The reason is that the scrambled contents are scrambled by 48-bit encryption. The key to decrypt those scrambled contents is recorded to part of the DVD that is inaccessible to DVD-RW drives (i.e. only factory stampers can include those keys). I often wonder why a CSS-key-write enabled drive and key-friendly media haven't come out, released by some company overseas the same as what happened with DVD player "maintenance menus."
I can see some very good things coming of that, though, not least of which is J-game translations being held to a higher standard of quality. Show of hands, how many of you have had a friend/family member/other "non-gamer" comment on low-quality voice-overs, choppy dialogue, or other inadequately-translated elements of a J-RPG or some other J-game? It's happened to me too many times to count; a game will garner raised eyebrows and confused/bemused/mocking/disparaging comments because as a result of its subpar translation, it makes no goddamn sense to anyone who hasn't been gaming for years and isn't used to the quirks and nuances of Japanese culture. Phantasy Star Universe and Wild Arms 2 are examples of glaringly bad dialogue and/or translation.
Maybe a push toward including more casual gamers will result in a fire being lit under the asses of translators to do a better job in rewriting dialogue or story exposition that isn't initially written in a Western-friendly fashion.
I agree with you. Reluctant as I may be to admit, the current Apple product lineup leaves a lot to be desired. I am the owner of one of the aforementioned no-thrills (maybe you meant no-frills?) G4 towers, and it's a nice system. About a year ago I ordered a G5 Quad because I wanted a high-powered Mac system before they went to Intel and used who-knows-what TPM/DRM/TCPA hardware in their new systems. I don't think I really use the G5 to the full extent of its capabilities (editing SD video and experimenting with audio-sequencing apps like Reason is as close as I can get thus far), but it was really the only system that fit the bill. I knew better than to skimp on CPU speed due to the relatively arcane process of upgrading a Mac processor (not impossible, but not as straightforward as other systems), so that bumped the price way up right from the get-go. Beyond that, it was hard to strip down other components without losing some significant functionality. I looked at the iMac G5 and the Mini, but at the time my G4 with all its upgrades was about neck-and-neck with the Mini and the iMac was too restrictive in what additions could be made. FireWire and USB are great, but sometimes I want my HDDs, optical drives, and what-have-you to be hidden away completely. Not to mention the fact that the iMac lacks PCI expansion slots.
Now of course I'm not saying I don't love my G5--it's a fantastic system and I'm quite pleased with it. However, if Apple had offered a tower somewhere in between the iMac and the G5 I might likely have bought it instead.
Frakkin' a. Not only is 33rd and State a much safer area, they'd have a hard time targeting a better demographic. What's more ideal for something like this than a college full of geeks? I was overjoyed to find out I could get Bawls there (though they're usually sold out), and this would be like a one-two punch of win.
However, if we're already refusing to buy from them, more DRM means essentially nothing to us. In fact, it may even help in that those companies too short-sighted to see that DRM will not stop copying are just going to piss away more and more of their money on useless copy-crippling, eventually either going bankrupt or learning the hard way to play nice.
I would define "Hardcore gamer" using two criteria:
First, one must enjoy gaming for its own sake. Understand and appreciate the nuances of various game engines, follow the evolution of the technology, listen to game music in your spare time, understand character archetypes in RPGs, things like that. Appreciate the game as an entity unto itself, rather than just as a means to an end (killing time, fun with friends, etc.) Certainly means-to-an-end gaming is not forbidden, but I'd classify a hardcore gamer as someone who goes above and beyond that in their love of gaming.
Secondly, I'd definitely assign some kind of quantitative value to the habits of a hardcore gamer. Maybe number of games played in a year, amount of money spent on gaming, hours in a day spent gaming, etc.
I'd like to think I still meet criterion #1, but I won't kid myself, I've slipped badly on #2.
Yes they are. It's called the Mac Mini. You can argue whether or not it's actually competitive, and it would be a legitimate debate, but they do have a presence in the low-end market.
Sorry for the double reply, but I forgot to add: The weapon you were thinking of was the Drunk Missile. A particularly inventive and nasty bit of machinery as the missiles headed off in random directions for a second or two, and then they became heat-seekers. Nothing like letting loose a barrage of them and seeing one hapless guard across one of the large rooms in that game try to get away from 20 missiles all out for his blood. Combining that one with the wide-open spaces was a great way to see the "gib dome" that EKG mode produced.
