Walkman 80's tech (it's a tape player)... You should be comparing iPod to mini-disc player
In the UK at least Sony markets portable CD, MiniDisc, Flash and Hard Disk players as Walkman, it's there name for all portable music devices. So he was probably comparing iPod with Sony's more modern offerings under the brand. I'm not sure if you can even get cassette based ones anymore.
I'm not sure if the iPod is outselling the entire Walkman range, but I think it outsells the flash and hard disk models (and everyone else's too, probably), mostly because of Sony's stupid decision not to support MP3s, only ATRAC in the early models.
A variant of 1) would be from a car boot sale. The last time I went to one I saw a couple of stands with dodgy goods, including a large number of pirate GBA games. The most obvious sign they were dodgy was that the boxes were all shiny and glossy, not the matt boxes Nintendo used. He probably picked up a DVD of the latest film that's not out on DVD yet as well with his game.
I think they were also US games, but you have to be anal retentive to know the difference between US and EU Gameboy boxes, they're quite similar.;-)
It might've been a market stall instead of course, ot the legendary "out of the back of a van".
I'd guess so, seeing as a couple of days before Christmas I was able to pick up the GameCube "Ultimate Bongo Bundle" ('Cube, Bongos and Donkey Konga) for £60, when the RRP was £90. Rather nice game really. I also noticed that in the post-christmas sales the local Woolworths only had about two Gamecube games about, a Simpsons game and a James Bond one. Both had sale stickers on.
I don't live in that big a town, so the only shops selling Cube games now is an ASDA supermarket, but there the Xbox (and PS2) selection is bigger than the 'cube one. Blockbuster will let my rent 'cube games, but not buy them (at least not new).
Still, Nintendo do make great games, don't they. Pity they seem to be completley crap at actually selling them.;-)
Unfortionatley it doesn't appear to be selling that well in the UK, which is all that really matters for UK retailers. You can go on about it being second worldwide, but for Argos, and Woolworths (my local store appeared to be dropping the GameCube, just like the article says), it's UK sales that count.
All these retailers making noise about dropping it can't be good. The cube is definatley the console that's disappearing slowly from the UK market. IMO.
It's a bit OT, but is the NTSC SNES really as ugly as it looks? The PAL SNES / Super Famicom design looks fine, but all the pictures look like they took the design and hit it with an ugly stick for the US market. All those sharp edges, and purple everywhere...
But maybe that just proves that ugliness sells in the US.:-) See also: Xbox.:-)
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As for shovelware, I seem to remember lots of mericore games on SNES and Mega Drive when they were popular, it's probably more that the most popular platform generally gets the shovelware.
The version in Windows XP (and 2000?) appears to have had that fixed, as well as having those awful new card backs, the ending animation now runs at a sane speed.
Whoops, I forgot that, although seeing as I'm in the UK my list is correct, PSOI&2+ isn't out here. Not that it matters for me anyway, I have the Xbox version, and I somehow doubt Sonic Team are going to update that.
(I only got a Gamecube this morning, thank you Argos for your consistant efforts to offload Gamecube as cheaply as possible, GBP £60 for the Donkey Konga pack was very nice.).
I think it's because every forum on the 'net that allows pirate talk (yarr!) probably has one of these threads, and everyone is now rushing off and hammering all the lesser known sites as people say "hey, what about example.com!".
I suppose it's a flash crowd / slashdotting that's being generated from numerous forum threads across the net.
MAME doesn't emulate the Sega Model 3 arcade board used for Star Wars Trilogy. Supermodel appears to be a workingish one, but from the looks of things, Star Wars Arcade doens't actually work yet, apart from the 2D bits.
Definatly a great game, I usually put a couple of quid into one if I see one.
I somehow think if it gets released in the UK, it'll be at GB£20, which at the current exchange rate would be something like UD$40. Games companies love to screw us with prices. Then again it's been going on for years...
Then again neither Amazon.co.uk or Play.com seem to have heard of the games, so it probably won't be an issue anyway (although I am safe in the knowledge UK PS2ers can play Metal Slug 3, whilst SCEA rejected it in the US).
My personal theory is that most Slashdotters (including the editors) grew up in the period when Nintendo ruled the US gaming roost. They therefore view everything Nintendo does through rose tinted glasses. I've pulled that theory out of my arse, so it might be wildly innacurate, and rather unhygenic.
