Does or doesn't Microsoft get a slice of the pie for each title sold on their platform? At least, that is how most game console manufacturers seem to work. I'd imagine that they have a different royality scale for arcade vs home.
I looked at this a year or so ago. I have an unresolved question which is slightly interesting. How well would a vector monitor (aka "Asteroids" or "Tempest") fair when projected? The lines are bright, but skinny. Will they be lost in the magnificant?
Today, the situation is quite difference. In fact, the X-Box seems to put the final nail in the coffin. Arcade game manufacturers may very well stop creating arcade games on custom hardware. Instead, they'll compile for an X-Box style platform. Why? For the ease of conversion to the home game. That's where the money is. The arcade game is just the 'advertisement' to create the buzz.
I don't pretend to have my finger on the pulse of the arcade industry, but it seemed like an obvious development. There isn't much need to create custom arcade hardware when you've got something like the X-Box that you can develop arcade games on and later port to the home PC (and X-Box game console).
I see your point, but I would still put emphasis on the technology side. Their business was based on a single idea: "The pictures from our camera come out instantly." A great advantage, especially when protected by patents, but it really isn't much to base an entire company off of... yet alone, charge a high premium.
Even more so, when you go back to the technology. Picture quality wasn't comparable to regular film. And you would NEVER see a profession with his camera, tripod, zoom lens, and flash, out taking professional pictures. It is so incredibly silly because the quality is poor. That, and you lose the ability to make copies of your negatives.
Given all the shortfalls, they really had a niche product. Personally, I think they grew their company far larger than their niche would allow. $1B debt is a result.
Of course, you could blame this all on the business, too. They should have realized their technology isn't ALL THAT.
This is one of the things that, say, Scott McNealy would point out as a "disruptive technology". Digital Cameras came, and Polaroid didn't change.
For the consumer, the choice was almost obvious. Do you want buy a camera, and have to pay for film all the time, or do you want a more expensive camera that takes "free pictures"? (Okay, not quite free, but very close.)
Customers don't like the pay-per-use model. They hate it. Anything that moves away from that will win consumers. You see this happen over and over again. Companies need to latch onto this and embrace it.
I feel bad for Polaroid, but it is really a win for us that technology has managed to create something better that has succeeded in the marketplace.
You're question is vague in a sense that when you say ReplayTV, are you talking about the old generation, or the new generation that is coming up?
You're probably not going to find many people on Slashdot who will be able to intelligently compare the risks to both companies. I guestimate the chances are roughly equal for both. But keep in mind that the TiVo is much more 'hackable' than ReplayTV.
Yes, they've found ways to load television guide data into the box. If the company goes titsup.com, and the product is completely abandoned, you'll still be able to use it and still be funny functional, just self-serve. But you'd probably have to invest in a network card to do well.
Also keep in mind that you're probably going to be paying less than $300, certainly for the TiVo models. It is too bad that you aren't on DirecTV. Circuit City is selling a Philips DSR-6000 for only $99. And that includes the dual-feed antenna for only $0.01. But if you are very careful in your looking around, you could get a 20 hour TiVo as low as $150 or so. Retail stores are clearing them out.
My bottom-line opinion is to take risk out of the equasion, and choose the one that will give you the best price and features for your money.
It is like playing Pool or Radiance or Balder's Gate, or some other quest adventure. There is no question you're going to win the game. The fun it how you get there! And, in this case, the fun is watching how to get to an obscenely dense level of electronics running at an amazingly fast speed.;)
Do you realize that this might set a whole new trend in overclocking? I can see it now. Those OC geeks are going to hook a massive cooler to their computers and have it exhaust the heat out of the CVS pipes. This could be a riot.
Having been inside a few companies (and healthy ones, at that) while a transition has taken place (merger, buyout), I'm a little scared to be an @Home customer right now.
One of the first things to go is the quality of service to the customer. Technical foul-ups as things are transitioned, either technically, or between different groups of people.
I have to say that @Home really didn't add much to my Internet experience that, say, Roadrunner, or Media One would have provided. (The Excite merger really didn't see any major benefits for @Home customers.)
While I'm not worried that I'll be completely shut off, I am worried about the quality of service going forward. It is a legitimate concern. But I don't (yet) have enough motiviation to switch to some other form (DSL, etc) of high speed communications.
Here's hoping that @Home/ATT/Whoever doesn't drop the ball.
