This reminds me strongly of a certain arrangement that has arisen in Japanese Manga - amateurs, fans, and even other professionals will create manga that is technically copyright infringing (they use the same characters and settings, for example), but is considered allowable because it can sometimes further the original story and push the original creator on to new ideas.
"Animal Crossing Plus" isn't quite the right name - I don't speak Japanese, but I do remember that Animal Crossing was called Animal Forest + in Japan. Since this is 'Doubutsu no Mori e+', I'm guessing one might actually call it Animal Forest e+ (the e designates the e-Reader capability that the previous one lacked). Anyone who actually knows Japanese care to translate properly?
Actually, the "technology demo" would be Rogue Squadron II (Rogue Leader), not III. It was shown at Nintendo's Spaceworld show, when the GameCube was first officially unveiled. Except for perhaps the old Zelda demo (the non-cel-shaded one that had Link in a swordfight with Ganondorf), the Rogue Squadron II demo ruled the show. There was even a playable level - "Endurance," which actually made it into the final game as an unlockable bonus level.
I've always preferred music composed specifically for the game, by someone actually on the staff (particularly Yasunori Mitsuda in Chrono Trigger/Chrono Cross or Koji Kondo in all of the Zelda/Mario games). For certain kinds of games - specifically, RPGs or adventure games - music with vocals in it just wouldn't sound right. I can't imagine the latest pop song in Sonic, for example! Still, for certain kinds of games (Tony Hawk) it seems to work well enough - the music there is just an accompanyment, as it only has to set the mood for the game in a much broader sense.
That's only half the problem. Even if you could make the discs read backwards, you'd have to make the GameCube fit standard DVD size discs, and I'm not entirely sure that the data on the Game Discs is stored with the same density as a normal DVD. Again, for either problem, it's literally more trouble than it's worth, because you will almost certainly wreck your GameCube for playing non-pirated games.
There were a bunch on the N64, too:
Star Wars: Shadow of the Empire
Star Wars: Rogue Squadron
Star Wars: Episode I Pod Racer
Star Wars: Battle for Naboo
Getting an ISO wouldn't be impossible - the real problem is that you have to rig your 'Cube to read it, as GCN discs spin *backwards*. To play a burned disc, you'd have to either heavily modify your computer or your 'Cube, and in the end it would be cheaper to just buy the game rather than pirate it.
Interesting - in their gallery of shots, I noticed that some of the text tidbits for Zelda 2 had been left as Japanese - would that suggest that there was something in the Japanese version that didn't carry over to the US? I know that on many of the old cartridge-based games, certain things on the cartridge never got used - for example, the old classic Chrono Trigger has a quite nice song in it called "Singing Mountains" that never got used in the game - so maybe they're just leftovers that never got used in either the Japanese or the American editions of the game.
One thing that I was a tad dissappointed about was there was no mention of any "enhanced" features. For all three of you out there who bought the Super GameBoy, you might remember that it could do things like change the color palette to be level-appropriate, provide borders for the screen, do full-color title screens, etc. Unfortunately, it doesn't sound like this device will do that for new games - but as it still plays original GameBoy games, I wonder if it would pull the Super GameBoy info out of them and use it?
This game looks quite good visually, and it's got an intriguing premise - possessing various people to advance further - but I must admit to being a bit wary about it, given the company's (n-Space) long and rather unimpressive list of previous titles, most of which seem to be rather forgettable movie licenses or sequels:
Yup - here's the
comic in which he commented on it. And here's his original news post from E3 (scroll down a bit) where he goes into even more detail about just why he thinks it will fail.
Though I agree about Crystal Chronicles being the best for me, seeing as I am a Nintendo fanboy, I can't see the same going for the majority of gamers out there. Not many people have a GameCube, let alone a GameCube, two GBAs, and the requisite GBA-to-Cube link cables. Even the most hard-core FF fan may have trouble justifying over $300 in hardware to play the game properly. Meanwhile, FFX-2 will likely sell far better, because it's a) for the PS2, which has a far larger installed userbase and b) it's a sequel to an already very popular game - on the one hand, it's more of the same, but on the other hand that is apparently what most FF fans want.
If webcomics are allowable... how about the Life o' Reilly, over at ClanBOB? The paintball war saga would make for a particularly fun shooter, methinks.
I'm going to have to disagree with Dijkstra. BASIC is fine, but it's best if the kids learn that it's merely one possible way to implement an idea. To learn to code properly, it's best to step out a level of abstraction and work with pseudocode first; it may be boring, but it gives a more solid foundation in the end.
Almost? It's got far better special effects. We know a lot more about rendering things properly now; things like pixel and vertex shaders didn't even exist back then. Heck, they weren't even really used in Toy Story, which came out long after Tron.
