How about some benchmarks for a card I actually have, like a ti4800?;-) Saying "suprisingly good gaming experience" on a GF4MX means nothing... are you seeing a creepy title screen and playing a pong minigame, or actually seeing 30fps+?
Sorry, but dropping $500 on a video card is just not an option, this would be more useful if we had some everyday specs.
Reimplementing TCP using a database is excessive. Making a light connectionless protocol that does similar to what you described would be a lot simpler and not require reimplementing everyone's TCP stack.
Also, as much as I hate the fad of labelling everything P2P, having a P2P-ish network for this would help, too. The original server can just hand out MD5's, and clients propagate the actual text throughout the network.
Of course (and this relates to the P2P stuff), every newfangled toy these days is just a pathetic reimplementation of some original Internet protocol. Like, say, NNTP. Which does all of this already, and has for years. Ah well.
No, except that I prefer Opera on Linux, and that's just a quibble. I was predicting the future.
Ah, your post actually sounded much more like one of the Windows trolls I see about every once in awhile. Anymore I take "Firefox" (or whatever they call it this month) to be like saying "Netscape"... a generic placeholder for "Web browser".;-)
The main problem though is the silly implication people tend to use... that advocating something better is somehow bad, be it Mozilla or Konqueror or Opera. Well, it's not.:-)
Cue the "Gee I'm glad I use FireFox on Linux" posts.
Gee, I'm glad I use Firefox on Linux. And why the hell shouldn't I be? In addition to actually supporting standards (CSS anyone?), my decision is constantly reaffirmed by exploints such as these. Do you have a problem with that? (Actually I use Mozilla, but close enough.)
That said, I'm a better particle physicist than Michael Chrichton. The crap physics he uses in the book are absolutely terrible. Even (especially?) the time travel is poorly thought out. I heard the movie was worse, and I couldn't bear to watch it. Please don't recommend this book as a good example of anything other than poor writing.
If you want good time travel, read "Timemaster" by Robert Forward. The writing isn't super, but it's a lot better than Crichton. For multiple universe stuff, I'm not really sure. Something is tickling my mind, but I can't think of anything specific.
Heck, Maybe in the future all controllers will be touch screen, and the button configurations will depend on the game programmers themselves
Given current touchscreen technology this isn't likely. Currently, touch screens (or even touch pad mice) register only a single touch at a time, and they wear out after a number of touches (usually like 100k). Given that you at least need two buttons at a time (direction and action), usually more, this probably won't happen.
Maybe someone will come along with cheaper better technology that makes this possible, but the tactility of mechanical buttons along with the cheaper manufacturing costs will keep them around for the foreseeable future.
They've combined two things I'd never watch into one convenient, easy-to-avoid program.
Seriously, besides the terriblebutfunny
things I've heard about G4, I've never seen it and never really heard of TechTV either. Why would I watch TV when I've got the real thing?
Sony's PR department has a history of doing this sort of thing. [...] Dreamcast is about to ship? Announce the PS2. [...]
You sound like a Dreamcast fanboy. I'm sorry you pet console didn't make it, but that's not Sony's fault. Sega has a terrible history with marketting anything.
Comparing the PS2 launch to 2nd and 3rd generation Dreamcast games is rather silly. The 1.5-gen to 3rd-gen PS2 lineup was incredible, and they're still at it. (You apparently forget everything from Ico to MGS2, including GTA3, Jak and Daxter, and many others in those generations.)
I have over 50 PS2 games, they all rock, and I'm missing a good number of A-AAA titles.
X-Box ships. X-Box Live! ships.
Yeah, all those AAA XBOX titles they have now really make me sorry I don't have an XBOX. Wait, what AAA lineup? They're still using Halo to sell it! Come on!
And XBOX Live? Meh. I'm playing FFXI right now. XBOX Live doesn't offer that, so what's the point? And the PS2 THUG is far better, network-wise, than the XBOX (or Cube) versions. Those are the games I want to play. Not... Halo.
As gamers, how long are we going to put up with this shit from Sony? Haven't we learned from our mistakes by now?
I've learned that I can get a lot of really good, diverse games that play on Sony platforms, everything from the esoteric (Rez) to the epic (Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Star Ocean, Xenosaga). What mistakes?
And michael said I had no life for simply having over 800 comments.....
And you have nearly 5200 comments now... that sounds like a lot, but is it?
