I dont have to "tell you again" about your straw-man. Its your straw-man, perhaps you should have given it the ability to speak.
This is my straw-man. There are many like it, but this one is mine. My straw-man is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I master my life. My straw-man, without me, is useless. Without my straw-man, I am useless. I must use my straw-man true. My straw-man and myself know that what counts in this flamewar is not the illogic we fire, the noise of our post, nor the sense we make. We know that it is the diversion of the argument that count. My straw-man is human, even as I, because it is my life. Thus, I will learn it as a brother. I will learn its weakness, its strength, and its straw. I will keep my straw-man clean and ready, even as I am clean and ready. We will become part of each other. Before The Flying Spaghetti Monster I swear this creed. My straw-man and myself are the defenders of the internet. We are the masters of our argument. We are the saviors of my ego. So be it, until victory is mine and there is no enemy, but conformity.
I believe it was the great pastor William Renick had the Idea that if angels having wings they must, therefore, have feathers. In many faiths, Jesus would have been of the highest choir of angels and would have wings as well. If he had feathers, he would be part avian and part man. Avian species come from eggs. With this bit of logic I would say that Sweet Feathery Jesus was born in a egg.
Either that or he is one of those aliens from Ork that travel in a giant egg.
SSH -X, Alpine Mail client, Pico (Nano), Midnight Commander, WindowMaker / GNUstep, Lynx, wget, BSD Games Pack, Nethack, and fortune - What more do you need?
I will state right now, that I have no clue about the actual workings of the DS. I am basing all of this on observations and a computer engineering degree. However I would assume that there is probably a preferences file in writable memory that keeps that information as well as system language, date and time, serial number and all that stuff. That doesn't mean that the code is shared. It only means that the preferences are shared.
The few curmudgeons who refuse to use functional smartphones are a negligible market. Unintegrated commuter GPS units are going to fall by the wayside in a couple years
I have to disagree. Smartphones are not as universally accepted as you would think. Everyone out there does not have a blackberry, iPhone, or Treo. Millions of people still are satisfied with the "free with plan" basic Motorolla/Nokia with calls, text, and a few crappy games built in. The smartphone is still a fraction of overall market sales, a sizeable fraction, but still not the end-all be-all of sales. You may be happy with your smartphone, but Joe Sixpack and Ma and Pa Kettle just want to make calls and send the occasional text message. Besides, not everyone wants to shell out hundreds of dollars when they can just pay ~$30 for a phone from the Verizon kiosk at the mall.
On another note, most people with GPS devices that I know don't want to use their phones for two reasons: a GPS stays mounted on the Dashboard of the car and because of the screen size. Try glancing at a map on a 1 inch cellphone screen while driving.
In my latter engineering and math classes, I spent a great deal of time in Octave and Maxima (more like a FOSS solution to Matlab and Maple) I found that I started to take notes in a Classic text editor and would write equations in either the code of what ever tool I was using (Octave / Matlab for the engineering courses and Maxima for symbolic equations and Math courses). The beauty of this is that you can easily run them in the program without the need to reformating them and the programs would put them in textbook / pretty-print format for you.
I can solve a math problem on paper, I just prefer to use a calculator. Just because someone prefers to take notes on a computer doesn't mean you should assume that they cannot use paper.
My guess would be because it is easier and more secure to keep the actual network stack in the game code. If it is in the game (as in on cartridge rather than in a ROM on the DS) it can be upgraded and modified by the developer as needed. For instance, say a vulnerability were found that allowed Mario Kart to connect to a rogue server for the purpose of cheating or piracy or any other damn reason. You could easily fix the vulnerability and include it newer versions of the game. It will also be patched in any other games that use the network code. Yes, you have some bad games out in the wild, but that can be contained. On the other hand, if it is in the DS as a ROM, every DS made to this point is a hacking hazard. Add to the fact that the DS was not made to have its firmware updated.