I personally think it's mostly Ninty fanboys that are the most negative about the PSP, becuase it's a real threat to N's last big market. So they attack just about everything on it, before it's even been out (reality check: the price isn't astronomical, the screen's fine, and the batteries last a reasonablish time[1]). Personally I think the DS is basically the GimmickBoy, and I love the way some people are saying it's not a replacement for the GameBoyAdvance. Although I suppose it could be in a Master System / Mega Drive co-existance sort of thing (in the UK, there were new SMS games up to about 1994).
Personally my first console was a Sega Mega Drive (Sega Genesis in North America). I know Nintendo have done some very good games, like Zelda: Ocarine of Time, but I also know they've rereleased some of there games numerous times on different formats (Link's Awakening DS is comming soon I'm sure), their hardware is always the absolute minimum needed to compete, and they screw PAL gamers like no other company still does really.
Then again the PlayStation series have bad build quality, and overstated specs, the Xbox is big heavy and ugly, and Sega mismanaged themselves out of the jaws of victory. Don't get my started about the PC, and the Slashdot PC fanboy crowd...
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Bah, probably rather disjointed and rantish, but hey! It's Slashdot! Sorry about any spellings etc. as well, Firefox doesn't have Safari's nice built in spell checker.
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[1] Remember they're rechargable, it's not like you have to use 6xAA's like a Game Gear. Although it does sound rather short for long trips I suppose.
(Although they have been a bit better recently, presumably becuase they need at least some European support to keep them ahead of the Xbox worldwide. Well, that and they presumably don't want stores to drop the 'Cube like Dixons and Argos nearly did a while back.)
I think in Europe DVD only games are a bit more common, I don't think CD versions of Far Cry or Half Life 2 are availible. World of Warcraft comes on neigther, it's not out until next year.
>> Hell, they even have an OSX version, thats basically a *nix version. Foo port. Mac OS X isn't just a bog standard Unix / X11 combo with some Apple stickers on it, it has a completly different GUI system, has different libraries etc. It's not like they could've just clicked a "i586 Linux" checkbox and done a Linux version.
I know there are platform independent libraries / middleware to get around some of the problems (OpenGL, SDL etc.), but I'd imagine it would still take quite a bit of work to port and debug WoW to Linux, and they obviously don't think it's worth it for the return they'd get. I think Linux is an even smaller desktop / games market than Mac OS...
At some point I'll actually get round to finishing the first one.
I keep on playing it, thinking that I should like it (mostly because everyone else seems to love it, and bits of it seem good), but loosing intrest and playing other games instead.
I got it for Christmas last year as well, so I'llve probably spend over a year on it as well. Then again, the game isn't out in the UK for a while (seems to be Febuary[1]), so I have another couple of months to try and get through it.
Then again I might just pass on it, seeing as the reviews seem to say it's just more of the same really. Perhaps I just prefer Japanese style RPGs...
[1] If I didn't use Xbox Live I would get a mod-chip.
The Gameboy Advance can do one-cart multiplayer (it was a selling point at one point IIRC), but it only has a small amount of memory (128kb IIRC) to store the game, so big games can't use it, unless they cut down features. (Mario Kart only has a few tracks available for example).
The DS apparently has more RAM to use for one-cart multiplayer, but I'd imagine that could be filled up by games.
I think people always have a soft spot for there first console. I love my Sega Mega Drive. Lots of slashdotters seem to think Nintendo can do no wrong, and I bet the NES was their first console. I bet just about everyone thinks there generation / system was the apex of gaming.
As I said, I love my Sega Mega Drive. You are obviously completely wrong, the Mega Drive was far superior to the PSX. It's so superior I don't need to justify my arguments, because I'm just right. The SNES is a bit better than the PSX as well I suppose, but it's Sucktendo;-). The Saturn was better as well, if more developers had been able to tap it's (well) hidden power, Sega would still rule gaming!:-)
Slashdot Mirror
That sort of legal stuff sounds so weird, you'd have to put ...in America at the end for anyone to believe it. ;-)
Don't worry, I love all you Yanks. Really, honestly, now put away that gun...
first of all, it's XBOX (or perhaps, if you like, xbox), not xBox -- what did you smoke too much nVidia or ATi crack or something?
;-)
How come Microsoft use Xbox as the 'spelling' on their website then?
