"I thought I remembered it also had some limited copy-protection stuff, too (IE, complaining about Alcohol 120%), but I find no on-line confirmation."
I don't believe WoW has any copy protection. The CDs certainly don't and warden is used to identify cheaters using macro programs and bots (although depending on your level of paranoia perhaps Blizzard is using it for more nefarious means). WoW doesn't need copy protection because you need a valid account to play it - who cares who has the client?
While Diablo's structure is entirely reminescent of earlier non real time games like Rogue, Hack, Larn, Angband etc. it really reminded me of Gateway to Apshai which was the action-i-fied version of the Temple of Apshai series. Same basic dungeon crawl but with real time combat using a joystick. It was even released on the Colecovision. The arcade game Gauntlet was also a simplified action version of games like Rogue.
"Dune 2 was a forgotten game based on a terrible movie."
Dune first off was a novel before it was ever a movie. But to my main point, Westwood wanted to create it's own brand and dropped the Dune trappings, however Command and Conquer is in just about everyway the sequel for Dune 2. The tiberium in C&C is an exact replacement for the spice harvesting in Dune 2. Command and Conquer as you may well know is still played today, has spawned many sequels and offshoots - C&C 3 is on its way is on it's way.
He must have been using a Macbook Pro which has an ATI x1600 just like the iMac. The Macbook and mini have Intel integrated graphics chips which would be terrible for Battlefield 2. The x1600 isn't even a very good card either, mid range cards like the Nvidia 7600GT kick the crap out of it.
But it took place in completely new areas (Hoth, Dagobah, asteroid field, Bespin). If Empire Strikes back was like HL2 Episode 1 it would have taken place entirely on Tatooine.
Gordon DOES speak. In my game Gordon says things like "Get the fuck out of the way you stupid bitch, I can't get in the doorway." or "Oh gee some more zombies, now that's a surprise!" or "Hey look a physics puzzle!"
Actually ads aren't the only reason although it's "big super plus" for management. One of the big reasons is that usability tests show that most people don't like long articles that scroll down forever. They are used to getting there information on the Internet in more bite size chunks. Seperating it into pages and providing links that jump to particular sections allows the reader to choose what they want to read. Every little detail? Just one part that interestes them? Jump to the conclusion? Additionally if you throw it all on one page and have a lot of images, someone skimming the article by scrolling down may do so before all the images load in. Which causes impatient web surfers to think the site is slow. Agree or disagree, a paged setup is being taught as the best way to "webify" longer form content - particularly material that may originate in a print publication.
"You could make a better point about the integrated graphics in the consumer models (iBook, Mac Mini) but those 'cards' are the same on the PC side anyway."
But you can buy a cheap PC that is a good gaming machine for the same cost (or less) than a mini. You can also upgrade a video card in a regular desktop PC. The only Mac that offers this option in the PowerMac which starts at $2000. $2000 can get you a high end dual core Athlon with dual-SLI Nvidia 7900GS cards. Something you can't touch performance wise on Mac hardware. If you are a hardcord computer gamer you are going to want a PC because of the hardware flexibility. You are also going to be less concerned about the OS, because you will primarily be using it to run games. I honestly don't care that much what OS my gaming rig runs, I just care that it runs the games I want to play and has flexibility in upgrading performance.
"Essentially every time a game is released from the start for both Mac & Windows, the games run great."
I'm not entirely sure this is the case. The disparity in performance of World of Warcraft on Windows vs OSX is pretty severe. Taking a 20-40% speed hit on identical hardware. And this is from Blizzard which has been making Mac games for a long time.
Civilization IV comes out at the end of this month. More than 6 months after it's launch on PC. I can't find anything about Battlefield 2 being ported over to Mac either via Google or that site you linked to. BF2 is already over a year old, has had one major expansion, a mini expansion and is due for another mini expansion shortly. Oh, and BF 2142 is coming soon. So if BF2 ever does make it to the Mac I don't relish the gaming experience when a new Mac player jumps into a server full of people who have been playing for a year. Which is what happened with BF1942, which took forever to come out on Mac.
