When they decide to vent out below, often the electrolyte ends up as a brown crud sround the base of it. Another sign will the cap will be off at an angle instead of straight up and down (because it blew out one side the bottom bit that is like an 8th of an inch thick).
If you spend nearly as much time on loads or have time to go make a meal, IMO that takes away from the fun of the content. GTA:SA isn't bad once it's loaded, but even using a HDD Loader I want it to start up faster. Burnout games have had some really bad load times and the HDD loader makes it bearable. With the changes in Burnout Revenge you almost do spend as much time on screens outside the races/crashes then you do playing them.
Plenty of games use graphics or other tricks to try to hide the load times. Take some recent survival horror games. The game would be so much better more immersive if they could somehow eliminate the 10-45 second (sometimes longer, but I haven't timed them with a watch)load screen.
Maybe you like them. Maybe you believe that they are no longer an issue. I went out and got an HDD and the loader software, because some of the games I enjoy most on the PS2 had annoying load times. I don't see any evidence that there has been a great improvement in this and nothing about the design of the PS3 tells me things will change. I hope for it to change or be eliminated as an issue int he future though.
Thief has one small issue. Men in full armor will gladly follow you into deep water. They do no float but walk on the bottom of the water. This will lead to them drowning after a bit. I discovered this on the mine level before getting into the prison.
I skipped Thief back in the day and am now playing the entire series through.
They made a pretty good shooter called Internal Section for the PSX. Also some fun sports games. Sadly most of the non RPG stuff never made it out in the USA.
Japan used a system known as MUSE(Multiple Sub-Nyquist Encoding) HI-Vision, I don't know if that is still the HI-Def standard there now.
The following is from alt.video.laserdisk and was posted by "Ivar".
"Hi-Vision production/studio format is fairly close to the SMPTE 240E standard.
Total lines pr. frame: 1125 Active lines pr. frame: 1035
Scanning: 2:1 interlaced
Aspect ratio: 16:9 ( academy 1:1.33 material will have black
vertical bars )
Field rate: 60Hz ( not 59.94Hz )
Typically stored as color differential component YPbPr. If analogue storage, all components will have 30MHz bandwidth, not just the luma component. If digital storage is used the chroma component are normally subsampled so the chroma bandwidth is reduced to 15MHz because of storage limitation.
DIGITAL STORAGE INFORMATION Y CHANNEL
Total pixels pr line: 2200 Total active pixels pr line: 1920
Pixel clock rate: 74.25MHz The transfer function ( gamma ) is slightly different to standard resolution, and so are the chromatic references of the primaries ( the color triangle ). Which of cause causes the formula for Y, Cb and Cr to be slightly different from YUV.
MUSE CODEC
Luma bandwidth; in stationary portions of the picture 22MHz; in moving portions of the picture 16MHz. The color differential signals have 7.2MHz bandwidth for the stationary part and 4MHz for the moving portions. Yes, MUSE is a component differential format, not a composite format. In pixel terms the stationary portion of the picture roughly equals 1440 x 1035. The resulting bandwidth of the decoded signal is dependent on the encoder and the decoder. There have been many updates both to the encoder and the decoder, especially the encoder.
The non active lines are used for transferring sound and other data like motion vectors. There are two possible sound systems A and B. A is four independent channel sound and B is two channel sound (often prologic encoded). In addition nearly all A encoded movies also have a standard EFM track, normally prologic encoded."
Also some info from n$a's web site about MUSE (mostly in relation to LD players)
"Decoders read the Muse-out signal from the Hi-Vision LD player and export it in 1125i theoretical (1080i actual) RGB, RGB+HV or YPbPr. AFAIK, all 1080i HDTV sets on sale in Americas can display this signal."
"I think it's also a safe bet to assume that both Microsoft and Sony will have very playable and fun games that load quickly."
Try playing the last couple of Burnout games, or GTA games (these are just 2 examples, there are many more). I don't see anything that says things will change.
I've got computing equipment that is nearly 20 years old that still works like the day I bought it, as well as lots of consumer/pro grade electronics of the same age. I call bullshit on the 7 years thing. Sure some probably will die from time to time after a number of years, they are not perfectly made every time.
Mine ran for several years with 9 blown caps. I finally re-capped it (KT7a-RAID) myself bacause that was cheaper then buying new board, ram, and a stand alone raid card.
Using a site like badcaps (the wikipedia entry on the subject has a link to a very good list of what to look for) check out the caps on the motherboard you order.
