The Xbox will let you use DTS DVDs and DTS cut scenes just like the PS2 will.
The PS2 DTS encoded games are only 4-point surround. Any 5.1 surround on the PS2 is done via Prologic 2 encoding, since those are the only 2 real-time surround formats available on the PS2 (barring some new algorithm for encoding audio).
Socom does PL2, as do most Sony 1st party releases from the past 8 months.
As for the online experience, well... you're getting more than just access to online servers with Live!. You're getting basic service guarantees and all that implies. Until Sony makes a real online service for their consoles, you can't really compare it to Live! since there is nothing else like Live! in the world. No one has complete, end-to-end control of hardware and software like this particular Microsoft service has.
It's like comparing the surround sound on the PS2 to the Xbox. There are 350 some Xbox titles, all of which support Dobly Digital. There are 500 or 600 PS2 titles, of which maybe 50 do surround sound at all (let alone real-time). You can't really compare that, since every single Xbox game guarantees surround sound support.
But all this talk of features ignores a major thing that people who don't own all the consoles (not just PS2/Xbox/GCN -- I mean all of them) ignore: you can't play features!
The PS2 is a great console because of its various exclusives, but the Xbox is also a great console because of its various exclusives. That the GameCube is a great console because of its exclusives goes without saying.
Games are what sell systems, not paper specs, not features. And comparing features that aren't comparable is the same as buying a PS3 because it pushes a bunch of polygons, even though there are no fucking games for it.
Just like a PC MMORPG, you get a lot more than just being able to stomp newbs in Mech Assault.
You get voice chat. You get friends lists. You get mute lists and other stuff that's persistant across all your games. It's a whole lot easier to get into online games, since you can rent the ones you want to try, and then buy the ones you liked (Everquest Online Adventures did have the 1-week game time test CDs, but they weren't really popular).
By making the fees easy, centralized, and predictable, Microsoft has taken a lot of the uncertainty about online play away from the end user. It's also setup a service that will ban the griefers, because they have to pay to get online in any game.
You can look at paying to play games as bad, but it's so inexpensive that one game is enough to break even considering all the cool extra features the service adds over the Sony online experience. The moment you start playing multiple games, your benefits are that much more. I like to play Mech Assault, Capcom vs. SNK 2, and Tetris online.. all have voice chat, the same friends list, and the same everything support under the hood:)
with the stuff that screws into a socket. Full spectrum flourescents have been around for a long time. Shame on you for not doing your homework on alternative forms of lightbulb:p
Is why people just don't go out and buy the flourescents that use 23w and generate the same light as a 100w bulb. That's a 77% power useage reduction, coupled with a 500% lifespan of the unit for about 200% of the cost. You end up saving more on the energy expenditure than it cost to get the 1 bulb (over the 5-pack you'd otherwise have bought), and they're available at Wal-Mart, Costco, Canadian Tire, etc.
Why buy an LED when we already have better lightbulbs available?
A shockwave is a displacement wave. On the Earth, this is usually a wave of air compressed that is travelling outward from some disturbance (such as a nuclear explosion).
On the Moon, there's no atmosphere to heat and compress. The only travelling outward material would be energy.
If you don't remember, Slashdot had an article about nuking the moon back in 2000. The US didn't do it because, without the atomsphere, there is no shockwave or other impressive bits of an explosion.
EB, at least, tries to carry everything. Metropolis Mania, Magic Pengel, etc, all are on EB's shelf at some point or another. If you're smart enough to talk to the employees about what they're interested in that's coming out, you'll find out about these gems before hand, and be able to preorder them. Then you're guaranteed a copy.
It's not magic, it's just a matter of listening to the people who live their games.
The EB I frequent got about 5 copies of Magin Pengel, and were able to get 5 more easily enough...
It's just how Zelda games are designed. There are some special boots you can get in Link's Awakening and Link to the Past that let you have one controlled jump of 1 block, but this is there so you can get past one of the overworld obstacles.
The chain-arrow grabber thingy (can't remember name) is what's used for larger areas.
A great game series can still have parts that annoy you; I just don't think it's that big of a deal because I'm not one of those newbies who started with Ocarina of Time;)
A word's place in a language is how it's used by the speakers.
