Anyway the point being -- is there significant money to be made in the Arcade game motherboard market?
I don't think there is. Midway, the last American company making arcade games, quietly bailed last year. The only ones left are Capcom, Sega, and Namco (true kings of the arcade).
When television came out, there was a huge drop in movie theater attendence. When VHS became widespread, it happened once again. However, the movie industry was smart enough to place incentives for going to the movies (great visuals and sound, seeing a movie long before its debut on video).
The video game industry has no such incentives to keep people coming to the arcades. Home console technology is as powerful as any arcade box now, and way cheaper.
Most new arcade games are either racing or Street Fighter II clones. They are intimidating for people who don't normally play video games. Although I still like some new games (Marvel vs. Capcom 2 for example), I believe a "nostalgia arcade" with the original machines for Pac-Man, Dig-Dug, etc would do better, as the games had more universal appeal. Crazy Taxi is about the only true successor to those games I can think of.
If you like that, then you should try the Neo Geo version of the game. Now, THAT is fun. Pretty and large sprites, unique character designs and
great sound effects make this one the best of the best. It has all of the classic action and new team super moves...
Dude. Super Monkey Ball. NOT Super Dodge Ball.
Although the Super Dodge Ball court will be part of River City in the upcoming River City Ransom Online. Kidding! Although, it would be my dream to make that game. Coders, are you with me?
Too bad the GamePurse doesn't support Dolby Digital. The Xbox does, and the PS2 does (to a limited extent).
The Gamecube will support 60fps through component video on HDTV systems, though. The PS2 requires $100 of hardware to step up to VGA, and it looks ugly as shit. The Dreamcast did a better job than that.
Actually, upon further inspection, sports games are going to PS2 and Xbox, not currently announced for GameCube. It looks like this round, they all go Dreamcast, plus NFL2K2 and NBA2K2 on Xbox and PS2.
Actually, Visual Concepts (the Sega Sports crew) has announced support for Gamecube. Here's the article.
My guess is that VC held off on announcing gamecube support because they are working so hard on finishing their Dreamcast stuff (Tennis 2k2 yet to come) and PS2 library (that ineptly designed beast.)
The Gamecube will have its first online game in December when Phantasy Star Online is released. PS2 and Xbox's online plans are still so much vapor at this point.
You can't play a good game for a system if it never comes out in your region and you don't use a
device to break the region encoding on your machine.
Your point? You make it sound like Sega is the only one that makes great games that never make it to wherever the hell you are. Tons of great games never make it out of Japan...
Sega's had several very pretty, well-developed games for both the Saturn and the Dreamcast that itfore they came here.
Please. You're talking about the company that brought Samba de Amigo stateside. Yes, they had the balls to bring a rhythm based game where you play the part of a fuggin' MARACA SHAKING MONKEY who dances while CACTUSES and TEDDY BEARS shake in the background. That's a pretty big risk for a company to take...and that is why Sega rules.
I would argue that macs aren't necessarily easy to use; rather, they are easy to learn to use.
Huh? Do you mean, "I can use one Windows app faster because I've had it for years, but the Mac OS is generally easier to use?" or "Windows is harder to master, but I can be more productive with it once I learn." You need to unpack that comment.
At any rate, I was raised on DOS/Windows, and when I switched to a Mac in '99, I loved the GUI. The app switching in the "Classic" OS isn't quite as fast as Windows, but in general, the Mac way of doing things is much simpler.
The thing that sucks about most about Windows is how none of their apps have any restraint. They spill themselves on your Start Menu, Desktop, Quick Launch panel, System Tray (any reason why you have to click once on the Quick Launch, but twice on the System Tray? Confusing!) Also, every app wants not only to do its duty, but to control every other aspect of your computer. RealPlayer wants to "help me download" (or show me ads, you make the choice), Windows Media Player wants my MP3s, I.E. wants to defrag my hard drive. Well not really, but it's a constant struggle to prevent stupid apps from "filetyping" and disrupting your productivity. And why the fsck do you have to click "Start" to shut down?
