Hate to tell you this, but the WonderSwan has officially gone the way of the NeoGeo Pocket Color, the Tiger.com, the Nomad, the Game Gear, the Turbo Express, the Lynx, and where the N-Gage is currently heading. You won't even be seeing new Japanese games for the system.
"how can you require someone (MS) to not just write software for a competative platform, but also to require them to provide a specific language version for that specific product on a competing platform?"
I don't know how they do it in Israel, but here in the states it's called the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.
"this is like having your boss over your shoulder telling you what color of widget they want you to insert for a program that your coworker is supposed to be writing and will get most of the credit for."
No, it's like your prison guard telling you what rocks you have to break today. Things like this happen when you've been convicted of a crime (repeatedly, even).
"but it just seems like they are really pushing MS around."
Blah blah blah "have to take out the battery..." At this point, that's not what's preventing me from getting one. The primary reason I get the consoles I do are the games it runs. And so far, I haven't seen much for the N-Gage that's piqued my interest. I've long since passed beyond my puzzle game phase years ago, Lara Croft doesn't do anything for me, and if I wanted to play a Sonic game I already have a GBA and a GCN.
Beyond that, the only other thing keeping me from getting one is my happiness with Sprint PCS. I have no desire to switch providers, and since a lot of the N-Gage's functionaly seems to be tied to cellular service...
"In Final Fantasy TA, for example, if you want to get certain special items, you need to frequently link up with another GBA (and another copy of FFTA). No biggie if you don't, of course, but you're still missing out on cool stuff."
Solution: Don't buy it. Nobody is holding a gun to your head, making you buy and play FFTA.
"Why couldn't they have added these extra features onto the original GBA cartridge?"
Because the whole poing of using the eReader is to be able to allow the programmers to add new features to the game that they haven't thought of yet. And since I haven't heard of Nintendo developing time-travel technology...
"The more and more I think about it, the harder it is to justify paying $30USD for a 10-year old game."
"The disc spins clockwise. I don't know if that is what you define to be "the wrong way around"..."
Damn you sinister lefties! Everybody knows that the right-hand coordinate system is the One True Coordinate System! Stop trying to confuse us with your clockwise rotations!
Of course, I suppose the laser sees a counterclockwise rotation from its POV... my head hurts!
"Just don't whine about not having the latest system while you're waiting for the console to drop below $100. The tradeoff to buying any technology early is you'll pay more BUT you'll have cooler technolgy earlier."
If I were going to whine about not having "the latest and greatest," don't you think I would have bought a PS2 a little sooner than two weeks ago? I'd probably have a better 3D board on my computer while I was at it...
I don't buy "the latest and greatest system," I wait until there are games that I feel justify the purchase of the hardware before I consider buying it. And then I like to get my money's worth (not half of it).
"I'm assuming you're not against price drops entirely, so what would you have Sony do?"
To be more proactive about price cuts instead of waiting for someone else to act first. All of Sony's price cuts suggest they care more about Nintendo than they do about their own customers.
You fool! You forgot to set a condition to break out of the loop! You used a GOTO statement! Now you'll just keep launching the ship over and over again until somebody remembers what the escape sequence is!
"but they're just lowering prices in response to their competition which is a good thing."
My problem isn't with the fact they're cutting prices, it's the degree of the price cut. Gradual reductions in price are expected as the console goes through it's natural life cycle (better manufacturing techniques, economies of scale kicking in, etc.). My issue is that they're slashing the price in half, which leaves me wondering "If it's only worth half of what you charged a week ago, why didn't you drop the price earlier?" They didn't see fit to pass their savings onto their customers earlier? Heck, a lot of the PS2s that will be sold for that price probably came over to North America in the same container as mine.
Cutting prices in the face of competition is a good thing, but keeping prices artificially inflated until your competitors all but twist your arm to make you drop your prices shows a general disreguard for customers.
"they altered the game rules, took the foils out of every pack(Inspiring more purchases)"
This right here is what has had me turned off to CCGs (and collectible minis) since I first tried M:TG. I don't like the "spend spend spend!" mentality that that makes these companies seem worse than GW in comparison. I want to collect things I have a reasonable chance of getting without having to tithe a percentage of my paycheck for several years. I feel like I'd get more satisfaction playing the lottery.
