So? Retail DVD movies still sell for more than 10 times that amount, and are riddled with DRC schemes. I'd gladly pay the DVD tax of that magnitude if it meant being able to download, rip and burn to my widdle heart's content.
"when the SNES came out, and asking the local rep. why it wouldn't play NES games. "Why would we charge somebody for features they already own?" came the marketing-speak reply."
This may be the only case in recorded history where market-speak is actually correct.
You forget that the NES may as well have freakin' vacuum tubes in the damned thing. It's a total Frankenstein of 1970's hardware that ended up requiring developers to put much of their own hardware on the cartridges themselves. The SNES, on the other hand, was a 1990's console with actual 1990's hardware in it, which ultimately had jack in common with FrankenNES.
The only way you could make the SNES backawrds compatible is if you squeeze an entire NES motherboard into it.
Think about it: it's been well over a decade since the release of the SNES and the internet has been around for a while as well. SNES cartridge copiers are pretty easy to find nowadays. So where are all the NES emulators for the SNES? The closest thing you'll find is a piece of hardware usally called "Tristar" or "Super 8," but all it is is a Famicom clone with an a/v pass-thru for the SNES; it gets electricity from the SNES and sends out its own a/v signal from its own jack.
You'll also notice the lack of SNES emulators for the N64, save for a "Tristar 64," which squeezes both a Famicom and a (crappy) SFC clone into a single box.
If you wanted a "backwards compatible" SNES, you'd have to pay for both SNES hardware and NES hardware. You might be able to save a few bucks by putting it all in a single plastic housing instead of two, but that would be the only possible price advantage: you'd still be charging a price for two consoles, because it'd have the guts of two consoles.
The Genesis had it easy: Sega used (IIRC) a Z80 as the sound processor, which, coincidentally, was the CPU from the old Master System. So it was pretty easy for them to whip up the Power Base Converter, and any fool who knows how to use a soldering iron can probably put together a similar device. Remember, though, that the PBC only worked on Genny models that actually had a Z80 chip: SMS converters won't work on the Nomad or the Genny 3. (I've also heard that the same cpu-as-sound-chip logic was also used in the Saturn, but I have my doubts since I've seen no adapters to let you play Genny games on the Saturn).
The PS2 does something similar; even though the PS2 is damned near good enough to run a PSX software emulator (after all, if the Dreamcast could do it...), ultimately backwards compatibility comes from the fact that the PS2 was designed to share internal hardware with the original PSX (the GPU in the PS2, IIRC, is the same chip as is used for the CPU in the PSX).
Until the Revolution, Nintendo started completely from scratch whenever they made a new console, with no intent to share hardware with older consoles (which means the SNES wasn't hobbled with crappy MIDI sound, like the Genny was, in the name of backwards compatibility).
As for the handhelds... GBC playing GB games? Yes... and no: GBC carts actually had two games on them: a GB game and a GBC game. A different game was played depending on what console you put the cartridge in (even if the GB game was nothing more than a message saying "GBC Only!"). This is why you don't see Super Game Boy pallet information (which lies within the GB game) used by the GBC, because the GBC simply dumps it to their GB hardware emulator.
GBA is backwards compatible because they squeezed two Game Boys into one. The DS doesn't play GBC/GB games not because of some dastardly plot on Nintendo's part, but because, after putting in DS and GBA hardware into a single case, there was no room left for GBC hardware.
I figured out The System while playing Final Fantasy VII.
Remember that the PSX controller is nothing if not a copy of the SNES controller. On the SNES, those buttons were labelled A, B, X and Y. On the PSX, the buttons don't have such easy labels but instead are sneakily labelled by number: it takes 1 line to draw a circle, 2 for the X, 3 for the triangle and 4 for the square. So we have buttons 1, 2, 3 and 4.
They're in the same exact order as they are on the SNES controller.
A B X Y 1 2 3 4
I've now trained myself that when I see "triangle," I think "X button." It makes doing goofy limit breaks/whatever in games like FFVIII and FFX much easier for me now.