It is about the software. I've got an ethernet card in my TiVo right now. But I don't have any compelling software for it. I can't share video with other TiVo users without going through extreme measures. In all, the Ethernet on the TiVo is great for toys like a web server, or doing stuff from the shell prompt.
That's why ReplayTV is better than a TiVo with an ethernet hack. ReplayTV embraces the network connection. TiVo, unfortunately, is too in-bed with corporate sponsors. Here's hoping they change.
Some are geared at existing ReplayTV customers. Others are for 'people in the industry'. But they were freely given over the phone. I worked with this guy and got some codes corrected, so they now work properly.
I took the $100 off and no payments. (That'll make it easily financable over a few months.) Note! Most of these promo codes are for all but the most basic model.
Okay. I'm an idiot. I was thrown off by the topic, "Flash Client....". Please perform your duty as a citizen of Slashdot and nuke my posts into the trollish region they so richly deserve!
It is right in front of your nose, on the
macromedia web site. Netscape plugins for alternative operating systems. That's where I got my Solaris (SPARC hardware) plugin, and it works like a champ. Very solid.
I am currently using a Macromedia Flash client on Solaris. Works absolutely perfect, with sound and everything! If they've got it for Solaris, you'd think there would be a Linux version floating around.
I've kept around my Master of Orion game. I still love it. (And MOO3 is to be released soon!)
I think, however, the "oldest game" list is best satisfied by retrocomputing. Mind you, I have some Atari home computers in my closet, with cartridges and software on disk/tape.
I've also played them, now and then, on my Atari home computer emulator. I've also used the serial port on my PC to emulate an Atari disk drive (!) and played some favorites on a hybrid Atari/PC combo.
And even in another form, classic arcade games sort of fit the bill. But my oldest ones are all from 1981: Gorf, Pac-Man, Wizard of Wor, Zaxxon. Still running on original hardware and still quite playable.
Yeah. Those classics are staying around for as long as they generations who played them are still on the earth. And probably just a little bit longer.
I'm just happy that I don't collect rotary phones. Heck, kids today probably don't even have any idea how to use them!;)
It doesn't make me sick. I sympathize with the employees, and they should do all they can *within the law* to seek
remedy, but this is the way business works. *Individuals* declare bankruptcy all the time, leaving their creditors out to
dry; does that make you sick ? Would you argue it was OK for the creditors to sneak into their house and steal the
individual's belongings ?
Yes. They do that. They're called estate sales. They take everything in your house/apartment, and put a price tag on it. Even the smallest thing will get a 10 cent sticker on it.
I used to go to estate sales, but after having found out what some of them really are, I can't morally justify going into someone's home and buying their stuff for cheap.
You don't swipe items when the company has given you the boot. They'll have their eyes on you big time. What you do is you swipe items when you're pissed off at your company for treating you badly. (IE: Hurray! Everyone gets a 10% pay cut!)
Best way to do this? Very simple. Use your company's shipping and receiving department. That's what they're there for. From you desk, sell office items on eBay. When it comes time to deliver the goods, box it up... at work... and give it to your shipping department (who, no doubt, will want to FedEx, UPS, or otherwise mail it with no later than two day delivery). Make the company foot the bill for getting rid of their own items.
This message is in jest. Please DON'T try this, gentle SysAdmins.;)
Is that for IT support staff that have really good skills, some activity may inadvertantly be redefined by others as 'hacking'. (For example, putting a screen saver on the computers in the computer lab.)
That alone is scary enough, but now even stronger punishments, and treatment as what I am going to guess is a capital crime? Ouch. IT is looking even scarier.
Nothing personal. But vectorheads have the reputation for being one of the less friendly cliques. Vectorheads are generally more friendlier. Or maybe it was just a few people who created that perception. Dunno. Take an RGVAC survey.
I just wanted to point out that the PCB you pointed out on eBay doesn't contain any of the game logic. It is the power supply for the unit. Probably one of those things an arcade person could have guessed (since putting a transformer next to a PCB is really strange), but would probably take dragon's lair specific information to know.
Shame on the seller for such a generic description. Look! I have the dragon's lair PCB!!
Slashdot Mirror
Does or doesn't Microsoft get a slice of the pie for each title sold on their platform? At least, that is how most game console manufacturers seem to work. I'd imagine that they have a different royality scale for arcade vs home.