Aside from my addiction to the GameCube game, I'm loving the Animal Crossing cards because they're easy to get. The hard part isn't trying to find this character or that design, it's trying to find a store (other than Nintendo's website) that still carries series 1 cards.
"And naturally Nintendo is not at fault at all for releasing Sapphire and Ruby versions, which did not allow connectivity to the previous versions,"
It's a hardware issue here, not software. The older versions were for older hardware that used older link cable protocols (including the physical layer) than the GBA now uses. If they enabled GBA link cable protocols to be backwards-compatible, I can almost guarantee you there wouldn't be multi-boot games (among other nice features) for the GBA.
Besides, forcing players to start over in a video game is lost time. Forcing players to start over in a CCG means spending $100+ trying to play catch up.
Today is day 16. EB won't accept returns after 14 days.
According to the fine print on the back of the receipt, EB's return policy on hardware is like their return policy on software: If the package has been opened, it's exchange-only.
The point is that, because I didn't wait fifteen days, I'm out $80.00. If this is how Sony wants to treat their installed customer base, I'll be damed if I'll drop currency on the PSP or the PlayStation 3 until they too drop under $100.
What about me, though? I got my PS2 last month (9/26 according to my reciept) at $180 and I can tell you right now I'm feeling very screwed at the moment. $99 is damn near half of what I paid.
Sure, I still have the receipt, but I'm willing to bet I could hold my breath until I turn blue in the face until I see any sort of refund from EB.
Is it that Nintendo is just that good, or that everybody else is that bad? The latest and greatest taking the #1 slot is understandable and expected, but Konami being beaten out by a decade-old platformer? IMO, that sounds rather damning of modern games.
Slashdot Mirror
Hate to tell you this, but the WonderSwan has officially gone the way of the NeoGeo Pocket Color, the Tiger.com, the Nomad, the Game Gear, the Turbo Express, the Lynx, and where the N-Gage is currently heading. You won't even be seeing new Japanese games for the system.
No no, it can't be the "ultimate" with no mention of Bruce Campbell.
"how can you require someone (MS) to not just write software for a competative platform, but also to require them to provide a specific language version for that specific product on a competing platform?"
I don't know how they do it in Israel, but here in the states it's called the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.
"this is like having your boss over your shoulder telling you what color of widget they want you to insert for a program that your coworker is supposed to be writing and will get most of the credit for."
No, it's like your prison guard telling you what rocks you have to break today. Things like this happen when you've been convicted of a crime (repeatedly, even).
"but it just seems like they are really pushing MS around."
Let the punishment fit the crime.
"The other died poor and in poor standing with the scientific community and is generally regarded as a kook."
Yeah, that's why the SI unit of magnetic flux density is called the edison. Oh, wait...
Since the Mac version of MS Office is the one lacking Hebrew, this still leaves Israeli and/or Jewish Mac users up a creek.
It seems obvious that the story submitter wasn't all that familiar with the movie he was referencing.
Blah blah blah "have to take out the battery..." At this point, that's not what's preventing me from getting one. The primary reason I get the consoles I do are the games it runs. And so far, I haven't seen much for the N-Gage that's piqued my interest. I've long since passed beyond my puzzle game phase years ago, Lara Croft doesn't do anything for me, and if I wanted to play a Sonic game I already have a GBA and a GCN.
Beyond that, the only other thing keeping me from getting one is my happiness with Sprint PCS. I have no desire to switch providers, and since a lot of the N-Gage's functionaly seems to be tied to cellular service...
"In Final Fantasy TA, for example, if you want to get certain special items, you need to frequently link up with another GBA (and another copy of FFTA). No biggie if you don't, of course, but you're still missing out on cool stuff."
Solution: Don't buy it. Nobody is holding a gun to your head, making you buy and play FFTA.
"Why couldn't they have added these extra features onto the original GBA cartridge?"
Because the whole poing of using the eReader is to be able to allow the programmers to add new features to the game that they haven't thought of yet. And since I haven't heard of Nintendo developing time-travel technology...
"The more and more I think about it, the harder it is to justify paying $30USD for a 10-year old game."
Again, you can simply not buy it.
You're starting to sound familiar...
"hell, I'm surprised he remembers to wear pants."
Brainiac: "All I want is a decent pair of pants!"
When did the Apple topic become the W(h)ine and Cheese topic?
"The disc spins clockwise. I don't know if that is what you define to be "the wrong way around"..."
