Personally the multiplayer aspect is of little interest unless the other players are in the same room. There are too many 12 year olds on Live to make it even a passing curiosity in my book. (Or full of people with 12 year old developmental skills... I don't know which.)
I don't mind immersive environments, but you cannot beat text adventures for immersion. Sure you have to do the imagining, but that's the beauty of it. FPSes bore the life out of me. I've seen MOTS so long, it's annoying.
The Xbox caters to a specific kind of gamer with its multiplayer... and I am not among that group.
Speak for yourself. Morality does exist... it's just harder to find, thanks to the "me" generation.
Greed may be pandemic, but there are enough people who are not to not give up hope.
Personal responsibility needs a resurrection. If that stays dead, we're doomed as a civilization. It's as simple as that. Blaming everything from the water supply to one's 3rd grade teacher has done nothing but foist a victim-ridden society that feels entitled to things and when those things don't come, being unscrupulous until those things appear.
Not to mention, as the article states, these machines are so new and powerful, some of the features are going to take quite a while for programmers to be able to tap into. Imagine that... releasing consoles that will take almost the units' entire lifetime to fully realize their potential.:)
It's rather like the old days, when you'd see the first trickle of titles from say, an Amiga or C= 64. In the beginning, things pretty much looked standard, and in some cases were hard to differentiate from the competition. But as the machine matured, and as programmers learned the innards of these boxes, things got neater, games got better looking and more playable. Basically, as the programmer got efficient and skilled in the inner-workings of a system, the game quality reflected that. (Heck even the games coming from the C= 64 towards the end of its life had some amazing tricks that you wouldn't have thought possible with such a simple 6502 unit.)
These next-gen consoles are no different. Heck, the PS2 has gotten pretty good looking titles that you'd swear it wasn't capable of playing. Even the XBox has some stand-out titles now in its twilight that you'd probably never thought possible at launch (even in spite of the overhyped "horsepower" of the unit, and the insistence on making every FPS imaginable for it.)
The next-gen game systems are going to come and go before they're fully exploited, and like the previous generation of video cards on the PC, will never be pushed to the limit. (I don't blame developers for the most part, because they're hitting a moving target and doing the best they can, with some very sloppy exceptions. But that's to be expected with any system.)
And despite all the hype on graphics etc... I have the most fun playing the old FF games on my PS2. (PS1 titles...) The other great fun (besides the awesomely addicting retro-arcade and 2600 titles) is the Romance of the 3 Kingdoms series. None of these titles are "A-list" graphic titles, but they're darn fun... And like any console game, I can pick up an play for a bit, without spending 3 hours in a manual learning which key does what....and that's what it was supposed to be about before the hype took over... fun. Nintendo "gets it", but for whatever reason cannot translate that to #1 slot dominance anymore. *shrug* Times are changing I guess. I just remember when a console was just a gaming system, and people weren't clamoring for it to be something else, like a DVD player or music box. The marketeers have successfully driven the masses to think they need a DVD/music/toaster/PVR/ez-bake-oven/Pez dispenser for game consoles. Oh yeah, it also plays games!
You missed the point of the article. That is not Sony's intention at all by delaying. It has nothing to do with component pricing and trying to squeeze more profit out of the consumer. It has to do with sustainability. If the XBox 360 has a dearth of decent titles at launch, it might signal a backlash (we've seen the dearth of titles at launch with the PS2... Unless everyone has ADD, I don't think it'll repeat itself.)
Microsoft better have a decent stable of non-shovelware with their new 360, or they might be looking at a long trench battle for 3rd place.
Do you want the hardware now with no games? That seems to be what you're implying...
I'm in no hurry to replace my PS2/XBox/Gamecube. Why is everyone else rushing to do so?
While the Analyst may have some things wrong.... what IS correct is that Sony cannot afford another lackluster launch with crappy titles. And it cannot afford another disastrous Christmas where demand for their console can't be met... It was appallingly bad to see such a problem with a mature item like the PS2.
