Unlinked supers against an anticipating player from across the screen in any of the SF3 games are stupid, especially spaz supers that bring your character in and have predictable hit timing. People train hard to parry against unpredictable hits, even from within staggered combos; how did that player expect to get away with this unpunished? He should have known better than to try to kill off a top player with tick damage, which is what it looks like he was trying to do.
He got what he deserved. That said, I'm no extreme parrying master myself, and I have no doubt that I would have had much greater trouble anticipating and parrying with the skill of the Ken player, with such a low life meter weighing on my mind. (I tend to worry more than I should about my own life meter.) Very, very well done on his part.
But Capcom treats their games differently. Street Fighter Zero/Alpha is not a sequel to SSF2X/Turbo.
They generally only increment full version numbers with complete engine overhauls, which are also accompanied by storyline changes. So, talking only about 2-D Street Fighter-branded games, we have:
Street Fighter
Street Fighter II series
Street Fighter Zero/Alpha series
Street Fighter III series
Each series is distinct enough in gameplay to merit differentiation from the others. Even a master of the games in one series MUST learn new skills to perform well in the others, especially in areas concerning defense.
Now, similar things can be said of KoF moving from one edition to the next, but since it's SNK routine to bring out a new KoF game every year according to tradition, it makes sense that they name their annual game series according to the year. Big deal, this is just how SNK works. If Capcom's release schedule were so rote, it would probably make sense for them too.
Me, I like Capcom's infrequent, multi-series release strategy. It provides focus and stability to the competition scene.
King of Fighters doesn't get many home console ports,
Every KoF game has been released on a Sony or Sega home console, except 94 AFAIK. In fact, one of the more common bargain bin games you will find nowadays at game shops in the U.S. is King of Fighters 99 for Playstation.
I have almost every Sega release so far, from 95-00. Not being the biggest of KoF fans, I haven't picked up 01 or 02 for the DC yet.
but it's a solid series with greatly polished gameplay and much tighter control than it's Capcom competition.
You're the second person to use these words. But as I posted previously, I think it's more accurate to say that you have to be more precise when playing the game than it is to say that the game itself features more precise gameplay as compared to Capcom's offerings, especially their hardcore games like SSF2X/Turbo. There's a difference. (For example, neither Capcom's hardcore fighting games nor SNK's fighting games are as sloppy with character placement after jumps as the Marvel vs. series games are.)
Street Fighter hit such a wall though. Yeah, SF2 was a great game but 10 years later there hasn't been much change to the Street Fighter formula.
No offense, but someone who'd played the SF games to the degree that would qualify themselves to make that statement probably wouldn't have made that statement. On top of all the games carrying the Street Fighter banner -- each of which is different, especially across the different numbered series -- don't forget that the SF franchise has branched off into the Capcom vs. SNK series (for better) and the various Marvel vs. series (for worse, IMO, YMMV).
Course my favority fighter was Killer Instinct...helped further the combo theory of fighting but never got enough support to last:(.
I always thought Killer Instinct took the idea of combos in a weird direction. When I started playing the first KI game, I played it exactly as if it was a Street Fighter game, and I noticed that I wasn't consistently being outperformed by friends who had mastered that game's crazy automatic combo system. That just showed me that the mechanics of the game were overthought, but not well fleshed out. And it didn't help that the character designs looked like MK-style abominations to me, except they were pre-rendered 3-D designs instead of digitized humans.
I've got KoF 98, 99, 2000, and 2001 for my Dreamcast and I find myself playing them more often than my copies of Street Fighter Alpha 3 or Street Fighter 3: Third Strike.
Well, assuming that you're talking about the Dreamcast port, you might have liked SFA3 better if the DC port were anywhere near as good as the Saturn port. The DC port was a translation of the Playstation port for expediency's sake, and was therefore not translated directly from the arcade version as the Saturn port was. I guess it helped that the Saturn port was developed after the others were.
I am not a fan of the Street Fighter 3 games, so I'm not the guy to ask about Third Strike. All I know is that I prefer Garou:MOTW to any of the SF3 games as well.
It's a drastically different style of game, more precise controls (think SF Alpha compared to Capcom vs. Marvel), and in many ways much more polished gameplay.
You mean more precise controls are required to play the game. (Control precision itself is largely a function of the joystick hardware.) Capcom's 2-D fighting games pretty much all allow players to use what's sometimes called a "negative edge." This is a special move input method that involves pressing a button, performing the move's joystick motion, then releasing the button. It's how many link combos are easier to perform in Capcom fighters than the equivalent combos are in SNK fighters, and it's definitely something that even semi-pro SFers train to do without thinking. When these players try out KoF for the first time, they (I) typically encounter disappointing results.