There is little way to know before hand. Once you evaluate the situation, if any need to be replaced because they are from a knock off or suspect maker, make sure to get the dimensions of them, and look into using Panasonic (or some other brand that can be trusted) low ESR replacements.
Sometimes they will be a larger size, and in most cases this will not matter, but knowing the size and clearance will help you keep from ordering the wrong size part. Often I find I can get the same diameter cap, but it will be nearly a third higher, or it will be the same hight but be larger in diameter.
Last either get some practice soldering on dead stuff or bribe a skilled tech with whatever it takes.
If you do replace the board, and it is bad caps. Hang onto it and get in touch with someone who can replace them. This way you have a backup, or you can swap the re-capped board back in and send the new one off for re-capping (if it needs it).
I have done it numerous times for everything from individuals using OEM hardware to a school whose Gateway breadboxes (all of them) had to have not just the caps replaced but the power supply/CPU fans replaced (gateway used sleeve fans to save a buck instead of proper bearing fans).
If you hire someone expect to pay about $40-$60 (depends on the cost/number of caps) or the bribe equivalent for parts/labor (and if they are not local to you shipping).
If you buy the parts yourself, go with a place like Digi-Key, as much as it's nice to support your local shop, you can easily end up spending twice the total repair cost on just the caps from local guys.
Feel free to mail me if you have any questions about it.
When I got to work this morning a laptop that was sittling idle with WIN2k runing on it had BSODed overnight. It had been last re-booted the day before yesterday.
Odd. Here is my system followed by my F.E.A.R. settings:
Shuttle an35-N-400 (not a dual channel board). Athlon XP 2000. Radeon 9800 Pro 256MB. 1GB Patriot 400 MHZ DDR ram (2 DIMM @ 512MB each). Fear installed on raid 0 stripe on Highpoint PCI card. OS drive and DVD drive each on their own IDE channel from the chip set. on-board sound.
I was able to run F.E.A.R (with no slowdown in large open areas) at 1024x768 medium graphics settings and 4x AA 2x ansitropic filtering. Shadows were set to minimum, I usually turn them off but in F.E.A.R. they are of actual use.
One thing I see happening is F.E.A.R. will push your GPU to it's breaking point. My stock ATI fan was starting to get dirty and lose RPM. F.E.A.R. (out of all other recent games) was getting red dots in textures, support says that's GPU/memory overheating.
I went out and bought a Zalman copper cooler with memory heat sinks and the problem seems to be fixed.
"I have yet to see a game that's mor suited to having four friends gathered on the sofa killing each other long into the night."
For some the following are more fun: Devil Dice (PS2 version called Bombastic) Bomberman (5 players on the Turbo Duo) on ajust about any platform. Thril Kill (silly over the top but fast) Propeller Arena Toy Commander The Next Tetris
I guess I was being too obscure in my reference. I must now kill the joke by telling you the terrible secret of space.
Your post said "slot loading is hte answer".
This made me think of an irc hoax (warning, last time I went to something awful from slashdot they were redirecting to gay porn) from something awful about "The Space Robots".
The Laziest Men on Mars made a song about it. After that this swf was created by Jonathon Robinson.
That (the song/swf) is why I asked if you had stairs in your house.
I know this is a bad example to use but I remember when some farm boy said "I used to bullseye womp rats in my T-16 back home. They're not much bigger than two meters."
There have been many times in history (and myth) where the "pro" soldiers were not the most heroic people. I think that's because often potential heroes end up dead, but the times they don't get killed is when they get talked about.
I'm not saying David's defeat of a bigger/stronger/better trained opponent was not significant. Sure he was not a trained soldier, but you would be amazed what some people can hone skill wise from a hobby. The difference between amateur and professional in my opinion is pay scale.
Slashdot Mirror
That was not my intent. One should never go looking for anything mentioned in relation to goatse.
My common answer to any brain stumper is:
This problem can be fixed with a screwdriver, but I am all out of orange juice.
When they decide to vent out below, often the electrolyte ends up as a brown crud sround the base of it. Another sign will the cap will be off at an angle instead of straight up and down (because it blew out one side the bottom bit that is like an 8th of an inch thick).
If you spend nearly as much time on loads or have time to go make a meal, IMO that takes away from the fun of the content. GTA:SA isn't bad once it's loaded, but even using a HDD Loader I want it to start up faster. Burnout games have had some really bad load times and the HDD loader makes it bearable. With the changes in Burnout Revenge you almost do spend as much time on screens outside the races/crashes then you do playing them.
