It was my understanding that a lot of the big development houses can compile simpler games like this to many systems at once, so there's not much extra work to put it on major systems (I don't know about handhelds). From what I read the games are all identical, even the XBOX360 version just runs in a higher resolution.
I think the real point here is the amount of sales for this in comparison to other "kids games" that are also released for all platforms like this. Since LSW is appealing to everybody apparently (even me).
Halo- introduced a dual joystick control scheme that makes FPS very natural on console, utilized slight, almost unnoticable autoaim that makes up for lack of super precise controls, eliminated ridiculous portable arsenels with a two weapon swap system, kept the player always in the action by allowing him to pause under cover to recharge shields, made grenades useful and reflexive by treating them different than other weapons, and Halo 2 changed how we can play online by eliminating the often frustrating server rooms.
All features I believe either unique to Halo or first done well with Halo, and seen in many FPS ever since.
Well, I got curious so I did configure nearly identical systems (BTW Dell's configurator is a nightmare). The Apple ends up over $1,100 cheaper! Mind you the tables might be turned if you settle for one of the Dell's many cheaper workstation graphics options, or need a screen as Dell has good bundle values there.
In the Apple Corner...
Two 2.66GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon 2GB (4 x 512MB) 250GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500 512MB, Stereo 3D (2 x dual-link DVI) 1 x SuperDrive Apple Keyboard and Mighty Mouse - U.S. English Mac OS X - U.S. English AppleCare Protection Plan for Mac Pro/Power Mac (w/or w/o Display) - Auto-enroll
Weighing in at $4,698.00, the Apple boasts slightly less expandability (can "only" hold 16GB of RAM)
You might have bumped up the price of the Dell by including a Quadro. The base mac systems have consumer cards, Quadros are expensive workstation cards with higher precision. Apple only offers the Quadro FX 4500 which is insanely powerful and insanely priced at 1650, and probably a better card than the 128MB one on the dell. It'd be nice to see Apple offer a cheaper workstation class card to be competitive in that field, or does anyone know if you can get away with standard gaming cards for professional work nowadays?
That's essentially what Newton OS is. It's got a dock, and it even does the same "Poof!" animation when you drag stuff out of it. And IIRC there's a menubar at the top that hides when not in use, with all the mac standard stuff. But the newton is both vertical AND horizontal! You can rotate it however you want to use it at the time.
Damn, I'm really misisng my newton, I can't believe I sold it. Actually, what I can't believe that in ten years there hasn't been a PDA as good as the Newton.
Correction: Third parties make attachable fan units because people THINK the 360 has heat problems.
Disclaimer, maybe there are some people who are having trouble, but I don't think it's as bad as it looks to the internet surfer. I had some heat trouble with my original XBOX, no such trouble with the upgrade.
See the Futurama episode "The Devil's Hands are Idle Playthings".
That's not ironic, it's just mean!
Re:Will this make anyone look at OpenOffice.org?
on
Office Delayed, Too
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
It works differently than the standard Mac GUI, and on Mac that's a huge thing, since part of the appeal is that everything works together. For example, GTK uses modal dialog boxes, and on mac those are mostly replaced with the sheets that attach themselves to windows. Mac users are also accustomed to the things like drawers, a standard toolbar system that can be hidden with the big white button, Universal Access and all the other stuff you get automatically by building for Cocoa. It's a mistake to assume that just because an application is meant for expert users (the kind who would be using unix in the first place) that they don't want the OS X GUI. GTK is a great solution for minor applications where it wouldn't get ported at all without it, but for a major program it had better have the system UI, especially in a system where the UI is so much of the appeal. If the GUI didn't matter, would Photoshop still be owning the mac editor market from the GIMP?
Apple doesn't have an office suite. They have a pretty decent presentation program and something for making newsletters and brochures. I've only played around with it (rarely do ANY office type work, and then it usually involves graphs) and it seemed only suitable for light usage. Office for Mac is buggy in my experience and less complete than Office for Windows, on the other hand I think Office for Windows is great (I like the OS integration there).
Re:Will this make anyone look at OpenOffice.org?
on
Office Delayed, Too
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
I think they're referring to the fact that native applications run under Apple's Quartz windowing system and not X11's (good riddence IMHO). A seperate windowing system runs alongside for your X applicatons, but it is definately NOT part of the Mac OS, and the contrast makes X11 seem so mind-bogglingly bad that people are dying for Cocoa versions of UNIX apps when the apps are already running at full speed.
In fact since Mac uses CUPS every printer compatible with the Mac is compatible with linux.
That is innacurate. Mac OS uses both its own native drivers AND cups to get greater compatibility with older printers. And by now there ought to be vendor supplied drivers for every current printer, if not then companies are missing out.
It's an updated version of the 1987 Macintosh game. They even included a classic mode that's EXACTLY like what I played on the iici, right down to the Chicago font. Too bad the "updated" version sucks in my opinion, and classic doesn't have high-score lists.
