a) Yes. People only bought the Game Gear because of Sega's name.
b) After the first wave of buyers, a second wave didn't come forth because of the problems with the unit (blurry, short battery life) plus the fact that EVERYONE has a gameboy. In my school, you werent cool unless you had a gameboy. A Lynx or a Game Gear wouldn't cut it.
c) That's why I said "we'll see," i.e. I'm aware that a name brand doesn't ALWAYS guarantee sucess.
Well, to be precise, they're 32-bit ports of a 16-bit port of an 8-bit port:)
I know what you were saying, and you knew what I was saying. In the end, I don't think there is anyone who bought Mario Advance 1 or 4 because of the enhanced graphics (by that reasoning, no one would have bought Mario Advance 2 or 3 because those were originally 16-bit to begin with). The idea I was getting at (i know you knew this, just repeating) is that it is the simple gameplay which made these fun, not the flashy graphics. Sony would be wise to follow this (not that bad graphics hurt...)
I kept thinking about what a previous poster said before... how PSP will cost $300 yet the GBA will cost $100. I knew it made me think of something, yet I couldn't pinpoint it. You see, I disregarded that argument because the $100-cheaper price of the Gamecube never really helped it much, so I figured that people are willing to shell out money for a handheld the same way. Then it hit me...
Anyone ever know anyone with a Turbo Express? Those things were awesome. Amazing graphics (possibly rival GBA's graphics, not hardware-wise but overall result-wise), but the one thing I remember about anyone I ever knew with one - they were petrified to bring it anywhere! They were so scared they were going to break it that it always was stored in a lunchbox-sized foam case, if they even brought it anywhere (2-3 of the them just used it at home - why not just have a turbografx 16 then?). A $300 toy for a 12 year old is a fortune. Not that anyone "tried" to break their gameboys, but i mean, people left them on the side of the gym during recess, they threw them in their backpacks without cases, even today I put my gameboy SP right in my pocket a lot of times.
I just don't see a $300 handheld being truly embraced by the avg american elementary school child the same way their gameboys are casually handled. Who knows...
This is sounding like a product that will be inferior to the GBA overall, but I'm willing to bet it makes a lot of money regardless...
The GBA never has EMPHASIZED graphics as its selling point. True, they tout its 32-bit (NOT 16-bit, people) architecture, but nowhere near the level that Sony is touting the PSP's specs. They emphasize fun gameplay. Look at the best selling GBA games: Wario Ware, the Mario Advance games, Pokemon, Advance Wars. These are all pretty low on the graphics scale (Hell - Mario Advance 1 and 4 are ports of 8-bit nes games!), yet together these games have sold millions of copies.
That being said, PS2 has a great namebrand and this will likely carry over to the PSP. We'll see...
The parent wasn't modded down for noting that the link was Slashdotted. He was modded down for implying that Slashdot actively attempts to create DoS's (Denial of Service) crashed on various servers by "slashdotting" them.
It's like my personal opinion on Gulf War II. There are many legitimate reasons to disagree with it (think there was lack of proof, lack of support, lack of a concerte plan, simply being anti-war, etc.) but there are also the "conspiracy theorists" - people who think Bush is out there "simply to kill non-whites" or he and other rich americans are twiddling their thumbs going "Mwah hah hah!"
Same thing with the parent (unless he was just trying to be funny/troll). Just because Slashdot-links often cause DoS's, it doesn't mean that there is some "evil-purpose" to it. (and while I'm at it people - just because a company makes it to the Fortune 500, perhaps for being a does not necessarily mean that they are an "evil" corporation. Some are, but many/.ers can't tell the difference between "corporation" and "a number of corrupt execs in a number of companies")
Well, Sim City 2000 did it for me too, but it came out around one of those 2 games (Tie and Civ2), so it was replaced. I never got into Sim City 3000 or 4.
Um... the Toys R' Us in Times Square in manhattan has had a 20-foot tall Empire State Building Model (as well as Chrysler Building, Statue of Liberty and i think another) since they opened in 2001. This 5-foot model, while nice, is not unique nor is it the biggest by far.
