Actually, IIRC the CDA tracks on the second disc were still MIDI, they were just played through a really high quality patch set that most mere mortals at the time couldn't afford.
I've played the game through a Gravis UltraSound, a Roland Sound Canvas and a SoundBlaster 32 with different patch sets. (Hey, anybody remember the CHAOS sound font?) You can get the game to sound very similar to what the audio tracks were.
Of course the only problem with that would be that you would have to play the game. I'm not sure that's worth it.
Shy nomad, craftily agilely meet near my underground vault.
This could be used to perform a Denial-of-Service attack on any 10.4 Mac thanks to the dashboard always running.
On the Mac itself, a malicious widget could simply just use as much resources as possible. While this probably wouldn't crash the system, it would likely slow it down due to excessive swapping.
Another idea would be to have a malicious widget continuously pull info from a specific site causing excessive traffic. Get enough widget-bot systems together and attack the site of your choice.
I've thought that the Dashboard was needless eye candy but this is ridiculous; it's like the Mac version of Active Desktop! Apple needs to fix this or at least give people an easy option of removing Dashboard.
Original poster makes a good point. There really isn't that much of a big deal between them.
However, there are still viable needs for a low end PMac. Not only is there PCI slots, but also AGP. This brings up the fact that the PMac will support dual (and more) displays and the iMac will not. This is actually a big selling point for the high end laptops (although you can hack the iBooks) so it would make sense, at least to Apple, that this would be a big selling point. Still, it's only 500 more to go to a dual.
Apple has actually tried in the past to have their entry level PMac be at $2000 and just have 3 in the line, but customers demanded a lower one so they re-released the single 1.8 at $1500. Now that the iMacs are more on par, they *might* try again. Who knows.
Well I had that as my startup sound in '92. And we didn't use any fancy schmancy Win3.11 either, we had a program that would play it straight through the PC speaker. Stopped every interrupt it did. Other people on the Token Ring network complained that the network was down because back in my day we didn't have intelligent network cards.
Yep, things were different then...back in good old '92 when Star Wars was still cool.
Twenty or thirty seconds to boot a freakin' laptop is just absurd.
Hey, if you want to improve startup time then more power to you. I just don't feel that it's that big of a deal since I only boot my laptop an average of once a fortnight. If I'm not using it, it's in sleep (suspend) mode.
I'm sure this is great for those people who use their laptops infrequently, I'm just glad that Apple concentrated on working power management before improving startup times.
What would really be nice is for an easy option to turn off the pulsating "snore" light so that a human and a mac can sleep in the same room.
I hope that the studios lose mucho money on this. I'm all for better formats but besides the physical size (which really isn't all that impressive) this format is a huge step backwards from DVD for consumers.
...and one of the new power hungry Powere Books will run fine on the old 45w adapter. There may not be enough juice to charge the battery but it will work.
I will never understand why people glom on to a supposed flaw and preach it like gospel.
The 1.5GB mini-DVD that the GC uses would be enough to store Katamari Damacy. I remember people telling me that GTA3 wouldn't fit in 1.5GB and they were partially right; it filled a whole DVD5 on the PS2. I pointed out that with audio compression, you could shrink that greatly and sure enough when the Xbox versions were released, that's exactly what the developers did. Xbox GTA3 clocks in at less than 800MB.
The really weird thing is that the same people who have been spreading mini-DVD FUD have been touting the goodness of Sony's new UMD discs that the PSP uses. They're about the same storage wise as the GC discs. If the PS3 was released using only UMD, all of the fanboys would say it was the Best Thing Evar.
No, Katamari Damacy won't come to the GC. It's not technical at all; there is just really no incentive for Namco to port it. This generation of console war is already over. It's perceived that the PS2 is for the masses, the GC for children, and the Xbox for online. Funny that that is why it won't get an Xbox port either because there is no online component.
The quote is from The Shield (warning: link has heavy use of flash) which is (sadly) one of the best shows on television right now.
While Vic Mackey is the main character, the quote was actually said by Claudette Wyms; a black detective who is justifying the excessiveness of Vic to the police captain.
I would actually say that this is on-topic simply for the fact that FX is, of course, FOX which is a member of the MPAA and "The Shield" is about cops going above the law.
To celebrate this new idea of Mac Pride, Apple should create a version of their logo that, instead of being white or aluminum, is a rainbow of colors to symbolize openness like other "pride" movements have done.
Who knows, a logo like that could be so popular that people would get a tattoo of it.
Re:Will they purposefully limit the 2GHz systems?
on
New Mac System Specs
·
· Score: 1
Some of the current Powermacs have PCI-X. The 2GHz and 2.5GHz do but both 1.8s don't.
