What an ignorant story. We're in the middle of the worst recession/near depression that has ever occurred since videogames came to be, and it's somehow an ominous sign that the companies behind videogames experienced losses either during the whole year (Sony), a single quarter (MS), or simply had lower sales than the previous year PRIOR to the recession?
How about looking at it from the perspective that it's amazing that the videogames sector has done as well as it has over the course of the past year, despite a tremendously inhospitable economic climate?
Count me as another vote for Nerdkits. I -so- wish that I had gotten mine when I was a teenager. But even having just gotten started as an old codger in my 30s, I'm amazed at how much I've learned from the amazing kit and instructional videos that the Nerdkits team has put together.
Trust me--if you have a child who is old enough to use the computer by themselves and shows the least interest in programming, inventing, or even just has a tendency to take apart their toys (whether or not they're able to successfully get them back together again), get them a Nerdkit and help them assemble their first few projects. I think you'll be surprised at not only how much you both learn, but at how much fun you'll have as well.
Yes, yes--all that is fine and well. But it's all meaningless until they release the Zapper's TRUE killer-app: a next-gen version of Duck Hunt. Preferably with the option of shooting your hunting companion. (They could call it the secret "Cheney" mode.)
Correction: The first console release in the Dead or Alive series was for the Sega Saturn. It was released in October of 97 in Japan, and received PLENTY of attention in that incarnation. DOA was first released on the original Playstation the following March (again, in Japan).
If you're going to start doing internal game reviews here on Slashdot, expect to get blasted for not getting your gaming history correct. =)
I remember waking up on the Saturday morning that "Captain N--The Game Master" was to premiere. I recall even as a kid being appalled at how bad the animation was, how poorly written the characters were, and feeling almost insulted that this crap was expected to cause me to go out in feverish anticipation to buy the crudely represented stalwarts of Nintendo's game lines.
As I recall, the primary characters were from the Metroid (Mother Brain), Castlevania (Belmont), Punch-out (King Hippo), Kid Icarus (same), Megaman (same), and... Zelda (Princess--?) games. I know there's a couple other regulars on the show that I'm forgetting. Donkey Kong was one, wasn't he?
Sometimes this is a necessary evil. For example, I work as a contractor at a General Motors account. Because of the prevalence of phones with built-in cameras, we now have a ban on all wireless phones in areas where sensitive information is available. It seems that while they were showing a limited preview of some prototype models a few months ago, some pictures that were obviously taken from a wireless phone were released to media sources and published on the internet.
With the technology available in phones now, you can't help but expect companies to take reactionary (albeit ultimately futile) actions against such potential insecurities.
I remember 20+ years ago touring a house constructed from a durable, high-strength foam. It was located in Gatlinburg, TN and was called "Xanadu - House of the Future". I recall that it was constructed by inflating large, plastic dome-like balloons and then spraying those balloons with the hardening foam. Builders then subsequently went in with saws and simply chopped out wherever they wanted a doorway, hall, or secret passageway to be. I remember being totally blown away when, towards the end of the tour, they had an Atari 2600 (playing that Snoopy vs. the Red Baron game) and color TV embedded in the wall. Plus, it had a slide/tunnel to get from the kids' room upstairs down to the den.
Good times... good times.
(obligatory Homestarrunner reference =)
I downloaded this game off a local Atlanta BBS when I was about 12 (I still remember it was cracked by FBR--bonus points to anyone who remembers what that stood for:), and I got completely into it until I had completely passed it (several months). For those unfamiliar, it was an Elite/Space Trader type game where you can either be a merchant, bounty hunter, or pirate. It featured primitive, albeit functional, 3D graphics, and had a great underlying storyline to tie everything together (imminent invasion of an Ant-Like alien race, the Manchi). I remember there was this one part where you had to go down to this planet that had been invaded by mutant aliens, and I remember as I was going around the base looking for an item needed to progress the storyline, both my brother and I (he was 8 at the time, watching me play) screamed out loud as one of the mutant appeared through an airlock and headed straight for me. Bear in mind that the view was the typical overhead, move from on grid-square to the next. Great game... I remember when Privateer came out years later, it was billed as being the first action space flight merchant simulator something or other, and I thought--it's not only not the first one to fit in that category, it's not even the first one to fit in that category by this company (Origin).
Fun stuff... need to load that one back up in the emulator again.
Cheers...
Then I'm not sure what the problem is; my meter is registering 60% signal strength and it shows 11mbps as the connection speed. But whenever I try to stream a divx from my office computer, it goes veeeerrryy slowly, playing a few seconds, then syncing back up for awhile, playing a few seconds, etc...
I just assumed that it was because of the compression, that there needed to be quite a bit of read-ahead in the file. (Of course, I know nothing of the DivX algorithm, so take that for the naive statement that it is)
Cheers,
m@
I notice on home home 802.11b network that the 11mbps connection between my den PC and upstairs office PC is nowhere near fast enough to stream high quality compressed digital video (e.g. DivX). How is this player going to be able to pull it off?