Now, is it the best idea? I can't say. I would love to play Mario Kart, or Metroid Prime or any of the other Wifi enabled game I own on my WPA2 encrypted router. However security is more important to me then occasionally getting getting 'pwned' by some kid in South Korea with too much time on his hands.
I've not played more then 2-3 hours of metroid three due to the fact I have to move my arm around, that gets tiring after a while.
Actually, I feel quite the opposite. I thought that the Wii controls were actually much better than the GameCube controls. I does take some time to get used to, and I had to change the precision and sensitivity settings to maximum, but it feels way more precise than the GameCube controller. Then again, IMO the GameCube control schemes on Metroid Prime were always clunky and unintuitive coming from a Sony Playstation controller FPS background. Especially when it came to facing 3+ enemies at a time. I haven't had any problem with tired arms or playing while sitting or laying in a chair, at least no more so than with a controller.
As for the DS, I do agree that forcing the use of the Touch Screen when it is not needed has ruined way too many potentially good games (especially Star Fox Command). Even Metroid Prime DS seemed clunky at times.
It's fun to play, once in a while, but having every single goddamned game require you to either point at the screen or flail your arms, means I will never play it when I just want to "veg". There is no way to play Wii in a relaxed position, you can't just lay back in the sofa (or stretch out) and casually mash buttons. Call me lazy, but I'm not always in the mood to burn calories when I'm bored.
In contrast, I'm perfectly capable of playing Street Fighter, Resident Evil, many driving games, puzzle, RTS any many others with a cordless controller (or lap-style kb/trackball).
Yes, Waggleware is a problem facing Wii games. Not all games are waggleware. Most Nintendo games will work with a Gamecube controller. Virtual Console and many Wiiware titles will work with it as well. Last time I was at Target, I found that they were still selling GameCube controllers and even wireless ones as well. I have also found, with the exception of the newest Wiimotion+ titles, you do not need to flail your arms. Pointing at the screen is also not difficult to do in a relaxed position as long as you do not have your sensor bar and TV set up in a half-assed fashion.
As a Wii owner who uses it for personal solo play and for multiplayer party games, the jumping and flailing around like an asshole that one sees in commercials are not typically done by those who have played it for any length of time.
There are plenty of third party games on the wii, the problem is most of them suck. They don't all suck, just most of them but that is the same with all consoles. Off the top of my head, Mad World, The Conduit, RE4, No More Heroes, Okami, and Rayman Raving Rabids were all good games that any hardcore gamer could enjoy. If one is into nostalgia value, the early reviews on the remake of A Boy and His Blob seem positive as well. Yes the first party games are better on average. However, the premise that there are no good games, much less good third party games, is completely false.
It isn't about the graphics. Consoles have gotten to the point where everything is good enough. In the past, there was such a noticeable difference between console generations -- Atari vs NES, NES vs Super NES, N64 vs PS2. This generation has reached a point where graphics are good enough that there is not a huge need to upgrade in the mind of the consumers. Hell, the fact the people are still buying PS2 show that last generation is good enough for many people. Don't get me started on the Wii.
Game play counts. It has always counted and will always count. If graphics were all that anyone cared about, would anyone have ever played an Atari 2600? There are so many gorgeous games that just plain suck (Crysis, anyone?). There are plenty of games that have terrible graphics but are loved for the wonderful game play. How many people still pick up and play Super Mario? Starfox 64? Any Zelda Game?
If that was the case, then why aren't we satisfied with the original PlayStation, or the Super NES for that matter. Or even the original NES! Why aren't millions of people playing MUDs instead of World of Warcraft?
Try playing a FPS on an NES. How about a game like Mass Effect on a PS1. People upgrade consoles not just because of the graphics. Yes, graphics are apart of it, but so is things like RAM, Processor, and storage medium. People aren't satisfied with just a SNES for the same reason they don't still use 486's with Windows 3.1. By upgrading the hardware, it allows the developers to do more. More RAM means more and bigger levels. Faster Processor means more and better AI baddies. Also, Try fitting a 700+ Mb game on an Atari 2600 ROM Cartridge. It also helps that every five years, console makers tell people that they need to upgrade.
