Wow, I got the whole gambit of replies, from the elitist "OMG YOU COULDNT GET IT TO WORK IT WORKS FOR MY GREAT GRANDMOTHER" to "just do this this and that and recompile the whole thing". I figure I'll reply to yours since you at least sound like you have a civil tone.
In my 9 years of running Linux, I've never had a sound card not work. Of course, I only ever use Creative Labs branded equipment, or onboard sound because I'm too cheap to go buy a separate sound card.
I can tell you in all of my attempts, it's never autodetected and worked. The first was on a IBM 486 with a soundblaster card back around 1997. I managed to get redhat installed, and I really didn't expect the soundcard to work, I was just happy the damn thing was running. After that I made an attempt with Red Hat on a NEC P200 with a bo-bo sound card. I don't remember what kind of card it was, but it probably sucked. Of course, No dice. Later I made an attempt on a Tiger P450 with a soundblaster card ( I don't recall which one) using mandrake. The installer was great, but my soundcard didn't work. Arrg. I tried Mandrake on an IBM P400 laptop that I have with an integrated sound card (ie probably sucks) and it didn't work. Lastly, I tried Knoppix on my Athelon 2.2 GHZ with a soundblaster audigy recently. And of course, my sound doesn't work. I'm not sure if I have an Audigy LS or not, I know it's got 5.1 surround sound blah blah blah. I probably do.
But the whole point is if I have to ditch a popular soundcard that was probably worth like $150 to get linux to run with sound, is linux ready for the desktop? Sure I'm only one person, with one story but how many people who have tried switching go through this? I assure everyone I'm not at all trolling, I'd like to get away from MS and I have no love for Macs (I work with them everyday) plus why go from one propritary company to another?
The thing I despise about linux is the time that would go into switching. Stuff like digging around trying to get this that and this to work. Linux still seems a bit...painful.
Sure, I could duel boot, which I've done before but then I find myself booting into windows like 90% of the time because I just want to get shit done without the frustrations of trying to learn an Alien OS and fiddling with hardware stuff when I get home from coding for 8 hours. Maybe that doesn't make me much of a geek, but what I really want out of Linux isn't geekdom or to learn anything new. What I keep hoping for is a stable OS that I can get basic functionality out of.
Anyway, thanks for the advice (that goes for everyone who replied). I'll check tonight and see which SB Audigy I have.
I kid you not, I've installed 3 different flavors of linux on 6 different computers at home with 6 different soundcards for the past 7 years. Linux has NEVER worked with any of my sound cards. The latest attempt was knoppix, with a sound blaster audigy. Anyone ever have any luck with it?
Until the linux desktop has the ease of use windows, or OSX when things go wrong I don't think it will be ready for primetime on the desktop. I wish it was, because neither of the other two OS's are that appealing to me. And while more games are coming out for linux, there still isn't any counterstrike on linux. I've never read about anyone getting it to work correctly with WINE either.
It's mentioned in the article, I know a guy who's like this. It's like a Geek disease or something. He used to come hang out but now he NEVER leaves his bedroom. He's been like that for the past 3-4 years. Last year it got even worse, he doesn't even socialize on IRC anymore! Anyone else know someone like that?
One of my theories is: The worst thing about today's games is that they're developed almost exclusively by men.
This alone is a sexist statement. If it were being made against women in any industry the writer of the article would be up to his ass in feminazi groups bitching about him. But to move on...
At any rate, I'm sure we all agree that today's games (notwithstanding casual games and a handful of other exceptions) are predominantly malecentric,
They should be, since most gamers are still men. I'd hate to break it to you but any medium has a target audience. You think women have poor portrayals in video games? Try watching how men are portrayed on the Lifetime network. Now that *is* sexism.
I don't appreciate that Samus being a woman is a punch line.
This is proof that the articles author has real issues. Samus was seen at the time as empowering to women because there weren't many women as main characters in video games. The fact that this guy takes it as an insult shows he is grasping at straws.
Sorry, no, that's not what I've been taught from living in the Bay Area for most of my life
That explains it!
The original Phantasy Star, a classic role-playing game for the old Sega Master System, incidentally has a female main character. It's a simple story of revenge, and Alis' gender never comes into play at any point.
