bandwidth problems.
Why not ask some better questions. The interviewee even eludes to some interesting things that are never followed up on. Here are some suggestions:
I would have liked to see questions that weren't about Oregon Trail also. The guy mentioned that he was the guy behind Number Munchers. I LOVED that game (especially on the Mac with the little cut-scenes). But they also had a spelling/logic one as I remember too. I'd like to know more about these and other games he made.
While it was an interesting read, it smacked of amateurish journalism, pathetic attempts at humor, and a wasted opportunity. I agree with you completely. It is EXACTLY like something from a "Remember the 80s" special or some vapid show on the Fashion network.
1. The game commences with the player asked to choose among three choices: Banker from Boston, Carpenter from Ohio. and Farmer from Illinois. Was there ever any discussion of including a Slave Owner from Mississippi?
I wanted to have 3 difficulty levels representing different amounts of initial resources. We tied this into the real world by connecting these levels to 3 different professions. This was also an opportunity to get kids to think about the fact that the emigrants came from different places and had different backgrounds.
Although we did not choose to address slavery issues with this product, a decade later I worked on another historical simulation game called Pony Express Rider, published by McGraw-Hill Home Interactive. In this product we addressed the slavery issue quite directly.
After The Oregon Trail, but before Pony Express Rider, I designed and programmed two other historical simulation games (both published by MECC) that also dealt squarely with ethnic relations - Lewis & Clark Stayed Home, and Dr. Livingstone, I Presume? In Lewis & Clark you explore the American West, interacting with dozens of different Native American communities. In Dr. Livingstone you explore Africa, interacting with dozens of different African ethnic groups.
2. Were you ever informed that some religious schools in the south insisted their students select Carpenter from Ohio because Jesus was a carpenter? Was it your intent to cloak the Carpenter from Ohio in religious symbolism?
I had never heard this before, and any religious symbolism in the product is purely accidental. But I was born and raised in the Deep South, so I witnessed on many occasions the deep attachment that many southerners have to their religious beliefs.
3. [Stupid question about the general store owner's name being Matt]
I understand that Matt is short for Mathew, a name with a very long history. The son of the then-president of MECC was also named Matt, and our president was convinced that we named the store's proprietor after his son. Please don't let him know the real story - he would be so disappointed!
4. Matt's character has a pipe. If this game were designed today do you believe you would be required to remove the pipe from Matt's mouth? Did you feel any responsibility about the high rate of tobacco use among children of the 1980's?
If all those kids had taken up pipe smoking, then I would definitely feel guilty - but I think I'm in the clear! Honestly, if I were to design another Oregon Trail, I don't think we would see Matt using any form of tobacco.
Even back then, any references to tobacco could be controversial. We got away with the pipe for Matt (which was the visual designer's idea - not mine), but in Lewis & Clark I ran into a bigger controversy. The real Lewis & Clark took along tobacco as one of the items to trade with Native Americans. But I was told by the publisher to remove this trade item from the product.
5. How did your team settle on five as the requisite number of individuals attempting the trek on the Oregon Trail and were there any names that were disallowed from selection as choices? For instance are names like stinky, cooties, and gayey allowed?
I chose 5 as the number of individuals on your team strictly from the standpoint of game play, and not for any actual historical reasons. That's one of the rare exceptions, because I made of point of weaving real history or geography into almost all of my other design decisions.
We talked about building a filter to disallow certain terms as keyboard input. This was a concern not only for the name input, but even more so for the gravestone epitaph. However, as we were designing this product to fit on a 2-sided Apple II floppy disk, we didn't have the space to incorporate such a filter. This was just one of many features on our wish list that did not make it into the finished product.
The lack of a profanity filter came back to bite us. Some teachers began to complain that we had
I loved Oregon Trail, as I'm sure many others did. Do you're self a favor and DON'T read this article. While the guy gives good answers and manages to be civil, the "interviewer" asks questions like he's an 8 year old. Tell you what, I'll post back with the interview text only changing those terrible questions to more reasonable ones.
I discovered this blog recently thanks to a comment by a poster a short while ago. I worry that as people focus on this and try to figure out the person's identity, they will just disappear, much as "As Seen On TV" did from Slashdot shortly after becoming famous as an Apple insider.
Thanks for the info though.
Windows 95/98/ME required defragmenting and a program to manage memory (I had MemTurbo, it did a FANTASTIC job of speeding up the computer).
Windows 2000/XP required a disk defragmenter to run well (Disk Keeper works great). You had to let it do it all the time or it got slow fast.
And this doesn't even mention the anti-virus software you had to have which slowed down ever year from having to scan more files for more viruses (Plus whatever Norton does that sucks CPU cycles. I think they have a loop that looks like "for(int i = 0; i Why do I need software to make my computer run like it should in the first place?
Oh, right. I don't. I bought a Mac.
