I'm not going to flame you. It does seem like you are using your Ngage in much the same way as an ordinary smart phone (say palm or pocketpc) rather than as a gaming device. I use a PocketPC for various tasks including web browsing, terminal services, mp3 and video playback as well as game playing (especially through emulation).
RAM isn't that cheap as far as overall component cost goes in a console. Especially if it is rated at a decent speed. One of the reasons that they use less is that the console doesn't have the operating system overhead that a typical PC does when playing a game. Consider some of the Xbox games which run in 64MB vs. their PC counterparts. They be a bit watered down, but they still look pretty good. That being said, if this is 256MB shared with the video controller, I do wonder if it's enough. I guess the texture resolutiuon won't need to be as high since the output res even at HDTV 720P is considerably less than high end PCs.
Yeah my girlfriend used to have an iPod that she used at the gym. Until the damn hard drive based player decided it wanted to blow up. Now she has a Creative Muvo flash player which works fine for music at the gym and doubles as a voice recorder for interviews at work. The comment about the "dork that nobody likes" is really telling. So you mean the main reason you have an iPod is not the feature set or utility of the device, it's so you can "not be a dork" by being a member of the cool, white earphone bearing crowd? You my friend are a tool.
That's kind of hard to say. Seeing as Richard Garriot is no longer with Origin and has lost the rights to the franchise (Ultima) to Electronic Arts, he probably would be honored at this point. Especially seeing as how EA has all but killed off Ultima, first by exerting pressure to change the game style (see Ultima 8's arcade jumping) and then rushing an unfinished Ultima to release (Ultima 9). Lastly, the one remaining Ultima product is Ultima Online which has seen two seperate updated versions killed as well. Go EA!
Can you provide links? I looked around but couldn't tell what was actually done... just seemed like a bunch of in development stuff. BTW, I'm not sure that "remade" is the proper term for the GBA version. It was a port, just as Ultima: Exodus (without the three) was a port to the Nintendo Entertainment System. They were professional sanctioned ports not fan remakes.
"If you make a Pretty Good game for PC, odds are it'll disappear beneath Even Better games; with the Mac, you've got a lot better chance of getting some traction..."
Wow! So if even if your games suck more than the top tier PC games, the Mac users will love it! Sounds like an excellent benefit to being a Mac gamer. You get to be all excited about less than stellar games everyone ignored on the PC platform since the PC had better games to play!
I agree that having a proper workspace and using the tools the way that they are supposed to be used helps a good deal. Unfortunately, not all workplaces provide adjustable work areas. I myself have championed this my current job and was lucky enough to have a boss who did suffer from RSI and agreed that it wa important. I've always been concientious about how I use the computer but haven't always had an environment I could adjust to a good level of comfort. It is possible that improved workspace conditions have had as much to do with my own problems going away as have the reduction in number of hours. Especially considering that I am likely to spend time at home on the computer as well (after work and on weekends). That being said, not every person is the same physically and just because you have not had any problems doesn't mean that others will not even if following recommended usage patterns. To cite:
"Although highly repetitive wrist movements appear to be correlated with the development of carpal tunnel syndrome, other factors, such as medical conditions like diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, thyroid disease and pregnancy, may be even more important."
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome during Pregnancy
I've seen numerous cases where physical ailment or pregnancy can cause bad carpal tunnel syndrome. In such cases if an alternate input method can help reduce the problem, there is certainly merit in using them.
CDRWs are NOT magnetic. Old style WORM and MO drives used magneto-optical technology, but current CDRWs use a dye that can be altered between transparent and opaque states by the laser.
Insightful? I would ask how many years you have been doing this for. In my caseI feel that the pain and distress is more a result of keyboarding than mousing but I do know individuals who have had to replace their mouse with an alternate input device (most commonly a trackball) due to pain or numbeness. While I have been lucky enough to only experience minor problems, during my most intense coding periods I have had numbness and tingling in the fingertips as well as shooting pains up the forearm. Luckily the dot com fallout and a return to less than 80 hour work weeks has made the problem go away. RSI injuries are very real and even if you haven't noticed any problems, you may find that after twenty plus years of keyboarding/mousing they hit you. The key point is REPETITIVE, meaning they are caused by repeatedly doing the same keyboard and mouse tasks over a long period of time.
Absolutely! I grew up watching these shows, and while I watched a lot of American television as well, it's the Monty Python DVD boxed set I own, not Laugh In. And please let's not forget the Black Adder and Benny Hill.