"Ultima 5. The Apple version kicked the everloving shit out of the C-64 version... (As did Ultima 1, 2, 3 and 4)."
Huh? It's true that with Ultima 5 you had to have a C128 to hear the music due to ram limitations but with Ult3 and 4 on the Apple you need a Mockinboard to get the music at all. The C64 version also didn't have that annoying Apple 2 color fringing which occured around the color white. You are exaggerating the slowness of the 1541. The fastloader (in particular Epyx FastLoad cart) seriously improved the speed of most loading. The slowest loading games were caused by copy protection which in some cases was pretty bad (EA I'm looking at you). The C64 had better graphics and sound than the Apple 2. That's simply due to the technology - it isn't really a debateable point. It was also release years after the Apple 2 - so that's hardly surprising.
Exactly - after 1982 the C64 took off and games were made for it first and then ported to the Apple. Epyx (as in Summer Games) was one of the first companies that took advantage of the C64's better graphics and sound, unlike Broderbund which put out direct ports of Apple games for the C64 (i.e. Karateka, Drol, Spy's Demise etc.).
Why would it have to be a stolen telephone? What about one purchased with false ID meant to be trashed after usage? Or more likely a VOIP phone (or soft phone). Not to mention the (admittedly increasingly rare) pay phone.
I'm pretty sure that they run PowerPC code now as well. As far as emulation goes it just means you are mostly in the same boat as emulating OS9 on any other OS (i.e. Windows). Classic wasn't perfect but it did make running the old software much easier than getting an emulator working.
Historically this hasn't happened. There is a cross-over period once a new console launches where you still get a lot of games being released for the older system but there are few cases where publishers opted out of doing a PS2 version because they could just to a PS1 version. I think some "edutainment" companies did this, but not mainstream publishers. If you look at upcoming game development on the Xbox you can see that 360 development is gearing up in a big way whereas the older Xbox has pretty much been dropped.
And yet they keep buying them. Hardly gives Apple an incentive to make them more reliable does it? iPods are essentially disposable electronics, it's amazing that Apple has managed to create something disposable that lists for such a high price tag. Cell phones are probably the only other comparable item.
I can see by your choice of a GeForce FX 5600XT that you should have already given up hopes of decent performance long before Vista. I keed! Sort of. Upgraded to a 5600 Ultra from a 4400 and hardly noticed any performance increase.
"OSX just refuses to run quite a few old programs, and Linux just drives you insane trying to sort out dependencies and versions and all the rest of that fun stuff."
And now that classic is no longer supported on Intel processors all those ancient Mac apps will not run.
Like the original Everquest did? I'm not saying that Vanguard will succeed just that I bet there are enough hardcore gamers to support a game like that. I tried out Eve and after my two week trial realized that it was too hardcore for me. Nonetheless it is a popular game with a dedicated (if small compared to WoW or some other MMOs) group of players.
"The example of a corpse run is mentioned. Corpse run is a penalty for dying. Everquest 2 for instance punishes you with an experience debt unless you go back to where you died and reassorb your ghost."
Not any more. No more corpse runs in EQ2. Now you get 10% equipment damage and a small amount of debt (less than 1% of level). Honestly I've never seen the debt be really a serious problem. I don't think I've ever had more than 2% debt. City of Heroes had much harsher debt penalties (I think they've reduced it since launch however).
I totally agree with you about the power imbalance between epic equipped lvl 60 chracters and blue item wearers. I quit WoW with 6/8 of my tier 0 blue set and 1 epic. I'm in an odd time zone and couldn't commit to raiding (raids either happened while I'm at work or when I should be going to sleep). So my big question is how will Blizzard balance the content in Burning Crusade? Will it be geared toward the epic equipped 60s? If it isn't then it will be too easy for player who have been doing nothing but raiding for the past 6-9 months (like most my old guildies who still play).
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"I thought I remembered it also had some limited copy-protection stuff, too (IE, complaining about Alcohol 120%), but I find no on-line confirmation."
