Neil Gaiman's winning short story is up on his site, if anyone cares to read it. It's quite good, particularly if you're a fan of Sherlock Holmes, Cthulu mythology, or both.
Re:It ends when they get some tech folks in there
on
More Microsoft Patents
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
And who do you think they'll turn to for "industry experts"?
I'm particularly looking forward to his next work - a manga called "Robot," where he's collaborating with Range Murata (the man behind the art in Last Exile, Blue Sub No. 6, etc.). Here's a link to a small teaser on it... I can't read Japanese, though, so no idea when it's coming out (or if it already has).
Right... Sorry about replying to myself, but here's the link. Looks exactly like the "cloud" they're talking about. Also, I was incorrect to say that it was made by Nullsoft - just by one of the Nullsoft programmers, Brennan Underdwood.
This looks an awful lot like Debris, a program from the guys at Nullsoft that creates a very similar collage from random pictures pulled off of the net. I'll get a link here in a sec...
embroidery - samplers and the like. Seriously, almost every technique used in pixel art was pioneered in embroidery at some point. Plenty of old embroidered things that I've seen make use of various forms of dithering, for example. Pixel-based fonts used in 8-bit games could have been taken right off of some of those old samplers. I suppose these entrepreneurs settled on beads rather than thread because it seemed to hit their stereotypical target audience better.
Go see something by some of the *good* anime creators out there - Miyazaki (Nausicaa, Mononoke Hime, Spirited Away), say, or yoshitoshi ABe (Lain, Haibane-Renmei). You'll find that they avoid those stereotypes like the plague...
Metroid Prime (which was developed by US-based Retro Studios, btw). It has some of the most detailed, lovingly crafted level design I've ever seen. The game actually has unlockable art galleries that you can get by scanning objects within the game (once you've reached, say, 50% of the items that can be scanned, you get a new gallery). It allows you to zoom and scroll nicely, but it would be even better if there was a printed artbook containing these images.
Erm, they *are* adding two new species... just not necessarily the two new species that were leaked today. They've said so; it's one of the selling points of the "Jump to Lightspeed" expansion.
Alright. Cute rant, but remember this: the reason Sony gear is such high quality is because they put a lot of money into research, design, and development. To recoup said monies, they have chosen to make their modestly priced devices compatible only with their own modestly priced accessories. The reason they can price so modestly is that they know they've got that tie in. A Cybershot would probably be another $50 or more if it used SD...and you'd probably look to Fuji or Canon.
In this, Sony's a lot like Apple. They spend time designing things, rather than just doing what everybody else does, and in turn their prices are a bit higher. And in designing them, they look to make really dramatic choices. Like using a single removable media for EVERY device, from camcorders to MP3 players to (I think) the PlayStation itself. Bash Memory Stick all you like, but when it first showed up it was faster than Compactflash and more durable than Smartmedia. Nowadays, you can't buy a Sony device that doesn't have a Memory Stick port in it somewhere, which is pretty cool. In the same time, competing camera and media companies have created no less than 4 different media types, including MMC/Secure Digital and xD. Sony's dogged devotion to Memory Stick has made things easy for customers and made them a pretty penny...there's NO reason for them to switch formats. Do you think that they care about using a standard medium? If they did that, nobody would buy it from them! They have the clout to create a defacto standard, and they're gonna do it.
Personally, I agree with you on Atrac3, but since some of my favorite artists are on Sony or Arista, I'm hoping instead that Apple adds Atrac3 support to the iPod. Because Sony is NOT going to change their mind -- nor should they, because as you list their failures, I could make an equally large list of successes. Things like the Trinitron tube, the Walkman, the compact disc, and the goddamn Playstation.
Nice troll - nearly a verbatim copy of this previous post, with all of the proprietary tech names changed. Mods, mod accordingly.
Easy enough... America's a democracy, and there are a lot more employees than employers. Not that I'm saying it would be a bad thing, necessarily... sometimes I have to shudder at the potential for abuse in laws designed to protect or aid people.
Computers with nVidia cards can have transparent windows when the windows are dragged - as well as transparent drop-down menus, etc. Definitely prior art on this one, and I wouldn't be surprised if nVidia themselves challenged Apple over this one.
