...if he would promote Free Software as "a good idea" (which it is) rather than "the One True Way For All Humanity" (which it most certainly is NOT). Stallman has not and never will adequately address the issue of how we'll feed our kids in an all-Free-Software world. You cannot make money selling software if you're also freely giving it away. You cannot make money on service and support of software that doesn't need service and support. And because of the above two truths, big corporations will not ever, EVER go to an all Free Software solution, so the idea that in the future we'll all draw salaries for writing Free Software is a pipe dream of the highest order.
Commercial software is not immoral. I have never been able to fathom why making a chair and selling it is a-okay by Stallman, but writing a program and selling it is not. Commercial software makes Free Software possible, since it allows programmers to make money while they sharpen their skills. Yes, there are many awful aspects of commercial software: shrinkwrap licenses, spyware, copy protection, no guaranteed rights for the user, etc. But the whole model of "You give me money and I give you a copy of my software" is never, ever going to go away, and Stallman could make many inroads simply by taking a more pragmatic view and admitting that to himself.
Oh, for God's sake. I'm sure that they'll release this thing called a "demo' - you might have heard of it, it lets you try out a game before you buy it. They just have to, I don't know, FINISH THE GAME FIRST.
Chrono Cross: The bad guy has a very good plan, makes it work for himself flawlessly, and almost gets away with it. I was stunned at how well the villain's actions were thought out.
Ultima VII: The Guardian comes to Britannia and starts talking to people in their minds. He finds it very easy to convince some of them to do his bidding and construct a gate through which he can physically enter Britannia.
Myth and Myth II: Despite the fact that the plot only advances during the between-mission briefings, these games managed to convince me that there was a stupendously large war between the forces of Light and Dark going on, and I was in charge.
Grim Fandango: Yes, it's a horribly linear adventure game with some illogical puzzles. But the storyline was a superb blend of 40's gangster movies with the Mexican culture's concept of the Land of the Dead. I particularly liked how the gangsters killed people...after all, how do you kill a dead person?
I must rejoin that Minnie Driver was marvellous as Lady Eboshi. Loved her, I did.
Jet Set (Grind) Radio Re:Interesting
on
The New Zelda
·
· Score: 1
The game that convinced me that cel-shading polys could look good was Jet Set Radio (Jet Grind Radio here in the states) for the Sega Dreamcast. Good cel-shading code combined with superb character design made the game very attractive, with silk-smooth animation. Very impressive.
Zelda looks even more impressive, and while I like the concept of going to a cel-shaded, cartoony setting, I honestly don't like the character design of Link at all. He looks like a little girl! Heck, maybe Miyamoto will break from tradition completely and make this Link as a little girl. Linkette, anyone?
I've used Allegro (for corporate projects, even). I have nothing against Shawn Hargreaves. I think he's great, and I'm glad he wrote the library, because for years it was the best free game programming library out there.
And finally, you'll want some cool free video game tunes to listen to while you code. The two best sites for video game remixes are Bart Klepka's remixes and Remix at Overclocked.org:
One of the best video game series ever created, but sadly underrated from day one. Myth was a phenomenal game, a karate chop to the tired world of crappy first-person shooters and lame sim games (Pizza Tycoon, anyone?) Superbly written, with excellent graphics (and 3D acceleration with a 3DFX card), and realistic missions (even the first mission could be tough) this was a MAN'S game. A GAMER'S game.
Then Myth II came out and really raised the stakes, with interior missions, large 3D objects that could be manipulated, better graphics, more secrets, and development tools included in the box. Also released simultaneously for PC and Mac, the way games should be. A bit easier than Myth, with superb multiplayer support.
But Myth and Myth II both had graphical problems that stemmed from the combination of 3D rendered landscapes and objects and billboarded sprites for the actual characters. Myth III is going to resolve this issue and add even greater levels of detail, and it appears that they'll do it while keeping the strong storyline and level design of Myth and Myth II intact. This is the first game I've seen this year that I feel I MUST purchase. Can't wait.
Re:You need to watch Mulan again
on
Reviews:Shrek
·
· Score: 1
At last! Another (presumably) adult person who really enjoyed DuckTales! My favorite story was the week-long "City of Gold" one, and yes, while they were aware that they were doing TV animation on a shoestring budget, the animators did take pride in their work.
