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Inside the PSP
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· Score: 1
Sony says you're shit out of luck over dead pixels
They would have to say that otherwise they would be replacing almost half of those 1 million units shipped, or pretty close to that.
I went through three units (taking them back to Wal-Mart) until I finally got a good one. The first three had solid pixels near the center of the display (One of them was hot pink -- I was calling the system the PSP = Pixel Stays Pink). One of them had fingerprints on the INSIDE of the screen. The third one had a bunch of large lint inside on the LCD. The 4th unit only has one errant pixel, and it's not so bad. It stays gray on solid black displays, other than that it's normal, and it's all the way along the left side so I hardly notice it. I wouldn't have found it at all had I not been looking for it so I'll just live with it.
I personally think the PSP is a cool machine, much cooler than I expected, though there is a serious lack of good games for it. At least on the DS I still have my entire GBA library to play with, and Mario 64 was worth playing again just to get the new stars (I got my 150! HA HA)
On the whole I'd have to say the PSP didn't redefine handheld gaming. It's not a "GBA" killer. It's a next generation handheld, and a damned good one. But it's not the be all end all, and until it starts to come close to having near the quality or selection of games available for the GBA, a next gen system with cool extra features is all it is.
Considering the DS is still selling quite well and the PSP isn't really selling as great as they had hoped (in the US anyway) anyone with delusions that the PSP is/was going to kill the GBA or DS overnight are sorely mistaken.
If the PSP doesn't fix it's serious quality issues (and fast), it might find itself going the way of the Game Gear, Turbo GraFX Express, Neo Geo Pocket, and the Atari Lynx.
Not everyone is willing to spend $250 on a game machine, and even fewer would tolerate having to keep returning them just to get a good one.
For anyone else willing to take the dive, I give you this advice: Buy one at a respectable retailer that has a good return policy, and keep your receipt. To prevent trouble repackaging it later on, I suggest only taking out the system and the battery (which has just enough charge to give it a good test). Test it before unpacking everything else or undoing any of the wire ties.
Upon first turning it on, the menu screen will be white until you configure it at which point it turns green. From the main menu you have the ability to select an option "About PSP" which will go to a black screen. Between the white, green, and black screens you should be able to get a really good inspection of the pixels.
Even if you aren't as picky as I am, it would be nice to know early on if you're going to have to deal with a solid white or pink pixel. If you can find out immediately before spending any time fiddling with it then that is just the sooner you can replace it with a (hopefully) perfect unit. Plus repackaging everything in the box is easier if you've left most if it untouched.
I admit, mine isn't 100% perfect, but after 3 returns I just felt like I was starting to appear to be anal to the people at the service desk. After all I can live with one slightly off pixel that can only be seen when it's black.
My experience has put off several of my friends, and they're "going to wait" until the quality improves and the price comes down. At least by then, more (and better) games will be out.
The PSP will do well, but I have high doubts that it'll topple the Gameboy, or even the DS, and it's all in what I've personally seen.
Where I work in the past three months a grand total of 10 people that I know of have purchased the DS. It's worth noting that NONE of them have ever owned a Gameboy, and most of them have never owned any game machine at all.
I of course buy every game machine, and always have. But I've been blown away not so much that other people at work have been bringing them in but rather, so many non-gamers have been.
I used to be the lone person at the break tables with a GBA. Now there are non-stop competitions, sometimes extending our breaks way longer than they need to.
I highly doubt I'll see that kind of success out of the PSP.
He said the public perception of IE's security has declined. It doesn't matter if IE is more or less secure than it has been in the past, because generally speaking, most people don't trust IE anymore.
He can't back that up. Nintendo doesn't lose money on Gamecube Sales, and they make tons of money on first party titles. In fact, Nintendo makes more first party titles (And sells them) than most any 3rd party makes for any of the other systems.
The fact of the matter is that Sony and Microsoft both rely on 3rd parties, and a lot of them. Nintendo doesn't rely on them, and have almost always held the burdon of carrying their systems with their first party titles.
This has the negative impact of making 3rd parties fairly lukewarm when dealing with Nintendo since they have to compete with them directly on the Mario and Zelda front, but it benefits Nintendo as they get to keep more of the profits, and make no mistake about it, they profit.
One year alone they made more money on Pokemon than any 3rd party developer made on any of their best selling titles, and that only included the card games.
Anyone who thinks Nintendo is hurting for cash is a Sony or Microsoft fanboy without a clue.
until you play a game you don't know how well designed it is.
That's one reason I like Nintendo. It's a sure bet that their first party titles are normally a whole lot of fun.