If the 360 has a title drought like the PS2, people will be more likely to avoid the PS3 if it comes out in Spring with the same drought (or a similar one...) It's the games... and Sony knows that. Their position would be strengthened by waiting 8 months and going for a 2007 launch with oodles of titles and a decent supply of consoles to boot.
It's a win-win. But Sony's not been known to be "all that bright" in recent years....
But you wouldn't have such fine plastic products like inflatable flag balloons, the latest action figure from Saturday morning cartoons, or your region-free DVD player without such noble sacrifices from Chinese prison labor.
A&E had a special about Chinese prisons, and I though I suspect it was censored by China, the information they let out about their prisons makes me never want to go to China, even on a dare.:)
the first part of that might be an officially sanctioned Catholic position (and I seriously doubt every priest is saying the same thing...), but the second stems right from the same root that claimed vaccinations were actually sickness in the needles. Fear of western anything in Africa, and a distrust of anything westerners might do is more at work here than any anti-condom campaign.
One only needs to read about vaccinations and other aid being turned down, thrown out of the village, and ignored simply because someone who doesn't know any better (but is African) spreads vicious lies about it.
Africans are responsible for killing themselves when they allow their leaders to corrupt their thinking with superstitious nonsense. No message from the church, the pope, Jesus himself will change their minds, because they trust no one but themselves... right or wrong... they're destroying themselves from the inside through war, genocide, epidemics....etc.
And I didn't say you implied the church was the cause either. The local traditions are at work here... as evidenced by the virgin rape and failure to be vaccinated. Locals spreading nonsense because in the past Westerners and the like have done something insidious, or perhaps they're just stupid.
Either way, the church can do little to stop it by saying "use condoms! You're gonna screw anyway!" Because they aren't even listening to "abstain... it's the only sure prevention!" You don't think, in a group of people where the infected population rises over 50%, they should practice a little abstinence or monogamy perhaps?
What makes you think changing their message will make them heeded any more than they are now? If all the people are waiting for is validation from the Catholic church about condom use, they're doomed anyway... Because they don't get any confirmation from secular institutions either. As I said, local traditions are completely hosing their worldview, and wrong as that may be, simply changing the message won't bring any less xenophobia to the African people.
I know I'd learn to love my hand in that situation.;) Simple as that... And I'd protect my daughters from roving bands of infected men looking for a "cure." (And you can bet your rosaries the Catholic Church didn't put THAT gem of an idea in their heads...)
This is a tired argument. I leave it to you to google the real reasons for the AIDs epidemic. Men there have the belief (in some communities) that having sex with a virgin girl will cure them of AIDS, among other gems. Like the fact that (totally unrelated) warlords were telling their citizens that European/Americans were putting diseases in the Polio vaccines and such. Blaming the Catholic church (who incidentally is doing quite a bit to ease the suffering in AIDS stricken areas) is ludicrous.
Blaming Catholics is convenient... so I shouldn't be the one to burst your bubble...
Google it. You'll be surprised how your conclusions are those of what you heard on TV, rather than the facts.
..and that lines the pockets of countless politicians. (so do most industries... it's a shame, really)
They produce billions in exports, then why is copyright infringement "going to kill them?" Infringement (I am not going to engage in their wordplay) goes on... yet they still export billions. They are still making money off their movies, in spite of P2P. They are still raking in the cash on CD sales in spite of Kazaaa, etc.(no decline this time... wonder why they're so quiet?)
I think the FBI and whoever else targeted this sting need to worry about the vendors of pirated goods coming from China and other places, but that would mean saying something unkind to China... and we don't want that... so let's just annoy and harass the networks... then make vague pronouncements like "we will find you all, you filthy bastards..."
Which is entirely reasonable in the time frame of the intel switchover. Once you're on Tiger, your PPC will be able to take advantage of the FAT binaries and whatnot, thereby extending the life of your Mac even more.
The features added to enhance the G5's are enough of a reason to use Tiger anyway... for others, it might be the intel switch that makes it compelling enough.
They got it done, didn't they? You act as if they are promising and never delivering.