And not only is Annette old, she's got a degenerative nerve disease. There is no God.
I've noticed that a lot of people here enjoyed playing Ultima 7 and Serpent Isle, and that some of them have tried to play the game again only to have trouble getting the game running in modern operating systems.
The problem was the custom memory manager Origin wrote in order to get around the limitations of EMS. It performs BIOS-level memory access, which Win9x and Win2K simply won't allow.
The solution is a new executable for these games that uses modern memory management techniques and also incorporates a frame limiter so the speed problems are also solved! I've personally tried this patch out and trust me, it's a REAL kick running Ultima 7 in a window!
You can find more info and get the patch at http://members.iinet.net.au/~rsd/U7inWindows.html. The author even makes the source available, and is encouraging someone to do a Linux port. Now how cool is that?
Lottery tickets in the glove boxes of expensive cars purchased by once-rich executives. I love it.
Re:MS can release whenever they like...
on
No X Box for Xmas?
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· Score: 1
Finally, somebody talking sense! I own a Sega Dreamcast, and so far there is only one PS2 game I've seen that looks better than my Dreamcast games, and that is Metal Gear Solid 2. Which isn't even out yet!
Sony DID screw up the PS2. Yes, it's sold 10 million units, the way it was hyped it would be hard not to. (Anybody else remember the Time magazine cover stating that the PS2 would revolutionize home entertainment?) But I still don't own a PS2, and it's because I'm unwilling to a) pay in advance and wait until one comes in or b) buy a $550 bundle with extra software and hardware I don't want. It is still NOT POSSIBLE to walk into a software store or Toys R Us, plunk down $300 and walk out with a PS2.
Add to this the fact that developers are still trying to figure out how to get the maximum performance out of it. The PS2 simply was not designed with easy development in mind. You may say, "Well, that's the price of power" except that the Sega Dreamcast, XBox and GameCube are all much easier to develop for and are similarly powerful.
It's true Microsoft doesn't have everyone. They don't have Square, yes that hurts. But Square isn't the only console RPG maker in existence - Game Arts did a FINE job on Grandia II for the Dreamcast. They may not get Namco. But they DO have Konami, and I will bet money that we'll see an XBox version of MGS2 eventually.
Anyone who thinks that XBox isn't as powerful as PS2 needs to watch the gameplay movies from Munch's Oddysee at oddworld.com.
Anyone who thinks that the XBox will become obsolete fails to take into account that standardized hardware platforms force designers and programmers to do more with less - just compare first-generation PSX games with those released near the end of its life cycle (like Chrono Cross). It's a world of difference, but THE HARDWARE HASN'T CHANGED.
And anyone who thinks that the XBox will bluescreen is an idiot.
Mod this UP, please. Ernest Adams is entertaining, but is himself locked into his own worldview. Any game that took any of these subjects and used them in a fresh, new, unique way would be a good game despite the fact that the subject is old.
Ideas are like Tiberium fields. You can harvest them dry, but leave them alone for a while and they replenish themselves. Unless you turned that off when you started the mulitplayer game, in which case FEEL THE WRATH OF MY ROCKET BIKE SWARM!
Er...sorry. The point is, a deep, well-designed game about, say, orcs - but told from the orc's perspective, and including lots of previously unimagined stuff about their society and physiognomy would be a GOOD GAME - despite the fact that orcs themselves are as old as the hills. Anything can be turned on its ear with enough IMAGINATION and WORK - and THAT'S what's missing from (most) computer game designers these days.
I desire to be a computer game designer myself. I hope that when I die, my epitaph reads, "No one could accuse him of being brilliant. But no one could accuse him of being lazy, either."
You only say this because you are certain that you would pass such a test. You haven't considered what it would be like to be on the receiving end of such a branding. It would be worse than having screwed up badly on a previous job. It would be worse than having gone to jail. You would be practically unemployable, except as menial labor by people who don't care if you live or die because when you do they have a list a mile long of people to take your place.
