For less than $1500.00 (!!) you can get a fully loaded PowerPro 5:6 which has a Radeon Mobility 9700 with 128 megs of ram and a 1.5 ghz Centrino (or get a 1.7 ghz for $1650.) They also have crazy desktop replacement models at great prices also (10 pounds though!)
I did a bunch of research into gaming laptops a week ago and these guys came out on top. I also sent them an email inquiring about the soundcard on the PowerPro laptop and got a fast and very technically sound reply.
Out of all these cameras being discussed on slashdot, the most amazing (and for some reason, most ignored in these forums at the moment) is the Panasonic DVX100 (came out about 6 months ago.) The DVX100 is the FIRST and ONLY prosumer (less than $5,000 - actually less than $35,000 for this functionality) camera that shoots full frame progressive scan 24 frame-per-second. Also known as 24p, this is the same format (sans resolution) that the uber expensive CineAlta cameras use (such as for Star Wars: Ep 2) for duplicating.
The interesting thing about 24p is that this is the same frame rate that actual film uses, and the subtle effect of seeing motion at this rate (such as the particular jitter that you get during a pan) provides for a much more "film-like" moving image. Besides that, the DVX100 also has the most on-chip resolution of any these prosumer cameras (PD150, XL1, etc) and side by side comparisons do show it to have the superior image in almost all cases (even low light.)
Here's a link to some more info on this awesome camera.
The lack of buttons sucks (especially for SNES emulation - the GBA gets around this though), but other than that this is a neat unit, especially considering all the dev tools available for it.
Fast processor (much faster than GBA anyhow), beautiful large screen, more memory, better sound, USB port, re-writeable content storage, wireless option, and now backlit... At the price, I'm not sure what there's not to like:-)
"Unfortunately they're only available in Tokyo (looks like a decent place to live). I don't think people in the U.S. realize just how far behind our mobile communications infrastructure has fallen."
Thanks to the FCC and the big guys' stranglehold on the airwaves.
Uhm.. It is the American public that thrives on whatever footage the media runs. If they didn't, then ratings would plummit and the media'd be out of business (or replaced by stations that ran only softer more gentler footage.) Don't try to foist the blame on them for delivering what you want to see.
This news all comes from the SpaceWorld conference, Nintendo's biggest games conference (only for Nintendo and 3rd party Nintendo developers) held in Japan this week/weekend.
Most impressive to me is the footage of the new Mario and Zelda games. While lots of other developers worry about targetting the "cool" gamers, the "hardcore" gamers, Nintendo seems to be the one of the only ones focusing on the FUN in their games, and targetting the kid in all of us (as well as the real kids among us.);-) That's going to be the factor that wins them the #1 position in the upcomming console wars, in my opinion. This focus on pure fun is evident in their entire GameCube and Game Boy Advance lineup.
The average game player is the ultimate addict of the consumer culture. They want someone else to hand them entertainment on a silver platter. I can see why many gamers do not have the willingness nor patience to learn how to use Linux as a desktop operating system.
Ahem.
You're damn right I want my entertainment on a silver platter! And why the hell not?
Give me a Shigeru Miyamoto produced console game (like, say, Super Mario 64) over a "hardcore" PC game ANY day of the week (be it a Linux or Windows version - and that's not saying that HOMM or Tycoon aren't fine games; they are.) When I sit down for a good movie, I want to drop my 7 bucks, grab a pack of sweet-tarts, and enjoy. Same thing when I sit down to enjoy a game: I don't want to screw with drivers, installation, complex control schemes - I want to plug the cartridge into the slot (or drop the CD in the tray) and go.
Games are supposed to be about FUN above ALL else, and I am amazed at how many game developers fail to realize this - instead releasing a game that is "cool" or "edgy" or has nifty 3D graphics.. not really ever stopping to pay too much attention to whether or not someone can sit down with their game and actually enjoy playing it.
I'm all for games that make me think, but as far as the issue of OS, I could absolutely care less when it comes to my entertainment. I don't give a rats ass what kind of projector the movie theatre uses and I shouldn't have to care about what OS my games are running on for the same reason. Too bad these days I still do, but hopefully we're moving towards an eventual medium and presentation system that is powerful and standardized for presenting game content. For now, consoles are IMO the closest thing (and even there, we have to put up with 2 or 3 platforms that change every 4 years.) Maybe by the time we get to that point we will have learned to focus on the style, content and most of all fun of our games, and not get distracted by the technology.
I don't mean for this to sound like a flame.. but dude, you couldn't be more wrong about Nintendo.
The GameBoy is the most successful selling console in history. There are nearly 100 MILLION gameboy consoles out there. Nintendo is one of the top half dozen most successful and profitable companies in Japan (2 years ago they were THE most successful.) Who knows about the gamecube, but the nintedo owned franchises (mario, zelda, pokemon) are undeniable juggernauts and you simply can't discount this when talking about the gamecube's potential success. I am POSITIVE that I'll be buying a gamecube to get the next mario and zelda games.. are you telling me you won't be? Also, don't underestimate the potential connection and cross-marketing between the gamecube and GBA.
