They might have been able to scrape by if they just sold the games through their website and rather than printing boxes and manuals just send out CDs with the game and a PDF of the manual. This would also have the advantage of being quicker to manufacture, so they could order them in small lots and order more as needed. If I recall correctly, each game was ported by two or three programmers. If they did it right, their biggest expense would be licensing fees.
What really killed them was Draeker's absurdly high expectations and extravagance. Collector's edition tins? If they had focused on starting small and building from there they might have been able to get more venture capital. Their massive debts scared off creditors.
But now, the idea of a Linux games company is cursed. It's going to be a VERY long time before anyone can get venture capital for a Linux games company.
I was a bit worried about adapting to playing Soulcalibur 2 with a GameCube controller but I ended up getting the hang of it pretty fast. Now I can do everything I could do in the arcade, plus some things are now even easier (partly because at the arcade they bought new joysticks for the Soulcalibur machine and the orientation of the axes doesn't seem quite right to me).
MP isn't inventive at all - all the elements from it have been around in all the previous Metroid games for years. All they did was put it in 3D. I don't see GTA3 is being very invenive, as that is just GTA in 3D.
I don't know what the hell to say.
Okay, I've managed to collect myself after a few minutes.
The innovative thing is that Nintendo took something old and infused it with something new without fucking destroying it. This is extremely difficult to do with anything, including video games. It's like trying to translate literature. A truly great translation not only preserves the meaning of the original, but must also maintain the subtlest distinctions found in the original text. You have to keep the imagery and flow of the original.
Anyone with a translation dictionary and a grammar book can make a crude translation. But not just anyone can make a good translation.
Metroid Prime was a truly great translation of an old game into a new format.
I could be wrong, but I don't think that the profit is as good as you would imply. In order to keep subscribers in an MMOG, you have to continue to employ artists and programmers to provide new content and fix whatever problems there may be (MMOG players are the bitchiest of all gamers). On top of that, these games have very long development cycles and so the company needs a lot of cash to offset the development costs.
Actually, you get to see what he looks like in the first episode of the new He-Man series on Cartoon Network. However, I'm sure that many people will say "the new series isn't canon," or some such shit. I say, just shut the fuck up and watch the cartoons.
Because 3D virtual reality GUIs suck unless you live in a four dimensional universe (by that I mean a universe with a proper fourth spatial dimension).
Being able to view data in three dimensions isn't useful when you must view it straight on in order to interact with it usefully. A 3D interface will not accomplish anything special unless you actually have to work with data that can only be displayed in three dimensions, which is relatively rare and where this is necessary, specialized interfaces have been developed.
A lot of people think that 3D interfaces are the natural progression from 2D ones since three is one better than two, but few of these people actually stop to think about it.
Actually, if you cut a flatworm in half, both halves will regrow their missing parts. However, flatworms are so simple that they make earthworms look like the pinnacle of evolution.
The lyrics of the final boss music were mostly taken from various songs from Carmina Burana, a collection of Latin poems written in the middle ages which were set to music by twentieth century composer, Carl Orff. The songs they took the lyrics from weren't really relevent to Sephiroth, Cloud, or anyone else.
"Estuans interius" is the first line of a poem in which the speaker laments the fact that he is more interested in worldly pleasures than salvation. While there are some dark and brooding parts that might seem relevent if taken out of context, the overall idea of the poem is that the speaker feels powerless to help himself("I am like a leaf played with by the winds").
"Veni, veni, venias" is taken from a short love song.
Overall, I give Square a D- for scholarship. Also, I always thought that Aeris was annoying.
The best solution I can think of is for desktop applications to ignore case while everything else is case sensitive. When opening a file, case insensitive matches will be accepted. When writing to a new file, you will get an existing file warning if there is a case insensitive match to the filename, and the existing file will be overwritten if you choose Ok. Command line utilities and such should follow standard Unix conventions. I'm not sure what the policy should be for desktop applications when there are multiple filenames which differ only by case.
The more I think about it, the more I think that case sensitivity in file systems is a big mistake. Anyone who purposefully creates files that differ only by case is asking for trouble.
For those who don't know, the Kolmogorov complexity of some mathematical object with respect to a given universal computer (ie some sort of machine or language that is Turing complete) is the length of the shortest program for that computer which outputs the object. Actually, when working with Kolmogorov complexity, the universal computer being considered isn't really important. Since you can use any universal computer to emulate any other universal computer, then if you know the Kolmorogov complexity of an object under one computer is K then you know the Kolmogorov complexity of the object under another computer is less than or equal to K+c (where c is the size of a program to emulate the first computer in the second one).
These constants aren't of much concern since they are independent of the objects being studied (that's what makes them constants!). No one actually tries to figure out what exactly the Kolmogorov complexity of an object is, since it would be a total bitch to try to prove that a given program is the shortest one there is and as a result of the halting problem, no program can compute the Kolmogorov complexity of an arbitrary object. Instead, one generally tries to find an upper bound on the Kolmogorov complexity of an object which is valid for any computer.
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They might have been able to scrape by if they just sold the games through their website and rather than printing boxes and manuals just send out CDs with the game and a PDF of the manual. This would also have the advantage of being quicker to manufacture, so they could order them in small lots and order more as needed. If I recall correctly, each game was ported by two or three programmers. If they did it right, their biggest expense would be licensing fees.
