The Raiden series (including Raiden Fighters, Fighters II, & Jet), the Strikers 1945 series, the Gunbird series, Armed Police Batrider, and all the other psychotic sh'mups out there.
One that I really wonder about, though: Why the devil was there never a Punch-Out!!! game for the GB, GBC, or GBA?
And what happened to the Game & Watch eReader cards?
At any rate, here's a nice little paranoid conspiracy theory for you: Just how long do you think it will be before Wal-Mart starts offering low-rent housing in the immediate vicinity of their supercenters? And how long after that do you believe it will be before they start offering Wal-Mart Schools? Then how long will it be before there are entire Walton communities, in which you are born, live, work, play, and buy in?
We've heard an awful lot about the HardOCP/Phantom litigation, but there seems to be another story lurking. I direct your attention to the following section of Infinium Labs' now overly-linked-to 8-K financial form:
NOTE D - CONVERTIBLE PROMISSORY NOTE
At October 31, 2003, Infinium was involved in a legal dispute with a competitor. In January 2004 the Company, in conjunction with the settlement of litigation, issued a convertible promissory note in the amount of $100,000. The promissory note is non-interest bearing and must be paid or converted into common shares if Infinium has an anticipated merger with a corporation that has common stock trading on the over-the-counter or similar exchange within 241 days from the date of the note, or the liquidated damages total $150,000.
Now this makes less sense to me than most lawyerspeak. Could someone walk me through it?
The other interesting thing is that Infinium names at least one developer: Riverdeep, owner of Broderbund (that's how it's spelled on the site, folks. I know there's supposed to be an "o" in there, but they've changed).
It would be interesting to see if Riverdeep actually acknowledges such an agreement...
If those truly are the proofs that you have been exposed to, then I can see why you mock them. I've heard them myself, and I am constantly disappointed at the level of sloppy thinking being engaged in by those who profess faith.
I have a motto (read: vapid aphorism) for situations such as this: "Remember what it was like to -not- know." It is sheer lunacy for a someone to talk in purely spiritual terms to a person who doesn't have any spiritual interest or background. That's like the classic example of talking louder and slower to foreigners in the hope that, despite not understanding your words, they will magically glean meaning from your slow-shouting.
In the spirit of good logic, I provide the following:
1. I suspect God exists because the universe is not heat-dead. In absence of a diety, the universe is a closed system, and entropy in a closed system increases over time. If the entire universe is a closed system, there is no reason for any order to have existed in the first place.
2. Ghosts or Robots. Given the posits of free will, reliable physics, and the human brain being the root of all thought, emotion and decision making, only two of the three can be true. If the brain is the basis of all thought, etc, and the laws of physics are reliable, then all your behavior is deterministic, and you can't have free will. If you have free will, and the laws of physics are reliable, then your thoughts, etc, must come from a metaphysical source (not your brain). You're either a ghost or a robot.
Let's assume for the moment that we're robots: Getting upset about it is pointless. You don't really beleive anything at all. You just do as the chemicals in your brain resolve. There's no such thing as angry, happy, sad, or anything else. You can't do anything other than what you were determined from the beginning of time (however that happened), and you can never change that. Mocking it is just as much an exercise in futility as embracing it.
Let's assume we're ghosts: That begs the question of origin. Where did all these ghosts come from? What sort of thing would that origin have to be? Doesn't it stand to reason that it would have to be greater than all ghosts (souls/spirits/use your own term) combined? Is there a limit to the number of ghosts which can exist? If not, is the origin infinite? Is it unreasonable to assume that such an origin is also the origin of the universe itself, if all free-thinking life is imbued with these ghosts?
At any rate, I seem to have strayed somewhat from the topic at hand.
Monty Python's back in theatres, which is a Good Thing. While I wish they could make a new movie, I doubt that the same creative spirit is with them. Without Graham Chapman to act as John Cleese's writing partner, it would be up to the rest of the group to carry the writing. One of the biggest strengths of the original series was the constant shift in style: Cleese/Chapman's dry wit to Gilliam's hallucinogenic style to Palin/Jone's mini-stories, to Idle's wordplay, then repeat. Hopefully this re-release will get people interested enough to draw attention to other such films, and maybe Gilliam will finally be able to get The Defective Detective made.
