The first Shinobi, as other's have mentioned, was hard, but not as hard as the article mentioned. It was just a matter of remembering where and when you could jump. And the first boss involved a bit of luck. If he first flamed you cross-fire style, skill wouldn't help you.
Rolling Thunder, on the other hand, was much more difficult. And the animation and graphics were much better. Could you get through both acts and defeat Geldra on one quarter? It took a long time, but I eventually could.
I also felt that the home version, Revenge of Shinobi, was a worthy successor, and much harder, but unlike the article claims, it felt graphically inferior to the first arcade game. Mainly because of little sprites. But it had Spiderman in it! What more do you need?
It should be noted that Mr. Pavlina only cites his own experience in the article. Since I don't have a business or economics background, I couldn't begin to agree or disagree on his points. However, his lack of comparative figures, that is, citing other shareware successes and failures based on his criteria, makes his process more of an opinion than a thesis. I'd be negligent if I based my entire shareware concept on this. However, it is thought-provoking. This looks like a great concept for an series of Slashdot interviews of shareware professionals, whom I will classify as those who sell their own shareware as their primary source of income.
Megaman X series is a different storyline than Megaman. Same thing with Megaman Legends/Tron Bonne--different story. The fact it's called Megaman Network implies yet another divergence in the story. Confused? Easily.
Cafe Press first CD available for purchase is by MeepMeep. I can tell from experience that the tracks were made with MTV Music Generator. So it may not be for a serious musician, but it's out there and people are publishing with it.
Here is the only article (in Italian) I could find on Ridge Racer Next: Ridge Racer VI. It has a rare few pictures. The parent article above is better.
The only reason I mention Ridge Racer VI is that it was slated, originally, to be a cel-shaded cartoony RR game. I guess since Capcom did this first with Auto Modellista they have changed their plans? I got this impression researching the title two months ago, but now all the articles are pulled of the Web.
I think this RR might be a deviation from the Ridge Racer series into the "reality" department. Why? The RR series, though not realistic, was fun because it was so easy to get into, felt really fast, and had fun tracks. It is the model of arcade racing today. I heartily recommend Ridge Racer V to anyone who doesn't want to fine tune their car for hours just to shave off.73 seconds.
Auto Modellista has realistic, but extremely annoying power drift that makes the game not fun. I hope the assertion of realism with this new Ridge Racer is a good thing and not fishtail city. I also cross my fingers for the return to arcade racing with Ridge Racer VI down the road.
Right now, there's Jester Interactive's MTV Music Generator for PSOne that plays on PS2, MTV Music Generator 2 for PS2 (as mentioned in article), and Music Maker by Magix. All are currently available, but I believe Music Maker (MSRP $10!) is the only one still being published.
THE MTVMGs are extremely versatile and easy to use. The second one suffers from less varied riffs and a counter-intuitive down-scrolling interface that is not like sheet music. The reason for this interface (and these are guesses) is either some sort of patent or they wanted to show you as many tracks as possible on screen. The MTVMGs allow you to resample everything, which makes it versatile, but I'll have to admit the riff editor is hard to use.
Magix software also has a hard-to-use riff editor, but it only lets you resample it's basic instruments. Otherwise, it's a more powerful riff editor with interesting features like random music. For this very reason, Music Maker is inferior on PS2 to MTVMG. However, ten bucks is all I need to know.
Both series have video editing. Magix software is easier, but eats up your memory quickly. Jester's is very hard to use, but the samples on the disk are quite good. Still, repeating those samples from scratch is another matter. Both series have the worst documentation on video editing. It'll take a lot of time to figure out, but it's not worth it.
The thing I miss most in MTVMG2 is the CD player. Please bring it back, Jester. What it would do is generate random video that would interact with different triggers from the music on the CD. It doesn't work on the PC version at all, BTW--instead is just an on-screen kaliedoscope of a few effects.
All that aside, you can also buy Harmonix titles Frequency and Amplitude. Why? Though mostly a game, you can remix the tracks with some fair results.
When you're done with your tracks, hook the audio up to a PC or MP3 recorder and rip your tracks. An adapter from L/R stereo to stereo headphone and stereo patch cord (both for under $20 total) should do it. I use my Archos Jukebox.