Also, Windows assumes you're an idiot, and it second guesses you whenever you try to do anything. "Are you sure you want to put that in the Recycle Bin? Are you sure you want to delete a program? Is that a letter to grandma you're writing? Let me screw up the formatting for you!" One of the best things about Mac OS and UNIXs is they don't assume you're an idiot.
I believe that MacOs is easy to learn, but "ease-of-use" is probably pretty objective
Don't you mean subjective? at any rate, you're wrong.
Imagine someone broke into your house and stole your stereo. Later, through your neighbor's window, you see your stereo. You try to reason with your neighbor (just as the RIAA has tried reason with music-thieving public), but to no avail. Would you not then be justified to break into your neighbors house and reclaim your property?
Imagine that you were the only conduit for music for a number of years. Now let's imagine that you ignored customer requests for things like a-la-carte songs, custom mix CDs, and reasonably priced CDs.
Now let's imagine that while you were out swimming in all your money, another distribution system-let's call it "the Internet"-emerges, offering your customers all those features that they begged you to include for years.
Well, you know it won't be long before everyone jumps on this "new distribution" bandwagon, because it offers better communication and profits between artists and music consumers.
So instead of embracing the technology, and competing in the marketplace, you decide to litigate your way back to monopoly.
Is it any wonder that anyone who knows anything about music distribution hates the RIAA?
Unfortunately, broadband never really took off on the DC. The "broadband adapter" (a modified version of a Realtek ethernet card) is supported by a grand total of six games. Not to mention that SEGA only sold them for about three months, and now they go on eBay for $120+.
Yeah, it's cool to play with Linux on them, but don't you already have 5 computers in various states of disrepair running Linux/BSD? I know I do...
Despite all this, the DC is/was a great console. Its library of titles whips the PS2 and probably will until at least the middle of next year...and it has a thriving homebrew community.
Re:How it'll probably shake out
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The keyword there is *kids*. If you look at the game break-down for Nintendo, it is looking to be targeting a very young age. (As Nintendo typically has done over the years.)
Haven't played a Nintendo system in awhile, have ya? Nintendo has been bending over backwards to ensure they have plenty of games to appeal to adults on the 'Cube. Since they have Rare (Perfect Dark, Conker's Bad Fur Day) on their side, as well as Capcom's Resident Evil series, they seem to be well on their way to appealing to adults. Support from EA's sports division and Visual Concepts (Sega Sports) shouldn't hurt either.
Re:How will this affect the Nintendo GameCube?
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The days when you could make prophet off of a console are long gone
Man, tell me about it...I remember standing on my driveway on an early morning in 1984, tearing apart the guts of my Atari 2600 so I could find out whether the corn crop would grow.
The Playstation 2 just doesn't do the trick...but it doesn't stop me from taking that sledgehammer to it.
Mac OS X is basically a toy right now. Yeah, it can do all the cool server stuff like Apache and PHP like any UNIXish system, but there are tons of BSD and Linux distro's that do it better, and much cheaper.
The stuff that makes Mac OS X better-native DVD playback, decent speed on the GUI, X-native apps from heavy hitters like MS and Adobe, just aren't there yet.
Apple should thank the early adopters that bothered to shell out $100, instead of shamelessly charging them for what should have been in OS X since day one.
Just another example of the abusive Apple-pampering users with a great GUI, then beating them down with unreasonable charges.
Re:What can be done about terrorism?
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We can't just waltz into
some third-world country with a leader we just hand-picked from the graduating class of Georgetown University and say, "Ok, we Americans have chosen a new leader for you people! Follow this guy!"
Actually, back in South Vietnam in the Fifties, we did some thing very similar to what you just described.
America decided to prop up Ngo Dinh Diem's regime, though his popular support was vastly eroding. BUT he was an anticommunist, so our lovely government continued to support him as he committed atrocities against his own people.
