The thing that stands out about good games these days are their replay value it seems. I keep finding that those "play through the game once and forget" games hardly get any replay value, whereas games like GTA (especially the racing, taxi, and police missions) and Unreal have endless replay value because of the underlying game involved is actually fun, with many variations on the theme... (which reminds me of the Atari 2600 games, which had more variations on the theme of a particular game than you could shake a stick at - I think there was about 26 variations on Space Invaders alone!)
In that way, Unreal Tournament and the original Quake III have a kind of replay value that the original Pac-man (with all those patterns) and the Street Fighter series (with all those characters) had.
The frustration that other "3D tourism" games have (where you get stuck in one part and have to solve a puzzle to get to the next bit). Just doesn't hold up to replay value. Once you finish it, you throw the CD into the cupboard.
We need to see more games like this, and not the next Madden 3005 - if Madden is still with us by then.
Yeah, SATA RAID is busted up the wazoo in the current Fedora Core 2 test1. I have a SATA RAID, and the thing won't even boot when it sees it.
Don't worry, it's well documented in Bugzilla.
This is just weak copy protection JUST SO something like the DCMA can be used on P2P networks.
If there's no copy protection, the DCMA is useless... BUT EVEN IF there's something as trivial as a weak protection that is easy to block... say hello to my little DCMA.
With this kind of protection system, I envisage a future P2P network full of backwards songs, or encrypted tunes with unscrambling keys or passwords in the filename enabling you to decrpyt them - something the protection software won't be able to work around easily. What's going to happen when chart-topping artist has a track which can be found on a P2P site... and looking down the list, you notice about 200 different encryptions of the same tune? How do you keep track of and police that?
The whole idea of copy protection is just plain stupid in the long run.... history proves it.
Maybe one day people will realise that EVERYONE listens to music somewhere and at some point, and will simply tax everyone for the privilege of being able to get and hear it. It's a crummy and unfair compromise for sure... but at least that way the RIAA, MPAA and everyone else will shut the hell up and let everyone have unfettered access to culture. Well, this is the best idea I can come up with to solving the digital rights issue.
The only other option would be for distribution channels to rely on IPsec-level encryption in order to distribute films and music to specialist hardware..... cue Microsoft stage left.
Tomb Raider 4 suffered from this problem. Lara would fall to her death and then you'd have to wait about 60 seconds for the whole map to reload to try again. The experience drove me insane.
But even that was much better than rewinding and loading the start level from cassette on the Commodore 64
Damn Babelfish... but they'll never put ME out of a job! (yet)
Here's my translation:
"A robot that can play in your household is going to be sold by the end of the year for roughly 5,000,000 yen. [translator's note: i.e. a lot of sushi] Both ZMP and maker of sports goods Mizuno, both having collaborated in this venture, have developed a robot called "nuvo", which was displayed to the public on the 2nd of this month.
[translators note: the robot's actual japanese characters are a bit cheeky.... one hiragana "nu" and one katakana "bo"... so it's name actually breaks typical Japanese writing traditions)]
Whilst the the two-legged robot "Qrio" from Sony and the "Asimo" from Honda are well-known, the marketing budgets for these robots haven't really been aimed at selling themselves to the general public.
Nuvo comes in at 39 centimeteres , and weighs it at 2.5 kilos. It can walk backwards and forwards, as well as left and right. When it falls over it lands on its back and stays down, getting up all by itself. It remembers close to 1000 words of conversation level Japanese, and upon instruction it can bow as well as dance.
It's head contains a built in camera. Utilising NTT DoCoMo's third generation cell phone technology, it is possible to view what the robot sees on the cell-phone's screen, technically becoming a remote control "surveillance robot".
Through the joint venture, it's development costs were held down. It is expected to sell over 3000 units in it's first year of sales."
I mean, the more someone gets upset at someone elses comment goes to show just how much the said comments actually bothered them.
If Infantile Labs just blew off most of the HardOCP comments as nonsense and got on with business, this issue wouldn't have surfaced and no-one would have batted an eyelid.
Now that they've blown the issue up (all by themselves), everybody sees them as being a big cry-baby just like SCO is - and HardOCP's comments as credible.
Dammit..... I KNEW the first post was going to turn out to be yet another incarnation of the "Soviet Russia" joke, as soon as I saw this news item appear.
