I'm gentle with the system, I just invested in a lot of good Dreamcast games that I don't want to become coasters.
I don't bother much with homebrewing. Nothing still beats the Dreamcast for bringing over to a party for some fun. 4 player sports games without having to carry around a multitap. Powerstone 2. All the best 2d fighting games ever, and of course SoulCalibur. Only the Cube has that kind of potential with Super Monkey Ball 2 (for which the mini games are almost worth the price). And even just playing games it's great. Jet Set Radio, Skies of Arcadia, Record of Lodoss War, Wacky Races, Crazy Taxi.
Most gamers are still running sub-1Ghz machines with a Geforce 2 or 3. Furthermore, when the specs of every machine are the same, you can do a lot more tweaking to get it running well.
Uh, I don't know who you consider "most gamers", but the majority of people who game seriously (where 'seriously' is not little kids games, and anything other than the Sims) likely have higher than 1Ghz machines, seeing as prices for 1.8Ghz and below processors and PC133 memory are so low nowadays, it's ridiculous. Pocket money will get you an X86-compatible processor higher than 1Ghz. The cheapass systems from Dell/Gateway/HPaq will have at least a 1.5 Ghz Celeron under the hood.
Of course, most people who game don't bother with PC gaming anymore, and stick to consoles, which 9 out of 10 times will be a far more quality experience than a PC game. Console games are generally playable the day they are released. If they aren't, NO ONE will buy them. PC games are generally unplayable until 2 months worth of patches have been released, even after huge delays of months or years (Daikatana, Master of Orion 3, and Pool of Radiance 2, anyone?). Daily I get closer to never buying a PC game ever again and staying with the games that actually work.
No, the only way to make 100% sure is to physically destroy the platters. This is why the federal government, military, and several large universities that do classified work in some parts mandate drive destruction when surplusing old computers.
My friend that has become an Xbox crazy keeps talking about an "Xbox Lite" that's supposed to be coming out that's smaller and cheaper. This with price cuts may be that thing. Though if it's the same internals, I don't know how it's going to be that much lighter. Was the shell for the Xbox stainless steel? Thought it was all the crap in there that was weighing it down so much.
I've heard a lot of things but until I actually try stuff out I'm just excercising my jaw muscles at best if I try voice anything resembling an opinion on it. Try playing the game before you say it sucks. If you're just not interested in it, that's fine, but saying it's stupid before you've ever seen it is stupid itself.
In order to get "bargain bin" status as you call it, you've got to sell hundreds of thousands of copies. According to the article, Activision needed to sell in excess of a million copies of Spiderman across the various consoles (850,000 between Sony and Nintendo, plus likely at least 200,000 copies to get the Xbox "platinum hits" nod).
For a movie video game, that's insanely stellar. I'm sure sales have dropped off, and this is certainly a ploy to get more, but I don't think Activision is losing any money on the deal here. Any more coming in is a bonus, as far as they're concerned, and I wouldn't be surprised if Sony/Nintendo/Xbox reduces their licensing cut for titles within their greatest hits ranges. IE, a greater percentage in the bank for Activision.
I've played every Mega Man title released (either rented way back when, or on ROM) and the reviewer couldn't have given me more incentive to buy it when he said it was better than Mega Man X6. Of course, he didn't mean it that way, but that's fine with me!
Real people still play them... You want a break from reality, play a game that isn't multiplayer. Otherwise, the flaws and evils of humanity will dog your every step through even the most virtual of worlds.
I disagree. It benefits the honest players a great deal. What people like you don't seem to understand is that when people like the guild that was banned and those like you (who feel that exploiting is fine and dandy and it's their fault for leaving the bugs in there) get pissed and leave MMORPG X, Y, or Z, the game company is HAPPY and so are the majority of other players. Your $13/month, and the 13$/month of everyone that act like this isn't worth it to the people that run these things. It's like kicking someone out of a store who believes they have the right to be an obnoxious prick to everyone in the store because they bought something there.
If that's your attitude, yeah, I'd stay away from MMORPGs from now until eternity. No one is ever going to appreciate cheating in them. Sorry to burst your bubble.
This makes the hackers look bad. Prosecution makes them heroes instead.