Is that what this guy wants? Is that what gamers want? Stories devoid of any reference to gender? Give me a BREAK. There are few universal feelings that everyone can relate to. Lust and Love are two of them.
I really hate articles like this, I hate to be attacked for my manhood. Yes, like many men I find women attractive and like to see attractive women in games/movies/whatever. Women are the SAME way. Anyone who has issues with this has deeper issues with their own sexuality. And yes, I like to play games sometimes where I get to save the girl at the end. WHAT THE HELL IS SO WRONG WITH THAT? It's so funny, I hear women on TV all the time talking about "Where did all the real men go". They have all been scared away, because any amount of chilvery that did or does still exist is mistaken for sexism. So what you end up with is these metrosexual, confused, self-hating people like Greg Kasavin. Greg, go chop your penis off stop writing about games and actually make one. I'm sure it will be a hit.
PS- If you hate sexism in games so much, you might want to lay off UT2K4. I think the girls in there might be too sexy for you. If you want, I'll make you an Rosie O'Donald skin for when you play.
Women are constantly raped, captured, beaten, crying, doing stupid things, acting crazy & naive...
And if they don't they are pure evil without feelings.
I've personally sold virtual items for real life cash and I think people are crazy for paying what they do for these things
why not? Say for example you have someone that has a Jedi Account in SWG that took them 200 hours of gameplay to get. (I'm just making these figures up...) if I turn around and buy that account from them for $400 I'm buying their time in place of taking my own time to grind stuff out. And at about $2 and hour, it's a steal. For someone who is a casual gamer because they work long hours, buying an account may be the best way to go.
The only problem with buying and selling anything that exists in a virtual world is that the economies aren't well regulated. One bad patch, bug or hack could screw up the economy pretty badly. Take the above example. Say you buy the Jedi account for $400. Then a week later a patch comes out making it easier to become a Jedi. Now people can do it easly in 30 hours....You just got screwed hardcore.
Way to drive away those independant voters during an election year. Let me tell you something, you can outsource a man's job to the moon but never, EVER fuck with his porn.
Iwant to see software prices drop from this. Instead of corporation pocketing the difference, I was that price savings to go back to the customers. If salaries are going down by 80%, then damn it, I want the software pricing war to start
You see, that is the biggest lie in capitialism (which I am a fan of but...) the fact is that companies don't pass their savings on to the consumer in any meaningful amount.
Any "Keep our jobs!" legislation passed will be borderline racist and not address the problem at all.
I'd hate to break this to you but protectionist actions aren't racist. I know, the mindset today is to label anything that harms any demographic except white males is to call it racist or sexist but it is simply misuse of the word. Wanting to protect your job and economy isn't racist.
Now, the US is the underdog, where things cost far more to produce (and "skilled" staff demand far higher wages). Just those two points mean people will go elsewhere. There's no moral or legal justification to stay.
But there is a moral obligation to stay. Companies that take advantage of the environment for doing business that the American people and American governement provides owe them loyalty.
I find it amusing that you mention that skilled staff demand far higher wages, like there are IT guys saying "NO! I wont work for under 60,000 a year!". Please, I know a programmer who was working for 65k and got laid off after 9/11 then couldn't find work for a year and took a programming job making 35k because of how bad the tech sector is. You may be thinking 35k is still a lot of money, but it isn't in the NY metro area, you can barely live on that. But even at 35k he can't compete with two indians who will work for 12k each.
Seriously, for every H1-B Visa they give out they should force the Indian government to take American workers to live over there. At least then they can compete on even footing.
One of the largest point that seems to stick against people who I game with is that there doesn't seem to be any PVP. I can see it being implemented, but it's just not the competitive game that most people I game with want. Of course, the people I game with are in no case any type of standard or majority, so our opinions don't really count.
You and your friends might not be the standard majority of people playing MMO's now, but the majority of regular video game players would want PvP in an MMO if they were to play them. MMO's are a niche market right now, filled with players who would rather socialize and play PvE than PvP. The vast majority of online games, and games in general have player vs player modes rather than 2 player co-op.
The first MMO that crosses over into "mainstream" will have PvP.