By the way, Wolfenstein Enemy Territory is fun on Dual displays and it is free for Linux, Windows, AND Mac, so that'd be a good option.
How the heck are you getting Enemy Territory to run in dual display mode? I see no reference to such support from some quick searches, and in fact it crashes often when I have a second monitor just plugged in, though that may be a hardware problem on my end.
I agree that paper looks pretty poor. They don't make many direct arguments as to the flamability of the paint, and spend a lot of time trying to disprove that the paint is solid rocket fuel or that solid rocket fuel would not burn well, something that only disproves the semantics of the paint rumor, if it is a rumor. No discussion is given to the hydrogen, and data is missing in the important places. And solid is mispelled as sold! I would give that paper a C if I was a professor.
Powerbooks are good, but you shouldn't overstate the battery life. I've never gotten more than 3 hours out of my 17 inch powerbook with normal use. I'd say that this laptop might be interesting if only for the upgradable components (all of them). I'm regretting that I'll have to replace my expensive powerbook in order to take advantage of more advanced graphics hardware, the best Apple Powerbook is still not powerful enough for my needs.
It's a huge deal when your X-Box has broken right before the launch of a new system, and you don't know whether to buy a replacement X-Box just to finish your old games and couple new ones, or just hope that the new one will play older titles alright.
I decided to cut my losses and pick up a gamecube (much, much cheaper) for my time without a working system before the new one comes out, which will "probably" be able to play older games.
I'd be willing to bet aperture is heavily dependant upon video card performance, since it looks like it plays the heck out of Core Image and Quartz Extreme, something I was kind of expecting considering the massive improvements in the graphics framework with 10.4. It doesn't really seem like Aperture is a photoshop replacement, more like a Final Cut Pro for pictures as compared to linear editing setups. A very interesting idea actually.
That is indeed interesting, and its the reverse of how devices such as the P5 Glove operate. One way to do motion detection is to flash IR diodes and have a reciever note their position. This was implemented in the P5 for translation data, but reversing the system and putting the sensors by the tv, it could definately be used for rotation.
The problem though is that this method sucks ALOT, in my experience. Even in perfect lighting the data jumps around alot, too much to be really usable. But maybe some filtering mojo was done, and there are two of those recievers...
Whatever it is, I doubt gyros, you make a good point about the price. This is a system meant for 4+ players, to have to buy 4 devices with the expensive stuff built in is crazy, it would make much more sense to put the expensive part in the base station. The junk in a P5 glove style is ludicrously (led's, basically) cheap, I only hope they have improved that stuff some. Or maybe they have cheap gyros now, I haven't really seen much of them.
Where did you here that this controller had a gyroscope? They only mentioned that was what people were rumoring.
I reckon it will work similar to modern virtual reality wands, with the mentioned sensors presumably doing a good job of finaggling the position of the wand. Note this is very similar to how the power glove worked, its just that the technology has gotten a LOT better due to over a decade of research in VR which seems to just now be poised to make an entrance into consumer market.
I've had the chance to play with this kind of stuff in CAVE and related applications, and it always seemed like it could be so much more, if only for some really solid software interface engineering...
This is actually a very smart move by Sony in my opinion. With Sony backing Blu-Ray (I'm assuming) for the next generation DVD format, this will enable Sony to move large numbers of Blu-Ray drives, driving down the price and increasing the installed base of consumers with Blu-Ray players. Not to mention Sony gets to safely sell at a loss with game licensing backing up their bottom line... Leaving Sony and the Playstation as the best vendor and device for Blu-Ray movie playback and price.
WiFi radio won't catch on until internet radio stops sucking. It's nice to have a big selection of music, but having the stream pause inexplicably every now and then due to connection hiccups, or having the average quality be pretty average isn't going to win people over from hi quality, readily available and professional satellite stations.
Actually I think you can adjust the "damn glowing led"... There's settings for that in one of the com.apple.* files in the root library/preferences. You can even make it blink really fast if you want too.
Slashdot Mirror
It was my understanding that a lot of the big development houses can compile simpler games like this to many systems at once, so there's not much extra work to put it on major systems (I don't know about handhelds). From what I read the games are all identical, even the XBOX360 version just runs in a higher resolution.
I think the real point here is the amount of sales for this in comparison to other "kids games" that are also released for all platforms like this. Since LSW is appealing to everybody apparently (even me).
Can't wait for batteries stowed in the overhead bin that has the oxygen tanks to catch fire... >:)
Halo-
introduced a dual joystick control scheme that makes FPS very natural on console,
utilized slight, almost unnoticable autoaim that makes up for lack of super precise controls,
eliminated ridiculous portable arsenels with a two weapon swap system,
kept the player always in the action by allowing him to pause under cover to recharge shields,
made grenades useful and reflexive by treating them different than other weapons,
and Halo 2 changed how we can play online by eliminating the often frustrating server rooms.