By 1963, we realized that he was going to lose his power, so the CIA let some of his political enemies assassinate him. For the next ten years, we juggled several leaders with even less popular support, while countless Vietnamese and Americans died.
And why do we support questionable leaders and oppressive regimes?
We used to say it was to stop the Communists. We don't have many good excuses anymore.
Yep, nothing like greasing the wheels of the economy with the blood of the innocent.
It'll tell you what-this Texan would like to get out his lariat, hogtie ya, and make you look at the footage of the US bombing the pharmeutical factory in Sudan from Clinton's administration. Or how about Nixon's secret bombing raids on Cambodia?
Folks, the self-righteous attitude that the US has never done anything wrong builds on the foundation of hatred that these terrorists already possess.
We as a country need to concentrate on helping those affected by the tragedy. We also need to find the people responsible and bring them to justice.
We all want retribution for this heinous act. But randomly choosing a country to bomb will do no good. As a matter of fact, that only makes the US into the bully that these terrorists would like to believe we are.
I shudder when I read how many posts on this board are calling out for war-without even knowing who is responsible. Please, let's go after the bad guys-and let's keep the innocent blood off OUR hands.
You think Texas is bad? Try Utah. To get booze, you have to drive out to these shacks in the middle of nowhere...you pull up next to the place and the attendant checks your ID, then asks you what drink you want. that's right, you have to DRIVE a long way to get alcohol. God bless the Mor(m)ons!
Is SDL on Dreamcast even a remote possibility? Yes it's "dead," but it's far cheaper than the Playstation 2 and from what I've heard, easier to code for (without expensive custom hardware).
Although it may not have the raw power of upcoming consoles, it has a thriving homebrew community with lots of emulators and other cool stuff. Dreamcast research for more details.
Out of those two systems, I know which one I'd like to own.
Depends on what you're doing, doesn't it? A couple of years back, my university (Trinity) was revamping its media lab. Because one of the VPs has his head up Dell's ass, we got all Dells instead of the Macs that the Comm Department was clamoring for.
With everything maxed out on the Dells (and believe me, the price-performance difference flattens out at the high end), 21-inch monitors, and $5000 Miro editing boards, the Dell machines came out to about $12000 each (including software like Photoshop, Premiere, etc).
G4s with all the software and a media converter to handle DV-to-analog transfers ($500) would have cost $8000.
The worst thing is, the Dells haven't worked well at all. They shipped with a mobo that was incompatible with Photoshop 6 (great for a web design class) and people fill them up with games.
The Miro hardware is extremely persnickety and locks up when certain filters are applied. Luckily we have an old Mac-based Media100 stashed in the back.
on SDL coming to the Dreamcast? It has a pretty large homebrew community, and it's far cheaper to mess with than the Paystation 2 (at least for the near future). (Here's Marcus Comstedt's DC development site)
I agree with you that PC gamers are usually more wealthy than console gamers (or stupid, or both).
But I don't agree that the lower middle-class (such as myself) don't have time for games. You'd be amazed what sleep sacrifices you'd be willing to make for a good game of Resident Evil.
While you may be crowing over your broadband connection (yes, I have one, although very few of my friends do) most of my friends are enjoying Crazy Taxi or Madden on Playstation in the company of neighborhood friends (as opposed to virtual ones.)
I know a ton of people who bought the "dying" Dreamcast when it dropped to $99, and are enjoying $20 titles like Crazy Taxi and Soul Calibur. Oh yeah, and we can get online with NFL2k1 to play our "organized sports."
Console gaming is very big in my neighborhood, and it's a social activity that lacks the "geek" stigma that seems to hover around the middle class-wealthy.
I'll tell ya why it "maters." It'll go down in the history books-not as a movie, but as Square's first controller-free game!
Just like the last three FF's, this game doesn't require any skill, just a lot of time to complete! And no more confusing stuff like monster battles and puzzles to fill the gaps between CGI! It's all CGI! Plus, it comes in handy "film" format (soon to be ported to video and DVD) for those who are intimidated by video game skills like using a memory card and holding a controller!