About 2 years ago Comcast removed tech TV from the lineup where I live. People have called and bitched (and bitched and bitched, I know a girl there who does quality control for their "call up and bitch" line) but comcast doesn't care. They don't even offer Tech TV on Digital Cable where I am. Recently, they added them to on demand, so you can watch screen savers for like $3 a pop. Does this mean comcast will get off the cockboat and actually give us tech tv back, at least as a digital cable channel?
I have to find it funny, because the girl I knew who worked there told me the reason tech tv was dropped from basic cable here was that they wanted too much money for the ratings they get....then comcast goes and buys them. LOL
Sun is apparently trying hard to prove that Java works well in all areas by getting some proof-of-concepts in gaming. The problem is that, really and honestly, for most genres, Java is a really lousy choice.
Performance matters in games.
Memory usage matters in games.
Java is fine for small games. recreating UT2004 obviously wont work, but anything cloning from the NES days and before works fine. Have you used Java for game development recently? (even a small one?) It's much better than it used to be.
Game]play should be able to proceed on the home platform, and on mobile platforms, and on your PC at work or school" a viable or attractive one?
Sure it could be done. It could all be developed in the same language even, if Java (JVM) were on all of the machines. I'm sure micro$oft wouldn't like that idea very much though.
I played the first month of SWG hoping it would be like the game the described in their original design documents. It was a boring timesink. Combat was poor, PvP was poor. Waking up without all of my stuff I worked like 40 hours for once, really sucked. etc. While MMO developers may cry that they can't have "real" PvP or Combat because people will just quit, some people quit because PvP isn't properly designed. I'm one of them. Spending 4 hours doing repetitive delivery missions just to declare yourself "eligible" for PvP isn't fun, it's a timesink. I wouldn't mind losing 4 hours of work because I lost a PvP fight. I mind more having to do 4 hours of work for no reason.
The mood of the game was all wrong too. It never felt like the galatic civil war was going on. You never felt when you were in a rebel city that imperials might just storm the place and kill everyone. You never had too much fear running around a neutral city if you were a rebel either. It never felt like a bounty hunter might be hunting you...It felt more like the sims online, with all the dancers and artisans around. The game was more about socializing and economy than war, they should have called it "Star Sims" and made everyone an ewok or a gungan.
The big problem with video games is barrier to entry.
Take a look at the first GTA, that could be made by 1 or 2 people. Counterstrike is another great example. The barrier to entry is high, but it is still possible to make something "fresh" as an independant developer or small game studio. Sure, maybe you can't churn out something as good as the latest carmack FPS engine but that doesn't mean you can't innovate.
The lack of innovation has come from the fact that video games have become a big business in the past 20 years. You can make the same argument that movies are the same way. Video games will continue to grow as the first "Video game generation" gets older. Think about it, most players now are 30-35 or younger...What will the market be like when these people are 80, and everyone plays games?
The Market is growing, not shrinking. Games are becoming more mainstream, which leads companies to produce "safer" tried and true games. Don't worry, there will still be innovation but there will also be more and more "safe" games as video games grow as a real business.
I stay with then after school, and during this time they are allowed to use them for fun -- within limits (no violence, and nothing sexually explicit).
Hmm, did you try pong? Actually lunar lander might be ok for them.
No, they'd be more secure if they were 100% server based like Casinos are. It's not like the outcome of the spin is determined on your pc. However, due to lag reasons, your PC has to know where everyone is even though you shouldn't see them..
Not true. The server keeps track of where everyone is. If someone looks "lagged" on your screen (running in place) and you shoot them, it won't count on the server. Otherwise a player who is lagging could kill everyone on their computer and when they stopped lagging everyone on the server who wasn't lagging would be dead. It doesn't work that way, the server doesn't trust the clients. Same thing goes for your heath, ammo, etc. Take a memory editor and try changing those values while you are online. It doesn't work, trust me.
I've seen aimbot source for Quake 2, Unreal Tournament, UT2k3 and HL. I can remember Unreal Tournament would track a 'playerpawn' which was the actual thing a player was called on the client. HL used something called a OGL hook and some kind of hacked graphics card driver.
FPS games are very careful about not trusting clients. It's not that easy.
Why is it so easy to cheating at online fps games? Can some of you l33t h4x0rz put some effort into cheating in online casinos.
