All right, but what if a spammer has multiple accounts on the system? The spammer can send out 100 e-mails from each account, and if the accounts are free to sign up for, there's nothing stopping him from configuring his mailer to send 100 emails on each of his 100(,000,000) accounts. Also, what's to stop the spammer from staying within his domain? If he gets a free account on "menwithsmallpenises.com", he's got free reign to send every user a penis enlargement mail once every five minutes. Your idea has a good base, but it needs a little more thinking through.
Re:Here's a couple more.
on
Advergames
·
· Score: 1
There was an Othello-like game released for the NES called simply "Spot". I believe its biggest drawing points were that it was one of the few four-player games out there that did not require the 4-player adapter, and also that 7-Up gave it away free at one point ("free" meaning once you'd bought about fifty gallons of 7-Up, you'd send in the coupon and UPCs and get the game three months later). It was actually halfway decent.
"Cool Spot" was released on the Genesis and the SNES... I believe there was more than one version of each. Additionally, the developer (Virgin Interactive, IIRC?) was also famous for several McDonald's advertismentainments. One on the Genesis got some surprisingly good reviews... I think...
There are two things here that I'm genuinely surprised nobody's brought up yet. The first is the book detailing Mitnick's exploits (written, naturally, from the perspective of the victor)-- Takedown, by Tsutomu Shimomura. Those unfamiliar should read it with a salt shaker nearby-- journalist John Markoff is listed as a contributor but he offers more spin than strictly necessary. It also only details Mitnick's crimes, and stops short of any rights abuses he may have suffered. But, it's an excellent primer for security issues and a cautionary tale for security experts. Secondly, and this is a bit more tongue-in-cheek, what does Kevin think of the security and crypto issues these days? The DCMA springs immediately to mind (given the Syklarov comparisons), but what about DRM? MS's glaring holes and lax patchwork to repair them (i.e. nobody's found it yet so we don't have to fix it)? The teeming throngs of script kiddies who emulate his "work" in order to simply piss off as many people as possible? It would be nice to get some insight from "the bad guy".
I Figured they would show this series sooner or later, considering that a lot of their series are licenced from Pioneer and all. Marginally incorrect, here-- Gundam *, Cowboy Bebop, Big O, Outlaw Star, and a couple others are all Bandai properties. Pioneer's only entries into AS so far are Tenchi * and Trigun, AFAIK. In my opinion, there are a lot of other series that badly deserve to be shown-- Oh My Goddess!, Love Hina, and the real Escaflowne among them. You also can't go wrong with Lodoss War. I'll probably start watching AS again when Tenchi GXP (now with Nabeshin!) gets broadcast.
FYI, Nintendo is loosening up quite a bit. Bloodrayne, BMX XXX, and Hunter: The Reckoning all showed up on the 'Cube with no content alteration. Splinter Cell, the X-Box's second "Killer App", is coming to the 'Cube early next year. And the Big N wouldn't dare censor Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles. The point has been made (Nintendo has always catered toward the younger set), so I won't belabor it. My point is that Nintendo is branching out to make sure everyone's happy, as opposed to Sony (who thinks the same Crash game every year is enough to support a younger user base) and Microsoft (who thinks human beings respawn from their parents at the age of 13).
A score for a concert performance is also available.
"OK, horns, you hold the C sharp for about five pages here. Try not to pass out during the performance, it doesn't look dignified. And chorus members, remember, circular breathing. OK, now let's take it from bar 17,231..."
In my small western New York village, we still use the same old-fashioned clunky scary voting machines that have been in use for the past twenty-some-odd years and as of right now have had no problems. This could change down the line but as of 9pm everything was in order. A lot of the problems and kinks can easily be overcome by having dry runs of the voting machines, but who wants to go to that kind of expense and trouble? Certainly not the government. In any event, in most cases, the only kind of tech support available is the local election officials, whose only training is a one-day seminar some weeks or months prior. A huge number of problems with any kind of voting system--electronic, mechanical, or pen-and-paper based--could be easily fixed by educating the voters and ballot-takers a little bit more. Sure, it'll cost a little more, but it'll be better in the sense that we won't have another inconclusive count...