Also, in the level Robotricks, there was one exceedingly long hallway. Almost Silent Hill long. There were maybe one or two enemies in it, but the real fun was standing at one end, turning on the missile-cam (the code RIDE or/CAM), and seeing which weapon had the fastest projectiles. I think the Dark Staff won with the regular bazooka coming in 2nd. The Hand of God was the slowest.
What I really liked about that game was that its weapons+ammo cheat (/WWW or CHOJIN, the only Urotsukidoji reference I've seen thus far in PC games) actually gave you infinite ammo, instead of just filling you up. Nice to not have to pause the slaughterfest to reload.
I discovered, when playing around with multiplayer one day (no internet at that time, so I used the bots) that you could alter the game's gravity setting. Cool.
I also discovered, shortly thereafter, that a bug in the game caused gravity settings to carry over into single-player mode.
In the game's 2nd level, there is a very short hallway one space wide, filled with several guards. 5 or 6 at least, all sardine-canned into this tiny corridor.
You may remember the Dark Staff, the weapon that takes a second or two to charge and then lets loose a great ball o' fury that hits one target and plows right through to the next one. And the next one. Anything in the direct line of fire between you and a wall is effectively toast.
EKG mode + Dark Staff + low gravity + that hallway = a shower of blood lasting several full minutes. The walls kept the gibs in a column-like formation and the game's code was still primitive enough that not all the gibs that ran into walls turned into the sliding drops of blood. The open ceiling of the hallway (between those weird metal support things that were all over in that game) allowed the "volcano" to get plenty of altitude.
The last time I remember having such wicked fun was cackling like a madman in Carmageddon 2 and scaring my friend's neighbours. Maybe I should get help.
I get the point you're trying to make, but the GP's point was that having those theological beliefs in the first place is the real problem. Not a matter of whose religion is right, but rather that religion itself is harmful.
Regarding the whole "spare time" thing, I assume one of the chief complaints about it would be inability to contribute to OSS projects. That being the case, couldn't contributions be made anonymously? I liken it somewhat to the authors of DMCA-violating software releasing their work anonymously to avoid pers^H^H^H^Hprosecution.
If you're looking to make money on the software you write, then naturally it gets trickier, but as far as Free software goes there's always the anonymity loophole.
Or am I missing something in the argument? I've personally never had to sign one of those things, so I don't have the benefit of perspective seasoned by personal experience.
I played that game endlessly with a friend of mine when I got it--Doom was all but forgotten. One of our favourite cheats (and one which, to date, has not been implemented again in any game to my knowledge) was the "/EKG" command, which activated Engine-Killing Gibs mode. This resulted in at least a 4x increase in the amount of blood, gore, and flying severed body parts on the screen any time an enemy was killed with an explosive weapon (of which there were a LOT).
The real fun bit behind that code was what we noticed one day in the midst of one of our regularly scheduled slaughterfests. Eyeballs from slain baddies would not just fly through the air--rather, they would hit the screen and actually slide down it from their point of impact. And best of all, by pausing the game to admire a particularly messy room-clearing, we noticed that the severed arm careening through the air at us was giving us the finger. Little tidbits like this, among other things like the -dopefish command-line option, smiley faces on charred skeletons, and a super-secret bonus item that was actually the lead developer's head floating in midair and making loud belching noises, are why I yearn for the gaming days of old when games were made by teams of 10 people instead of entire corporate divisions where nobody knows anybody. The humor and charm was lost somewhere along the way.
What would be absolutely great is if he were to comply with Microsoft's demands and remove the offending portion of the code...right after releasing the original source with the no-no parts intact. Post it to P2P nets, do the DeCSS haiku thing, arrange to have friends with their own web servers host the source files, just plaster it all over the place.
I'm honestly surprised sometimes that more programmers who write "piss off the industry" software (think DVD Decrypter by LightningUK and other such apps) don't open the source just in case they get C&Ded. You could theoretically sue someone for opening the source after the fact, but if the app is OSS from the start, it's a lot harder to lambaste one individual programmer for writing it, and a helluva lot harder to take it down.
No, the world map isn't why they're delaying the release. The estrogen treatments are taking longer than expected to make the game's male lead sufficiently effeminate.
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And how much more blue could they make that silicon? The answer is none. None more blue.
The reason is that the scrambled contents are scrambled by 48-bit encryption. The key to decrypt those scrambled contents is recorded to part of the DVD that is inaccessible to DVD-RW drives (i.e. only factory stampers can include those keys). I often wonder why a CSS-key-write enabled drive and key-friendly media haven't come out, released by some company overseas the same as what happened with DVD player "maintenance menus."
