Unfortunately it won't stop because there will always be some moronic reviewer, market analyser, or some joe blow dreaming up ways how Nintendo will die, which is a bunch of BS to begin with.
Hell, they've been around since the 1890's when they first made card games for crying out loud.
It wont work for the simple reason that a *LOT* of retail stores will just sell violent games to kids anyways to make a profit, especially the homegrown mom n pop video stores like Microplay and others in every town or city trying to compete with the big retailers.
Not to point fingers, but how many people that have had problems with consoles take the time to make sure their product is clean, not sitting on carpet, etc?
I am one of those people who actually puts his Gamecube on top of a dresser with plenty of airflow around it, and also dusts the outside of the machine from time to time - including blowing dust off the lens once in awhile with a cleaned out bottle with narrow tip - it's certainly cheaper then buying canned air all the time.
Because of shovelware (both ways) and warez (the countless copies of Doom floating around the net).
I can't see how DOOM would cause the consoles to overwhelm unless there is a LOT of diehard DOOM Fans out there getting the DOS version of DOOM (for the files) and then running several of the available DOOM ports out there so that DOOM could run on Windows, Linux, or Mac as an example.
1) Games on PC are all the fucking same - you take one engine, change the weapons, art, and levels, and you're done, it's all copycat shit.
This has been true for a lot of games to say the least. ID Software has been known to license out it's Quake (1 2 and 3) and DOOM engines the last few years to other gaming houses who could afford it. Another good example is Micrsoft with Age of Empires II.
The company who made it for Microsoft sold the engine to Lucasarts who made Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds. It's the same engine with different gfx/sound/levels and some addons to it.
2) They never fucking work - they don't work on Linux, almost none work on Mac (at EB, only the Blizzard stuff is Macompatible) and fuck, the ones designed for Windows need some pretty fucking specific hardware to work properly.
I can certainly sympathize with you on this. Many is a game I've had to reinstall once or twice to get it working, especially if the game became corrupt or what not. By rights if there were more Mac games I think they would work better and Apple would make more sales.:)
3) It's too fucking expensive - if I buy a new video card every odd-numbered year and a new processor or ram alternating even-numbered years, I'm spending a shitload but if I buy an XBox one year, a PS2 the next, and get a Gamecube for Christmas or something, I've spent less than the cost of a gaming PC. In fact, I've spent less than the cost of a shitty PC that won't do a fucking thing.
You are right - it is too expensive, and with those cheap Dell/Gateway PC's it's a wonder if they last 2 years before they break down on you. Hell, the last computer I built was in Jan 1999 (AMD K6-2 266 machine) and I am still using it today because I already have a NES/SNES/N64 and Gamecube connected up to a TV and VCR in the family living room, each console with lots of games that still work and that we can still play.
I still spent less on all that over the years then I would have if I had decided to constantly upgrade my PC every 6 months just to play the latest and greatest buggiest boring "trendy" game.
So instead of spending $2500 on a gaming PC with everything, I can spend $730 on every console there is. The GBA I can take with me, the XBox I can play online, and that leaves me with $1700 for games, or a new TV, or extra controllers to play two-player, something you can't do on a PC (unless your roommate wants to drop another $2500).
And you would still have enough to get a Gamecube for xmas now that they have gone down in price and perhaps even a new TV after that too.:)
That $730 will last you 4-5 years on average (or, in the case of the Playstation, 8+ years), while the PC will have to be upgraded constantly, with video cards that cost the same as a new console every two years at least, or video cards that cost the same as two consoles if you want to go hardcore and get the best graphics. On consoles, one purchase is all it takes, and you'll have the best graphics for a long time.
Which is why consoles usually last a lot longer then PC's in the long run. My NES is close to 15 years old now and still works most of the time, my SNES is now 9 years old, N64 6 years old and the Cube I got 2 years ago. Altogether the systems when bought new along with games cost me a lot less then if I had decided to constantly upgrade my PC all the time.
Interesting now that they released a version for Linux. Now the USA can recruit an army of Linux users along with a massive army of Linux Penguins to go in and clean them out.;)
You know - it would be nice if Square would put Chrono Trigger with enhancements on the GBA. CT is still a DAMN good SNES RPG that deserves to be on the GBA.