I can say feces and be unambigous in describing fecal matter to any English speaker.
Shit doesn't always describe animal excretia in English. It also describes a situation or thing which is negative to the point of requiring a word of curse. Much like sex and fuck can refer to the same thing, you don't go up to random people and talk about fucking unless you are very low brow. You can probably talk about sex, though, as long as it's appropriate to the context.
Languages are not logical -- sayings and alternate forms arrise all the time, and are designated as how people use them, not as logic would dictate.
For example, to indicate that someone had revealed a secret, one English expression you might say is, "he let the cat out of the bag." How does that relate to secrets? The french equivalent, "Il a vendu la meche." litterally translates as, "He sold the wick."
How about, "He's as tall as 3 apples." Is that easy to recognize like, "He's knee high to a grasshopper." is?
If you have a problem with the conotations and denotations of the English language, I suggest you learn another one. Then you might appreciate their usage better.
In Wind Waker. I'm more concered about the puzzles and the boss fights than actual jumping. Plus, actually falling into the lava doesn't penalize you in Zelda like in does in Mario.
Except for the Legend of Zelda: Links Adventure on the NES, no Zelda game has ever not auto-jumped. People only started to whine about it when the game went 3D, because it wasn't like the other 3D games people had played in the past.
If I get too close to an edge in Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, Link won't fly off into the lava unless I'm running right at the ledge.
If I happen to merely walk up to it, and press into it by accident, he ".. hangs off (sic) with his hands." much like you say it's supposed to bed.
You can complain about the jump button thing, but I find that it simplifies the more frustrating aspect of 3D action games (jumping), since they are not designed to be hardcore platformers (see Mario Sunshine for an example of one of those). I've not gone into lava accidently because of it.
"You can't usually block port 135 to all local traffic, because it has legitimate uses on MS networks"
Ok, but this still doesn't explain why: The networks were Internet accesible.
or why The critical parts of the network aren't patched.
If I have a private network that I need to use insecure protocols on (NFS, SMB, etc), I will ensure that it's private. All borders will have strong packet filtering, and the address space will be a reserved one that's flagged as non routeable.
Now, because I am a smart sysadmin, and I know that there will still be cross polination (by people getting virus email attachements, bringing in laptops, etc), I will also take the time to patch my test server, run the validation suite, and then roll the patch out to the production servers sooner than a month after the patch is released. After all, what the fuck am I being paid for?
"Multi-language? Five main languages isn't that hard, really. You'd need five translators on the payroll. "
No, you'd need 5 translators plus 5 vetters (to check the translations) plus you'd need to localize all the various holidays, etc, and make sure no implied situations are missed which would offend certain cultures.
Look at European Telivision. It's a lot more than a language tranlation and some video format that makes or breaks a game in a market as diverse as Europe.
According to the Sony people, the network bundle is supposed to be the new official PS2 bundle. After the slow sales numbers, the chain of stores I work at reduced the price to sell more of the units. All chains in the area that sell it have matched the price, and most give away a game with it (although the game is either Turok Evoluton or Everquest Online Adventures, both of which are big flops).
The "normal" PS2 bundle is supposed to be discontinued, and the 179$ US (249$ CDN) price point is supposed to be a clearance price. We actually ran out of PS2s a few weeks back. They were listed as discontinued in the computer from our supplier, and the chain had to shift our on hand-PS2 units around stores in the region. We received a shipment with PS2s last week, though. I don't know if that's because Sony is acknowledging that the general public doesn't care about online with PS2, or because we had more PS2s is a wharehouse somewhere.
The bottom line is, Xbox with Xbox live and easy to do system link has a couple of great features. Of the Xboxes shipped, about 1 in 20 are online. If each person renews their Live subscription, that's about $30,000,000 CDN every year that MS gets just for running a service. 1 in 100 PS2s are currently online; Sony knows that this is partially because the games (which is why they're pushing to have 50 online titles by fall 2004), and partially because console accesories that aren't memory cards or controllers with rumble features typically don't penetrate very well. By making the network adaptor standard, they hope to catch up with Microsoft and not just hand them a potiential new market.