I wish we'd gotten more information on the case mentioned at the top of the article. How did her employer find out about her condition? Was her health insurance through her employer? If so, did her insurance company notify her employer? To do so would seem to be an extreme breach of privacy. Or did she simply talk about it around the office (not realizing the possible ramifications) and someone upstairs felt they must "do something"? And is it absolutely certain that she lost her job because of her condition?
As the article mentions, requiring a family history is a crude form of genetic screening and is done all the time. We tolerate it because a) it's not that accurate and b) it allows insurers to lower their rates. But a few more details might shed some light on exactly what impropriety occured. As it is, this is simply a "ooh, look what happened to her!" article.
I had trouble playing Deus Ex as a sneaker. You have no feedback about how visible you are, and you ALWAYS make noise as you walk (unless you find a Run Silent aug). Also, the AI really wasn't created with sneaking in mind, since when one enemy discovers you EVERYBODY on the level suddenly knows right where you are. Maybe Deus Ex 2 will get this part right.
In the end, what is to prevent Microsoft from taking the source code for Linux, creating distribution binaries, and selling them as "Microsoft Unix"? They can claim that no GPL code was used, and if they only provide binaries, we can't prove them wrong. If Microsoft wants to, they can take away everything we've done - the GPL isn't strong enough to stop them.
No, what RMS would prefer is that you completely boycott the Playstation 2 completely, since Sony does not provide the ability to make Free Software for that platform. It's all or nothing.
And miss Final Fantasy X and Metal Gear Solid 2? FUCK that trick-ass shit!
Oh, all right, I'll post something relevant so this doesn't get modded down to -5, flamebait.
The problem I have (and have always had) with RMS is his insistence that his way will lead to a computing nirvana, and that it's so obvious he's right that he can't figure out why everyone isn't on the bandwagon yet. I have no idea how he makes his living, but apparently he's insulated enough from the real world (you know, the one with pink slips) that he doesn't understand the concessions that HAVE to be made.
Yes, it would be nice if everyone (including me) could and would contribute freely to a vast library of ever-evolving software. Someday that may happen. But that's as much a societal change as a technological one, and RMS doesn't understand that societal changes take a long time. If he were truly as intelligent as everyone seems to think he is, he would have taken a much longer view. Instead, he dispenses rhetoric and dogma, and subtly slanders those who disagree with him on any point.
And his insistence on the GNU/Linux moniker PISSES ME THE FUCK OFF. Stallman couldn't get HURD together for POLITICAL reasons, not technological ones. He let politics get in the way of just getting the fucking kernel out the door. You can't "shut up and show them the code" if YOU DON'T HAVE ANY FUCKING CODE!
And so Linus and his group stole Stallman's thunder. Yeah, Linus couldn't have done it without GNU tools. Yeah, Linux is merely a piece of a much larger system. But it's the big piece in the middle, the one without which the other pieces fall into a jumble at your feet. The kernel is the most important part of an OS because without it, THE COMPUTER DOESN'T GO. And Stallman has NO right to come along afterward and slap his group's moniker on Linus' group's work. What's up, Stallman, I though hackers weren't supposed to seek fame anyway?
If I ever write anything worthy of distribution, it will be as Open Source Software, not Free Software. The difference between the two is political, and I just don't like Stallman's politics.
I took a class that also used Savitch's book (first edition). The class taught me nothing, but I was able to go through the book on my own and finally get a handle on things like classes, objects, pointers, and memory management. And I did it at home with GCC (actually DJGPP).
That book took me from simply knowing the basics of C syntax to actually being able to write complete C++ programs. I can't recommend it highly enough.
Slashdot Mirror
...if he would promote Free Software as "a good idea" (which it is) rather than "the One True Way For All Humanity" (which it most certainly is NOT). Stallman has not and never will adequately address the issue of how we'll feed our kids in an all-Free-Software world. You cannot make money selling software if you're also freely giving it away. You cannot make money on service and support of software that doesn't need service and support. And because of the above two truths, big corporations will not ever, EVER go to an all Free Software solution, so the idea that in the future we'll all draw salaries for writing Free Software is a pipe dream of the highest order.