Well, let's do some math. That comment was posted 2001/12/11 at 4pm (local my time), according to slashdot. At that time you had 713 comments. Now, your usernumber is in the 100k range, so you're not a slashdot oldtimer, but I can't tell for sure when you joined. However, we can look at the time since then.
Let t1 = Time("2001-12-11 16:01") and t2 = Now(). The amount of time passed (t2 - t1) is roughly 75070272 seconds (don't worry, I'll keep precision in the background) and that's about 868 days. In that time we know you posted 5174 - 713 comments, so your posting rate is (5174 - 713)/868, which is about 5.13 comments per day. Every day, for about 2.3 years.
Good or bad, you can decide. Personally I think this may be partially a response to michael's comment.
Most video games have thin, unelaborated setup plots. Nobody cares when it's the game, as long as the play/action is good. When it comes time to move things to the silver screen, though, it's much more important.
Yes, we all know the top Hollywood productions today have deep, elaborate plots. Engaging dialog that furthers the plot drives audiences wild. Everyone loved the Matrix 2-3 for just this reason... when Neo was talking with the Architect everyone was cheering. Give me a break.
The real reason there haven't been any/many good videogame translations is that they pick the wrong ones. While I did like Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within in terms of technical achievement, and could even recognize the bits that made it a Final Fantasy story, they would have done far better if they'd done a live-action rendition of Final Fantasy VI or the like. But what do they regularly pick for making movies? The games with deep plots, characters, and world, like Xenosaga, existingFinal Fantasy games, Silent Hill, Metal Gear, or the like? No, we get puzzle/action games like Tomb Raider where the character is some polygons smeared on an attitude and given some obstacles. Bah.
Personally I think Resident Evil was the best adaption so far. It was an action movie, decent plot with enough mystery and character to make it not completely suck. Was it great? No. But if they can do that much with Resident Evil, then there is potential. Maybe not for Metroid... I don't see how this can be made into a movie... but then I didn't see how it could survive the transition to first-person, either, and it did. But I'll believe it when I see it.
Now, the best video game movie is not Resident Evil, but probably Dot Hack. While the name is cheesy, it has an interesting plot, characters, world, seamless transition into the game after.hack//SIGN along with the excellent.hack//Liminality short movies that accompany the games. This isn't an adaption though... this is a work conceived of in crossmedia form, and, while still a primitive use of the concept, it's extremely interesting and shows huge potential.
You must be forgetting we're talking about Doom here, not Quake... I never used a keyboard for Doom, only my Gravis Gamepad. Doom did not require aiming, jumping, ducking, mouselook, or any other myriad of 3D activities. It plays _very_ well with just a pad and a couple buttons. Part of the magic of it, in my opinion.
Yeah, I know a few people who have them, but not 16 or even half that. I'm sure I could find more if I asked around or something. It'd be nice to find some people to play FF:CC or Zelda:4S with.
lesse, figure 16 UBS ports would let you hook 16 GBAs to a PC... code up a very simple kernel... of course, you'd then need 16 GBAs and 16 E-Readers... probably not worth it beyond being able to say "Hey, look what we did."
There's no need to go to the trouble. You can already get flash carts that let you load far more code than one of these cards. Plus, on the GBA SP, there are both the regular 4-way serial connectors and the secondary I/O connector. I'm not sure the actual limits of either, but worst case you could chain them together, no USB hackery necessary.
Of course, the GBA is hardly very powerful to begin with, as you imply, and this isn't really worth it besides the geek factor. However, 16-player doom might be fun, if you can find 16 people with GBAs...
Or Tetrinet. I wish someone would port Tetrinet. 6 players there, and the GBA seriously lacks a good tetris.
Didnt all the 5x00 series have the same type of keyboard?
This is true---the keyboard has been one of the defining features of the Zaurus for most---however, the SL-A300, which is one of the newer models, did not feature a keyboard.
Also, the keyboard on the SL-6000 appears to use the style of keys that are closer to the CL-7xx/8xx series. This is probably good, but I haven't personally used them to know.
IMO, i would prefer something more like the CL series, with a larger screen, slimmer profile, and flip-out keyboard. However, I'm very happy with my SL-5500, and builtin wireless sounds very cool.
While the parent of your comment is pretty much a troll, most consoles are not like that. How often must this be posted before this myth is finally laid to rest?
And knowing Sony, it wouldn't be a shocker to see it dropped to $99, would it? This is pure speculation on my part, but they've liked sticking it to the competition in the past. Given they've got declining sales growth, indicating market saturation, if they cut the price to $99 they'd compete with the Cube, undercut Microsoft, and reach the population who will buy at $99. And probably still make a little profit off each box.