Of course, I think it's way too late for that with 50 million PS2 units already shipped. IMO, their best bet is to just get something ready for their next-gen console. The Sony people I know seem to think that with the HD and EyeToy, the PS2 will become a new digital media hub that will have people using the PS2 as an online video phone, TiVo, etc. The network adaptor is supposed to be the first step to all the pieces of equipment that upgrade the PS2's features. We'll see what happens when FF 11 comes out, since it's rumoured to come with the HD in North America.
I have a large (~290) game library. I'm not looking forward to any new consoles, because the current generation is just starting to realize its potential. The Xbox is very much an online console, and the Live! service still only has a couple of good titles (Mech Assault, Tetris,...). The GameCube has about 12 must-have titles, but the third-party support is still weak (I'm waiting on Snake Eater and CVX to step things up).
And the PS2, well... of the ~35 PS2 games I own, the only ones I recally really, really liking off the back are Rez and Ico. Everything else has been merely ok 3rd-party stuff (as is the Xbox collection that's not Sega titles).
I don't really care about the console hardware itself, because that only defines the features a game might have. What I'm interested in are the development houses I know rock: most of Sega's teams (AM2, Sonic Team, UGA, etc), Nintendo (and their great 2nd and 3rd parties, like Camelot and Silicon Knights), Bioware (KOTOR's awesome, I hope to see more from them on consoles), Konami, Capcom, etc.
Anyone still focused on the hardware itself clearly hasn't been paying attention. I can't fucking play a game console that has no games!
"If I jump out at you from behind a tree and yell "boo!" to scare you and cause you to have a heart attack and die, it is not murder because I did not have the intent to kill you (even though my act caused you to die and I knew killing someone is murder, which is illegal)."
While it is probable that you won't be guilty of murder, you may be convicted of manslaughter.
Also, you mention that "I knew killing someone is murder, which is illegal" -- this has no bearing at all on the legal case. Ignorance is no excuse in the eyes of the law. The burder of knowledge of what is legal and not is squarely on you; not knowing it is not a way to avoid prosection and conviction.
I installed Gnome 2.2 recently and have been tracking various bugs via thock.com. I haven't gotten around to filing bugs for absolutely everything, but most of the big stuff is explained there.
I care that it's doable, period. There is a certain maximum level of effort that should be required to use a computer at a certain level. Installing applications should not require the level of user involvement it does now. The tools should be well developed enough that it Just Works (TM).
I wasn't aware of a lot of these points. It'd be nice if there was an archive of these changes, somewhere. I did know about the porno mag in FF4, but I figured it was Square's idea to remove the developer's room.
The OOT thing is very interesting. I think I have the revision 1 in cart form (as well an OOT bonus discs), so I'll try comparing those to see.
Nintendo stopped censoring after the Mortal Kombat 1 debacle. Sega created the Video Game Rating Comission and marked Mortal Kombat as adult, while Nintendo censored it. MK on the SNES sold very poorly compared to the Genesis version.
When MK 2 was ported, Nintendo didn't censor it in the slightest. They let the ESRB ratings (the renamed VRC that would rate all games on all platforms) Ever since then, Nintendo's policy has been to let things through unaltered, and let the ESRB ratings tell the tale.
I'm surprised you're so ignorant of it. Or maybe I'm not, if you think Nintendo only makes "kids" games.
"Windows installers can quite happily break your system too."
Yes, but at least I can install an application quickly. All I have to do is download a file, double click it, follow a couple of instructions, and delete the installer. With Linux, you have to find the apropriate package. Then you have to either use the installer tool, and hope it isn't broken (I've never had good luck with RPM), or uncompress the tarball. If you've uncompressed the tarball, you'll have to manually put the files into place. You'll also have to manually check dependencies.
Do you want to remove Mozilla later on Linux? Better to wipe / and reinstall your distro. Windows at least has a control panel applet for removing applications quickly and easily.
What Linux needs is a standard across all distributions for self-extracting tarballs that will do dependency checking (and include the versions of shared libraries they depend on, just in case), and which will add an uninstall script to a central removal database.