Righto, so they never used any Linux kernel code, but they supposedly a small fragment of it... I suppose that means they never tested any of their code? What kind of contribution to Linux could they possibly make coding like that?:)
Oh, don't worry about them. They can just download "1337 k3y c0dez generator"s off of Kazaa or the peer-to-peer program of your choice. Then Blizzard's support staff will begin to get emails like this: "your key generator doesn't work right, i can't play online. i will never buy a game from blizzard again".
*coughs*
The bottom of the browser line that shows links and progress?
Click the view menu, then check off 'Status Bar' to turn it back on. "They" didn't remove anything, you or someone using your computer did instead.
On the other hand, I find the progress bar is rather misleading - it continues to advance even when no real progress is being made in loading the website. And though the bar also usually shows the address you're being linked to, some sites hide that with a message about the link.
This mod can't really be considered a beta yet, because it isn't features-complete. Many of the models that are slated to be included are missing as of now, making for some rather obvious holes in the game. I tried starting a new game with the mod. The first thing that I noticed was that many of the characters were missing, most notably the robots in the training area. In fact, I did not see a single new model until I hit the game proper. Unfortunately, it was impossible to get very far: apparently the wrench weapon hasn't been modelled yet, making it impossible to use (whether the wrench hits anything or not must be determined by collision detection with the wrench model). The wrench was necessary to escape from the very first room (used to destroy some rubble blocking the way), so I could not even leave the first room. Presumably, it's possible to get further into the game using save files, though.
Cool, but will they update the environments?
on
System Shock 2 Enhanced?
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
These new models look quite cool, but it would also be nice to update some of the inanimate objects (or, if they're being thrown around by explosions, technically animate) and textures - in the screenshots, the models look just a tad incongruous, simply because they're so much more detailed than their surroundings.
BTW, System Shock 2 is now considered abandonware (as already mentioned, its makers went bankrupt), so you can find it on most abandonware sites. Technically speaking, that's not legal, but I believe most of these sites get permission from the original creators of any games they put up.
I'm very much looking forward to this - it's made by some of the same people that made Chrono Trigger. I hope they fix up the graphics a bit before releasing it, though - the 'Cube is capable of much more.
Slashdot Mirror
Yes - the artifacts in MP3 are more noticable with more complex music (for example, orchestral).
I believe the two are heavily affiliated... note the "slate.msn.com" address for the original article.
It's not quite video phones, but in some ways it's better. Here's the recent Slashdot article on it.
This reminds me strongly of a certain arrangement that has arisen in Japanese Manga - amateurs, fans, and even other professionals will create manga that is technically copyright infringing (they use the same characters and settings, for example), but is considered allowable because it can sometimes further the original story and push the original creator on to new ideas.
"Animal Crossing Plus" isn't quite the right name - I don't speak Japanese, but I do remember that Animal Crossing was called Animal Forest + in Japan. Since this is 'Doubutsu no Mori e+', I'm guessing one might actually call it Animal Forest e+ (the e designates the e-Reader capability that the previous one lacked). Anyone who actually knows Japanese care to translate properly?
Actually, the "technology demo" would be Rogue Squadron II (Rogue Leader), not III. It was shown at Nintendo's Spaceworld show, when the GameCube was first officially unveiled. Except for perhaps the old Zelda demo (the non-cel-shaded one that had Link in a swordfight with Ganondorf), the Rogue Squadron II demo ruled the show. There was even a playable level - "Endurance," which actually made it into the final game as an unlockable bonus level.
I've always preferred music composed specifically for the game, by someone actually on the staff (particularly Yasunori Mitsuda in Chrono Trigger/Chrono Cross or Koji Kondo in all of the Zelda/Mario games). For certain kinds of games - specifically, RPGs or adventure games - music with vocals in it just wouldn't sound right. I can't imagine the latest pop song in Sonic, for example! Still, for certain kinds of games (Tony Hawk) it seems to work well enough - the music there is just an accompanyment, as it only has to set the mood for the game in a much broader sense.
That's only half the problem. Even if you could make the discs read backwards, you'd have to make the GameCube fit standard DVD size discs, and I'm not entirely sure that the data on the Game Discs is stored with the same density as a normal DVD. Again, for either problem, it's literally more trouble than it's worth, because you will almost certainly wreck your GameCube for playing non-pirated games.
There were a bunch on the N64, too: Star Wars: Shadow of the Empire Star Wars: Rogue Squadron Star Wars: Episode I Pod Racer Star Wars: Battle for Naboo
Getting an ISO wouldn't be impossible - the real problem is that you have to rig your 'Cube to read it, as GCN discs spin *backwards*. To play a burned disc, you'd have to either heavily modify your computer or your 'Cube, and in the end it would be cheaper to just buy the game rather than pirate it.