SNK fighters have always required precise movements, while Street Fighter is much more lenient about joystick positioning. The tradeoff is that Capcom's games normally require moves to be performed in a shorter amount of time than SNK's games, while games like Samurai Spirits/Shodown and King of Fighters can be more accommodating to slowly-performed moves.
Because of these reasons, I love SF-style games for regular playing (casual or competition), since the moves come naturally after all these years of SF. (I used to play at Golfland Sunnyvale against players twice as good as myself, I'd hope they came naturally!) OTOH, I like to play the KoF games for technical practice, since careful joystick positioning is required for finer touches, like low jumps and implementing some of the crazy-ass special move motions that SNK likes so much into combos.
I think you said it yourself. FFXI hasn't met expectations because it is an MMORPG -- not because it was "too American" -- and MMORPGs don't fare extremely well in Japan. I don't really think it would have mattered very much who designed FFXI; the very fact that it is based on a game genre that is not traditionally popular in Japan * is a dead giveaway as to why it isn't doing as well as hoped. I don't think xenophobia has much to do with it; it's from Square Enix, after all.
* I have known Japanese people who were fans of Ultima Online and Phantasy Star Online, so please note that I don't want to mislead anyone into thinking that online games are nonexistent in Japan.
I wish these xbox threads could manage to keep one basic truth in mind: Xenophobic Japanese consumerism is a myth! It's a standard cop-out that foreign goods manufacturers use whenever _they_ fail to design something the Japanese would want to buy. Anyone who has been to Japan can confirm this. Many young Japanese people (the same segment who plays the most games) are particularly keen to non-traditional, non-Japanese trends - as long as they are well-made, functional, and/or fashionable. Things have been like this _since the war_. Analyzing the xbox, it fails the "well-made" criterion because of the widely-publicized disc-scratching debacle - serious or not. It fails the "functionality" criterion because of the dearth of Japanese-style software support. Finally, xbox fails the "fashionability" criterion because it is anything but cute or sleek; instead, it is HUGE.
When a product suits Japanese tastes, it doesn't matter where it's made or who designed it. The xbox simply does not serve this market at all. Not a single aspect of its hardware design or software lineup was created with "conquering Japan" firmly in mind - "Project Midway" misnomer be damned. That is why it sells piss-poorly in Japan, and that is also why it sells relatively well (despite its flaws) in the U.S. It was designed to suit Western tastes, glossing over flaws that Westerners would not consider important (like huge system size, huge controller size, low Japanese 3rd-party support, the tacky puke green system highlights, etc.). When their flagship title is an FPS and they have no strong offerings in the form of linear or strategic RPGs, party games, mascot platformers, puzzles, or even freaking arcade shooters, Microsoft is NOT targeting Japan. They are targeting America and Europe, the lands of Quake-happy h4x0rs who grew up in PC-centric (not arcade-centric) cultures.
A final thought: If Nintendo had released the xbox hardware and its software lineup, and Microsoft had released the GameCube and its software lineup, do you really think Nintendo would still be outselling Microsoft there, hand over fist?
Well, this post caught my attention. =D kisrael made some very good points, with which I agree completely.
I seem to remember from way back that Nintendo had patented the design of it's D-pad.
They did. (But Nintendo has pretty much always called it the "+ pad" or something like that - Sega first called it the "D-button.") The patent expired a set number of years after the release of the Famicom (15? in time for the Dreamcast, anyway). The Dreamcast imitated the look, but not the feel, of Yokoi's pad, because of the sunken nature of all the controls on that whole damn controller. Third-party controller manufacturers have always been exempt for some reason, and you can get a fairly proper D-pad on good PS controllers now, in the form of the Pelican Chameleon and the Mad Catz Microcon.
A quick search turned up this note of the history of the NES controller:
Yokoi designed something simple that evolved into what is known as the D-pad. Nintendo then proceeded to patent the design of the D-pad.. As a result, a dispute rose up between Nintendo and Sega when Sega used the D-pad design in their Genesis console
This explains why Sony and Microsoft are unable to copy Nintendo's D-pad design - they'd have the stuffing sued out of them. Instead:
Not any more - they could use the D-pad now if they wanted. But Sony sees no need to change what their customers are now accustomed to, and Microsoft is, well, Microsoft. Their American hardware design team did not do their job very well, and the Japanese Controller S team had no compelling reason to move away from the circular pad, especially when the Saturn proved that it could work well. (see below)
Sony hid the middle part of rocker underneath the case. Unfortunately their design makes your thumbs bleed after using it for an hour or two.