You mean it's actually up for more then one day or even a week? I guess miracles do happen or the hackers are taking a vacation from "owning" the RIAA site permanetly.:D
I thought I felt safer. I can deal with anthrax spreading pyschos, and Osama, but software pirates just scare the hell out of me. Thank God for Ashcroft.(If only the terrorists could steal some music from the RIAA!)
Software pirates are a lot less harmful then terrorists bombing the WTC towers. The only people pirates harm (and even then you wonder how much) is the greedy software companies who put high prices on software to begin with.
1) The masses - These are the people like you and me who just want to be entertained. The entertainment doesn't even necessarily have to be revolutionary or star-studded to do an excellent job. It just has to entertain.
I most definetly fall into this category as I ever rarely bother to read reviews at any rate. Which is why I have a medium sized library of over 14 titles for my Gamecube including the recent F-Zero GX which never stops entertaining.:)
2) The critics - Game reviewers, movie reviewers, magazine editors, etc.
You forgot to mention the Slashdot critics who seem to pop out of nowhere in various topics.;)
Their job is to critique the product. They're not out strictly to be "entertained." They experience far more than "the masses" in entertainment because it's THEIR JOB to be entertained. Therefore they look for the massively innovative, creative, astounding, jaw-dropping, heart-wrenching thing THEY have seen to date. Which means that most of the time they're right, but they do get it wrong from time to time.
Now that I never did really agree with. I see critics as people who are A) bored and feel they must critique a game or movie and find any flaw no matter how minor, or if no flaw is found, find another way to put it down, or as B) who get paid to do the same thing and shouldn't be paid to do so in the first place. ^_^
3) Other entertainers - They have lost complete touch with reality. They probably would rate a 3D first person shooter where you play an older retarded white man bumbling, drooling, and stumbling your way through an unimpressive, dreary level full of dopey stereotypes in a little redneck town (without actually shooting anyone) as "INSPIRING!", "AWESOME!", and "Truly warming to the soul."
You know - you just described IGN, EGM, and a dozen other online sites and gaming mags!:D
Just know which type of customer you are, and then listen to what similar customers are saying.
If anything it's often better to listen to friends or even associates. All you have to do is look at how IGN, and remember - you can't spell IGNorant without IGN;) reviews and see how they rate a game, then watch how their readers often rate the game much higher and sometimes make more sense then the actual IGN reviewer!
For my money, I think the/. masses have convinced me to ask for MK:DD for Christmas.;)
I know I will be picking up MK:DD for christmas along with Sonic Hero's for the rest of the family this xmas.:)
The two most noteworthy (not best, but of note, ie good, innovative, etc) games on the 'Cube, by popular consensus, are Metroid and Eternal Darkness.
Eternal Darkness IMHO wasn't all that popular of a game. Metroid Prime on the other hand was a lot more popular even though for some users such as myself it did have the occasional freezing problem.
NEITHER OF THESE GAMES WERE DEVELOPED IN-HOUSE BY NINTENDO. These were published by Nintendo, but developed by someone else, hell on a totally different continent.
I fail to see how this is a problem. In the 80's when the home consoles died down until Nintendo revamped the industry in 1985 with the NES, there were not a lot of people around who had the skills to create video games so naturally the gaming companies hired the people they could and developed everything in house.
Now come some 20-25 years later and you see Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft and literally doezens of other video and PC game companies not doing half as much in source developing as they used to. The way I view it it's not a problem, especially since it gives other companies the fame and experience if the game is succesful and it leaves Nintendo and other companies free to focus on other aspects of a game or even other projects.
I honestly do not believe Metroid Prime wouldn't have been as good as it was if all the work would have been done in-house.
Frighteningly, one of them bares a beloved name from my childhood, yet was still not developed by Nintendo. Neither was Mario Golf. You get Mario, but not Nintendo. What does all of this rehash work and outsourcing tell us about Nintendo?
It tells us they have a desire to make better games just like Sony, Microsoft, and all the other companies out there!
They don't care about the games anymore.