They would NEVER be able to get that merger approved, even if they agreed to spin off Office and Entertainment divisions into separate companies.
As for bundles, it depends on price. If you want to sell your console without a bundle, then offer it cheap ($200). If you want to sell it in a bundle offer it more expensive but reasonable ($300, $350). But the idea of offering the console alone (not in a bundle of games) for $400 (hence the bundles start at $500+) is insane.
Bundles are fine if they are a value. But taking an already expensive console and adding on games and calling it a "value" is a complete sham.
I think I would prefer the bundle (especially if there are two or three versions depending on what game you want packed in). I think what Nintendo later did with the 'Cube (buy it for $xxx and you can choose one of these games (Mario, Metroid, or something else good) for free) was good. The ideal is offering that, and offering a non-bundled version too (you wouldn't have to do that if your bundle was $150 or less).
My main complaint is the base price point is too high. To charge $300 without including a game is pushing it. To charge $400 is outright mean.
I agree that the $400 version has a VERY fair cost compared to the $300 version (considering all it includes). But my complaint is the $300 version is overpriced, and thus the $400 version is overpriced.
Bundles are fine, done right. But at the prices MS if offering the XBox 360, I feel that it should be a bundle, and the bundles that 3rd parties are making are (due to the core cost) too much to be considered a value.
Hope that explains my logic better.
I didn't get a genesis until the CDX came out. That came with Sonic CD (awesome, best sonic game ever), the Sega Classics Collection (Shinobi, Columns, Golden Ax, and something else) and one other thing (I think).
Now there is NO QUESTION that I won't be buying a 360 (maybe when the price drops to $300, or buy a used one from any unhappy early adopter). The PS3 is looking iffy (as much as I like Sony. But we don't know the official price yet). The revolution I know I will buy at launch, because I trust Nintendo. But then I also expect them to have a lower price (I'm guessing $250). They'd have to charge over $400 to make me wait.
I agree, the problem is self control. They are too far out there on price, and I think they'll take a hit for it. They want to launch in time for Christmas with the XBox. Unless they cut the price before the end of December, I predict "sluggish" sales of their new "hot must have console".
But my point was to shoot holes through any "It's higher because of inflation" and "It's such a great value" arguments. You can't arbitrarily raise the price of consoles $100 each generation and expect people to cough up the money.
I remember the price of the XBox being balked at because it was so high. Now after a little initial hoop-lah we seem to hear almost nothing about the ridiculous price of the 360.
I wouldn't mind if the $400 version included a game or two, or at least a second controller. But instead I am paying $100 ($50 if you remove the "price" of XBL) to uncripple a $300 piece of hardware.
Am I the only one who things that $300 pieces of hardware shouldn't be crippled for the sake of making you pay more? $50 hardware, sure. But $300?
At many places, the only way to get a 360 may be to preorder in bundles costing up to $1000. For that you get games (close to their retail price), maybe a controller (close to the retail price), etc. So instead of buying a $400 console and the two $70 games you want, you can either buy the version that includes one of the games you want (and one you don't) and pay $70 above what you should (for the game that you don't want), or buy the version that includes 4 games (and pointless extra stuff) just so you can get the two you want. That costs the price of those two games you don't want ($140) plus some extra.
Aren't bundles GREAT for the consumer these days?
I expect Nintendo to release at $250 and clean up.
That said, let's look at the fact. According to IGN the NES launched for (an adjusted) $351.91. For that price you got two games (Mario and Duck Hunt), the console, two controllers, and a light gun (you even got R.O.B. if you bought one of the earliest ones in the US).
The XBox 360 is launching at $399 (for the REAL version, not the "XBox three-shitty" as Penny Arcade has termed the cheaper one. For that price you get the console, one controller, a headset, and a one year subscription to live. If you assume that live costs $50 a year, that means that the same price as the NES (adjusted), you get.. two fewer games, one less controller, and no lightgun.
The Sega Genesis which cost $389.67 at launch (again, adjusted) came with two controllers and Sonic. Again, you got two controllers and a game.
The N64 cost $242.75 at launch. So for what the XBox 360 will cost you could have bought the N64, Mario ($60 lets say), Pilotwings ($60 lets say), and a controller ($30 lets say). Two games, two controllers for that price.
Now let's look at the GameCube. $210 at launch leaves us with an extra $190 (three games) before we hit the price of the XBox 360 without a game. Add the price of a game to the 360 ($60-70) and you could buy two controllers for the 'cube, or a controller and a memory card.
Now MS is doing better than the NeoGeo ($1040), the 3DO ($920), and the Atari VCS ($810). But with the exception of the Atari (the first real home system), the other two FAILED in the marketplace (largely due to high price).
The NeoGeo had games costing upwards of $200 at the time. Sure they were arcade PERFECT, but most people didn't buy $200 games. I hope MS is smarter than that. They will probably only charge $80 for their games.