Huh? Heroes to whom? The people they screwed with are paying customers, this isn't some low profile MMO. This was a major release by a major gaming company, and this is horrific PR for them. People are going to be leaving in droves after this. They're probably just praying that whatever damages they might be able to get will offset a fraction of the losses they'll be taking because of this incident. Especially with the kind of game Shadowbane is (PvP centric), you have to trust that there is a level playing field out there or no one will bother to play. I know if something like this happened in DAoC, I'd cancel my account right off, because once one person does it, everyone will. As is, I don't play on any PvP servers for Camelot, as the radar cheats et al are so damn prevalent in RvR, it's a waste of time.
"The question you need to continue to ask yourself while writing anything is, 'Why should anyone care about what I'm writing.'"
When I bother to ask myself that question, I generally avoid the embarassment of writing pointless drivel, either here or on the various sites I've put up. Haven't always kept it in mind, but last I checked I was still human, so that's not surprising.
Yeah, they show great craftsmanship creating things that ruin games for all the honest people. They skillfully fuck everything up for the rest of us. They are masterful artisans, crafting tools that make it completely impossible to trust that anyone will ever follow the rules of an online game, making anyone who happens to show skill in that game be tried and convicted of cheating out of hand. Great job being lowlife jerks. I can only pray that you get your just reward for it all.
The last refuge for private transactions is, has always been, and always will be barter. Either for service or another item, until they literally outlaw all transactions without a public record of property transferrance logged with "the authorities," including the transfer of a sandwich you just made to your friend, private transactions will always be possible, and completely impossible to stop.
Actually, it is a better predictor than mere statistical models. Odd things happen on the field. You can't statistically model a clutch player or someone who folds under pressure. Having an actual person playing the game makes it more real, frankly. A computer can't out-think itself. A computer can't improvise like a human player can. If statistical models were all that mattered, gambling would cease to exist within days, because everything could be modeled.
Of course it's not perfect, but 8 of 8, each one with a completely new game, is some pretty good anecdotal evidence as far as i'm concerned. Yeah, at some point it's not going to predict the winner. Nothing is perfect, but it's certainly interesting and worthy of taking a look at.
Sony has done it the last eight years with their Gameday football game, like the week before the Super Bowl. I believe they get the captains or each team (not sure of the selection process) to play each other. So far it's predicted the outcome eight out of eight times tried.
http://psx.gamezone.com/news/01_29_03_03_08PM.ht m
The gamecube is safe for now, at least until Mini DVD-Rs are released or people buy aftermarket GC clamshells.
Actually, the media type is only part of the copy protection scheme. At least one rumor I heard had it that the data on the disc has to be an exact size down to the bit or the Cube won't boot the game. Apparently the only way developers can burn their stuff to disc is on burners that Nintendo owns directly, so the format is a closed book to all but Nintendo and the industrial spies lucky enough to get hands on the specs. I'm sure there are many more hangups built in as well.
Apparently a lot of the work done in development of the cube was bent toward preventing copied discs from working, as the N64's cartridge format was a flop, and proved singularly easy to copy once someone built a system/got hands on a N64 ROM dumper. And it's arguable that the wide copying of Dreamcast games without the need for a mod chip helped bring that system to it's knees.
Forcing a disc to be a specific size probably negates the way that the Dreamcast games were able to be copied, by ripping out stuff from the 1GB GD-ROM discs enough that the game would fit on a 750MB CD-ROM. I wouldn't be surprised if the exact size of a GameCube disc is some maximum determined size plus an arbitrary amount of bytes in order to not allow anyone who gets a standard sized mini-DVD from being able to get that exact number of bits it needs to recognize the game as authentic.
For example, if this were done with regular CDs, requiring a 754.234 MB total disc size, which is just over the regular 750MB disc size. Probably would cost Nintendo extra, but if that's what they're doing, I expect they find it worth it.
An insane lack of games didn't kill the Nintendo 64. I don't think it will kill the GameCube. And if it does, no big. I still have my Dreamcast plugged in too. It'll just make all the games cheaper, and I'll have the whole library instead of just the few I wanted.
As a matter of fact, the Dreamcast had almost twice the number of games released for it in the US as the Nintendo 64, which was out for what...5 years? Compared to the Dreamcast's 1.5 year run.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm gentle with the system, I just invested in a lot of good Dreamcast games that I don't want to become coasters.
I don't bother much with homebrewing. Nothing still beats the Dreamcast for bringing over to a party for some fun. 4 player sports games without having to carry around a multitap. Powerstone 2. All the best 2d fighting games ever, and of course SoulCalibur. Only the Cube has that kind of potential with Super Monkey Ball 2 (for which the mini games are almost worth the price). And even just playing games it's great. Jet Set Radio, Skies of Arcadia, Record of Lodoss War, Wacky Races, Crazy Taxi.