Joel Hodgeson, the creator of Mystery Science Theatre 3000, made a revolving stage setup called an "X-Box" in 1997. A group of comedians performed a single show that was aired on Comedy Central and HBO.
Here's the link : Joel and Jim Hodgeson's X Box
Actually, Microware sued Apple, since Microware users might not be able to determine the difference between an OS for industrial equipment and an OS for iMacs.
What a surprise that their case was thrown out of court...although not as big of surprise as when Apple Records sued Apple. Their argument was: "Apple computers have a mic-in port, they must be a record company."
A game where you have to write scripts to have a chance? How about a developer kit that writes code depending on how good you are at Unreal Tournament?
Slashdot Mirror
Anyway the point being -- is there significant money to be made in the Arcade game motherboard market?
I don't think there is. Midway, the last American company making arcade games, quietly bailed last year. The only ones left are Capcom, Sega, and Namco (true kings of the arcade).
When television came out, there was a huge drop in movie theater attendence. When VHS became widespread, it happened once again. However, the movie industry was smart enough to place incentives for going to the movies (great visuals and sound, seeing a movie long before its debut on video).
The video game industry has no such incentives to keep people coming to the arcades. Home console technology is as powerful as any arcade box now, and way cheaper.
Most new arcade games are either racing or Street Fighter II clones. They are intimidating for people who don't normally play video games. Although I still like some new games (Marvel vs. Capcom 2 for example), I believe a "nostalgia arcade" with the original machines for Pac-Man, Dig-Dug, etc would do better, as the games had more universal appeal. Crazy Taxi is about the only true successor to those games I can think of.
great sound effects make this one the best of the best. It has all of the classic action and new team super moves...
Dude. Super Monkey Ball. NOT Super Dodge Ball.
Although the Super Dodge Ball court will be part of River City in the upcoming River City Ransom Online. Kidding! Although, it would be my dream to make that game. Coders, are you with me?
The Gamecube will support 60fps through component video on HDTV systems, though. The PS2 requires $100 of hardware to step up to VGA, and it looks ugly as shit. The Dreamcast did a better job than that.
Actually, Visual Concepts (the Sega Sports crew) has announced support for Gamecube. Here's the article.
My guess is that VC held off on announcing gamecube support because they are working so hard on finishing their Dreamcast stuff (Tennis 2k2 yet to come) and PS2 library (that ineptly designed beast.)
The Gamecube will have its first online game in December when Phantasy Star Online is released. PS2 and Xbox's online plans are still so much vapor at this point.
device to break the region encoding on your machine.
Your point? You make it sound like Sega is the only one that makes great games that never make it to wherever the hell you are. Tons of great games never make it out of Japan...
Sega's had several very pretty, well-developed games for both the Saturn and the Dreamcast that itfore they came here.
Please. You're talking about the company that brought Samba de Amigo stateside. Yes, they had the balls to bring a rhythm based game where you play the part of a fuggin' MARACA SHAKING MONKEY who dances while CACTUSES and TEDDY BEARS shake in the background. That's a pretty big risk for a company to take...and that is why Sega rules.
I would argue that macs aren't necessarily easy to use; rather, they are easy to learn to use.
Huh? Do you mean, "I can use one Windows app faster because I've had it for years, but the Mac OS is generally easier to use?" or "Windows is harder to master, but I can be more productive with it once I learn." You need to unpack that comment.
At any rate, I was raised on DOS/Windows, and when I switched to a Mac in '99, I loved the GUI. The app switching in the "Classic" OS isn't quite as fast as Windows, but in general, the Mac way of doing things is much simpler.
The thing that sucks about most about Windows is how none of their apps have any restraint. They spill themselves on your Start Menu, Desktop, Quick Launch panel, System Tray (any reason why you have to click once on the Quick Launch, but twice on the System Tray? Confusing!) Also, every app wants not only to do its duty, but to control every other aspect of your computer. RealPlayer wants to "help me download" (or show me ads, you make the choice), Windows Media Player wants my MP3s, I.E. wants to defrag my hard drive. Well not really, but it's a constant struggle to prevent stupid apps from "filetyping" and disrupting your productivity. And why the fsck do you have to click "Start" to shut down?