As a thinking Christian (Yes, such can and do exist), I never really had a problem with Life of Brian. It contains nothing which denies or detracts from the life and acts of Jesus, and accurately portrays the unthinking masses in a clever and thought provoking way.
Really, the whole point of the film is that an awful lot of people believe things without fully thinking them through.
If I were a LucasArts investor, I would be sorely disappointed. Not because of any particular affinity for Sam and Max (or Full Throttle), but because this doesn't make sense financially.
Think for a moment: I've spent huge amounts on development, pre-marketing, and general hype. The cost from this point to actual production is equal to or less than (most likely less than) what I've already spent. Even if I think no one will buy the product, it makes more sense to release it and hope to recoup some funds from sales, rather than flush the whole venture down the toilet! What LucasArts is dong isn't just poor business sense: It's sabotage!
Then you probably don't want to know about Origins, the tabletop gaming convention held annually in Columbus, OH. Attendees travel from as far as Germany on a reliable basis.
And that's purely non-electronic games. As in, dice, cardboard, playing cards, and big, smelly dorks bragging about their 20th-level Elder Dwarf Mage.
Last time this discussion rolled around here on/., the article mentioned that Alan Davies of Johnathan Creek fame was the fan favorite. What happened?
For those unlucky Americans who have never been exposed to Johnathan Creek, the show is a mystery series of sorts. Each mystery is, however, completely impossible. A wealthy author is impaled from behind by a samurai sword, whilst alone in his locked study. A musician is accused of kidnapping a girl who was seen entering his house, but all he saw entering his house was a small frog. An elderly woman dreams the death of a weathly businessman, who then dies exactly as she described.
In the end, each of these has a reasonably plausable, or at the very least, possible explaination. It's a nice little chess game with the audience.
Access to the original Game Boy, Game Boy Pocket, Super Game Boy, or Game Boy Color system is not a condition of use of Game Boy software. Access to any of those systems or the still manufactured GBA, GBA SP, or Game Boy Player is the condition Nintendo claims.
Access to the original media is a condition of use. The way the law is phrased, if the system is no longer manufactured, and access to the original media or hardware is a condition of use, the system is obsolete. Therefore, cartridge-based-systems are inherantly obsolete when the system is no longer manufactured. Same goes for PS1.
By the legal definition, a system shall be considered obsolete if it is no longer manufactured or is no longer reasonably available on the commercial (first sale) market, and if access to the original hardware or media is a condition of use.
Nintendo no longer manufactures Gameboy and Gameboy Color systems. They're obsolete. Backwards compatibility doesn't affect this.
Actually, the main reason for this patent is to protect the GBA's backwards compatibility: The GBA emulates the older Gameboy systems. It doesn't have any of the same processors.
This is already causing quite a stir on one of the more prominant Zodiac message boards.
A few relevant issues: Since the recent DMCA exemptions created by the Library of Congress, Nintendo's claim that "You're not allowed to play roms you own," is only valid for the GBA, since the Gameboy and Gameboy Color are both legally considered obsolete.
At any rate, the patent only refers to emulators running on "limited capability devices" (Cell Phones, PDAs, and embedded entertainment centers), not to emulators running on desktop PCs. Further, it only covers the Gameboy family of systems: NES, SNES, Virtual Boy, N64, Game Cube and DS are not protected at all.
As for prior art, the patent was applied for in 2000, but wasn't granted until Jan. 6 2004, but the patent acknowledges prior art in its own phrasing:
"A number of GAME BOY.RTM. emulators have been written for a variety of different platforms ranging from personal digital assistants to personal computers. However, further improvements are possible and desirable."
Even more interesting is its mention of Aaron Giles' MAME patent.
One thing that really makes me scratch my head: I've known of people getting patents in a matter of months. Was this one constantly rejected over the course of those 4 years or something?
Okay, I realize that large companies do sometimes send out C&D orders via email en masse, such as when they are trying to shut down kids offering "warez" and roms of copyrighted materials for download. Generally, a hard copy letter is sent to the ISP involved, and there's never the threat of lawsuits: It's always, "Take this down, or we'll take it down. All your website are belong to us."
However, Infinium Labs is making very specific claims of libel against HardOCP, and isn't threatening them through their ISP, but is threatening litigation. Where are the physical letters involved? Email is not an acceptable means of formal legal communication. You don't send subpoenas by email. There's not an AOL sound for "You've been served!"