I can double click an exe, get an install shield wizard, and have something that lets me run an app within a couple of minutes. I can remove it through an unintstaller, as well. Most of the time, make uninstall doesn't exist as a target in the packages I deal with.
Plus, how exactly am I supposed to educate people on using Linux as a desktop if they can't just get a nice install wizard every time they want a new app? The plethora of package manager formats is one problem, the lack of help from them is another.
You can critize the obvious flaws in install shield applications all you want, but they have more pros than the Linux equivalent currently does. If you want to help Linux on the desktop, you will understand what pros the Linux equivalent lacks, and address this.
In 2001, Nintendo could not have made the GBA SP and sold it at the price point they were able to in 2003. Why? LiIons are getting cheaper, and because they designed a system for frontlighting that was based largely on cellphone lighting technology. In 2 years, my cell phone has gotten smaller, more battery life, and more featured because of advances in technology.
While the hindsight view on the lighting is 20-20, do you think that it wouldn't be possible to miss this in a development cycle? If you play the GBA in a fairly well lit room (most that are lit with flourecent strip lighting, etc), you won't notice that it's a bit darker than the old GameBoy Colour and Pocket. It was a design mistake, but I don't think it was as obvious before the release as you think it is. Plus, I don't think they could've met their price goal, as mentioned above.
As for the headphone adaptor: "If third party developers think they can make a selling something to a fraction of youre customers, then perhaps you could make a killing on it." What's a killing? 3$ on a little dongle that hooks to the GBA SP and lets you use headphones? How many people use headphones? Nintendo already researched it, and found that few used headphones. Enough that removing the port wouldn't hinder the design's success. If there are that few people, why bother trying to market an addon? Most of the time, Nintendo's addons sell poorly compared to 3rd party ones anyways.
Slashdot Mirror
The Xbox will let you use DTS DVDs and DTS cut scenes just like the PS2 will.
The PS2 DTS encoded games are only 4-point surround. Any 5.1 surround on the PS2 is done via Prologic 2 encoding, since those are the only 2 real-time surround formats available on the PS2 (barring some new algorithm for encoding audio).
Socom does PL2, as do most Sony 1st party releases from the past 8 months.
As for the online experience, well... you're getting more than just access to online servers with Live!. You're getting basic service guarantees and all that implies. Until Sony makes a real online service for their consoles, you can't really compare it to Live! since there is nothing else like Live! in the world. No one has complete, end-to-end control of hardware and software like this particular Microsoft service has.
It's like comparing the surround sound on the PS2 to the Xbox. There are 350 some Xbox titles, all of which support Dobly Digital. There are 500 or 600 PS2 titles, of which maybe 50 do surround sound at all (let alone real-time). You can't really compare that, since every single Xbox game guarantees surround sound support.
But all this talk of features ignores a major thing that people who don't own all the consoles (not just PS2/Xbox/GCN -- I mean all of them) ignore: you can't play features!
The PS2 is a great console because of its various exclusives, but the Xbox is also a great console because of its various exclusives. That the GameCube is a great console because of its exclusives goes without saying.
Games are what sell systems, not paper specs, not features. And comparing features that aren't comparable is the same as buying a PS3 because it pushes a bunch of polygons, even though there are no fucking games for it.
Just like a PC MMORPG, you get a lot more than just being able to stomp newbs in Mech Assault.
:)
You get voice chat. You get friends lists. You get mute lists and other stuff that's persistant across all your games. It's a whole lot easier to get into online games, since you can rent the ones you want to try, and then buy the ones you liked (Everquest Online Adventures did have the 1-week game time test CDs, but they weren't really popular).
By making the fees easy, centralized, and predictable, Microsoft has taken a lot of the uncertainty about online play away from the end user. It's also setup a service that will ban the griefers, because they have to pay to get online in any game.