Also, Windows assumes you're an idiot, and it second guesses you whenever you try to do anything. "Are you sure you want to put that in the Recycle Bin? Are you sure you want to delete a program? Is that a letter to grandma you're writing? Let me screw up the formatting for you!" One of the best things about Mac OS and UNIXs is they don't assume you're an idiot.
I believe that MacOs is easy to learn, but "ease-of-use" is probably pretty objective
Don't you mean subjective? at any rate, you're wrong.
Imagine that you were the only conduit for music for a number of years. Now let's imagine that you ignored customer requests for things like a-la-carte songs, custom mix CDs, and reasonably priced CDs.
Now let's imagine that while you were out swimming in all your money, another distribution system-let's call it "the Internet"-emerges, offering your customers all those features that they begged you to include for years.
Well, you know it won't be long before everyone jumps on this "new distribution" bandwagon, because it offers better communication and profits between artists and music consumers.
So instead of embracing the technology, and competing in the marketplace, you decide to litigate your way back to monopoly.
Is it any wonder that anyone who knows anything about music distribution hates the RIAA?
Unfortunately, broadband never really took off on the DC. The "broadband adapter" (a modified version of a Realtek ethernet card) is supported by a grand total of six games. Not to mention that SEGA only sold them for about three months, and now they go on eBay for $120+.
Yeah, it's cool to play with Linux on them, but don't you already have 5 computers in various states of disrepair running Linux/BSD? I know I do...
Despite all this, the DC is/was a great console. Its library of titles whips the PS2 and probably will until at least the middle of next year...and it has a thriving homebrew community.
Haven't played a Nintendo system in awhile, have ya? Nintendo has been bending over backwards to ensure they have plenty of games to appeal to adults on the 'Cube. Since they have Rare (Perfect Dark, Conker's Bad Fur Day) on their side, as well as Capcom's Resident Evil series, they seem to be well on their way to appealing to adults. Support from EA's sports division and Visual Concepts (Sega Sports) shouldn't hurt either.
The days when you could make prophet off of a console are long gone
Man, tell me about it...I remember standing on my driveway on an early morning in 1984, tearing apart the guts of my Atari 2600 so I could find out whether the corn crop would grow.
The Playstation 2 just doesn't do the trick...but it doesn't stop me from taking that sledgehammer to it.
Mac OS X is basically a toy right now. Yeah, it can do all the cool server stuff like Apache and PHP like any UNIXish system, but there are tons of BSD and Linux distro's that do it better, and much cheaper.
The stuff that makes Mac OS X better-native DVD playback, decent speed on the GUI, X-native apps from heavy hitters like MS and Adobe, just aren't there yet.
Apple should thank the early adopters that bothered to shell out $100, instead of shamelessly charging them for what should have been in OS X since day one.
Just another example of the abusive Apple-pampering users with a great GUI, then beating them down with unreasonable charges.
some third-world country with a leader we just hand-picked from the graduating class of Georgetown University and say, "Ok, we Americans have chosen a new leader for you people! Follow this guy!"
Actually, back in South Vietnam in the Fifties, we did some thing very similar to what you just described.
America decided to prop up Ngo Dinh Diem's regime, though his popular support was vastly eroding. BUT he was an anticommunist, so our lovely government continued to support him as he committed atrocities against his own people.
By 1963, we realized that he was going to lose his power, so the CIA let some of his political enemies assassinate him. For the next ten years, we juggled several leaders with even less popular support, while countless Vietnamese and Americans died.
And why do we support questionable leaders and oppressive regimes?
We used to say it was to stop the Communists. We don't have many good excuses anymore.
Yep, nothing like greasing the wheels of the economy with the blood of the innocent.