I'm looking forware to MTVMG3. However, I'm probably not getting the sampler because I have no desire to subject people to my own vocals. However, I will be getting Konami's Karaoke Revolution when it comes out, so the world isn't safe.
I did a quick research on Google and found this paper on The Effect of Violent Internet Games on Children and Juveniles by Karen Olivier, Institute for Criminological Sciences, University of South Africa. It's a short-and-sweet read. It concludes that education and familial responsibility are the best defenses against this influence.
There are two different approaches to the Violence begets Violence argument, whether the violence is real or simulated: 1) Test the hypothesis that violent people tend to gravitate towards violent activities, simulated or real, and 2) Regardless of how much influence feeds a person's violent tendencies, they must still be held responsible for acting on those tendencies, since coercion is not force.
Game Maker is similar to Klik 'n' Play. It's free and you don't have to program at all. You do have to firmly grasp object oriented conditional behavior. You can also add complicated code if you get deeply into the game.
If you want to introduce game design, history is an excellent teacher. Space War, Pong, and Breakout are excellent games to mimic as teaching devices, then move on to Space Invaders (which is really just Pong Strikes Back!), Head-On (early version of Pac Man), and Asteroids.
Something like 90% or more of all DDR software/hardware upgrades are illegal pirate copies. All of the Japanese ones in the US are either license violations (for sale and use in Japan only according to agreement) or pirate copies which also violate the license. Konami loses major bucks on arcade DDR.
Home sales are much better. However, DDR is a diminishing market in Japan, and has always been a rather fringe market in the US. So DDR would not be enough to pull Konami up.
Yu-gi-oh! Is logically their hottest thing now, and the way they're whoring it, it'll be over with in less than a year. Maybe they should make Yugi Yugi Revolution Oh! while there's still time.
Okay, perhaps the most interesting thing about DoA1 was the incredible, gravity defying bounce. And I'm not talking about the ring-out bounce. Although the other games had sweeter graphics, much sweeter, the zero-g breasts in the first game were pretty much the only reason to play. Will that be in the game? How about with enhanced graphics?
There are a couple of inaccuracies in this article:
1) The law almost exclusively uses the voluntary rating system, though the violence against police officers and explicit sex are the exceptions 2) Washington isn't the first state to enact this legislation, Missouri, then Illinois, have both enacted such legislation--only to have them effectively anulled by the states' Supreme Courts.
I used to sell these things. When you're out of 2K3, if someone buys 2K2, you're happy as a clam because old editions don't sell. The article is right on the money when mom is in charge of the Christmas list. Yep, she'll be confused.
The real way out of the dilemma is to create downwardly compatible software that can read the players and stats of the previous year's edition. Throw in things like collectible uniforms (they change), insignia (they change, too), and special game-only features (different for each console, of course), that can also be uploaded into the latest edition. Imagine and 80's Ripken Orioles team vs. a 90's Ripken Orioles team. The only problem is, when Cal hits the ball to the 80's team, all the players dive for it.
This could get really cool if they'd publish a Baseball 1900 edition.
Interestingly enough, Ken doesn't remember that the Roberta Williams Collection, a very good buy (don't know about XP compatibility), had an Apple II emulator on it to play Roberta's Apple games. He didn't have to download it at all, his own company sold it.
He's right though, old games typically don't hold your interest, mainly because we're used to a higher standard for graphics and sound.
[The first Sierra game I played was Sammy Lightfoot on the Apple II (a Donkey Kong clone). You literally had to line up pixels before you jumped back then.]
Let me grab a calculator
on
Making Change
·
· Score: 1
Despite the earnestness of the article and research, this should probably be under Laugh, It's Funny. People grab a calculator for 6 times 3. Imagine having to carry the one for all your transactions?
The fact that other countries with a decimal system of currency have different suggested value coins indicates the "efficient coin" is based on the current economy.
penny, nickel, dime, decoct, quarter,.... The kids are going to have a field-day with this one!
The article mentions that if you're going to be spending a lot of time looking at a single character, that character had better be pleasant to the eye. That's probably the number one reason right there.
Most importantly, most characters in video games are male. Of all those male characters, almost all have an impossibly ripped body of unnatural proportions. The torso of the video game male is usually almost double the size of what is possible. And a large majority of the time, the males are scantily clad.