But seriously, this could be a good thing and it could also be a bad thing. If FFXI gains enough popularity to generate the fanbase it needs in Japan, a US port (to PC) would be almost guaranteed. But, considering that nobody wants to pay (monthly) for FFXI after buying it, is giving it away free going to make people want to buy it? I think not. Take Everquest, for example-- you can pick up a jewel case copy for $10, a huge slash over what it was back in the day. I did this. And I stopped paying for it two months later, when I found that I don't like that style of game. If anything, it's going to get a huge fanbase for the first month or so and then everyone will quit.
Of course, that's all just my speculation, being a typical FF fan. See sig.
Re:Best game(s) for "The Zone"
on
Gaming Zone?
·
· Score: 1
Pretty much any of the Tetris variants can induce the Zone effect; I managed to get the best examples of this with just plain old ordinary Tetris. Someone else mentioned Frequency; Rez is another good one. It's pretty much mostly in "twitch" games as they used to be called, though the concentration can help in other types like RTS and FPS games. Just my two cents.
"The blind leading the impressionable only leads to a class full of students who wear contacts but insist they can't see."
The way I see it, this is sort of like having Mao Tse-Tung teach a class about human rights.
Tried going to thexfiles.com, but kept getting 403s. This is partially because Fox put the address on the screen with the heading "The Conspiracy Continues" or something to that effect. This would probably be one of the few times the core Slashdot audience raped and pillaged a site before it was even posted on Slashdot.
how many people would actually download a song of Britney Spears' if pictures of her came with the songs that you buy?
They do. It's called "the liner notes". Just like DVD extras, they're a factor in what CDs I choose to buy, even though sometimes it's really hit-and-miss.
If I recall, there was a version of MULE ported to the NES back in its heyday-- actually, I'm sure of it. It was one of the flagship 4-player titles for that system. Anyone play it?
Yes, it is possible to allow cross-platform gaming with a platform-independent language such as Java, even on consoles. This could be done by way of a special, natively-compiled virtual machine that is platform-specific and installed on a console's hard drive. Think of DirectX-- basically a new API. It would require a patch to the console's boot loader (to allow it to recognize the Java-disc as a playable game disc), but that doesn't seem terribly difficult. However... I do not expect this to happen for quite some time, and I do not expect it to go over well at all with graphics-whores because of the "lowest-common-denominator" factor. Already people boast that their computers' Voodoo Eleventy-Billion cards with 4 GB of DDR RAM and HDTV-out look better than the XBox or PS2. Imagine if you couldn't get the most performance out of your PC video card because the game has to be playable on the other platforms. Additionally, ports are big business. Max Payne being on three different setups surely didn't hurt 3D Realms' pocketbooks (even if I personally despised the game), and the more money a company can soak from you, the better.
Probably offtopic, but I'm going to guess you're not a big fan of Christine Cavanaugh, then. (She's the VA for Dexter, not to mention a slew of other characters.)
To clear up a few points-- First, "a Final Fantasy game" has been "explicitly stated" as slated for appearance on a Nintendo console, according to this report. More than that,t he game is said to be "new"-- most probably implying that it is not merely a remake of a previous Square game.
Secondly, and this is probably the most important factor to consider, Squaresoft isn't really returning. Careful examination of the RPGamer story reveals that "Fund Q" is intended for a Square-affiliated company, not an actual chunk of Squaresoft per se. Think of the relationship as being similar to United Game Artists (Rez, Space Channel 5) and Sega. UGA is part of Sega, but retain autonomy to do as they please. In essence, it will be Square-but-not-Square. And while any Square is good Square (generally), let's hope that what the company produces is of higher caliber than Secret of Evermore.
As for speculation towards games... I would definitely not rule out ports of the FF series at some point in the future, if not sooner. There's simply too much money to be made to ignore that. However, Square has afew options for milking a little more money out of the US market. There were plenty of games that never saw the light of day on US shores-- Bahamut Lagoon, Live A Live, and the first half of the Front Mission series. Square is increasingly of the mind that "if the Japanese play it, then so do the Americans"-- witness Driving Emotion Type S and the somewhat half-assed Bouncer. So there is a very good chance that if it gets produced for a system with a significant US presence-- GBA, PS2, NGC, or XB-- it will get localized. (Alexander O. Smith, by the way, is the man responsible for the excellent translations we're getting accustomed to nowadays. He just gets a little dry, though, after a while-- sheesh, I must be old if I'm reminiscing fondly about Ted Woolsey.)