Yes, the word beats the hell out of the English equivalents of "geek," "dateless loser" and "lay off the cheesy poofs and get out of your mother's basement already."
"And I'm sorry if you have ego issues with the Air Force having a higher priority than your entertainment center."
And if I paid more for my desktop software than the USAF paid for a single XP workstation? Those of us who buy the full, retail, non-OEM version of their OS are the ones subsidizing the on-the-cheap installs they give to big customers like the DOD. The fact that they're getting even more for money they didn't spend pisses me off: they're getting the service that I paid for (even before you get into taxes).
So long as we live in the capitalistic society you alluded to, I'm allowed to be pissed that my PC is put on a lower priority.
"Going to DVD only games would be easier but so far no game company wants to take the risk of upsetting the non-dvd owners."
So people will splurge $300 on the latest-and-greatest video card but can't be bothered to drop the $60 on a DVD-ROM drive? Are you sure we're not talking about penis extension here?
"True to form, the game itself cut straight to a start-up screen in less than a minute"
It looks like they forgot to include the OS boot time in their calculations. Throw that in and I'm sure it's still up around 3 minutes at least. Real consoles can go from power-on to title screen in less time than it took this tray-and-play to finish throwing up splash screens.
Of course, more interestingly, considering all the DRM crap we've had snuck on us thanks to AutoRun, why do I forsee myself turning this "feature" off for security reasons?
Aside from the use of checkboxes instead of radio buttons, one big problem with that test that it requires you to have decided whether or not you're addicted before you actually take the test. Too many of the questions involve the phrase "because you were online," and in order to accept cause/effect like that you need to have already drawn your conclusion.
After all, they back-ported FAT32 to Win95a, didn't they?
Oh, wait, what's the reason we divide things into 95a and 95b again?
Forget it, Microsoft wants to tax us again and there's little reason to believe that they won't use every trick up their sleeves to get us to buy into yet another iterative, evolutionary "upgrade." NTFS may not be all that great, but compared to spending another $300, it's pretty damned good.
Jefferson was kind enough to point out that, at least before the Fourteenth Amendment (well after his death), there was nothing in the US Constitution that prevented state governments from "abridging the freedom of speech." His main qualm with the Alien and Sedition Acts were that they were federal laws. He actively pursued anti-speech laws at the state level and used them to his advantage in shutting down newspapers and publications put out by the other party.
"and minors (non-voting folks that they are) aren't CITIZENS as such,"
"All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside." No age qualifiers in the Fourteenth Amendment.
"What I want to know? if a minor is tried as an adult, and aquitted, does he get to vote? why not??"
Because voting is not a right. Nothing the US Constitution guarantees you a vote, and I'm willing to bet the same could be said of your state constitution. There are certain parts of the US Constitution that list reasons for which you cannot be denied voting privileges, but otherwise the litmus test is whether or not your state will let you vote for members of the most populous branch of your state's legislature.
Give it a few days. They'll call you again and tell you, because of demand, they won't let you have your PSP unless you also buy into their "product protection racket."
However, as I learned recently, there are reasons for the evilness (though they don't mitigate or justify the evil in my book): stores make pretty much no money on hardware and next to no money on software. Most of their money comes from books and accessories, both of which they try to bundle with the stuff you actually want, forcing you to buy them. They're not exactly losing any money by not letting you buy a second PSP, since they're not making money on the sale of PSPs reguardless.
Slashdot Mirror
Looking at what the USAF did to the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, I find I fear for the safety of Nintendo.
So? Retail DVD movies still sell for more than 10 times that amount, and are riddled with DRC schemes. I'd gladly pay the DVD tax of that magnitude if it meant being able to download, rip and burn to my widdle heart's content.
"when the SNES came out, and asking the local rep. why it wouldn't play NES games. "Why would we charge somebody for features they already own?" came the marketing-speak reply."
This may be the only case in recorded history where market-speak is actually correct.