Please note that the depiction of the male is as outlandish as the depiction of the female. This depiction is exploitive of the video game character. Since they're not real, it doesn't matter. It's all about fantasy. If a fantasy isn't intersting or intriguing, nobody wants to see it, let alone play with it.
XS games puts out cheap conversions. I mean in price. Mobile Light Force 2 is between $10 and $15 NEW for Playstation 2. The loss in content is probably worth it.
Hmmmm, I can't imagine why someone would think babes would sell video games. It was probably a toss-up between that and a Domino's coupon for free pizza.
I actually did read it. If I use MP3.com, and I do, my example is valid. It's a very dangerous thing to make assumptions.
As for dumbass comment, I provide this constructive criticism. How are we exposed to new music? We have to, at some point, choose a provider, whether it be streaming audio, radio, impulse CD buys, or downloading. Unfortunately, in all those instances, I'm exposed to commercialized music. Hence, I refer to my original comment.
If you choose a different method of finding music, good for you. Choice is what we need.
This sounds an awful lot like applying "weights" to music selections based on number of downloads. Doesn't Amazon have a patent on this already with their "Recommendations?"
The problem I see with The Brain is that it doesn't seem to factor out the correlation between music availability and the number of times it's downloaded. Hence, our collective "tastes" are based on what MP3 providers are pushing down our throats.
Example: MP3.com has Top Playlists. Interspersed in the playlists are MP3.com paid spots. So every fourth song or so is sponsored. This means they'll be counted as "to what people listen" more often than say, the 33rd song. If you ran The Brain on only MP3.com Top Playlists, I suspect only the sponsored songs would make it to the final stream selections.
Doesn't this article actually show some contradictory evidence to the hypothesis that women are less spatially apt?
A larger screen doesn't increase your 3D visualization ability. It simply increases your sensory input--namely sight. The article implies the hypothesis that what women are seeing affects their thought processes.
Number 7 is Beachhead 2000. VR genre. Number 8 is Pac Man. Maze genre.
The rest are all ripo^H^H^Hedemption games where you spend $20 in quarters to get $2.50 in plastic junk.
We need to view the article as an opinion piece about lack of originality.
Re:Three puzzle games for GameCube, Xbox, or PS2?
on
Top Ten Dying Game Genres
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
Egg Mania (all systems) Super Bubble Pop (all systems) Bust-A-Move 3/3000 (GCN, PS2) Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo (GBA) -- yes, it's coming out again!...and on, and on. Those games were just the last few months! Puzzle games are published more often than any other type of game today. The problem is, "puzzle" is too broad a category to name as a genre.
The article shows a real lack of research. VR Games dead? Then how come Beachhead 2000 is the number-one non-redemption game in arcades today? No, I'm afraid there are too many inaccuracies to take the article seriously.
This law allowed the government to withhold funds from any library not applying the appropriate filtering software, or having ineffective filtering software. All filtering software is incomplete meaning you could "prove" arbitrarily that any library or group of libraries is unworthy of Fed funds due to ineffective Web filtering software.
The filtering software also blocks educational/informational sites on things like: breast cancer, testicular cancer, tourism in Essex and Sussex, and sex education. Not to mention blocking adult content from adults.
The core of the law has good intentions (another brick to the road to Hell), but the legaleze is vague and inappropriate.
I've seen news stories locally (Baltimore) that claim this "requires libraries to allow pr0n surfing." Not so. Long before this law, most libraries have rules against such things, and still do. They also had a child internet area in view of a librarian's desk, and the adult area computers were off limits to ages 12 and under.
I think the children were being protected just fine by the libraries already. Maybe we should let them take care of their own business.
The belief in psuedoscience has not increased nor decreased. People are, by nature, susceptible to wild ideas. Sometimes, in the case of research based theory and science, this yields fantastic results. The majority of the time, though, it just yields fantasy.
All the article is pointing out is that we're now in the Sun entering the house of Virgo new-agey crapfest that resurfaces every ten years or so. Science will once again become popular at some point. When it is popular again, it'll be for all the wrong reasons.