Are you angry because they didn't "gear up" fast enough, putting out incredibly buggy software that was a band-aid on the real problem of architecture age? *cough* Windows *cough* Are you angry that they promised removal of the resource limitation but only added a silly hack? There's enough distortion to go around.... Apple just happens to actually deliver on their promises.. though sometimes it takes quite a while.... Perhaps they should not announce them so early, so as not to offend people like you.
Where's the promise of removing BIOS from PCs? That legacy IRQ crapola we've been stuck with for decades? Where's the improvement on the godawful registry? THOSE are not on the horizon, and when they do show up, they'll be DRM-crippled monstrosities that make the RIAA and MPAA cream in their Depends.
You're mixing the two up. 10.3 runs great with or without QE. It just doesn't do it as "cool" as it could with QE enabled.
It does not break essential app behavior, (unless it's eye candy), nor does it make your mail, browser, WP, calendar, iphoto, IM or other app not function.
If they were in the market to drop PPC "as fast as possible", ALL Macs would go Intel at once. The fact that the PPC will be used in the Powermacs for the longest, tells us that this is a transition.... not a cliff. The 68K to PPC transition was not an overnight thing either (I actually remember it.)
Just because the world goes Intel tomorrow doesn't break your PPC today. This transition will be fine, and everyone's PPC boxes will not turn into Pumpkins when the first Mac Mini and iBook come out with Pentium chips.
OS X is not THAT much of a moving target. I still run Panther (and Jaguar and Tiger) and can upgrade to the latest software for most apps I choose to, even on Jaguar (for some things). (I don't choose to for many... because I'm not interested in the treadmill.) My Jaguar box can't use some things, but then again... neither can my Win98 box. Some things just require 2000/XP. It just depends. Mission critical app with features you need? You might consider upgrading your OS. Otherwise, if things are running fine, you can continue to use your machine until it physically bites the dust.
No one is holding a gun to your head to "get tiger or else!" There are some significant updates to each OSX iteration, but nothing "breaks" the previous OS... because those apps STILL work. Sure, there's not an actively developed cadre of software targeting Jaguar... (or as much as Panther/Tiger) but it's not "obsolete" until it becomes un-useful for the person running it. Not when "ooh, look! no shiny stuff made for my OS anymore! Time to hop on the upgrade treadmill!" It's all about perspective. Some people live for being on the same page as everyone else... others can use their older OSes and machines until they freeze up from extreme old age. Just because "shiny-fast-new!" comes out, doesn't mean you HAVE to upgrade. It never has. Or there'd be no Win98/95 boxes left on earth. And we KNOW that is not the case.
And since the migration hasn't even started yet... everything anyone says about it is pure speculation...
You can put decent locks on the case. Trouble is, it takes a bit more effort to do so.
The key here is, like a locked car, making it more difficult (not impossible) to get into. Unless this is a case of "movie-of-the-week" intrusion... most of the time people will look for something easier to compromise...
Or just make the lock on the door to the room the computer is in more secure. Lock it behind two doors.;) Something that will test the determination of someone wanting to get to that computer.
Otherwise, what's the point of even locking the screen?
When I bought my A500, I had a choice of one game to get with it (that's about all the money I had..), so I chose Druid 2, from the box screenshots.;)
Since it was my first Amiga game, I remember it well... it was quite a while before I got any others... holidays are spaced too far apart, and I needed gas money too.:P Ahh... I too miss my Amiga. What I really miss is the exclusivity of computers. Most people back then knew about them, but they were still curiosities. They were hobbies. Sure computers now can be hobbies, but not like they were when the computer industry was in its infancy.
I also think that they, like the Tramiel era of marketing (or lack thereof), wanted the Amiga to "sell itself" like the C-64 did. There were announcements and magazine ads (for both the 64 and Amiga), but as for marketing "blitzes", C= was not known for promoting anything. The "infomercials" made by ILM were incomprehensible rubbish that didn't sell the Amiga any better than it had before. Heck, even Tramiel's Atari did little in the way of compelling marketing.;)
People just didn't know the Amiga was as good as it was, and thus, it languished.
Couple that with the distinctly piss-poor R&D, and you've got the nails, the wood, and the grave dug.... all you need is to finish the coffin.