Because Online Casino's aren't open source, and don't encourage modding of their games. Have you ever seen Roulette-"Counter Strike edition"?
FPS games would be much more secure if they weren't so open and didn't allow for modding. I know the open source advocates here are going to scream about how open source is more secure, but it isn't when it comes to games because some things in games can not be patched aftermarket.
However, noted FPS player Dennis 'Thresh' Fong laments an unfortunate side effect for the dextrous: "Because there is this perception that everybody cheats, people that are good are not recognized for their skills. When I play online, I'm always accused of being a cheater."
Did you ever think people might cheat because they might not want to deal with the "dextrous" players who play 4-50 hours a week?
Online gaming needs match making and player rankings built into their in game browsers.
I've seen them sell at auctions where arcades close for about that much. There was a place on RT 22 in Union or Springfield that used to sell arcade games also, but I think they went out of business. You could try giving 8 on the break a call or e-mail and seeing if they have any machines for sale. A lot of the arcades down the shore, especially in seaside heights seem to always have "for sale" signs on their older games. (They also seem over priced, try to bargin down with them).
My friend picked up a Ms Pac Man machine a few years ago for about $300 at an auction, fixed it up a bit and put it in a local movie theatre. It's made it's money back many times over.
By the time I moved out I had my mother using pine over ssh to read her email.
Most of the trouble of Linux is the inertia related to not wanting to learn new things and not being technically difficult.
Yeah I know what you mean. When I was in high school I used to visit my grandmother in a nursing home all the time. She didn't know how to use Windows or E-Mail so I just gave her an old linux box. Like 2 months later she had root at NASA.
From the X-Arcade Website:
Why buy 1 arcade machine like Pac-Man(TM) for $3000
I'm not sure what a Pac-Man arcade game goes for, but you can get a used Ms. Pac Man around here (NJ/NY-Area) for $300-$500. A Used arcade cabinet in good shape goes for about $100. I've seen used arcade cabinets thrown away before because they were no good for conversion kits (Ie, Nintendo's playchoice).
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Wow, I got the whole gambit of replies, from the elitist "OMG YOU COULDNT GET IT TO WORK IT WORKS FOR MY GREAT GRANDMOTHER" to "just do this this and that and recompile the whole thing". I figure I'll reply to yours since you at least sound like you have a civil tone.
In my 9 years of running Linux, I've never had a sound card not work. Of course, I only ever use Creative Labs branded equipment, or onboard sound because I'm too cheap to go buy a separate sound card.
I can tell you in all of my attempts, it's never autodetected and worked. The first was on a IBM 486 with a soundblaster card back around 1997. I managed to get redhat installed, and I really didn't expect the soundcard to work, I was just happy the damn thing was running. After that I made an attempt with Red Hat on a NEC P200 with a bo-bo sound card. I don't remember what kind of card it was, but it probably sucked. Of course, No dice. Later I made an attempt on a Tiger P450 with a soundblaster card ( I don't recall which one) using mandrake. The installer was great, but my soundcard didn't work. Arrg. I tried Mandrake on an IBM P400 laptop that I have with an integrated sound card (ie probably sucks) and it didn't work. Lastly, I tried Knoppix on my Athelon 2.2 GHZ with a soundblaster audigy recently. And of course, my sound doesn't work. I'm not sure if I have an Audigy LS or not, I know it's got 5.1 surround sound blah blah blah. I probably do.
But the whole point is if I have to ditch a popular soundcard that was probably worth like $150 to get linux to run with sound, is linux ready for the desktop? Sure I'm only one person, with one story but how many people who have tried switching go through this? I assure everyone I'm not at all trolling, I'd like to get away from MS and I have no love for Macs (I work with them everyday) plus why go from one propritary company to another?
The thing I despise about linux is the time that would go into switching. Stuff like digging around trying to get this that and this to work. Linux still seems a bit...painful.
Sure, I could duel boot, which I've done before but then I find myself booting into windows like 90% of the time because I just want to get shit done without the frustrations of trying to learn an Alien OS and fiddling with hardware stuff when I get home from coding for 8 hours. Maybe that doesn't make me much of a geek, but what I really want out of Linux isn't geekdom or to learn anything new. What I keep hoping for is a stable OS that I can get basic functionality out of.