All features I believe either unique to Halo or first done well with Halo, and seen in many FPS ever since.
Well, I got curious so I did configure nearly identical systems (BTW Dell's configurator is a nightmare). The Apple ends up over $1,100 cheaper! Mind you the tables might be turned if you settle for one of the Dell's many cheaper workstation graphics options, or need a screen as Dell has good bundle values there.
In the Apple Corner...
Two 2.66GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon
2GB (4 x 512MB)
250GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500 512MB, Stereo 3D (2 x dual-link DVI)
1 x SuperDrive
Apple Keyboard and Mighty Mouse - U.S. English
Mac OS X - U.S. English
AppleCare Protection Plan for Mac Pro/Power Mac (w/or w/o Display) - Auto-enroll
Weighing in at $4,698.00, the Apple boasts slightly less expandability (can "only" hold 16GB of RAM)
In the Dell Corner...
Dell Precision Workstation 690
Dell Precision Workstation 690 (1KW - 64bit):
Dual Core Intel® Xeon® Processor 5150 2.66GHz, 4MB L2,1333 T26146 [222-3751] 1
Operating System:
Genuine Windows® XP Professional, x64 Edition with Media XPP6E [420-5258] 11
2nd Processor:
Dual Core Intel® Xeon® Processor 5150 2.66GHz, 4MB L2,1333 PR264 [311-6280] 2
Graphic Cards:
512MB PCIe x16 nVidia Quadro FX 4500, Dual DVI or Dual VGA or DVI + VGA FX4500 [320-4831] 6
Memory:
2GB, DDR2 SDRAM FBD Memory, 667MHz, ECC in Riser (2 DIMMS) 2G2E6R [311-6354] 3
Hard Drive Configuration:
C1 All SATA drives, Non-RAID, 1 or 2 drive total configuration SATA12 [341-3378] 9
Boot Hard Drive:
250GB SATA 3.0Gb/s,7200 RPM Hard Drive with 8MB DataBurst Cache(TM) 250ST [341-3729] 8
Hard Drive Internal Controller Option:
SATA/SAS Integrated Card - For Connecting Internal Hard Drives SASCTL [341-3435] 24
CD-ROM, DVD, and Read-Write Devices:
48X/32X CD-RW/DVD Combo Drive with Cyberlink Power DVD(TM) COMBO [313-4295] 16
Floppy Drive and Media Card Reader Options:
No Floppy Drive NFD [341-3414] 10
Monitors:
No Monitor Option NMN [320-3316] 5
Keyboard:
USB Entry Quietkey, No Hot Keys U [310-7949] 4
Mouse:
Dell USB 2-Button Mechanical Mouse with Scroll ELD [310-7959] 12
Speakers:
Internal Chassis Speaker,Dell INTSPK [313-3417] 18
Hardware Support Services:
3 Year Business Essential Plan PADP3YR
Weighing in at $5,580!
You might have bumped up the price of the Dell by including a Quadro. The base mac systems have consumer cards, Quadros are expensive workstation cards with higher precision. Apple only offers the Quadro FX 4500 which is insanely powerful and insanely priced at 1650, and probably a better card than the 128MB one on the dell. It'd be nice to see Apple offer a cheaper workstation class card to be competitive in that field, or does anyone know if you can get away with standard gaming cards for professional work nowadays?
Damn, I'm really misisng my newton, I can't believe I sold it. Actually, what I can't believe that in ten years there hasn't been a PDA as good as the Newton.
Disclaimer, maybe there are some people who are having trouble, but I don't think it's as bad as it looks to the internet surfer. I had some heat trouble with my original XBOX, no such trouble with the upgrade.
That's not ironic, it's just mean!
It works differently than the standard Mac GUI, and on Mac that's a huge thing, since part of the appeal is that everything works together. For example, GTK uses modal dialog boxes, and on mac those are mostly replaced with the sheets that attach themselves to windows. Mac users are also accustomed to the things like drawers, a standard toolbar system that can be hidden with the big white button, Universal Access and all the other stuff you get automatically by building for Cocoa. It's a mistake to assume that just because an application is meant for expert users (the kind who would be using unix in the first place) that they don't want the OS X GUI. GTK is a great solution for minor applications where it wouldn't get ported at all without it, but for a major program it had better have the system UI, especially in a system where the UI is so much of the appeal. If the GUI didn't matter, would Photoshop still be owning the mac editor market from the GIMP?
Apple doesn't have an office suite. They have a pretty decent presentation program and something for making newsletters and brochures. I've only played around with it (rarely do ANY office type work, and then it usually involves graphs) and it seemed only suitable for light usage. Office for Mac is buggy in my experience and less complete than Office for Windows, on the other hand I think Office for Windows is great (I like the OS integration there).