So then what should be done? Well, first off, support the system of your choosing, and choose the system you want. But do it primarily for the games that are out now. FFX, Metal Gear 2, and Rez are excellent reasons to own a PS2; Smash Bros. and Rogue Squadron are significant draws to the GameCube; there's something literally for everyone on GBA (you officially have no excuses now); and the XBox has... erm... well, I hear Halo's pretty good. Oh, and Jet Set Radio Future. Localization happens based on consumer demand, but primarily due to installed base numbers. So buy what won't make you bored until the next FF comes out.
Oh, and if there's a "Secret of Mana" petition/letter drive/march on Redmond anytime soon, make sure someone lets me know, OK?
It's interesting to note that every platform Square has seriously developed for has been the dominant platform: NES, GameBoy, SNES, PlayStation, PS2.
You forget the WonderSwan Color, Bandai's entry into the handheld market which, previous to this afternoon's announcement, was oft-promised to make it to US shores and now, following the revelations of the day, has about as much chance of coming over as Squa-- dammit, we need a new metaphor now. In any event, the WonderSwan Color, which has the Japanese remakes of FF1-FF3, is most certainly not the dominant hand-held platform.
I disagree with this definition... you can still go to the site and view the comics for free, but now IN ADDITION you can buy a nifty non-volatile storage medium version. It's completely different to arriving at the site one day to find it costs to view the cartoons.
Not to mention being able to open that book whenever you like, as opposed to having to wait for the site to become unslashdotted...
There *is* a legal product out there for uninitiated developers out there. Check out this page:
http://www.mp3games.net/demo.htm
Basically, this is a product you can buy at Software Etc that allows you to write programs for the GBA and download them into a little cartridge. This device claims it won't play 'copyrighted games'.
This product was pulled from our store roughly a month ago. Primarily because a) it is WAY easy to make the device play copyrighted games; b) the device offers NO development tools, and c) the demo games that were available on the site were no good. I was psyched when I saw it in the store at first, but then I went home and checked the user message boards for the real deal.
This topic has been beaten beyond death already, so I'll make this brief. As stated before, the GBA's screen is darker and harder to see because Nintendo used a different screen (presumably one that sucks less power, though in my experience that's not the case). So, in some games, such as Castlevania:COTM, Columns Crown, and older GB/GBC titles, the screen appears darker than initially intended. The selection of games which do not suffer from this problem is increasing every single day-- for example, Sonic Advance, Advance Wars, and Super Dodge Ball just to name a few are very vibrant and easy to see regardless of where you are positioned.
Furthermore, it isn't exactly a wise idea to be playing games in the dark anyway. It's hard enough to focus on the small screen, and having it be the brightest thing in your field of vision will definitely screw up your eyes fast, regardless of how well-lit the screen may be (this I can say from experience; playing Mario's Picross on a GBC while running movie projectors for a year prompted the need for new glasses).
So, to recap what was said close to six months ago, don't play in the dark. Play outside, if you can, or by a window. A product like this, while admittedly nifty, is ultimately counterproductive.
Oh, and yes, I am aware of the cynic's truth that now Nintendo will probably release a backlit version, but the easiest way around that dilemma is to simply not buy the backlit version. That will either teach Nintendo to get it right on the first try, or us to stop complaining.
Is the screen's darkness that bad that you would base your entire decision to purchase a Game Boy Advance solely on whether or not it can be hacked? Last I checked the screen brightness was an issue of hardware. And as every gamer knows, it's not the hardware, it's the software (games) that should drive your purchasing habits...
...is in the wait time before one actually gets to play the game. Look at it from a solely time-oriented standpoint. Before, you had to wait for the Interplay logo to load, then the Bioware logo to load, and then the opening movie (which you can skip). NOW, on the other hand, you add in Infogrames' logo (and depending on if you live outside the US/Canada, the translators' logo as well).
This may seem like a whiny complaint, but it seems to me like this whole dispute came about because some people didn't have their hands far enough in the cookie jar. I sincerely dread to watch this trend continue, when eventually it takes longer to start playing the game than it does to actually play it and all because some corporate execs wanted to latch onto the "next big thing". Plus, this could wind up affecting "business" software, too. What if the next version of Windows forced you to watch a thirty-second MPEG showing the MS logo fading onto the screen? Not good.