This was just a poor design decision! It's horrible for fighting games and 3-D platformer movement, or for any long-term general use.
Microsoft came up with the circle-with-raised-compass-points design. Unfortunately it's error--prone in that you often hit the diagonals when you don't mean to.
Thank NEC for the circular pad, NOT Microsoft. It's been in constant use by countless manufacturers since the PC Engine days. (The Sega Master System used a square, then Sega adopted the circle design for the Mega Drive and later systems.)
FYI, my ideal controller would have:
* Nintendo's D-pad
As long as you're talking about the old, large one that was on the Famicom, NES, GameBoy, SNES, and N64, I'm with you so far. I like the original Saturn's circular D-pad very much too, but it is only different, not better. It does not improve on Yokoi's original for most games.
For Capcom fighting games, I like the floating circular D-pad on the Dreamcast Ascii Pad FT very, very much. The PS version is a poor imitation, despite being easier to hold.
* Sony's analog sticks
These sticks are loose, imprecise, and poorly placed for comfortable long-term use. That's what Sony gets for rushing to rip off the stick from the N64 pad and trying to hack two of them onto their already ripped-off Super Famicom controller design.
Sony's idea to make them serve as buttons as well is dubious at best. There is a reason why joysticks and D-pads do not serve as buttons when pressed down: Clicking down the center of a D-pad or joystick as a button involves possible controller movement. Seeing as how analog sticks are meant to be used in place of D-pads, it's clear that they aren't the best idea in the world.
The Dreamcast stick on certain controllers was good, but not firm enough (DC controllers from one certain
Re:I don't necessarily see this as a bad thing...
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Advergames
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· Score: 4, Interesting
That's not a very strong endorsement for the idea. Besides being logically flawed, it just sounds to me like, "We're surrounded by crap, but more is always welcome."
This article is about games developed for the sole purpose of being distributed as ads, not retail games that contain ads in them. I recommend at least skimming through it.
Note, to add to this off-topic preach: Ads can help subsidize the cost of production, but it doesn't necessarily lower the cost of purchase for the end user. Regardless, would the idea of ads in games, movies, and books fly in the actual retail market for such items? My idealistic confidence in the American buying public wants me to say no, but I know that the answer, as demonstrated in part by your post, is actually "Yes, most likely." And society is worse off for that fact, IMO.
The + pad was patented by Yokoi Gunpei/Nintendo. That's why the PC Engine and all subsequent game systems couldn't use that design; everybody used 8-way pads that were either circular or squared-off. It's the reason the Sony d-pad on all official Playstation controllers is so bad (hiding the center of the pad underneath plastic makes the pad feel unresponsive and shallow).
The Dreamcast is the first non-Nintendo console to have a standard controller with a "+"-shaped pad, but the pad is elevated so high from the base of the controller that it's not very nice to use. Sega was able to use this design because Nintendo's patent on it expired 15 years after the launch of the Famicom, just in time for the Dreamcast's launch.
I myself miss the big + pad on Nintendo's consoles and the original GameBoy. Nintendo's current + pad size on the GameCube and GameBoy Advance is too small to use, and my hands aren't that huge, either.
It's very easy and comforting to romanticize Lik-Sang's reasons for being so adamant in their own defense, but you have to realize that, above all, they are protecting their bottom line. Their clientele is largely composed of mod-chippers, and if they can't please these people, business will suffer.
It's similar to how Apple caters so well to their Mac customers. It's an effective means towards an ultimate goal (PROFIT!!!), not proof of Steve Jobs' undying love for the unwashed masses.
That being said, I also admire Lik-Sang for what they are doing. But I admire them for the balls that it takes to stand up to the big console manufacturers, not for their virtuous behavior in defense of the little guy.
My favorite waste of time back in the day: playing Karateka with the disk in the drive upside-down on fast mode.:) Had to make sure the joystick (Apple-brand, platinum color...heh) wasn't plugged in, or it would lock in on one of the diagonals and you'd find yourself either running into punches or taking one step back off the cliff (I've forgotten which one).
No. To me it would be pointless to do that; I'd already have the game.
I download whatever I want. ROMs are like previews to me; if I like the game, I'll keep the ROM and buy the game. If not, there's no reason for me to keep the ROM on my disk anyway. Emulation for me is like a free game rental store. It's the same way with MP3s and file-sharing progs, too. I treat Gnutella as one big 24-hour all-request radio station.
