If you read his "autobiography" Just For Fun, I believe he says that he uses RedHat at the office (at least when he was at Transmeta) and SuSe at home.
Well, SSBM isn't your traditional fighting game (which is part of its appeal). But even switching between two gets boring. There were probably a dozen fighters for the SNES, and at least half a dozen for the 64.
Times have changed, and games are now seen as a major production, along the lines of music, television, and movies. As such, budgets have increased in size, as well the number of staff that can be put into a project. With a comparable amount of staff added, I could see games taking about two to three months longer (a quarter at most).
Well, depending on how well they market it, and developer interest, I'm afraid that the DS may go the way of the Virtual Boy, and then we won't have to worry about it.
I have been a long time Nintendo fan, owning every major console, and now a GBA. I have always stuck by Nintendo because of the high quality of their games, and because I couldn't really afford to have more than one system.
Now don't get me wrong, I've played other systems. I've finished FFVII and FFX on the PS and PS2, as well as playing a great deal of Tekken and the Gran Turismo series, but I could never justify buying a PS for just these games.
But now I realize, that I have done the same thing for a Gamecube. I have less than ten games (due partially to budget constraints), a GBA, and 1 GBA game (FF Tactics Advance). The problem I have is variety. It turns out, I have a game in almost every genre, and it's hard to play multiple games in a genre. If I want to fight, I have SCII, racing is Mario Kart:DD or F-Zero GX. Team sports is NHL 2004, while extreme sports is Tony Hawk 4. RPG is Zelda, etc. The problem is Nintendo fills a genre niche, and then moves on! Which means that if I want to play a different fighting game, well, I can't. So I get bored with the games, despite their excellent quality.
Nintendo needs to tighten their release dates, and find developers to compete against themselves. Who can make the best action/fighting/RPG game? Nintendo wins in the end because no matter which game of two or three wins the sales wars, it's still money into Nintendo's pockets.
Personally, I like it when games are easy to pick up, but difficult to master.
My prime example is Soul Calibur II. Any newb can pick up this game and beat the computer with some button-mashing finesse. They might have trouble against an experienced player, but if two friends pick up a rental and proceed to smash each other with no thought as to what the buttons do, it can still end up being lots of fun.
However, each character has at least 100-150 moves, many have multiple stances, and more characters are unlocked as you play. This leaves room for a great deal of time spent mastering your character, developing combos, etc.
I think it is very important for a game to be both accessible to the casual gamer, as well as the hardcore, and this game does it well.
Another reason I like this is that a lot of blood, sweat, and perhaps tears went into this engine. I'm sure many programmers put a lot of effort in, and now their work isnt' going to die. I've read stories about old programs ending up in some companies data repository, never to be accessed again. Now this engine will live on and hopefully inspire more programs to be written (we can always use more games).
I'm also glad that the company is behind this move, as oppose to the Sierra/Falcon 4.0 kerfuffle.
The "over rated" argument aside, Black & White had sort of a free form magic system. Depending on where you used certain spells different things would happen, which may sound pretty simple, but you could get pretty inventive.
ex. You could pile up some lumber, put rocks on it, and cast a fireball on the lumber. This would start a fire and heat the rocks up, the practical upshot of which is a batch of little mini fireballs.
But for the most part magic is pretty rule based; targets: enemy, enemy all, ally, ally all, all. Some games, like Secret of Evermore, have tried implementing an alchemy system, mixing items together to create different spells, but then you are usually limited to what the game designers pre placed in the game as far as effective combinations go.
The other side of the equation is Robotrek, a game that was pretty limited, but let you design techniques(basically magics or attacks) based on button combinations. Mind you there were only 3 or 4 buttons, so you couldn't get too inventive, but at least there was an effort.
I totally agree. Too many people today lack street smarts, the ability to judge a situation and act accordingly. My main example: the bus.
I ride public transit everywhere I go, and the average bus rider has almost no idea where they are going. I am often helping people out to get where they want to go.
On the other hand: I found out that one of the cashiers at work can't do 8+5 without a calculator. So fundamentals such as math and spelling are still important.
Mind you, skills like that are taught in elementary school, while these programs are made for the middle school level.
I've been wanting a tool that could search the contents of images for a long time, so instead of image searching for Corvette and getting logos, I could get images of the actual car.
The Bad:
It's from everyone's favorite anti-trust company, so everyone will start using it, as it will become the default page in IE on a fresh install. This means that even if it doesn't work that well, people will still use it, because it's "convenient".
The Ugly:
No doubt the interface will be bloated with long load times and an overly busy interface. They could never approach the "beauty in simplicity" interface of Google.
Well as a hopeful game programmer I wish I had known about the contest. I grew up on Nintendo, although I never actually owned a GB, I played my fair share. Oh well. I'd do one in my project class now, but the Instructor said no games. boo hoo.
Let's see, in this corner we have the mega corporation everyone loves to hate, up against a shady company performing a "service" that domain wanting people loath. Where does one put the money?
If you don't have to reboot at all. I just enjoyed a wonderful week of uptime until xmms memory leaked something fierce and basically brought a P4 down to a 486.
Slashdot Mirror
If you read his "autobiography" Just For Fun, I believe he says that he uses RedHat at the office (at least when he was at Transmeta) and SuSe at home.