Plenty of games use graphics or other tricks to try to hide the load times. Take some recent survival horror games. The game would be so much better more immersive if they could somehow eliminate the 10-45 second (sometimes longer, but I haven't
timed them with a watch)load screen.
Maybe you like them. Maybe you believe that they are no longer an issue. I went out and got an HDD and the loader software, because some of the games I enjoy most on the PS2 had annoying load times. I don't see any evidence that there has been a great improvement in this and nothing about the design of the PS3 tells me things will change. I hope for it to change or be eliminated as an issue int he future though.
Thief has one small issue. Men in full armor will gladly follow you into deep water. They do no float but walk on the bottom of the water. This will lead to them drowning after a bit. I discovered this on the mine level before getting into the prison.
I skipped Thief back in the day and am now playing the entire series through.
Some of the things you list I first saw in an old game called Death Track. I wish there was a modern day version.
There was a project released to the world called Parsec. I think it is hosted on source forge now.
They made a pretty good shooter called Internal Section for the PSX. Also some fun sports games. Sadly most of the non RPG stuff never made it out in the USA.
The only /. related visual I can associate with that phrase involves a mix of goatse and tubgirl. I will say no more.
I was referring to the load times.
Miss the point much?
Had you formatted your post as follows
...
"just reflected to what the world has become
a place where two line comments get +5 insightful."
You also could have been +5 insightful.
Pick up Resident Evil 4 (I didnt see it in your list) quite fun.
Japan used a system known as MUSE(Multiple Sub-Nyquist Encoding) HI-Vision, I don't know if that is still the HI-Def standard there now.
The following is from alt.video.laserdisk and was posted by "Ivar".
"Hi-Vision production/studio format is fairly close to the SMPTE 240E standard.
Total lines pr. frame: 1125
Active lines pr. frame: 1035
Scanning: 2:1 interlaced
Aspect ratio: 16:9 ( academy 1:1.33 material will have black
vertical bars )
Field rate: 60Hz ( not 59.94Hz )
Typically stored as color differential component YPbPr. If analogue storage,
all components will have 30MHz bandwidth, not just the luma component. If
digital storage is used the chroma component are normally subsampled so the
chroma bandwidth is reduced to 15MHz because of storage limitation.
DIGITAL STORAGE INFORMATION Y CHANNEL
Total pixels pr line: 2200
Total active pixels pr line: 1920
Pixel clock rate: 74.25MHz
The transfer function ( gamma ) is slightly different to standard resolution,
and so are the chromatic references of the primaries ( the color triangle ).
Which of cause causes the formula for Y, Cb and Cr to be slightly different
from YUV.
MUSE CODEC
Luma bandwidth; in stationary portions of the picture 22MHz; in moving
portions of the picture 16MHz. The color differential signals have 7.2MHz
bandwidth for the stationary part and 4MHz for the moving portions. Yes, MUSE
is a component differential format, not a composite format. In pixel terms
the stationary portion of the picture roughly equals 1440 x 1035. The
resulting bandwidth of the decoded signal is dependent on the encoder and the
decoder. There have been many updates both to the encoder and the decoder,
especially the encoder.
The non active lines are used for transferring sound and other data like
motion vectors. There are two possible sound systems A and B. A is four
independent channel sound and B is two channel sound (often prologic encoded).
In addition nearly all A encoded movies also have a standard EFM track,
normally prologic encoded."
Also some info from n$a's web site about MUSE (mostly in relation to LD players)
"Decoders read the Muse-out signal from the Hi-Vision LD player and export it in 1125i theoretical (1080i actual) RGB, RGB+HV or YPbPr. AFAIK, all 1080i HDTV sets on sale in Americas can display this signal."
"I think it's also a safe bet to assume that both Microsoft and Sony will have very playable and fun games that load quickly."
Try playing the last couple of Burnout games, or GTA games (these are just 2 examples, there are many more). I don't see anything that says things will change.
I've got computing equipment that is nearly 20 years old that still works like the day I bought it, as well as lots of consumer/pro grade electronics of the same age.
I call bullshit on the 7 years thing. Sure some probably will die from time to time after a number of years, they are not perfectly made every time.
It's even more complex then that.
Some use a K shape others use a Y shape, and I bet still others use that symbol Prince changed his name to.
I dunno if it's caused by design choices, an attempt to create a visual association to your brand, or mind control rays.