I'm not saying that developers shouldn't get credit; not at all. In fact, I like to see my favorite groups get the recognition they deserve (eg. BioWare, Blizzard, Sonic Team, KCEJ, etc.). But I'd imagine that there could be some way to let everyone be equally displayed without wasting the player's time. It's eventually going to get ridiculous, and I don't want to see that happen. Just my two cents.
Slashdot Mirror
All right, but what if a spammer has multiple accounts on the system? The spammer can send out 100 e-mails from each account, and if the accounts are free to sign up for, there's nothing stopping him from configuring his mailer to send 100 emails on each of his 100(,000,000) accounts.
Also, what's to stop the spammer from staying within his domain? If he gets a free account on "menwithsmallpenises.com", he's got free reign to send every user a penis enlargement mail once every five minutes.
Your idea has a good base, but it needs a little more thinking through.
There was an Othello-like game released for the NES called simply "Spot". I believe its biggest drawing points were that it was one of the few four-player games out there that did not require the 4-player adapter, and also that 7-Up gave it away free at one point ("free" meaning once you'd bought about fifty gallons of 7-Up, you'd send in the coupon and UPCs and get the game three months later). It was actually halfway decent.
"Cool Spot" was released on the Genesis and the SNES... I believe there was more than one version of each. Additionally, the developer (Virgin Interactive, IIRC?) was also famous for several McDonald's advertismentainments. One on the Genesis got some surprisingly good reviews... I think...
There are two things here that I'm genuinely surprised nobody's brought up yet. The first is the book detailing Mitnick's exploits (written, naturally, from the perspective of the victor)-- Takedown, by Tsutomu Shimomura. Those unfamiliar should read it with a salt shaker nearby-- journalist John Markoff is listed as a contributor but he offers more spin than strictly necessary. It also only details Mitnick's crimes, and stops short of any rights abuses he may have suffered. But, it's an excellent primer for security issues and a cautionary tale for security experts.
Secondly, and this is a bit more tongue-in-cheek, what does Kevin think of the security and crypto issues these days? The DCMA springs immediately to mind (given the Syklarov comparisons), but what about DRM? MS's glaring holes and lax patchwork to repair them (i.e. nobody's found it yet so we don't have to fix it)? The teeming throngs of script kiddies who emulate his "work" in order to simply piss off as many people as possible? It would be nice to get some insight from "the bad guy".
I Figured they would show this series sooner or later, considering that a lot of their series are licenced from Pioneer and all.
Marginally incorrect, here-- Gundam *, Cowboy Bebop, Big O, Outlaw Star, and a couple others are all Bandai properties. Pioneer's only entries into AS so far are Tenchi * and Trigun, AFAIK.
In my opinion, there are a lot of other series that badly deserve to be shown-- Oh My Goddess!, Love Hina, and the real Escaflowne among them. You also can't go wrong with Lodoss War. I'll probably start watching AS again when Tenchi GXP (now with Nabeshin!) gets broadcast.
FYI, Nintendo is loosening up quite a bit. Bloodrayne, BMX XXX, and Hunter: The Reckoning all showed up on the 'Cube with no content alteration. Splinter Cell, the X-Box's second "Killer App", is coming to the 'Cube early next year. And the Big N wouldn't dare censor Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles.
The point has been made (Nintendo has always catered toward the younger set), so I won't belabor it. My point is that Nintendo is branching out to make sure everyone's happy, as opposed to Sony (who thinks the same Crash game every year is enough to support a younger user base) and Microsoft (who thinks human beings respawn from their parents at the age of 13).
A score for a concert performance is also available.
"OK, horns, you hold the C sharp for about five pages here. Try not to pass out during the performance, it doesn't look dignified. And chorus members, remember, circular breathing. OK, now let's take it from bar 17,231..."
And nobody agrees on what exactly it is about anyway.
In my small western New York village, we still use the same old-fashioned clunky scary voting machines that have been in use for the past twenty-some-odd years and as of right now have had no problems. This could change down the line but as of 9pm everything was in order.