Walkman 80's tech (it's a tape player)... You should be comparing iPod to mini-disc player
In the UK at least Sony markets portable CD, MiniDisc, Flash and Hard Disk players as Walkman, it's there name for all portable music devices. So he was probably comparing iPod with Sony's more modern offerings under the brand. I'm not sure if you can even get cassette based ones anymore.
I'm not sure if the iPod is outselling the entire Walkman range, but I think it outsells the flash and hard disk models (and everyone else's too, probably), mostly because of Sony's stupid decision not to support MP3s, only ATRAC in the early models.
A variant of 1) would be from a car boot sale. The last time I went to one I saw a couple of stands with dodgy goods, including a large number of pirate GBA games. The most obvious sign they were dodgy was that the boxes were all shiny and glossy, not the matt boxes Nintendo used. He probably picked up a DVD of the latest film that's not out on DVD yet as well with his game.
;-)
I think they were also US games, but you have to be anal retentive to know the difference between US and EU Gameboy boxes, they're quite similar.
It might've been a market stall instead of course, ot the legendary "out of the back of a van".
I'd guess so, seeing as a couple of days before Christmas I was able to pick up the GameCube "Ultimate Bongo Bundle" ('Cube, Bongos and Donkey Konga) for £60, when the RRP was £90. Rather nice game really. I also noticed that in the post-christmas sales the local Woolworths only had about two Gamecube games about, a Simpsons game and a James Bond one. Both had sale stickers on.
;-)
I don't live in that big a town, so the only shops selling Cube games now is an ASDA supermarket, but there the Xbox (and PS2) selection is bigger than the 'cube one. Blockbuster will let my rent 'cube games, but not buy them (at least not new).
Still, Nintendo do make great games, don't they. Pity they seem to be completley crap at actually selling them.
Unfortionatley it doesn't appear to be selling that well in the UK, which is all that really matters for UK retailers. You can go on about it being second worldwide, but for Argos, and Woolworths (my local store appeared to be dropping the GameCube, just like the article says), it's UK sales that count.
All these retailers making noise about dropping it can't be good. The cube is definatley the console that's disappearing slowly from the UK market. IMO.
I think digital TV actually uses 720x[480 / 576], rather than 640. Although I think they sometimes use lower res. to save bandwidth.
It's a bit OT, but is the NTSC SNES really as ugly as it looks? The PAL SNES / Super Famicom design looks fine, but all the pictures look like they took the design and hit it with an ugly stick for the US market. All those sharp edges, and purple everywhere...
:-) See also: Xbox. :-)
But maybe that just proves that ugliness sells in the US.
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As for shovelware, I seem to remember lots of mericore games on SNES and Mega Drive when they were popular, it's probably more that the most popular platform generally gets the shovelware.
The Famicom was released in 1983 IIRC.
The version in Windows XP (and 2000?) appears to have had that fixed, as well as having those awful new card backs, the ending animation now runs at a sane speed.
Did you even read the Slashdot post, let alone the article? The problem is with certain DS consoles themselves, not the game.
Whoops, I forgot that, although seeing as I'm in the UK my list is correct, PSOI&2+ isn't out here. Not that it matters for me anyway, I have the Xbox version, and I somehow doubt Sonic Team are going to update that.
(I only got a Gamecube this morning, thank you Argos for your consistant efforts to offload Gamecube as cheaply as possible, GBP £60 for the Donkey Konga pack was very nice.).
The Gamecube has two games online:
Phantasy Star Online Episode 1 & 2
Phantasy Star Online Episode 3 - CARD Revolution.
Assuming you count the two different PSO games as being separate games. You could count it as 1.5 games instead or something I suppose.
I think it's because every forum on the 'net that allows pirate talk (yarr!) probably has one of these threads, and everyone is now rushing off and hammering all the lesser known sites as people say "hey, what about example.com!".
I suppose it's a flash crowd / slashdotting that's being generated from numerous forum threads across the net.
But that's just my theory.
Star Wars Aracde was also an arcade game (whod've guessed!), although only released in Japan.
MAME doesn't emulate the Sega Model 3 arcade board used for Star Wars Trilogy. Supermodel appears to be a workingish one, but from the looks of things, Star Wars Arcade doens't actually work yet, apart from the 2D bits.
Definatly a great game, I usually put a couple of quid into one if I see one.
I somehow think if it gets released in the UK, it'll be at GB£20, which at the current exchange rate would be something like UD$40. Games companies love to screw us with prices. Then again it's been going on for years...
