Hmm... here in Sweden D-Link offers free support (mail/phone/fax) on all it's products, without any need to register or anything like that, during the warranty period (usually one or two years).
This can't be done, the NES and gameboy are completely different systems. (Different CPU, memory, screen, and everything else.)
The SEGA Master System and Game Gear on the other hand, they are basically the same system with different screen sizes.
Actually... I've heard that matsushita supplies Nintendo with their mini-DVD drives "for free", while matsushita can use the GameCube design "for free" in their DVD-players.
Apperently matsushita also owns some patent on the mini-dvd discs, so both nintendo and matsushita makes money on each sold game copy.
Apparently Hiroshi Yamauchi is known to like to tease the media and a lot of what he says can be interpreted in many ways. This makes it hell to thanslate anything he says to any other language.
I wouldn't worry about the GameCube, what these articles says is probably only one interpretation of what he meant. Even if he said it, then this will generate a lot of attention at e3, which might be what he wanted to do.
with 8xN sprite size
Super NES can display sprites up to 64x64. Up to 256 pixels of sprites can be on one scanline.
I wasn't very clear there... I meant (8 x N) x (8 x N) sprite size...
Heck, the 8-bit NES could do that; it was used for the drums in Contra and Super Mario Bros. 3 and for the explosions in Bomberman. Interplay's sound engine on Super NES could do something similar: streaming sound data from the cart to the SPC700's RAM while the game is playing.
This has been done on the original GB too (with quite bad results...) All of these methods require CPU power though, the GBA has sound hardware that can read directly from the cart.
My guess would be that the GBA is much more powerful than the SNES though... The SNES has an 16 bit CISC CPU at only a few MHz... the GBA has an 32 bit RISC CPU at 17 (?) MHz, and much more powerful sound and video hardware. The GBA can handle 512 colors in character mode, with any sprite size and scalable sprites, and 2*Mode7, and so on. The SNES can only handle 256 colors, with 8xN sprite size. The GBA can also handle 32000 colors at once on screen in bitmap mode.
The number of voices in GBA sound is only limited by CPU power (I've read that around 12 at once is reasonable in games). The GBA can even stream sound directly off the cart. (It doesn't have to be copied to RAM first.)
In most countries copyrights expire... but not until around 70 years after the copyright holders death... (I'm not sure about this... but that would probaby work the same for companies... that the copyright expires 70 years after the company is closed down...)
Anyway... it wouldn't be legal to copy Nintendo's games for at least 70 more years...
From what I've heard the GBA as a controller will be used for changing settings and so on, that you want to keep secret from your friends. (With who you are playing multiplayer games (for example sport games) on one GameCube.)
The link will probably be quite fast btw, since there will be multiplayer GBA games, where only ONE cart is needed, the other GBA's will download the nessesary game code and data from the GBA with the cart using the link. The link must be fast so that this won't take forever.
(With most multiplayer games you will be able to play only some levels with the download link though, for the rest you will need to have 2+ carts.)
Actually the GB is usually regarded as a 1 Mhz system, (and the GBC as 2 Mhz, even Nintendo themselves says that they are 1/2 Mhz systems...), since the fastest instructions uses 4 clock-cycles to execute. The slower instructions uses multiples of 4 cycles (8, 12, 16 and so on...)
I *like* that we have some of the highest tax rates in the world here in Sweden, since that gives *everyone* free schools, free (or cheap)healthcare and so on. The standard of living also really *is* among the highest in the world.
Even education at college level is free, so everyone really can become whatever they want as long as they work for it. This should be compared with many other countries where only people with money can afford education, and thus get higher education, which means that only the people that already are rich can get well-paid jobs. The rich people get richer, and the poor people get poorer, this really isn't equal opportunities IMHO...
hmm... in Sweden you are *always* entitled to between 30 and 180 days notice (depending on how long you have worked...) how about that...
Of course you are getting full salary and so on during this time... even if you they don't give you any work...
(There are also other laws regulating on which grounds employers are allowed to fire people and so on...)
Have you americans heard of any kind of employment security...
In Sweden, according to our laws all employees have the right to between one and six months notice before being fired (depending on how long you have worked). During this time you have the right to a full salary and so on... even if the employer doesn't have any work for you...
I think that the game publisher is going to be Red Orb, which is owned by the learning company, which is owned by Mattel... The creators of the game is still Cyan though... and they are not owned by anyone else.
Take the "revolution" you mention: Microsoft's start menu. The whole idea of replacing the big, easy-to-use Program Manager, with a little menu hidden in the corner, is absurd.
I'm not sure that I agree there. I remember when I first started using computers, in the Win 3.1 days. The program that I used the most was Paintbrush. Since the 14" screen is so small, the program manager was usually maximized. This meant that whenever I accidentally clicked the program manager, paintbrush disappeared. Of course it was still running in the background, but I had no idea where it had gone, and instead opened a new paintbrush window. (Waiting five minutes for it to load...) With a Start button and a taskbar this wouldn't have been a problem.