A lot of people don't like Nintendo because they assume the games are only for kids. But saying Nintendo games are only for kids is kind of like saying Shrek was a kid's movie. Anyone who doesn't play Nintendo's first part games on the sole pretense that they're for children is missing out on some of the finest and most innovative games.
But then, in my experience the modern day gamer isn't really much of a gamer anyway, and all they want is the newest sports title, movie to game heap of crap, or the lastest "Eventu-Win" RPG. Then you have the whole lot of people obsessed with first person death match (often in realistic combat themes).
Gamers as a whole aren't the imaginative, creative, above intellence group of people they were way back. They're normal everyday media consumer whores.
some companies (Best Buy, for one) already applies tax based on where you live.
That's because a lot of those companies have a business presense in the state of the buyer.
As I understand it, if I purchase something online from Best Buy, Wal-Mart, or Egghead, I have to pay sales tax because somehow or another the law considers it exactly the same as me going down the street to the store and making the same purchase.
Actually, I dialed 911 once to report a moron driving on the wrong side of the road for several miles. When he went over into the other lane I immediately slowed down considerably and stayed some distance back, thinking he was drunk. He then continued driving, swerving over into the right(correct) lane whenever oncoming traffic started getting close, and then returning back into the left lane when they had passed.
By the way the oncoming traffic was slowing down and pulling off to the side and creeping along, I could tell he was really freaking some people out.
I called 911 and felt totally justified in it. I figured at any moment he might cause someone to over-react and lose control of their vehicle.
Also worth remembering that there are already different versions of the tale - the differences between the radio play scripts and the novel are fairly significant.
Just because Adams wrote new content for the movie doesn't mean that the director didn't turn right around and ruin it on the screen just the same.
I have a hard time not being horribly skeptical about this.
In just that short trailer, I've already seen a few things that really disturbed me.
And I doubt Adams wrote that Zaphod's 2nd head was hidden under his first, the Heart of Gold (and Marvin, for that matter) were just large spheres, and the other obvious things people will point out.
Trying not to be too negative though, the Vogons look nice, the Guide itself looks cool, and the special effects look nice, for what that's worth.
If you are running two totally different processes at once, then you get immediate benefits. (And immediate subtle bugs, if the processes share resources and weren't properly written for SMP).
So now all those users infected with Spyware won't notice as much slowdown! Har har har.
One of the best things about medium to difficult games is the satisfaction of defeating them in the end.
In most "Eventuwin" games that are out now days, the average (read, Unskilled) gamer will beat them with sufficient devoted time.
Granted, there are different TYPES of player skills. Logical reasoning, navigation, resource management, memory, hand eye coordination, reflex speed, attention to detail, the ability to multitask, and any combination of the above all are different skills that might be important in different types of games.
On the most basic external levels, all games will have to have some kind of initial sensory appeal, either artistically or contextual.
But after that they must start challenging a person's skills. Some games aren't fun because while they may (or may not) be well presented they just don't play worth a shit.
Having played literally thousands of games in my life (starting with the Atari 2600, and now owning all of the current systems (and only missing a few obscure mid-90's systems), I have played everything from the insanely difficult to the boringly easy.
I can honestly say there is a great satisfaction in accomplishing something exceptionally difficult in a game knowing fwe other people would be able to.
Also, I want to say, while I admit cheat codes built into games can add a new layer of amusement after the game has been defeated, I think it's a horrible shame that some of the greatest games of today are so horribly tainted with built in cheat codes that are widespread before the game even hits store shelves. Very, very, sad.
I've ready many replies writing off the DS and hailing the PSP, most of which are easy conclusions to draw but unfortunately for the PSP I think they are the wrong atittudes to take when trying to feel out this situation.
The reason the DS is already succeeding is because it IS appealing to nontraditional gamers. It's appealing to them like no other system I've ever seen.
Where I work I have been surrounded by people who generally think I waste my time with video games. They used to even tease me when I brought my Gameboy SP in to work.
Here lately, something unpredictable has happened. Men, ages 25-40 have been sitting around beating each other up in Mario 64DS. They've been playing the puzzle games, and bragging about their stars.
Where I work, almost none of these people are gamers. Yet, in my immediate department there are 6 people alone who already have one (not counting myself) and several others who swore they will be buying one!
These are people who DON'T EVEN PLAY VIDEO GAMES!
Many of the sited reasons are how cool the touch screen is, how well the wireless works, how there are already thousands of games available for it (Advance compatibility) and (the most often quoted reason) the upcoming Mario Kart DS.