Nintedo isn't going ANYWHERE. The only true "unknown" commodity in the market is the XBox. Sure they have a chance, a good one because of their development environment, but I think it's hard to make a case that either of the other two big players are going to positively fail - considering Nintendo's brands, and Sony's momentum.
First of all, I note the link to crutchfield and the price they quote of $2499.00. Egads! I just recently picked up the same TV (XBR400) at Circuit City for $2199.00! Circuit City definitely has it's pitfalls, but it's no-questions-asked return policy can't be beat, and a good return policy is especially important with these Wega sets, as they have a high defect rate that usually has to do with geometry distortion and severe convergence problems (that's not to say that these aren't fine TV's, they are the best direct-view's available IMO! But sometimes you gotta go through 2 or 3 of them to get a good one =) Also, I recommend picking up (or renting) the Video Essentials or Avia DVD. They have a series of calibration tests for tuning your XBR that will make a HUGE difference on the quality of the picture. It's like night and day.
As far as audio goes, I highly recommend PSB speakers. My focus when building a home theatre was getting a sound system that would power the best scenes from my favorite DVDs, but would also appeal to my rather picky ears in terms of musical quality. The PSB's are hands down the best in their price range. (and audioreview.com agrees with me =) The combination of PSB Alpha A/V's in the front, a PSB Alpha center, PSB Alpha Mini's in the rear, and a PSB Subsonic or Subzero sub will give you the best sounding system at the $1000 price-point. These speakers are best known for their purity and imaging, and having listened to many systems before making my purchase I have to agree with the reviewers when they say that these speakers (at $250 a pair for the A/V fronts) rival speakers costing $2000 a pair.
As for an amp/AV reciever, I chose the Denon 2801. Again, after having listened to a bunch of different receivers, and reading a bunch of reviews on the net, I chose the Denon because of its great warm sound, reasonable price (~600), high power (90watts per channel), and incredibly good circuitry (there is absolutely NO hiss output, even with no signal and the volume turned up ALL the way.)
With the full set of PSB's and a Denon 2801 receiver, you will land right around your $1500 mark, and you'll have a system that not only sounds beautiful when rendering music CD's, but also shakes the walls while watching Fight Club. =)
"Self-replicating doodads" can be found in nature everywhere. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that you'd not be reading this article in the first place were it not for some self-replicating doodads in your head. =)
While I do concede that there is no way that C++ or Java (or anything else even remotely related) are going to be the languages that we'll be using to program "brains" with in the future, I think you are failing to recognize "evolutionary programming" as a possible solution.
Producing software by hand that is complex enough to achieve awareness may be an NP-complete problem, but evolution has solved many NP-complete problems in the past =) Additionally, I don't think that software evolution has to be on the scale of eons either; Maybe it doesn't exactly follow Moore's law, but I would think it falls somewhere close. The biggest problem with evolutionary software design, as I understand it, is defining goals and success tests. The research already done in this field is fascinating, and yields software that defies all the rules of traditional software design, often utilizing the hardware in incredibly unorthodox ways that suggest an eerie knowledge of the underlying atomic structures of the silicon.
Here's a fun site with more information on Evolutionary Computing (EC):
The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to Evolutionary Computation
http://alife.santafe.edu/~joke/encore/www/
In my opinion, the coupling of nanocomputing with evolutionary software, will yield computing brains which are indistinguishable (and eventually superior, I suppose) to their biological counterparts, save for the underlying material composition.
Keep in mind that, as dailyradar mentioned, the UK has a 2.2% tax on console system imports, yet it has no equivalent tax for "computers."
With a programming language shipped right inside the box, perhaps Sony is looking to subvert that import tax by making the PS2 seem more like a traditional computer system (not that "typical" computer systems ship with programming languages in the box today anyway;-)
Excelent post. You are correct, and the original article on sega web is just flat-out wrong on its techincal points. The author picks out some facts about the different architectures (like 4 megs of VRAM vs 8) and then just starts pulling rediculous and made-up conclusions and numbers out of thin air.
The PS2 is a low-cache/ultra-high-bandwidth design, which is backward from the huge-cache/ultra-narrow-bandwidth design of a PC (128 megs of video ram on a GeForce, for example.) In the past on other consoles, developers haven't shied away from learning a specialized hardware and exploiting it - just look at some of the latest generation N64 or PSX titles, these take full advantage of the multi-chip hardware down at the lowest level.
The PS2 is capable of having performance characteristics similar to that of a PC, but you have to go at it a much different way (which is what libraries such as renderware will abstract out) for developers who are more interested in releasing a multi-platform title, rather than specializing for the PS2 hardware. But if you consider the momentum that the PS2 has, and how many systems it is likely to sell, it does seem likely that a developer wouldn't mind targetting only that platform.
I agree with you. But just look at the Dreamcast. It has the best next-generation games available for any console by FAR, including some really killer online titles, and yet it's heading quickly towards the grave by all indications. There's obviously more to the equation of what makes a console succeed, but for the life of me I just can't understand why the DC isn't selling out systems and games all over the place. They have AWESOME games, a killer price-point, and pretty decent marketing.