(Up until near the end the Amiga was still holding on to 1985 like a favorite blanket... and the rest of the world was catching up to it...)
I loved my A500. I even bought a nice GVP hard disk attachment for it, as well as Kickstart/W.B. 2.0 (got to insert the ROM myself.. heh).
After the mouse died, I decided to pack it up and move on... I still miss it from time to time, but I have a nice OS X computer to make me feel better.;)
While it is true that some bootleg sales networks in the rest of the world are run by criminal elements, not everything is done that way. Quite a few smaller operations in certain countries that have the average monthly income of your coffee budget for a week exist because the "legal" barrier of entry is beyond the reach of a majority of the population. I'd rather they not get exposed to the crapola being forced out of hollyweird's ass, but I guess they're really curious. As for software, I'd rather they use Linux or BSD and ditch the Borg. (But I can only speak for me.)
Whether or not someone agrees with their model is another matter (it's indeed a grey area in terms of pricing and whatnot.) It is technically infringement, but it cannot possibly be lost revenue, since the people could not afford it to begin with. If we elevate their livelihood to near-US levels, they will be able to afford the goods, but there will just be another tiny country of poor people waiting in the wings to be forced to make goods at pennies a day. And the cycle perpetuates itself.
I'm just saying it's not always Russian mafia and the Triads who are making any money off of pirated goods. I'd rather see P2P and other means undercut these pirates by making it available free instead.:) Take their market for illegal goods out from under them.
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Personally the multiplayer aspect is of little interest unless the other players are in the same room. There are too many 12 year olds on Live to make it even a passing curiosity in my book. (Or full of people with 12 year old developmental skills... I don't know which.)
I don't mind immersive environments, but you cannot beat text adventures for immersion. Sure you have to do the imagining, but that's the beauty of it. FPSes bore the life out of me. I've seen MOTS so long, it's annoying.
The Xbox caters to a specific kind of gamer with its multiplayer... and I am not among that group.
Speak for yourself. Morality does exist... it's just harder to find, thanks to the "me" generation.
Greed may be pandemic, but there are enough people who are not to not give up hope.
Personal responsibility needs a resurrection. If that stays dead, we're doomed as a civilization. It's as simple as that. Blaming everything from the water supply to one's 3rd grade teacher has done nothing but foist a victim-ridden society that feels entitled to things and when those things don't come, being unscrupulous until those things appear.
Sad, really.
Not to mention, as the article states, these machines are so new and powerful, some of the features are going to take quite a while for programmers to be able to tap into. Imagine that... releasing consoles that will take almost the units' entire lifetime to fully realize their potential. :)
...and that's what it was supposed to be about before the hype took over... fun. Nintendo "gets it", but for whatever reason cannot translate that to #1 slot dominance anymore. *shrug* Times are changing I guess. I just remember when a console was just a gaming system, and people weren't clamoring for it to be something else, like a DVD player or music box. The marketeers have successfully driven the masses to think they need a DVD/music/toaster/PVR/ez-bake-oven/Pez dispenser for game consoles. Oh yeah, it also plays games!
It's rather like the old days, when you'd see the first trickle of titles from say, an Amiga or C= 64. In the beginning, things pretty much looked standard, and in some cases were hard to differentiate from the competition. But as the machine matured, and as programmers learned the innards of these boxes, things got neater, games got better looking and more playable. Basically, as the programmer got efficient and skilled in the inner-workings of a system, the game quality reflected that. (Heck even the games coming from the C= 64 towards the end of its life had some amazing tricks that you wouldn't have thought possible with such a simple 6502 unit.)
These next-gen consoles are no different. Heck, the PS2 has gotten pretty good looking titles that you'd swear it wasn't capable of playing. Even the XBox has some stand-out titles now in its twilight that you'd probably never thought possible at launch (even in spite of the overhyped "horsepower" of the unit, and the insistence on making every FPS imaginable for it.)