I'm not saying the PSP is doomed to failure, and I certainly will be buying one myself. But Sony will lose the first couple of rounds against the DS because an entirely unexpected niche has been filled, and it's a huge niche. By now Nintendo has already sold almost 2 million DS units, and it's this phenomena is viral. What starts out as two people huddled around beating the crap out of each other turns into 10. Being able to play off of one cartridge is also a major selling point.
I've never understood the whole anti-Nintendo atittude. People refuse to acknowledge that dispite their fun-loving non-hardcore non-adult-oritented attitude they still know how to make something fun, yes, even for adults. Everyone who writes them off unjustely is denying themselves some of the most innovative and entertaining games in the industry.
Fortunately for the DS it's appeal is to an audience that had no pre-existing "kiddie-oriented" view of Nintendo.
It cracks me up to hear 40 year old men arguing over who gets to be "The blue guy" and calling Wario "Fat Ass" because they don't know his name.
Sony has yelled out loud and clear that they want another section of the gaming market overtaken and polluted with drab and uninspired shovelware and cheap knockoffs, but the DS, I believe, in the end will scream out loud and clear, "DENIED!"
Just remember, SOME geeks love the tech, read the programming manuals, fiddle with projects, and basically surround themselves in geeky-techie stuff dispite the fact that they work outside of the field.
In some cases, it's a lack of degree, but in other cases, it's unwillingness to move, give up their current pay (even if they hate their current job) or a combination of the above.
Some geeks have the passion and even the abilities, but not the opportunity.
Slashdot Mirror
Sony says you're shit out of luck over dead pixels
They would have to say that otherwise they would be replacing almost half of those 1 million units shipped, or pretty close to that.
I went through three units (taking them back to Wal-Mart) until I finally got a good one. The first three had solid pixels near the center of the display (One of them was hot pink -- I was calling the system the PSP = Pixel Stays Pink). One of them had fingerprints on the INSIDE of the screen. The third one had a bunch of large lint inside on the LCD. The 4th unit only has one errant pixel, and it's not so bad. It stays gray on solid black displays, other than that it's normal, and it's all the way along the left side so I hardly notice it. I wouldn't have found it at all had I not been looking for it so I'll just live with it.
I personally think the PSP is a cool machine, much cooler than I expected, though there is a serious lack of good games for it. At least on the DS I still have my entire GBA library to play with, and Mario 64 was worth playing again just to get the new stars (I got my 150! HA HA)
On the whole I'd have to say the PSP didn't redefine handheld gaming. It's not a "GBA" killer. It's a next generation handheld, and a damned good one. But it's not the be all end all, and until it starts to come close to having near the quality or selection of games available for the GBA, a next gen system with cool extra features is all it is.
Considering the DS is still selling quite well and the PSP isn't really selling as great as they had hoped (in the US anyway) anyone with delusions that the PSP is/was going to kill the GBA or DS overnight are sorely mistaken.
If the PSP doesn't fix it's serious quality issues (and fast), it might find itself going the way of the Game Gear, Turbo GraFX Express, Neo Geo Pocket, and the Atari Lynx.
Not everyone is willing to spend $250 on a game machine, and even fewer would tolerate having to keep returning them just to get a good one.
For anyone else willing to take the dive, I give you this advice: Buy one at a respectable retailer that has a good return policy, and keep your receipt. To prevent trouble repackaging it later on, I suggest only taking out the system and the battery (which has just enough charge to give it a good test). Test it before unpacking everything else or undoing any of the wire ties.
Upon first turning it on, the menu screen will be white until you configure it at which point it turns green. From the main menu you have the ability to select an option "About PSP" which will go to a black screen. Between the white, green, and black screens you should be able to get a really good inspection of the pixels.
Even if you aren't as picky as I am, it would be nice to know early on if you're going to have to deal with a solid white or pink pixel. If you can find out immediately before spending any time fiddling with it then that is just the sooner you can replace it with a (hopefully) perfect unit. Plus repackaging everything in the box is easier if you've left most if it untouched.
I admit, mine isn't 100% perfect, but after 3 returns I just felt like I was starting to appear to be anal to the people at the service desk. After all I can live with one slightly off pixel that can only be seen when it's black.
My experience has put off several of my friends, and they're "going to wait" until the quality improves and the price comes down. At least by then, more (and better) games will be out.
I half wish I had waited.
The PSP will do well, but I have high doubts that it'll topple the Gameboy, or even the DS, and it's all in what I've personally seen.
Where I work in the past three months a grand total of 10 people that I know of have purchased the DS. It's worth noting that NONE of them have ever owned a Gameboy, and most of them have never owned any game machine at all.
