Re:Nintendo and the blowing myth
on
Borrowing ROMs
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· Score: 1
Another trick if you don't have time to clean them properly: Insert the cart and push down to lock it. Then, vigorously wiggle the cart left and right for a few seconds. Try the power. As long as you NES hasn't been swimming with you, this will usually do the trick
Re:Why the need for ROMs?
on
Borrowing ROMs
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· Score: 1
1. Save states 2. Speed up/slow down gameplay 3. Reliability 4. Educational purposes. 5. Game Genie codes done easy 6. Playback demo movies made by other players
Just a few reasons. I wish this stuff had been made available for purchase, but it hasn't. So gamers are forced to go underground to get these sorts of functions. It's not a matter of buying the carts; the carts are old hat. They are limited by their physical platforms. An emulator can add to a game's usefulness and value.
Sour grapes is often used as a synonym for jealousy. This is incorrect. In fact, the term originated in the fable "The Fox and the Grapes". The fox, upon realizing that he will be unable to reach the grapes, decides that they were probably sour anyway. Thus, "sour grapes" isn't an expression of jealousy, but a justification of failure.
For instance, if you have a new Porche roadster, and I will never be able to own one myself, I would merely be jealous. But, if I attempt to steal your roadster, and fail to do so successfully, I can justify the failure by deciding I didn't like the color. This would be "sour grapes" precisely.
Re:Try cancelling Hotmail...
on
Disconnecting
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· Score: 1
Simple; set your age to below 18 and hit 'submit'. That's what I (accidentally) did, and now I can't get back in without "parental consent". This consent consists of another email address (which I don't, for reasons too heinous to go into, have)and, I swear I'm not making this up, a CREDIT CARD number, which I am assured will not be charged.
Of course, I wouldn't be surprised if you continue to be charged for "service" even after doing this. I was fortunate enough to have a free account, so, oh well.
... is not the boot time improvement, although that is important. The primary benefit of tech like this is the (long overdue) elimination of the artificial barrier between volatile and permanent storage. With this tech, OS memory management can be optimized to a much greater degree. Available RAM is synonymous with available "disk space". Swapfiles cease to exist in their current form, since if you fill RAM you fill the disk. Disk caching becomes unneccessary.
However, these benefits are only attained if the RAM is at least as fast as current tech. If DDR/RAMBUS is faster than this flavor of NVRAM, there's no reason to unify system RAM and storage.
Your example is a good one; there were only a few games that were based themselves on an ad campaign, and they were usually pretty horrible. "Noid" is the only one I can actually think of now. However, you do have disney games like "Adventures in the Magic Kingdom", which rely on familiarity with the Disney product line; these are often similar in both execution and quality.
Crappy games with a movie/tv show license, such as "Terminator", "Jeopardy", and "The Simpsons", are probably the next level down in terms of shoddiness. They basically reinforce the campaign for the related product, without requiring a high level of quality. Though there are exceptions, I can't think of any right now.:)
Then you have games that were based on toys; "GI Joe" (as per below), "Micro Machines", and yes, "Barbie", all had their own games. Interestingly, these were usually a little better than the movie tie-ins, but not by much.
There were a few games that were heavily sponsored by one or two corporations; "TMNTurtles 2" was solely sponsored by Pizza Hut, and you would be hard pressed not to notice that if you have played it. Though the gameplay on these can actually be good, the heavy ad influence definitely takes its toll on the presentation.
And there are also the "spinoff" games, which market the characters themselves in sort of a self-propagating ad campaign. Pretty much every Mario Game after the original "Super Mario Bros." falls into this category; "Yoshi's Cookie" is a great example. Interestingly, these games can even be pretty good, or pretty horrible. This is a continuing trend today. Konami even had a series of games in Japan based on Konami man, a character that could become several of the other Konami mascots. It's not a bad game, but kind of boring.
And finally, you have the completely original games that presumably gain their influence solely from the designers, such as "River City Ransom" (one of the best), "Lifeforce/Gradius", and "Chubby Cherub (one of the worst). These are a control group, really.
So what's the bottom line? Advertising in games has it's place, much like product placement in movies. It seems reasonable to see Mountain Dew billboards in "Tony Hawk Pro Skater" for PSX, simply because of the company's existing marketing. If that helps the game pull in some extra development cash and makes Pepsico happy, so much the better. At the same time, in game ads must be unobtrusive and appropriate. I'm sure you can imagine the pain a "singing pepsi girl" ad would iflict if it looped every time you paused "Alien Cheese Factory" on your Nintendo Game Dodecahedron.
You have a great point. I remember a few of the really cool people from HS who were just friendly no matter who you were, or what you looked like, or who you hung with... In fact, I kind of wish I'd been a little more understanding myself. Then again, I did take a lot of shit from a few people, and that kind of tainted my view of the whole group.
I do think I notice a trend. Maybe it's just me, but I wonder if the prevalence of computers hasn't gotten more people away from the traditional roles. I'm noticing a lot more posts that say that HS isn't as bad as it was for me personally, and they seem to be coming from younger people. I wonder if, to some extent, the Jock/Preppie/Nerd/whatever lines are starting to blur. I really hope they are. I mean, who wouldn't like Counter-Strike given a chance to play it?
