the article could be seen as a summary of the last 100 years of American culture. (or 1000 years of Western culture)Art is the only true form of originality that exists in the world. It takes a creative mind to 'create' something from nothing.
What a load of bollocks. I can't think of any artists in the fields of paint, sculpture, music, poetry, prose, film, etc. who weren't influenced by previous artists. Hundreds of years before the birth of Christ, the Greeks, Romans, and the Jews were saying "There is nothing new under the sun." Picasso was quoted as saying, "Good artists copy, great artists steal." The plots for most of Shakespear's plays were taken from earlier plays. King Lear was taken from an earlier play called King Leir. Hamlet was taken from a piece called Ur-Hamlet. Both of those plays originated from folk tales. To use the terminology of the article, Shakespear "remixed" them, made them his own, and created new works of art that surpassed the originals.
The article was titled "Castlevania come to XBox" for two reasons. First, Curse of Darkness was announced for the PS2 months ago. For PS2 fans, this isn't news. For XBox gamers, this is a pleasant surprise. Second, this is the first Castlevania game to be released on the XBox. It's great for XBox owners that one of the best video game makers (Konami) is bringing one of the longest running and most venerated video game franchises (Castlevania) to their system. I don't own an XBox, and have no intention of purchasing the XBox 360, but it is certainly newsworthy that Konami is testing the waters with what is arguably their top franchise.
I remember when the original Xbox came out. There was a lot of talk about how hard it was to program for the PS2, and as soon as the Xbox closed the sales gap, a lot of developers were going to drop the PS2 and develop for the Xbox exclusively. First, game developers are going to develop for whatever platform is going to line their wallets with fat amounts of cash. The Sega Saturn's well publicized development difficulties were not the reason that developers dropped them. The problem was that Sega of America screwed up every single aspect of marketing the machine, didn't distribute it properly, and overpriced it at launch. The Saturn outsold the PSX in Japan until they prematurely announced the launch of the Dreamcast. If they had supported the Saturn longer, and waited another year on the Dreamcast, the console wars would have been a three-way battle between Sony, Nintendo, and Sega. Microsoft wouldn't have even tried entering the market as a fourth player. Second, good coders learn their way around the system, and learn how to develop for a platform, even if it is problematic at first. Also, there are always companies that provide middleware for a system, taking care of lots of the nuts and bolts portions of the development process. Naughty Dog (creators of Crash Bandicoot and Jak & Daxter) made some good coin as providers of middleware for other developers. They had bright people who understood the PS2's complex architecture, and they were able to ease the development process for other game makers (for a fee!). The console that "wins" the console wars will be the one that targets all markets, makes quality games, and offers a good value for the money.
In a couple of years, Novell might very well catch up with Red Hat. Or maybe Unbuntu or Linspire will overtake Red Hat. However, up until now, SuSE (Novell) has been favored in Europe rather than in the USA, Linspire is aimed at consumers, and Unbuntu is still the new kid on the block. In the corporate world of the USA, its pretty much still Red Hat's game (for now).
As cowardly as they are, I really doubt that the FTC would allow this to happen. Aside from Apple (and OS X won't run on x86 hardware), Linux is the only real competition to Windows. I cannot fathom any circumstances under which Microsoft would be allowed to buy out the competition like that. Granted, there are other Linux distros out there, but Red Hat is the only real player when it comes to Linux in corporate America.
People bought the PS2 for more than the GTA series. Sony's developer support is second to none. The XBox's games look better than PS2 games, but not significantly better. XBox's slight edge in graphics was not enough to overcome the dearth of quality games available for it. Whereas Sony had numerous quality games in every genre (RPGs, platformers, fighting, rhythm games, etc.) the only area where XBox shined was in computer styled shooters. Sony had a little something for everyone, XBox was for the connoisseur of FPS. Also, in pretty much console generation for the last 20 years, the console with inferior hardware was the winner.
NES beat Master System, Genesis beat Super Nintendo, PSX beat Saturn and N64, PS2 beat Game Cube and XBox, and the Game Boy beat the living shit out of the Game Gear, Turbo Xpress, Nomad, Neo Geo Pocket, and the NGage.
The reason the superior (regarding hardware) console lost was due to inferior game selection.
Games, Games, Games
on
Out Of The XBox
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
If Microsoft can convince enough Japanese developers to make games for the system (By this I mean Capcom, Konami, Square, Namco, etc. NOT, games made by ex-employees of these companies that they've hired for their second-party developers) they'll be competitive with Sony. If it's a repeat of this last generation of consoles, they'll wind up with about 15 - 20% of the console market. Halo and a bunch of games that are available on Sony and Nintendo's machines won't be enough to take the console crown.