Hmmmmmmmmmmm. Bitter are we? FYI - um Tribes was not a gigantic hit. Yeah, I used to play the first iteration, but Tribes is notoriously difficult to pick up and start playing unless you are willing to get your ass handed to you for awhile. I agree that Halo is pretty generic and boring - at least to the average computer gamer. As far as consoles go, Halo was a little less common and introduced lots of people to online gaming. Bungie's sell out was arguably a loss for computer gamers but a boon for console gamers.
Um. No. All of those games are derivative of their predecessors. Sure Mario Sunshine is different from Mario 64 in that the environments are different and they added some new gameplay mechanics. BUT it is still a 3rd person platform game with the same basic conventions. Hell, they may call them "shines" but they are still stars that you are collecting. To say that Mario Kart DD is extremely different from Mario Kart 64 is just not true. It is an updated version, with some new gameplay mechanics (two people on one cart, more objects on the courses) but the game is stil very much the same. I have played them. I own all of those games and like them just fine, but I did not find anything particularly innovative about them. If you want an example of an innovative Gamecube game try Pikmin. If your argument solely revolves around sports games, I confess I couldn't care less what iteration of Madden it is, it still bores me. But to an enthusiast the updated stats and rosters are an important part of the gameplay. On any platform you have games that are innovative, and they number in the minority. Just as you have Pikmin on the Gamecube you have games like Katamari Damacy on the PS2.
Seriously, I don't understand what makes people play the same old stuff over and over again
Um, wrong platform to bring up that argument on. Can you say:
Super Smash Bros.
Mario Party 4, 5 and 6
Mario Tennis
Mario Karts
Mario Golf
not to mention that Paper Mario is a rehash
Don't get me wrong, I own a GameCube and an Xbox. But "FUN" is a subjective term. I have a friend who's only gaming interest is the latest iteration of Madden. That's FUN to him. Bores me to tears though.
Yes! It is! This is my theory, the theory being that is to say the theory that there is in fact, this theory being mine, the theory which states, if I may be so bold, this theory states, yes that there is in this theory, of which is mine...
one electron.
and you will know him by his proper name:
Bob.
Bob the electron. He is around you, in you apart of you are you are a part of him. Say hi Bob!
Seems like you're paying an extra few hundred dollars for software, not hardware.
Exactly. High quality OpenGL drivers optimized for professional applications are expensive to develop. They also are not necessarily going to give you the performance you would want for OpenGL games. So ATI doesn't just use the same drivers for both. I think on the consumer level, ATI is primarily concerned with DirectX and creates a tuned OpenGL driver that implements features required by popular OpenGL gaming engines (i.e. Quake and Doom 3).
More self fucking than you can shake a, ahem, stick at.
Re:My "iVideo" idea may become reality?
on
Apple to Buy TiVo?
·
· Score: 1
"Apple could charge maybe US$2.50-US$3.00 per one hour TV episode"
You have got to be kidding me. Sure a song you listen to over and over for $.99. A show you watch once for two or three dollars? Uh, no. Especially not considering that people are used to flat rate cable tv for standard programming. This model only works for pay-per-view or premium programming (MAYBE for HBO shows without the full HBO service etc.).
Tivo already has a DRM solution in place for transfering files off of the unit. Tivo 2 Go allows you to transfer the shows to your computer. These shows are tagged with the media access number of your Tivo unit and require a password to play. You can also burn the shows to DVD. And yes there are ways to strip the DRM out if you are so inclined. Is this unacceptable? For me it isn't. I transfer shows off the Tivo in order to free up space or to watch them in another room. I then delete them. Works for me.
Hell I say this is just "time shifting". I mean let's say I keep the movie for 1 day. That's 24 hours. So theoretically I could watch a 2 hour movie 12 times in that one day. So if I time shift those 12 viewing through the use of a DVD-RW is that wrong? After all I still payed money to view the movie. It's hardly the same as an all you can eat buffet. With the buffet you are taking out food which would otherwise be eaten by other customers. Hence you are directly cutting into their bottom line since there is less food. If you send the movie back it then becomes available for them to send out to another subscriber. If the problem is that Netflix's model is assuming you keep the movies for a certain amount of time so that they don't have to pay excessive mailing costs, then they just process your queue slower. Which they have been known to do for heavy users.
Is this post serious? Sarcastic? Funny? You decide!
Slashdot Mirror
I'm not going to flame you. It does seem like you are using your Ngage in much the same way as an ordinary smart phone (say palm or pocketpc) rather than as a gaming device.
I use a PocketPC for various tasks including web browsing, terminal services, mp3 and video playback as well as game playing (especially through emulation).