The PS2 has incredible momentum, and that will drive system sales, which will in turn incent developers to make great games for it, which will in turn sell more systems. Sega was somehow able to short circuit this cycle, and get a bunch of killer games even though the system hasn't had great sales, and yet it seems like they're still doomed.
There's quite enough talk about the supposed worthlessness of the system, terrible quality of the launch games, conspiracy by Sony etc. That's boring. How bout my "getting the PS2" story, and some actual reviews instead;-)
---
The story:
I live and work in Dallas TX (I'm a game developer with Ensemble Studios.) For a few weeks now, a couple of us around the office have been setting up plans to get the PS2 the day it came out. Our plan as of yesterday was to camp a Best Buy, which was supposedly getting the largest shipment of units (~150.) We decided that 4am was a good time to show up (6 hours in advance of opening.) Yesterday, however, at about 4:20, I started thinking that perhaps there were some 24 hour places that might put the system on sale at midnight, so I called around.
4:30, and the first 24 hour Walmart I call tells me, "We've got 18 systems in, and we're putting em on sale tonight at 12:01. There's already 5 people in line." 5 minutes later, and my pal Rob and I were already in the car speeding through traffic to get there (We figured that a 7 hour wait in the evening was better than a 6 hour wait at 4 in the morning.)
We arrive at approximately 4:55. As we're pulling up to the store, we watch a group of 4 kids literally bolt across the parking lot and run into the store. I know what they're here for. I tell Rob to park and I jump out of the car and enter the store, heading for the electronics section. As I walk up, I see a number of people looking around for a place to line up. I search for the nearest clerk and ask him where the line for the Playstation 2 is, he looks confused and intimidated and tells me to wait there. Not content with that answer, I track down another clerk - this one points me to the layaway section in the back of the store. As I round the corner into the layaway halway, I finally see the line. It looks like at least 30 people to me. CRAP. Quick tally. Wait - 15 people! Woo! Rob comes rushing in 30 seconds later. We've got spots 16 and 17. Five minutes later and the line is full.
The next 7 hours were filled with mixed games of Magic, talking about game design ideas, Gameboy playing, attempts by various people to sneak their way into the line, and a few muted threats that the cops were going to come to quiet things down if people didn't behave or parents didn't show up to accompany the minors. All in all, Walmart was very cool about the whole thing, and although they admitted to not at all expecting what happened, they handled it gracefully and even held an impromptu raffle for some 20$ gift certificates towards the purchase of the PS2 for those of us standing in line.
Finally at 11:55, as everyone was standing and a very noticeable excitement and tension was in the air, we heard a page over the intercom for "Assistance in the front." and 3 minutes later, a shopping cart filled to the brim with bright blue boxes was escorted by no less than 2 walmart managers and a couple of large stocking guys right by the line and into the back room behind the counter. The 18 were then cordoned off from the 20 or so "spectators" and parents (as well as my girlfriend Jade, who is the coolest chick in the world; she likes games and actually spent the evening playing Magic with us geeks and hanging out), and we purchased our systems one by one. I walked out of the store at about 12:20am, playstation2 in hand. =)
On the way to Rob's house after the purchase, we drove by the Best Buy we were going to camp at, just to check it out. At 12:30am, there were 36 people we counted lined up outside - 9 and 1/2 hours before the store opened.
---
The System:
After all that, we certainly had to get home right away to plug'er in. The system itself is very stylish and sleek looking. My personal preference (as well as Rob's) is that a game machine look more "fun" than the PS2 looks, but if you're preference is the cool factor, this is definitely the coolest looking console to date. The manufacturing quality appears to be as high or higher than that of the PSX. The black plastic of the case is embossed with the PS2 logo on top, and it has some very nice little touches like a rotatable PS logo on the drivebay, and a very slick blue LED power indicator. Some negatives there are a really wacked power cycling scheme that involves a seperate master switch on the back (intended to be left on always), and then a "reset" button on the front that actually activates the system, and which you have to hold down for a few seconds to power the system off. Also, there seems to be a pretty significant cooling fan in the back of the system that emits a rather loud, compared to other consoles, (though not really unpleasant) whirring noise.
Included with the system is one controller, AV cables, instruction manual and a power cable. No demo disc, and no memory card (and apparently, the (un)availability of these cards is 1 for every 5 systems sold right now!) I was suprised by the lack of demo disc - that seems to be a no-brainer marketting oportunity to me, and I was disapointed that the system came with absolutely no included software save for the firmware.
Turning on the system for the first time presents you with a slightly different opening than the Japanese PS2 systems, with a display of the PS2 line-drawing-style logo, and then a list of languages and time zones to select from. Interesting to note is that the system was aware of the date/time out of the box - it was preset at the factory. The system configuration and memory browser menus are very slick, sporting background dolby surround sounds of ocean surf, and images of blue crystal icons and cool depth-of-field effects.