True, true. The only thing was, there was clearly no sincerity behind his win. He was voted king because the people that didn't like him thought it would be funny. He would have had no more power than he had previously. I can sympathise with his action even though I was never in that position.
FF1 was released for the 8 bit NES in both Japan and the US. There were a few differences, but they were clearly the same game. FF2,3, 4 etc continued to come out in Japan for the NES, but were never released here. However, Square then ported one of the SNES games over here and called it FF2 (us). There's a lot more to it than that, but you get the idea.
Based on examples I've seen from corporate fear-mongers so far, "Negative" means, "We found a comment you made that we don't like."
In other words, actual possession of the offending product becomes immaterial. As do any other technicalities you may dream up. Forget the wording of the "agreement"; this is pure intimidation. If something you say may negatively affect Apogee's image, regardless of truth/merit, you will be asked to remove it.
Not only is it stealing, I think it is a crime tantamount to genocide. It is *WRONG* to use the MP3 file format. When are all of the *THIEVES* going to learn that *STEALING* valuable music from *ANYONE* is *WRONG*?! If we don't act, all the music vendors are going to be completely bankrupt in about five years; I've seen the proof. Then, all we'll have to listen to is the screaming at the Five Minute's Hate. Well, I'm not going to stand for it. I think the punishment should fit the crime. I'm going to meet my local RIAA representative tomorrow. I'm going to encourage her/him to suggest stiff penalties for trafficking in CopyWrought goods the next time s/he has an audience with the senator. In my opinion, the punishment for being a proven *PIRATHIEF* should be Drawing and Quartering; nothing less. Please, Andover, trace the IP addresses of all of the *PIRATHIEFS* and help us bring them to justice. You won't be violating anyone's rights; you'll be enforcing the law. Remeber, if you DON'T act, you could be convicted of illegal acts yourself. Please do the right thing. These *CYBERCRIMINALS* will only multiply if we don't take action immediately.
Slashdot Mirror
Another trick if you don't have time to clean them properly: Insert the cart and push down to lock it. Then, vigorously wiggle the cart left and right for a few seconds. Try the power. As long as you NES hasn't been swimming with you, this will usually do the trick
1. Save states
2. Speed up/slow down gameplay
3. Reliability
4. Educational purposes.
5. Game Genie codes done easy
6. Playback demo movies made by other players
Just a few reasons. I wish this stuff had been made available for purchase, but it hasn't. So gamers are forced to go underground to get these sorts of functions. It's not a matter of buying the carts; the carts are old hat. They are limited by their physical platforms. An emulator can add to a game's usefulness and value.
Sour grapes is often used as a synonym for jealousy. This is incorrect. In fact, the term originated in the fable "The Fox and the Grapes". The fox, upon realizing that he will be unable to reach the grapes, decides that they were probably sour anyway. Thus, "sour grapes" isn't an expression of jealousy, but a justification of failure.
For instance, if you have a new Porche roadster, and I will never be able to own one myself, I would merely be jealous. But, if I attempt to steal your roadster, and fail to do so successfully, I can justify the failure by deciding I didn't like the color. This would be "sour grapes" precisely.
Also, he's ugly and smells like poop.
Simple; set your age to below 18 and hit 'submit'. That's what I (accidentally) did, and now I can't get back in without "parental consent". This consent consists of another email address (which I don't, for reasons too heinous to go into, have)and, I swear I'm not making this up, a CREDIT CARD number, which I am assured will not be charged.
Of course, I wouldn't be surprised if you continue to be charged for "service" even after doing this. I was fortunate enough to have a free account, so, oh well.
TPS trolls again!
I was under the impression that Notes was itself a virus. Productivity at my old company was hit severely by an outbreak of 5.0.
www.iarchitect.com/index.htm has more about this issue. Check out the In Depth section.
... is not the boot time improvement, although that is important. The primary benefit of tech like this is the (long overdue) elimination of the artificial barrier between volatile and permanent storage. With this tech, OS memory management can be optimized to a much greater degree. Available RAM is synonymous with available "disk space". Swapfiles cease to exist in their current form, since if you fill RAM you fill the disk. Disk caching becomes unneccessary.
However, these benefits are only attained if the RAM is at least as fast as current tech. If DDR/RAMBUS is faster than this flavor of NVRAM, there's no reason to unify system RAM and storage.
Rombuu trolls again!!
That was that ST:TNG episode, right? Best episode ever.
Your example is a good one; there were only a few games that were based themselves on an ad campaign, and they were usually pretty horrible. "Noid" is the only one I can actually think of now. However, you do have disney games like "Adventures in the Magic Kingdom", which rely on familiarity with the Disney product line; these are often similar in both execution and quality.
:)
Crappy games with a movie/tv show license, such as "Terminator", "Jeopardy", and "The Simpsons", are probably the next level down in terms of shoddiness. They basically reinforce the campaign for the related product, without requiring a high level of quality. Though there are exceptions, I can't think of any right now.