I of course buy every game machine, and always have. But I've been blown away not so much that other people at work have been bringing them in but rather, so many non-gamers have been.
I used to be the lone person at the break tables with a GBA. Now there are non-stop competitions, sometimes extending our breaks way longer than they need to.
I highly doubt I'll see that kind of success out of the PSP.
And several barrels. :)
idiomatic slashdot expression
All your orange's are belong to us.
Followed, of course, with some russian joke about how the oranges own YOU!
He said the public perception of IE's security has declined. It doesn't matter if IE is more or less secure than it has been in the past, because generally speaking, most people don't trust IE anymore.
This is all great, but the REAL question we are all asking: Do Tinfoil Hats block this thing?
Care to back that up?
He can't back that up. Nintendo doesn't lose money on Gamecube Sales, and they make tons of money on first party titles. In fact, Nintendo makes more first party titles (And sells them) than most any 3rd party makes for any of the other systems.
The fact of the matter is that Sony and Microsoft both rely on 3rd parties, and a lot of them. Nintendo doesn't rely on them, and have almost always held the burdon of carrying their systems with their first party titles.
This has the negative impact of making 3rd parties fairly lukewarm when dealing with Nintendo since they have to compete with them directly on the Mario and Zelda front, but it benefits Nintendo as they get to keep more of the profits, and make no mistake about it, they profit.
One year alone they made more money on Pokemon than any 3rd party developer made on any of their best selling titles, and that only included the card games.
Anyone who thinks Nintendo is hurting for cash is a Sony or Microsoft fanboy without a clue.
until you play a game you don't know how well designed it is.
That's one reason I like Nintendo. It's a sure bet that their first party titles are normally a whole lot of fun.
A lot of people don't like Nintendo because they assume the games are only for kids. But saying Nintendo games are only for kids is kind of like saying Shrek was a kid's movie. Anyone who doesn't play Nintendo's first part games on the sole pretense that they're for children is missing out on some of the finest and most innovative games.
But then, in my experience the modern day gamer isn't really much of a gamer anyway, and all they want is the newest sports title, movie to game heap of crap, or the lastest "Eventu-Win" RPG. Then you have the whole lot of people obsessed with first person death match (often in realistic combat themes).
Gamers as a whole aren't the imaginative, creative, above intellence group of people they were way back. They're normal everyday media consumer whores.
While this is certainly a concern, what are the overall effects of such a mass departure?
Less sex on the job?
Oh, wait, we're talking about IT right?
Nevermind.
Blocking at what level?
Is it restricting free speech if a company blocks VoIP outside of their network?
Is it restricting if one ISP decides to block it for all of their customers?
In the first situation, it's not really any different than a company policy forbidding personal phone calls on company time.
In the second situation, switch ISPs to someone mroe reasonable.
I think before we can go around saying that blocking VoIP is denying free speech, we should look at each situation individually.
And of course, when possible, vote with dollars.
I for one welcome our new younger female coworkers. :)
McHenry's definition of quality seems to consist solely of presentational matters such as spelling, grammar, and text flow.
If he finds spelling and grammar errors regularly, why doesn't he do his part and correct them?
I really liked the Samus Aran.
some companies (Best Buy, for one) already applies tax based on where you live.
That's because a lot of those companies have a business presense in the state of the buyer.
As I understand it, if I purchase something online from Best Buy, Wal-Mart, or Egghead, I have to pay sales tax because somehow or another the law considers it exactly the same as me going down the street to the store and making the same purchase.
Actually, I dialed 911 once to report a moron driving on the wrong side of the road for several miles. When he went over into the other lane I immediately slowed down considerably and stayed some distance back, thinking he was drunk. He then continued driving, swerving over into the right(correct) lane whenever oncoming traffic started getting close, and then returning back into the left lane when they had passed.
By the way the oncoming traffic was slowing down and pulling off to the side and creeping along, I could tell he was really freaking some people out.
I called 911 and felt totally justified in it. I figured at any moment he might cause someone to over-react and lose control of their vehicle.
Sometimes stupid people just have to be reported.
Also worth remembering that there are already different versions of the tale - the differences between the radio play scripts and the novel are fairly significant.
Just because Adams wrote new content for the movie doesn't mean that the director didn't turn right around and ruin it on the screen just the same.
I have a hard time not being horribly skeptical about this.
In just that short trailer, I've already seen a few things that really disturbed me.
And I doubt Adams wrote that Zaphod's 2nd head was hidden under his first, the Heart of Gold (and Marvin, for that matter) were just large spheres, and the other obvious things people will point out.