Spiderman:
"With great power comes great responsibility"
Gangsta Rapper Man:
"When the bitch don't pay up ma money, the bitch get beat!"
Yah, at least ideologically the idea seems compatible.
Hmmm. I think if we add the word "edition" in there somewhere we've got the perfect name!
Shush! 640MB should be enough for anyone!
Yeah I guess it should be called:
Mutlisession CDR Bootable/Saveable Linux
RAM isn't that cheap as far as overall component cost goes in a console. Especially if it is rated at a decent speed. One of the reasons that they use less is that the console doesn't have the operating system overhead that a typical PC does when playing a game. Consider some of the Xbox games which run in 64MB vs. their PC counterparts. They be a bit watered down, but they still look pretty good.
That being said, if this is 256MB shared with the video controller, I do wonder if it's enough. I guess the texture resolutiuon won't need to be as high since the output res even at HDTV 720P is considerably less than high end PCs.
Yeah my girlfriend used to have an iPod that she used at the gym. Until the damn hard drive based player decided it wanted to blow up.
Now she has a Creative Muvo flash player which works fine for music at the gym and doubles as a voice recorder for interviews at work.
The comment about the "dork that nobody likes" is really telling. So you mean the main reason you have an iPod is not the feature set or utility of the device, it's so you can "not be a dork" by being a member of the cool, white earphone bearing crowd?
You my friend are a tool.
Cool thanks for the information.
Wow, I didn't realize there was a homebrew for Ultima on the GC. Nice.
That's kind of hard to say. Seeing as Richard Garriot is no longer with Origin and has lost the rights to the franchise (Ultima) to Electronic Arts, he probably would be honored at this point.
Especially seeing as how EA has all but killed off Ultima, first by exerting pressure to change the game style (see Ultima 8's arcade jumping) and then rushing an unfinished Ultima to release (Ultima 9). Lastly, the one remaining Ultima product is Ultima Online which has seen two seperate updated versions killed as well.
Go EA!
Can you provide links? I looked around but couldn't tell what was actually done... just seemed like a bunch of in development stuff.
BTW, I'm not sure that "remade" is the proper term for the GBA version. It was a port, just as Ultima: Exodus (without the three) was a port to the Nintendo Entertainment System. They were professional sanctioned ports not fan remakes.
"If you make a Pretty Good game for PC, odds are it'll disappear beneath Even Better games; with the Mac, you've got a lot better chance of getting some traction..."
Wow! So if even if your games suck more than the top tier PC games, the Mac users will love it!
Sounds like an excellent benefit to being a Mac gamer. You get to be all excited about less than stellar games everyone ignored on the PC platform since the PC had better games to play!
I agree that having a proper workspace and using the tools the way that they are supposed to be used helps a good deal. Unfortunately, not all workplaces provide adjustable work areas. I myself have championed this my current job and was lucky enough to have a boss who did suffer from RSI and agreed that it wa important. I've always been concientious about how I use the computer but haven't always had an environment I could adjust to a good level of comfort.
It is possible that improved workspace conditions have had as much to do with my own problems going away as have the reduction in number of hours. Especially considering that I am likely to spend time at home on the computer as well (after work and on weekends).
That being said, not every person is the same physically and just because you have not had any problems doesn't mean that others will not even if following recommended usage patterns. To cite:
"Although highly repetitive wrist movements appear to be correlated with the development of carpal tunnel syndrome, other factors, such as medical conditions like diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, thyroid disease and pregnancy, may be even more important."
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome during Pregnancy
I've seen numerous cases where physical ailment or pregnancy can cause bad carpal tunnel syndrome. In such cases if an alternate input method can help reduce the problem, there is certainly merit in using them.
CDRWs are NOT magnetic. Old style WORM and MO drives used magneto-optical technology, but current CDRWs use a dye that can be altered between transparent and opaque states by the laser.
How do CD-RWs Work
Insightful? I would ask how many years you have been doing this for.
In my caseI feel that the pain and distress is more a result of keyboarding than mousing but I do know individuals who have had to replace their mouse with an alternate input device (most commonly a trackball) due to pain or numbeness.
While I have been lucky enough to only experience minor problems, during my most intense coding periods I have had numbness and tingling in the fingertips as well as shooting pains up the forearm. Luckily the dot com fallout and a return to less than 80 hour work weeks has made the problem go away.
RSI injuries are very real and even if you haven't noticed any problems, you may find that after twenty plus years of keyboarding/mousing they hit you. The key point is REPETITIVE, meaning they are caused by repeatedly doing the same keyboard and mouse tasks over a long period of time.