The overall sound quality of the system when hooked up via the included optical jack, and set to Dolby AC3 is phenomenal - way beyond that of the other consoles I have hooked up to my system. The music in games like Madden and SSX sounds really good, and the sound effects are crystal clear and sport very smooth and loud bass. Overall I'd have to say that the game audio is movie-quality and really impressed me. The video quality (for in-game videos, such as the Armored Core intro, or the Madden Intro) is also far ahead of what other console's have to offer and was the first thing that really impressed me when we booted the games.
---
The Games:
I wasn't expecting the games themselves to be very good actually; In the past, console launches have tended to have only one (maybe two) strong games, and a bunch of shlock to fill out the launch. Rob and I had between us: Fantavision, Madden 2001, Smugglers Run, Armored Core, Midnight Club Racing, and SSX.
Overall, I was suprised and quite pleased with the quality of the games. Almost all of the titles we tried, with the exception of Midnight Club Racing, were very strong A-quality titles.
- Out of those titles, SSX and Madden are clearly the best games for the system at this time. SSX is a VERY nice looking (very fast too - 60fps) snowboarding game that is a mix between Tony Hawk (skateboarding game) and 1080 (snowboarding game.) It's all about frantic downhill action and crazy stunts, the gameplay was right on and the production quality was very high. Madden is the best looking title available on the PS2 and the production quality of that game was also remarkably high. Neither of these games had the usual rushed-out-the-door quality I would normally expect with a launch title, and none of the games had the pre-first-generation feel that I'm used to in the games that are available when a system first comes out - they were all very polished.
- Smuggler's Run was probably my second favorite game, right behind SSX, because of it's split-screen multiplayer. The CTF style capture-the-loot game is really fun, and makes me think of the PC game Tribes, except with cars;-) The graphics engine rendered a huge landscape that stretched off in the distance with no draw-in and a tiny bit of LODing on the objects; Overall it looked very nice, and the physics engine made for some great dune-buggy-style driving.
- Fantavision was a unique and fast-paced puzzle type game, that didn't appeal to me as much as a tetris clone, simply because it was lacking a bit in depth of strategy. Armored Core was a great looking FPS mech game that was fun to play and had a nice shallow learning curve - the only downside was lack of analog stick support. Midnight Club Racing seemed the weakest of the bunch to me, simply because it seemed tedious, and the graphics were not at all up to par with the rest of the group.
I can't wait to see what second generation games look like. The games I listed above leave out some very notable titles that were also available at launch such as Tekken Tag Tournament, Dead or Alive 2, and Ridge Racer V.
---
As Rob pointed out to me, your average gamer has no idea that many development houses are having lots of difficulty wrapping their brains around the PS2, those things might get some coverage in the hardcore-gamer news channels. All your average gamer knows is what he thinks is fun, and what his friends and magazines tell him is fun. I would have to say that the amount of hype and momentum to purchase the system I experienced yesterday, coupled with at least half a dozen very strong launch titles, suggests to me that sony still has great potential to lead this next generation console market. The XBox and Gamecube also have undeniably promising potential that is going to make for a very interesting playing field this coming year. =)
On my way home from Rob's, Jade and I drove by Best Buy again, and there was a line that stretched from the door, all the way around to about halfway down the side of the building. At least 60 people there at 3am. The parking lot looked as full as it does during normal hours. This Best Buy is merely one of probably half a dozen in the DFW metroplex - according to the other two guys here who actually got a system this morning (woohoo! 4 for 4!) every store they went to had a similar phenomenon.
paulb
p.s. I'm sure that some people consider the rush to get a new console the day it comes out to be pretty pointless. We all have our priorities I guess, and for me, Fun is pretty high up there on the list. The fun and excitement of this experience was way worth the 9 or so hours it took, so please don't bother to flame me for it. =)
"You know another group of hate-mongers who were just "doing there job"? They were called NAZIS! And they nearly wiped a nation of people of the earth!" - Clerks
This is the device to get the geek on your list. I'll take the keyboard+wheel combo over a stylus any day, and the 9600kbps radio modem inside these things rocks! Wireless email that WORKS (unfortunately it requires windows at this time) and web browsing (seperate services offered through GoAmerica.) Kinda steep ($500 for the big-screen version), but it's the ultimate wireless PDA right now, IMO.
paulb
p.s. Plus it looks like the Guide with all those buttons on it.;-)
I think that's the difference, developing games on a PC is a nightmare. The X-Box will give all the benifits of the PC platform while releaving some of the nightmare.
Not quite. While I agree with you about it relieving some of the nightmare of developing on a PC, mainly the fact that it's a fixed target, that very thing is also it's inherent weakness when compared to a PC. A fixed target cannot compete with a constantly evolving platform like the PC, in terms of cutting edge performance.
The PS2 employs a "small cache, high bandwidth" design. This is much different than the large cache, low bandwidth design of more traditional systems, and it requires a different approach to developing software because of this architecture.
For example, I've read that other developers are discovering that the best way to use the vector units is not to load code to them and let them churn, but rather to stream new code to them constantly since the bus between the VU's and the CPU is 2560 bits wide!