You can look at paying to play games as bad, but it's so inexpensive that one game is enough to break even considering all the cool extra features the service adds over the Sony online experience. The moment you start playing multiple games, your benefits are that much more. I like to play Mech Assault, Capcom vs. SNK 2, and Tetris online.. all have voice chat, the same friends list, and the same everything support under the hood
with the stuff that screws into a socket. Full spectrum flourescents have been around for a long time. Shame on you for not doing your homework on alternative forms of lightbulb :p
Is why people just don't go out and buy the flourescents that use 23w and generate the same light as a 100w bulb. That's a 77% power useage reduction, coupled with a 500% lifespan of the unit for about 200% of the cost. You end up saving more on the energy expenditure than it cost to get the 1 bulb (over the 5-pack you'd otherwise have bought), and they're available at Wal-Mart, Costco, Canadian Tire, etc.
Why buy an LED when we already have better lightbulbs available?
A shockwave is a displacement wave. On the Earth, this is usually a wave of air compressed that is travelling outward from some disturbance (such as a nuclear explosion).
On the Moon, there's no atmosphere to heat and compress. The only travelling outward material would be energy.
If you don't remember, Slashdot had an article about nuking the moon back in 2000. The US didn't do it because, without the atomsphere, there is no shockwave or other impressive bits of an explosion.
EB, at least, tries to carry everything. Metropolis Mania, Magic Pengel, etc, all are on EB's shelf at some point or another. If you're smart enough to talk to the employees about what they're interested in that's coming out, you'll find out about these gems before hand, and be able to preorder them. Then you're guaranteed a copy.
..
It's not magic, it's just a matter of listening to the people who live their games.
The EB I frequent got about 5 copies of Magin Pengel, and were able to get 5 more easily enough.
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It's just how Zelda games are designed. There are some special boots you can get in Link's Awakening and Link to the Past that let you have one controlled jump of 1 block, but this is there so you can get past one of the overworld obstacles.
;)
The chain-arrow grabber thingy (can't remember name) is what's used for larger areas.
A great game series can still have parts that annoy you; I just don't think it's that big of a deal because I'm not one of those newbies who started with Ocarina of Time
A word's place in a language is how it's used by the speakers.
I can say feces and be unambigous in describing fecal matter to any English speaker.
Shit doesn't always describe animal excretia in English. It also describes a situation or thing which is negative to the point of requiring a word of curse. Much like sex and fuck can refer to the same thing, you don't go up to random people and talk about fucking unless you are very low brow. You can probably talk about sex, though, as long as it's appropriate to the context.
Languages are not logical -- sayings and alternate forms arrise all the time, and are designated as how people use them, not as logic would dictate.
For example, to indicate that someone had revealed a secret, one English expression you might say is, "he let the cat out of the bag." How does that relate to secrets? The french equivalent, "Il a vendu la meche." litterally translates as, "He sold the wick."
How about, "He's as tall as 3 apples." Is that easy to recognize like, "He's knee high to a grasshopper." is?
If you have a problem with the conotations and denotations of the English language, I suggest you learn another one. Then you might appreciate their usage better.
In Wind Waker. I'm more concered about the puzzles and the boss fights than actual jumping. Plus, actually falling into the lava doesn't penalize you in Zelda like in does in Mario.
:)
Except for the Legend of Zelda: Links Adventure on the NES, no Zelda game has ever not auto-jumped. People only started to whine about it when the game went 3D, because it wasn't like the other 3D games people had played in the past.
I say TS, Zelda is not other games
If I get too close to an edge in Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, Link won't fly off into the lava unless I'm running right at the ledge.
If I happen to merely walk up to it, and press into it by accident, he ".. hangs off (sic) with his hands." much like you say it's supposed to bed.
You can complain about the jump button thing, but I find that it simplifies the more frustrating aspect of 3D action games (jumping), since they are not designed to be hardcore platformers (see Mario Sunshine for an example of one of those). I've not gone into lava accidently because of it.
"You can't usually block port 135 to all local traffic, because it has legitimate uses on MS networks"
Ok, but this still doesn't explain why:
The networks were Internet accesible.
or why
The critical parts of the network aren't patched.
If I have a private network that I need to use insecure protocols on (NFS, SMB, etc), I will ensure that it's private. All borders will have strong packet filtering, and the address space will be a reserved one that's flagged as non routeable.