You forget that the NES may as well have freakin' vacuum tubes in the damned thing. It's a total Frankenstein of 1970's hardware that ended up requiring developers to put much of their own hardware on the cartridges themselves. The SNES, on the other hand, was a 1990's console with actual 1990's hardware in it, which ultimately had jack in common with FrankenNES.
The only way you could make the SNES backawrds compatible is if you squeeze an entire NES motherboard into it.
Think about it: it's been well over a decade since the release of the SNES and the internet has been around for a while as well. SNES cartridge copiers are pretty easy to find nowadays. So where are all the NES emulators for the SNES? The closest thing you'll find is a piece of hardware usally called "Tristar" or "Super 8," but all it is is a Famicom clone with an a/v pass-thru for the SNES; it gets electricity from the SNES and sends out its own a/v signal from its own jack.
You'll also notice the lack of SNES emulators for the N64, save for a "Tristar 64," which squeezes both a Famicom and a (crappy) SFC clone into a single box.
If you wanted a "backwards compatible" SNES, you'd have to pay for both SNES hardware and NES hardware. You might be able to save a few bucks by putting it all in a single plastic housing instead of two, but that would be the only possible price advantage: you'd still be charging a price for two consoles, because it'd have the guts of two consoles.
The Genesis had it easy: Sega used (IIRC) a Z80 as the sound processor, which, coincidentally, was the CPU from the old Master System. So it was pretty easy for them to whip up the Power Base Converter, and any fool who knows how to use a soldering iron can probably put together a similar device. Remember, though, that the PBC only worked on Genny models that actually had a Z80 chip: SMS converters won't work on the Nomad or the Genny 3. (I've also heard that the same cpu-as-sound-chip logic was also used in the Saturn, but I have my doubts since I've seen no adapters to let you play Genny games on the Saturn).
The PS2 does something similar; even though the PS2 is damned near good enough to run a PSX software emulator (after all, if the Dreamcast could do it...), ultimately backwards compatibility comes from the fact that the PS2 was designed to share internal hardware with the original PSX (the GPU in the PS2, IIRC, is the same chip as is used for the CPU in the PSX).
Until the Revolution, Nintendo started completely from scratch whenever they made a new console, with no intent to share hardware with older consoles (which means the SNES wasn't hobbled with crappy MIDI sound, like the Genny was, in the name of backwards compatibility).
As for the handhelds... GBC playing GB games? Yes... and no: GBC carts actually had two games on them: a GB game and a GBC game. A different game was played depending on what console you put the cartridge in (even if the GB game was nothing more than a message saying "GBC Only!"). This is why you don't see Super Game Boy pallet information (which lies within the GB game) used by the GBC, because the GBC simply dumps it to their GB hardware emulator.
GBA is backwards compatible because they squeezed two Game Boys into one. The DS doesn't play GBC/GB games not because of some dastardly plot on Nintendo's part, but because, after putting in DS and GBA hardware into a single case, there was no room left for GBC hardware.
I figured out The System while playing Final Fantasy VII.
Remember that the PSX controller is nothing if not a copy of the SNES controller. On the SNES, those buttons were labelled A, B, X and Y. On the PSX, the buttons don't have such easy labels but instead are sneakily labelled by number: it takes 1 line to draw a circle, 2 for the X, 3 for the triangle and 4 for the square. So we have buttons 1, 2, 3 and 4.
They're in the same exact order as they are on the SNES controller.
A B X Y
1 2 3 4
I've now trained myself that when I see "triangle," I think "X button." It makes doing goofy limit breaks/whatever in games like FFVIII and FFX much easier for me now.
It would be even cooler if there's a clutch pedal involved. :)
Hey, man is is that Freedom Rock?
Yes, the word beats the hell out of the English equivalents of "geek," "dateless loser" and "lay off the cheesy poofs and get out of your mother's basement already."
"Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.)"
See, there's the motivation. Don't see it? Let me make it a little more clearer:
"Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Goddard SFC)"
Ain't pork-barrel politics grand?
"And I'm sorry if you have ego issues with the Air Force having a higher priority than your entertainment center."