Slashdot Mirror
I never really believed that thing would ever be released...
You mean 8cm mini CD's and 5cm DVD's right? Othervise they are really really really small.
Hmm... here in Sweden D-Link offers free support (mail/phone/fax) on all it's products, without any need to register or anything like that, during the warranty period (usually one or two years).
This can't be done, the NES and gameboy are completely different systems. (Different CPU, memory, screen, and everything else.) The SEGA Master System and Game Gear on the other hand, they are basically the same system with different screen sizes.
Apperently it seems as purple, black, silver and pink will be the first GC colors...
Actually they *are* using small DVDs which can hold 1.5 gigabytes each.
Actually... I've heard that matsushita supplies Nintendo with their mini-DVD drives "for free", while matsushita can use the GameCube design "for free" in their DVD-players. Apperently matsushita also owns some patent on the mini-dvd discs, so both nintendo and matsushita makes money on each sold game copy.
Apparently Hiroshi Yamauchi is known to like to tease the media and a lot of what he says can be interpreted in many ways. This makes it hell to thanslate anything he says to any other language. I wouldn't worry about the GameCube, what these articles says is probably only one interpretation of what he meant. Even if he said it, then this will generate a lot of attention at e3, which might be what he wanted to do.
And Nintendo has actually released a list of about 25 games that doesn't work with the GBA...
512 colors in character mode (sprites+backgrounds) and 32000 (at once) in bitmap mode.
My guess would be that the GBA is much more powerful than the SNES though... The SNES has an 16 bit CISC CPU at only a few MHz... the GBA has an 32 bit RISC CPU at 17 (?) MHz, and much more powerful sound and video hardware. The GBA can handle 512 colors in character mode, with any sprite size and scalable sprites, and 2*Mode7, and so on. The SNES can only handle 256 colors, with 8xN sprite size. The GBA can also handle 32000 colors at once on screen in bitmap mode. The number of voices in GBA sound is only limited by CPU power (I've read that around 12 at once is reasonable in games). The GBA can even stream sound directly off the cart. (It doesn't have to be copied to RAM first.)
In most countries copyrights expire... but not until around 70 years after the copyright holders death... (I'm not sure about this... but that would probaby work the same for companies... that the copyright expires 70 years after the company is closed down...)
Anyway... it wouldn't be legal to copy Nintendo's games for at least 70 more years...
From what I've heard the GBA as a controller will be used for changing settings and so on, that you want to keep secret from your friends. (With who you are playing multiplayer games (for example sport games) on one GameCube.)
The link will probably be quite fast btw, since there will be multiplayer GBA games, where only ONE cart is needed, the other GBA's will download the nessesary game code and data from the GBA with the cart using the link. The link must be fast so that this won't take forever. (With most multiplayer games you will be able to play only some levels with the download link though, for the rest you will need to have 2+ carts.)
Actually the GB is usually regarded as a 1 Mhz system, (and the GBC as 2 Mhz, even Nintendo themselves says that they are 1/2 Mhz systems...), since the fastest instructions uses 4 clock-cycles to execute. The slower instructions uses multiples of 4 cycles (8, 12, 16 and so on...)
I *like* that we have some of the highest tax rates in the world here in Sweden, since that gives *everyone* free schools, free (or cheap)healthcare and so on. The standard of living also really *is* among the highest in the world. Even education at college level is free, so everyone really can become whatever they want as long as they work for it. This should be compared with many other countries where only people with money can afford education, and thus get higher education, which means that only the people that already are rich can get well-paid jobs. The rich people get richer, and the poor people get poorer, this really isn't equal opportunities IMHO...
hmm... in Sweden you are *always* entitled to between 30 and 180 days notice (depending on how long you have worked...) how about that... Of course you are getting full salary and so on during this time... even if you they don't give you any work... (There are also other laws regulating on which grounds employers are allowed to fire people and so on...)
Have you americans heard of any kind of employment security... In Sweden, according to our laws all employees have the right to between one and six months notice before being fired (depending on how long you have worked). During this time you have the right to a full salary and so on... even if the employer doesn't have any work for you...
I think that the game publisher is going to be Red Orb, which is owned by the learning company, which is owned by Mattel... The creators of the game is still Cyan though... and they are not owned by anyone else.
I'm not sure that I agree there. I remember when I first started using computers, in the Win 3.1 days. The program that I used the most was Paintbrush. Since the 14" screen is so small, the program manager was usually maximized. This meant that whenever I accidentally clicked the program manager, paintbrush disappeared. Of course it was still running in the background, but I had no idea where it had gone, and instead opened a new paintbrush window. (Waiting five minutes for it to load...)
With a Start button and a taskbar this wouldn't have been a problem.