I looked at this a year or so ago. I have an unresolved question which is slightly interesting. How well would a vector monitor (aka "Asteroids" or "Tempest") fair when projected? The lines are bright, but skinny. Will they be lost in the magnificant?
Yup. For example, this page I created about the Sega Titan arcade motherboard. Guess what? It is a slightly souped up Sega Saturn.
Back in March, I posted this reply to a story about capcom calling it quits. Specifically, I said:
Today, the situation is quite difference. In fact, the X-Box seems to put the final nail in the coffin. Arcade game manufacturers may very well stop creating arcade games on custom hardware. Instead, they'll compile for an X-Box style platform. Why? For the ease of conversion to the home game. That's where the money is. The arcade game is just the 'advertisement' to create the buzz.
I don't pretend to have my finger on the pulse of the arcade industry, but it seemed like an obvious development. There isn't much need to create custom arcade hardware when you've got something like the X-Box that you can develop arcade games on and later port to the home PC (and X-Box game console).
Quite a good strategy, for Microsoft and Sega.
I see your point, but I would still put emphasis on the technology side. Their business was based on a single idea: "The pictures from our camera come out instantly." A great advantage, especially when protected by patents, but it really isn't much to base an entire company off of... yet alone, charge a high premium.
Even more so, when you go back to the technology. Picture quality wasn't comparable to regular film. And you would NEVER see a profession with his camera, tripod, zoom lens, and flash, out taking professional pictures. It is so incredibly silly because the quality is poor. That, and you lose the ability to make copies of your negatives.
Given all the shortfalls, they really had a niche product. Personally, I think they grew their company far larger than their niche would allow. $1B debt is a result.
Of course, you could blame this all on the business, too. They should have realized their technology isn't ALL THAT.
This is one of the things that, say, Scott McNealy would point out as a "disruptive technology". Digital Cameras came, and Polaroid didn't change.
For the consumer, the choice was almost obvious. Do you want buy a camera, and have to pay for film all the time, or do you want a more expensive camera that takes "free pictures"? (Okay, not quite free, but very close.)
Customers don't like the pay-per-use model. They hate it. Anything that moves away from that will win consumers. You see this happen over and over again. Companies need to latch onto this and embrace it.
I feel bad for Polaroid, but it is really a win for us that technology has managed to create something better that has succeeded in the marketplace.
You're question is vague in a sense that when you say ReplayTV, are you talking about the old generation, or the new generation that is coming up?
You're probably not going to find many people on Slashdot who will be able to intelligently compare the risks to both companies. I guestimate the chances are roughly equal for both. But keep in mind that the TiVo is much more 'hackable' than ReplayTV.
Yes, they've found ways to load television guide data into the box. If the company goes titsup.com, and the product is completely abandoned, you'll still be able to use it and still be funny functional, just self-serve. But you'd probably have to invest in a network card to do well.
Also keep in mind that you're probably going to be paying less than $300, certainly for the TiVo models. It is too bad that you aren't on DirecTV. Circuit City is selling a Philips DSR-6000 for only $99. And that includes the dual-feed antenna for only $0.01. But if you are very careful in your looking around, you could get a 20 hour TiVo as low as $150 or so. Retail stores are clearing them out.
My bottom-line opinion is to take risk out of the equasion, and choose the one that will give you the best price and features for your money.
It is like playing Pool or Radiance or Balder's Gate, or some other quest adventure. There is no question you're going to win the game. The fun it how you get there! And, in this case, the fun is watching how to get to an obscenely dense level of electronics running at an amazingly fast speed. ;)
Do you realize that this might set a whole new trend in overclocking? I can see it now. Those OC geeks are going to hook a massive cooler to their computers and have it exhaust the heat out of the CVS pipes. This could be a riot.
"Overclocking equiped house."
No, really! Tell us how you really feel!
Having been inside a few companies (and healthy ones, at that) while a transition has taken place (merger, buyout), I'm a little scared to be an @Home customer right now.
One of the first things to go is the quality of service to the customer. Technical foul-ups as things are transitioned, either technically, or between different groups of people.
I have to say that @Home really didn't add much to my Internet experience that, say, Roadrunner, or Media One would have provided. (The Excite merger really didn't see any major benefits for @Home customers.)
While I'm not worried that I'll be completely shut off, I am worried about the quality of service going forward. It is a legitimate concern. But I don't (yet) have enough motiviation to switch to some other form (DSL, etc) of high speed communications.