I'm concerned that they will cut PCI-X from the 2GHz systems like they did with the 1.8DualProcs.
The older 1.8DP had 8GB max RAM and PCI-X (1x133,2x100). When they "upgraded" them in July '04, the new ones had 4GB max RAM and 3 plain ol' 66MHz PCI.
Apple will want everyone to go for the top end so they will probably cripple the mid range. Look for the 2GHz systems to be missing something.
she could be a cute elf with a really tasteful cloak and matching gloves!
You must be thinking of a different game. You used the word "tasteful". A friend of mine plays a human warrior who looks like she's wearing a bikini while in full plate mail.
Honestly, I'd give you the standard rant and complain about women being objectified in video games but everyone's already heard it and I kinda get tired of saying it. What I will say is this:
I'm a female gamer. I've been a gamer since the early 80s when my aunt, who was a gamer since the late 70s got me hooked. I've been into video games longer than some people I play with have been alive.
I'll tell you a big secret: What women want in a game is usually what a lot of men want in a game; entertainment.
A game has be much more than just a tech demo or a picture show. It also can't be a chore simulator. I've given up on trying to play a game for the story although I think that the medium still has promise for storytelling. I just want something that I can play, alone or with friends, for a few minutes to a few hours as my busy schedule permits, and come away with a feeling that I was entertained. That's not so hard.
When I take a moment to play, it's often with friends in games like WoW, Starcraft, Bomberman Generations, or Metal Arms. I also love single player outings such as GTA, Zelda, and Pikmin; games that give you nifty toys to play with in a little explorable world. While I don't care much for The Sims, I still appriciate it for similar reasons.
So, what doesn't work?
Games that are designed to be challenges. It's easy to make a game that is hard. I don't need to brag to my friends that I beat Ninja Gaiden on "Stupid Hard" difficulty mode.
Games that advertise how many hours of playtime that they contain. Ideally a game's playtime should be limitless. I don't want to be bored out of my skull trudging through general sameness because the designer was able to copy/paste things over and over.
Games that are interactive storybooks but somehow miss out on the interactive part. People still think I'm crazy when I say that Grand Theft Auto Vice City is a better RPG than Final Fantasy X. If I want to get a story, I'll read a book or watch a movie. At least then I won't have to beat several thousand numbers out of a monster to get to the next poorly acted chapter.
There you have it. Just another female gamer's opinion. The question is: How many male gamers agree with me?
I bought my DS about a week ago primarily for Wario Ware Touched and also to play around with it. I didn't care about any of the other games and frankly couldn't have cared less if anything else was ever released for it.
I also picked up Super Mario 64 DS because I figured "why not".
After about 10 minutes of SM64DS I about gave up on the game. The control was terrible. I was either using a poorly designed cross pad or using the stylus on the touch screen which was awkward. That was not the end though.
I checked the net for reasons why people actually enjoyed this game. It seems that quite a few of the people who liked it were using the thumb stylus found on the wrist strap for movement control.
I gave it a go and although it was unnatural at first, I was able to get used to it rather quickly and was soon playing the game like a pro. I think that anyone who doubts the touch screen control should just try it for a while. I'm now having serious doubts that the PSP's little analog button could be as good.
BTW, it is a shame that most DS demo kiosks don't have the thumb stylus/wrist strap on them. You can use your thumb without it but it's not quite the same.
No mention of using the TiVo remote in the new software. The remote and the interface are the best things that TiVo has going for them.
Since they are focusing on just the ads and the wishlist features, this could be a big letdown for Comcast users that have heard good things from TiVo users.
Slashdot Mirror
From TFA:
Microsoft Corp. said on Monday its new Xbox 360 will run video games developed for the earlier generation of its gaming machine
This doesn't state backwards compatibility. It could just mean that older games will be ported to the 360.
Bach said that it won't necessarily run all of the older Xbox titles but instead, run the "top-selling" games.
Uh huh. This sounds very much like ports to me. This sounds very much like Sony's PSP running old PS1 games.
Doh! That should be bashful nomad. I might as well just give everyone the solution.
Actually, IIRC the CDA tracks on the second disc were still MIDI, they were just played through a really high quality patch set that most mere mortals at the time couldn't afford.
I've played the game through a Gravis UltraSound, a Roland Sound Canvas and a SoundBlaster 32 with different patch sets. (Hey, anybody remember the CHAOS sound font?) You can get the game to sound very similar to what the audio tracks were.
Of course the only problem with that would be that you would have to play the game. I'm not sure that's worth it.
Shy nomad, craftily agilely meet near my underground vault.
No there are worse things.