For all that time that I have ROMs in my posession but don't yet own the game, I'm infringing copyright. I sleep well at night, regardless.:)
Right. edwdig stated that it was the 16-bit version of the 6502. That is the 65c816.
That's how the//gs gained its Apple II compatibility; when running older programs, you could step down to the 1 MHz speed of the older Apple machines, and they would run just fine, for the most part. It is almost perfectly binary-compatible, regardless of clock.
The SNES uses a 65c816, same as an Apple//gs, even clocked the same, IIRC (3.58 MHz).
Regarding the 65c816, there's an interesting anecdote involving the SNES, the Apple//gs, Mac OS, fabricated accounts of Zip disk intrigue within Nintendo, and legal action against emu coders, but that's a story I've told too many times already.:)
Compare the prices of new games for the SNES and the same games for the GBA.
A new copy of Breath of Fire for SNES will cost you at least $75 (on a good day) on eBay. It's also available for GBA for $30. New system buyers who don't buy old or used stuff just to be "retro" are better served by this adapter. For people who buy used, the SNES is probably the better system to have, but you won't have any new games.
Artist's rights != DRM, and for that matter, copyright infringement != piracy. The corpos love to hear people use and perpetuate these terms, because they can use them as leverage to manipulate how the public views and treats such concepts.
Re: artist's rights, I'm fine with artists getting paid for what they do. I'd go so far as to venture a guess that most other people are fine with it too.
What I'm not okay with is being treated like a criminal every time I buy an overpriced CD, the profits from which go to fund more research into ensuring that I am treated like a criminal more effectively. Ineffective legislators, greedy content distributors, Hollywood-sympathetic tech companies, artists who need to eat (face it, superstars are rare, and some of the best music comes from people who would eschew that lifestyle anyway), and general customers disgusted with the prices of CDs (the file-sharers) are equally responsible for the current state of affairs.
That's a great example too, but it's definitely not the worst case I've ever seen.
To elaborate on the Secret of Evermore instance I mentioned in my last post, Squaresoft (American branch) actually decided to pass on Seiken Densetsu 3 completely, and decided to develop and release SoE instead. This, even though Seiken Densetsu 1 (Final Fantasy Adventure, GameBoy) and SD2 (Secret of Mana, SNES) had already been released here to insane success. While America got Final Fantasy in 2.5 years, we still haven't seen (and may never see) an English-language SD3. Of course, after the failure of Secret of Evermore, the next we'd hear of the series would be on the Playstation years later, in the form of Legend of Mana.
In the case of Final Fantasy, Square didn't even have an American branch back then. If you recall, Nintendo of America released it, and this was only because Dragon Warrior (Dragon Quest) -- which they had also released since Enix of America did not yet exist either -- had already been a big hit for them. That's why soon after, SNES was the console to own for RPGs, both in the U.S. as well as Japan...Nintendo had learned from first-hand experience that Japanese RPGs had a huge audience here.
It really is sad that some great games don't make it to other regions. Americans at large _still_ think that the Sega Saturn was a fruitless platform, when some of the best games of that generation are Saturn exclusives.
Ever since I was young, reading about all the games released in Japan for the Famicom and PC Engine that would never make it to the NES & TurboGrafx-16, I've always wished that the American arms of Japanese game companies wouldn't pick and choose on behalf of the American market which games to release, particularly regarding sequels. The infamous example: Secret of Evermore is _not_ as good a game as the game that should have been released here in its stead, Seiken Densetsu 3 -- sequel to Secret of Mana.
As an American, my heart has to go out to the PAL region gamers. Not just is availability of most Japanese titles more limited than in the U.S. (with the odd notable exception), but the quality of the gameplay often suffers because games weren't programmed with the PAL video standard in mind, or the translations from the European publishers can be very bad (from what I'm told).
I also found that little tidbit, well, precious. It's like, "Hey, slick. I'm a cool cat and I'd like to rap with you about this smooth new deal. Now here's the skinny, man. Outta sight."
For various other reasons, I also liked "Girl Scout's honor," "Less Dough," "And Now for the How," "accommodate my 5 foot 3 inches instead of his 6 feet," and "I discover more treats daily."
As an on & off user of BeOS when it was still being actively developed, I'd never really kept up with the BeOS news outside of whatever was presented in general tech news (like/.). So, although I'd never heard of this game before, I'm glad that you brought it up. I'm downloading the demo as I type this.