Absolutely! I grew up watching these shows, and while I watched a lot of American television as well, it's the Monty Python DVD boxed set I own, not Laugh In.
And please let's not forget the Black Adder and Benny Hill.
Hmmmmmmmmmmm. Bitter are we?
FYI - um Tribes was not a gigantic hit. Yeah, I used to play the first iteration, but Tribes is notoriously difficult to pick up and start playing unless you are willing to get your ass handed to you for awhile.
I agree that Halo is pretty generic and boring - at least to the average computer gamer. As far as consoles go, Halo was a little less common and introduced lots of people to online gaming.
Bungie's sell out was arguably a loss for computer gamers but a boon for console gamers.
Um. No. All of those games are derivative of their predecessors. Sure Mario Sunshine is different from Mario 64 in that the environments are different and they added some new gameplay mechanics. BUT it is still a 3rd person platform game with the same basic conventions. Hell, they may call them "shines" but they are still stars that you are collecting.
To say that Mario Kart DD is extremely different from Mario Kart 64 is just not true. It is an updated version, with some new gameplay mechanics (two people on one cart, more objects on the courses) but the game is stil very much the same.
I have played them. I own all of those games and like them just fine, but I did not find anything particularly innovative about them. If you want an example of an innovative Gamecube game try Pikmin.
If your argument solely revolves around sports games, I confess I couldn't care less what iteration of Madden it is, it still bores me. But to an enthusiast the updated stats and rosters are an important part of the gameplay.
On any platform you have games that are innovative, and they number in the minority. Just as you have Pikmin on the Gamecube you have games like Katamari Damacy on the PS2.
Um, wrong platform to bring up that argument on. Can you say:
Super Smash Bros.
Mario Party 4, 5 and 6
Mario Tennis
Mario Karts
Mario Golf
not to mention that Paper Mario is a rehash
Don't get me wrong, I own a GameCube and an Xbox. But "FUN" is a subjective term. I have a friend who's only gaming interest is the latest iteration of Madden. That's FUN to him. Bores me to tears though.
Yes! It is! This is my theory, the theory being that is to say the theory that there is in fact, this theory being mine, the theory which states, if I may be so bold, this theory states, yes that there is in this theory, of which is mine...
one electron.
and you will know him by his proper name:
Bob.
Bob the electron. He is around you, in you apart of you are you are a part of him. Say hi Bob!
It's the kind of thing that happens in Penthouse Letters all the time.
Seems like you're paying an extra few hundred dollars for software, not hardware.
Exactly. High quality OpenGL drivers optimized for professional applications are expensive to develop. They also are not necessarily going to give you the performance you would want for OpenGL games. So ATI doesn't just use the same drivers for both.
I think on the consumer level, ATI is primarily concerned with DirectX and creates a tuned OpenGL driver that implements features required by popular OpenGL gaming engines (i.e. Quake and Doom 3).
The Man Who Folded Himself
More self fucking than you can shake a, ahem, stick at.
You have got to be kidding me. Sure a song you listen to over and over for $.99. A show you watch once for two or three dollars? Uh, no. Especially not considering that people are used to flat rate cable tv for standard programming.
This model only works for pay-per-view or premium programming (MAYBE for HBO shows without the full HBO service etc.).
Tivo already has a DRM solution in place for transfering files off of the unit.
Tivo 2 Go allows you to transfer the shows to your computer. These shows are tagged with the media access number of your Tivo unit and require a password to play.
You can also burn the shows to DVD. And yes there are ways to strip the DRM out if you are so inclined.
Is this unacceptable? For me it isn't. I transfer shows off the Tivo in order to free up space or to watch them in another room. I then delete them. Works for me.
Hell I say this is just "time shifting". I mean let's say I keep the movie for 1 day. That's 24 hours. So theoretically I could watch a 2 hour movie 12 times in that one day. So if I time shift those 12 viewing through the use of a DVD-RW is that wrong? After all I still payed money to view the movie.
It's hardly the same as an all you can eat buffet. With the buffet you are taking out food which would otherwise be eaten by other customers. Hence you are directly cutting into their bottom line since there is less food.
If you send the movie back it then becomes available for them to send out to another subscriber.
If the problem is that Netflix's model is assuming you keep the movies for a certain amount of time so that they don't have to pay excessive mailing costs, then they just process your queue slower. Which they have been known to do for heavy users.
Is this post serious? Sarcastic? Funny? You decide!