This could be used to perform a Denial-of-Service attack on any 10.4 Mac thanks to the dashboard always running.
On the Mac itself, a malicious widget could simply just use as much resources as possible. While this probably wouldn't crash the system, it would likely slow it down due to excessive swapping.
Another idea would be to have a malicious widget continuously pull info from a specific site causing excessive traffic. Get enough widget-bot systems together and attack the site of your choice.
I've thought that the Dashboard was needless eye candy but this is ridiculous; it's like the Mac version of Active Desktop! Apple needs to fix this or at least give people an easy option of removing Dashboard.
Original poster makes a good point. There really isn't that much of a big deal between them.
However, there are still viable needs for a low end PMac. Not only is there PCI slots, but also AGP. This brings up the fact that the PMac will support dual (and more) displays and the iMac will not. This is actually a big selling point for the high end laptops (although you can hack the iBooks) so it would make sense, at least to Apple, that this would be a big selling point. Still, it's only 500 more to go to a dual.
Apple has actually tried in the past to have their entry level PMac be at $2000 and just have 3 in the line, but customers demanded a lower one so they re-released the single 1.8 at $1500. Now that the iMacs are more on par, they *might* try again. Who knows.
Well I had that as my startup sound in '92. And we didn't use any fancy schmancy Win3.11 either, we had a program that would play it straight through the PC speaker. Stopped every interrupt it did. Other people on the Token Ring network complained that the network was down because back in my day we didn't have intelligent network cards.
Yep, things were different then...back in good old '92 when Star Wars was still cool.
Twenty or thirty seconds to boot a freakin' laptop is just absurd.
Hey, if you want to improve startup time then more power to you. I just don't feel that it's that big of a deal since I only boot my laptop an average of once a fortnight. If I'm not using it, it's in sleep (suspend) mode.
I'm sure this is great for those people who use their laptops infrequently, I'm just glad that Apple concentrated on working power management before improving startup times.
What would really be nice is for an easy option to turn off the pulsating "snore" light so that a human and a mac can sleep in the same room.
Just call it what it is:
Underwhelming Mini Disc
or if you prefer: Unimpressive Mini Disc
I hope that the studios lose mucho money on this. I'm all for better formats but besides the physical size (which really isn't all that impressive) this format is a huge step backwards from DVD for consumers.
...and one of the new power hungry Powere Books will run fine on the old 45w adapter. There may not be enough juice to charge the battery but it will work.
...and Spike Lee is miffed as well.
Yea, I hear you. I just bought a dual 1.8 off of ebay yesterday. Paid more than you did as well.
Life sucks, then you die.
I will never understand why people glom on to a supposed flaw and preach it like gospel.
The 1.5GB mini-DVD that the GC uses would be enough to store Katamari Damacy. I remember people telling me that GTA3 wouldn't fit in 1.5GB and they were partially right; it filled a whole DVD5 on the PS2. I pointed out that with audio compression, you could shrink that greatly and sure enough when the Xbox versions were released, that's exactly what the developers did. Xbox GTA3 clocks in at less than 800MB.
The really weird thing is that the same people who have been spreading mini-DVD FUD have been touting the goodness of Sony's new UMD discs that the PSP uses. They're about the same storage wise as the GC discs. If the PS3 was released using only UMD, all of the fanboys would say it was the Best Thing Evar.
No, Katamari Damacy won't come to the GC. It's not technical at all; there is just really no incentive for Namco to port it. This generation of console war is already over. It's perceived that the PS2 is for the masses, the GC for children, and the Xbox for online. Funny that that is why it won't get an Xbox port either because there is no online component.
The quote is from The Shield (warning: link has heavy use of flash) which is (sadly) one of the best shows on television right now.
While Vic Mackey is the main character, the quote was actually said by Claudette Wyms; a black detective who is justifying the excessiveness of Vic to the police captain.
I would actually say that this is on-topic simply for the fact that FX is, of course, FOX which is a member of the MPAA and "The Shield" is about cops going above the law.
According to slashdot, Email makes you dumb but E-mail can be used as a database.
Maybe I should start using a hyphen. That will make me smarter, right?
At great expense, the page has been changed to something completely different.
I agree wholeheartedly.
To celebrate this new idea of Mac Pride, Apple should create a version of their logo that, instead of being white or aluminum, is a rainbow of colors to symbolize openness like other "pride" movements have done.
Who knows, a logo like that could be so popular that people would get a tattoo of it.
Some of the current Powermacs have PCI-X. The 2GHz and 2.5GHz do but both 1.8s don't.
I'm concerned that they will cut PCI-X from the 2GHz systems like they did with the 1.8DualProcs.