Well, SSBM isn't your traditional fighting game (which is part of its appeal). But even switching between two gets boring. There were probably a dozen fighters for the SNES, and at least half a dozen for the 64.
Times have changed, and games are now seen as a major production, along the lines of music, television, and movies. As such, budgets have increased in size, as well the number of staff that can be put into a project. With a comparable amount of staff added, I could see games taking about two to three months longer (a quarter at most).
Well, depending on how well they market it, and developer interest, I'm afraid that the DS may go the way of the Virtual Boy, and then we won't have to worry about it.
Well maybe more companies could do what Namco did with Soul Calibur II. You basically get the same game, but each console got its own character.
;) )
Gamecube: Link
XBOX: Spawn
PS2: Heihachi
That way, the game sells well in all three markets, and each console owner can brag to the other about the exclusive content that they got.
(btw Link is the best
I have been a long time Nintendo fan, owning every major console, and now a GBA. I have always stuck by Nintendo because of the high quality of their games, and because I couldn't really afford to have more than one system.
Now don't get me wrong, I've played other systems. I've finished FFVII and FFX on the PS and PS2, as well as playing a great deal of Tekken and the Gran Turismo series, but I could never justify buying a PS for just these games.
But now I realize, that I have done the same thing for a Gamecube. I have less than ten games (due partially to budget constraints), a GBA, and 1 GBA game (FF Tactics Advance). The problem I have is variety. It turns out, I have a game in almost every genre, and it's hard to play multiple games in a genre. If I want to fight, I have SCII, racing is Mario Kart:DD or F-Zero GX. Team sports is NHL 2004, while extreme sports is Tony Hawk 4. RPG is Zelda, etc. The problem is Nintendo fills a genre niche, and then moves on! Which means that if I want to play a different fighting game, well, I can't. So I get bored with the games, despite their excellent quality.
Nintendo needs to tighten their release dates, and find developers to compete against themselves. Who can make the best action/fighting/RPG game? Nintendo wins in the end because no matter which game of two or three wins the sales wars, it's still money into Nintendo's pockets.
I just don't want my favourite company to die.
Bagels just taste better. Nothing like a virus with cream cheese and a nice cup of tea.
Personally, I like it when games are easy to pick up, but difficult to master.
My prime example is Soul Calibur II. Any newb can pick up this game and beat the computer with some button-mashing finesse. They might have trouble against an experienced player, but if two friends pick up a rental and proceed to smash each other with no thought as to what the buttons do, it can still end up being lots of fun.
However, each character has at least 100-150 moves, many have multiple stances, and more characters are unlocked as you play. This leaves room for a great deal of time spent mastering your character, developing combos, etc.
I think it is very important for a game to be both accessible to the casual gamer, as well as the hardcore, and this game does it well.
Hopefully this will help developers to realize that Linux is a decent development platform, even if it doesn't implement DirectX.
I'm also glad that the company is behind this move, as oppose to the Sierra/Falcon 4.0 kerfuffle.
ex. You could pile up some lumber, put rocks on it, and cast a fireball on the lumber. This would start a fire and heat the rocks up, the practical upshot of which is a batch of little mini fireballs.
But for the most part magic is pretty rule based; targets: enemy, enemy all, ally, ally all, all. Some games, like Secret of Evermore, have tried implementing an alchemy system, mixing items together to create different spells, but then you are usually limited to what the game designers pre placed in the game as far as effective combinations go.
The other side of the equation is Robotrek, a game that was pretty limited, but let you design techniques(basically magics or attacks) based on button combinations. Mind you there were only 3 or 4 buttons, so you couldn't get too inventive, but at least there was an effort.
I ride public transit everywhere I go, and the average bus rider has almost no idea where they are going. I am often helping people out to get where they want to go.
On the other hand: I found out that one of the cashiers at work can't do 8+5 without a calculator. So fundamentals such as math and spelling are still important.
Mind you, skills like that are taught in elementary school, while these programs are made for the middle school level.
No advertising so the general public can learn about this great product, regardless of their OS "choice." Not so hot.
I've been wanting a tool that could search the contents of images for a long time, so instead of image searching for Corvette and getting logos, I could get images of the actual car.
The Bad:
It's from everyone's favorite anti-trust company, so everyone will start using it, as it will become the default page in IE on a fresh install. This means that even if it doesn't work that well, people will still use it, because it's "convenient".
The Ugly:
No doubt the interface will be bloated with long load times and an overly busy interface. They could never approach the "beauty in simplicity" interface of Google.
Is it blaringly obvious?
Well as a hopeful game programmer I wish I had known about the contest. I grew up on Nintendo, although I never actually owned a GB, I played my fair share. Oh well. I'd do one in my project class now, but the Instructor said no games. boo hoo.
Let's see, in this corner we have the mega corporation everyone loves to hate, up against a shady company performing a "service" that domain wanting people loath. Where does one put the money?
Wow, I actually read about something in a newspaper days before it was on /.
Either way I'm excited about watching it. Love those guys.
2. To discharge violently; spew. I guess that I disgorge a lot when using windows then.
If you don't have to reboot at all. I just enjoyed a wonderful week of uptime until xmms memory leaked something fierce and basically brought a P4 down to a 486.