I can see some very good things coming of that, though, not least of which is J-game translations being held to a higher standard of quality. Show of hands, how many of you have had a friend/family member/other "non-gamer" comment on low-quality voice-overs, choppy dialogue, or other inadequately-translated elements of a J-RPG or some other J-game? It's happened to me too many times to count; a game will garner raised eyebrows and confused/bemused/mocking/disparaging comments because as a result of its subpar translation, it makes no goddamn sense to anyone who hasn't been gaming for years and isn't used to the quirks and nuances of Japanese culture. Phantasy Star Universe and Wild Arms 2 are examples of glaringly bad dialogue and/or translation.
Maybe a push toward including more casual gamers will result in a fire being lit under the asses of translators to do a better job in rewriting dialogue or story exposition that isn't initially written in a Western-friendly fashion.
Say WHAT? Girls over caffeine? You poser, get off my Slashdot!
I agree with you. Reluctant as I may be to admit, the current Apple product lineup leaves a lot to be desired. I am the owner of one of the aforementioned no-thrills (maybe you meant no-frills?) G4 towers, and it's a nice system. About a year ago I ordered a G5 Quad because I wanted a high-powered Mac system before they went to Intel and used who-knows-what TPM/DRM/TCPA hardware in their new systems. I don't think I really use the G5 to the full extent of its capabilities (editing SD video and experimenting with audio-sequencing apps like Reason is as close as I can get thus far), but it was really the only system that fit the bill. I knew better than to skimp on CPU speed due to the relatively arcane process of upgrading a Mac processor (not impossible, but not as straightforward as other systems), so that bumped the price way up right from the get-go. Beyond that, it was hard to strip down other components without losing some significant functionality. I looked at the iMac G5 and the Mini, but at the time my G4 with all its upgrades was about neck-and-neck with the Mini and the iMac was too restrictive in what additions could be made. FireWire and USB are great, but sometimes I want my HDDs, optical drives, and what-have-you to be hidden away completely. Not to mention the fact that the iMac lacks PCI expansion slots. Now of course I'm not saying I don't love my G5--it's a fantastic system and I'm quite pleased with it. However, if Apple had offered a tower somewhere in between the iMac and the G5 I might likely have bought it instead.
Yep. Mostly Rice/CPD, but a few of my classes have been at Main. Love those CTA commutes all the way from Rosemont to 35/Bronzeville/IIT.
Frakkin' a. Not only is 33rd and State a much safer area, they'd have a hard time targeting a better demographic. What's more ideal for something like this than a college full of geeks? I was overjoyed to find out I could get Bawls there (though they're usually sold out), and this would be like a one-two punch of win.
However, if we're already refusing to buy from them, more DRM means essentially nothing to us. In fact, it may even help in that those companies too short-sighted to see that DRM will not stop copying are just going to piss away more and more of their money on useless copy-crippling, eventually either going bankrupt or learning the hard way to play nice.
Seven versus...FOUR!
I would define "Hardcore gamer" using two criteria: First, one must enjoy gaming for its own sake. Understand and appreciate the nuances of various game engines, follow the evolution of the technology, listen to game music in your spare time, understand character archetypes in RPGs, things like that. Appreciate the game as an entity unto itself, rather than just as a means to an end (killing time, fun with friends, etc.) Certainly means-to-an-end gaming is not forbidden, but I'd classify a hardcore gamer as someone who goes above and beyond that in their love of gaming. Secondly, I'd definitely assign some kind of quantitative value to the habits of a hardcore gamer. Maybe number of games played in a year, amount of money spent on gaming, hours in a day spent gaming, etc. I'd like to think I still meet criterion #1, but I won't kid myself, I've slipped badly on #2.
Yes they are. It's called the Mac Mini. You can argue whether or not it's actually competitive, and it would be a legitimate debate, but they do have a presence in the low-end market.
Sorry for the double reply, but I forgot to add: The weapon you were thinking of was the Drunk Missile. A particularly inventive and nasty bit of machinery as the missiles headed off in random directions for a second or two, and then they became heat-seekers. Nothing like letting loose a barrage of them and seeing one hapless guard across one of the large rooms in that game try to get away from 20 missiles all out for his blood. Combining that one with the wide-open spaces was a great way to see the "gib dome" that EKG mode produced.
Also, in the level Robotricks, there was one exceedingly long hallway. Almost Silent Hill long. There were maybe one or two enemies in it, but the real fun was standing at one end, turning on the missile-cam (the code RIDE or /CAM), and seeing which weapon had the fastest projectiles. I think the Dark Staff won with the regular bazooka coming in 2nd. The Hand of God was the slowest.