I'm guessing that the video architecture on the device might require a similar approach - i.e., stream data into the VRAM (from main mem) in realtime rather than keeping a static set of textures around.
Slashdot Mirror
PowerNotebooks
For less than $1500.00 (!!) you can get a fully loaded PowerPro 5:6 which has a Radeon Mobility 9700 with 128 megs of ram and a 1.5 ghz Centrino (or get a 1.7 ghz for $1650.) They also have crazy desktop replacement models at great prices also (10 pounds though!)
These guys also have an incredible Reseller Rating from ResellerRatings.com.
I did a bunch of research into gaming laptops a week ago and these guys came out on top. I also sent them an email inquiring about the soundcard on the PowerPro laptop and got a fast and very technically sound reply.
paulb
Combine it with this earlier story:
Monkeys Control Robotic Arm With Brain Implants
I, for one, welcome our new monkey-mind-controlled kung-fu robotic overlords!
paulb
Mod this sumbitch up.
Out of all these cameras being discussed on slashdot, the most amazing (and for some reason, most ignored in these forums at the moment) is the Panasonic DVX100 (came out about 6 months ago.) The DVX100 is the FIRST and ONLY prosumer (less than $5,000 - actually less than $35,000 for this functionality) camera that shoots full frame progressive scan 24 frame-per-second. Also known as 24p, this is the same format (sans resolution) that the uber expensive CineAlta cameras use (such as for Star Wars: Ep 2) for duplicating.
The interesting thing about 24p is that this is the same frame rate that actual film uses, and the subtle effect of seeing motion at this rate (such as the particular jitter that you get during a pan) provides for a much more "film-like" moving image. Besides that, the DVX100 also has the most on-chip resolution of any these prosumer cameras (PD150, XL1, etc) and side by side comparisons do show it to have the superior image in almost all cases (even low light.)
Here's a link to some more info on this awesome camera.
paulb
Back-lit GP32 Back-lit GP32 in action.
The lack of buttons sucks (especially for SNES emulation - the GBA gets around this though), but other than that this is a neat unit, especially considering all the dev tools available for it. Fast processor (much faster than GBA anyhow), beautiful large screen, more memory, better sound, USB port, re-writeable content storage, wireless option, and now backlit... At the price, I'm not sure what there's not to like :-)
paulb
"Unfortunately they're only available in Tokyo (looks like a decent place to live). I don't think people in the U.S. realize just how far behind our mobile communications infrastructure has fallen."
Thanks to the FCC and the big guys' stranglehold on the airwaves.
F^&@#ng sigh.
paulb
Man.. it's nasty too...
paulb
Uhm.. It is the American public that thrives on whatever footage the media runs. If they didn't, then ratings would plummit and the media'd be out of business (or replaced by stations that ran only softer more gentler footage.) Don't try to foist the blame on them for delivering what you want to see.
paulb
For coverage, check out:
Gamespot's SpaceWorld Coverage
IGN's GameCube site
Most impressive to me is the footage of the new Mario and Zelda games. While lots of other developers worry about targetting the "cool" gamers, the "hardcore" gamers, Nintendo seems to be the one of the only ones focusing on the FUN in their games, and targetting the kid in all of us (as well as the real kids among us.) ;-) That's going to be the factor that wins them the #1 position in the upcomming console wars, in my opinion. This focus on pure fun is evident in their entire GameCube and Game Boy Advance lineup.
paulb
Ahem.
You're damn right I want my entertainment on a silver platter! And why the hell not?
Give me a Shigeru Miyamoto produced console game (like, say, Super Mario 64) over a "hardcore" PC game ANY day of the week (be it a Linux or Windows version - and that's not saying that HOMM or Tycoon aren't fine games; they are.) When I sit down for a good movie, I want to drop my 7 bucks, grab a pack of sweet-tarts, and enjoy. Same thing when I sit down to enjoy a game: I don't want to screw with drivers, installation, complex control schemes - I want to plug the cartridge into the slot (or drop the CD in the tray) and go.
Games are supposed to be about FUN above ALL else, and I am amazed at how many game developers fail to realize this - instead releasing a game that is "cool" or "edgy" or has nifty 3D graphics.. not really ever stopping to pay too much attention to whether or not someone can sit down with their game and actually enjoy playing it.
I'm all for games that make me think, but as far as the issue of OS, I could absolutely care less when it comes to my entertainment. I don't give a rats ass what kind of projector the movie theatre uses and I shouldn't have to care about what OS my games are running on for the same reason. Too bad these days I still do, but hopefully we're moving towards an eventual medium and presentation system that is powerful and standardized for presenting game content. For now, consoles are IMO the closest thing (and even there, we have to put up with 2 or 3 platforms that change every 4 years.) Maybe by the time we get to that point we will have learned to focus on the style, content and most of all fun of our games, and not get distracted by the technology.
paulb
I don't mean for this to sound like a flame.. but dude, you couldn't be more wrong about Nintendo.