At that TRU, they sell the Statue of Libery as a kit. I think it's like $399.98...
I own it, but strangely, I never played it. I always assumed it was similar to Civ II so I never tried it. I'll definately give it a shot after finals...
That is a rare exception, where the 2nd controller is needed for 1 person to play. It's like shooting hoops by yourself. It can obviously be done with one person, but "Playing sports" usually implies with at least 1 other person.
besides the fact that this is an obvious troll, I'll bite...
I love these pot-calling-the-kettle-black statements that you see on Slashdot more and more lately - i.e. the people on Slashdot themselves calling other people nerds:)
And to address your idea that simply getting a videogame means, to quote you, that we would have to "try to pretend [we] had social skills" is insane. That's like saying if getting a book that you can read over-and-over will cause you to have few social skills. Ridiculous!
Besides the fact that most videogame systems released in the last 2 and a half decades have this fascinating device called a "second-controller port" (which, strangely, would require a FRIEND to use the second controller), the article is asking about the best holiday GAMING seasons ever. It's not saying "what videogame gift made your holiday better than the family get-togethers, dinners, homemade gifts and company put together?" My family celebrates Hannukah, so we personally had 8 days where we did this stuff. Usually, one gift was a videogame that we'd asked for. All of my Chritmas-celebrating friends also got one videogame toy during the holidays. So, based on the article, I answered which GAME was the best out of the 10-or-so years which I'd received them.
Geez, I'll bet you got your ass-kicked by some geek in 4th grade and ever since you've been on a futile mission to get revenge. Ha! Nice try...
1994... that was the year I got Tie Fighter. 1996... that was the year I got Civilization II.
It's tough to choose which one gave me more entertainment:
Tie Fighter: My routine when high school clases finished: 2:30-4:30 = sports (fall soccer, winter track, spring tennis). 5:00 until dinner (~6:30) = Tie Fighter. 7:30 = homework/tv (depending on the day)
Civ II: Routine: Didn't have as much of a routine as Tie Fighter, but I usually started playing around 8-9, earlier or later depending on homework volume. It was NOT uncommon for me to not realize that it was 1am and I had been playing for 4+ hours, even though I only meant to play for "a few minutes..."
Man, I'm not one of those cynical "games today aren't what they used to be" people, since I've loved some recent games (Battlefield 1942, Super Mario Sunshine, Metroid Prime), but nothing since Civ II has given me a "can't wait to play it later!" feeling. Anyone know a more recent game like that? I would love to have that attachment to a game again (not that I really have the time, but still...)
Did you see "Elf?" Were they right when they said the "real" original was on 11th or something? I always laugh too when I pass an "original rays" which I know wasn't there 10 years ago...
For example, take any team game. It's an excellent idea - 20 people each in a specialized position, playing like a real match. The problem is that, unlike when you're standing on the field, people will NOT have the patience to play correctly. You'll have fullbacks (defense guys in soccer) trying to score goals because they're bored, shortstops trying to catch a left-field popup (and messing up the play later), EVERYONE trying to shoot in basketball (no one, i predict, will want to be all-defensive).
This may work, however, with interesting rules (like, for example, the goalie can't pull himself if he's bored since the puck is always on the other side... unless a majority of the team votes it).
While on the subject, a manager/coach might be one of the most interesting positions in a MMOSG. They would pick who's on the ice (call line switches), pick the pass that the quarterback has to follow (or at least narrow it down to 2-3 options or quartback sneak), etc.
So again, this could work work, could be amazing, but it's going to need some intelligent programming/rule-creating to make it fun.
RTFP (read the f'n parent) - if you read my actual post and I had written the OPPOSITE of what I actually wrote, I would have said that it's easier to get in today than it did 10 years ago.
As it is, I find myself showing more ID not (i'm 24) then when I was 14, simply because they check it more these days. It's harder today..
OK, I'll admit it, it seems slightly harder to get into an R-rated movie like T3 today than it did 10 years ago, to get into, say T2. In some ways they actually seem to be checking IDs.