Commercial software is not immoral. I have never been able to fathom why making a chair and selling it is a-okay by Stallman, but writing a program and selling it is not. Commercial software makes Free Software possible, since it allows programmers to make money while they sharpen their skills. Yes, there are many awful aspects of commercial software: shrinkwrap licenses, spyware, copy protection, no guaranteed rights for the user, etc. But the whole model of "You give me money and I give you a copy of my software" is never, ever going to go away, and Stallman could make many inroads simply by taking a more pragmatic view and admitting that to himself.
Oh, for God's sake. I'm sure that they'll release this thing called a "demo' - you might have heard of it, it lets you try out a game before you buy it. They just have to, I don't know, FINISH THE GAME FIRST.
In no particular order:
Chrono Cross: The bad guy has a very good plan, makes it work for himself flawlessly, and almost gets away with it. I was stunned at how well the villain's actions were thought out.
Ultima VII: The Guardian comes to Britannia and starts talking to people in their minds. He finds it very easy to convince some of them to do his bidding and construct a gate through which he can physically enter Britannia.
Myth and Myth II: Despite the fact that the plot only advances during the between-mission briefings, these games managed to convince me that there was a stupendously large war between the forces of Light and Dark going on, and I was in charge.
Grim Fandango: Yes, it's a horribly linear adventure game with some illogical puzzles. But the storyline was a superb blend of 40's gangster movies with the Mexican culture's concept of the Land of the Dead. I particularly liked how the gangsters killed people...after all, how do you kill a dead person?
If I think of any more I'll add them.
I must rejoin that Minnie Driver was marvellous as Lady Eboshi. Loved her, I did.
The game that convinced me that cel-shading polys could look good was Jet Set Radio (Jet Grind Radio here in the states) for the Sega Dreamcast. Good cel-shading code combined with superb character design made the game very attractive, with silk-smooth animation. Very impressive.
Zelda looks even more impressive, and while I like the concept of going to a cel-shaded, cartoony setting, I honestly don't like the character design of Link at all. He looks like a little girl! Heck, maybe Miyamoto will break from tradition completely and make this Link as a little girl. Linkette, anyone?
But now I have to say that Loki's SDL is better.
If you want to learn OpenGL, your next stop should be NeHe's tutorials on Gamedev.Net.
http://nehe.gamedev.net/
GameDev itself is helpful...
http://www.gamedev.net/
As is Flipcode...
http://www.flipcode.com/
If you're interested in writing a good game, you should learn from those that came before you. Check them out using emulators from Zophar's Domain...
http://www.zophar.net/
Also, no game developer worth his salt can ignore the virtual treasure trove of information archived at GamaSutra...
http://www.gamasutra.com/
And finally, you'll want some cool free video game tunes to listen to while you code. The two best sites for video game remixes are Bart Klepka's remixes and Remix at Overclocked.org:
http://bart.overclocked.org/
http://remix.overclocked.org/
Go to it. I hope to play your games soon.
Actual voice log from System Shock II:
Unknown voice: "Please God, don't do it, I -"
Korenchkin: "Glory to the Many. I am a voice in Their choir."
(shotgun report)
Unknown voice: "No, Jesus, no-"
(shotgun report)
Unknown voice: (screaming)
(shotgun report)
Unknown voice: (screaming stops suddenly)
(shotgun report)
(shotgun report)
(shotgun report)
Needless to say, the superb voice acting combined with the writing to send chills up my spin when I first heard this log. Superb game.
Ah, but you did implicitly compare Hitler to Microsoft by stating that both made their "users" pay full price. Godwin's law applies.
Therefore, you lose. Thank you for playing. Goodbye.
One of the best video game series ever created, but sadly underrated from day one. Myth was a phenomenal game, a karate chop to the tired world of crappy first-person shooters and lame sim games (Pizza Tycoon, anyone?) Superbly written, with excellent graphics (and 3D acceleration with a 3DFX card), and realistic missions (even the first mission could be tough) this was a MAN'S game. A GAMER'S game.
Then Myth II came out and really raised the stakes, with interior missions, large 3D objects that could be manipulated, better graphics, more secrets, and development tools included in the box. Also released simultaneously for PC and Mac, the way games should be. A bit easier than Myth, with superb multiplayer support.