Anyway, thanks for the advice (that goes for everyone who replied). I'll check tonight and see which SB Audigy I have.
I kid you not, I've installed 3 different flavors of linux on 6 different computers at home with 6 different soundcards for the past 7 years. Linux has NEVER worked with any of my sound cards. The latest attempt was knoppix, with a sound blaster audigy. Anyone ever have any luck with it?
Until the linux desktop has the ease of use windows, or OSX when things go wrong I don't think it will be ready for primetime on the desktop. I wish it was, because neither of the other two OS's are that appealing to me. And while more games are coming out for linux, there still isn't any counterstrike on linux. I've never read about anyone getting it to work correctly with WINE either.
This just goes to show how out of touch the current lawmakers are with techonology.
It's mentioned in the article, I know a guy who's like this. It's like a Geek disease or something. He used to come hang out but now he NEVER leaves his bedroom. He's been like that for the past 3-4 years. Last year it got even worse, he doesn't even socialize on IRC anymore! Anyone else know someone like that?
A few points about the article..
One of my theories is: The worst thing about today's games is that they're developed almost exclusively by men.
This alone is a sexist statement. If it were being made against women in any industry the writer of the article would be up to his ass in feminazi groups bitching about him. But to move on...
At any rate, I'm sure we all agree that today's games (notwithstanding casual games and a handful of other exceptions) are predominantly malecentric,
They should be, since most gamers are still men. I'd hate to break it to you but any medium has a target audience. You think women have poor portrayals in video games? Try watching how men are portrayed on the Lifetime network. Now that *is* sexism.
I don't appreciate that Samus being a woman is a punch line.
This is proof that the articles author has real issues. Samus was seen at the time as empowering to women because there weren't many women as main characters in video games. The fact that this guy takes it as an insult shows he is grasping at straws.
Sorry, no, that's not what I've been taught from living in the Bay Area for most of my life
That explains it!
The original Phantasy Star, a classic role-playing game for the old Sega Master System, incidentally has a female main character. It's a simple story of revenge, and Alis' gender never comes into play at any point.
Is that what this guy wants? Is that what gamers want? Stories devoid of any reference to gender? Give me a BREAK. There are few universal feelings that everyone can relate to. Lust and Love are two of them.
I really hate articles like this, I hate to be attacked for my manhood. Yes, like many men I find women attractive and like to see attractive women in games/movies/whatever. Women are the SAME way. Anyone who has issues with this has deeper issues with their own sexuality. And yes, I like to play games sometimes where I get to save the girl at the end. WHAT THE HELL IS SO WRONG WITH THAT? It's so funny, I hear women on TV all the time talking about "Where did all the real men go". They have all been scared away, because any amount of chilvery that did or does still exist is mistaken for sexism. So what you end up with is these metrosexual, confused, self-hating people like Greg Kasavin. Greg, go chop your penis off stop writing about games and actually make one. I'm sure it will be a hit.
PS- If you hate sexism in games so much, you might want to lay off UT2K4. I think the girls in there might be too sexy for you. If you want, I'll make you an Rosie O'Donald skin for when you play.
Women are constantly raped, captured, beaten, crying, doing stupid things, acting crazy & naive... And if they don't they are pure evil without feelings.
Sounds like my dating life.
I've personally sold virtual items for real life cash and I think people are crazy for paying what they do for these things
why not? Say for example you have someone that has a Jedi Account in SWG that took them 200 hours of gameplay to get. (I'm just making these figures up...) if I turn around and buy that account from them for $400 I'm buying their time in place of taking my own time to grind stuff out. And at about $2 and hour, it's a steal. For someone who is a casual gamer because they work long hours, buying an account may be the best way to go.
The only problem with buying and selling anything that exists in a virtual world is that the economies aren't well regulated. One bad patch, bug or hack could screw up the economy pretty badly. Take the above example. Say you buy the Jedi account for $400. Then a week later a patch comes out making it easier to become a Jedi. Now people can do it easly in 30 hours....You just got screwed hardcore.
Way to drive away those independant voters during an election year. Let me tell you something, you can outsource a man's job to the moon but never, EVER fuck with his porn.