If they did not care about the games anymore we would not have LARGE software libraries for the Gamecube and GBC/GBA/GBA SP, not to mention all the other titles ever released for NES/SNES/N64 and GB to say the least.
Nintendo, in 2003, exists to sell trading cards and plush toys.
Funny I don't see much Pokemon in Wal-mart or Toys R US nowadays, and as for the Pokemon trading cards I don't even know if Nintendo handles that, it may likely be a card company like Wizards or somesuch that produces and sells the cards on behalf of Nintendo.
The games exist only to market the toys. This is clearly backwards.
If that were true we'd be seeing a massive flood of Mario, Metroid, Soul Calibur II, Zelda, Sonic and other toys in Wal-Mart and other large stores. Since the only toys I ever recall seeing here in Canada once in a blue moon was the occasional toy based off Ocarina of Time and Mario Kart from the N64, clearly toys are not Nintendo's main business to make plushies and plastic figures.
Make the game first, and if people clamor for tie-in works, then sure go ahead and cash in.
I believe this is what has been done with Ocarina of Time and Mario Kart 64 already. The same probably applies to all the famous (or is that infamous) games on the Playstation too.
Mod me down if it helps your ego, but this post contains only facts. Unpopular ones, but facts alone. And don't forget, Nintendo just posted its first corporate loss since it has been publicly traded. They are not the same company they were in 1986.
I don't see what you replied as facts, more as mere speculation on how you believe the market and Nintendo is currently. You also neglected to mention that since Nintendo did a price drop for the Gamecube in the USA, Canada, and all of Europe, Hardware sales have quadrupled and software sales are more then double what they were in November 2002. Proof? Here's a
I've seen some people here mention about jumping and or hopping with previous Mario Kart games. Well, today Codejunkies released some Action Replay codes for MK:DD and what do we see?
Press Z to Jump
V19U-8TNC-0HPU2
AAXA-C654-4W5K9
U0NN-357W-HNN45
Ah but they won't be as critical because Crash started out as a Mario "wannabe" on the Playstation and since there's a lot of young kid "Playstation gamers" who know nothing else that came before Playstation, they will INSTANTLY give Crash Nitro Kart rave reviews.. *rolls eyes*.
Remember folks - you can't spell ignorant without IGN in the same sentence.:) I stopped reading IGN and all the other gaming mags a long time ago because there is always some hard assed reviewer who is overly critical of every damn thing and will pick on anything no matter how small.
I say let a person judge for themselves with a rental or trying out said game at a friends place before buying it yourself instead of relying on reviewer's.
This was a very informative article which just proves that PS2's are lacking in decent quality control, to the point you have to go to steps such as this to fix the machine.
Although I wouldn't recommend the Q-Tip + Rubbing Alcohol trick on the lens, a guy at my work did this once on his Gamecube lens, and from the way he told me, his gamecube stopped working after that, period. Maybe he drowned his Cube lens with it or something.:p
Basically if you must clean the lens, don't use canned air, just find a cheapy plastic bottle with a narrow tip (IE bottles that come with hair die or what not), clean it out really good, and just use that to gently blow small amounts of air on the lens.
I do this every so often to ensure my Gamecube lens is dust free since my place does tend to get dusty fairly easily and it shows after awhile.
The XBOX and PS2 consoles are flooded full of crappy, boring titles with
A) Poor gameplay B) Poor Graphics C) Both
Sure, the Xbox and PS2 have some good titles (Halo on Xbox and I guess GTA series on PS2) but otherwise they are few and far between.
Whereas in the last year and a half alone Nintendo has dome some damn fine updates to classic games with sequels. Let's see, Metroid Prime, Zelda: Wind Waker, new Mario Kart next month, Mario Sunshine, F-Zero GX, Super Smash Bros Melee, Kirby Air Ride, and more. Some of those games will even have more sequels next year as well.
Heck, now you can even play Kirby and hopefully Mario later next month over the internet with the Warp Pipe Project, using a BBA (Broadband Adapter) a Windows or Linux box and your set.