The next-gen game systems are going to come and go before they're fully exploited, and like the previous generation of video cards on the PC, will never be pushed to the limit. (I don't blame developers for the most part, because they're hitting a moving target and doing the best they can, with some very sloppy exceptions. But that's to be expected with any system.)
And despite all the hype on graphics etc... I have the most fun playing the old FF games on my PS2. (PS1 titles...) The other great fun (besides the awesomely addicting retro-arcade and 2600 titles) is the Romance of the 3 Kingdoms series. None of these titles are "A-list" graphic titles, but they're darn fun... And like any console game, I can pick up an play for a bit, without spending 3 hours in a manual learning which key does what.
DUH.. how could I have missed it!
I don't have a TV, so I don't get the important information. I just plug games into my PS2 and imagine what they look like.
You missed the point of the article. That is not Sony's intention at all by delaying. It has nothing to do with component pricing and trying to squeeze more profit out of the consumer. It has to do with sustainability. If the XBox 360 has a dearth of decent titles at launch, it might signal a backlash (we've seen the dearth of titles at launch with the PS2... Unless everyone has ADD, I don't think it'll repeat itself.)
Microsoft better have a decent stable of non-shovelware with their new 360, or they might be looking at a long trench battle for 3rd place.
Do you want the hardware now with no games? That seems to be what you're implying...
I'm in no hurry to replace my PS2/XBox/Gamecube. Why is everyone else rushing to do so?
Tell that to the XBox 360....
While the Analyst may have some things wrong.... what IS correct is that Sony cannot afford another lackluster launch with crappy titles. And it cannot afford another disastrous Christmas where demand for their console can't be met... It was appallingly bad to see such a problem with a mature item like the PS2.
If the 360 has a title drought like the PS2, people will be more likely to avoid the PS3 if it comes out in Spring with the same drought (or a similar one...) It's the games... and Sony knows that. Their position would be strengthened by waiting 8 months and going for a 2007 launch with oodles of titles and a decent supply of consoles to boot.
It's a win-win. But Sony's not been known to be "all that bright" in recent years....
But you wouldn't have such fine plastic products like inflatable flag balloons, the latest action figure from Saturday morning cartoons, or your region-free DVD player without such noble sacrifices from Chinese prison labor.
:)
A&E had a special about Chinese prisons, and I though I suspect it was censored by China, the information they let out about their prisons makes me never want to go to China, even on a dare.
the first part of that might be an officially sanctioned Catholic position (and I seriously doubt every priest is saying the same thing...), but the second stems right from the same root that claimed vaccinations were actually sickness in the needles. Fear of western anything in Africa, and a distrust of anything westerners might do is more at work here than any anti-condom campaign.
One only needs to read about vaccinations and other aid being turned down, thrown out of the village, and ignored simply because someone who doesn't know any better (but is African) spreads vicious lies about it.
Africans are responsible for killing themselves when they allow their leaders to corrupt their thinking with superstitious nonsense. No message from the church, the pope, Jesus himself will change their minds, because they trust no one but themselves... right or wrong... they're destroying themselves from the inside through war, genocide, epidemics....etc.
And I didn't say you implied the church was the cause either. The local traditions are at work here... as evidenced by the virgin rape and failure to be vaccinated. Locals spreading nonsense because in the past Westerners and the like have done something insidious, or perhaps they're just stupid.
;) Simple as that... And I'd protect my daughters from roving bands of infected men looking for a "cure." (And you can bet your rosaries the Catholic Church didn't put THAT gem of an idea in their heads...)
Either way, the church can do little to stop it by saying "use condoms! You're gonna screw anyway!" Because they aren't even listening to "abstain... it's the only sure prevention!" You don't think, in a group of people where the infected population rises over 50%, they should practice a little abstinence or monogamy perhaps?
What makes you think changing their message will make them heeded any more than they are now? If all the people are waiting for is validation from the Catholic church about condom use, they're doomed anyway... Because they don't get any confirmation from secular institutions either. As I said, local traditions are completely hosing their worldview, and wrong as that may be, simply changing the message won't bring any less xenophobia to the African people.
I know I'd learn to love my hand in that situation.