I don't believe WoW has any copy protection. The CDs certainly don't and warden is used to identify cheaters using macro programs and bots (although depending on your level of paranoia perhaps Blizzard is using it for more nefarious means). WoW doesn't need copy protection because you need a valid account to play it - who cares who has the client?
While Diablo's structure is entirely reminescent of earlier non real time games like Rogue, Hack, Larn, Angband etc. it really reminded me of Gateway to Apshai which was the action-i-fied version of the Temple of Apshai series. Same basic dungeon crawl but with real time combat using a joystick. It was even released on the Colecovision.
The arcade game Gauntlet was also a simplified action version of games like Rogue.
"Dune 2 was a forgotten game based on a terrible movie."
Dune first off was a novel before it was ever a movie. But to my main point, Westwood wanted to create it's own brand and dropped the Dune trappings, however Command and Conquer is in just about everyway the sequel for Dune 2. The tiberium in C&C is an exact replacement for the spice harvesting in Dune 2. Command and Conquer as you may well know is still played today, has spawned many sequels and offshoots - C&C 3 is on its way is on it's way.
He must have been using a Macbook Pro which has an ATI x1600 just like the iMac. The Macbook and mini have Intel integrated graphics chips which would be terrible for Battlefield 2. The x1600 isn't even a very good card either, mid range cards like the Nvidia 7600GT kick the crap out of it.
But it took place in completely new areas (Hoth, Dagobah, asteroid field, Bespin). If Empire Strikes back was like HL2 Episode 1 it would have taken place entirely on Tatooine.
Gordon DOES speak. In my game Gordon says things like "Get the fuck out of the way you stupid bitch, I can't get in the doorway." or "Oh gee some more zombies, now that's a surprise!" or "Hey look a physics puzzle!"
Actually ads aren't the only reason although it's "big super plus" for management.
One of the big reasons is that usability tests show that most people don't like long articles that scroll down forever. They are used to getting there information on the Internet in more bite size chunks. Seperating it into pages and providing links that jump to particular sections allows the reader to choose what they want to read. Every little detail? Just one part that interestes them? Jump to the conclusion?
Additionally if you throw it all on one page and have a lot of images, someone skimming the article by scrolling down may do so before all the images load in. Which causes impatient web surfers to think the site is slow.
Agree or disagree, a paged setup is being taught as the best way to "webify" longer form content - particularly material that may originate in a print publication.
I'm sorry sir you seen to have an improper understanding of value in current American culture. Let me illustrate:
value of song copyright > value of human life
Now is it clear?
"You could make a better point about the integrated graphics in the consumer models (iBook, Mac Mini) but those 'cards' are the same on the PC side anyway."
But you can buy a cheap PC that is a good gaming machine for the same cost (or less) than a mini. You can also upgrade a video card in a regular desktop PC. The only Mac that offers this option in the PowerMac which starts at $2000. $2000 can get you a high end dual core Athlon with dual-SLI Nvidia 7900GS cards. Something you can't touch performance wise on Mac hardware.
If you are a hardcord computer gamer you are going to want a PC because of the hardware flexibility. You are also going to be less concerned about the OS, because you will primarily be using it to run games. I honestly don't care that much what OS my gaming rig runs, I just care that it runs the games I want to play and has flexibility in upgrading performance.
"Essentially every time a game is released from the start for both Mac & Windows, the games run great."
I'm not entirely sure this is the case. The disparity in performance of World of Warcraft on Windows vs OSX is pretty severe. Taking a 20-40% speed hit on identical hardware. And this is from Blizzard which has been making Mac games for a long time.
What? You call this laughable?
Oh wait. I do too.
Civilization IV comes out at the end of this month. More than 6 months after it's launch on PC.
I can't find anything about Battlefield 2 being ported over to Mac either via Google or that site you linked to. BF2 is already over a year old, has had one major expansion, a mini expansion and is due for another mini expansion shortly. Oh, and BF 2142 is coming soon. So if BF2 ever does make it to the Mac I don't relish the gaming experience when a new Mac player jumps into a server full of people who have been playing for a year. Which is what happened with BF1942, which took forever to come out on Mac.
"Ultima 5. The Apple version kicked the everloving shit out of the C-64 version... (As did Ultima 1, 2, 3 and 4)."