Now, because I am a smart sysadmin, and I know that there will still be cross polination (by people getting virus email attachements, bringing in laptops, etc), I will also take the time to patch my test server, run the validation suite, and then roll the patch out to the production servers sooner than a month after the patch is released. After all, what the fuck am I being paid for?
"Multi-language?
Five main languages isn't that hard, really. You'd need five translators on the payroll. "
No, you'd need 5 translators plus 5 vetters (to check the translations) plus you'd need to localize all the various holidays, etc, and make sure no implied situations are missed which would offend certain cultures.
Look at European Telivision. It's a lot more than a language tranlation and some video format that makes or breaks a game in a market as diverse as Europe.
According to the Sony people, the network bundle is supposed to be the new official PS2 bundle. After the slow sales numbers, the chain of stores I work at reduced the price to sell more of the units. All chains in the area that sell it have matched the price, and most give away a game with it (although the game is either Turok Evoluton or Everquest Online Adventures, both of which are big flops).
The "normal" PS2 bundle is supposed to be discontinued, and the 179$ US (249$ CDN) price point is supposed to be a clearance price. We actually ran out of PS2s a few weeks back. They were listed as discontinued in the computer from our supplier, and the chain had to shift our on hand-PS2 units around stores in the region. We received a shipment with PS2s last week, though. I don't know if that's because Sony is acknowledging that the general public doesn't care about online with PS2, or because we had more PS2s is a wharehouse somewhere.
The bottom line is, Xbox with Xbox live and easy to do system link has a couple of great features. Of the Xboxes shipped, about 1 in 20 are online. If each person renews their Live subscription, that's about $30,000,000 CDN every year that MS gets just for running a service. 1 in 100 PS2s are currently online; Sony knows that this is partially because the games (which is why they're pushing to have 50 online titles by fall 2004), and partially because console accesories that aren't memory cards or controllers with rumble features typically don't penetrate very well. By making the network adaptor standard, they hope to catch up with Microsoft and not just hand them a potiential new market.
Of course, I think it's way too late for that with 50 million PS2 units already shipped. IMO, their best bet is to just get something ready for their next-gen console. The Sony people I know seem to think that with the HD and EyeToy, the PS2 will become a new digital media hub that will have people using the PS2 as an online video phone, TiVo, etc. The network adaptor is supposed to be the first step to all the pieces of equipment that upgrade the PS2's features. We'll see what happens when FF 11 comes out, since it's rumoured to come with the HD in North America.
I have a large (~290) game library. I'm not looking forward to any new consoles, because the current generation is just starting to realize its potential. The Xbox is very much an online console, and the Live! service still only has a couple of good titles (Mech Assault, Tetris, ...). The GameCube has about 12 must-have titles, but the third-party support is still weak (I'm waiting on Snake Eater and CVX to step things up).
And the PS2, well... of the ~35 PS2 games I own, the only ones I recally really, really liking off the back are Rez and Ico. Everything else has been merely ok 3rd-party stuff (as is the Xbox collection that's not Sega titles).
I don't really care about the console hardware itself, because that only defines the features a game might have. What I'm interested in are the development houses I know rock: most of Sega's teams (AM2, Sonic Team, UGA, etc), Nintendo (and their great 2nd and 3rd parties, like Camelot and Silicon Knights), Bioware (KOTOR's awesome, I hope to see more from them on consoles), Konami, Capcom, etc.
Anyone still focused on the hardware itself clearly hasn't been paying attention. I can't fucking play a game console that has no games!
"If I jump out at you from behind a tree and yell "boo!" to scare you and cause you to have a heart attack and die, it is not murder because I did not have the intent to kill you (even though my act caused you to die and I knew killing someone is murder, which is illegal)."
While it is probable that you won't be guilty of murder, you may be convicted of manslaughter.
Also, you mention that "I knew killing someone is murder, which is illegal" -- this has no bearing at all on the legal case. Ignorance is no excuse in the eyes of the law. The burder of knowledge of what is legal and not is squarely on you; not knowing it is not a way to avoid prosection and conviction.
"Its already a bit of a known fact that the large console markets are PS2 and XBOX."