But videogames are another story. Sure, Target asked me for ID when I purchased GTA3, but what about ordering from amazon.com or even renting from blockbuster? Those are simple enough to avoid the ID checks (and yes, credit cards are for those 18+, but you can always purchase temporary amex cards, webcertificates, etc).
Another day, another anti-Israel post (by an AC, of course...).
Riddle me this, folks... why is it that Pro-Palestinians and anti-Israel people always yell "Stop the 'Occupation,' Get out of the West Bank! Leave Gaza!" when it is obvious that what they really mean is "No Jews are allowed here! We want ALL the land! We need 27 arab states and nothing for you!"???
Sound far-fetched? It isn't. Well, why is it then that in 1948, Israel was a sliver of land, WITHOUT the West Bank, WITHOUT gaza, WITHOUT jerusalem, and yet Israel was still invaded by 6 arab countries simultaneously, with the arab alliance slogan "We will push them into the Sea." Furthermore, the PLO, the Palestinian "Liberation" Organization was founded in 1962, five years before Israel had ANY control over the disputed lands.
Bottom line, the Arabs want Israel destroyed. They do not want co-existence, they do not want equal protection. To say Israel is wholly-responsible for the problems is ignorant, biased, and often (but not always) based on a pre-existing prejudice. I do feel Israel has done mistakes, yes - and the "intifada" could have been handled better. The whole "land for peace" is an interesting concept (one which I support, in parts, by the way), but Israel is understandably skeptical about it, considering their past with their neighbors...
Slashdot Mirror
And allowed to kill Iranians with poison gas?(with sat data no less)
Proof? (and please quote CNN, BBC, New York Times, etc - not some anti-bush organization). I'm not trolling you here. Just seems a little far fetched.
a) Yes. People only bought the Game Gear because of Sega's name.
b) After the first wave of buyers, a second wave didn't come forth because of the problems with the unit (blurry, short battery life) plus the fact that EVERYONE has a gameboy. In my school, you werent cool unless you had a gameboy. A Lynx or a Game Gear wouldn't cut it.
c) That's why I said "we'll see," i.e. I'm aware that a name brand doesn't ALWAYS guarantee sucess.
Well, to be precise, they're 32-bit ports of a 16-bit port of an 8-bit port :)
I know what you were saying, and you knew what I was saying. In the end, I don't think there is anyone who bought Mario Advance 1 or 4 because of the enhanced graphics (by that reasoning, no one would have bought Mario Advance 2 or 3 because those were originally 16-bit to begin with). The idea I was getting at (i know you knew this, just repeating) is that it is the simple gameplay which made these fun, not the flashy graphics. Sony would be wise to follow this (not that bad graphics hurt...)
I kept thinking about what a previous poster said before... how PSP will cost $300 yet the GBA will cost $100. I knew it made me think of something, yet I couldn't pinpoint it. You see, I disregarded that argument because the $100-cheaper price of the Gamecube never really helped it much, so I figured that people are willing to shell out money for a handheld the same way. Then it hit me...
Anyone ever know anyone with a Turbo Express? Those things were awesome. Amazing graphics (possibly rival GBA's graphics, not hardware-wise but overall result-wise), but the one thing I remember about anyone I ever knew with one - they were petrified to bring it anywhere! They were so scared they were going to break it that it always was stored in a lunchbox-sized foam case, if they even brought it anywhere (2-3 of the them just used it at home - why not just have a turbografx 16 then?). A $300 toy for a 12 year old is a fortune.
Not that anyone "tried" to break their gameboys, but i mean, people left them on the side of the gym during recess, they threw them in their backpacks without cases, even today I put my gameboy SP right in my pocket a lot of times.
I just don't see a $300 handheld being truly embraced by the avg american elementary school child the same way their gameboys are casually handled. Who knows...
This is sounding like a product that will be inferior to the GBA overall, but I'm willing to bet it makes a lot of money regardless...