This is not censorship. There was no internet-wide ban of O'Gara stories. Maureen O'Gara is free to post her stories on another magazine's website, a personal blog, a newspaper, wherever. Sys Con Media decided that it was not in their best interest to carry her stories, so they removed her from their site. They have no obligation to print her material.
Sony could give a rat's ass about the homebrew market. If it sells a few more units, they would be pleased, but they need people to buy games. Palm actually made money when they sold their PDAs, so things like homebrew software was a great selling point. Sony (and other video game hardware makers) lose money on the console and generate profits from game royalties. The Dreamcast has a wonderful homebrew/emulation scene, but that didn't help Sega's financial position. If you can't sell licensed software for a video game console, you're dead in the water.
If people really want to see O'Gara gone, they should contact the companies that advertise in Sys Con Media publications, and let them know that you will not read any Sys Con Media publications while O'Gara is writing for them. If you contact Sys Con Media directly, they'll be overjoyed at the amount of free publicity that's being generated. If enough people contact the advertisers and let them know that the situation is unacceptable, they'll pull their ads. It's pretty hard to run a magazine with no advertising revenue.
You could try out Tiled: http://tiled.rpgdx.net/
Its Java based, so theoretically it should run any OS that has a Java implementation. The screenshots show it running in both KDE and Gnome environments, so it looks like it should run on your Linux box.
Nintendo is NOT a very innovative company. Occasionaly, they'll come out with something new and different, but not very often. Nintendo is actually the complete opposite of innovative; they release the same game over and over on each system. Mario, Metroid, Zelda, Donkey Kong, etc. They're are a very conservative company that minimizes their potential risks, to maximize profits. But this is not a bad thing, as their games, while lacking in innovation, are flawlessly implemented. They make fun little titles with perfect gameplay. Nintendo is the videogame equivalent of meatloaf, not very flashy or exciting, but always tasty and satisfying. Companies like Sega(where my own personal fanboy obsessions lie) are innovative: The Sega Channel, SegaNet, Seaman, Phatasy Star Online, NetLink, SegaCD, Rez, Virtua Fighter, etc. Sega is constantly ahead of every other company when it comes to offering new types of games or ways to play games.
to my mind the N64 controler was one of the best controlers ever devised for 3D games
The N64 controller was an abomination before the eyes of God and everyone involved with it's design will be consigned to the fiery pits of Hell. The SNES controller design IS magnificent(The only competition it has for the best 2D game controller is the Rev. B Saturn controller), but the N64 controller was just plain horrible. It was designed for some sort of mutant type of gamer with three hands. The Saturn 3D pad, the PS2 Dual Shock, the Dreamcast controller and the GameCube pad are all better controller for playing 3D games.
I'm not worried about the price increases hurting the games industry in the long run. It's very similar to the movie industry, where a few bonehead execs decide that it's best to put all of their eggs in one basket and invest $200 million in one summer blockbuster. Enough of these "can't miss" movies have flopped, that all of the major fil studios have set up divisions that concetrate on small indie pictures or foriegn films. They relaized that even though the big $100 -$200 million dollar flicks might bring in a lot of money, they can also lose their shirts if they flop. It's better to make a bunch of cheap (relatively), well-written, well-acted movies which will turn a modest profit, or a modest loss. Donnie Darko cost four million to make, grossed less than a million in the theater, but it has taken off on video. Blair Witch cost fifty grand, but it grossed over $100 million. It's probably not a perfect analogy, but I think there will always be room for cool little games that don't have huge budgets, but are lots of fun and reasonably priced.
We now have long term plans to port Archon: Evolution to both MAC and UNIX platforms. We plan to move away from the DirectX for the core game engineat some point, whichwill make such a migration easier.
They probably started the project as Windows only, and decided after the fact to port it to OS X and other UNIX systems. After they get the 1.0 release out the door, they'll probably move over to a more platform agnostic library like OpenGL.
"it still looks like shit compared to OfficeX or any other native OS X application. Hint: Use native wiggets."
Congratulations, you just flamed one of of the truly good and great Mac coders out there, working his butt off so you can use a quality office package without coughing up $300.You are one dumb fuck. If you took the time to check out the screenshots, there is no excuse for you to have not read the information on the project:
"Here's a caveat though--while NeoOffice/J is remarkably stable and feature-complete, it has not entirely adopted the Mac look-and-feel. There are still some bits of the old Windows/Unix interface in there. For example, the scroll bars do not have the familiar blue Aqua rounded look. The dialog boxes and "widgets" like check boxes and radio buttons are not the gorgeous Apple versions you're used to seeing. And the file chooser may look unfamiliar."