A lot of the problems and kinks can easily be overcome by having dry runs of the voting machines, but who wants to go to that kind of expense and trouble? Certainly not the government. In any event, in most cases, the only kind of tech support available is the local election officials, whose only training is a one-day seminar some weeks or months prior. A huge number of problems with any kind of voting system--electronic, mechanical, or pen-and-paper based--could be easily fixed by educating the voters and ballot-takers a little bit more. Sure, it'll cost a little more, but it'll be better in the sense that we won't have another inconclusive count...
...these jokes are getting old.
But seriously, this could be a good thing and it could also be a bad thing. If FFXI gains enough popularity to generate the fanbase it needs in Japan, a US port (to PC) would be almost guaranteed. But, considering that nobody wants to pay (monthly) for FFXI after buying it, is giving it away free going to make people want to buy it? I think not. Take Everquest, for example-- you can pick up a jewel case copy for $10, a huge slash over what it was back in the day. I did this. And I stopped paying for it two months later, when I found that I don't like that style of game. If anything, it's going to get a huge fanbase for the first month or so and then everyone will quit.
Of course, that's all just my speculation, being a typical FF fan. See sig.
Pretty much any of the Tetris variants can induce the Zone effect; I managed to get the best examples of this with just plain old ordinary Tetris. Someone else mentioned Frequency; Rez is another good one. It's pretty much mostly in "twitch" games as they used to be called, though the concentration can help in other types like RTS and FPS games. Just my two cents.
"The blind leading the impressionable only leads to a class full of students who wear contacts but insist they can't see."
The way I see it, this is sort of like having Mao Tse-Tung teach a class about human rights.
Tried going to thexfiles.com, but kept getting 403s. This is partially because Fox put the address on the screen with the heading "The Conspiracy Continues" or something to that effect. This would probably be one of the few times the core Slashdot audience raped and pillaged a site before it was even posted on Slashdot.
If I recall, there was a version of MULE ported to the NES back in its heyday-- actually, I'm sure of it. It was one of the flagship 4-player titles for that system. Anyone play it?
Yes, it is possible to allow cross-platform gaming with a platform-independent language such as Java, even on consoles. This could be done by way of a special, natively-compiled virtual machine that is platform-specific and installed on a console's hard drive. Think of DirectX-- basically a new API. It would require a patch to the console's boot loader (to allow it to recognize the Java-disc as a playable game disc), but that doesn't seem terribly difficult.
However... I do not expect this to happen for quite some time, and I do not expect it to go over well at all with graphics-whores because of the "lowest-common-denominator" factor. Already people boast that their computers' Voodoo Eleventy-Billion cards with 4 GB of DDR RAM and HDTV-out look better than the XBox or PS2. Imagine if you couldn't get the most performance out of your PC video card because the game has to be playable on the other platforms. Additionally, ports are big business. Max Payne being on three different setups surely didn't hurt 3D Realms' pocketbooks (even if I personally despised the game), and the more money a company can soak from you, the better.
...after all, only the dead would be bored enough to like Shadow Man.
Probably offtopic, but I'm going to guess you're not a big fan of Christine Cavanaugh, then. (She's the VA for Dexter, not to mention a slew of other characters.)
To clear up a few points-- First, "a Final Fantasy game" has been "explicitly stated" as slated for appearance on a Nintendo console, according to this report. More than that,t he game is said to be "new"-- most probably implying that it is not merely a remake of a previous Square game.
Secondly, and this is probably the most important factor to consider, Squaresoft isn't really returning. Careful examination of the RPGamer story reveals that "Fund Q" is intended for a Square-affiliated company, not an actual chunk of Squaresoft per se. Think of the relationship as being similar to United Game Artists (Rez, Space Channel 5) and Sega. UGA is part of Sega, but retain autonomy to do as they please. In essence, it will be Square-but-not-Square. And while any Square is good Square (generally), let's hope that what the company produces is of higher caliber than Secret of Evermore.
As for speculation towards games... I would definitely not rule out ports of the FF series at some point in the future, if not sooner. There's simply too much money to be made to ignore that. However, Square has afew options for milking a little more money out of the US market. There were plenty of games that never saw the light of day on US shores-- Bahamut Lagoon, Live A Live, and the first half of the Front Mission series. Square is increasingly of the mind that "if the Japanese play it, then so do the Americans"-- witness Driving Emotion Type S and the somewhat half-assed Bouncer. So there is a very good chance that if it gets produced for a system with a significant US presence-- GBA, PS2, NGC, or XB-- it will get localized. (Alexander O. Smith, by the way, is the man responsible for the excellent translations we're getting accustomed to nowadays. He just gets a little dry, though, after a while-- sheesh, I must be old if I'm reminiscing fondly about Ted Woolsey.)