The fact that there is no physical paperwork involved tells me that whatever the claims, Infinium's lawyer(s?) is/are not competent enough to actually launch any kind of legal attack against HardOCP, because they don't know how to get in contact with HardOCP's writers, editors and staff outside of an email address.
Of course, if they try to go through, I have no doubt that the new claim will be "We had to halt production of the Phantom console in order to mount a legal attack on HardOCP for their FUD attack..."
So go to the Infinium Labs section of Cafepress, and buy the Phantom calendar. Use it to keep track of all the time you won't be using your phantom game console.
So I'm the only one who, after reading the article, thought this version would probably come under just as much fire from drug activists as it will from the conservative right?
The game certainly depicts drug use in a negative light, and will probably make them a bit more dramatic by the final release. I predict that they'll come up with some stronger deterrants to Marijuana and LSD.
You forgot the qualifier, "provided it's a viable system."
It would have taken some pretty killer apps to give the Game.com any measurable market segment. And this is coming from someone who owned every Game.com item he could find. I just kept hoping one of them wouldn't be awful.
Then again, that could have been Tiger's strategy all along... Genius!
I'm sorry, could someone please mod me back down? +5 Interesting for a single sentence is a bit much. It may be a neat theory and all, but it's pure speculation.
The one I'm thinking of was shown off at E3 2001. I distinctly recall that it was a Sega Genesis unit, and that it had Sonic the Hedgehog (and possibly 2 and 3) built in. I'm fairly certain it also had Columns. Similar design, though.
Slashdot Mirror
The Raiden series (including Raiden Fighters, Fighters II, & Jet), the Strikers 1945 series, the Gunbird series, Armed Police Batrider, and all the other psychotic sh'mups out there.
One that I really wonder about, though: Why the devil was there never a Punch-Out!!! game for the GB, GBC, or GBA?
And what happened to the Game & Watch eReader cards?
Or is it a particle?
At any rate, here's a nice little paranoid conspiracy theory for you: Just how long do you think it will be before Wal-Mart starts offering low-rent housing in the immediate vicinity of their supercenters? And how long after that do you believe it will be before they start offering Wal-Mart Schools? Then how long will it be before there are entire Walton communities, in which you are born, live, work, play, and buy in?
"We even have a sizable cemetary." - No. 2
We've heard an awful lot about the HardOCP/Phantom litigation, but there seems to be another story lurking. I direct your attention to the following section of Infinium Labs' now overly-linked-to 8-K financial form:
NOTE D - CONVERTIBLE PROMISSORY NOTE
At October 31, 2003, Infinium was involved in a legal dispute with a competitor. In January 2004 the Company, in conjunction with the settlement of litigation, issued a convertible promissory note in the amount of $100,000. The promissory note is non-interest bearing and must be paid or converted into common shares if Infinium has an anticipated merger with a corporation that has common stock trading on the over-the-counter or similar exchange within 241 days from the date of the note, or the liquidated damages total $150,000.
Now this makes less sense to me than most lawyerspeak. Could someone walk me through it?
The other interesting thing is that Infinium names at least one developer: Riverdeep, owner of Broderbund (that's how it's spelled on the site, folks. I know there's supposed to be an "o" in there, but they've changed).
It would be interesting to see if Riverdeep actually acknowledges such an agreement...
If those truly are the proofs that you have been exposed to, then I can see why you mock them. I've heard them myself, and I am constantly disappointed at the level of sloppy thinking being engaged in by those who profess faith.
I have a motto (read: vapid aphorism) for situations such as this: "Remember what it was like to -not- know." It is sheer lunacy for a someone to talk in purely spiritual terms to a person who doesn't have any spiritual interest or background. That's like the classic example of talking louder and slower to foreigners in the hope that, despite not understanding your words, they will magically glean meaning from your slow-shouting.
In the spirit of good logic, I provide the following:
1. I suspect God exists because the universe is not heat-dead. In absence of a diety, the universe is a closed system, and entropy in a closed system increases over time. If the entire universe is a closed system, there is no reason for any order to have existed in the first place.
2. Ghosts or Robots. Given the posits of free will, reliable physics, and the human brain being the root of all thought, emotion and decision making, only two of the three can be true. If the brain is the basis of all thought, etc, and the laws of physics are reliable, then all your behavior is deterministic, and you can't have free will. If you have free will, and the laws of physics are reliable, then your thoughts, etc, must come from a metaphysical source (not your brain). You're either a ghost or a robot.
