Not only is Sony not going to release a UMD burner, they aren't even going to let developers get their hands on the format. All source code must be sent to Sony on a traditional DVD and then they handle it from there. I read that on Gamespot I believe. I can try to find a link if you want.
Hrm, really? How are developers expected to test their software on anything but development software, then?
The screen is said to be nearly scratch proof. After a couple attempts by the media, the only device that finally made a mark in the screen was a hard stab with a sharp knife.
don't have kids, but if I did I wouldn't take my educational advice from The Christian Science Monitor, for one.
Don't knock The Christian Science Monitor. They're actually a reputable organization, not the conservative reactionaries their name makes them out to be.
I'd really love this for DVDs with virtually unnavigable menus. For example, it takes a lot of work to get to any of the special features on the Memento Special Edition DVD set (or the movie itself if you miss/lose the post-it note it comes with) because they thought it would be cute to test your memory to get to everything. Or, as is the case of the first Harry Potter DVD, when they make you play inane games every time you want to see a particular feature. Can you guys do stuff for that?
It's like TV. If you let your kids watch TV all night rather than doing their homework or studying, they're going to do very poorly in school even if they've been watching PBS or The Learning Channel. More TVs makes it easier for them to go unmonitored and unchecked. In the same sense, if you don't monitor how much your kids use the net, you're going to have academic problems. And, much like having more than one TV, multiple computers means that kids can more easily spend all night surfing the web and talking to their friends (especially if they've got a box in their room). In both cases, parents who take an interest in their kids' activities will have less of a problem.
That makes me curious if there are significant manufacturing problems with the PSP. Considering the fanfare with which Sony announced the PSP and the excitement surrounding it (Slashdot seems to be an odd exception), it doesn't make sense for Sony to quietly cut back production without a secondary motive. Sending back the promo material provides compelling evidence towards this theory. My guess is that they'd either want to keep it for a time closer to the console's release (which is a bit odd since you say EB generally holds on to such materials), or they announced an American release date in it that they can't meet. In the latter case they'd probably want to ensure that the public doesn't take it as official, and recalling the material ensures that it doesn't get accidentally displayed.
Yeah. Nintendo online. We'll see Metroid, Super Smash Brothers, Mario Racers, Mario Golf, and Pokemon. Nothing that I would buy. There goes another horrible console system on the market.
Because those franchises are so much worse than the slew of mediocre Crash Bandicoot games the PSX had, or the "Get this: let's take the colorful and enjoyable Jak and Daxter, and make it all dark and stuff. It'll sell millions!" mentality that Sony's got. Nintendo makes fun games that don't try to hide what they are with brooding wannabe maturity or boring licensed soundtracks (it was cool in Vice City, but that doesn't mean everyone should do it). Instead you get solid games that do interesting new things. Take Mario 64 for example: first 3D platformer ever made, and one hell of a fun game. Or Metroid Prime: it managaes to capture the feel of the original Metroid series in 3D, as well as play completely differently from any other FPS on the market (not to mention that its jaw droppingly gorgeous).
My favorite was getting my laptop back from Dell's repair department, and discovering it now had a pixel stuck on red. Despite the fact that it happened while the laptop was in their hands, they refused to fix it. The problem cleared up with a little massaging, but it still angered me on principle. It really boosts my confidence in a company when they break my stuff and then claim its within tolerances.
If you look at a GC disc, there's a barcode towards the center of the disc in what's called the Burst Cutting Area. This is technology Nintendo licenses from Panasonic. One commonly posited theory is that this barcode contains important information required to make the disc readable (like the TOC). That way would-be modchip makers can attempt to bypass the copy protection routines all they want, but the Gamecube is unable to read anything off of the disc without it. If this is the case, they'll have to totally re-write the DVD routines to get the GC to read copied games.
The PSP on the other hand has been pushed back a year....11/05 so Sony can work on the battery life. Perhaps the market will be ready then.
Correction: The PSP has been rumored to be delayed. Sony maintains that the console is on track for a Christmas 2004 release in Japan. Whether or not that's true, however, is still up for conjecture.
ames were about puzzles and intuition. Now it's twitch skills
You make it sound as if that's different from the way it was then. Have you ever played asteroids? There are a lot of twitch reflexes involved in doing well in that game. Same goes for defender, pretty much any 2D platformers, side/topscrolling shooters, and most other genres. Yes, some games have gotten too complex, I'll admit it. I've been known to give up on a game for being overwhelming myself. But don't over-romanticise the past, or over-generalize the present. Both have had their share of bad games (I welcome you to have a "Which was a bigger fiasco? ET or Daikatana?" debate) and their great ones.