Christianity (or any other religion for that matter) is not anti-scientific. Gregor Mendel is a perfect example of clergy who were also capable, rational scientists. In the Catholic Church, Pope Pius XII stated back in 1950, that evolutionary theory does not contradict Christian beliefs. Back in 1996, Pope John Paul II, reiterated this, and stated that evolution is more than a hypotheis. Just because there are a number of redneck, poorly educated, dumbasses that think the world is only 5000 years old and dinosaur bones are God's way of testing the faithful, doesn't mean that all religious people are idiots.
To do a live action version of Watchmen properly, it should be 12 episode mini-series on HBO. HBO is very supportive of shows that are a little off the beaten path. Do you think that Carnivale or Six Feet Under would have ever been shown on network television? Showtime and FX could probably do a Watchmen mini-series justices as well. They have some decent content these days. Just my two cents.
You're assuming that people downloading Wilco's music is costing them sales. When Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was released, the sales were something like three times the sales of their previous album. The word-of-mouth that was generated by the free downloads on their website BOOSTED sales, instead of diminshing them. Instead of treating their fans like criminals, they're offering them easy access to their music, and assuming that the fans will hear the music, appreciate the good will, and it will translate to increased sales. P2P sharing of music files is similar to when the record industry was howling over radio play of music. Radio play of music didn't hurt the record industry, it helped it. If the record industry was smart, they would get on board and take advantage of P2P networks.
Apple could potentially make a lot of money by porting OS X to x86 archictecture, but more likely than not, they woud get cornholed when their hardware sales dropped. Apple makes all of their money off of hardware sales. The money that they charge for OS X goes to recoup their development costs; it doesn't actually generate any profit for them. Also, as said here many times before, Apple's closed hardware platform allows them to maintain stability. When you know exactly what type of hardware your software is running on, you can optimize it for stability and speed, instead of trying to support every single motherboard, optical drive, and PCI card on the face of the earth. For Apple to move in Microsoft's territory, they would have to give up the hardware business. Apple would probably be better off coming up with a new licensing agreement so other companies could build Mac clones and not bleed them dry by undercutting their prices.
It'll be kind of sad to see Acclaim go. Granted, most of their games were complete shit, but they had some pretty decent ones as well. I used to love playing Wizards & Warriors on my NES back in the day (almost 20 years ago!). They were a major player in the video game world, and now they're gone. I hope the talented employees are able to find work quickly, and I hope that Acclaim's good franchises find homes with publishers that will do them justice. For those curious about Acclaim's library throughout the years: http://gamefaqs.com/features/company/215.html
The list is not quite complete, but gives a pretty good overview.
Slashdot Mirror
Actually, this will be the fourth GTA released for portable systems. GTA I & 2 were both ported to the Game Boy Color, back in '99 and '00.0 69.html 9 89.html
http://www.gamefaqs.com/portable/gbcolor/data/576
http://www.gamefaqs.com/portable/gbcolor/data/562
The article was titled "Castlevania come to XBox" for two reasons. First, Curse of Darkness was announced for the PS2 months ago. For PS2 fans, this isn't news. For XBox gamers, this is a pleasant surprise. Second, this is the first Castlevania game to be released on the XBox. It's great for XBox owners that one of the best video game makers (Konami) is bringing one of the longest running and most venerated video game franchises (Castlevania) to their system. I don't own an XBox, and have no intention of purchasing the XBox 360, but it is certainly newsworthy that Konami is testing the waters with what is arguably their top franchise.
I remember when the original Xbox came out. There was a lot of talk about how hard it was to program for the PS2, and as soon as the Xbox closed the sales gap, a lot of developers were going to drop the PS2 and develop for the Xbox exclusively. First, game developers are going to develop for whatever platform is going to line their wallets with fat amounts of cash. The Sega Saturn's well publicized development difficulties were not the reason that developers dropped them. The problem was that Sega of America screwed up every single aspect of marketing the machine, didn't distribute it properly, and overpriced it at launch. The Saturn outsold the PSX in Japan until they prematurely announced the launch of the Dreamcast. If they had supported the Saturn longer, and waited another year on the Dreamcast, the console wars would have been a three-way battle between Sony, Nintendo, and Sega. Microsoft wouldn't have even tried entering the market as a fourth player. Second, good coders learn their way around the system, and learn how to develop for a platform, even if it is problematic at first. Also, there are always companies that provide middleware for a system, taking care of lots of the nuts and bolts portions of the development process. Naughty Dog (creators of Crash Bandicoot and Jak & Daxter) made some good coin as providers of middleware for other developers. They had bright people who understood the PS2's complex architecture, and they were able to ease the development process for other game makers (for a fee!). The console that "wins" the console wars will be the one that targets all markets, makes quality games, and offers a good value for the money.