Let's assume for the moment that we're robots: Getting upset about it is pointless. You don't really beleive anything at all. You just do as the chemicals in your brain resolve. There's no such thing as angry, happy, sad, or anything else. You can't do anything other than what you were determined from the beginning of time (however that happened), and you can never change that. Mocking it is just as much an exercise in futility as embracing it.
Let's assume we're ghosts: That begs the question of origin. Where did all these ghosts come from? What sort of thing would that origin have to be? Doesn't it stand to reason that it would have to be greater than all ghosts (souls/spirits/use your own term) combined? Is there a limit to the number of ghosts which can exist? If not, is the origin infinite? Is it unreasonable to assume that such an origin is also the origin of the universe itself, if all free-thinking life is imbued with these ghosts?
At any rate, I seem to have strayed somewhat from the topic at hand.
Monty Python's back in theatres, which is a Good Thing. While I wish they could make a new movie, I doubt that the same creative spirit is with them. Without Graham Chapman to act as John Cleese's writing partner, it would be up to the rest of the group to carry the writing. One of the biggest strengths of the original series was the constant shift in style: Cleese/Chapman's dry wit to Gilliam's hallucinogenic style to Palin/Jone's mini-stories, to Idle's wordplay, then repeat. Hopefully this re-release will get people interested enough to draw attention to other such films, and maybe Gilliam will finally be able to get The Defective Detective made.
As a thinking Christian (Yes, such can and do exist), I never really had a problem with Life of Brian. It contains nothing which denies or detracts from the life and acts of Jesus, and accurately portrays the unthinking masses in a clever and thought provoking way.
Really, the whole point of the film is that an awful lot of people believe things without fully thinking them through.
If I were a LucasArts investor, I would be sorely disappointed. Not because of any particular affinity for Sam and Max (or Full Throttle), but because this doesn't make sense financially.
Think for a moment: I've spent huge amounts on development, pre-marketing, and general hype. The cost from this point to actual production is equal to or less than (most likely less than) what I've already spent. Even if I think no one will buy the product, it makes more sense to release it and hope to recoup some funds from sales, rather than flush the whole venture down the toilet! What LucasArts is dong isn't just poor business sense: It's sabotage!
Then you probably don't want to know about Origins, the tabletop gaming convention held annually in Columbus, OH. Attendees travel from as far as Germany on a reliable basis.
And that's purely non-electronic games. As in, dice, cardboard, playing cards, and big, smelly dorks bragging about their 20th-level Elder Dwarf Mage.
Googling for my name reveals that, in addition to being an avid gamer, I apparantly played Greedo in Star Wars.
Think I'll sue Lucas for not paying me.
Last time this discussion rolled around here on /., the article mentioned that Alan Davies of Johnathan Creek fame was the fan favorite. What happened?
For those unlucky Americans who have never been exposed to Johnathan Creek, the show is a mystery series of sorts. Each mystery is, however, completely impossible. A wealthy author is impaled from behind by a samurai sword, whilst alone in his locked study. A musician is accused of kidnapping a girl who was seen entering his house, but all he saw entering his house was a small frog. An elderly woman dreams the death of a weathly businessman, who then dies exactly as she described.
In the end, each of these has a reasonably plausable, or at the very least, possible explaination. It's a nice little chess game with the audience.
I know it sounds like I'm being sarcastic and glib, but I honestly wonder this time: Just how stupid do they think we are?
I'm really not joking. I want to know, in clearly quantifiable terms, how dumb Tim Roberts and Infinium et al think we are.
Access to the original Game Boy, Game Boy Pocket, Super Game Boy, or Game Boy Color system is not a condition of use of Game Boy software. Access to any of those systems or the still manufactured GBA, GBA SP, or Game Boy Player is the condition Nintendo claims.
Access to the original media is a condition of use. The way the law is phrased, if the system is no longer manufactured, and access to the original media or hardware is a condition of use, the system is obsolete. Therefore, cartridge-based-systems are inherantly obsolete when the system is no longer manufactured. Same goes for PS1.