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What an ignorant story. We're in the middle of the worst recession/near depression that has ever occurred since videogames came to be, and it's somehow an ominous sign that the companies behind videogames experienced losses either during the whole year (Sony), a single quarter (MS), or simply had lower sales than the previous year PRIOR to the recession? How about looking at it from the perspective that it's amazing that the videogames sector has done as well as it has over the course of the past year, despite a tremendously inhospitable economic climate?
Count me as another vote for Nerdkits. I -so- wish that I had gotten mine when I was a teenager. But even having just gotten started as an old codger in my 30s, I'm amazed at how much I've learned from the amazing kit and instructional videos that the Nerdkits team has put together. Trust me--if you have a child who is old enough to use the computer by themselves and shows the least interest in programming, inventing, or even just has a tendency to take apart their toys (whether or not they're able to successfully get them back together again), get them a Nerdkit and help them assemble their first few projects. I think you'll be surprised at not only how much you both learn, but at how much fun you'll have as well.
Yes, yes--all that is fine and well. But it's all meaningless until they release the Zapper's TRUE killer-app: a next-gen version of Duck Hunt. Preferably with the option of shooting your hunting companion. (They could call it the secret "Cheney" mode.)
Correction: The first console release in the Dead or Alive series was for the Sega Saturn. It was released in October of 97 in Japan, and received PLENTY of attention in that incarnation. DOA was first released on the original Playstation the following March (again, in Japan). If you're going to start doing internal game reviews here on Slashdot, expect to get blasted for not getting your gaming history correct. =)
I remember waking up on the Saturday morning that "Captain N--The Game Master" was to premiere. I recall even as a kid being appalled at how bad the animation was, how poorly written the characters were, and feeling almost insulted that this crap was expected to cause me to go out in feverish anticipation to buy the crudely represented stalwarts of Nintendo's game lines.
... Zelda (Princess--?) games. I know there's a couple other regulars on the show that I'm forgetting. Donkey Kong was one, wasn't he?
As I recall, the primary characters were from the Metroid (Mother Brain), Castlevania (Belmont), Punch-out (King Hippo), Kid Icarus (same), Megaman (same), and
Same song, different generational beat... =)
Sometimes this is a necessary evil. For example, I work as a contractor at a General Motors account. Because of the prevalence of phones with built-in cameras, we now have a ban on all wireless phones in areas where sensitive information is available. It seems that while they were showing a limited preview of some prototype models a few months ago, some pictures that were obviously taken from a wireless phone were released to media sources and published on the internet.
With the technology available in phones now, you can't help but expect companies to take reactionary (albeit ultimately futile) actions against such potential insecurities.
Reminds me of this place.
I remember 20+ years ago touring a house constructed from a durable, high-strength foam. It was located in Gatlinburg, TN and was called "Xanadu - House of the Future". I recall that it was constructed by inflating large, plastic dome-like balloons and then spraying those balloons with the hardening foam. Builders then subsequently went in with saws and simply chopped out wherever they wanted a doorway, hall, or secret passageway to be. I remember being totally blown away when, towards the end of the tour, they had an Atari 2600 (playing that Snoopy vs. the Red Baron game) and color TV embedded in the wall. Plus, it had a slide/tunnel to get from the kids' room upstairs down to the den.
Good times... good times. (obligatory Homestarrunner reference =)
Cheers..
I downloaded this game off a local Atlanta BBS when I was about 12 (I still remember it was cracked by FBR--bonus points to anyone who remembers what that stood for :), and I got completely into it until I had completely passed it (several months). For those unfamiliar, it was an Elite/Space Trader type game where you can either be a merchant, bounty hunter, or pirate. It featured primitive, albeit functional, 3D graphics, and had a great underlying storyline to tie everything together (imminent invasion of an Ant-Like alien race, the Manchi). I remember there was this one part where you had to go down to this planet that had been invaded by mutant aliens, and I remember as I was going around the base looking for an item needed to progress the storyline, both my brother and I (he was 8 at the time, watching me play) screamed out loud as one of the mutant appeared through an airlock and headed straight for me. Bear in mind that the view was the typical overhead, move from on grid-square to the next. Great game... I remember when Privateer came out years later, it was billed as being the first action space flight merchant simulator something or other, and I thought--it's not only not the first one to fit in that category, it's not even the first one to fit in that category by this company (Origin).
Fun stuff... need to load that one back up in the emulator again.
Cheers...
Then I'm not sure what the problem is; my meter is registering 60% signal strength and it shows 11mbps as the connection speed. But whenever I try to stream a divx from my office computer, it goes veeeerrryy slowly, playing a few seconds, then syncing back up for awhile, playing a few seconds, etc... I just assumed that it was because of the compression, that there needed to be quite a bit of read-ahead in the file. (Of course, I know nothing of the DivX algorithm, so take that for the naive statement that it is) Cheers, m@
I notice on home home 802.11b network that the 11mbps connection between my den PC and upstairs office PC is nowhere near fast enough to stream high quality compressed digital video (e.g. DivX). How is this player going to be able to pull it off?