There's also a lot less random access on an audio CD. You spin up the disc, and then just read the data in serial. With a data disc the information needed is more likely to be spread out across the whole disc, meaning more read head movement. Additionally, most data readers are higher speed than a CD player which means the disc is spun faster, eating more power in the process. If you want an example of this in action, find a CD player with an anti-skip buffer, and compare the battery life when the buffer is on and when it's off. Anti-skip tech works by spinning the disc a higher speed to read ahead, and copying the data read into a memory buffer. It demonstrates very nicely how much power a faster drive eats.
So basically what you're saying is "I applaud you Sony for putting an optical drive into your handheld, and then mandating that developers can't take advantage of it." What are you going to do with all the rich content you've stuck onto the UMD when usage of it is rationed out? Like you said, FMV is a big no-no because it's likely to suck a lot of battery. High quality music too. In fact, high resolution textures and models will probably be a problem too, since you can't stick a lot of them in RAM at once. They'll want to keep drive usage to an absolute minimum, so the game's code, textures, models, music, and levels will probably all have to be loaded into memory. That means whatever you're going to do has to fit into 32 MB of RAM. And if that's the case, why bother having a massive storage format at all?
I already had my doubts about the UMD as a format to music/movies (who wants to re-buy all of their media just to use it on one device?), but now it just seems doomed. When it was the only format to be supported by the PSP, it seemed vaguely appealing for people who didn't own iPods or similar music players. But now there's just no point, since you can convert all of your CDs anyway.
The first rule of DMCA is you do not talk about DMCA.
The second rule of DMCA is you do not talk about DMCA.
If someone cracks your security, you send a cease and desist and pretend it never happened.
I wasn't aware that it was going to play any user uploaded format. Perhaps I'm wrong, but I was under the distinct impression that Sony was going to be releasing music on the UMD format for the PSP. Does anyone know if I'm right or not?
How is focusing on gameplay backwards? Without new gameplay mechanics the industry will stagnate. Every game will just become a remake of the last, just with slightly prettier graphics. And while, as Hollywood has shown us in recent years, remakes have a certain appeal, people will get sick of playing the increasingly pretty versions of the same games over and over again. Without a constant flow of new ideas, people will just get bored with video games and the industry will crash.
Slashdot Mirror
So what you're saying is it emulates an API. Right?
If it doesn't simulate hardware then it isn't an emulator, it's a wrapper.
...as "The toilet mac becomes reality". With that kind of portability I guess it's close enough, though.
Not only is Sony not going to release a UMD burner, they aren't even going to let developers get their hands on the format. All source code must be sent to Sony on a traditional DVD and then they handle it from there. I read that on Gamespot I believe. I can try to find a link if you want.
Hrm, really? How are developers expected to test their software on anything but development software, then?
The screen is said to be nearly scratch proof. After a couple attempts by the media, the only device that finally made a mark in the screen was a hard stab with a sharp knife.
Links please?
This is because xbox can use a better encryption because of a faster processor.
You mean "compression" not "encryption", right?
Nintendo is rumored to have decided upon continuing their partnership with ATI. A partnership with nVidia is possible, but not likely.
don't have kids, but if I did I wouldn't take my educational advice from The Christian Science Monitor, for one.
Don't knock The Christian Science Monitor. They're actually a reputable organization, not the conservative reactionaries their name makes them out to be.
I'd really love this for DVDs with virtually unnavigable menus. For example, it takes a lot of work to get to any of the special features on the Memento Special Edition DVD set (or the movie itself if you miss/lose the post-it note it comes with) because they thought it would be cute to test your memory to get to everything. Or, as is the case of the first Harry Potter DVD, when they make you play inane games every time you want to see a particular feature. Can you guys do stuff for that?
It's like TV. If you let your kids watch TV all night rather than doing their homework or studying, they're going to do very poorly in school even if they've been watching PBS or The Learning Channel. More TVs makes it easier for them to go unmonitored and unchecked. In the same sense, if you don't monitor how much your kids use the net, you're going to have academic problems. And, much like having more than one TV, multiple computers means that kids can more easily spend all night surfing the web and talking to their friends (especially if they've got a box in their room). In both cases, parents who take an interest in their kids' activities will have less of a problem.
That makes me curious if there are significant manufacturing problems with the PSP. Considering the fanfare with which Sony announced the PSP and the excitement surrounding it (Slashdot seems to be an odd exception), it doesn't make sense for Sony to quietly cut back production without a secondary motive. Sending back the promo material provides compelling evidence towards this theory. My guess is that they'd either want to keep it for a time closer to the console's release (which is a bit odd since you say EB generally holds on to such materials), or they announced an American release date in it that they can't meet. In the latter case they'd probably want to ensure that the public doesn't take it as official, and recalling the material ensures that it doesn't get accidentally displayed.
They denied the vaunted "Nintendo Seal of Approval" to almost every online game for the GameCube[...]
This is the first time I've heard any of this (especially the FF XI part). You might be right, but can you give me some sources?
Yeah. Nintendo online. We'll see Metroid, Super Smash Brothers, Mario Racers, Mario Golf, and Pokemon. Nothing that I would buy. There goes another horrible console system on the market.