Iwant to see software prices drop from this. Instead of corporation pocketing the difference, I was that price savings to go back to the customers. If salaries are going down by 80%, then damn it, I want the software pricing war to start
You see, that is the biggest lie in capitialism (which I am a fan of but...) the fact is that companies don't pass their savings on to the consumer in any meaningful amount.
Any "Keep our jobs!" legislation passed will be borderline racist and not address the problem at all.
I'd hate to break this to you but protectionist actions aren't racist. I know, the mindset today is to label anything that harms any demographic except white males is to call it racist or sexist but it is simply misuse of the word. Wanting to protect your job and economy isn't racist.
Now, the US is the underdog, where things cost far more to produce (and "skilled" staff demand far higher wages). Just those two points mean people will go elsewhere. There's no moral or legal justification to stay.
But there is a moral obligation to stay. Companies that take advantage of the environment for doing business that the American people and American governement provides owe them loyalty.
I find it amusing that you mention that skilled staff demand far higher wages, like there are IT guys saying "NO! I wont work for under 60,000 a year!". Please, I know a programmer who was working for 65k and got laid off after 9/11 then couldn't find work for a year and took a programming job making 35k because of how bad the tech sector is. You may be thinking 35k is still a lot of money, but it isn't in the NY metro area, you can barely live on that. But even at 35k he can't compete with two indians who will work for 12k each.
Seriously, for every H1-B Visa they give out they should force the Indian government to take American workers to live over there. At least then they can compete on even footing.
One of the largest point that seems to stick against people who I game with is that there doesn't seem to be any PVP. I can see it being implemented, but it's just not the competitive game that most people I game with want. Of course, the people I game with are in no case any type of standard or majority, so our opinions don't really count.
You and your friends might not be the standard majority of people playing MMO's now, but the majority of regular video game players would want PvP in an MMO if they were to play them. MMO's are a niche market right now, filled with players who would rather socialize and play PvE than PvP. The vast majority of online games, and games in general have player vs player modes rather than 2 player co-op.
The first MMO that crosses over into "mainstream" will have PvP.
About 2 years ago Comcast removed tech TV from the lineup where I live. People have called and bitched (and bitched and bitched, I know a girl there who does quality control for their "call up and bitch" line) but comcast doesn't care. They don't even offer Tech TV on Digital Cable where I am. Recently, they added them to on demand, so you can watch screen savers for like $3 a pop. Does this mean comcast will get off the cockboat and actually give us tech tv back, at least as a digital cable channel?
I have to find it funny, because the girl I knew who worked there told me the reason tech tv was dropped from basic cable here was that they wanted too much money for the ratings they get....then comcast goes and buys them. LOL
Sun is apparently trying hard to prove that Java works well in all areas by getting some proof-of-concepts in gaming. The problem is that, really and honestly, for most genres, Java is a really lousy choice.
Performance matters in games.
Memory usage matters in games.
Java is fine for small games. recreating UT2004 obviously wont work, but anything cloning from the NES days and before works fine. Have you used Java for game development recently? (even a small one?) It's much better than it used to be.
I'd hate to break this to you but...not everyone gets to be an astronaut when they grow up
Game]play should be able to proceed on the home platform, and on mobile platforms, and on your PC at work or school" a viable or attractive one?
Sure it could be done. It could all be developed in the same language even, if Java (JVM) were on all of the machines. I'm sure micro$oft wouldn't like that idea very much though.
I played the first month of SWG hoping it would be like the game the described in their original design documents. It was a boring timesink. Combat was poor, PvP was poor. Waking up without all of my stuff I worked like 40 hours for once, really sucked. etc. While MMO developers may cry that they can't have "real" PvP or Combat because people will just quit, some people quit because PvP isn't properly designed. I'm one of them. Spending 4 hours doing repetitive delivery missions just to declare yourself "eligible" for PvP isn't fun, it's a timesink. I wouldn't mind losing 4 hours of work because I lost a PvP fight. I mind more having to do 4 hours of work for no reason.
The mood of the game was all wrong too. It never felt like the galatic civil war was going on. You never felt when you were in a rebel city that imperials might just storm the place and kill everyone. You never had too much fear running around a neutral city if you were a rebel either. It never felt like a bounty hunter might be hunting you...It felt more like the sims online, with all the dancers and artisans around. The game was more about socializing and economy than war, they should have called it "Star Sims" and made everyone an ewok or a gungan.