I use mine...and have a spare waiting for when this one dies, and probably will pick up a second spare.
Most gamers are still running sub-1Ghz machines with a Geforce 2 or 3. Furthermore, when the specs of every machine are the same, you can do a lot more tweaking to get it running well.
Uh, I don't know who you consider "most gamers", but the majority of people who game seriously (where 'seriously' is not little kids games, and anything other than the Sims) likely have higher than 1Ghz machines, seeing as prices for 1.8Ghz and below processors and PC133 memory are so low nowadays, it's ridiculous. Pocket money will get you an X86-compatible processor higher than 1Ghz. The cheapass systems from Dell/Gateway/HPaq will have at least a 1.5 Ghz Celeron under the hood.
Of course, most people who game don't bother with PC gaming anymore, and stick to consoles, which 9 out of 10 times will be a far more quality experience than a PC game. Console games are generally playable the day they are released. If they aren't, NO ONE will buy them. PC games are generally unplayable until 2 months worth of patches have been released, even after huge delays of months or years (Daikatana, Master of Orion 3, and Pool of Radiance 2, anyone?). Daily I get closer to never buying a PC game ever again and staying with the games that actually work.
No, the only way to make 100% sure is to physically destroy the platters. This is why the federal government, military, and several large universities that do classified work in some parts mandate drive destruction when surplusing old computers.
My friend that has become an Xbox crazy keeps talking about an "Xbox Lite" that's supposed to be coming out that's smaller and cheaper. This with price cuts may be that thing. Though if it's the same internals, I don't know how it's going to be that much lighter. Was the shell for the Xbox stainless steel? Thought it was all the crap in there that was weighing it down so much.
How will NASA react to this news after being the dominant space agency over the past three decades?
Nothing, because no one wants to give them enough money to do anything. Not enough people care about space in America to fund it.
It won't die no more than Apple has died after the thousands of times its death has been predicted by tech-journalists for years on end.
Well, you hear doesn't mean diddly...
I've heard a lot of things but until I actually try stuff out I'm just excercising my jaw muscles at best if I try voice anything resembling an opinion on it. Try playing the game before you say it sucks. If you're just not interested in it, that's fine, but saying it's stupid before you've ever seen it is stupid itself.
In order to get "bargain bin" status as you call it, you've got to sell hundreds of thousands of copies. According to the article, Activision needed to sell in excess of a million copies of Spiderman across the various consoles (850,000 between Sony and Nintendo, plus likely at least 200,000 copies to get the Xbox "platinum hits" nod).
For a movie video game, that's insanely stellar. I'm sure sales have dropped off, and this is certainly a ploy to get more, but I don't think Activision is losing any money on the deal here. Any more coming in is a bonus, as far as they're concerned, and I wouldn't be surprised if Sony/Nintendo/Xbox reduces their licensing cut for titles within their greatest hits ranges. IE, a greater percentage in the bank for Activision.
I've played every Mega Man title released (either rented way back when, or on ROM) and the reviewer couldn't have given me more incentive to buy it when he said it was better than Mega Man X6. Of course, he didn't mean it that way, but that's fine with me!
My not-so-guilty pleasure...
Real people still play them... You want a break from reality, play a game that isn't multiplayer. Otherwise, the flaws and evils of humanity will dog your every step through even the most virtual of worlds.
Furthermore, this mass banning benefits no one.
I disagree. It benefits the honest players a great deal. What people like you don't seem to understand is that when people like the guild that was banned and those like you (who feel that exploiting is fine and dandy and it's their fault for leaving the bugs in there) get pissed and leave MMORPG X, Y, or Z, the game company is HAPPY and so are the majority of other players. Your $13/month, and the 13$/month of everyone that act like this isn't worth it to the people that run these things. It's like kicking someone out of a store who believes they have the right to be an obnoxious prick to everyone in the store because they bought something there.
If that's your attitude, yeah, I'd stay away from MMORPGs from now until eternity. No one is ever going to appreciate cheating in them. Sorry to burst your bubble.
And you can get the hell out too, while we're at it.
As a UK-based IT worker living about a 90-minute journey from London
So you live, what, 2 miles outside the city limits?
Thank you, I'll be here all week, you're a great crowd.
My fileplanet account, as much as I can't stand Gamespy, is the best $7 I spend every month, as far as my gaming is concerned.