As for MUDs, they are very user-unfriendly that require arcane protocols that most people never use. Try telling Joe Sixpack how to use Telnet or how to dial into a BBS. I don't think that WoW is the best example of a graphically complex game. Last time I seen it, it still looked like a First generation PS2 game which proves the point that graphics aren't everything.
There is a book (linked in the article) called "Apple I Replica Creation: Back To The Garage" by Tom Owad that basically walks you through the construction of the Breil Computer kit, as well as a crash course in programming it in assembly and BASIC as well a a crash course in electronics design. It is a good read.
All-in-all, this is nothing really special. Anyone who buys the kit can solder it together. I believe he also has fully constructed boards as well. This seems more like an advertisement than an actual story.
As a PC Gamer, I want to BUY my games. Why is every company trying to take that away from me? I want to walk into a store, pick up a box with a DVD in it, pay at the register, go home, and play. I also want to be able to play the game, say 5 years from now. Perhaps 10? The only thing that should stop me from playing a 10+ year old game is having a 10+ year old PC or a PC emulator. Lastly, If the game is shitty, I would like to sell it and maybe recoup my lost money.
I have cash, I want the DVD, is that so hard? Valve's games come on a DVD, but is still requires Steam to install it, so no reselling there. If steam decides to no longer support my game, oh, well. All of the games with online activation and limited installs, again no reselling and good luck playing them in 10+ years. Lastly, OnLive and Gaikai...these "revolutionary services", well...you know what your getting into to begin with. But if this is the direction PC gaming is going to take, then I am out.
For the record, Anti-PC gamers that complain about having to "upgrade every 6 months" is full of shit. I have a 4 year old system that runs new games fine. The only thing upgraded was the video card, and that was two years ago, with a bargain-bin 512Mb Nvidia card.
Also, Yes, I do replay my 10+ year old games. Hell, I even buy old classics off Amazon, good luck doing that 10 years from now!
Yes, whereas the news that we pay for (CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, etc) is all 100% news, certainly no opinions or bias there.
You pay for CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, et al.? I thought it was ad revenue supported. I don't pay for them. I get them for free with a basic cable subscription. Along with CNBC, Comedy Central, Syfy, and all the other trash channels that I don't watch. Maybe I am wrong but, as I understand it, I am not paying for the content, I am paying for the delivery service.
If they made a massively single player version of WoW, I'd never stop playing. Even better, let me control several characters at once so I can solo dungeons with a group (like Sword of the New World).
But would you pay $15 a month plus the cost of the game? I would love the idea of an ultra-massive world where I can do practically anything at anytime with 10's of hours of main content and hundreds of hours of scripted and random side quests and trading as a single player game. That said, I would never pay a subscription to play it. I can buy enough single player games that will offer me a moderately sized, more-or-less open world with a good single player experience (Mass Effect, X3 Reunion, Freelancer, and Darkstar One, just to name a few). Why would I pay a subscription for that?
There is nothing I want more than a Massively Single Player On/Offline RPG. Preferably, the Online component would allow LAN play rather than internet only play. I would even make certain compromises as subscription for multiplayer and even the occasional purchasing of moderately priced DLC and add-ons to keep the game fresh as long as my single player content comes only with the price of the game. As someone who also has a gaming machine that, for various reasons, has very finicky WIFI, I would like not to be forced to get online as little as possible.
I am in my early twenties. I recently replayed the Monkey Island games and Sam and Max Hit the Road not even a year ago. They were still as funny as I remember, actually even more so only because I got the jokes that I easily missed when I was 10 when I played them the first time.
Slashdot Mirror
I dont have to "tell you again" about your straw-man. Its your straw-man, perhaps you should have given it the ability to speak.