Here's hoping that @Home/ATT/Whoever doesn't drop the ball.
It is about the software. I've got an ethernet card in my TiVo right now. But I don't have any compelling software for it. I can't share video with other TiVo users without going through extreme measures. In all, the Ethernet on the TiVo is great for toys like a web server, or doing stuff from the shell prompt.
That's why ReplayTV is better than a TiVo with an ethernet hack. ReplayTV embraces the network connection. TiVo, unfortunately, is too in-bed with corporate sponsors. Here's hoping they change.
ReplayTV PROMOTIONAL CODES!
Some are geared at existing ReplayTV customers. Others are for 'people in the industry'. But they were freely given over the phone. I worked with this guy and got some codes corrected, so they now work properly.
I took the $100 off and no payments. (That'll make it easily financable over a few months.) Note! Most of these promo codes are for all but the most basic model.
Hey, Uni.
I guess I missed that part. Where was Deforest Kelly in the pilot? Who was he, and what was he doing?
Okay. I'm an idiot. I was thrown off by the topic, "Flash Client....". Please perform your duty as a citizen of Slashdot and nuke my posts into the trollish region they so richly deserve!
Apologies for the noise.
It is right in front of your nose, on the macromedia web site. Netscape plugins for alternative operating systems. That's where I got my Solaris (SPARC hardware) plugin, and it works like a champ. Very solid.
I am currently using a Macromedia Flash client on Solaris. Works absolutely perfect, with sound and everything! If they've got it for Solaris, you'd think there would be a Linux version floating around.
I've kept around my Master of Orion game. I still love it. (And MOO3 is to be released soon!)
;)
I think, however, the "oldest game" list is best satisfied by retrocomputing. Mind you, I have some Atari home computers in my closet, with cartridges and software on disk/tape.
I've also played them, now and then, on my Atari home computer emulator. I've also used the serial port on my PC to emulate an Atari disk drive (!) and played some favorites on a hybrid Atari/PC combo.
And even in another form, classic arcade games sort of fit the bill. But my oldest ones are all from 1981: Gorf, Pac-Man, Wizard of Wor, Zaxxon. Still running on original hardware and still quite playable.
Yeah. Those classics are staying around for as long as they generations who played them are still on the earth. And probably just a little bit longer.
I'm just happy that I don't collect rotary phones. Heck, kids today probably don't even have any idea how to use them!
Interesting. Thank you.
Yes. They do that. They're called estate sales. They take everything in your house/apartment, and put a price tag on it. Even the smallest thing will get a 10 cent sticker on it.
I used to go to estate sales, but after having found out what some of them really are, I can't morally justify going into someone's home and buying their stuff for cheap.
One computer: $2,000
One oscilloscope: $43,549
Having your story linked to Slashdot: $PRICELESS
For some bankrupcies, there are severance checks. And for others, fivefingerdiscount.
Fivefingerdiscount. It's everything you want to have.
You don't swipe items when the company has given you the boot. They'll have their eyes on you big time. What you do is you swipe items when you're pissed off at your company for treating you badly. (IE: Hurray! Everyone gets a 10% pay cut!)
;)
Best way to do this? Very simple. Use your company's shipping and receiving department. That's what they're there for. From you desk, sell office items on eBay. When it comes time to deliver the goods, box it up... at work... and give it to your shipping department (who, no doubt, will want to FedEx, UPS, or otherwise mail it with no later than two day delivery). Make the company foot the bill for getting rid of their own items.
This message is in jest. Please DON'T try this, gentle SysAdmins.
Is that for IT support staff that have really good skills, some activity may inadvertantly be redefined by others as 'hacking'. (For example, putting a screen saver on the computers in the computer lab.)
That alone is scary enough, but now even stronger punishments, and treatment as what I am going to guess is a capital crime? Ouch. IT is looking even scarier.
(Is scarier a word?)
Nothing personal. But vectorheads have the reputation for being one of the less friendly cliques. Vectorheads are generally more friendlier. Or maybe it was just a few people who created that perception. Dunno. Take an RGVAC survey.
I just wanted to point out that the PCB you pointed out on eBay doesn't contain any of the game logic. It is the power supply for the unit. Probably one of those things an arcade person could have guessed (since putting a transformer next to a PCB is really strange), but would probably take dragon's lair specific information to know.
Shame on the seller for such a generic description. Look! I have the dragon's lair PCB!!