This makes the hackers look bad. Prosecution makes them heroes instead.
Huh? Heroes to whom? The people they screwed with are paying customers, this isn't some low profile MMO. This was a major release by a major gaming company, and this is horrific PR for them. People are going to be leaving in droves after this. They're probably just praying that whatever damages they might be able to get will offset a fraction of the losses they'll be taking because of this incident. Especially with the kind of game Shadowbane is (PvP centric), you have to trust that there is a level playing field out there or no one will bother to play. I know if something like this happened in DAoC, I'd cancel my account right off, because once one person does it, everyone will. As is, I don't play on any PvP servers for Camelot, as the radar cheats et al are so damn prevalent in RvR, it's a waste of time.
thats because all the mac zealots are just flogging a brand, they just dont know it yet.
And the Linux zealots aren't? That's amusing...
...that I got from an old boss.
"The question you need to continue to ask yourself while writing anything is, 'Why should anyone care about what I'm writing.'"
When I bother to ask myself that question, I generally avoid the embarassment of writing pointless drivel, either here or on the various sites I've put up. Haven't always kept it in mind, but last I checked I was still human, so that's not surprising.
Yeah, they show great craftsmanship creating things that ruin games for all the honest people. They skillfully fuck everything up for the rest of us. They are masterful artisans, crafting tools that make it completely impossible to trust that anyone will ever follow the rules of an online game, making anyone who happens to show skill in that game be tried and convicted of cheating out of hand. Great job being lowlife jerks. I can only pray that you get your just reward for it all.
The last refuge for private transactions is, has always been, and always will be barter. Either for service or another item, until they literally outlaw all transactions without a public record of property transferrance logged with "the authorities," including the transfer of a sandwich you just made to your friend, private transactions will always be possible, and completely impossible to stop.
Actually, it is a better predictor than mere statistical models. Odd things happen on the field. You can't statistically model a clutch player or someone who folds under pressure. Having an actual person playing the game makes it more real, frankly. A computer can't out-think itself. A computer can't improvise like a human player can. If statistical models were all that mattered, gambling would cease to exist within days, because everything could be modeled.
Of course it's not perfect, but 8 of 8, each one with a completely new game, is some pretty good anecdotal evidence as far as i'm concerned. Yeah, at some point it's not going to predict the winner. Nothing is perfect, but it's certainly interesting and worthy of taking a look at.
Sony has done it the last eight years with their Gameday football game, like the week before the Super Bowl. I believe they get the captains or each team (not sure of the selection process) to play each other. So far it's predicted the outcome eight out of eight times tried.
t m
http://psx.gamezone.com/news/01_29_03_03_08PM.h
The gamecube is safe for now, at least until Mini DVD-Rs are released or people buy aftermarket GC clamshells.
Actually, the media type is only part of the copy protection scheme. At least one rumor I heard had it that the data on the disc has to be an exact size down to the bit or the Cube won't boot the game. Apparently the only way developers can burn their stuff to disc is on burners that Nintendo owns directly, so the format is a closed book to all but Nintendo and the industrial spies lucky enough to get hands on the specs. I'm sure there are many more hangups built in as well.
Apparently a lot of the work done in development of the cube was bent toward preventing copied discs from working, as the N64's cartridge format was a flop, and proved singularly easy to copy once someone built a system/got hands on a N64 ROM dumper. And it's arguable that the wide copying of Dreamcast games without the need for a mod chip helped bring that system to it's knees.
Forcing a disc to be a specific size probably negates the way that the Dreamcast games were able to be copied, by ripping out stuff from the 1GB GD-ROM discs enough that the game would fit on a 750MB CD-ROM. I wouldn't be surprised if the exact size of a GameCube disc is some maximum determined size plus an arbitrary amount of bytes in order to not allow anyone who gets a standard sized mini-DVD from being able to get that exact number of bits it needs to recognize the game as authentic.
For example, if this were done with regular CDs, requiring a 754.234 MB total disc size, which is just over the regular 750MB disc size. Probably would cost Nintendo extra, but if that's what they're doing, I expect they find it worth it.
An insane lack of games didn't kill the Nintendo 64. I don't think it will kill the GameCube. And if it does, no big. I still have my Dreamcast plugged in too. It'll just make all the games cheaper, and I'll have the whole library instead of just the few I wanted.
As a matter of fact, the Dreamcast had almost twice the number of games released for it in the US as the Nintendo 64, which was out for what...5 years? Compared to the Dreamcast's 1.5 year run.