Slashdot Mirror
The first Shinobi, as other's have mentioned, was hard, but not as hard as the article mentioned. It was just a matter of remembering where and when you could jump. And the first boss involved a bit of luck. If he first flamed you cross-fire style, skill wouldn't help you.
Rolling Thunder, on the other hand, was much more difficult. And the animation and graphics were much better. Could you get through both acts and defeat Geldra on one quarter? It took a long time, but I eventually could.
I also felt that the home version, Revenge of Shinobi, was a worthy successor, and much harder, but unlike the article claims, it felt graphically inferior to the first arcade game. Mainly because of little sprites. But it had Spiderman in it! What more do you need?
It should be noted that Mr. Pavlina only cites his own experience in the article. Since I don't have a business or economics background, I couldn't begin to agree or disagree on his points. However, his lack of comparative figures, that is, citing other shareware successes and failures based on his criteria, makes his process more of an opinion than a thesis. I'd be negligent if I based my entire shareware concept on this. However, it is thought-provoking. This looks like a great concept for an series of Slashdot interviews of shareware professionals, whom I will classify as those who sell their own shareware as their primary source of income.
Megaman X series is a different storyline than Megaman. Same thing with Megaman Legends/Tron Bonne--different story. The fact it's called Megaman Network implies yet another divergence in the story. Confused? Easily.
Cafe Press first CD available for purchase is by MeepMeep. I can tell from experience that the tracks were made with MTV Music Generator. So it may not be for a serious musician, but it's out there and people are publishing with it.
Here is the only article (in Italian) I could find on Ridge Racer Next: Ridge Racer VI. It has a rare few pictures. The parent article above is better.
.73 seconds.
The only reason I mention Ridge Racer VI is that it was slated, originally, to be a cel-shaded cartoony RR game. I guess since Capcom did this first with Auto Modellista they have changed their plans? I got this impression researching the title two months ago, but now all the articles are pulled of the Web.
I think this RR might be a deviation from the Ridge Racer series into the "reality" department. Why? The RR series, though not realistic, was fun because it was so easy to get into, felt really fast, and had fun tracks. It is the model of arcade racing today. I heartily recommend Ridge Racer V to anyone who doesn't want to fine tune their car for hours just to shave off
Auto Modellista has realistic, but extremely annoying power drift that makes the game not fun. I hope the assertion of realism with this new Ridge Racer is a good thing and not fishtail city. I also cross my fingers for the return to arcade racing with Ridge Racer VI down the road.
Right now, there's Jester Interactive's MTV Music Generator for PSOne that plays on PS2, MTV Music Generator 2 for PS2 (as mentioned in article), and Music Maker by Magix. All are currently available, but I believe Music Maker (MSRP $10!) is the only one still being published.
THE MTVMGs are extremely versatile and easy to use. The second one suffers from less varied riffs and a counter-intuitive down-scrolling interface that is not like sheet music. The reason for this interface (and these are guesses) is either some sort of patent or they wanted to show you as many tracks as possible on screen. The MTVMGs allow you to resample everything, which makes it versatile, but I'll have to admit the riff editor is hard to use.
Magix software also has a hard-to-use riff editor, but it only lets you resample it's basic instruments. Otherwise, it's a more powerful riff editor with interesting features like random music. For this very reason, Music Maker is inferior on PS2 to MTVMG. However, ten bucks is all I need to know.
Both series have video editing. Magix software is easier, but eats up your memory quickly. Jester's is very hard to use, but the samples on the disk are quite good. Still, repeating those samples from scratch is another matter. Both series have the worst documentation on video editing. It'll take a lot of time to figure out, but it's not worth it.
The thing I miss most in MTVMG2 is the CD player. Please bring it back, Jester. What it would do is generate random video that would interact with different triggers from the music on the CD. It doesn't work on the PC version at all, BTW--instead is just an on-screen kaliedoscope of a few effects.
All that aside, you can also buy Harmonix titles Frequency and Amplitude. Why? Though mostly a game, you can remix the tracks with some fair results.
When you're done with your tracks, hook the audio up to a PC or MP3 recorder and rip your tracks. An adapter from L/R stereo to stereo headphone and stereo patch cord (both for under $20 total) should do it. I use my Archos Jukebox.
I'm looking forware to MTVMG3. However, I'm probably not getting the sampler because I have no desire to subject people to my own vocals. However, I will be getting Konami's Karaoke Revolution when it comes out, so the world isn't safe.