In a couple of years, Novell might very well catch up with Red Hat. Or maybe Unbuntu or Linspire will overtake Red Hat. However, up until now, SuSE (Novell) has been favored in Europe rather than in the USA, Linspire is aimed at consumers, and Unbuntu is still the new kid on the block. In the corporate world of the USA, its pretty much still Red Hat's game (for now).
Hopefully this means that we'll be seing the release of the Quake 3 source code soon.
As cowardly as they are, I really doubt that the FTC would allow this to happen. Aside from Apple (and OS X won't run on x86 hardware), Linux is the only real competition to Windows. I cannot fathom any circumstances under which Microsoft would be allowed to buy out the competition like that. Granted, there are other Linux distros out there, but Red Hat is the only real player when it comes to Linux in corporate America.
People bought the PS2 for more than the GTA series. Sony's developer support is second to none. The XBox's games look better than PS2 games, but not significantly better. XBox's slight edge in graphics was not enough to overcome the dearth of quality games available for it. Whereas Sony had numerous quality games in every genre (RPGs, platformers, fighting, rhythm games, etc.) the only area where XBox shined was in computer styled shooters. Sony had a little something for everyone, XBox was for the connoisseur of FPS. Also, in pretty much console generation for the last 20 years, the console with inferior hardware was the winner. NES beat Master System, Genesis beat Super Nintendo, PSX beat Saturn and N64, PS2 beat Game Cube and XBox, and the Game Boy beat the living shit out of the Game Gear, Turbo Xpress, Nomad, Neo Geo Pocket, and the NGage. The reason the superior (regarding hardware) console lost was due to inferior game selection.
If Microsoft can convince enough Japanese developers to make games for the system (By this I mean Capcom, Konami, Square, Namco, etc. NOT, games made by ex-employees of these companies that they've hired for their second-party developers) they'll be competitive with Sony. If it's a repeat of this last generation of consoles, they'll wind up with about 15 - 20% of the console market. Halo and a bunch of games that are available on Sony and Nintendo's machines won't be enough to take the console crown.
This is not censorship. There was no internet-wide ban of O'Gara stories. Maureen O'Gara is free to post her stories on another magazine's website, a personal blog, a newspaper, wherever. Sys Con Media decided that it was not in their best interest to carry her stories, so they removed her from their site. They have no obligation to print her material.
Sony could give a rat's ass about the homebrew market. If it sells a few more units, they would be pleased, but they need people to buy games. Palm actually made money when they sold their PDAs, so things like homebrew software was a great selling point. Sony (and other video game hardware makers) lose money on the console and generate profits from game royalties. The Dreamcast has a wonderful homebrew/emulation scene, but that didn't help Sega's financial position. If you can't sell licensed software for a video game console, you're dead in the water.
If people really want to see O'Gara gone, they should contact the companies that advertise in Sys Con Media publications, and let them know that you will not read any Sys Con Media publications while O'Gara is writing for them. If you contact Sys Con Media directly, they'll be overjoyed at the amount of free publicity that's being generated. If enough people contact the advertisers and let them know that the situation is unacceptable, they'll pull their ads. It's pretty hard to run a magazine with no advertising revenue.
DHTML? Pretty cool stuff back in the IE 4/Netscape 4 days. Now? Deader than year old dogshit.
You could try out Tiled:
http://tiled.rpgdx.net/
Its Java based, so theoretically it should run any OS that has a Java implementation. The screenshots show it running in both KDE and Gnome environments, so it looks like it should run on your Linux box.
Nintendo is NOT a very innovative company. Occasionaly, they'll come out with something new and different, but not very often. Nintendo is actually the complete opposite of innovative; they release the same game over and over on each system. Mario, Metroid, Zelda, Donkey Kong, etc. They're are a very conservative company that minimizes their potential risks, to maximize profits. But this is not a bad thing, as their games, while lacking in innovation, are flawlessly implemented. They make fun little titles with perfect gameplay. Nintendo is the videogame equivalent of meatloaf, not very flashy or exciting, but always tasty and satisfying. Companies like Sega(where my own personal fanboy obsessions lie) are innovative: The Sega Channel, SegaNet, Seaman, Phatasy Star Online, NetLink, SegaCD, Rez, Virtua Fighter, etc. Sega is constantly ahead of every other company when it comes to offering new types of games or ways to play games.