To respond to your question of whether this game is really a port from Windows: On the developer's website (link obtained from page at another poster's gobe.com link), I noticed that the "Corum III" logo had a Korean subtitle. So, I'm guessing that the reason you can't find info on the Windows port is that it was likely developed in Korea, and the websites with relevant info would have been in Korean.
C'mon now, RGB SCART is superior to S-video. You know that. =P And BTW, this article was written by an American; he can't reasonably be expected to go buy a PAL TV and PAL game systems just for testing -- that's a job best left to a European games site.
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Unlinked supers against an anticipating player from across the screen in any of the SF3 games are stupid, especially spaz supers that bring your character in and have predictable hit timing. People train hard to parry against unpredictable hits, even from within staggered combos; how did that player expect to get away with this unpunished? He should have known better than to try to kill off a top player with tick damage, which is what it looks like he was trying to do.
He got what he deserved. That said, I'm no extreme parrying master myself, and I have no doubt that I would have had much greater trouble anticipating and parrying with the skill of the Ken player, with such a low life meter weighing on my mind. (I tend to worry more than I should about my own life meter.) Very, very well done on his part.
< tofuhead >
But Capcom treats their games differently. Street Fighter Zero/Alpha is not a sequel to SSF2X/Turbo.
They generally only increment full version numbers with complete engine overhauls, which are also accompanied by storyline changes. So, talking only about 2-D Street Fighter-branded games, we have:
Each series is distinct enough in gameplay to merit differentiation from the others. Even a master of the games in one series MUST learn new skills to perform well in the others, especially in areas concerning defense.
Now, similar things can be said of KoF moving from one edition to the next, but since it's SNK routine to bring out a new KoF game every year according to tradition, it makes sense that they name their annual game series according to the year. Big deal, this is just how SNK works. If Capcom's release schedule were so rote, it would probably make sense for them too.
Me, I like Capcom's infrequent, multi-series release strategy. It provides focus and stability to the competition scene.
< tofuhead >
Every KoF game has been released on a Sony or Sega home console, except 94 AFAIK. In fact, one of the more common bargain bin games you will find nowadays at game shops in the U.S. is King of Fighters 99 for Playstation.
I have almost every Sega release so far, from 95-00. Not being the biggest of KoF fans, I haven't picked up 01 or 02 for the DC yet.
You're the second person to use these words. But as I posted previously, I think it's more accurate to say that you have to be more precise when playing the game than it is to say that the game itself features more precise gameplay as compared to Capcom's offerings, especially their hardcore games like SSF2X/Turbo. There's a difference. (For example, neither Capcom's hardcore fighting games nor SNK's fighting games are as sloppy with character placement after jumps as the Marvel vs. series games are.)
< tofuhead >
No offense, but someone who'd played the SF games to the degree that would qualify themselves to make that statement probably wouldn't have made that statement. On top of all the games carrying the Street Fighter banner -- each of which is different, especially across the different numbered series -- don't forget that the SF franchise has branched off into the Capcom vs. SNK series (for better) and the various Marvel vs. series (for worse, IMO, YMMV).
I always thought Killer Instinct took the idea of combos in a weird direction. When I started playing the first KI game, I played it exactly as if it was a Street Fighter game, and I noticed that I wasn't consistently being outperformed by friends who had mastered that game's crazy automatic combo system. That just showed me that the mechanics of the game were overthought, but not well fleshed out. And it didn't help that the character designs looked like MK-style abominations to me, except they were pre-rendered 3-D designs instead of digitized humans.
< tofuhead >
Well, assuming that you're talking about the Dreamcast port, you might have liked SFA3 better if the DC port were anywhere near as good as the Saturn port. The DC port was a translation of the Playstation port for expediency's sake, and was therefore not translated directly from the arcade version as the Saturn port was. I guess it helped that the Saturn port was developed after the others were.
I am not a fan of the Street Fighter 3 games, so I'm not the guy to ask about Third Strike. All I know is that I prefer Garou:MOTW to any of the SF3 games as well.
< tofuhead >
You mean more precise controls are required to play the game. (Control precision itself is largely a function of the joystick hardware.) Capcom's 2-D fighting games pretty much all allow players to use what's sometimes called a "negative edge." This is a special move input method that involves pressing a button, performing the move's joystick motion, then releasing the button. It's how many link combos are easier to perform in Capcom fighters than the equivalent combos are in SNK fighters, and it's definitely something that even semi-pro SFers train to do without thinking. When these players try out KoF for the first time, they (I) typically encounter disappointing results.