You are in a comfortable tunnel like hall
to the east the the round green door
you see:
the wooden chest.
Gandalf. Gandalf is carrying the curious map.
Thorin.
Gandalf gives the curious map to you.
> HIT GANDALF
You attack Gandalf.
But the effort is wasted. His defense is too strong.
Gandalf attacks you.
With one well place blow Gandalf cleaves your skull.
You are dead.
You have mastered 0.0% of this adventure.
Well in a perfect world, Clippy would jump up and say "I see you have plugged a xxxx-model-brandname printer into the USB port. Would you like me to configure it for you?"
Oh shyiayhtye.... score one for Microsoft.
Let's not forget that Microsoft made a huge blunder with the Xbox in Japan.
Did they get the hardware wrong?.... NOPE Did they get the marketing wrong?.... NOPE Did they get the games wrong?....... NOPE Did they get the price wrong?....... NOPE
So what did they get wrong?
The freakin NAME of the machine. The letter X in Japan is synonymous with BAD, like an incorrect answer or a cross on a mistake.... and hence the X-box earned it's name as the BATSU-BOX (or the No-Way-BOX)....that and the Xbox green colour looks like radiation. And THAT was just asking for trouble coming from an American company.
Funny, for a company with loads of cash... Microsoft couldn't even get the cultural sensitivity thing right.
I was thinking more along the lines of Gilligan's Island, except that Steve Ballmer and bill Gates get washed ashore on some remote island.
Re:DRM === All Yuor Base R bLong 2 US
on
Buzzword du Jour: DRM
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
Not to mention his proposed changes to DNS (And lets not forget that a good deal of DNS goes through BIND, which is Open Source)
So here Bill is trying to stick a patented design into DNS, which he could leverage with his Windows monopoly and therefore forcing Open Sourced BIND to pay a licence to implement it now that Windows' "Trustworthy computing" won't accept anything else. Hence breaking BIND's GPL....
I don't think it will really work out that way, but the possibility crossed my mind.
Last year I upgraded from Girlfriend 7.0 to Wife 1.0. I soon noticed that the new program began unexpected child processing that took up a lot of space and valuable resources. No mention of this was included with the product information.
In addition, Wife 1.0 installed itself into all other programs and now launches during system initialization, where it monitors all other system activity.
Applications such as Poker Night 10.3, Football 5.0, Hunting and Fishing 7.5, and Racing 3.6 no longer run, crashing the system whenever selected.
I can't seem to keep Wife 1.0 in the background while attempting to run my favorite applications. I'm thinking about going back to Girlfriend 7.0, but the uninstall doesn't work on Wife1.0.
Please help !!!!!!
Thanks, A Troubled User.
REPLY: Dear Troubled User:
This is a very common problem that men complain about. It is due to a primary misconception.
Many people upgrade from Girlfriend 7.0 to Wife 1.0, thinking that it is merely a Utilities and Entertainment program. Wife 1.0 is an OPERATING SYSTEM and is designed by its Creator to run EVERYTHING !!!!
It is also impossible to delete Wife 1.0 and to return to Girlfriend 7.0. Hidden operating systems files cause Girlfriend 7.0 to emulate Wife 1.0, so nothing is gained. It is impossible to uninstall, delete, or purge the program files from the system once installed.
You cannot go back to Girlfriend 7.0 because Wife 1.0 is designed to not allow this. Some have tried Girlfriend 8.0 or Wife 2.0 but end up with more problems than in the original system. Look in your Wife 1.0 manual under "Warnings--Alimony/Child Support."
I recommend that you keep Wife 1.0 and work on improving the situation. I suggest installing the background application "Yes Dear" to alleviate software augmentation.
Having installed Wife 1.0 myself, I also suggest that you read the entire section regarding 'General Partnership Faults' (GPFs). You must assume joint responsibility for any faults and problems that occur, regardless of their cause. You will also find that GPFs are cyclical.
The best course of action is to enter the command
C:\APOLOGIZE. Avoid excessive use of C:\YESDEAR because ultimately you will have to give the APOLOGIZE command before the system will return to normal anyway.
Remember the system will run smoothly as long as you share the blame for all GPFs. Wife 1.0 is a great program, but it tends to be very high maintenance.