The PS2 has shipped 50,000,000 units. The Xbox and GameCube have both shipped 10,000,000 units.
I don't understand how one 10,000,000 is smaller than another 10,000,000 enough to be considered equal to 50,000,000.
Here's a well known fact: "well known facts" are often made up on the spot to support another argument, and make it look that much more believable.
December 8th, 2003 for a price of 77.99$ Canadian.
I installed Gnome 2.2 recently and have been tracking various bugs via thock.com. I haven't gotten around to filing bugs for absolutely everything, but most of the big stuff is explained there.
I care that it's doable, period. There is a certain maximum level of effort that should be required to use a computer at a certain level. Installing applications should not require the level of user involvement it does now. The tools should be well developed enough that it Just Works (TM).
I wasn't aware of a lot of these points. It'd be nice if there was an archive of these changes, somewhere. I did know about the porno mag in FF4, but I figured it was Square's idea to remove the developer's room.
The OOT thing is very interesting. I think I have the revision 1 in cart form (as well an OOT bonus discs), so I'll try comparing those to see.
Nintendo stopped censoring after the Mortal Kombat 1 debacle. Sega created the Video Game Rating Comission and marked Mortal Kombat as adult, while Nintendo censored it. MK on the SNES sold very poorly compared to the Genesis version.
When MK 2 was ported, Nintendo didn't censor it in the slightest. They let the ESRB ratings (the renamed VRC that would rate all games on all platforms) Ever since then, Nintendo's policy has been to let things through unaltered, and let the ESRB ratings tell the tale.
I'm surprised you're so ignorant of it. Or maybe I'm not, if you think Nintendo only makes "kids" games.
"Windows installers can quite happily break your system too."
Yes, but at least I can install an application quickly. All I have to do is download a file, double click it, follow a couple of instructions, and delete the installer. With Linux, you have to find the apropriate package. Then you have to either use the installer tool, and hope it isn't broken (I've never had good luck with RPM), or uncompress the tarball. If you've uncompressed the tarball, you'll have to manually put the files into place. You'll also have to manually check dependencies.
Do you want to remove Mozilla later on Linux? Better to wipe / and reinstall your distro. Windows at least has a control panel applet for removing applications quickly and easily.
What Linux needs is a standard across all distributions for self-extracting tarballs that will do dependency checking (and include the versions of shared libraries they depend on, just in case), and which will add an uninstall script to a central removal database.
I can double click an exe, get an install shield wizard, and have something that lets me run an app within a couple of minutes. I can remove it through an unintstaller, as well. Most of the time, make uninstall doesn't exist as a target in the packages I deal with.
Plus, how exactly am I supposed to educate people on using Linux as a desktop if they can't just get a nice install wizard every time they want a new app? The plethora of package manager formats is one problem, the lack of help from them is another.
You can critize the obvious flaws in install shield applications all you want, but they have more pros than the Linux equivalent currently does. If you want to help Linux on the desktop, you will understand what pros the Linux equivalent lacks, and address this.
In 2001, Nintendo could not have made the GBA SP and sold it at the price point they were able to in 2003. Why? LiIons are getting cheaper, and because they designed a system for frontlighting that was based largely on cellphone lighting technology. In 2 years, my cell phone has gotten smaller, more battery life, and more featured because of advances in technology.
While the hindsight view on the lighting is 20-20, do you think that it wouldn't be possible to miss this in a development cycle? If you play the GBA in a fairly well lit room (most that are lit with flourecent strip lighting, etc), you won't notice that it's a bit darker than the old GameBoy Colour and Pocket. It was a design mistake, but I don't think it was as obvious before the release as you think it is. Plus, I don't think they could've met their price goal, as mentioned above.
As for the headphone adaptor: "If third party developers think they can make a selling something to a fraction of youre customers, then perhaps you could make a killing on it." What's a killing? 3$ on a little dongle that hooks to the GBA SP and lets you use headphones? How many people use headphones? Nintendo already researched it, and found that few used headphones. Enough that removing the port wouldn't hinder the design's success. If there are that few people, why bother trying to market an addon? Most of the time, Nintendo's addons sell poorly compared to 3rd party ones anyways.