To begin with, Sega is and was never nowhere near as big as Nintendo to begin with. The only reason Sega suceeded in the 80's and 90's was because they had several 8,16,32, 64 and 128 BIT gaming systems ending with the Dreamcast, and they had their own brand names like Sonic for example.
Seeing as the DC was the first 128 bit console it had actually beat out PS2/Xbox/Gamecube. Alas, seeing as Sega didn't do nearly enough promo and ad work on the DC, it died off and they decided to go into the software business for all 3 consoles.
Nintendo won't go the way of Sega, not since they've been around since the 1890's making everything from card games at first, then later arcade boxes in the late 70's and 80's, and then the NES from 1985 onward to today with the Cube.
Really, who gives a damn if a bunch of Quebec folks complained? I sure as hell wouldn't since the rest of the other provinces in Canada hate Quebec anyway.
And as I recall this wasn't the only game to have Quebec in it. Wasn't there a flight sim game a few years ago that had you do runs against Quebec?:D
Can't belive I also forgot to mention I have a Quantum 120MB IDE drive sitting in my drawer somewhere. I had originally got it in 1992 to use in my then fairly new 386DX-40 machine. That drive had DOS 5, then 6, then Windows 3.1 and finally WFWG 3.11 on it and ran like a champ.
If I were to plug that drive now into a old 486 or 386 machine, heck maybe even a first gen Pentium box - the drive would still boot up and be useful.
Which goes to say the older Quantum hard drives last a LONG time. The one above and the one I've been using now in my old 266MHZ machine here since I bought the Quantum 3 gig new back in 1998.:D
Running this since Jan 1999 and since the original case power supply died out in 2001 I replaced it with a used AT power supply that is around 10 years old. The funny thing is the close to 10 yr old power supply is built a LOT better with stainless steel and is quieter then my old taiwan power supply was lol.
I expect that power supply will last another few years, and when it does die - if ever, then I will finally have to save up for a new machine.:D
Slashdot Mirror
Now the kid who danced for so many hours can now rest his feet which are probably going to be sore for a week to say the least. :D
Unfortunately it won't stop because there will always be some moronic reviewer, market analyser, or some joe blow dreaming up ways how Nintendo will die, which is a bunch of BS to begin with.
Hell, they've been around since the 1890's when they first made card games for crying out loud.
It wont work for the simple reason that a *LOT* of retail stores will just sell violent games to kids anyways to make a profit, especially the homegrown mom n pop video stores like Microplay and others in every town or city trying to compete with the big retailers.
Yoda says "Learn paragraphs and spacing you will! No paragraphs and no spacing is the path to the dark side!"
So all those lines are porn sites? :D
I am one of those people who actually puts his Gamecube on top of a dresser with plenty of airflow around it, and also dusts the outside of the machine from time to time - including blowing dust off the lens once in awhile with a cleaned out bottle with narrow tip - it's certainly cheaper then buying canned air all the time.
I can't see how DOOM would cause the consoles to overwhelm unless there is a LOT of diehard DOOM Fans out there getting the DOS version of DOOM (for the files) and then running several of the available DOOM ports out there so that DOOM could run on Windows, Linux, or Mac as an example.
The company who made it for Microsoft sold the engine to Lucasarts who made Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds. It's the same engine with different gfx/sound/levels and some addons to it.
I can certainly sympathize with you on this. Many is a game I've had to reinstall once or twice to get it working, especially if the game became corrupt or what not. By rights if there were more Mac games I think they would work better and Apple would make more sales.
You are right - it is too expensive, and with those cheap Dell/Gateway PC's it's a wonder if they last 2 years before they break down on you. Hell, the last computer I built was in Jan 1999 (AMD K6-2 266 machine) and I am still using it today because I already have a NES/SNES/N64 and Gamecube connected up to a TV and VCR in the family living room, each console with lots of games that still work and that we can still play.
I still spent less on all that over the years then I would have if I had decided to constantly upgrade my PC every 6 months just to play the latest and greatest buggiest boring "trendy" game.
And you would still have enough to get a Gamecube for xmas now that they have gone down in price and perhaps even a new TV after that too.