Huh? It's true that with Ultima 5 you had to have a C128 to hear the music due to ram limitations but with Ult3 and 4 on the Apple you need a Mockinboard to get the music at all. The C64 version also didn't have that annoying Apple 2 color fringing which occured around the color white.
You are exaggerating the slowness of the 1541. The fastloader (in particular Epyx FastLoad cart) seriously improved the speed of most loading. The slowest loading games were caused by copy protection which in some cases was pretty bad (EA I'm looking at you).
The C64 had better graphics and sound than the Apple 2. That's simply due to the technology - it isn't really a debateable point. It was also release years after the Apple 2 - so that's hardly surprising.
Exactly - after 1982 the C64 took off and games were made for it first and then ported to the Apple. Epyx (as in Summer Games) was one of the first companies that took advantage of the C64's better graphics and sound, unlike Broderbund which put out direct ports of Apple games for the C64 (i.e. Karateka, Drol, Spy's Demise etc.).
Or buys the "Student and Teacher" edition for $150 that includes 3 licenses.
Why would it have to be a stolen telephone? What about one purchased with false ID meant to be trashed after usage? Or more likely a VOIP phone (or soft phone). Not to mention the (admittedly increasingly rare) pay phone.
I'm pretty sure that they run PowerPC code now as well. As far as emulation goes it just means you are mostly in the same boat as emulating OS9 on any other OS (i.e. Windows). Classic wasn't perfect but it did make running the old software much easier than getting an emulator working.
Historically this hasn't happened. There is a cross-over period once a new console launches where you still get a lot of games being released for the older system but there are few cases where publishers opted out of doing a PS2 version because they could just to a PS1 version. I think some "edutainment" companies did this, but not mainstream publishers. If you look at upcoming game development on the Xbox you can see that 360 development is gearing up in a big way whereas the older Xbox has pretty much been dropped.
Atari 2600: Huge success
Atari 5200: not backward compatible failure
Atari 7800: backward compatible failure
Somehow I think other market factors play into whether or not a console is successful aside from backwards compatibility.
"Some of my friends have had 5 iPod failures."
And yet they keep buying them. Hardly gives Apple an incentive to make them more reliable does it? iPods are essentially disposable electronics, it's amazing that Apple has managed to create something disposable that lists for such a high price tag. Cell phones are probably the only other comparable item.
I can see by your choice of a GeForce FX 5600XT that you should have already given up hopes of decent performance long before Vista.
I keed! Sort of. Upgraded to a 5600 Ultra from a 4400 and hardly noticed any performance increase.
"OSX just refuses to run quite a few old programs, and Linux just drives you insane trying to sort out dependencies and versions and all the rest of that fun stuff."
And now that classic is no longer supported on Intel processors all those ancient Mac apps will not run.
Like the original Everquest did?
I'm not saying that Vanguard will succeed just that I bet there are enough hardcore gamers to support a game like that.
I tried out Eve and after my two week trial realized that it was too hardcore for me. Nonetheless it is a popular game with a dedicated (if small compared to WoW or some other MMOs) group of players.
"The example of a corpse run is mentioned. Corpse run is a penalty for dying. Everquest 2 for instance punishes you with an experience debt unless you go back to where you died and reassorb your ghost."
Not any more. No more corpse runs in EQ2. Now you get 10% equipment damage and a small amount of debt (less than 1% of level). Honestly I've never seen the debt be really a serious problem. I don't think I've ever had more than 2% debt. City of Heroes had much harsher debt penalties (I think they've reduced it since launch however).
I totally agree with you about the power imbalance between epic equipped lvl 60 chracters and blue item wearers. I quit WoW with 6/8 of my tier 0 blue set and 1 epic. I'm in an odd time zone and couldn't commit to raiding (raids either happened while I'm at work or when I should be going to sleep). So my big question is how will Blizzard balance the content in Burning Crusade? Will it be geared toward the epic equipped 60s? If it isn't then it will be too easy for player who have been doing nothing but raiding for the past 6-9 months (like most my old guildies who still play).