The big problem with video games is barrier to entry.
Take a look at the first GTA, that could be made by 1 or 2 people. Counterstrike is another great example. The barrier to entry is high, but it is still possible to make something "fresh" as an independant developer or small game studio. Sure, maybe you can't churn out something as good as the latest carmack FPS engine but that doesn't mean you can't innovate.
The lack of innovation has come from the fact that video games have become a big business in the past 20 years. You can make the same argument that movies are the same way. Video games will continue to grow as the first "Video game generation" gets older. Think about it, most players now are 30-35 or younger...What will the market be like when these people are 80, and everyone plays games?
The Market is growing, not shrinking. Games are becoming more mainstream, which leads companies to produce "safer" tried and true games. Don't worry, there will still be innovation but there will also be more and more "safe" games as video games grow as a real business.
I stay with then after school, and during this time they are allowed to use them for fun -- within limits (no violence, and nothing sexually explicit).
Hmm, did you try pong? Actually lunar lander might be ok for them.
No, they'd be more secure if they were 100% server based like Casinos are. It's not like the outcome of the spin is determined on your pc. However, due to lag reasons, your PC has to know where everyone is even though you shouldn't see them..
Not true. The server keeps track of where everyone is. If someone looks "lagged" on your screen (running in place) and you shoot them, it won't count on the server. Otherwise a player who is lagging could kill everyone on their computer and when they stopped lagging everyone on the server who wasn't lagging would be dead. It doesn't work that way, the server doesn't trust the clients. Same thing goes for your heath, ammo, etc. Take a memory editor and try changing those values while you are online. It doesn't work, trust me.
I've seen aimbot source for Quake 2, Unreal Tournament, UT2k3 and HL. I can remember Unreal Tournament would track a 'playerpawn' which was the actual thing a player was called on the client. HL used something called a OGL hook and some kind of hacked graphics card driver.
FPS games are very careful about not trusting clients. It's not that easy.
Why is it so easy to cheating at online fps games? Can some of you l33t h4x0rz put some effort into cheating in online casinos.
Because Online Casino's aren't open source, and don't encourage modding of their games. Have you ever seen Roulette-"Counter Strike edition"?
FPS games would be much more secure if they weren't so open and didn't allow for modding. I know the open source advocates here are going to scream about how open source is more secure, but it isn't when it comes to games because some things in games can not be patched aftermarket.
However, noted FPS player Dennis 'Thresh' Fong laments an unfortunate side effect for the dextrous: "Because there is this perception that everybody cheats, people that are good are not recognized for their skills. When I play online, I'm always accused of being a cheater."
Did you ever think people might cheat because they might not want to deal with the "dextrous" players who play 4-50 hours a week?
Online gaming needs match making and player rankings built into their in game browsers.
I've seen them sell at auctions where arcades close for about that much. There was a place on RT 22 in Union or Springfield that used to sell arcade games also, but I think they went out of business. You could try giving 8 on the break a call or e-mail and seeing if they have any machines for sale. A lot of the arcades down the shore, especially in seaside heights seem to always have "for sale" signs on their older games. (They also seem over priced, try to bargin down with them).
My friend picked up a Ms Pac Man machine a few years ago for about $300 at an auction, fixed it up a bit and put it in a local movie theatre. It's made it's money back many times over.
By the time I moved out I had my mother using pine over ssh to read her email.
Most of the trouble of Linux is the inertia related to not wanting to learn new things and not being technically difficult.
Yeah I know what you mean. When I was in high school I used to visit my grandmother in a nursing home all the time. She didn't know how to use Windows or E-Mail so I just gave her an old linux box. Like 2 months later she had root at NASA.
From the X-Arcade Website: Why buy 1 arcade machine like Pac-Man(TM) for $3000
I'm not sure what a Pac-Man arcade game goes for, but you can get a used Ms. Pac Man around here (NJ/NY-Area) for $300-$500. A Used arcade cabinet in good shape goes for about $100. I've seen used arcade cabinets thrown away before because they were no good for conversion kits (Ie, Nintendo's playchoice).