Therefore you have several options for powering your handheld.
Bring several batteries.
Bring a third party battery pack, which will
likely be intended to live in a pocket or fanny pack, be about twice the size of the PSP, and provide many hours of runtime. Run it off USB power when such a device (cable) becomes available, since you seem to like to carry many laptop batteries.
Just how much money though are you going to spend to make portable your Playstation Portable which you bought to be portable in the first place?
Nintendo will not release thier iron grip on the hand held market.
Really, if some company decided to produce a modest portable game system, i'm convinced, they could give Nintendo a run for their money.
Here is a quick idea that any company can use, free of charge. Take the concept of the PSP and just tone it down a notch. i.e. Don't build the handheld game system of tomorrow, today. Build the handheld game system of today (or next hour), today.
Its 3D chip is also pretty crappy... linebuffered instead of framebuffer [...]. The 2D part, sound chip, etc. are *exactly* like GBA [...]
And so what was the original GameBoy with its bargain basement specs? Rushed as well? A rip off as well? If you said GameGear with its lighted screen and color graphics was going to trash the GameBoy's unlit black and green dot-matrix graphics, you'd be wrong. We all know who won.
I can understand, to an extent, why you might feel Nintendo is "shafting" the consumer or "rushing" their product(s). But, honestly is it sacrilege for Nintendo to produce afforable handheld/portable gaming products that do not devour batteries (recharable or not) in 2-3 hours, but instead last for at least 10 hours?
(and that they do not have to sell at any loss to make "afforable")
If Real can crack the iPod, then someone should be able to make tools for converting unprotected.rm formats to.mp3 because that doesn't circumvent any copy protection and shouldn't be subject to the DMCA according to Real's argument. Does anybody know of any?
Old habits are hard to drop, I know, and RealPlayer 8 was horrific, but try not to be too ignorant of the new versions. RealPlayer10 has a very nice "wizard" for audio conversion from.m4a.mp3.wav and.rm to.m4a.mp3.wav or.rm. Your files, of course, have to be unprotected otherwise the DRM of the file is followed.
As far as converting video/audio.rm files check out the following information on doom9.net. The link.
I posted a lot of info in a previous news story. The information in that post relivant to your post would be the Directshow Filter for RealMedia.
i.e. Playback of RealMedia in the Windows media player of your choice. You can even transcode RM files with it.
There is of course a catch, the DShow Filter does not come with the Real codecs. You can get the codecs by installing RealPlayer (you don't have to use it) or by getting the codecs installed by other means. As I mentioned in that post though, the install has been cleaned up and the player behaves nice, you can read further at this link.
You do realize that a GBA's use is not limted to these games, right? Just buy some GBA games so you can justify the GBA purchase. Don't tell me the games are kiddy or that this is a conspiracy to sell more GBAs / GBA games...
I'll just argue PS2s are purposefuly built cheap to intentionally fail, nessitating a repurchase. And why was the PS2 released with only *2* controller ports? Its a conspiricy to sell you multi-taps!
Does anyone think all the recent PR on slashdot in favor of Real (including quotes about having changed their ways and favorable comments from Helix community) is that much different from the clicky trickery just to download the player?
What "clicky trickery"? Clicking on the "Free RealPlayer" link gives you an instant download.
Sure, their past leaves much to be desired, but, at the very least, do not propigate no longer true facts.
So, basically, yes, Ritsuko is supposed to be Japanese, and no Japanese person would see the character and think she looks European. Its just supposed to look kinda generic.
Who then would you cast to play Ritsuko, then? There are no Japanese people that look like Ritsuko. I'd be more disapointed if Japanese actors were used over actors that actually "look" like the anime characters.
This is exactly why I don't get why so many people go gaga over the PSP movie and music playback ability...
Oh woo, we can buy mini-dvd's and mini-cd's of the same dvd's and cd's we already own. Same content just half the quality or half the tracks and they will not play on anything other than the PSP. Woo hoo, suck on that GAYboy owners!
The one place I'd consider going third party though is with the new wireless systems. Nintendo's won't be backwards compatible with older titles. It will be an all-new connection protocol. [...] I'm pretty surprised that Nintendo didn't follow this path for the new wireless support, they have a good history with the gameboy of legacy support.
Nintendo also has a history of making rugged and reliable products. They also have very ridgid expectations, concepts, and ideals. If the Nintendo wireless GBA link connector turns out to be not backwards compatable, then there is going to be for a good reason.
Well, by "not liking the hardware" I believe he means that he wants Nintendo to put in a CD/DVD player, harddrive, and network adapter and use full sized DVDs.
Which Nintendo won't do because the costs of the licenses for the technology would would make the inital console price over $200. That is price point Nintendo just won't go above. (SNES, N64, and GC were all initally $199)
Excuse me, but Nintendo's dominance in the portable handheld market isn't because of Microsoft type tactics.
Nintendo's dominance is because everybody else seems to only want to make portable systems that:
1) Are gigantic in size and thus not very portable. 2) Eat 6 AA sized batteries in under 3 hours. 3) Have too high of a purchase price.
And as of recently
4) Do functions unrelated to gaming that eat up even more battery power.
If someone were to make a portable game system that:
1) is small and portable 2) has a good battery life (i.e. use 2 AA's that last at least 10 hours) 3) does not cost more than $99
Then they *would* give GameBoy a run for the money.
But such obsolesence would never sell, right? It has to have a CD player and DVD player and a MP3 player and be a Cell phone and have hard drive and do your laundry and cook you breakfast.
You raise an intersting point. While the Xbox is popular, it is a complete business failure. What is supposed to sell the Xbox over the PS2 and GC, is that it's not "kiddy" like the GC, but not outdated like the PS2. Microsoft is trying to project it as the pinical of console gaming.