I did a quick research on Google and found this paper on The Effect of Violent Internet Games on Children and Juveniles by Karen Olivier, Institute for Criminological Sciences, University of South Africa. It's a short-and-sweet read. It concludes that education and familial responsibility are the best defenses against this influence.
There are two different approaches to the Violence begets Violence argument, whether the violence is real or simulated:
1) Test the hypothesis that violent people tend to gravitate towards violent activities, simulated or real, and
2) Regardless of how much influence feeds a person's violent tendencies, they must still be held responsible for acting on those tendencies, since coercion is not force.
Google Directory of Games Development Software is a good start. Don't miss the Parent Directory of Game Design. I've personally tried two free ones: Game Maker and Build Your Own Net Dream.
Game Maker is similar to Klik 'n' Play. It's free and you don't have to program at all. You do have to firmly grasp object oriented conditional behavior. You can also add complicated code if you get deeply into the game.
If you want to introduce game design, history is an excellent teacher. Space War, Pong, and Breakout are excellent games to mimic as teaching devices, then move on to Space Invaders (which is really just Pong Strikes Back!), Head-On (early version of Pac Man), and Asteroids.
Something like 90% or more of all DDR software/hardware upgrades are illegal pirate copies. All of the Japanese ones in the US are either license violations (for sale and use in Japan only according to agreement) or pirate copies which also violate the license. Konami loses major bucks on arcade DDR.
Home sales are much better. However, DDR is a diminishing market in Japan, and has always been a rather fringe market in the US. So DDR would not be enough to pull Konami up.
Yu-gi-oh! Is logically their hottest thing now, and the way they're whoring it, it'll be over with in less than a year. Maybe they should make Yugi Yugi Revolution Oh! while there's still time.
Okay, perhaps the most interesting thing about DoA1 was the incredible, gravity defying bounce. And I'm not talking about the ring-out bounce. Although the other games had sweeter graphics, much sweeter, the zero-g breasts in the first game were pretty much the only reason to play. Will that be in the game? How about with enhanced graphics?
She kicks high.
There are a couple of inaccuracies in this article:
1) The law almost exclusively uses the voluntary rating system, though the violence against police officers and explicit sex are the exceptions
2) Washington isn't the first state to enact this legislation, Missouri, then Illinois, have both enacted such legislation--only to have them effectively anulled by the states' Supreme Courts.
I used to sell these things. When you're out of 2K3, if someone buys 2K2, you're happy as a clam because old editions don't sell. The article is right on the money when mom is in charge of the Christmas list. Yep, she'll be confused.
The real way out of the dilemma is to create downwardly compatible software that can read the players and stats of the previous year's edition. Throw in things like collectible uniforms (they change), insignia (they change, too), and special game-only features (different for each console, of course), that can also be uploaded into the latest edition. Imagine and 80's Ripken Orioles team vs. a 90's Ripken Orioles team. The only problem is, when Cal hits the ball to the 80's team, all the players dive for it.
This could get really cool if they'd publish a Baseball 1900 edition.
Interestingly enough, Ken doesn't remember that the Roberta Williams Collection, a very good buy (don't know about XP compatibility), had an Apple II emulator on it to play Roberta's Apple games. He didn't have to download it at all, his own company sold it.
He's right though, old games typically don't hold your interest, mainly because we're used to a higher standard for graphics and sound.
[The first Sierra game I played was Sammy Lightfoot on the Apple II (a Donkey Kong clone). You literally had to line up pixels before you jumped back then.]
Despite the earnestness of the article and research, this should probably be under Laugh, It's Funny. People grab a calculator for 6 times 3. Imagine having to carry the one for all your transactions?
The fact that other countries with a decimal system of currency have different suggested value coins indicates the "efficient coin" is based on the current economy.
penny, nickel, dime, decoct, quarter,.... The kids are going to have a field-day with this one!
The article mentions that if you're going to be spending a lot of time looking at a single character, that character had better be pleasant to the eye. That's probably the number one reason right there.
Most importantly, most characters in video games are male. Of all those male characters, almost all have an impossibly ripped body of unnatural proportions. The torso of the video game male is usually almost double the size of what is possible. And a large majority of the time, the males are scantily clad.