Interesting - in their gallery of shots, I noticed that some of the text tidbits for Zelda 2 had been left as Japanese - would that suggest that there was something in the Japanese version that didn't carry over to the US? I know that on many of the old cartridge-based games, certain things on the cartridge never got used - for example, the old classic Chrono Trigger has a quite nice song in it called "Singing Mountains" that never got used in the game - so maybe they're just leftovers that never got used in either the Japanese or the American editions of the game.
One thing that I was a tad dissappointed about was there was no mention of any "enhanced" features. For all three of you out there who bought the Super GameBoy, you might remember that it could do things like change the color palette to be level-appropriate, provide borders for the screen, do full-color title screens, etc. Unfortunately, it doesn't sound like this device will do that for new games - but as it still plays original GameBoy games, I wonder if it would pull the Super GameBoy info out of them and use it?
Mary-Kate & Ashley: Crush Course (2001)
Danger Girl (2000)
Duke Nukem: Land of the Babes (2000)
Mary-Kate & Ashley: Magical Mystery Mall (2000)
Die Hard Trilogy 2 (2000)
Rugrats Studio Tour (2000)
Duke Nukem: Time To Kill (1998)
Rugrats: Search for Reptar (1998)
Bug Riders (1998)
Tigershark (1997)
Yup - here's the comic in which he commented on it. And here's his original news post from E3 (scroll down a bit) where he goes into even more detail about just why he thinks it will fail.
Though I agree about Crystal Chronicles being the best for me, seeing as I am a Nintendo fanboy, I can't see the same going for the majority of gamers out there. Not many people have a GameCube, let alone a GameCube, two GBAs, and the requisite GBA-to-Cube link cables. Even the most hard-core FF fan may have trouble justifying over $300 in hardware to play the game properly. Meanwhile, FFX-2 will likely sell far better, because it's a) for the PS2, which has a far larger installed userbase and b) it's a sequel to an already very popular game - on the one hand, it's more of the same, but on the other hand that is apparently what most FF fans want.
If webcomics are allowable... how about the Life o' Reilly, over at ClanBOB? The paintball war saga would make for a particularly fun shooter, methinks.
I'm going to have to disagree with Dijkstra. BASIC is fine, but it's best if the kids learn that it's merely one possible way to implement an idea. To learn to code properly, it's best to step out a level of abstraction and work with pseudocode first; it may be boring, but it gives a more solid foundation in the end.
Almost? It's got far better special effects. We know a lot more about rendering things properly now; things like pixel and vertex shaders didn't even exist back then. Heck, they weren't even really used in Toy Story, which came out long after Tron.
Righto, so they never used any Linux kernel code, but they supposedly a small fragment of it... I suppose that means they never tested any of their code? What kind of contribution to Linux could they possibly make coding like that? :)
Oh, don't worry about them. They can just download "1337 k3y c0dez generator"s off of Kazaa or the peer-to-peer program of your choice. Then Blizzard's support staff will begin to get emails like this: "your key generator doesn't work right, i can't play online. i will never buy a game from blizzard again".
*coughs* The bottom of the browser line that shows links and progress? Click the view menu, then check off 'Status Bar' to turn it back on. "They" didn't remove anything, you or someone using your computer did instead. On the other hand, I find the progress bar is rather misleading - it continues to advance even when no real progress is being made in loading the website. And though the bar also usually shows the address you're being linked to, some sites hide that with a message about the link.
Utikitarian? Ooh, hawaiian car gods!
This mod can't really be considered a beta yet, because it isn't features-complete. Many of the models that are slated to be included are missing as of now, making for some rather obvious holes in the game. I tried starting a new game with the mod. The first thing that I noticed was that many of the characters were missing, most notably the robots in the training area. In fact, I did not see a single new model until I hit the game proper. Unfortunately, it was impossible to get very far: apparently the wrench weapon hasn't been modelled yet, making it impossible to use (whether the wrench hits anything or not must be determined by collision detection with the wrench model). The wrench was necessary to escape from the very first room (used to destroy some rubble blocking the way), so I could not even leave the first room. Presumably, it's possible to get further into the game using save files, though.
These new models look quite cool, but it would also be nice to update some of the inanimate objects (or, if they're being thrown around by explosions, technically animate) and textures - in the screenshots, the models look just a tad incongruous, simply because they're so much more detailed than their surroundings. BTW, System Shock 2 is now considered abandonware (as already mentioned, its makers went bankrupt), so you can find it on most abandonware sites. Technically speaking, that's not legal, but I believe most of these sites get permission from the original creators of any games they put up.
I'm very much looking forward to this - it's made by some of the same people that made Chrono Trigger. I hope they fix up the graphics a bit before releasing it, though - the 'Cube is capable of much more.