I believe they still have separate bundles for the PS2 with and without network adaptor. Maybe they'll go $99/$120, or $120/$150. Either way it's a good opportunity to make the competition look bad.
Slashdot Mirror
How about some benchmarks for a card I actually have, like a ti4800? ;-) Saying "suprisingly good gaming experience" on a GF4MX means nothing... are you seeing a creepy title screen and playing a pong minigame, or actually seeing 30fps+?
Sorry, but dropping $500 on a video card is just not an option, this would be more useful if we had some everyday specs.
Reimplementing TCP using a database is excessive. Making a light connectionless protocol that does similar to what you described would be a lot simpler and not require reimplementing everyone's TCP stack.
Also, as much as I hate the fad of labelling everything P2P, having a P2P-ish network for this would help, too. The original server can just hand out MD5's, and clients propagate the actual text throughout the network.
Of course (and this relates to the P2P stuff), every newfangled toy these days is just a pathetic reimplementation of some original Internet protocol. Like, say, NNTP. Which does all of this already, and has for years. Ah well.
Linux is multi-user, Windows is not.
Ah, your post actually sounded much more like one of the Windows trolls I see about every once in awhile. Anymore I take "Firefox" (or whatever they call it this month) to be like saying "Netscape"... a generic placeholder for "Web browser". ;-)
The main problem though is the silly implication people tend to use... that advocating something better is somehow bad, be it Mozilla or Konqueror or Opera. Well, it's not. :-)
Gee, I'm glad I use Firefox on Linux. And why the hell shouldn't I be? In addition to actually supporting standards (CSS anyone?), my decision is constantly reaffirmed by exploints such as these. Do you have a problem with that? (Actually I use Mozilla, but close enough.)
No.
Darwin said this? I guess he really was ahead of his time. ;-)
Maybe he shouldn't have used them all up before.
I Am Not A Particle Physicist.
That said, I'm a better particle physicist than Michael Chrichton. The crap physics he uses in the book are absolutely terrible. Even (especially?) the time travel is poorly thought out. I heard the movie was worse, and I couldn't bear to watch it. Please don't recommend this book as a good example of anything other than poor writing.
If you want good time travel, read "Timemaster" by Robert Forward. The writing isn't super, but it's a lot better than Crichton. For multiple universe stuff, I'm not really sure. Something is tickling my mind, but I can't think of anything specific.
Given current touchscreen technology this isn't likely. Currently, touch screens (or even touch pad mice) register only a single touch at a time, and they wear out after a number of touches (usually like 100k). Given that you at least need two buttons at a time (direction and action), usually more, this probably won't happen.
Maybe someone will come along with cheaper better technology that makes this possible, but the tactility of mechanical buttons along with the cheaper manufacturing costs will keep them around for the foreseeable future.
They've combined two things I'd never watch into one convenient, easy-to-avoid program.
Seriously, besides the terrible but funny things I've heard about G4, I've never seen it and never really heard of TechTV either. Why would I watch TV when I've got the real thing?
I suppose doing something legitimate... like selling a successful product with this name attached... is out of the question? ;-P
You sound like a Dreamcast fanboy. I'm sorry you pet console didn't make it, but that's not Sony's fault. Sega has a terrible history with marketting anything.
Comparing the PS2 launch to 2nd and 3rd generation Dreamcast games is rather silly. The 1.5-gen to 3rd-gen PS2 lineup was incredible, and they're still at it. (You apparently forget everything from Ico to MGS2, including GTA3, Jak and Daxter, and many others in those generations.) I have over 50 PS2 games, they all rock, and I'm missing a good number of A-AAA titles.
Yeah, all those AAA XBOX titles they have now really make me sorry I don't have an XBOX. Wait, what AAA lineup? They're still using Halo to sell it! Come on!
And XBOX Live? Meh. I'm playing FFXI right now. XBOX Live doesn't offer that, so what's the point? And the PS2 THUG is far better, network-wise, than the XBOX (or Cube) versions. Those are the games I want to play. Not... Halo.
I've learned that I can get a lot of really good, diverse games that play on Sony platforms, everything from the esoteric (Rez) to the epic (Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Star Ocean, Xenosaga). What mistakes?
Imagine the astronaut's reaction when a year into the mission, FOX cancels them.
And you have nearly 5200 comments now... that sounds like a lot, but is it?