The GBA never has EMPHASIZED graphics as its selling point. True, they tout its 32-bit (NOT 16-bit, people) architecture, but nowhere near the level that Sony is touting the PSP's specs. They emphasize fun gameplay. Look at the best selling GBA games: Wario Ware, the Mario Advance games, Pokemon, Advance Wars. These are all pretty low on the graphics scale (Hell - Mario Advance 1 and 4 are ports of 8-bit nes games!), yet together these games have sold millions of copies.
That being said, PS2 has a great namebrand and this will likely carry over to the PSP. We'll see...
The parent wasn't modded down for noting that the link was Slashdotted. He was modded down for implying that Slashdot actively attempts to create DoS's (Denial of Service) crashed on various servers by "slashdotting" them.
/.ers can't tell the difference between "corporation" and "a number of corrupt execs in a number of companies")
It's like my personal opinion on Gulf War II. There are many legitimate reasons to disagree with it (think there was lack of proof, lack of support, lack of a concerte plan, simply being anti-war, etc.) but there are also the "conspiracy theorists" - people who think Bush is out there "simply to kill non-whites" or he and other rich americans are twiddling their thumbs going "Mwah hah hah!"
Same thing with the parent (unless he was just trying to be funny/troll). Just because Slashdot-links often cause DoS's, it doesn't mean that there is some "evil-purpose" to it. (and while I'm at it people - just because a company makes it to the Fortune 500, perhaps for being a does not necessarily mean that they are an "evil" corporation. Some are, but many
that kit, according to the link you provided is "2 feet, 9 inches." In case you're not American, that's not even a meter.
:)
You've obviously never been to the Times Square store...
Well, Sim City 2000 did it for me too, but it came out around one of those 2 games (Tie and Civ2), so it was replaced. I never got into Sim City 3000 or 4.
Um... the Toys R' Us in Times Square in manhattan has had a 20-foot tall Empire State Building Model (as well as Chrysler Building, Statue of Liberty and i think another) since they opened in 2001. This 5-foot model, while nice, is not unique nor is it the biggest by far.
At that TRU, they sell the Statue of Libery as a kit. I think it's like $399.98...
Well, at least we've come to a point where Beowolf, Soviet Russia and "Profit!" jokes are modded as troll or redundant and reduced to -1
I own it, but strangely, I never played it. I always assumed it was similar to Civ II so I never tried it. I'll definately give it a shot after finals...
That is a rare exception, where the 2nd controller is needed for 1 person to play. It's like shooting hoops by yourself. It can obviously be done with one person, but "Playing sports" usually implies with at least 1 other person.
besides the fact that this is an obvious troll, I'll bite...
:)
I love these pot-calling-the-kettle-black statements that you see on Slashdot more and more lately - i.e. the people on Slashdot themselves calling other people nerds
And to address your idea that simply getting a videogame means, to quote you, that we would have to "try to pretend [we] had social skills" is insane. That's like saying if getting a book that you can read over-and-over will cause you to have few social skills. Ridiculous!
Besides the fact that most videogame systems released in the last 2 and a half decades have this fascinating device called a "second-controller port" (which, strangely, would require a FRIEND to use the second controller), the article is asking about the best holiday GAMING seasons ever. It's not saying "what videogame gift made your holiday better than the family get-togethers, dinners, homemade gifts and company put together?" My family celebrates Hannukah, so we personally had 8 days where we did this stuff. Usually, one gift was a videogame that we'd asked for. All of my Chritmas-celebrating friends also got one videogame toy during the holidays. So, based on the article, I answered which GAME was the best out of the 10-or-so years which I'd received them.
Geez, I'll bet you got your ass-kicked by some geek in 4th grade and ever since you've been on a futile mission to get revenge. Ha! Nice try...
1994... that was the year I got Tie Fighter.
1996... that was the year I got Civilization II.
It's tough to choose which one gave me more entertainment:
Tie Fighter: My routine when high school clases finished:
2:30-4:30 = sports (fall soccer, winter track, spring tennis).
5:00 until dinner (~6:30) = Tie Fighter.
7:30 = homework/tv (depending on the day)
Civ II: Routine: Didn't have as much of a routine as Tie Fighter, but I usually started playing around 8-9, earlier or later depending on homework volume. It was NOT uncommon for me to not realize that it was 1am and I had been playing for 4+ hours, even though I only meant to play for "a few minutes..."