This is my straw-man. There are many like it, but this one is mine. My straw-man is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I master my life. My straw-man, without me, is useless. Without my straw-man, I am useless. I must use my straw-man true. My straw-man and myself know that what counts in this flamewar is not the illogic we fire, the noise of our post, nor the sense we make. We know that it is the diversion of the argument that count. My straw-man is human, even as I, because it is my life. Thus, I will learn it as a brother. I will learn its weakness, its strength, and its straw. I will keep my straw-man clean and ready, even as I am clean and ready. We will become part of each other. Before The Flying Spaghetti Monster I swear this creed. My straw-man and myself are the defenders of the internet. We are the masters of our argument. We are the saviors of my ego. So be it, until victory is mine and there is no enemy, but conformity.
I believe it was the great pastor William Renick had the Idea that if angels having wings they must, therefore, have feathers. In many faiths, Jesus would have been of the highest choir of angels and would have wings as well. If he had feathers, he would be part avian and part man. Avian species come from eggs. With this bit of logic I would say that Sweet Feathery Jesus was born in a egg.
Either that or he is one of those aliens from Ork that travel in a giant egg.
/ Shazbot!
"How " comes up with: "How to get pregnant" and "How long does weed stay in your system"
"Why "
My favorites are: "why is my poop green", "why did I get married", and "why is there a dead pakistani on my couch"
SSH -X, Alpine Mail client, Pico (Nano), Midnight Commander, WindowMaker / GNUstep, Lynx, wget, BSD Games Pack, Nethack, and fortune - What more do you need?
Plus it may be good for a kiddies machine?
Sounds like a great way to teach patience!
I will state right now, that I have no clue about the actual workings of the DS. I am basing all of this on observations and a computer engineering degree. However I would assume that there is probably a preferences file in writable memory that keeps that information as well as system language, date and time, serial number and all that stuff. That doesn't mean that the code is shared. It only means that the preferences are shared.
The few curmudgeons who refuse to use functional smartphones are a negligible market. Unintegrated commuter GPS units are going to fall by the wayside in a couple years
I have to disagree. Smartphones are not as universally accepted as you would think. Everyone out there does not have a blackberry, iPhone, or Treo. Millions of people still are satisfied with the "free with plan" basic Motorolla/Nokia with calls, text, and a few crappy games built in. The smartphone is still a fraction of overall market sales, a sizeable fraction, but still not the end-all be-all of sales. You may be happy with your smartphone, but Joe Sixpack and Ma and Pa Kettle just want to make calls and send the occasional text message. Besides, not everyone wants to shell out hundreds of dollars when they can just pay ~$30 for a phone from the Verizon kiosk at the mall.
On another note, most people with GPS devices that I know don't want to use their phones for two reasons: a GPS stays mounted on the Dashboard of the car and because of the screen size. Try glancing at a map on a 1 inch cellphone screen while driving.
In my latter engineering and math classes, I spent a great deal of time in Octave and Maxima (more like a FOSS solution to Matlab and Maple) I found that I started to take notes in a Classic text editor and would write equations in either the code of what ever tool I was using (Octave / Matlab for the engineering courses and Maxima for symbolic equations and Math courses). The beauty of this is that you can easily run them in the program without the need to reformating them and the programs would put them in textbook / pretty-print format for you.
I can solve a math problem on paper, I just prefer to use a calculator. Just because someone prefers to take notes on a computer doesn't mean you should assume that they cannot use paper.
My guess would be because it is easier and more secure to keep the actual network stack in the game code. If it is in the game (as in on cartridge rather than in a ROM on the DS) it can be upgraded and modified by the developer as needed. For instance, say a vulnerability were found that allowed Mario Kart to connect to a rogue server for the purpose of cheating or piracy or any other damn reason. You could easily fix the vulnerability and include it newer versions of the game. It will also be patched in any other games that use the network code. Yes, you have some bad games out in the wild, but that can be contained. On the other hand, if it is in the DS as a ROM, every DS made to this point is a hacking hazard. Add to the fact that the DS was not made to have its firmware updated.
Now, is it the best idea? I can't say. I would love to play Mario Kart, or Metroid Prime or any of the other Wifi enabled game I own on my WPA2 encrypted router. However security is more important to me then occasionally getting getting 'pwned' by some kid in South Korea with too much time on his hands.