Wife 1.0 comes with several support programs, such as Clean and Sweep 3.0, Cook It 1.5 (which replaces Burn It 1.0), and Do Bills 4.2. You must, however, be very careful how you use these programs.
Improper use will cause the system to launch the program Nag Nag 9.5. Once this happens, the only way to improve the performance of Wife 1.0 is to purchase additional software. I recommend Flowers 2.1 and Diamonds 5.0 should this happen.
WARNING!!!!! DO NOT, under any circumstances, install Secretary With Short Skirt 3.3. This application is not supported by Wife 1.0 and will cause irreversible damage to the operating system.
I agree. I mean, the upgrading system is completely "dumbed down".
You are totally right though, it COULD have been a modern version of Street Rod, but unfortunately that aspect of the game never got fully fleshed out. Getting money for winning is just a waste of time because you never have to make eral buying choices. Where's the point in buying different brands of parts if they all work exactly the same
(oh, can't make a mockery of the sponsors' parts hey?).. although I bet Nissan plowed a lot into EA, as their cars turn out to be the best in the game.
What's left is basically a game with a very "arcade" feel to it.. which is still lots of fun if you treat it as such. Unfortunately, the game is totally lacking in the simulation/car management areas, which COULD have really made the game shine as being more than "just another" arcade racing game.
I can't see the problem with sending boatloads of cash to Microsoft for Windows.
I mean, the ATO can just purchase boxes of Windows make a tax write-off.
ba dum dum ching...
Because the girls know they can't compete for attention when there an Unreal Tournament server running on a super-computer.... so they give up and go elsewhere.
Slashdot Mirror
Somewhere, ...is going to choose to be offended by SOMETHING.
Somehow,
Someone,
The best thing we can all do in light of this unavoidable situation is hunker down and prepare for the worst.
Now THAT'S a good idea.
Reckon you can generate 420W through keystrokes though?
Good thinking... and you're right.
The PSX already has this feature!
The thing that stands out about good games these days are their replay value it seems.
I keep finding that those "play through the game once and forget" games hardly get any replay value, whereas games like GTA (especially the racing, taxi, and police missions) and Unreal have endless replay value because of the underlying game involved is actually fun, with many variations on the theme...
(which reminds me of the Atari 2600 games, which had more variations on the theme of a particular game than you could shake a stick at - I think there was about 26 variations on Space Invaders alone!)
In that way, Unreal Tournament and the original Quake III have a kind of replay value that the original Pac-man (with all those patterns) and the Street Fighter series (with all those characters) had.
The frustration that other "3D tourism" games have (where you get stuck in one part and have to solve a puzzle to get to the next bit). Just doesn't hold up to replay value. Once you finish it, you throw the CD into the cupboard.
We need to see more games like this, and not the next Madden 3005 - if Madden is still with us by then.
Yeah, SATA RAID is busted up the wazoo in the current Fedora Core 2 test1. I have a SATA RAID, and the thing won't even boot when it sees it. Don't worry, it's well documented in Bugzilla.
This is just weak copy protection JUST SO something like the DCMA can be used on P2P networks.
If there's no copy protection, the DCMA is useless... BUT EVEN IF there's something as trivial as a weak protection that is easy to block... say hello to my little DCMA.
With this kind of protection system, I envisage a future P2P network full of backwards songs, or encrypted tunes with unscrambling keys or passwords in the filename enabling you to decrpyt them - something the protection software won't be able to work around easily.
What's going to happen when chart-topping artist has a track which can be found on a P2P site... and looking down the list, you notice about 200 different encryptions of the same tune?
How do you keep track of and police that?
The whole idea of copy protection is just plain stupid in the long run.... history proves it.
Maybe one day people will realise that EVERYONE listens to music somewhere and at some point, and will simply tax everyone for the privilege of being able to get and hear it.
It's a crummy and unfair compromise for sure... but at least that way the RIAA, MPAA and everyone else will shut the hell up and let everyone have unfettered access to culture.
Well, this is the best idea I can come up with to solving the digital rights issue.
The only other option would be for distribution channels to rely on IPsec-level encryption in order to distribute films and music to specialist hardware..... cue Microsoft stage left.