SNK fighters have always required precise movements, while Street Fighter is much more lenient about joystick positioning. The tradeoff is that Capcom's games normally require moves to be performed in a shorter amount of time than SNK's games, while games like Samurai Spirits/Shodown and King of Fighters can be more accommodating to slowly-performed moves.
Because of these reasons, I love SF-style games for regular playing (casual or competition), since the moves come naturally after all these years of SF. (I used to play at Golfland Sunnyvale against players twice as good as myself, I'd hope they came naturally!) OTOH, I like to play the KoF games for technical practice, since careful joystick positioning is required for finer touches, like low jumps and implementing some of the crazy-ass special move motions that SNK likes so much into combos.
< tofuhead >
I think you said it yourself. FFXI hasn't met expectations because it is an MMORPG -- not because it was "too American" -- and MMORPGs don't fare extremely well in Japan. I don't really think it would have mattered very much who designed FFXI; the very fact that it is based on a game genre that is not traditionally popular in Japan * is a dead giveaway as to why it isn't doing as well as hoped. I don't think xenophobia has much to do with it; it's from Square Enix, after all.
* I have known Japanese people who were fans of Ultima Online and Phantasy Star Online, so please note that I don't want to mislead anyone into thinking that online games are nonexistent in Japan.
< tofuhead >
I wish these xbox threads could manage to keep one basic truth in mind: Xenophobic Japanese consumerism is a myth! It's a standard cop-out that foreign goods manufacturers use whenever _they_ fail to design something the Japanese would want to buy. Anyone who has been to Japan can confirm this. Many young Japanese people (the same segment who plays the most games) are particularly keen to non-traditional, non-Japanese trends - as long as they are well-made, functional, and/or fashionable. Things have been like this _since the war_. Analyzing the xbox, it fails the "well-made" criterion because of the widely-publicized disc-scratching debacle - serious or not. It fails the "functionality" criterion because of the dearth of Japanese-style software support. Finally, xbox fails the "fashionability" criterion because it is anything but cute or sleek; instead, it is HUGE.
When a product suits Japanese tastes, it doesn't matter where it's made or who designed it. The xbox simply does not serve this market at all. Not a single aspect of its hardware design or software lineup was created with "conquering Japan" firmly in mind - "Project Midway" misnomer be damned. That is why it sells piss-poorly in Japan, and that is also why it sells relatively well (despite its flaws) in the U.S. It was designed to suit Western tastes, glossing over flaws that Westerners would not consider important (like huge system size, huge controller size, low Japanese 3rd-party support, the tacky puke green system highlights, etc.). When their flagship title is an FPS and they have no strong offerings in the form of linear or strategic RPGs, party games, mascot platformers, puzzles, or even freaking arcade shooters, Microsoft is NOT targeting Japan. They are targeting America and Europe, the lands of Quake-happy h4x0rs who grew up in PC-centric (not arcade-centric) cultures.
A final thought: If Nintendo had released the xbox hardware and its software lineup, and Microsoft had released the GameCube and its software lineup, do you really think Nintendo would still be outselling Microsoft there, hand over fist?
< tofuhead >
Well, this post caught my attention. =D kisrael made some very good points, with which I agree completely.
They did. (But Nintendo has pretty much always called it the "+ pad" or something like that - Sega first called it the "D-button.") The patent expired a set number of years after the release of the Famicom (15? in time for the Dreamcast, anyway). The Dreamcast imitated the look, but not the feel, of Yokoi's pad, because of the sunken nature of all the controls on that whole damn controller. Third-party controller manufacturers have always been exempt for some reason, and you can get a fairly proper D-pad on good PS controllers now, in the form of the Pelican Chameleon and the Mad Catz Microcon.
Not any more - they could use the D-pad now if they wanted. But Sony sees no need to change what their customers are now accustomed to, and Microsoft is, well, Microsoft. Their American hardware design team did not do their job very well, and the Japanese Controller S team had no compelling reason to move away from the circular pad, especially when the Saturn proved that it could work well. (see below)
This was just a poor design decision! It's horrible for fighting games and 3-D platformer movement, or for any long-term general use.
Thank NEC for the circular pad, NOT Microsoft. It's been in constant use by countless manufacturers since the PC Engine days. (The Sega Master System used a square, then Sega adopted the circle design for the Mega Drive and later systems.)
As long as you're talking about the old, large one that was on the Famicom, NES, GameBoy, SNES, and N64, I'm with you so far. I like the original Saturn's circular D-pad very much too, but it is only different, not better. It does not improve on Yokoi's original for most games.