But what is going to happen to the Xbox brandname if Microsoft has to scale back future Xbox models because of Sony out pricing them?
But they were all too large in size, had too high of a purchase price, and ate *6* AA sized batteries in under 3 hours. Nintendo's Gameboy would have flopped as well if it had any of these problems as well.
But instead of praising Nintendo for avoiding these pitfalls, people blast them for it. Go figure.
Is it any wonder why N-Gadge and PSP will fail as well?
Hey, i've got an idea, let's see how the PS2 and Xbox will hold up! Nah, maybe not. Some how I don't think that they would play games anymore even if we let them play the games upside down. Like you would have to on the PS1.
Oh boy, if the PSP is going to blow the GBA out of the water. Why were GameGear, Lynx, and the Turbo Grafix portable slaugtered verses MONOCHROME gameboy?
Just how much money though are you going to spend to make portable your Playstation Portable which you bought to be portable in the first place?
Here is a quick idea that any company can use, free of charge. Take the concept of the PSP and just tone it down a notch. i.e. Don't build the handheld game system of tomorrow, today. Build the handheld game system of today (or next hour), today.
I can understand, to an extent, why you might feel Nintendo is "shafting" the consumer or "rushing" their product(s). But, honestly is it sacrilege for Nintendo to produce afforable handheld/portable gaming products that do not devour batteries (recharable or not) in 2-3 hours, but instead last for at least 10 hours?
(and that they do not have to sell at any loss to make "afforable")
It is a free feature. Sorry, but it maybe a Windows version only feature if it isn't in the latest OS X version.
I thought it was really more blatently pointed out in that thread then it actually is. RealMedia Directshow filter (splitter)
As far as converting video/audio
i.e. Playback of RealMedia in the Windows media player of your choice. You can even transcode RM files with it.
There is of course a catch, the DShow Filter does not come with the Real codecs. You can get the codecs by installing RealPlayer (you don't have to use it) or by getting the codecs installed by other means. As I mentioned in that post though, the install has been cleaned up and the player behaves nice, you can read further at this link.
These people are not idiots. They just are not into perpetuating outdated stereotypes, as some people are.
You do realize that a GBA's use is not limted to these games, right? Just buy some GBA games so you can justify the GBA purchase. Don't tell me the games are kiddy or that this is a conspiracy to sell more GBAs / GBA games...
I'll just argue PS2s are purposefuly built cheap to intentionally fail, nessitating a repurchase. And why was the PS2 released with only *2* controller ports? Its a conspiricy to sell you multi-taps!
What "clicky trickery"? Clicking on the "Free RealPlayer" link gives you an instant download.
Sure, their past leaves much to be desired, but, at the very least, do not propigate no longer true facts.
Desperatly trying to hang onto outdated facts is being a troll.
Heh, I like the beard. :)
Who then would you cast to play Ritsuko, then? There are no Japanese people that look like Ritsuko. I'd be more disapointed if Japanese actors were used over actors that actually "look" like the anime characters.
This is exactly why I don't get why so many people go gaga over the PSP movie and music playback ability...
Oh woo, we can buy mini-dvd's and mini-cd's of the same dvd's and cd's we already own. Same content just half the quality or half the tracks and they will not play on anything other than the PSP. Woo hoo, suck on that GAYboy owners!
Playtimes of about 200 hours for not obsessed people is not uncommon, there is a lot more to do than just the story.
It will be a sad day when "gamers" won't play games just because they don't have 3D graphics, DTS sound, and a $15 million budget.
Nintendo also has a history of making rugged and reliable products. They also have very ridgid expectations, concepts, and ideals. If the Nintendo wireless GBA link connector turns out to be not backwards compatable, then there is going to be for a good reason.
Well, by "not liking the hardware" I believe he means that he wants Nintendo to put in a CD/DVD player, harddrive, and network adapter and use full sized DVDs.
Which Nintendo won't do because the costs of the licenses for the technology would would make the inital console price over $200. That is price point Nintendo just won't go above. (SNES, N64, and GC were all initally $199)
Excuse me, but Nintendo's dominance in the portable handheld market isn't because of Microsoft type tactics.
Nintendo's dominance is because everybody else seems to only want to make portable systems that:
1) Are gigantic in size and thus not very portable.
2) Eat 6 AA sized batteries in under 3 hours.
3) Have too high of a purchase price.
And as of recently
4) Do functions unrelated to gaming that eat up even more battery power.
If someone were to make a portable game system that:
1) is small and portable
2) has a good battery life (i.e. use 2 AA's that last at least 10 hours)
3) does not cost more than $99
Then they *would* give GameBoy a run for the money.
But such obsolesence would never sell, right? It has to have a CD player and DVD player and a MP3 player and be a Cell phone and have hard drive and do your laundry and cook you breakfast.
Heaven forbid it use cartridges!
But what is going to happen to the Xbox brandname if Microsoft has to scale back future Xbox models because of Sony out pricing them?
But instead of praising Nintendo for avoiding these pitfalls, people blast them for it. Go figure.
Is it any wonder why N-Gadge and PSP will fail as well?
Hey, i've got an idea, let's see how the PS2 and Xbox will hold up! Nah, maybe not. Some how I don't think that they would play games anymore even if we let them play the games upside down. Like you would have to on the PS1.
Oh boy, if the PSP is going to blow the GBA out of the water. Why were GameGear, Lynx, and the Turbo Grafix portable slaugtered verses MONOCHROME gameboy?
Boy, you're right, Nintendo is missing out on so much cash. Just look how much Microsoft is making with xbox and xbox live!(It's none, by the way!)
I think it would be an even more fantastic failure than Worldcom.