But Myth and Myth II both had graphical problems that stemmed from the combination of 3D rendered landscapes and objects and billboarded sprites for the actual characters. Myth III is going to resolve this issue and add even greater levels of detail, and it appears that they'll do it while keeping the strong storyline and level design of Myth and Myth II intact. This is the first game I've seen this year that I feel I MUST purchase. Can't wait.
At last! Another (presumably) adult person who really enjoyed DuckTales! My favorite story was the week-long "City of Gold" one, and yes, while they were aware that they were doing TV animation on a shoestring budget, the animators did take pride in their work.
And not only is Annette old, she's got a degenerative nerve disease. There is no God.
That's my job!
Badman, AKA Hint Dragon
Origin Hint Guru and Tech Support, 1995-1997
I've noticed that a lot of people here enjoyed playing Ultima 7 and Serpent Isle, and that some of them have tried to play the game again only to have trouble getting the game running in modern operating systems.
. The author even makes the source available, and is encouraging someone to do a Linux port. Now how cool is that?
The problem was the custom memory manager Origin wrote in order to get around the limitations of EMS. It performs BIOS-level memory access, which Win9x and Win2K simply won't allow.
The solution is a new executable for these games that uses modern memory management techniques and also incorporates a frame limiter so the speed problems are also solved! I've personally tried this patch out and trust me, it's a REAL kick running Ultima 7 in a window!
You can find more info and get the patch at http://members.iinet.net.au/~rsd/U7inWindows.html
If anyone would like to read about my personal experience working at Origin, it's on my web site at http://darkbox.pentagod.com/soulcage.htm.
Badman
Lottery tickets in the glove boxes of expensive cars purchased by once-rich executives. I love it.
Finally, somebody talking sense! I own a Sega Dreamcast, and so far there is only one PS2 game I've seen that looks better than my Dreamcast games, and that is Metal Gear Solid 2. Which isn't even out yet!
Sony DID screw up the PS2. Yes, it's sold 10 million units, the way it was hyped it would be hard not to. (Anybody else remember the Time magazine cover stating that the PS2 would revolutionize home entertainment?) But I still don't own a PS2, and it's because I'm unwilling to a) pay in advance and wait until one comes in or b) buy a $550 bundle with extra software and hardware I don't want. It is still NOT POSSIBLE to walk into a software store or Toys R Us, plunk down $300 and walk out with a PS2.
Add to this the fact that developers are still trying to figure out how to get the maximum performance out of it. The PS2 simply was not designed with easy development in mind. You may say, "Well, that's the price of power" except that the Sega Dreamcast, XBox and GameCube are all much easier to develop for and are similarly powerful.
It's true Microsoft doesn't have everyone. They don't have Square, yes that hurts. But Square isn't the only console RPG maker in existence - Game Arts did a FINE job on Grandia II for the Dreamcast. They may not get Namco. But they DO have Konami, and I will bet money that we'll see an XBox version of MGS2 eventually.
Anyone who thinks that XBox isn't as powerful as PS2 needs to watch the gameplay movies from Munch's Oddysee at oddworld.com.
Anyone who thinks that the XBox will become obsolete fails to take into account that standardized hardware platforms force designers and programmers to do more with less - just compare first-generation PSX games with those released near the end of its life cycle (like Chrono Cross). It's a world of difference, but THE HARDWARE HASN'T CHANGED.
And anyone who thinks that the XBox will bluescreen is an idiot.
This happened in the 70's. A Russian pilot made an emergency landing at a US airbase in Alaska. We pretty much just fueled him up and let him go.
Mod this UP, please. Ernest Adams is entertaining, but is himself locked into his own worldview. Any game that took any of these subjects and used them in a fresh, new, unique way would be a good game despite the fact that the subject is old.
Ideas are like Tiberium fields. You can harvest them dry, but leave them alone for a while and they replenish themselves. Unless you turned that off when you started the mulitplayer game, in which case FEEL THE WRATH OF MY ROCKET BIKE SWARM!
Er...sorry. The point is, a deep, well-designed game about, say, orcs - but told from the orc's perspective, and including lots of previously unimagined stuff about their society and physiognomy would be a GOOD GAME - despite the fact that orcs themselves are as old as the hills. Anything can be turned on its ear with enough IMAGINATION and WORK - and THAT'S what's missing from (most) computer game designers these days.