By the legal definition, a system shall be considered obsolete if it is no longer manufactured or is no longer reasonably available on the commercial (first sale) market, and if access to the original hardware or media is a condition of use.
Nintendo no longer manufactures Gameboy and Gameboy Color systems. They're obsolete. Backwards compatibility doesn't affect this.
Actually, the main reason for this patent is to protect the GBA's backwards compatibility: The GBA emulates the older Gameboy systems. It doesn't have any of the same processors.
This is already causing quite a stir on one of the more prominant Zodiac message boards.
A few relevant issues: Since the recent DMCA exemptions created by the Library of Congress, Nintendo's claim that "You're not allowed to play roms you own," is only valid for the GBA, since the Gameboy and Gameboy Color are both legally considered obsolete.
At any rate, the patent only refers to emulators running on "limited capability devices" (Cell Phones, PDAs, and embedded entertainment centers), not to emulators running on desktop PCs. Further, it only covers the Gameboy family of systems: NES, SNES, Virtual Boy, N64, Game Cube and DS are not protected at all.
As for prior art, the patent was applied for in 2000, but wasn't granted until Jan. 6 2004, but the patent acknowledges prior art in its own phrasing:
"A number of GAME BOY.RTM. emulators have been written for a variety of different platforms ranging from personal digital assistants to personal computers. However, further improvements are possible and desirable."
Even more interesting is its mention of Aaron Giles' MAME patent.
One thing that really makes me scratch my head: I've known of people getting patents in a matter of months. Was this one constantly rejected over the course of those 4 years or something?
There are times that I forget such a network exists.
Honestly, I'm aware that there is such a network, but I keep forgetting where it is on my campus cable setup...
Now there will be a nice filler game for playing between rounds of The Harlem Globetrotters RPG.
(Note: It doesn't exist... yet.)
Ever read Beckett's Waiting for Godot?
Okay, I realize that large companies do sometimes send out C&D orders via email en masse, such as when they are trying to shut down kids offering "warez" and roms of copyrighted materials for download. Generally, a hard copy letter is sent to the ISP involved, and there's never the threat of lawsuits: It's always, "Take this down, or we'll take it down. All your website are belong to us."
However, Infinium Labs is making very specific claims of libel against HardOCP, and isn't threatening them through their ISP, but is threatening litigation. Where are the physical letters involved? Email is not an acceptable means of formal legal communication. You don't send subpoenas by email. There's not an AOL sound for "You've been served!"
The fact that there is no physical paperwork involved tells me that whatever the claims, Infinium's lawyer(s?) is/are not competent enough to actually launch any kind of legal attack against HardOCP, because they don't know how to get in contact with HardOCP's writers, editors and staff outside of an email address.
Of course, if they try to go through, I have no doubt that the new claim will be "We had to halt production of the Phantom console in order to mount a legal attack on HardOCP for their FUD attack..."
So go to the Infinium Labs section of Cafepress, and buy the Phantom calendar. Use it to keep track of all the time you won't be using your phantom game console.
So I'm the only one who, after reading the article, thought this version would probably come under just as much fire from drug activists as it will from the conservative right?
The game certainly depicts drug use in a negative light, and will probably make them a bit more dramatic by the final release. I predict that they'll come up with some stronger deterrants to Marijuana and LSD.
Of course, I wish they'd include N20...
You forgot the qualifier, "provided it's a viable system."
It would have taken some pretty killer apps to give the Game.com any measurable market segment. And this is coming from someone who owned every Game.com item he could find. I just kept hoping one of them wouldn't be awful.
Then again, that could have been Tiger's strategy all along... Genius!
I'm sorry, could someone please mod me back down? +5 Interesting for a single sentence is a bit much. It may be a neat theory and all, but it's pure speculation.
Actually, I suspect it means that the PS3 has been bumped up in the schedule, and may be unveiled earlier now.
How long do you think it will be before the guy gets sued by whoever constructed said card skimmer for absconding with his equipment?
A great RPG that can keep a GM entertained for hours on end. Entertaining the players, however, is an entirely different matter.
No, although I cited this one last week.
The one I'm thinking of was shown off at E3 2001. I distinctly recall that it was a Sega Genesis unit, and that it had Sonic the Hedgehog (and possibly 2 and 3) built in. I'm fairly certain it also had Columns. Similar design, though.
Wouldn't it be nice if the RIAA was running Linux without licenses?