It doesn't have an analog control stick, no. But it does have a touch screen that might serve the same purpose in a pinch... move your finger out toward the edge to increase the "tilt", or perhaps if it's pressure sensitive pressing down harder would work as well.
If you think the last boss is a "flying hedgehog," you obviously didn't play the game through to completion (you probably just got your ass whupped by attemptiung Lavos far too early). Spoilers ahead: the "hedgehog" is just a shell, there are two further (and much more difficult) bosses within. One looks something like Cell (of DBZ infamy), the other is a bizarre robot/organic hybrid looking thing that you fight against a rather trippy background of warped time/space.
Mitsuda's music is incredible (this game's still considered to have one of the best soundtracks ever, perhaps surpassed only by its sequel, Chrono Cross). And the battles were about far more than just effects - there was some actual strategy involved (particularly nice that you could avoid monsters if you were careful - no more random encounters). Give Chrono Trigger another shot... it very much deserves it.
Actually no. It means "2 leaf" - hence the US counterpart, 4chan, using a picture of four leaves for its logo (just look at the icon in the address bar if you've got Mozilla/Firefox).
Hell, the GBC had an infrared port. It practically never got used, though (it just wasn't as fast or reliable as the link cable - which is sad, because the link cable is only 512kbps). If Nintendo's really smart, they'll use the same RF technology they used with the Wavebird...
Nix the being bought out/second party thingy - if they were, they wouldn't be announcing new games for two different platforms right now (PS2 and XBOX).
the art's pretty good, and he manages to get his point across without swearing every other word (probably has something to do with the fact that he's an english prof). Some of his humor lacks the necessary punch, though... he's got a way to go before he dethrones the current champions in the comic-strip videogame commentary arena.
This method can get data out of the brain. But, strictly speaking, we've been able to do that for ages (not quite so directly or in a way that you can carry around easily, but still)... It will get a lot more interesting - and potentially dangerous - when we have something that can send info back into the brain, in the form of, say, images added directly to what the eye can see within the brain.
Frankly, I don't think this will matter too much. Factor 5 does great on the technical side of things - their graphics and sound are fantastic - but from my own experience with Rogue Leader, and from what I've heard of RS3, I know that gameplay isn't quite their forte. I've heard particular outcry against the on-foot segments of RS3 for their poor controls... Maybe they're better off creating engines/software for other companies to use, as they did when they developed DivX for the Cube.
That's an idiotic argument - you don't complete the game to see Samus, particularly not in the latest incarnations like Metroid Prime. In Prime, for example, you occasionally catch glimpses of Samus' face reflected in her visor; it's not neat because you see that Samus is, indeed female, it's neat because it's one of the few times in the game that you see Samus as a human being rather than a pseudo-robotic killing machine.
I'd have to disgree at least partly with the two examples given. Though at times they might break the third wall (say, with Psycho Mantis in MGS) or simply not take themselves seriously (all of Earthbound) for the vast majority of the game the player character seems unaware - or at least unaffected by - the fact that they are in games.
Little moments of that sort of third-wall breaking can be good to relieve the monotony, however. I particularly like the little voice that harangues you whenever you pause in Viewtiful Joe ("OK, is it number one, or number two?")
Slashdot Mirror
Neil Gaiman's winning short story is up on his site, if anyone cares to read it. It's quite good, particularly if you're a fan of Sherlock Holmes, Cthulu mythology, or both.
And who do you think they'll turn to for "industry experts"?
I'm particularly looking forward to his next work - a manga called "Robot," where he's collaborating with Range Murata (the man behind the art in Last Exile, Blue Sub No. 6, etc.). Here's a link to a small teaser on it... I can't read Japanese, though, so no idea when it's coming out (or if it already has).
Right... Sorry about replying to myself, but here's the link. Looks exactly like the "cloud" they're talking about. Also, I was incorrect to say that it was made by Nullsoft - just by one of the Nullsoft programmers, Brennan Underdwood.
This looks an awful lot like Debris, a program from the guys at Nullsoft that creates a very similar collage from random pictures pulled off of the net. I'll get a link here in a sec...
embroidery - samplers and the like. Seriously, almost every technique used in pixel art was pioneered in embroidery at some point. Plenty of old embroidered things that I've seen make use of various forms of dithering, for example. Pixel-based fonts used in 8-bit games could have been taken right off of some of those old samplers. I suppose these entrepreneurs settled on beads rather than thread because it seemed to hit their stereotypical target audience better.