Your editor's final comment is this: for many years, there was only one free personal finance application of any note: GnuCash. It is now interesting to see there are three viable programs out there. The situation has changed significantly - for the better - over the past year. Come back for the second part (to be published, probably, near the beginning of October) to complete the tour of what these programs can do, and a final recommendation from the editor.
You're question is quite timely, actually.
I've tried them both. I currently use Quicken as I'm on a Mac (where they have a monopoly, I don't know WHY MS doesn't release Money for the Mac). I like Quicken better, as it seems to do what I want it to more (as opposed to doing things that I DON'T want for me, or trying to be a major financial center when I just want to track my checkbook). That said, Money's interface (the entering checks like checks) parts is MUCH nicer than Quicken's ledger.
Not what you were looking for, but consider it. You can run open source software on it, you can even run Linux on it. Most of the big games get ported eventually. Best of all, it has Quicken (which I use myself) and other big name software (including an excellent version of Office). You won't have to re-enter all your data (as another poster talked about), you can just import it.
Seriously, give it a try for a while. It's too bad Apple removed that 30 day free trial of a Mac Mini.
Not willing to go Mac? Can you run Quicken (maybe an older version) well in Wine? What about running VMWare or Bochs and running it inside Windows in there? You don't need the performance so it should be quite useable.
Either way, an interesting product. Id' like to see it on the market, but it seems like one of those things we hear about and "wow, that's great" and we never hear about it again (either because it's a scam, isn't worth the money for the little benefit, or whatever).
That said, at this point the PSP is starting to come into it's own. It is starting to get some games that are the kind I want (note: I own both). While there have been some nice games (Hot Shots Golf used up a lot of my time), Burnout: Legends just came out. Lots of content, fun to play, looks FANTASTIC. SSX on Tour is looking very interesting to me. GTA: Liberty City Stories will sell a ton and might be great.
While the DS has better pick up and play games and short games. The PSP is a PS2 to go. The kind of games seem to be quite different. While that at first made me less interested in the PSP, I've come to a realization. I don't play my consoles much any more. I just don't have that kind of time that I like to devote to it. But I love the ability to play between classes on campus, when I have nothing to do at work, etc. Even just sitting at home and watching TV while playing. I really LIKE this ability, and I can see myself playing the PSP more and more if they have games I like. Since I can put the PSP on hold at any point, I don't have to worry about if I can pause/save when something is happeneing.
I've played my DS more. I'm starting to like my PSP more. They are both good consoles, and I think they have such different market segments (at least for me) that it's not a problem. The DS has more "GameBoy" games, while the PSP has more "Console" games.
If I had to choose one? The DS. I've played it more so far, found more games I like so far. And while I have no doubt there will be good games for the PSP, I always know I can count on my Nintendo consoles for great (and interesting) games. But it would be a hard choice. If you had asked me 3-4 months ago, the choice would have been MUCH easier.
The GC has been the most obscure of the three consoles right now. You hear in the (mainstream) media about the PS2 and the XBox, but not much about the GC.
That said, I agree with you. In the "Was it a good console with good games" respect, it succedded by a long shot. As I said, I have a 'Cube and love it the most of the three current consoles (I own 'em all).
But reading the description and seeing the video, I am "stoked". In many ways, it's like EyeToy taken to the next level. I can't wait to try it.
I agree that the GC failed (even though I played it more than anything else this generation), but it Nintendo is still here. They took a gamble with the DS and I believe that it payed off. It took a little while to get the first great games, but they are out now with more coming. Nintendo keeps its commitments, and I can't wait to see what they do with this. Even if 3rd parties aren't big on it (sad), I know I can count on Nintendo for hours of fun. If Nintendo consoles turn into what the Atari 2600 was before Activision (only games were made by Atari), that's OK with me.
But this has a chance of doing two things. First, it could cause big problems for Sony and MS. The other option, is it could split the field into the "Nintendoites" (Have a Nintendo, fun, innovative games) and the "Gamerz" (Great graphics, more of the same, not unlike the PC is becoming, with the occasional great game).
I've wanted a Revolution the most of the next generation even knowing almost nothing based on Nintendo's reputation. The XBox 360 and PS3 announcements (especially price) have pushed me further. This threw me off the cliff BIG TIME.
I want my Revolution!
PS: I LOVED the virtual boy. I think it was mismarketed. It had its problems, and it failed, but I still loved it. Mario Crash, Wario Land, Mario Tennis, and more. Some great games on that platform.
So in the US, we get two versions (the real one, and the crippled one), but in Japan they only get the real one. It will be interesting to see how the crippled version sells in the US. I wonder if Europe will get the crippled version?
I've got to agree that the high price is a problem (here, there, and everywhere). But the little "XBox 360 Bar" is an interesting idea. That would probably help (as would the fact that the XBox 360 isn't a new system from a first timer, but a second gen).
But, it's the Revolution details I want to know about (it has been said we'll learn more tomorrow).