I bet the infringing lines of code are:
10 PRINT "SCO RULE"
20 GOTO 10
Tomb Raider 4 suffered from this problem. Lara would fall to her death and then you'd have to wait about 60 seconds for the whole map to reload to try again. The experience drove me insane.
But even that was much better than rewinding and loading the start level from cassette on the Commodore 64
Damn Babelfish... but they'll never put ME out of a job! (yet)
Here's my translation:
"A robot that can play in your household is going to be sold by the end of the year for roughly 5,000,000 yen. [translator's note: i.e. a lot of sushi] Both ZMP and maker of sports goods Mizuno, both having collaborated in this venture, have developed a robot called "nuvo", which was displayed to the public on the 2nd of this month.
[translators note: the robot's actual japanese characters are a bit cheeky.... one hiragana "nu" and one katakana "bo"... so it's name actually breaks typical Japanese writing traditions)]
Whilst the the two-legged robot "Qrio" from Sony and the "Asimo" from Honda are well-known, the marketing budgets for these robots haven't really been aimed at selling themselves to the general public.
Nuvo comes in at 39 centimeteres , and weighs it at 2.5 kilos. It can walk backwards and forwards, as well as left and right. When it falls over it lands on its back and stays down, getting up all by itself. It remembers close to 1000 words of conversation level Japanese, and upon instruction it can bow as well as dance.
It's head contains a built in camera. Utilising NTT DoCoMo's third generation cell phone technology, it is possible to view what the robot sees on the cell-phone's screen, technically becoming a remote control "surveillance robot".
Through the joint venture, it's development costs were held down. It is expected to sell over 3000 units in it's first year of sales."
So yeah, it's one damn small security robot....
Shouldn't that be Infantile Labs?
I mean, the more someone gets upset at someone elses comment goes to show just how much the said comments actually bothered them.
If Infantile Labs just blew off most of the HardOCP comments as nonsense and got on with business, this issue wouldn't have surfaced and no-one would have batted an eyelid.
Now that they've blown the issue up (all by themselves), everybody sees them as being a big cry-baby just like SCO is - and HardOCP's comments as credible.
Can you say... shoot self in foot?
Last time I played MoCap boxing, I completely wore myself out!
We need to see more games like this! This is what the arcade needs to turn into in order to stay relevant.
Dammit..... I KNEW the first post was going to turn out to be yet another incarnation of the "Soviet Russia" joke, as soon as I saw this news item appear.
Hey, maybe the DS will be much like those "Donkey Kong" and "Green House" LCD handhelds they had back in the day. That would be a blast from the past!
Man those were the days... imagine playing your Final Fantasy like that!
I thought it was
$0.000699
Oh no, now a whole new brand of cliched joke.
You are in a comfortable tunnel like hall to the east the the round green door you see: the wooden chest. Gandalf. Gandalf is carrying the curious map. Thorin. Gandalf gives the curious map to you. > HIT GANDALF You attack Gandalf. But the effort is wasted. His defense is too strong. Gandalf attacks you. With one well place blow Gandalf cleaves your skull. You are dead. You have mastered 0.0% of this adventure.
Well in a perfect world, Clippy would jump up and say "I see you have plugged a xxxx-model-brandname printer into the USB port. Would you like me to configure it for you?" Oh shyiayhtye.... score one for Microsoft.
Well, now we know where the next Xbox hack is going to be launched from.
Bootable USB through a buggy game backdoor anyone?
Let's not forget that Microsoft made a huge blunder with the Xbox in Japan.
.... NOPE ....... NOPE ....... NOPE
....that and the Xbox green colour looks like radiation.
Did they get the hardware wrong?
Did they get the marketing wrong?.... NOPE
Did they get the games wrong?
Did they get the price wrong?
So what did they get wrong?
The freakin NAME of the machine.
The letter X in Japan is synonymous with BAD, like an incorrect answer or a cross on a mistake....
and hence the X-box earned it's name as the BATSU-BOX (or the No-Way-BOX)
And THAT was just asking for trouble coming from an American company.
Funny, for a company with loads of cash... Microsoft couldn't even get the cultural sensitivity thing right.
I was thinking more along the lines of Gilligan's Island, except that Steve Ballmer and bill Gates get washed ashore on some remote island.