This is a tired argument. I leave it to you to google the real reasons for the AIDs epidemic. Men there have the belief (in some communities) that having sex with a virgin girl will cure them of AIDS, among other gems. Like the fact that (totally unrelated) warlords were telling their citizens that European/Americans were putting diseases in the Polio vaccines and such. Blaming the Catholic church (who incidentally is doing quite a bit to ease the suffering in AIDS stricken areas) is ludicrous.
Blaming Catholics is convenient... so I shouldn't be the one to burst your bubble...
Google it. You'll be surprised how your conclusions are those of what you heard on TV, rather than the facts.
and btw... I'm not Catholic. Just more informed.
"Foreseeable future" is about 45 minutes when Microsoft's involved.
...It's funny... laugh. :)
..and that lines the pockets of countless politicians. (so do most industries... it's a shame, really)
They produce billions in exports, then why is copyright infringement "going to kill them?" Infringement (I am not going to engage in their wordplay) goes on... yet they still export billions. They are still making money off their movies, in spite of P2P. They are still raking in the cash on CD sales in spite of Kazaaa, etc.(no decline this time... wonder why they're so quiet?)
I think the FBI and whoever else targeted this sting need to worry about the vendors of pirated goods coming from China and other places, but that would mean saying something unkind to China... and we don't want that... so let's just annoy and harass the networks... then make vague pronouncements like "we will find you all, you filthy bastards..."
Yeah, right.
Which is entirely reasonable in the time frame of the intel switchover. Once you're on Tiger, your PPC will be able to take advantage of the FAT binaries and whatnot, thereby extending the life of your Mac even more.
The features added to enhance the G5's are enough of a reason to use Tiger anyway... for others, it might be the intel switch that makes it compelling enough.
I'm a troll. Truth hurts.
Tell me one thing QE does that make the above list not function?
They got it done, didn't they? You act as if they are promising and never delivering.
Are you angry because they didn't "gear up" fast enough, putting out incredibly buggy software that was a band-aid on the real problem of architecture age? *cough* Windows *cough* Are you angry that they promised removal of the resource limitation but only added a silly hack? There's enough distortion to go around.... Apple just happens to actually deliver on their promises.. though sometimes it takes quite a while.... Perhaps they should not announce them so early, so as not to offend people like you.
Where's the promise of removing BIOS from PCs? That legacy IRQ crapola we've been stuck with for decades? Where's the improvement on the godawful registry? THOSE are not on the horizon, and when they do show up, they'll be DRM-crippled monstrosities that make the RIAA and MPAA cream in their Depends.
Reality distortion fog machine indeed.
"cool" vs "essential"
You're mixing the two up. 10.3 runs great with or without QE. It just doesn't do it as "cool" as it could with QE enabled.
It does not break essential app behavior, (unless it's eye candy), nor does it make your mail, browser, WP, calendar, iphoto, IM or other app not function.
Source for the "99% are still 10.3"
So in effect your saying tiger's not selling, or going to sell and in 2 years we're stuck with all these Panther users?
Your Lime iMac does run OS X with graphics acceleration... it's just done by the CPU, not the GPU. ;)
Gotta remember, when working with Djinn to be SPECIFIC about your wishes...
If they were in the market to drop PPC "as fast as possible", ALL Macs would go Intel at once. The fact that the PPC will be used in the Powermacs for the longest, tells us that this is a transition.... not a cliff. The 68K to PPC transition was not an overnight thing either (I actually remember it.)
Just because the world goes Intel tomorrow doesn't break your PPC today. This transition will be fine, and everyone's PPC boxes will not turn into Pumpkins when the first Mac Mini and iBook come out with Pentium chips.
OS X is not THAT much of a moving target. I still run Panther (and Jaguar and Tiger) and can upgrade to the latest software for most apps I choose to, even on Jaguar (for some things). (I don't choose to for many... because I'm not interested in the treadmill.) My Jaguar box can't use some things, but then again... neither can my Win98 box. Some things just require 2000/XP. It just depends. Mission critical app with features you need? You might consider upgrading your OS. Otherwise, if things are running fine, you can continue to use your machine until it physically bites the dust.