Which is why consoles usually last a lot longer then PC's in the long run. My NES is close to 15 years old now and still works most of the time, my SNES is now 9 years old, N64 6 years old and the Cube I got 2 years ago. Altogether the systems when bought new along with games cost me a lot less then if I had decided to constantly upgrade my PC all the time.
Interesting now that they released a version for Linux. Now the USA can recruit an army of Linux users along with a massive army of Linux Penguins to go in and clean them out. ;)
You know - it would be nice if Square would put Chrono Trigger with enhancements on the GBA. CT is still a DAMN good SNES RPG that deserves to be on the GBA.
You mean it's actually up for more then one day or even a week? I guess miracles do happen or the hackers are taking a vacation from "owning" the RIAA site permanetly. :D
Software pirates are a lot less harmful then terrorists bombing the WTC towers. The only people pirates harm (and even then you wonder how much) is the greedy software companies who put high prices on software to begin with.
For freak sakes I meant to say "HER" grandchildren. ;)
Let's see now, $165,000,000 dollars..Hmm. I guess his Great Great Great Great Great Great Grandchildren will be paying it off until 2400 AD..
You forgot to mention the Slashdot critics who seem to pop out of nowhere in various topics.
Now that I never did really agree with. I see critics as people who are A) bored and feel they must critique a game or movie and find any flaw no matter how minor, or if no flaw is found, find another way to put it down, or as B) who get paid to do the same thing and shouldn't be paid to do so in the first place. ^_^
You know - you just described IGN, EGM, and a dozen other online sites and gaming mags!
If anything it's often better to listen to friends or even associates. All you have to do is look at how IGN, and remember - you can't spell IGNorant without IGN
I know I will be picking up MK:DD for christmas along with Sonic Hero's for the rest of the family this xmas.
Eternal Darkness IMHO wasn't all that popular of a game. Metroid Prime on the other hand was a lot more popular even though for some users such as myself it did have the occasional freezing problem.
I fail to see how this is a problem. In the 80's when the home consoles died down until Nintendo revamped the industry in 1985 with the NES, there were not a lot of people around who had the skills to create video games so naturally the gaming companies hired the people they could and developed everything in house.
Now come some 20-25 years later and you see Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft and literally doezens of other video and PC game companies not doing half as much in source developing as they used to. The way I view it it's not a problem, especially since it gives other companies the fame and experience if the game is succesful and it leaves Nintendo and other companies free to focus on other aspects of a game or even other projects.
I honestly do not believe Metroid Prime wouldn't have been as good as it was if all the work would have been done in-house.
It tells us they have a desire to make better games just like Sony, Microsoft, and all the other companies out there!
If they did not care about the games anymore we would not have LARGE software libraries for the Gamecube and GBC/GBA/GBA SP, not to mention all the other titles ever released for NES/SNES/N64 and GB to say the least.
Funny I don't see much Pokemon in Wal-mart or Toys R US nowadays, and as for the Pokemon trading cards I don't even know if Nintendo handles that, it may likely be a card company like Wizards or somesuch that produces and sells the cards on behalf of Nintendo.
If that were true we'd be seeing a massive flood of Mario, Metroid, Soul Calibur II, Zelda, Sonic and other toys in Wal-Mart and other large stores. Since the only toys I ever recall seeing here in Canada once in a blue moon was the occasional toy based off Ocarina of Time and Mario Kart from the N64, clearly toys are not Nintendo's main business to make plushies and plastic figures.
I believe this is what has been done with Ocarina of Time and Mario Kart 64 already. The same probably applies to all the famous (or is that infamous) games on the Playstation too.
I don't see what you replied as facts, more as mere speculation on how you believe the market and Nintendo is currently. You also neglected to mention that since Nintendo did a price drop for the Gamecube in the USA, Canada, and all of Europe, Hardware sales have quadrupled and software sales are more then double what they were in November 2002. Proof? Here's a
I've seen some people here mention about jumping and or hopping with previous Mario Kart games. Well, today Codejunkies released some Action Replay codes for MK:DD and what do we see?
;)
Press Z to Jump
V19U-8TNC-0HPU2
AAXA-C654-4W5K9
U0NN-357W-HNN45
The other MK:DD Codes here
I would imagine this code would come in handy especially if you absolutely have the need to hop and jump SNES style.