For Capcom fighting games, I like the floating circular D-pad on the Dreamcast Ascii Pad FT very, very much. The PS version is a poor imitation, despite being easier to hold.
These sticks are loose, imprecise, and poorly placed for comfortable long-term use. That's what Sony gets for rushing to rip off the stick from the N64 pad and trying to hack two of them onto their already ripped-off Super Famicom controller design.
Sony's idea to make them serve as buttons as well is dubious at best. There is a reason why joysticks and D-pads do not serve as buttons when pressed down: Clicking down the center of a D-pad or joystick as a button involves possible controller movement. Seeing as how analog sticks are meant to be used in place of D-pads, it's clear that they aren't the best idea in the world.
The Dreamcast stick on certain controllers was good, but not firm enough (DC controllers from one certain
That's not a very strong endorsement for the idea. Besides being logically flawed, it just sounds to me like, "We're surrounded by crap, but more is always welcome."
This article is about games developed for the sole purpose of being distributed as ads, not retail games that contain ads in them. I recommend at least skimming through it.
Note, to add to this off-topic preach: Ads can help subsidize the cost of production, but it doesn't necessarily lower the cost of purchase for the end user. Regardless, would the idea of ads in games, movies, and books fly in the actual retail market for such items? My idealistic confidence in the American buying public wants me to say no, but I know that the answer, as demonstrated in part by your post, is actually "Yes, most likely." And society is worse off for that fact, IMO.
< tofuhead >
The + pad was patented by Yokoi Gunpei/Nintendo. That's why the PC Engine and all subsequent game systems couldn't use that design; everybody used 8-way pads that were either circular or squared-off. It's the reason the Sony d-pad on all official Playstation controllers is so bad (hiding the center of the pad underneath plastic makes the pad feel unresponsive and shallow).
The Dreamcast is the first non-Nintendo console to have a standard controller with a "+"-shaped pad, but the pad is elevated so high from the base of the controller that it's not very nice to use. Sega was able to use this design because Nintendo's patent on it expired 15 years after the launch of the Famicom, just in time for the Dreamcast's launch.
I myself miss the big + pad on Nintendo's consoles and the original GameBoy. Nintendo's current + pad size on the GameCube and GameBoy Advance is too small to use, and my hands aren't that huge, either.
< tofuhead >
It's very easy and comforting to romanticize Lik-Sang's reasons for being so adamant in their own defense, but you have to realize that, above all, they are protecting their bottom line. Their clientele is largely composed of mod-chippers, and if they can't please these people, business will suffer.
It's similar to how Apple caters so well to their Mac customers. It's an effective means towards an ultimate goal (PROFIT!!!), not proof of Steve Jobs' undying love for the unwashed masses.
That being said, I also admire Lik-Sang for what they are doing. But I admire them for the balls that it takes to stand up to the big console manufacturers, not for their virtuous behavior in defense of the little guy.
< tofuhead >
My favorite waste of time back in the day: playing Karateka with the disk in the drive upside-down on fast mode. :) Had to make sure the joystick (Apple-brand, platinum color...heh) wasn't plugged in, or it would lock in on one of the diagonals and you'd find yourself either running into punches or taking one step back off the cliff (I've forgotten which one).
< tofuhead >
No. To me it would be pointless to do that; I'd already have the game.
I download whatever I want. ROMs are like previews to me; if I like the game, I'll keep the ROM and buy the game. If not, there's no reason for me to keep the ROM on my disk anyway. Emulation for me is like a free game rental store. It's the same way with MP3s and file-sharing progs, too. I treat Gnutella as one big 24-hour all-request radio station.
For all that time that I have ROMs in my posession but don't yet own the game, I'm infringing copyright. I sleep well at night, regardless. :)
< tofuhead >
Right. edwdig stated that it was the 16-bit version of the 6502. That is the 65c816.
That's how the //gs gained its Apple II compatibility; when running older programs, you could step down to the 1 MHz speed of the older Apple machines, and they would run just fine, for the most part. It is almost perfectly binary-compatible, regardless of clock.
< tofuhead >
The SNES uses a 65c816, same as an Apple //gs, even clocked the same, IIRC (3.58 MHz).
Regarding the 65c816, there's an interesting anecdote involving the SNES, the Apple //gs, Mac OS, fabricated accounts of Zip disk intrigue within Nintendo, and legal action against emu coders, but that's a story I've told too many times already. :)
< tofuhead >
I already own both. I also like to own my games.