What I really liked about that game was that its weapons+ammo cheat (/WWW or CHOJIN, the only Urotsukidoji reference I've seen thus far in PC games) actually gave you infinite ammo, instead of just filling you up. Nice to not have to pause the slaughterfest to reload.
Oh, man, then have I got a story for you.
I discovered, when playing around with multiplayer one day (no internet at that time, so I used the bots) that you could alter the game's gravity setting. Cool.
I also discovered, shortly thereafter, that a bug in the game caused gravity settings to carry over into single-player mode.
In the game's 2nd level, there is a very short hallway one space wide, filled with several guards. 5 or 6 at least, all sardine-canned into this tiny corridor.
You may remember the Dark Staff, the weapon that takes a second or two to charge and then lets loose a great ball o' fury that hits one target and plows right through to the next one. And the next one. Anything in the direct line of fire between you and a wall is effectively toast.
EKG mode + Dark Staff + low gravity + that hallway = a shower of blood lasting several full minutes. The walls kept the gibs in a column-like formation and the game's code was still primitive enough that not all the gibs that ran into walls turned into the sliding drops of blood. The open ceiling of the hallway (between those weird metal support things that were all over in that game) allowed the "volcano" to get plenty of altitude.
The last time I remember having such wicked fun was cackling like a madman in Carmageddon 2 and scaring my friend's neighbours. Maybe I should get help.
I get the point you're trying to make, but the GP's point was that having those theological beliefs in the first place is the real problem. Not a matter of whose religion is right, but rather that religion itself is harmful.
Regarding the whole "spare time" thing, I assume one of the chief complaints about it would be inability to contribute to OSS projects. That being the case, couldn't contributions be made anonymously? I liken it somewhat to the authors of DMCA-violating software releasing their work anonymously to avoid pers^H^H^H^Hprosecution.
If you're looking to make money on the software you write, then naturally it gets trickier, but as far as Free software goes there's always the anonymity loophole.
Or am I missing something in the argument? I've personally never had to sign one of those things, so I don't have the benefit of perspective seasoned by personal experience.
I always wondered where Starcraft got its "There is no cow level" cheat from. Now I know. Wow.
I played that game endlessly with a friend of mine when I got it--Doom was all but forgotten. One of our favourite cheats (and one which, to date, has not been implemented again in any game to my knowledge) was the "/EKG" command, which activated Engine-Killing Gibs mode. This resulted in at least a 4x increase in the amount of blood, gore, and flying severed body parts on the screen any time an enemy was killed with an explosive weapon (of which there were a LOT).
The real fun bit behind that code was what we noticed one day in the midst of one of our regularly scheduled slaughterfests. Eyeballs from slain baddies would not just fly through the air--rather, they would hit the screen and actually slide down it from their point of impact. And best of all, by pausing the game to admire a particularly messy room-clearing, we noticed that the severed arm careening through the air at us was giving us the finger. Little tidbits like this, among other things like the -dopefish command-line option, smiley faces on charred skeletons, and a super-secret bonus item that was actually the lead developer's head floating in midair and making loud belching noises, are why I yearn for the gaming days of old when games were made by teams of 10 people instead of entire corporate divisions where nobody knows anybody. The humor and charm was lost somewhere along the way.
And after that, Zergling rush!
Kekekekekekekeke.
That's not their product.
What would be absolutely great is if he were to comply with Microsoft's demands and remove the offending portion of the code...right after releasing the original source with the no-no parts intact. Post it to P2P nets, do the DeCSS haiku thing, arrange to have friends with their own web servers host the source files, just plaster it all over the place.
I'm honestly surprised sometimes that more programmers who write "piss off the industry" software (think DVD Decrypter by LightningUK and other such apps) don't open the source just in case they get C&Ded. You could theoretically sue someone for opening the source after the fact, but if the app is OSS from the start, it's a lot harder to lambaste one individual programmer for writing it, and a helluva lot harder to take it down.
So what's the difference? I mean, isn't Fox News owned by News Corp. also?
This is why I hate the media-they deliberately blur every line they can find to make it harder to figure out who owns what.
Yeah, after all, he's already doing hard time.
Sounds like a nerdcore song to me.
Jigga-jigga-beat-beat-jigga-jigga-beat.
(There is a reason I went into IT and not the performing arts.)
Waitaminnit--then who's the silver-haired guy in black with all the swords floating around him? Who looks like he's standing on some kind of stairway?
No, the world map isn't why they're delaying the release. The estrogen treatments are taking longer than expected to make the game's male lead sufficiently effeminate.