Trying not to be too negative though, the Vogons look nice, the Guide itself looks cool, and the special effects look nice, for what that's worth.
Just feed it any old garbage such as your Microsoft EULA printouts, it it is good to go.
Xbox games also work.
Yes, but as someone else noted, this is costing laywers a ton if there is any truth to the rates they are paying.
Slashdot the lawyers!
Well, after having watched Enterprise a few times, Berman apparently already knows what it means to be out of canon . :)
If you are running two totally different processes at once, then you get immediate benefits. (And immediate subtle bugs, if the processes share resources and weren't properly written for SMP).
So now all those users infected with Spyware won't notice as much slowdown! Har har har.
(Sorry, I just had to.)
It would take an estimated 65 months and under $1 billion to build
Yes, and for a limited time this baby can be yours for ONLY $999,999,999.99!
It's only a matter of time before someone ports it to the Nintendo DS. :)
:)
It already runs on an ARM so the rest might not be too hard.
One of the best things about medium to difficult games is the satisfaction of defeating them in the end.
In most "Eventuwin" games that are out now days, the average (read, Unskilled) gamer will beat them with sufficient devoted time.
Granted, there are different TYPES of player skills. Logical reasoning, navigation, resource management, memory, hand eye coordination, reflex speed, attention to detail, the ability to multitask, and any combination of the above all are different skills that might be important in different types of games.
On the most basic external levels, all games will have to have some kind of initial sensory appeal, either artistically or contextual.
But after that they must start challenging a person's skills. Some games aren't fun because while they may (or may not) be well presented they just don't play worth a shit.
Having played literally thousands of games in my life (starting with the Atari 2600, and now owning all of the current systems (and only missing a few obscure mid-90's systems), I have played everything from the insanely difficult to the boringly easy.
I can honestly say there is a great satisfaction in accomplishing something exceptionally difficult in a game knowing fwe other people would be able to.
Also, I want to say, while I admit cheat codes built into games can add a new layer of amusement after the game has been defeated, I think it's a horrible shame that some of the greatest games of today are so horribly tainted with built in cheat codes that are widespread before the game even hits store shelves. Very, very, sad.
I've ready many replies writing off the DS and hailing the PSP, most of which are easy conclusions to draw but unfortunately for the PSP I think they are the wrong atittudes to take when trying to feel out this situation.
The reason the DS is already succeeding is because it IS appealing to nontraditional gamers. It's appealing to them like no other system I've ever seen.
Where I work I have been surrounded by people who generally think I waste my time with video games. They used to even tease me when I brought my Gameboy SP in to work.
Here lately, something unpredictable has happened. Men, ages 25-40 have been sitting around beating each other up in Mario 64DS. They've been playing the puzzle games, and bragging about their stars.
Where I work, almost none of these people are gamers. Yet, in my immediate department there are 6 people alone who already have one (not counting myself) and several others who swore they will be buying one!
These are people who DON'T EVEN PLAY VIDEO GAMES!
Many of the sited reasons are how cool the touch screen is, how well the wireless works, how there are already thousands of games available for it (Advance compatibility) and (the most often quoted reason) the upcoming Mario Kart DS.
I'm not saying the PSP is doomed to failure, and I certainly will be buying one myself. But Sony will lose the first couple of rounds against the DS because an entirely unexpected niche has been filled, and it's a huge niche. By now Nintendo has already sold almost 2 million DS units, and it's this phenomena is viral. What starts out as two people huddled around beating the crap out of each other turns into 10. Being able to play off of one cartridge is also a major selling point.
I've never understood the whole anti-Nintendo atittude. People refuse to acknowledge that dispite their fun-loving non-hardcore non-adult-oritented attitude they still know how to make something fun, yes, even for adults. Everyone who writes them off unjustely is denying themselves some of the most innovative and entertaining games in the industry.
Fortunately for the DS it's appeal is to an audience that had no pre-existing "kiddie-oriented" view of Nintendo.
It cracks me up to hear 40 year old men arguing over who gets to be "The blue guy" and calling Wario "Fat Ass" because they don't know his name.
Sony has yelled out loud and clear that they want another section of the gaming market overtaken and polluted with drab and uninspired shovelware and cheap knockoffs, but the DS, I believe, in the end will scream out loud and clear, "DENIED!"
Just remember, SOME geeks love the tech, read the programming manuals, fiddle with projects, and basically surround themselves in geeky-techie stuff dispite the fact that they work outside of the field.
In some cases, it's a lack of degree, but in other cases, it's unwillingness to move, give up their current pay (even if they hate their current job) or a combination of the above.
Some geeks have the passion and even the abilities, but not the opportunity.