So then what should be done? Well, first off, support the system of your choosing, and choose the system you want. But do it primarily for the games that are out now. FFX, Metal Gear 2, and Rez are excellent reasons to own a PS2; Smash Bros. and Rogue Squadron are significant draws to the GameCube; there's something literally for everyone on GBA (you officially have no excuses now); and the XBox has... erm... well, I hear Halo's pretty good. Oh, and Jet Set Radio Future. Localization happens based on consumer demand, but primarily due to installed base numbers. So buy what won't make you bored until the next FF comes out.
Oh, and if there's a "Secret of Mana" petition/letter drive/march on Redmond anytime soon, make sure someone lets me know, OK?
There *is* a legal product out there for uninitiated developers out there. Check out this page:
http://www.mp3games.net/demo.htm
Basically, this is a product you can buy at Software Etc that allows you to write programs for the GBA and download them into a little cartridge. This device claims it won't play 'copyrighted games'.
This product was pulled from our store roughly a month ago. Primarily because a) it is WAY easy to make the device play copyrighted games; b) the device offers NO development tools, and c) the demo games that were available on the site were no good. I was psyched when I saw it in the store at first, but then I went home and checked the user message boards for the real deal.
Way to go. Enjoy your lives together.
...ignore the sig.
This topic has been beaten beyond death already, so I'll make this brief. As stated before, the GBA's screen is darker and harder to see because Nintendo used a different screen (presumably one that sucks less power, though in my experience that's not the case). So, in some games, such as Castlevania:COTM, Columns Crown, and older GB/GBC titles, the screen appears darker than initially intended. The selection of games which do not suffer from this problem is increasing every single day-- for example, Sonic Advance, Advance Wars, and Super Dodge Ball just to name a few are very vibrant and easy to see regardless of where you are positioned.
Furthermore, it isn't exactly a wise idea to be playing games in the dark anyway. It's hard enough to focus on the small screen, and having it be the brightest thing in your field of vision will definitely screw up your eyes fast, regardless of how well-lit the screen may be (this I can say from experience; playing Mario's Picross on a GBC while running movie projectors for a year prompted the need for new glasses).
So, to recap what was said close to six months ago, don't play in the dark. Play outside, if you can, or by a window. A product like this, while admittedly nifty, is ultimately counterproductive.
Oh, and yes, I am aware of the cynic's truth that now Nintendo will probably release a backlit version, but the easiest way around that dilemma is to simply not buy the backlit version. That will either teach Nintendo to get it right on the first try, or us to stop complaining.
I can finally justify getting a GBA...
Is the screen's darkness that bad that you would base your entire decision to purchase a Game Boy Advance solely on whether or not it can be hacked? Last I checked the screen brightness was an issue of hardware. And as every gamer knows, it's not the hardware, it's the software (games) that should drive your purchasing habits...
...is in the wait time before one actually gets to play the game. Look at it from a solely time-oriented standpoint. Before, you had to wait for the Interplay logo to load, then the Bioware logo to load, and then the opening movie (which you can skip). NOW, on the other hand, you add in Infogrames' logo (and depending on if you live outside the US/Canada, the translators' logo as well).
This may seem like a whiny complaint, but it seems to me like this whole dispute came about because some people didn't have their hands far enough in the cookie jar. I sincerely dread to watch this trend continue, when eventually it takes longer to start playing the game than it does to actually play it and all because some corporate execs wanted to latch onto the "next big thing". Plus, this could wind up affecting "business" software, too. What if the next version of Windows forced you to watch a thirty-second MPEG showing the MS logo fading onto the screen? Not good.
I'm not saying that developers shouldn't get credit; not at all. In fact, I like to see my favorite groups get the recognition they deserve (eg. BioWare, Blizzard, Sonic Team, KCEJ, etc.). But I'd imagine that there could be some way to let everyone be equally displayed without wasting the player's time. It's eventually going to get ridiculous, and I don't want to see that happen. Just my two cents.