Fark, it's a trap
I've not played more then 2-3 hours of metroid three due to the fact I have to move my arm around, that gets tiring after a while.
Actually, I feel quite the opposite. I thought that the Wii controls were actually much better than the GameCube controls. I does take some time to get used to, and I had to change the precision and sensitivity settings to maximum, but it feels way more precise than the GameCube controller. Then again, IMO the GameCube control schemes on Metroid Prime were always clunky and unintuitive coming from a Sony Playstation controller FPS background. Especially when it came to facing 3+ enemies at a time. I haven't had any problem with tired arms or playing while sitting or laying in a chair, at least no more so than with a controller.
As for the DS, I do agree that forcing the use of the Touch Screen when it is not needed has ruined way too many potentially good games (especially Star Fox Command). Even Metroid Prime DS seemed clunky at times.
It's fun to play, once in a while, but having every single goddamned game require you to either point at the screen or flail your arms, means I will never play it when I just want to "veg". There is no way to play Wii in a relaxed position, you can't just lay back in the sofa (or stretch out) and casually mash buttons. Call me lazy, but I'm not always in the mood to burn calories when I'm bored.
In contrast, I'm perfectly capable of playing Street Fighter, Resident Evil, many driving games, puzzle, RTS any many others with a cordless controller (or lap-style kb/trackball).
Yes, Waggleware is a problem facing Wii games. Not all games are waggleware. Most Nintendo games will work with a Gamecube controller. Virtual Console and many Wiiware titles will work with it as well. Last time I was at Target, I found that they were still selling GameCube controllers and even wireless ones as well. I have also found, with the exception of the newest Wiimotion+ titles, you do not need to flail your arms. Pointing at the screen is also not difficult to do in a relaxed position as long as you do not have your sensor bar and TV set up in a half-assed fashion.
As a Wii owner who uses it for personal solo play and for multiplayer party games, the jumping and flailing around like an asshole that one sees in commercials are not typically done by those who have played it for any length of time.
only nintendo games are on the wii.
There are plenty of third party games on the wii, the problem is most of them suck. They don't all suck, just most of them but that is the same with all consoles. Off the top of my head, Mad World, The Conduit, RE4, No More Heroes, Okami, and Rayman Raving Rabids were all good games that any hardcore gamer could enjoy. If one is into nostalgia value, the early reviews on the remake of A Boy and His Blob seem positive as well. Yes the first party games are better on average. However, the premise that there are no good games, much less good third party games, is completely false.
It isn't about the graphics. Consoles have gotten to the point where everything is good enough. In the past, there was such a noticeable difference between console generations -- Atari vs NES, NES vs Super NES, N64 vs PS2. This generation has reached a point where graphics are good enough that there is not a huge need to upgrade in the mind of the consumers. Hell, the fact the people are still buying PS2 show that last generation is good enough for many people. Don't get me started on the Wii.
Game play counts. It has always counted and will always count. If graphics were all that anyone cared about, would anyone have ever played an Atari 2600? There are so many gorgeous games that just plain suck (Crysis, anyone?). There are plenty of games that have terrible graphics but are loved for the wonderful game play. How many people still pick up and play Super Mario? Starfox 64? Any Zelda Game?
If that was the case, then why aren't we satisfied with the original PlayStation, or the Super NES for that matter. Or even the original NES! Why aren't millions of people playing MUDs instead of World of Warcraft?
Try playing a FPS on an NES. How about a game like Mass Effect on a PS1. People upgrade consoles not just because of the graphics. Yes, graphics are apart of it, but so is things like RAM, Processor, and storage medium. People aren't satisfied with just a SNES for the same reason they don't still use 486's with Windows 3.1. By upgrading the hardware, it allows the developers to do more. More RAM means more and bigger levels. Faster Processor means more and better AI baddies. Also, Try fitting a 700+ Mb game on an Atari 2600 ROM Cartridge. It also helps that every five years, console makers tell people that they need to upgrade.