Then you have games that were based on toys; "GI Joe" (as per below), "Micro Machines", and yes, "Barbie", all had their own games. Interestingly, these were usually a little better than the movie tie-ins, but not by much.
There were a few games that were heavily sponsored by one or two corporations; "TMNTurtles 2" was solely sponsored by Pizza Hut, and you would be hard pressed not to notice that if you have played it. Though the gameplay on these can actually be good, the heavy ad influence definitely takes its toll on the presentation.
And there are also the "spinoff" games, which market the characters themselves in sort of a self-propagating ad campaign. Pretty much every Mario Game after the original "Super Mario Bros." falls into this category; "Yoshi's Cookie" is a great example. Interestingly, these games can even be pretty good, or pretty horrible. This is a continuing trend today. Konami even had a series of games in Japan based on Konami man, a character that could become several of the other Konami mascots. It's not a bad game, but kind of boring.
And finally, you have the completely original games that presumably gain their influence solely from the designers, such as "River City Ransom" (one of the best), "Lifeforce/Gradius", and "Chubby Cherub (one of the worst). These are a control group, really.
So what's the bottom line? Advertising in games has it's place, much like product placement in movies. It seems reasonable to see Mountain Dew billboards in "Tony Hawk Pro Skater" for PSX, simply because of the company's existing marketing. If that helps the game pull in some extra development cash and makes Pepsico happy, so much the better. At the same time, in game ads must be unobtrusive and appropriate. I'm sure you can imagine the pain a "singing pepsi girl" ad would iflict if it looped every time you paused "Alien Cheese Factory" on your Nintendo Game Dodecahedron.
Erm, carry on.
Hey, that's actually pretty funny.
Um, yuo spelled teh word 'fagot' wrong
Hmm... hope they kept the bribe. :)
You have a great point. I remember a few of the really cool people from HS who were just friendly no matter who you were, or what you looked like, or who you hung with... In fact, I kind of wish I'd been a little more understanding myself. Then again, I did take a lot of shit from a few people, and that kind of tainted my view of the whole group.
I do think I notice a trend. Maybe it's just me, but I wonder if the prevalence of computers hasn't gotten more people away from the traditional roles. I'm noticing a lot more posts that say that HS isn't as bad as it was for me personally, and they seem to be coming from younger people. I wonder if, to some extent, the Jock/Preppie/Nerd/whatever lines are starting to blur. I really hope they are. I mean, who wouldn't like Counter-Strike given a chance to play it?
ROTMFFLMAO!!!
I'm so glad I read at -1; I'd miss this priceless stuff otherwise. God bless AC, all of you.
True, true. The only thing was, there was clearly no sincerity behind his win. He was voted king because the people that didn't like him thought it would be funny. He would have had no more power than he had previously. I can sympathise with his action even though I was never in that position.
LOL! You have to admit, he got you there, my friend. :)
Someone's gonna post it, might as well be me.
FF1 was released for the 8 bit NES in both Japan and the US. There were a few differences, but they were clearly the same game. FF2,3, 4 etc continued to come out in Japan for the NES, but were never released here. However, Square then ported one of the SNES games over here and called it FF2 (us). There's a lot more to it than that, but you get the idea.
Damn, I totally forgot about her fatality... what did she do again?
True. I really don't like the spin Wired puts on a lot of stories. They're almost worse than the AP in terms of whoring to corps.
Right.... and the best part is, you can check their database yourself to make sure that you've been removed...
You silly butt! Don't you know that it's wrong to fight net abuse with net abuse? You better behave next time. :)
Based on examples I've seen from corporate fear-mongers so far, "Negative" means, "We found a comment you made that we don't like."
In other words, actual possession of the offending product becomes immaterial. As do any other technicalities you may dream up. Forget the wording of the "agreement"; this is pure intimidation. If something you say may negatively affect Apogee's image, regardless of truth/merit, you will be asked to remove it.
Not only is it stealing, I think it is a crime tantamount to genocide. It is *WRONG* to use the MP3 file format. When are all of the *THIEVES* going to learn that *STEALING* valuable music from *ANYONE* is *WRONG*?! If we don't act, all the music vendors are going to be completely bankrupt in about five years; I've seen the proof. Then, all we'll have to listen to is the screaming at the Five Minute's Hate. Well, I'm not going to stand for it. I think the punishment should fit the crime. I'm going to meet my local RIAA representative tomorrow. I'm going to encourage her/him to suggest stiff penalties for trafficking in CopyWrought goods the next time s/he has an audience with the senator. In my opinion, the punishment for being a proven *PIRATHIEF* should be Drawing and Quartering; nothing less. Please, Andover, trace the IP addresses of all of the *PIRATHIEFS* and help us bring them to justice. You won't be violating anyone's rights; you'll be enforcing the law. Remeber, if you DON'T act, you could be convicted of illegal acts yourself. Please do the right thing. These *CYBERCRIMINALS* will only multiply if we don't take action immediately.
I hope my message is clear. Be well.