Mine ran for several years with 9 blown caps.
I finally re-capped it (KT7a-RAID) myself bacause that was cheaper then buying new board, ram, and a stand alone raid card.
Drop me a line if I can help you out.
Caps can also blow out the bottom. so be onthe lookout for that as well.
Using a site like badcaps (the wikipedia entry on the subject has a link to a very good list of what to look for) check out the caps on the motherboard you order.
There is little way to know before hand. Once you evaluate the situation, if any need to be replaced because they are from a knock off or suspect maker, make sure to get the dimensions of them, and look into using Panasonic (or some other brand that can be trusted) low ESR replacements.
Sometimes they will be a larger size, and in most cases this will not matter, but knowing the size and clearance will help you keep from ordering the wrong size part. Often I find I can get the same diameter cap, but it will be nearly a third higher, or it will be the same hight but be larger in diameter.
Last either get some practice soldering on dead stuff or bribe a skilled tech with whatever it takes.
If you do replace the board, and it is bad caps. Hang onto it and get in touch with someone who can replace them. This way you have a backup, or you can swap the re-capped board back in and send the new one off for re-capping (if it needs it).
I have done it numerous times for everything from individuals using OEM hardware to a school whose Gateway breadboxes (all of them) had to have not just the caps replaced but the power supply/CPU fans replaced (gateway used sleeve fans to save a buck instead of proper bearing fans).
If you hire someone expect to pay about $40-$60 (depends on the cost/number of caps) or the bribe equivalent for parts/labor (and if they are not local to you shipping).
If you buy the parts yourself, go with a place like Digi-Key, as much as it's nice to support your local shop, you can easily end up spending twice the total repair cost on just the caps from local guys.
Feel free to mail me if you have any questions about it.
New!
For fucks sake, the computer industry has been plagued by shit capacitors for over SEVEN YEARS!!!
No one lears to use good quality caps because by the time they usually die people just upgrade.
Shit like this would never last as long in the consumer electronics industry (well, SONY can get away with shit drives in PS2 for as long).
When I got to work this morning a laptop that was sittling idle with WIN2k runing on it had BSODed overnight. It had been last re-booted the day before yesterday.
Odd.
Here is my system followed by my F.E.A.R. settings:
Shuttle an35-N-400 (not a dual channel board).
Athlon XP 2000.
Radeon 9800 Pro 256MB.
1GB Patriot 400 MHZ DDR ram (2 DIMM @ 512MB each).
Fear installed on raid 0 stripe on Highpoint PCI card.
OS drive and DVD drive each on their own IDE channel from the chip set.
on-board sound.
I was able to run F.E.A.R (with no slowdown in large open areas) at 1024x768 medium graphics settings and 4x AA 2x ansitropic filtering.
Shadows were set to minimum, I usually turn them off but in F.E.A.R. they are of actual use.
One thing I see happening is F.E.A.R. will push your GPU to it's breaking point. My stock ATI fan was starting to get dirty and lose RPM. F.E.A.R. (out of all other recent games) was getting red dots in textures, support says that's GPU/memory overheating.
I went out and bought a Zalman copper cooler with memory heat sinks and the problem seems to be fixed.
"I have yet to see a game that's mor suited to having four friends gathered on the sofa killing each other long into the night."
For some the following are more fun:
Devil Dice (PS2 version called Bombastic)
Bomberman (5 players on the Turbo Duo) on ajust about any platform.
Thril Kill (silly over the top but fast)
Propeller Arena
Toy Commander
The Next Tetris
I guess I was being too obscure in my reference.
I must now kill the joke by telling you the terrible secret of space.
Your post said "slot loading is hte answer".
This made me think of an irc hoax (warning, last time I went to something awful from slashdot they were redirecting to gay porn) from something awful about "The Space Robots".
The Laziest Men on Mars made a song about it. After that this swf was created by Jonathon Robinson.
That (the song/swf) is why I asked if you had stairs in your house.
I know this is a bad example to use but I remember when some farm boy said "I used to bullseye womp rats in my T-16 back home. They're not much bigger than two meters."
There have been many times in history (and myth) where the "pro" soldiers were not the most heroic people. I think that's because often potential heroes end up dead, but the times they don't get killed is when they get talked about.
I'm not saying David's defeat of a bigger/stronger/better trained opponent was not significant. Sure he was not a trained soldier, but you would be amazed what some people can hone skill wise from a hobby. The difference between amateur and professional in my opinion is pay scale.