Go see something by some of the *good* anime creators out there - Miyazaki (Nausicaa, Mononoke Hime, Spirited Away), say, or yoshitoshi ABe (Lain, Haibane-Renmei). You'll find that they avoid those stereotypes like the plague...
Metroid Prime (which was developed by US-based Retro Studios, btw). It has some of the most detailed, lovingly crafted level design I've ever seen. The game actually has unlockable art galleries that you can get by scanning objects within the game (once you've reached, say, 50% of the items that can be scanned, you get a new gallery). It allows you to zoom and scroll nicely, but it would be even better if there was a printed artbook containing these images.
Erm, they *are* adding two new species... just not necessarily the two new species that were leaked today. They've said so; it's one of the selling points of the "Jump to Lightspeed" expansion.
Nice troll - nearly a verbatim copy of this previous post, with all of the proprietary tech names changed. Mods, mod accordingly.
You misspelled "college education" there. Seriously, that's the primary reason my family invests in anything - three kids to put through college.
Easy enough... America's a democracy, and there are a lot more employees than employers. Not that I'm saying it would be a bad thing, necessarily... sometimes I have to shudder at the potential for abuse in laws designed to protect or aid people.
Computers with nVidia cards can have transparent windows when the windows are dragged - as well as transparent drop-down menus, etc. Definitely prior art on this one, and I wouldn't be surprised if nVidia themselves challenged Apple over this one.
Meh. Concievably that was from lightning that zapped before the camera came on... lame excuse, I know, but it is possible.
It doesn't have an analog control stick, no. But it does have a touch screen that might serve the same purpose in a pinch... move your finger out toward the edge to increase the "tilt", or perhaps if it's pressure sensitive pressing down harder would work as well.
Mitsuda's music is incredible (this game's still considered to have one of the best soundtracks ever, perhaps surpassed only by its sequel, Chrono Cross). And the battles were about far more than just effects - there was some actual strategy involved (particularly nice that you could avoid monsters if you were careful - no more random encounters). Give Chrono Trigger another shot... it very much deserves it.
Actually no. It means "2 leaf" - hence the US counterpart, 4chan, using a picture of four leaves for its logo (just look at the icon in the address bar if you've got Mozilla/Firefox).
Hell, the GBC had an infrared port. It practically never got used, though (it just wasn't as fast or reliable as the link cable - which is sad, because the link cable is only 512kbps). If Nintendo's really smart, they'll use the same RF technology they used with the Wavebird...
Nix the being bought out/second party thingy - if they were, they wouldn't be announcing new games for two different platforms right now (PS2 and XBOX).
the art's pretty good, and he manages to get his point across without swearing every other word (probably has something to do with the fact that he's an english prof). Some of his humor lacks the necessary punch, though... he's got a way to go before he dethrones the current champions in the comic-strip videogame commentary arena.
This method can get data out of the brain. But, strictly speaking, we've been able to do that for ages (not quite so directly or in a way that you can carry around easily, but still)... It will get a lot more interesting - and potentially dangerous - when we have something that can send info back into the brain, in the form of, say, images added directly to what the eye can see within the brain.
Frankly, I don't think this will matter too much. Factor 5 does great on the technical side of things - their graphics and sound are fantastic - but from my own experience with Rogue Leader, and from what I've heard of RS3, I know that gameplay isn't quite their forte. I've heard particular outcry against the on-foot segments of RS3 for their poor controls... Maybe they're better off creating engines/software for other companies to use, as they did when they developed DivX for the Cube.
That's an idiotic argument - you don't complete the game to see Samus, particularly not in the latest incarnations like Metroid Prime. In Prime, for example, you occasionally catch glimpses of Samus' face reflected in her visor; it's not neat because you see that Samus is, indeed female, it's neat because it's one of the few times in the game that you see Samus as a human being rather than a pseudo-robotic killing machine.
Little moments of that sort of third-wall breaking can be good to relieve the monotony, however. I particularly like the little voice that harangues you whenever you pause in Viewtiful Joe ("OK, is it number one, or number two?")
Oh, that one's easy. I'll hide under my desk, I'm safe there. Works with nukes, too!