Ah but they won't be as critical because Crash started out as a Mario "wannabe" on the Playstation and since there's a lot of young kid "Playstation gamers" who know nothing else that came before Playstation, they will INSTANTLY give Crash Nitro Kart rave reviews.. *rolls eyes*.
Remember folks - you can't spell ignorant without IGN in the same sentence. :) I stopped reading IGN and all the other gaming mags a long time ago because there is always some hard assed reviewer who is overly critical of every damn thing and will pick on anything no matter how small.
I say let a person judge for themselves with a rental or trying out said game at a friends place before buying it yourself instead of relying on reviewer's.
This was a very informative article which just proves that PS2's are lacking in decent quality control, to the point you have to go to steps such as this to fix the machine.
:p
Although I wouldn't recommend the Q-Tip + Rubbing Alcohol trick on the lens, a guy at my work did this once on his Gamecube lens, and from the way he told me, his gamecube stopped working after that, period. Maybe he drowned his Cube lens with it or something.
Basically if you must clean the lens, don't use canned air, just find a cheapy plastic bottle with a narrow tip (IE bottles that come with hair die or what not), clean it out really good, and just use that to gently blow small amounts of air on the lens.
I do this every so often to ensure my Gamecube lens is dust free since my place does tend to get dusty fairly easily and it shows after awhile.
The XBOX and PS2 consoles are flooded full of crappy, boring titles with
A) Poor gameplay
B) Poor Graphics
C) Both
Sure, the Xbox and PS2 have some good titles (Halo on Xbox and I guess GTA series on PS2) but otherwise they are few and far between.
Whereas in the last year and a half alone Nintendo has dome some damn fine updates to classic games with sequels. Let's see, Metroid Prime, Zelda: Wind Waker, new Mario Kart next month, Mario Sunshine, F-Zero GX, Super Smash Bros Melee, Kirby Air Ride, and more. Some of those games will even have more sequels next year as well.
Heck, now you can even play Kirby and hopefully Mario later next month over the internet with the Warp Pipe Project, using a BBA (Broadband Adapter) a Windows or Linux box and your set.
To begin with, Sega is and was never nowhere near as big as Nintendo to begin with. The only reason Sega suceeded in the 80's and 90's was because they had several 8,16,32, 64 and 128 BIT gaming systems ending with the Dreamcast, and they had their own brand names like Sonic for example.
Seeing as the DC was the first 128 bit console it had actually beat out PS2/Xbox/Gamecube. Alas, seeing as Sega didn't do nearly enough promo and ad work on the DC, it died off and they decided to go into the software business for all 3 consoles.
Nintendo won't go the way of Sega, not since they've been around since the 1890's making everything from card games at first, then later arcade boxes in the late 70's and 80's, and then the NES from 1985 onward to today with the Cube.
Really, who gives a damn if a bunch of Quebec folks complained? I sure as hell wouldn't since the rest of the other provinces in Canada hate Quebec anyway.
:D
And as I recall this wasn't the only game to have Quebec in it. Wasn't there a flight sim game a few years ago that had you do runs against Quebec?
Can't belive I also forgot to mention I have a Quantum 120MB IDE drive sitting in my drawer somewhere. I had originally got it in 1992 to use in my then fairly new 386DX-40 machine. That drive had DOS 5, then 6, then Windows 3.1 and finally WFWG 3.11 on it and ran like a champ.
:D
If I were to plug that drive now into a old 486 or 386 machine, heck maybe even a first gen Pentium box - the drive would still boot up and be useful.
Which goes to say the older Quantum hard drives last a LONG time. The one above and the one I've been using now in my old 266MHZ machine here since I bought the Quantum 3 gig new back in 1998.
Running this since Jan 1999 and since the original case power supply died out in 2001 I replaced it with a used AT power supply that is around 10 years old. The funny thing is the close to 10 yr old power supply is built a LOT better with stainless steel and is quieter then my old taiwan power supply was lol.
:D
I expect that power supply will last another few years, and when it does die - if ever, then I will finally have to save up for a new machine.