Because those franchises are so much worse than the slew of mediocre Crash Bandicoot games the PSX had, or the "Get this: let's take the colorful and enjoyable Jak and Daxter, and make it all dark and stuff. It'll sell millions!" mentality that Sony's got. Nintendo makes fun games that don't try to hide what they are with brooding wannabe maturity or boring licensed soundtracks (it was cool in Vice City, but that doesn't mean everyone should do it). Instead you get solid games that do interesting new things. Take Mario 64 for example: first 3D platformer ever made, and one hell of a fun game. Or Metroid Prime: it managaes to capture the feel of the original Metroid series in 3D, as well as play completely differently from any other FPS on the market (not to mention that its jaw droppingly gorgeous).
And I'll be the first one to report you to the FCC. Yes, I agree you're an asshole.
My favorite was getting my laptop back from Dell's repair department, and discovering it now had a pixel stuck on red. Despite the fact that it happened while the laptop was in their hands, they refused to fix it. The problem cleared up with a little massaging, but it still angered me on principle. It really boosts my confidence in a company when they break my stuff and then claim its within tolerances.
If you look at a GC disc, there's a barcode towards the center of the disc in what's called the Burst Cutting Area. This is technology Nintendo licenses from Panasonic. One commonly posited theory is that this barcode contains important information required to make the disc readable (like the TOC). That way would-be modchip makers can attempt to bypass the copy protection routines all they want, but the Gamecube is unable to read anything off of the disc without it. If this is the case, they'll have to totally re-write the DVD routines to get the GC to read copied games.
No, but I'm almost always listening to music while I surf, and I'd rather hear my own stuff rather than a 10 second loop.
Note to publishers: gigantic oversized pages made entirely of Flash piss me off, especially when they have loud sound/music I can't turn off.
The PSP on the other hand has been pushed back a year....11/05 so Sony can work on the battery life. Perhaps the market will be ready then.
Correction: The PSP has been rumored to be delayed. Sony maintains that the console is on track for a Christmas 2004 release in Japan. Whether or not that's true, however, is still up for conjecture.
ames were about puzzles and intuition. Now it's twitch skills
You make it sound as if that's different from the way it was then. Have you ever played asteroids? There are a lot of twitch reflexes involved in doing well in that game. Same goes for defender, pretty much any 2D platformers, side/topscrolling shooters, and most other genres. Yes, some games have gotten too complex, I'll admit it. I've been known to give up on a game for being overwhelming myself. But don't over-romanticise the past, or over-generalize the present. Both have had their share of bad games (I welcome you to have a "Which was a bigger fiasco? ET or Daikatana?" debate) and their great ones.
There's also a lot less random access on an audio CD. You spin up the disc, and then just read the data in serial. With a data disc the information needed is more likely to be spread out across the whole disc, meaning more read head movement. Additionally, most data readers are higher speed than a CD player which means the disc is spun faster, eating more power in the process. If you want an example of this in action, find a CD player with an anti-skip buffer, and compare the battery life when the buffer is on and when it's off. Anti-skip tech works by spinning the disc a higher speed to read ahead, and copying the data read into a memory buffer. It demonstrates very nicely how much power a faster drive eats.
So basically what you're saying is "I applaud you Sony for putting an optical drive into your handheld, and then mandating that developers can't take advantage of it." What are you going to do with all the rich content you've stuck onto the UMD when usage of it is rationed out? Like you said, FMV is a big no-no because it's likely to suck a lot of battery. High quality music too. In fact, high resolution textures and models will probably be a problem too, since you can't stick a lot of them in RAM at once. They'll want to keep drive usage to an absolute minimum, so the game's code, textures, models, music, and levels will probably all have to be loaded into memory. That means whatever you're going to do has to fit into 32 MB of RAM. And if that's the case, why bother having a massive storage format at all?
I already had my doubts about the UMD as a format to music/movies (who wants to re-buy all of their media just to use it on one device?), but now it just seems doomed. When it was the only format to be supported by the PSP, it seemed vaguely appealing for people who didn't own iPods or similar music players. But now there's just no point, since you can convert all of your CDs anyway.
The first rule of DMCA is you do not talk about DMCA.
The second rule of DMCA is you do not talk about DMCA.
If someone cracks your security, you send a cease and desist and pretend it never happened.
I wasn't aware that it was going to play any user uploaded format. Perhaps I'm wrong, but I was under the distinct impression that Sony was going to be releasing music on the UMD format for the PSP. Does anyone know if I'm right or not?
How is focusing on gameplay backwards? Without new gameplay mechanics the industry will stagnate. Every game will just become a remake of the last, just with slightly prettier graphics. And while, as Hollywood has shown us in recent years, remakes have a certain appeal, people will get sick of playing the increasingly pretty versions of the same games over and over again. Without a constant flow of new ideas, people will just get bored with video games and the industry will crash.