I desire to be a computer game designer myself. I hope that when I die, my epitaph reads, "No one could accuse him of being brilliant. But no one could accuse him of being lazy, either."
You only say this because you are certain that you would pass such a test. You haven't considered what it would be like to be on the receiving end of such a branding. It would be worse than having screwed up badly on a previous job. It would be worse than having gone to jail. You would be practically unemployable, except as menial labor by people who don't care if you live or die because when you do they have a list a mile long of people to take your place.
I wish we'd gotten more information on the case mentioned at the top of the article. How did her employer find out about her condition? Was her health insurance through her employer? If so, did her insurance company notify her employer? To do so would seem to be an extreme breach of privacy. Or did she simply talk about it around the office (not realizing the possible ramifications) and someone upstairs felt they must "do something"? And is it absolutely certain that she lost her job because of her condition?
As the article mentions, requiring a family history is a crude form of genetic screening and is done all the time. We tolerate it because a) it's not that accurate and b) it allows insurers to lower their rates. But a few more details might shed some light on exactly what impropriety occured. As it is, this is simply a "ooh, look what happened to her!" article.
I had trouble playing Deus Ex as a sneaker. You have no feedback about how visible you are, and you ALWAYS make noise as you walk (unless you find a Run Silent aug). Also, the AI really wasn't created with sneaking in mind, since when one enemy discovers you EVERYBODY on the level suddenly knows right where you are. Maybe Deus Ex 2 will get this part right.
In the end, what is to prevent Microsoft from taking the source code for Linux, creating distribution binaries, and selling them as "Microsoft Unix"? They can claim that no GPL code was used, and if they only provide binaries, we can't prove them wrong. If Microsoft wants to, they can take away everything we've done - the GPL isn't strong enough to stop them.
And miss Final Fantasy X and Metal Gear Solid 2? FUCK that trick-ass shit!
Oh, all right, I'll post something relevant so this doesn't get modded down to -5, flamebait.
The problem I have (and have always had) with RMS is his insistence that his way will lead to a computing nirvana, and that it's so obvious he's right that he can't figure out why everyone isn't on the bandwagon yet. I have no idea how he makes his living, but apparently he's insulated enough from the real world (you know, the one with pink slips) that he doesn't understand the concessions that HAVE to be made.
Yes, it would be nice if everyone (including me) could and would contribute freely to a vast library of ever-evolving software. Someday that may happen. But that's as much a societal change as a technological one, and RMS doesn't understand that societal changes take a long time. If he were truly as intelligent as everyone seems to think he is, he would have taken a much longer view. Instead, he dispenses rhetoric and dogma, and subtly slanders those who disagree with him on any point.
And his insistence on the GNU/Linux moniker PISSES ME THE FUCK OFF. Stallman couldn't get HURD together for POLITICAL reasons, not technological ones. He let politics get in the way of just getting the fucking kernel out the door. You can't "shut up and show them the code" if YOU DON'T HAVE ANY FUCKING CODE!
And so Linus and his group stole Stallman's thunder. Yeah, Linus couldn't have done it without GNU tools. Yeah, Linux is merely a piece of a much larger system. But it's the big piece in the middle, the one without which the other pieces fall into a jumble at your feet. The kernel is the most important part of an OS because without it, THE COMPUTER DOESN'T GO. And Stallman has NO right to come along afterward and slap his group's moniker on Linus' group's work. What's up, Stallman, I though hackers weren't supposed to seek fame anyway?
If I ever write anything worthy of distribution, it will be as Open Source Software, not Free Software. The difference between the two is political, and I just don't like Stallman's politics.
Looking Glass developed the engine. Origin used it to make a game. Does anyone else wish somebody would do the same for id? :)
I took a class that also used Savitch's book (first edition). The class taught me nothing, but I was able to go through the book on my own and finally get a handle on things like classes, objects, pointers, and memory management. And I did it at home with GCC (actually DJGPP).
That book took me from simply knowing the basics of C syntax to actually being able to write complete C++ programs. I can't recommend it highly enough.