Then again neither Amazon.co.uk or Play.com seem to have heard of the games, so it probably won't be an issue anyway (although I am safe in the knowledge UK PS2ers can play Metal Slug 3, whilst SCEA rejected it in the US).
My personal theory is that most Slashdotters (including the editors) grew up in the period when Nintendo ruled the US gaming roost. They therefore view everything Nintendo does through rose tinted glasses. I've pulled that theory out of my arse, so it might be wildly innacurate, and rather unhygenic.
I personally think it's mostly Ninty fanboys that are the most negative about the PSP, becuase it's a real threat to N's last big market. So they attack just about everything on it, before it's even been out (reality check: the price isn't astronomical, the screen's fine, and the batteries last a reasonablish time[1]). Personally I think the DS is basically the GimmickBoy, and I love the way some people are saying it's not a replacement for the GameBoyAdvance. Although I suppose it could be in a Master System / Mega Drive co-existance sort of thing (in the UK, there were new SMS games up to about 1994).
Personally my first console was a Sega Mega Drive (Sega Genesis in North America). I know Nintendo have done some very good games, like Zelda: Ocarine of Time, but I also know they've rereleased some of there games numerous times on different formats (Link's Awakening DS is comming soon I'm sure), their hardware is always the absolute minimum needed to compete, and they screw PAL gamers like no other company still does really.
Then again the PlayStation series have bad build quality, and overstated specs, the Xbox is big heavy and ugly, and Sega mismanaged themselves out of the jaws of victory. Don't get my started about the PC, and the Slashdot PC fanboy crowd...
====
Bah, probably rather disjointed and rantish, but hey! It's Slashdot! Sorry about any spellings etc. as well, Firefox doesn't have Safari's nice built in spell checker.
====
[1] Remember they're rechargable, it's not like you have to use 6xAA's like a Game Gear. Although it does sound rather short for long trips I suppose.
Amen brother!
(Although they have been a bit better recently, presumably becuase they need at least some European support to keep them ahead of the Xbox worldwide. Well, that and they presumably don't want stores to drop the 'Cube like Dixons and Argos nearly did a while back.)
I think in Europe DVD only games are a bit more common, I don't think CD versions of Far Cry or Half Life 2 are availible. World of Warcraft comes on neigther, it's not out until next year.
>> Hell, they even have an OSX version, thats basically a *nix version. Foo port. Mac OS X isn't just a bog standard Unix / X11 combo with some Apple stickers on it, it has a completly different GUI system, has different libraries etc. It's not like they could've just clicked a "i586 Linux" checkbox and done a Linux version.
I know there are platform independent libraries / middleware to get around some of the problems (OpenGL, SDL etc.), but I'd imagine it would still take quite a bit of work to port and debug WoW to Linux, and they obviously don't think it's worth it for the return they'd get. I think Linux is an even smaller desktop / games market than Mac OS...
At some point I'll actually get round to finishing the first one.
I keep on playing it, thinking that I should like it (mostly because everyone else seems to love it, and bits of it seem good), but loosing intrest and playing other games instead.
I got it for Christmas last year as well, so I'llve probably spend over a year on it as well. Then again, the game isn't out in the UK for a while (seems to be Febuary[1]), so I have another couple of months to try and get through it.
Then again I might just pass on it, seeing as the reviews seem to say it's just more of the same really. Perhaps I just prefer Japanese style RPGs...
[1] If I didn't use Xbox Live I would get a mod-chip.
The Gameboy Advance can do one-cart multiplayer (it was a selling point at one point IIRC), but it only has a small amount of memory (128kb IIRC) to store the game, so big games can't use it, unless they cut down features. (Mario Kart only has a few tracks available for example).
The DS apparently has more RAM to use for one-cart multiplayer, but I'd imagine that could be filled up by games.
Can't understand words of more than one syllable? Try the version from Rupert Murdoch's other UK tabloid, The Sun.
I think people always have a soft spot for there first console. I love my Sega Mega Drive. Lots of slashdotters seem to think Nintendo can do no wrong, and I bet the NES was their first console. I bet just about everyone thinks there generation / system was the apex of gaming.
;-). The Saturn was better as well, if more developers had been able to tap it's (well) hidden power, Sega would still rule gaming! :-)
As I said, I love my Sega Mega Drive. You are obviously completely wrong, the Mega Drive was far superior to the PSX. It's so superior I don't need to justify my arguments, because I'm just right. The SNES is a bit better than the PSX as well I suppose, but it's Sucktendo