It'll tell you what-this Texan would like to get out his lariat, hogtie ya, and make you look at the footage of the US bombing the pharmeutical factory in Sudan from Clinton's administration. Or how about Nixon's secret bombing raids on Cambodia?
Folks, the self-righteous attitude that the US has never done anything wrong builds on the foundation of hatred that these terrorists already possess.
We as a country need to concentrate on helping those affected by the tragedy. We also need to find the people responsible and bring them to justice.
We all want retribution for this heinous act. But randomly choosing a country to bomb will do no good. As a matter of fact, that only makes the US into the bully that these terrorists would like to believe we are.
I shudder when I read how many posts on this board are calling out for war-without even knowing who is responsible. Please, let's go after the bad guys-and let's keep the innocent blood off OUR hands.
You think Texas is bad? Try Utah. To get booze, you have to drive out to these shacks in the middle of nowhere...you pull up next to the place and the attendant checks your ID, then asks you what drink you want. that's right, you have to DRIVE a long way to get alcohol. God bless the Mor(m)ons!
Although it may not have the raw power of upcoming consoles, it has a thriving homebrew community with lots of emulators and other cool stuff. Dreamcast research for more details.
Depends on what you're doing, doesn't it? A couple of years back, my university (Trinity) was revamping its media lab. Because one of the VPs has his head up Dell's ass, we got all Dells instead of the Macs that the Comm Department was clamoring for.
With everything maxed out on the Dells (and believe me, the price-performance difference flattens out at the high end), 21-inch monitors, and $5000 Miro editing boards, the Dell machines came out to about $12000 each (including software like Photoshop, Premiere, etc).
G4s with all the software and a media converter to handle DV-to-analog transfers ($500) would have cost $8000.
The worst thing is, the Dells haven't worked well at all. They shipped with a mobo that was incompatible with Photoshop 6 (great for a web design class) and people fill them up with games.
The Miro hardware is extremely persnickety and locks up when certain filters are applied. Luckily we have an old Mac-based Media100 stashed in the back.
on SDL coming to the Dreamcast? It has a pretty large homebrew community, and it's far cheaper to mess with than the Paystation 2 (at least for the near future). (Here's Marcus Comstedt's DC development site)
But I don't agree that the lower middle-class (such as myself) don't have time for games. You'd be amazed what sleep sacrifices you'd be willing to make for a good game of Resident Evil.
While you may be crowing over your broadband connection (yes, I have one, although very few of my friends do) most of my friends are enjoying Crazy Taxi or Madden on Playstation in the company of neighborhood friends (as opposed to virtual ones.)
I know a ton of people who bought the "dying" Dreamcast when it dropped to $99, and are enjoying $20 titles like Crazy Taxi and Soul Calibur. Oh yeah, and we can get online with NFL2k1 to play our "organized sports."
Console gaming is very big in my neighborhood, and it's a social activity that lacks the "geek" stigma that seems to hover around the middle class-wealthy.
Ugh. It sounds like a Turkish word for diarrhea.
Just like the last three FF's, this game doesn't require any skill, just a lot of time to complete! And no more confusing stuff like monster battles and puzzles to fill the gaps between CGI! It's all CGI! Plus, it comes in handy "film" format (soon to be ported to video and DVD) for those who are intimidated by video game skills like using a memory card and holding a controller!
the whole family can appreciate mass-market, watered-down tripe that exists not to entertain but to sell lunchboxes.
Historically, legalese has been a language of formality which celebrates its complexity and convoluted manner in a very self-indulgent way.
In other words, lawyers write legalese because it's a trademark of their profession, or a ritual. Not because it makes better laws.
Joel Hodgeson, the creator of Mystery Science Theatre 3000, made a revolving stage setup called an "X-Box" in 1997. A group of comedians performed a single show that was aired on Comedy Central and HBO. Here's the link : Joel and Jim Hodgeson's X Box
What a surprise that their case was thrown out of court...although not as big of surprise as when Apple Records sued Apple. Their argument was: "Apple computers have a mic-in port, they must be a record company."
Now that would be fun.