Not to mention his proposed changes to DNS
(And lets not forget that a good deal of DNS goes through BIND, which is Open Source)
So here Bill is trying to stick a patented design into DNS, which he could leverage with his Windows monopoly and therefore forcing Open Sourced BIND to pay a licence to implement it now that Windows' "Trustworthy computing" won't accept anything else.
Hence breaking BIND's GPL....
I don't think it will really work out that way, but the possibility crossed my mind.
(Not my writing, but it answers your question)
Dear Tech Support:
Last year I upgraded from Girlfriend 7.0 to Wife 1.0. I soon noticed that the new program began unexpected child processing that took up a lot of space and valuable resources. No mention of this was included with the product information.
In addition, Wife 1.0 installed itself into all other programs and now launches during system initialization, where it monitors all other system activity.
Applications such as Poker Night 10.3, Football 5.0, Hunting and Fishing 7.5, and Racing 3.6 no longer run, crashing the system whenever selected.
I can't seem to keep Wife 1.0 in the background while attempting to run my favorite applications. I'm thinking about going back to Girlfriend 7.0, but the uninstall doesn't work on Wife1.0.
Please help !!!!!!
Thanks, A Troubled User.
REPLY:
Dear Troubled User:
This is a very common problem that men complain about. It is due to a primary misconception.
Many people upgrade from Girlfriend 7.0 to Wife 1.0, thinking that it is merely a Utilities and Entertainment program. Wife 1.0 is an OPERATING SYSTEM and is designed by its Creator to run EVERYTHING !!!!
It is also impossible to delete Wife 1.0 and to return to Girlfriend 7.0. Hidden operating systems files cause Girlfriend 7.0 to emulate Wife 1.0, so nothing is gained. It is impossible to uninstall, delete, or purge the program files from the system once installed.
You cannot go back to Girlfriend 7.0 because Wife 1.0 is designed to not allow this. Some have tried Girlfriend 8.0 or Wife 2.0 but end up with more problems than in the original system. Look in your Wife 1.0 manual under "Warnings--Alimony/Child Support."
I recommend that you keep Wife 1.0 and work on improving the situation. I suggest installing the
background application "Yes Dear" to alleviate software augmentation.
Having installed Wife 1.0 myself, I also suggest that you read the entire section regarding 'General Partnership Faults' (GPFs). You must assume joint responsibility for any faults and problems that occur, regardless of their cause. You will also find that GPFs are cyclical.
The best course of action is to enter the command
C:\APOLOGIZE. Avoid excessive use of C:\YESDEAR
because ultimately you will have to give the APOLOGIZE command before the system will return to normal anyway.
Remember the system will run smoothly as long as you share the blame for all GPFs. Wife 1.0 is a great program, but it tends to be very high maintenance.
Wife 1.0 comes with several support programs, such as Clean and Sweep 3.0, Cook It 1.5 (which replaces Burn It 1.0), and Do Bills 4.2. You must, however, be very careful how you use these programs.
Improper use will cause the system to launch the program Nag Nag 9.5. Once this happens, the only way to improve the performance of Wife 1.0 is to purchase additional software. I recommend Flowers 2.1 and Diamonds 5.0 should this happen.
WARNING!!!!! DO NOT, under any circumstances, install Secretary With Short Skirt 3.3. This application is not supported by Wife 1.0 and will cause irreversible damage to the operating system.
Best of luck,
Tech Support
Have a Great Day!
I agree. I mean, the upgrading system is completely "dumbed down". You are totally right though, it COULD have been a modern version of Street Rod, but unfortunately that aspect of the game never got fully fleshed out. Getting money for winning is just a waste of time because you never have to make eral buying choices. Where's the point in buying different brands of parts if they all work exactly the same (oh, can't make a mockery of the sponsors' parts hey?).. although I bet Nissan plowed a lot into EA, as their cars turn out to be the best in the game. What's left is basically a game with a very "arcade" feel to it.. which is still lots of fun if you treat it as such. Unfortunately, the game is totally lacking in the simulation/car management areas, which COULD have really made the game shine as being more than "just another" arcade racing game.
I can't see the problem with sending boatloads of cash to Microsoft for Windows. I mean, the ATO can just purchase boxes of Windows make a tax write-off. ba dum dum ching...
Because the girls know they can't compete for attention when there an Unreal Tournament server running on a super-computer.... so they give up and go elsewhere.