Damn you sinister lefties! Everybody knows that the right-hand coordinate system is the One True Coordinate System! Stop trying to confuse us with your clockwise rotations!
Of course, I suppose the laser sees a counterclockwise rotation from its POV... my head hurts!
"Just don't whine about not having the latest system while you're waiting for the console to drop below $100. The tradeoff to buying any technology early is you'll pay more BUT you'll have cooler technolgy earlier."
If I were going to whine about not having "the latest and greatest," don't you think I would have bought a PS2 a little sooner than two weeks ago? I'd probably have a better 3D board on my computer while I was at it...
I don't buy "the latest and greatest system," I wait until there are games that I feel justify the purchase of the hardware before I consider buying it. And then I like to get my money's worth (not half of it).
"I'm assuming you're not against price drops entirely, so what would you have Sony do?"
To be more proactive about price cuts instead of waiting for someone else to act first. All of Sony's price cuts suggest they care more about Nintendo than they do about their own customers.
You fool! You forgot to set a condition to break out of the loop! You used a GOTO statement! Now you'll just keep launching the ship over and over again until somebody remembers what the escape sequence is!
I'm not sure which is worse: A presiden't that doesn't understand "is," or a Congress that doesn't understand "shall make no law."
"but they're just lowering prices in response to their competition which is a good thing."
My problem isn't with the fact they're cutting prices, it's the degree of the price cut. Gradual reductions in price are expected as the console goes through it's natural life cycle (better manufacturing techniques, economies of scale kicking in, etc.). My issue is that they're slashing the price in half, which leaves me wondering "If it's only worth half of what you charged a week ago, why didn't you drop the price earlier?" They didn't see fit to pass their savings onto their customers earlier? Heck, a lot of the PS2s that will be sold for that price probably came over to North America in the same container as mine.
Cutting prices in the face of competition is a good thing, but keeping prices artificially inflated until your competitors all but twist your arm to make you drop your prices shows a general disreguard for customers.
"they altered the game rules, took the foils out of every pack(Inspiring more purchases)"
This right here is what has had me turned off to CCGs (and collectible minis) since I first tried M:TG. I don't like the "spend spend spend!" mentality that that makes these companies seem worse than GW in comparison. I want to collect things I have a reasonable chance of getting without having to tithe a percentage of my paycheck for several years. I feel like I'd get more satisfaction playing the lottery.
Aside from my addiction to the GameCube game, I'm loving the Animal Crossing cards because they're easy to get. The hard part isn't trying to find this character or that design, it's trying to find a store (other than Nintendo's website) that still carries series 1 cards.
"And naturally Nintendo is not at fault at all for releasing Sapphire and Ruby versions, which did not allow connectivity to the previous versions,"
It's a hardware issue here, not software. The older versions were for older hardware that used older link cable protocols (including the physical layer) than the GBA now uses. If they enabled GBA link cable protocols to be backwards-compatible, I can almost guarantee you there wouldn't be multi-boot games (among other nice features) for the GBA.
Besides, forcing players to start over in a video game is lost time. Forcing players to start over in a CCG means spending $100+ trying to play catch up.
The point is that, because I didn't wait fifteen days, I'm out $80.00. If this is how Sony wants to treat their installed customer base, I'll be damed if I'll drop currency on the PSP or the PlayStation 3 until they too drop under $100.
Anybody besides me having Sega Saturn flashbacks?
The so-called "Nuremberg List" comes to mind.
"The Gamecube is the 2-16 year old market. The PS2 is an older market."
<WONKA>
Strike that. Reverse it.
</WONKA>
What about me, though? I got my PS2 last month (9/26 according to my reciept) at $180 and I can tell you right now I'm feeling very screwed at the moment. $99 is damn near half of what I paid.
Sure, I still have the receipt, but I'm willing to bet I could hold my breath until I turn blue in the face until I see any sort of refund from EB.
Is it that Nintendo is just that good, or that everybody else is that bad? The latest and greatest taking the #1 slot is understandable and expected, but Konami being beaten out by a decade-old platformer? IMO, that sounds rather damning of modern games.
"Andy Grove, of Intel fame, "spoke out" at a recent technology summit in Washington about the current trend towards offshore outsourcing"
And where are Intel processors manufactured again? Or is it only a problem when it effects white collar workers?