The GameBoy is the most successful selling console in history. There are nearly 100 MILLION gameboy consoles out there. Nintendo is one of the top half dozen most successful and profitable companies in Japan (2 years ago they were THE most successful.) Who knows about the gamecube, but the nintedo owned franchises (mario, zelda, pokemon) are undeniable juggernauts and you simply can't discount this when talking about the gamecube's potential success. I am POSITIVE that I'll be buying a gamecube to get the next mario and zelda games.. are you telling me you won't be? Also, don't underestimate the potential connection and cross-marketing between the gamecube and GBA.
Nintedo isn't going ANYWHERE. The only true "unknown" commodity in the market is the XBox. Sure they have a chance, a good one because of their development environment, but I think it's hard to make a case that either of the other two big players are going to positively fail - considering Nintendo's brands, and Sony's momentum.
paulb
As far as audio goes, I highly recommend PSB speakers. My focus when building a home theatre was getting a sound system that would power the best scenes from my favorite DVDs, but would also appeal to my rather picky ears in terms of musical quality. The PSB's are hands down the best in their price range. (and audioreview.com agrees with me =) The combination of PSB Alpha A/V's in the front, a PSB Alpha center, PSB Alpha Mini's in the rear, and a PSB Subsonic or Subzero sub will give you the best sounding system at the $1000 price-point. These speakers are best known for their purity and imaging, and having listened to many systems before making my purchase I have to agree with the reviewers when they say that these speakers (at $250 a pair for the A/V fronts) rival speakers costing $2000 a pair.
As for an amp/AV reciever, I chose the Denon 2801. Again, after having listened to a bunch of different receivers, and reading a bunch of reviews on the net, I chose the Denon because of its great warm sound, reasonable price (~600), high power (90watts per channel), and incredibly good circuitry (there is absolutely NO hiss output, even with no signal and the volume turned up ALL the way.)
With the full set of PSB's and a Denon 2801 receiver, you will land right around your $1500 mark, and you'll have a system that not only sounds beautiful when rendering music CD's, but also shakes the walls while watching Fight Club. =)
paulb
Engines of Creation
"Self-replicating doodads" can be found in nature everywhere. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that you'd not be reading this article in the first place were it not for some self-replicating doodads in your head. =)
paulb
I do not agree.
While I do concede that there is no way that C++ or Java (or anything else even remotely related) are going to be the languages that we'll be using to program "brains" with in the future, I think you are failing to recognize "evolutionary programming" as a possible solution.
Producing software by hand that is complex enough to achieve awareness may be an NP-complete problem, but evolution has solved many NP-complete problems in the past =) Additionally, I don't think that software evolution has to be on the scale of eons either; Maybe it doesn't exactly follow Moore's law, but I would think it falls somewhere close. The biggest problem with evolutionary software design, as I understand it, is defining goals and success tests. The research already done in this field is fascinating, and yields software that defies all the rules of traditional software design, often utilizing the hardware in incredibly unorthodox ways that suggest an eerie knowledge of the underlying atomic structures of the silicon.
Here's a fun site with more information on Evolutionary Computing (EC):
The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to Evolutionary Computation
http://alife.santafe.edu/~joke/encore/www/
In my opinion, the coupling of nanocomputing with evolutionary software, will yield computing brains which are indistinguishable (and eventually superior, I suppose) to their biological counterparts, save for the underlying material composition.
paulb
Keep in mind that, as dailyradar mentioned, the UK has a 2.2% tax on console system imports, yet it has no equivalent tax for "computers."
;-)
With a programming language shipped right inside the box, perhaps Sony is looking to subvert that import tax by making the PS2 seem more like a traditional computer system (not that "typical" computer systems ship with programming languages in the box today anyway
paulb
paulb
Excelent post. You are correct, and the original article on sega web is just flat-out wrong on its techincal points. The author picks out some facts about the different architectures (like 4 megs of VRAM vs 8) and then just starts pulling rediculous and made-up conclusions and numbers out of thin air.
The PS2 is a low-cache/ultra-high-bandwidth design, which is backward from the huge-cache/ultra-narrow-bandwidth design of a PC (128 megs of video ram on a GeForce, for example.) In the past on other consoles, developers haven't shied away from learning a specialized hardware and exploiting it - just look at some of the latest generation N64 or PSX titles, these take full advantage of the multi-chip hardware down at the lowest level.
The PS2 is capable of having performance characteristics similar to that of a PC, but you have to go at it a much different way (which is what libraries such as renderware will abstract out) for developers who are more interested in releasing a multi-platform title, rather than specializing for the PS2 hardware. But if you consider the momentum that the PS2 has, and how many systems it is likely to sell, it does seem likely that a developer wouldn't mind targetting only that platform.
paulb
I agree with you. But just look at the Dreamcast. It has the best next-generation games available for any console by FAR, including some really killer online titles, and yet it's heading quickly towards the grave by all indications. There's obviously more to the equation of what makes a console succeed, but for the life of me I just can't understand why the DC isn't selling out systems and games all over the place. They have AWESOME games, a killer price-point, and pretty decent marketing.