< tofuhead >
Compare the prices of new games for the SNES and the same games for the GBA.
A new copy of Breath of Fire for SNES will cost you at least $75 (on a good day) on eBay. It's also available for GBA for $30. New system buyers who don't buy old or used stuff just to be "retro" are better served by this adapter. For people who buy used, the SNES is probably the better system to have, but you won't have any new games.
< tofuhead >
Artist's rights != DRM, and for that matter, copyright infringement != piracy. The corpos love to hear people use and perpetuate these terms, because they can use them as leverage to manipulate how the public views and treats such concepts.
Re: artist's rights, I'm fine with artists getting paid for what they do. I'd go so far as to venture a guess that most other people are fine with it too.
What I'm not okay with is being treated like a criminal every time I buy an overpriced CD, the profits from which go to fund more research into ensuring that I am treated like a criminal more effectively. Ineffective legislators, greedy content distributors, Hollywood-sympathetic tech companies, artists who need to eat (face it, superstars are rare, and some of the best music comes from people who would eschew that lifestyle anyway), and general customers disgusted with the prices of CDs (the file-sharers) are equally responsible for the current state of affairs.
< tofuhead >
Because Americans, by and large, are morons. Low-MTBF Mexican-manufactured "Sony" TV, anyone?
< tofuhead >
That's a great example too, but it's definitely not the worst case I've ever seen.
To elaborate on the Secret of Evermore instance I mentioned in my last post, Squaresoft (American branch) actually decided to pass on Seiken Densetsu 3 completely, and decided to develop and release SoE instead. This, even though Seiken Densetsu 1 (Final Fantasy Adventure, GameBoy) and SD2 (Secret of Mana, SNES) had already been released here to insane success. While America got Final Fantasy in 2.5 years, we still haven't seen (and may never see) an English-language SD3. Of course, after the failure of Secret of Evermore, the next we'd hear of the series would be on the Playstation years later, in the form of Legend of Mana.
In the case of Final Fantasy, Square didn't even have an American branch back then. If you recall, Nintendo of America released it, and this was only because Dragon Warrior (Dragon Quest) -- which they had also released since Enix of America did not yet exist either -- had already been a big hit for them. That's why soon after, SNES was the console to own for RPGs, both in the U.S. as well as Japan...Nintendo had learned from first-hand experience that Japanese RPGs had a huge audience here.
< tofuhead >
It really is sad that some great games don't make it to other regions. Americans at large _still_ think that the Sega Saturn was a fruitless platform, when some of the best games of that generation are Saturn exclusives.
Ever since I was young, reading about all the games released in Japan for the Famicom and PC Engine that would never make it to the NES & TurboGrafx-16, I've always wished that the American arms of Japanese game companies wouldn't pick and choose on behalf of the American market which games to release, particularly regarding sequels. The infamous example: Secret of Evermore is _not_ as good a game as the game that should have been released here in its stead, Seiken Densetsu 3 -- sequel to Secret of Mana.
As an American, my heart has to go out to the PAL region gamers. Not just is availability of most Japanese titles more limited than in the U.S. (with the odd notable exception), but the quality of the gameplay often suffers because games weren't programmed with the PAL video standard in mind, or the translations from the European publishers can be very bad (from what I'm told).
< tofuhead >
I also found that little tidbit, well, precious. It's like, "Hey, slick. I'm a cool cat and I'd like to rap with you about this smooth new deal. Now here's the skinny, man. Outta sight."
For various other reasons, I also liked "Girl Scout's honor," "Less Dough," "And Now for the How," "accommodate my 5 foot 3 inches instead of his 6 feet," and "I discover more treats daily."
< tofuhead >
As an on & off user of BeOS when it was still being actively developed, I'd never really kept up with the BeOS news outside of whatever was presented in general tech news (like /.). So, although I'd never heard of this game before, I'm glad that you brought it up. I'm downloading the demo as I type this.
To respond to your question of whether this game is really a port from Windows: On the developer's website (link obtained from page at another poster's gobe.com link), I noticed that the "Corum III" logo had a Korean subtitle. So, I'm guessing that the reason you can't find info on the Windows port is that it was likely developed in Korea, and the websites with relevant info would have been in Korean.
HTH.
< tofuhead >
C'mon now, RGB SCART is superior to S-video. You know that. =P And BTW, this article was written by an American; he can't reasonably be expected to go buy a PAL TV and PAL game systems just for testing -- that's a job best left to a European games site.
< tofuhead >