What really killed them was Draeker's absurdly high expectations and extravagance. Collector's edition tins? If they had focused on starting small and building from there they might have been able to get more venture capital. Their massive debts scared off creditors.
But now, the idea of a Linux games company is cursed. It's going to be a VERY long time before anyone can get venture capital for a Linux games company.
Dragon Ball Z is like Scooby Doo. Both are entertaining in their mediocrity.
Magritte was infinitely better than Dali.
Fuck! Now you've got me thinking about Get Smart and I'm going to have to hunt down every episode on the file-stealing networks.
I was a bit worried about adapting to playing Soulcalibur 2 with a GameCube controller but I ended up getting the hang of it pretty fast. Now I can do everything I could do in the arcade, plus some things are now even easier (partly because at the arcade they bought new joysticks for the Soulcalibur machine and the orientation of the axes doesn't seem quite right to me).
I think your standards for what qualifies as innovation are rather misguided.
I don't know what the hell to say.
Okay, I've managed to collect myself after a few minutes.
The innovative thing is that Nintendo took something old and infused it with something new without fucking destroying it. This is extremely difficult to do with anything, including video games. It's like trying to translate literature. A truly great translation not only preserves the meaning of the original, but must also maintain the subtlest distinctions found in the original text. You have to keep the imagery and flow of the original.
Anyone with a translation dictionary and a grammar book can make a crude translation. But not just anyone can make a good translation.
Metroid Prime was a truly great translation of an old game into a new format.
I'm willing to bet that most Gamecube owners already have a Gameboy Advance.
I could be wrong, but I don't think that the profit is as good as you would imply. In order to keep subscribers in an MMOG, you have to continue to employ artists and programmers to provide new content and fix whatever problems there may be (MMOG players are the bitchiest of all gamers). On top of that, these games have very long development cycles and so the company needs a lot of cash to offset the development costs.
In the United States, yes.
Sorry, but only numbered lists are profitable.
People talking into headsets look even stupider than all of the other cellphone users.
But that's a lot simpler than learning an arcane language to describe your documents. Too simple, I say.
You don't need Adobe applications to make PDFs. You just need to learn TeX and make proper use of dvi2pdf. Simple! Well, not really simple. Complex!
I like cannons better than canon. KABOOM!
No child in his or her right mind allows their parents to choose their Christmas presents. They always make sure that everyone knows what they want.
Actually, you get to see what he looks like in the first episode of the new He-Man series on Cartoon Network. However, I'm sure that many people will say "the new series isn't canon," or some such shit. I say, just shut the fuck up and watch the cartoons.
Because 3D virtual reality GUIs suck unless you live in a four dimensional universe (by that I mean a universe with a proper fourth spatial dimension).
Being able to view data in three dimensions isn't useful when you must view it straight on in order to interact with it usefully. A 3D interface will not accomplish anything special unless you actually have to work with data that can only be displayed in three dimensions, which is relatively rare and where this is necessary, specialized interfaces have been developed.
A lot of people think that 3D interfaces are the natural progression from 2D ones since three is one better than two, but few of these people actually stop to think about it.
Actually, if you cut a flatworm in half, both halves will regrow their missing parts. However, flatworms are so simple that they make earthworms look like the pinnacle of evolution.
The lyrics of the final boss music were mostly taken from various songs from Carmina Burana, a collection of Latin poems written in the middle ages which were set to music by twentieth century composer, Carl Orff. The songs they took the lyrics from weren't really relevent to Sephiroth, Cloud, or anyone else.
"Estuans interius" is the first line of a poem in which the speaker laments the fact that he is more interested in worldly pleasures than salvation. While there are some dark and brooding parts that might seem relevent if taken out of context, the overall idea of the poem is that the speaker feels powerless to help himself("I am like a leaf played with by the winds").
"Veni, veni, venias" is taken from a short love song.
Overall, I give Square a D- for scholarship. Also, I always thought that Aeris was annoying.
This is why we need a spam exchange system similar to that used for taxi drivers.
The best solution I can think of is for desktop applications to ignore case while everything else is case sensitive. When opening a file, case insensitive matches will be accepted. When writing to a new file, you will get an existing file warning if there is a case insensitive match to the filename, and the existing file will be overwritten if you choose Ok. Command line utilities and such should follow standard Unix conventions. I'm not sure what the policy should be for desktop applications when there are multiple filenames which differ only by case.
The more I think about it, the more I think that case sensitivity in file systems is a big mistake. Anyone who purposefully creates files that differ only by case is asking for trouble.
Newton also wasted some of his time as an exceptionally bad theologian.
Actually, the line was "In Russia, road forks you!"
These constants aren't of much concern since they are independent of the objects being studied (that's what makes them constants!). No one actually tries to figure out what exactly the Kolmogorov complexity of an object is, since it would be a total bitch to try to prove that a given program is the shortest one there is and as a result of the halting problem, no program can compute the Kolmogorov complexity of an arbitrary object. Instead, one generally tries to find an upper bound on the Kolmogorov complexity of an object which is valid for any computer.