I'm not worried about the price increases hurting the games industry in the long run. It's very similar to the movie industry, where a few bonehead execs decide that it's best to put all of their eggs in one basket and invest $200 million in one summer blockbuster. Enough of these "can't miss" movies have flopped, that all of the major fil studios have set up divisions that concetrate on small indie pictures or foriegn films. They relaized that even though the big $100 -$200 million dollar flicks might bring in a lot of money, they can also lose their shirts if they flop. It's better to make a bunch of cheap (relatively), well-written, well-acted movies which will turn a modest profit, or a modest loss. Donnie Darko cost four million to make, grossed less than a million in the theater, but it has taken off on video. Blair Witch cost fifty grand, but it grossed over $100 million. It's probably not a perfect analogy, but I think there will always be room for cool little games that don't have huge budgets, but are lots of fun and reasonably priced.
"it still looks like shit compared to OfficeX or any other native OS X application. Hint: Use native wiggets."
Congratulations, you just flamed one of of the truly good and great Mac coders out there, working his butt off so you can use a quality office package without coughing up $300.You are one dumb fuck. If you took the time to check out the screenshots, there is no excuse for you to have not read the information on the project:
"Here's a caveat though--while NeoOffice/J is remarkably stable and feature-complete, it has not entirely adopted the Mac look-and-feel. There are still some bits of the old Windows/Unix interface in there. For example, the scroll bars do not have the familiar blue Aqua rounded look. The dialog boxes and "widgets" like check boxes and radio buttons are not the gorgeous Apple versions you're used to seeing. And the file chooser may look unfamiliar."
You, sir, are a complete dickhead.
Christianity (or any other religion for that matter) is not anti-scientific. Gregor Mendel is a perfect example of clergy who were also capable, rational scientists. In the Catholic Church, Pope Pius XII stated back in 1950, that evolutionary theory does not contradict Christian beliefs. Back in 1996, Pope John Paul II, reiterated this, and stated that evolution is more than a hypotheis. Just because there are a number of redneck, poorly educated, dumbasses that think the world is only 5000 years old and dinosaur bones are God's way of testing the faithful, doesn't mean that all religious people are idiots.
It's not likely, but not entirely impossible either. AOL has contributed open source software now and then, such AOL Server.
To do a live action version of Watchmen properly, it should be 12 episode mini-series on HBO. HBO is very supportive of shows that are a little off the beaten path. Do you think that Carnivale or Six Feet Under would have ever been shown on network television? Showtime and FX could probably do a Watchmen mini-series justices as well. They have some decent content these days. Just my two cents.
You're assuming that people downloading Wilco's music is costing them sales. When Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was released, the sales were something like three times the sales of their previous album. The word-of-mouth that was generated by the free downloads on their website BOOSTED sales, instead of diminshing them. Instead of treating their fans like criminals, they're offering them easy access to their music, and assuming that the fans will hear the music, appreciate the good will, and it will translate to increased sales. P2P sharing of music files is similar to when the record industry was howling over radio play of music. Radio play of music didn't hurt the record industry, it helped it. If the record industry was smart, they would get on board and take advantage of P2P networks.
Apple could potentially make a lot of money by porting OS X to x86 archictecture, but more likely than not, they woud get cornholed when their hardware sales dropped. Apple makes all of their money off of hardware sales. The money that they charge for OS X goes to recoup their development costs; it doesn't actually generate any profit for them. Also, as said here many times before, Apple's closed hardware platform allows them to maintain stability. When you know exactly what type of hardware your software is running on, you can optimize it for stability and speed, instead of trying to support every single motherboard, optical drive, and PCI card on the face of the earth. For Apple to move in Microsoft's territory, they would have to give up the hardware business. Apple would probably be better off coming up with a new licensing agreement so other companies could build Mac clones and not bleed them dry by undercutting their prices.
It'll be kind of sad to see Acclaim go. Granted, most of their games were complete shit, but they had some pretty decent ones as well. I used to love playing Wizards & Warriors on my NES back in the day (almost 20 years ago!). They were a major player in the video game world, and now they're gone. I hope the talented employees are able to find work quickly, and I hope that Acclaim's good franchises find homes with publishers that will do them justice. For those curious about Acclaim's library throughout the years: http://gamefaqs.com/features/company/215.html The list is not quite complete, but gives a pretty good overview.