As for MUDs, they are very user-unfriendly that require arcane protocols that most people never use. Try telling Joe Sixpack how to use Telnet or how to dial into a BBS. I don't think that WoW is the best example of a graphically complex game. Last time I seen it, it still looked like a First generation PS2 game which proves the point that graphics aren't everything.
Before that, it was guarded by a bunch of deranged, foul-mouth Frenchmen who liked catapulting livestock at kings and their entourage of knights
I think the MIT people are simply too infatuated with cult of technology.
This just in, people at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology love technology!
Not only that, but didn't Woz give the schematics away to anyone who wanted it?
There is a book (linked in the article) called "Apple I Replica Creation: Back To The Garage" by Tom Owad that basically walks you through the construction of the Breil Computer kit, as well as a crash course in programming it in assembly and BASIC as well a a crash course in electronics design. It is a good read.
All-in-all, this is nothing really special. Anyone who buys the kit can solder it together. I believe he also has fully constructed boards as well. This seems more like an advertisement than an actual story.
As a PC Gamer, I want to BUY my games. Why is every company trying to take that away from me? I want to walk into a store, pick up a box with a DVD in it, pay at the register, go home, and play. I also want to be able to play the game, say 5 years from now. Perhaps 10? The only thing that should stop me from playing a 10+ year old game is having a 10+ year old PC or a PC emulator. Lastly, If the game is shitty, I would like to sell it and maybe recoup my lost money.
I have cash, I want the DVD, is that so hard? Valve's games come on a DVD, but is still requires Steam to install it, so no reselling there. If steam decides to no longer support my game, oh, well. All of the games with online activation and limited installs, again no reselling and good luck playing them in 10+ years. Lastly, OnLive and Gaikai...these "revolutionary services", well...you know what your getting into to begin with. But if this is the direction PC gaming is going to take, then I am out.
For the record, Anti-PC gamers that complain about having to "upgrade every 6 months" is full of shit. I have a 4 year old system that runs new games fine. The only thing upgraded was the video card, and that was two years ago, with a bargain-bin 512Mb Nvidia card.
Also, Yes, I do replay my 10+ year old games. Hell, I even buy old classics off Amazon, good luck doing that 10 years from now!
Yes, whereas the news that we pay for (CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, etc) is all 100% news, certainly no opinions or bias there.
You pay for CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, et al.? I thought it was ad revenue supported. I don't pay for them. I get them for free with a basic cable subscription. Along with CNBC, Comedy Central, Syfy, and all the other trash channels that I don't watch. Maybe I am wrong but, as I understand it, I am not paying for the content, I am paying for the delivery service.
If they made a massively single player version of WoW, I'd never stop playing. Even better, let me control several characters at once so I can solo dungeons with a group (like Sword of the New World).
But would you pay $15 a month plus the cost of the game? I would love the idea of an ultra-massive world where I can do practically anything at anytime with 10's of hours of main content and hundreds of hours of scripted and random side quests and trading as a single player game. That said, I would never pay a subscription to play it. I can buy enough single player games that will offer me a moderately sized, more-or-less open world with a good single player experience (Mass Effect, X3 Reunion, Freelancer, and Darkstar One, just to name a few). Why would I pay a subscription for that?
There is nothing I want more than a Massively Single Player On/Offline RPG. Preferably, the Online component would allow LAN play rather than internet only play. I would even make certain compromises as subscription for multiplayer and even the occasional purchasing of moderately priced DLC and add-ons to keep the game fresh as long as my single player content comes only with the price of the game. As someone who also has a gaming machine that, for various reasons, has very finicky WIFI, I would like not to be forced to get online as little as possible.
I am in my early twenties. I recently replayed the Monkey Island games and Sam and Max Hit the Road not even a year ago. They were still as funny as I remember, actually even more so only because I got the jokes that I easily missed when I was 10 when I played them the first time.
So will pissing on a spark-plug do any good now?