Man, I'm not one of those cynical "games today aren't what they used to be" people, since I've loved some recent games (Battlefield 1942, Super Mario Sunshine, Metroid Prime), but nothing since Civ II has given me a "can't wait to play it later!" feeling. Anyone know a more recent game like that? I would love to have that attachment to a game again (not that I really have the time, but still...)
"Original Rays" - ha!
Did you see "Elf?" Were they right when they said the "real" original was on 11th or something? I always laugh too when I pass an "original rays" which I know wasn't there 10 years ago...
blah blah blah...
Typical "all successful companies must inherently be evil." What, did the big-bad IGN ruin the "mom-and-pop" videogame websites?
he tries to murder (with intent to eat?) Bilbo! I'd say that's pretty evil!
congratulations on being the first PA link I've seen in nearly 3 months that DIDN'T link to that overexposed N-Gage comic :)
my bad - you're all correct - gimli isn't in the Hobbit.
Oh, my bad - you're right.
Gandalf, Gimli, Bilbo and Gollum are all recurring characters in both stories.
Here's the problem with MMOSG's...
For example, take any team game. It's an excellent idea - 20 people each in a specialized position, playing like a real match. The problem is that, unlike when you're standing on the field, people will NOT have the patience to play correctly. You'll have fullbacks (defense guys in soccer) trying to score goals because they're bored, shortstops trying to catch a left-field popup (and messing up the play later), EVERYONE trying to shoot in basketball (no one, i predict, will want to be all-defensive).
This may work, however, with interesting rules (like, for example, the goalie can't pull himself if he's bored since the puck is always on the other side... unless a majority of the team votes it).
While on the subject, a manager/coach might be one of the most interesting positions in a MMOSG. They would pick who's on the ice (call line switches), pick the pass that the quarterback has to follow (or at least narrow it down to 2-3 options or quartback sneak), etc.
So again, this could work work, could be amazing, but it's going to need some intelligent programming/rule-creating to make it fun.
RTFP (read the f'n parent) - if you read my actual post and I had written the OPPOSITE of what I actually wrote, I would have said that it's easier to get in today than it did 10 years ago.
As it is, I find myself showing more ID not (i'm 24) then when I was 14, simply because they check it more these days. It's harder today..
OK, I'll admit it, it seems slightly harder to get into an R-rated movie like T3 today than it did 10 years ago, to get into, say T2. In some ways they actually seem to be checking IDs.
But videogames are another story. Sure, Target asked me for ID when I purchased GTA3, but what about ordering from amazon.com or even renting from blockbuster? Those are simple enough to avoid the ID checks (and yes, credit cards are for those 18+, but you can always purchase temporary amex cards, webcertificates, etc).
Another day, another anti-Israel post (by an AC, of course...).
Riddle me this, folks... why is it that Pro-Palestinians and anti-Israel people always yell "Stop the 'Occupation,' Get out of the West Bank! Leave Gaza!" when it is obvious that what they really mean is "No Jews are allowed here! We want ALL the land! We need 27 arab states and nothing for you!"???
Sound far-fetched? It isn't. Well, why is it then that in 1948, Israel was a sliver of land, WITHOUT the West Bank, WITHOUT gaza, WITHOUT jerusalem, and yet Israel was still invaded by 6 arab countries simultaneously, with the arab alliance slogan "We will push them into the Sea." Furthermore, the PLO, the Palestinian "Liberation" Organization was founded in 1962, five years before Israel had ANY control over the disputed lands.
Bottom line, the Arabs want Israel destroyed. They do not want co-existence, they do not want equal protection. To say Israel is wholly-responsible for the problems is ignorant, biased, and often (but not always) based on a pre-existing prejudice. I do feel Israel has done mistakes, yes - and the "intifada" could have been handled better. The whole "land for peace" is an interesting concept (one which I support, in parts, by the way), but Israel is understandably skeptical about it, considering their past with their neighbors...