And if I paid more for my desktop software than the USAF paid for a single XP workstation? Those of us who buy the full, retail, non-OEM version of their OS are the ones subsidizing the on-the-cheap installs they give to big customers like the DOD. The fact that they're getting even more for money they didn't spend pisses me off: they're getting the service that I paid for (even before you get into taxes).
So long as we live in the capitalistic society you alluded to, I'm allowed to be pissed that my PC is put on a lower priority.
"They made an insane amount of enemies last year.
(...)
- slashdot crowd"
Yeah, I'm sure their webserver is quaking in its proverbial boots already!
"Going to DVD only games would be easier but so far no game company wants to take the risk of upsetting the non-dvd owners."
So people will splurge $300 on the latest-and-greatest video card but can't be bothered to drop the $60 on a DVD-ROM drive? Are you sure we're not talking about penis extension here?
"True to form, the game itself cut straight to a start-up screen in less than a minute"
It looks like they forgot to include the OS boot time in their calculations. Throw that in and I'm sure it's still up around 3 minutes at least. Real consoles can go from power-on to title screen in less time than it took this tray-and-play to finish throwing up splash screens.
Of course, more interestingly, considering all the DRM crap we've had snuck on us thanks to AutoRun, why do I forsee myself turning this "feature" off for security reasons?
Aside from the use of checkboxes instead of radio buttons, one big problem with that test that it requires you to have decided whether or not you're addicted before you actually take the test. Too many of the questions involve the phrase "because you were online," and in order to accept cause/effect like that you need to have already drawn your conclusion.
After all, they back-ported FAT32 to Win95a, didn't they?
Oh, wait, what's the reason we divide things into 95a and 95b again?
Forget it, Microsoft wants to tax us again and there's little reason to believe that they won't use every trick up their sleeves to get us to buy into yet another iterative, evolutionary "upgrade." NTFS may not be all that great, but compared to spending another $300, it's pretty damned good.
" Civilians, yes. But please don't use the term "innocent"."
Why? Have they been proven guilty?
According to my sourcebooks, they've got until 2350 to figure it out. :)
"and yet they're perfectly willing to take a contact doing phone support for Americans!"
It takes two to sign a contract.
Jefferson was kind enough to point out that, at least before the Fourteenth Amendment (well after his death), there was nothing in the US Constitution that prevented state governments from "abridging the freedom of speech." His main qualm with the Alien and Sedition Acts were that they were federal laws. He actively pursued anti-speech laws at the state level and used them to his advantage in shutting down newspapers and publications put out by the other party.
Well, considering the fact that she's only 14...
I have a dream to follow! A dream of sitting on my ass all day, in my underwear, playing Final Fantasy XI! A paying job only gets in the way!
"and minors (non-voting folks that they are) aren't CITIZENS as such,"
"All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside." No age qualifiers in the Fourteenth Amendment.
"What I want to know? if a minor is tried as an adult, and aquitted, does he get to vote? why not??"
Because voting is not a right. Nothing the US Constitution guarantees you a vote, and I'm willing to bet the same could be said of your state constitution. There are certain parts of the US Constitution that list reasons for which you cannot be denied voting privileges, but otherwise the litmus test is whether or not your state will let you vote for members of the most populous branch of your state's legislature.
"Seth Cohen is a nerd! And he gets laid (sometimes.)"
The two are mutually exclusive.
Give it a few days. They'll call you again and tell you, because of demand, they won't let you have your PSP unless you also buy into their "product protection racket."
However, as I learned recently, there are reasons for the evilness (though they don't mitigate or justify the evil in my book): stores make pretty much no money on hardware and next to no money on software. Most of their money comes from books and accessories, both of which they try to bundle with the stuff you actually want, forcing you to buy them. They're not exactly losing any money by not letting you buy a second PSP, since they're not making money on the sale of PSPs reguardless.
Yeah, that explains why he locked it in a closet for Windows Me and eventually disowned it with XP.
The main difference between the main parties and the smaller third parties is that the smaller parties can't afford the telephone campaigns.