No one is holding a gun to your head to "get tiger or else!" There are some significant updates to each OSX iteration, but nothing "breaks" the previous OS... because those apps STILL work. Sure, there's not an actively developed cadre of software targeting Jaguar... (or as much as Panther/Tiger) but it's not "obsolete" until it becomes un-useful for the person running it. Not when "ooh, look! no shiny stuff made for my OS anymore! Time to hop on the upgrade treadmill!" It's all about perspective. Some people live for being on the same page as everyone else... others can use their older OSes and machines until they freeze up from extreme old age. Just because "shiny-fast-new!" comes out, doesn't mean you HAVE to upgrade. It never has. Or there'd be no Win98/95 boxes left on earth. And we KNOW that is not the case.
And since the migration hasn't even started yet... everything anyone says about it is pure speculation...
You can put decent locks on the case. Trouble is, it takes a bit more effort to do so.
;) Something that will test the determination of someone wanting to get to that computer.
The key here is, like a locked car, making it more difficult (not impossible) to get into. Unless this is a case of "movie-of-the-week" intrusion... most of the time people will look for something easier to compromise...
Or just make the lock on the door to the room the computer is in more secure. Lock it behind two doors.
Otherwise, what's the point of even locking the screen?
Speedball!!! Now there was a GAME!
;)
:P Ahh... I too miss my Amiga. What I really miss is the exclusivity of computers. Most people back then knew about them, but they were still curiosities. They were hobbies. Sure computers now can be hobbies, but not like they were when the computer industry was in its infancy.
:)
When I bought my A500, I had a choice of one game to get with it (that's about all the money I had..), so I chose Druid 2, from the box screenshots.
Since it was my first Amiga game, I remember it well... it was quite a while before I got any others... holidays are spaced too far apart, and I needed gas money too.
Those were the days..
If you had used an Amiga, you'd know.
Nothing to see here, heathen. Move along.
I also think that they, like the Tramiel era of marketing (or lack thereof), wanted the Amiga to "sell itself" like the C-64 did. There were announcements and magazine ads (for both the 64 and Amiga), but as for marketing "blitzes", C= was not known for promoting anything. The "infomercials" made by ILM were incomprehensible rubbish that didn't sell the Amiga any better than it had before. Heck, even Tramiel's Atari did little in the way of compelling marketing. ;)
;)
People just didn't know the Amiga was as good as it was, and thus, it languished.
Couple that with the distinctly piss-poor R&D, and you've got the nails, the wood, and the grave dug.... all you need is to finish the coffin.
(Up until near the end the Amiga was still holding on to 1985 like a favorite blanket... and the rest of the world was catching up to it...)
I loved my A500. I even bought a nice GVP hard disk attachment for it, as well as Kickstart/W.B. 2.0 (got to insert the ROM myself.. heh).
After the mouse died, I decided to pack it up and move on... I still miss it from time to time, but I have a nice OS X computer to make me feel better.
"It" didn't. WE did. THAT is what sucks.
While it is true that some bootleg sales networks in the rest of the world are run by criminal elements, not everything is done that way. Quite a few smaller operations in certain countries that have the average monthly income of your coffee budget for a week exist because the "legal" barrier of entry is beyond the reach of a majority of the population. I'd rather they not get exposed to the crapola being forced out of hollyweird's ass, but I guess they're really curious. As for software, I'd rather they use Linux or BSD and ditch the Borg. (But I can only speak for me.)
:) Take their market for illegal goods out from under them.
Whether or not someone agrees with their model is another matter (it's indeed a grey area in terms of pricing and whatnot.) It is technically infringement, but it cannot possibly be lost revenue, since the people could not afford it to begin with. If we elevate their livelihood to near-US levels, they will be able to afford the goods, but there will just be another tiny country of poor people waiting in the wings to be forced to make goods at pennies a day. And the cycle perpetuates itself.
I'm just saying it's not always Russian mafia and the Triads who are making any money off of pirated goods. I'd rather see P2P and other means undercut these pirates by making it available free instead.