The PS2 has incredible momentum, and that will drive system sales, which will in turn incent developers to make great games for it, which will in turn sell more systems. Sega was somehow able to short circuit this cycle, and get a bunch of killer games even though the system hasn't had great sales, and yet it seems like they're still doomed.
Ya got me..
paulb
My PS2 experience...
"How bout some first-hand stuff instead..."
paulb
There's quite enough talk about the supposed worthlessness of the system, terrible quality of the launch games, conspiracy by Sony etc. That's boring. How bout my "getting the PS2" story, and some actual reviews instead ;-)
;-) The graphics engine rendered a huge landscape that stretched off in the distance with no draw-in and a tiny bit of LODing on the objects; Overall it looked very nice, and the physics engine made for some great dune-buggy-style driving.
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The story:
I live and work in Dallas TX (I'm a game developer with Ensemble Studios.) For a few weeks now, a couple of us around the office have been setting up plans to get the PS2 the day it came out. Our plan as of yesterday was to camp a Best Buy, which was supposedly getting the largest shipment of units (~150.) We decided that 4am was a good time to show up (6 hours in advance of opening.) Yesterday, however, at about 4:20, I started thinking that perhaps there were some 24 hour places that might put the system on sale at midnight, so I called around.
4:30, and the first 24 hour Walmart I call tells me, "We've got 18 systems in, and we're putting em on sale tonight at 12:01. There's already 5 people in line." 5 minutes later, and my pal Rob and I were already in the car speeding through traffic to get there (We figured that a 7 hour wait in the evening was better than a 6 hour wait at 4 in the morning.)
We arrive at approximately 4:55. As we're pulling up to the store, we watch a group of 4 kids literally bolt across the parking lot and run into the store. I know what they're here for. I tell Rob to park and I jump out of the car and enter the store, heading for the electronics section. As I walk up, I see a number of people looking around for a place to line up. I search for the nearest clerk and ask him where the line for the Playstation 2 is, he looks confused and intimidated and tells me to wait there. Not content with that answer, I track down another clerk - this one points me to the layaway section in the back of the store. As I round the corner into the layaway halway, I finally see the line. It looks like at least 30 people to me. CRAP. Quick tally. Wait - 15 people! Woo! Rob comes rushing in 30 seconds later. We've got spots 16 and 17. Five minutes later and the line is full.
The next 7 hours were filled with mixed games of Magic, talking about game design ideas, Gameboy playing, attempts by various people to sneak their way into the line, and a few muted threats that the cops were going to come to quiet things down if people didn't behave or parents didn't show up to accompany the minors. All in all, Walmart was very cool about the whole thing, and although they admitted to not at all expecting what happened, they handled it gracefully and even held an impromptu raffle for some 20$ gift certificates towards the purchase of the PS2 for those of us standing in line.
Finally at 11:55, as everyone was standing and a very noticeable excitement and tension was in the air, we heard a page over the intercom for "Assistance in the front." and 3 minutes later, a shopping cart filled to the brim with bright blue boxes was escorted by no less than 2 walmart managers and a couple of large stocking guys right by the line and into the back room behind the counter. The 18 were then cordoned off from the 20 or so "spectators" and parents (as well as my girlfriend Jade, who is the coolest chick in the world; she likes games and actually spent the evening playing Magic with us geeks and hanging out), and we purchased our systems one by one. I walked out of the store at about 12:20am, playstation2 in hand. =)
On the way to Rob's house after the purchase, we drove by the Best Buy we were going to camp at, just to check it out. At 12:30am, there were 36 people we counted lined up outside - 9 and 1/2 hours before the store opened.
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The System:
After all that, we certainly had to get home right away to plug'er in. The system itself is very stylish and sleek looking. My personal preference (as well as Rob's) is that a game machine look more "fun" than the PS2 looks, but if you're preference is the cool factor, this is definitely the coolest looking console to date. The manufacturing quality appears to be as high or higher than that of the PSX. The black plastic of the case is embossed with the PS2 logo on top, and it has some very nice little touches like a rotatable PS logo on the drivebay, and a very slick blue LED power indicator. Some negatives there are a really wacked power cycling scheme that involves a seperate master switch on the back (intended to be left on always), and then a "reset" button on the front that actually activates the system, and which you have to hold down for a few seconds to power the system off. Also, there seems to be a pretty significant cooling fan in the back of the system that emits a rather loud, compared to other consoles, (though not really unpleasant) whirring noise.
Included with the system is one controller, AV cables, instruction manual and a power cable. No demo disc, and no memory card (and apparently, the (un)availability of these cards is 1 for every 5 systems sold right now!) I was suprised by the lack of demo disc - that seems to be a no-brainer marketting oportunity to me, and I was disapointed that the system came with absolutely no included software save for the firmware.
Turning on the system for the first time presents you with a slightly different opening than the Japanese PS2 systems, with a display of the PS2 line-drawing-style logo, and then a list of languages and time zones to select from. Interesting to note is that the system was aware of the date/time out of the box - it was preset at the factory. The system configuration and memory browser menus are very slick, sporting background dolby surround sounds of ocean surf, and images of blue crystal icons and cool depth-of-field effects.