Well, let's do some math. That comment was posted 2001/12/11 at 4pm (local my time), according to slashdot. At that time you had 713 comments. Now, your usernumber is in the 100k range, so you're not a slashdot oldtimer, but I can't tell for sure when you joined. However, we can look at the time since then.
Let t1 = Time("2001-12-11 16:01") and t2 = Now(). The amount of time passed (t2 - t1) is roughly 75070272 seconds (don't worry, I'll keep precision in the background) and that's about 868 days. In that time we know you posted 5174 - 713 comments, so your posting rate is (5174 - 713)/868, which is about 5.13 comments per day. Every day, for about 2.3 years.
Good or bad, you can decide. Personally I think this may be partially a response to michael's comment.
Yes, we all know the top Hollywood productions today have deep, elaborate plots. Engaging dialog that furthers the plot drives audiences wild. Everyone loved the Matrix 2-3 for just this reason... when Neo was talking with the Architect everyone was cheering. Give me a break.
The real reason there haven't been any/many good videogame translations is that they pick the wrong ones. While I did like Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within in terms of technical achievement, and could even recognize the bits that made it a Final Fantasy story, they would have done far better if they'd done a live-action rendition of Final Fantasy VI or the like. But what do they regularly pick for making movies? The games with deep plots, characters, and world, like Xenosaga, existing Final Fantasy games, Silent Hill, Metal Gear, or the like? No, we get puzzle/action games like Tomb Raider where the character is some polygons smeared on an attitude and given some obstacles. Bah.
Personally I think Resident Evil was the best adaption so far. It was an action movie, decent plot with enough mystery and character to make it not completely suck. Was it great? No. But if they can do that much with Resident Evil, then there is potential. Maybe not for Metroid... I don't see how this can be made into a movie... but then I didn't see how it could survive the transition to first-person, either, and it did. But I'll believe it when I see it.
Now, the best video game movie is not Resident Evil, but probably Dot Hack. While the name is cheesy, it has an interesting plot, characters, world, seamless transition into the game after .hack//SIGN along with the excellent .hack//Liminality short movies that accompany the games. This isn't an adaption though... this is a work conceived of in crossmedia form, and, while still a primitive use of the concept, it's extremely interesting and shows huge potential.
You must be forgetting we're talking about Doom here, not Quake... I never used a keyboard for Doom, only my Gravis Gamepad. Doom did not require aiming, jumping, ducking, mouselook, or any other myriad of 3D activities. It plays _very_ well with just a pad and a couple buttons. Part of the magic of it, in my opinion.
Yeah, I know a few people who have them, but not 16 or even half that. I'm sure I could find more if I asked around or something. It'd be nice to find some people to play FF:CC or Zelda:4S with.
There's no need to go to the trouble. You can already get flash carts that let you load far more code than one of these cards. Plus, on the GBA SP, there are both the regular 4-way serial connectors and the secondary I/O connector. I'm not sure the actual limits of either, but worst case you could chain them together, no USB hackery necessary.
Of course, the GBA is hardly very powerful to begin with, as you imply, and this isn't really worth it besides the geek factor. However, 16-player doom might be fun, if you can find 16 people with GBAs...
Or Tetrinet. I wish someone would port Tetrinet. 6 players there, and the GBA seriously lacks a good tetris.
That's Windows Security for you. 30 minutes at 1 meter. How appropriate. :-)
Maybe they'll license some phantom technology from these guys instead!
This is true---the keyboard has been one of the defining features of the Zaurus for most---however, the SL-A300, which is one of the newer models, did not feature a keyboard.
Also, the keyboard on the SL-6000 appears to use the style of keys that are closer to the CL-7xx/8xx series. This is probably good, but I haven't personally used them to know.
IMO, i would prefer something more like the CL series, with a larger screen, slimmer profile, and flip-out keyboard. However, I'm very happy with my SL-5500, and builtin wireless sounds very cool.
But oh so tasty!
While the parent of your comment is pretty much a troll, most consoles are not like that. How often must this be posted before this myth is finally laid to rest?
And knowing Sony, it wouldn't be a shocker to see it dropped to $99, would it? This is pure speculation on my part, but they've liked sticking it to the competition in the past. Given they've got declining sales growth, indicating market saturation, if they cut the price to $99 they'd compete with the Cube, undercut Microsoft, and reach the population who will buy at $99. And probably still make a little profit off each box.
I believe they still have separate bundles for the PS2 with and without network adaptor. Maybe they'll go $99/$120, or $120/$150. Either way it's a good opportunity to make the competition look bad.