Please note that the depiction of the male is as outlandish as the depiction of the female. This depiction is exploitive of the video game character. Since they're not real, it doesn't matter. It's all about fantasy. If a fantasy isn't intersting or intriguing, nobody wants to see it, let alone play with it.
XS games puts out cheap conversions. I mean in price. Mobile Light Force 2 is between $10 and $15 NEW for Playstation 2. The loss in content is probably worth it.
Hmmmm, I can't imagine why someone would think babes would sell video games. It was probably a toss-up between that and a Domino's coupon for free pizza.
I actually did read it. If I use MP3.com, and I do, my example is valid. It's a very dangerous thing to make assumptions.
As for dumbass comment, I provide this constructive criticism. How are we exposed to new music? We have to, at some point, choose a provider, whether it be streaming audio, radio, impulse CD buys, or downloading. Unfortunately, in all those instances, I'm exposed to commercialized music. Hence, I refer to my original comment.
If you choose a different method of finding music, good for you. Choice is what we need.
This sounds an awful lot like applying "weights" to music selections based on number of downloads. Doesn't Amazon have a patent on this already with their "Recommendations?"
The problem I see with The Brain is that it doesn't seem to factor out the correlation between music availability and the number of times it's downloaded. Hence, our collective "tastes" are based on what MP3 providers are pushing down our throats.
Example: MP3.com has Top Playlists. Interspersed in the playlists are MP3.com paid spots. So every fourth song or so is sponsored. This means they'll be counted as "to what people listen" more often than say, the 33rd song. If you ran The Brain on only MP3.com Top Playlists, I suspect only the sponsored songs would make it to the final stream selections.
Doesn't this article actually show some contradictory evidence to the hypothesis that women are less spatially apt?
A larger screen doesn't increase your 3D visualization ability. It simply increases your sensory input--namely sight. The article implies the hypothesis that what women are seeing affects their thought processes.
One application springs to mind: microscopic electric engines.
Just to show what a little research can do, the source of my information is Replay Magazine Top 10 (March 2003). It's updated monthly.
Number 7 is Beachhead 2000. VR genre.
Number 8 is Pac Man. Maze genre.
The rest are all ripo^H^H^Hedemption games where you spend $20 in quarters to get $2.50 in plastic junk.
We need to view the article as an opinion piece about lack of originality.
Egg Mania (all systems) ...and on, and on. Those games were just the last few months! Puzzle games are published more often than any other type of game today. The problem is, "puzzle" is too broad a category to name as a genre.
Super Bubble Pop (all systems)
Bust-A-Move 3/3000 (GCN, PS2)
Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo (GBA) -- yes, it's coming out again!
The article shows a real lack of research. VR Games dead? Then how come Beachhead 2000 is the number-one non-redemption game in arcades today? No, I'm afraid there are too many inaccuracies to take the article seriously.
This law allowed the government to withhold funds from any library not applying the appropriate filtering software, or having ineffective filtering software. All filtering software is incomplete meaning you could "prove" arbitrarily that any library or group of libraries is unworthy of Fed funds due to ineffective Web filtering software.
The filtering software also blocks educational/informational sites on things like: breast cancer, testicular cancer, tourism in Essex and Sussex, and sex education. Not to mention blocking adult content from adults.
The core of the law has good intentions (another brick to the road to Hell), but the legaleze is vague and inappropriate.
I've seen news stories locally (Baltimore) that claim this "requires libraries to allow pr0n surfing." Not so. Long before this law, most libraries have rules against such things, and still do. They also had a child internet area in view of a librarian's desk, and the adult area computers were off limits to ages 12 and under.
I think the children were being protected just fine by the libraries already. Maybe we should let them take care of their own business.
The belief in psuedoscience has not increased nor decreased. People are, by nature, susceptible to wild ideas. Sometimes, in the case of research based theory and science, this yields fantastic results. The majority of the time, though, it just yields fantasy.
All the article is pointing out is that we're now in the Sun entering the house of Virgo new-agey crapfest that resurfaces every ten years or so. Science will once again become popular at some point. When it is popular again, it'll be for all the wrong reasons.
How do I know OJ Simpson played a real fake astronaut?