The older 1.8DP had 8GB max RAM and PCI-X (1x133,2x100). When they "upgraded" them in July '04, the new ones had 4GB max RAM and 3 plain ol' 66MHz PCI.
Apple will want everyone to go for the top end so they will probably cripple the mid range. Look for the 2GHz systems to be missing something.
yea, because I always use Windows XP on my Xbox1.
The TiVo units use a PPC and so far no one has been able to run any MacOS on them.
By this logic, you should be able to run MacOS 8 and below on a Genesis or NeoGeo because they are 680x0 based.
There is a lot more than processors to make a computer.
...and if you put a Type-A sticker on it, it should be legal and run faster.
What will they do when they run out of numbers for point releases?!
The great thing about numbers is that they can be recycled. Add another digit as a marker and start the count over again at 0.
Sure, things may not look right and some people may be confused (wait, 10.10 is higher than 10.3?) but who said it has to make any sense.
I mean I still get dizzy thinking about OSX which came after OS9 but can run X11 which hasn't had a major number increase in X years.
she could be a cute elf with a really tasteful cloak and matching gloves!
You must be thinking of a different game. You used the word "tasteful". A friend of mine plays a human warrior who looks like she's wearing a bikini while in full plate mail.
Honestly, I'd give you the standard rant and complain about women being objectified in video games but everyone's already heard it and I kinda get tired of saying it. What I will say is this:
I'm a female gamer. I've been a gamer since the early 80s when my aunt, who was a gamer since the late 70s got me hooked. I've been into video games longer than some people I play with have been alive.
I'll tell you a big secret: What women want in a game is usually what a lot of men want in a game; entertainment.
A game has be much more than just a tech demo or a picture show. It also can't be a chore simulator. I've given up on trying to play a game for the story although I think that the medium still has promise for storytelling. I just want something that I can play, alone or with friends, for a few minutes to a few hours as my busy schedule permits, and come away with a feeling that I was entertained. That's not so hard.
When I take a moment to play, it's often with friends in games like WoW, Starcraft, Bomberman Generations, or Metal Arms. I also love single player outings such as GTA, Zelda, and Pikmin; games that give you nifty toys to play with in a little explorable world. While I don't care much for The Sims, I still appriciate it for similar reasons.
So, what doesn't work?
Games that are designed to be challenges. It's easy to make a game that is hard. I don't need to brag to my friends that I beat Ninja Gaiden on "Stupid Hard" difficulty mode.
Games that advertise how many hours of playtime that they contain. Ideally a game's playtime should be limitless. I don't want to be bored out of my skull trudging through general sameness because the designer was able to copy/paste things over and over.
Games that are interactive storybooks but somehow miss out on the interactive part. People still think I'm crazy when I say that Grand Theft Auto Vice City is a better RPG than Final Fantasy X. If I want to get a story, I'll read a book or watch a movie. At least then I won't have to beat several thousand numbers out of a monster to get to the next poorly acted chapter.
There you have it. Just another female gamer's opinion. The question is: How many male gamers agree with me?
It seems that everyone plays Night Elves these days and no one even thinks about rolling up a Gnome.
Sure you see Humans and Dwarves but they are mostly paladins. Night Elves rule the alliance and us poor Gnomes get stepped on.
Now we've been removed from Slackware? This is unacceptable! We will stage another Million Gnome March until we are given the respect that we...
What? Linux? Oh. Can you run WoW on it?
nm
I bought my DS about a week ago primarily for Wario Ware Touched and also to play around with it. I didn't care about any of the other games and frankly couldn't have cared less if anything else was ever released for it.
I also picked up Super Mario 64 DS because I figured "why not".
After about 10 minutes of SM64DS I about gave up on the game. The control was terrible. I was either using a poorly designed cross pad or using the stylus on the touch screen which was awkward. That was not the end though.
I checked the net for reasons why people actually enjoyed this game. It seems that quite a few of the people who liked it were using the thumb stylus found on the wrist strap for movement control.
I gave it a go and although it was unnatural at first, I was able to get used to it rather quickly and was soon playing the game like a pro. I think that anyone who doubts the touch screen control should just try it for a while. I'm now having serious doubts that the PSP's little analog button could be as good.
BTW, it is a shame that most DS demo kiosks don't have the thumb stylus/wrist strap on them. You can use your thumb without it but it's not quite the same.
After (of course) parking the disk heads, I think that turning the laptop upside-down and giving it a good shaking should clear the screen.
I mean, wouldn't that just be common sense?
No mention of using the TiVo remote in the new software. The remote and the interface are the best things that TiVo has going for them.
Since they are focusing on just the ads and the wishlist features, this could be a big letdown for Comcast users that have heard good things from TiVo users.