The overall sound quality of the system when hooked up via the included optical jack, and set to Dolby AC3 is phenomenal - way beyond that of the other consoles I have hooked up to my system. The music in games like Madden and SSX sounds really good, and the sound effects are crystal clear and sport very smooth and loud bass. Overall I'd have to say that the game audio is movie-quality and really impressed me. The video quality (for in-game videos, such as the Armored Core intro, or the Madden Intro) is also far ahead of what other console's have to offer and was the first thing that really impressed me when we booted the games.
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The Games:
I wasn't expecting the games themselves to be very good actually; In the past, console launches have tended to have only one (maybe two) strong games, and a bunch of shlock to fill out the launch. Rob and I had between us: Fantavision, Madden 2001, Smugglers Run, Armored Core, Midnight Club Racing, and SSX.
Overall, I was suprised and quite pleased with the quality of the games. Almost all of the titles we tried, with the exception of Midnight Club Racing, were very strong A-quality titles.
- Out of those titles, SSX and Madden are clearly the best games for the system at this time. SSX is a VERY nice looking (very fast too - 60fps) snowboarding game that is a mix between Tony Hawk (skateboarding game) and 1080 (snowboarding game.) It's all about frantic downhill action and crazy stunts, the gameplay was right on and the production quality was very high. Madden is the best looking title available on the PS2 and the production quality of that game was also remarkably high. Neither of these games had the usual rushed-out-the-door quality I would normally expect with a launch title, and none of the games had the pre-first-generation feel that I'm used to in the games that are available when a system first comes out - they were all very polished.
- Smuggler's Run was probably my second favorite game, right behind SSX, because of it's split-screen multiplayer. The CTF style capture-the-loot game is really fun, and makes me think of the PC game Tribes, except with cars
- Fantavision was a unique and fast-paced puzzle type game, that didn't appeal to me as much as a tetris clone, simply because it was lacking a bit in depth of strategy. Armored Core was a great looking FPS mech game that was fun to play and had a nice shallow learning curve - the only downside was lack of analog stick support. Midnight Club Racing seemed the weakest of the bunch to me, simply because it seemed tedious, and the graphics were not at all up to par with the rest of the group.
I can't wait to see what second generation games look like. The games I listed above leave out some very notable titles that were also available at launch such as Tekken Tag Tournament, Dead or Alive 2, and Ridge Racer V.
---
As Rob pointed out to me, your average gamer has no idea that many development houses are having lots of difficulty wrapping their brains around the PS2, those things might get some coverage in the hardcore-gamer news channels. All your average gamer knows is what he thinks is fun, and what his friends and magazines tell him is fun. I would have to say that the amount of hype and momentum to purchase the system I experienced yesterday, coupled with at least half a dozen very strong launch titles, suggests to me that sony still has great potential to lead this next generation console market. The XBox and Gamecube also have undeniably promising potential that is going to make for a very interesting playing field this coming year. =)
On my way home from Rob's, Jade and I drove by Best Buy again, and there was a line that stretched from the door, all the way around to about halfway down the side of the building. At least 60 people there at 3am. The parking lot looked as full as it does during normal hours. This Best Buy is merely one of probably half a dozen in the DFW metroplex - according to the other two guys here who actually got a system this morning (woohoo! 4 for 4!) every store they went to had a similar phenomenon.
paulb
p.s. I'm sure that some people consider the rush to get a new console the day it comes out to be pretty pointless. We all have our priorities I guess, and for me, Fun is pretty high up there on the list. The fun and excitement of this experience was way worth the 9 or so hours it took, so please don't bother to flame me for it. =)
"You know another group of hate-mongers who were just "doing there job"? They were called NAZIS! And they nearly wiped a nation of people of the earth!" - Clerks
paulb
paulb
Blackberry PDA
This is the device to get the geek on your list. I'll take the keyboard+wheel combo over a stylus any day, and the 9600kbps radio modem inside these things rocks! Wireless email that WORKS (unfortunately it requires windows at this time) and web browsing (seperate services offered through GoAmerica.) Kinda steep ($500 for the big-screen version), but it's the ultimate wireless PDA right now, IMO.
paulb
p.s. Plus it looks like the Guide with all those buttons on it. ;-)
Not quite. While I agree with you about it relieving some of the nightmare of developing on a PC, mainly the fact that it's a fixed target, that very thing is also it's inherent weakness when compared to a PC. A fixed target cannot compete with a constantly evolving platform like the PC, in terms of cutting edge performance.
paulb
The PS2 employs a "small cache, high bandwidth" design. This is much different than the large cache, low bandwidth design of more traditional systems, and it requires a different approach to developing software because of this architecture.
For example, I've read that other developers are discovering that the best way to use the vector units is not to load code to them and let them churn, but rather to stream new code to them constantly since the bus between the VU's and the CPU is 2560 bits wide!
I'm guessing that the video architecture on the device might require a similar approach - i.e., stream data into the VRAM (from main mem) in realtime rather than keeping a static set of textures around.
paulb