I think they're referring to the fact that native applications run under Apple's Quartz windowing system and not X11's (good riddence IMHO). A seperate windowing system runs alongside for your X applicatons, but it is definately NOT part of the Mac OS, and the contrast makes X11 seem so mind-bogglingly bad that people are dying for Cocoa versions of UNIX apps when the apps are already running at full speed.
That is innacurate. Mac OS uses both its own native drivers AND cups to get greater compatibility with older printers. And by now there ought to be vendor supplied drivers for every current printer, if not then companies are missing out.
It's an updated version of the 1987 Macintosh game. They even included a classic mode that's EXACTLY like what I played on the iici, right down to the Chicago font. Too bad the "updated" version sucks in my opinion, and classic doesn't have high-score lists.
Try holding your arm out in front of you for a couple hours on end and tell me it's a fitness problem.
How the heck are you getting Enemy Territory to run in dual display mode? I see no reference to such support from some quick searches, and in fact it crashes often when I have a second monitor just plugged in, though that may be a hardware problem on my end.
I agree that paper looks pretty poor. They don't make many direct arguments as to the flamability of the paint, and spend a lot of time trying to disprove that the paint is solid rocket fuel or that solid rocket fuel would not burn well, something that only disproves the semantics of the paint rumor, if it is a rumor. No discussion is given to the hydrogen, and data is missing in the important places. And solid is mispelled as sold! I would give that paper a C if I was a professor.
Powerbooks are good, but you shouldn't overstate the battery life. I've never gotten more than 3 hours out of my 17 inch powerbook with normal use. I'd say that this laptop might be interesting if only for the upgradable components (all of them). I'm regretting that I'll have to replace my expensive powerbook in order to take advantage of more advanced graphics hardware, the best Apple Powerbook is still not powerful enough for my needs.
PC games don't have cutscenes in HD, the encoded video of which is mammoth compared to the standard 640x480 video I've seen in most PC games.
It's a huge deal when your X-Box has broken right before the launch of a new system, and you don't know whether to buy a replacement X-Box just to finish your old games and couple new ones, or just hope that the new one will play older titles alright.
I decided to cut my losses and pick up a gamecube (much, much cheaper) for my time without a working system before the new one comes out, which will "probably" be able to play older games.
I'd be willing to bet aperture is heavily dependant upon video card performance, since it looks like it plays the heck out of Core Image and Quartz Extreme, something I was kind of expecting considering the massive improvements in the graphics framework with 10.4. It doesn't really seem like Aperture is a photoshop replacement, more like a Final Cut Pro for pictures as compared to linear editing setups. A very interesting idea actually.
That is indeed interesting, and its the reverse of how devices such as the P5 Glove operate. One way to do motion detection is to flash IR diodes and have a reciever note their position. This was implemented in the P5 for translation data, but reversing the system and putting the sensors by the tv, it could definately be used for rotation.
The problem though is that this method sucks ALOT, in my experience. Even in perfect lighting the data jumps around alot, too much to be really usable. But maybe some filtering mojo was done, and there are two of those recievers...
Whatever it is, I doubt gyros, you make a good point about the price. This is a system meant for 4+ players, to have to buy 4 devices with the expensive stuff built in is crazy, it would make much more sense to put the expensive part in the base station. The junk in a P5 glove style is ludicrously (led's, basically) cheap, I only hope they have improved that stuff some. Or maybe they have cheap gyros now, I haven't really seen much of them.
Where did you here that this controller had a gyroscope? They only mentioned that was what people were rumoring.
I reckon it will work similar to modern virtual reality wands, with the mentioned sensors presumably doing a good job of finaggling the position of the wand. Note this is very similar to how the power glove worked, its just that the technology has gotten a LOT better due to over a decade of research in VR which seems to just now be poised to make an entrance into consumer market.
I've had the chance to play with this kind of stuff in CAVE and related applications, and it always seemed like it could be so much more, if only for some really solid software interface engineering...
This is actually a very smart move by Sony in my opinion. With Sony backing Blu-Ray (I'm assuming) for the next generation DVD format, this will enable Sony to move large numbers of Blu-Ray drives, driving down the price and increasing the installed base of consumers with Blu-Ray players. Not to mention Sony gets to safely sell at a loss with game licensing backing up their bottom line... Leaving Sony and the Playstation as the best vendor and device for Blu-Ray movie playback and price.
WiFi radio won't catch on until internet radio stops sucking. It's nice to have a big selection of music, but having the stream pause inexplicably every now and then due to connection hiccups, or having the average quality be pretty average isn't going to win people over from hi quality, readily available and professional satellite stations.
Actually I think you can adjust the "damn glowing led"... There's settings for that in one of the com.apple.* files in the root library/preferences. You can even make it blink really fast if you want too.