I've seen the bits saying it's probably a hoax, and I agree, the source is very dodgy (I won't believe it until I hear it from the horse's mouth, and find it very suspicious as well)
If you're wondering, USD350 is about GBP £200, or EUR 290. (All hail the weak dollar! Long may it continue!;-) ) Two hundred Pounds isn't that bad for a console (PS2 launched at 300, so did Xbox but it's price dropped like a stone after launch), but we'll get the obligatory price hike.
If I had enough money for the Japanese launch I'd get it perhaps, because it seems cooler than a DS (I'm not that much of an Nintendo fan). But I don't really have any money to show off with, so I might just stick to my GBA and NGPC, barring winning the lottery. Although the battery thing does sound dodgy, although it might be partly the Nintendo fanboys trying to whip up bad publicity before launch (same with the "it's going to cost a bomb" thing as well really).
I do think early adopters are going to get gouged massively by the PSP however, especially if you use an importer to get one early (IIRC it's coming out in Japan first by quite a while).
PS2 has USB1 (unless the mini-PS2 has a boost), the hard drives will be about the same speed as the DVD drive. That'll be fun, at least for loading times. The only hope for an external hard drive really is if theres still some sort of higher speed expansion port.
In Japan they did release (or at least show) an external hard drive at one point, as eary PS2 models didn't have the hard drive bay, but they still plugged into the back of the console.
I think the GameBoy Advance uses flash, but otherwise it's CD consoles that use flash, noteably the PlayStation. Not sure what the Sega Mega CD, Saturn (external cartridges, I know they use battery RAM for external memory) and the N64 use though.
That's a null issue, as it's still offically a PS2 (and I'm sure that the lack of a hard drive was confimed when it was launched). It's just a load of morons in the media who've latched onto the PStwo monikor, which is a stupid way to differenciating the models anyway (outside of text), seeing as you point out, they're pronounced exactly the same way.
Names like mini-PS2, tray loading PS2, networked PS2 or ickle-PS2-chan would all be more appropiate.
You'd need an official Sony drive anyway, AFAIK it uses a custom interface in the first place, PS2's as a base have neither Ethernet nor any kind of hard disk interface, they have to be bolted on. It might be possible to replace the hard disk once you get the adaptor, but I'm not expert, and I can't be bothered to check as a) I don't have a PS2 and b) I live in Europe, and AFAIK, Sony have said they're not releasing the hard drive here.
I thought it only flew into space once? They had a second flight planned, but it was pulled because of minor issues like the Soviet Union falling apart.;-)
Teletext and Digital text seem to take about the same time to load a page really (unless you're using an ex-ONdigital box). But digital services load all the multiple pages, you don't have to wait for each subpages to load.
Teletext has more information, but it's harder to find, unless you memorise the index. Otherwise you have to look it up in the index, which is a mass of subpages, so you have to wait ages for the right pages to come around. With digital text services you can actually use a menu. which I like.
Personally I think the main problem with digital text is that Ceefax has more information, I just wish they'd port it all to the digital service myself...
Re:Yes, and cable companies -still- don't show it
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Ceefax Turns 30
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· Score: 1
Does NTL have digital box subtitles? Both Sky and Digital Terrestrial have non-teletext / page 888 subtitles (buried in the menus on Sky boxes however, the lack of a subtitles button on the Sky remote is annoying), or aren't they provided on cable either?
Re:Yes, and cable companies -still- don't show it
on
Ceefax Turns 30
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· Score: 1
Sky News only offer there multiscreen thingy on Sky, I don't think they bother with competing platforms (this is the danger if your channel provider also owns a platform as well). It's up to Sky to provide them, but I don't think they would really want to bother with non-Sky platforms.
The BBC try to offer equal / near equal services however, hence stuff like the World Cup being interactive on all platforms. Have you tried BBC News 24 instead? Maybe they have mutliscreens of some kind (they even have multiscreens on Digital Terrestrial, albeit a grand total of 2).
No UK broadcasters have online feeds, but the Teletext Now and Then site does have a couple of snapshots of Ceefax, one from the early 1980's, and a couple of current ones. The Irish broadcaster RTÉ has it's service, Aertel availible online however.
Re:Closer to a BBC Micro.
on
Ceefax Turns 30
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· Score: 2, Interesting
That's because one of the BBC's design requirements for the BBC Micro was that it would be able to display Ceefax. Hence Mode 7 on the BBC Micro, which is a teletext display mode (there's a separate section the manual saying how to do graphics etc. in this mode, as it's a bit different from the way other modes work). AFAIK I think the BBC Micro has a separate chip just for that mode, which is why (AFAIK) it isn't available on the low cost Acorn Electron.
Re:Ugh, that looks horrible.
on
Ceefax Turns 30
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· Score: 1
Digital TV services do have better interactive functionality, although naturally Terrestrial, Cable and Satellite services all use different methods though. BBC, Teletext Ltd., and BSkyB all offer some form of general digital text service (rather than specialised interactive stuff like multi-angle sport, news multiscreens etc.), and a few other channels have more channel specific information services, like UKTV.
I think all digital TV in the UK can theoretically carry old style subtitles as well (teletext is sent separate from the MPEG stream, and reinserted afterwards), although Digital Terrestrial doesn't usually carry it, and most channel don't offer services anyway (even the BBC, using teletext on digital just gives you a message saying you should use the BBCi Digital[1] Text service instead).
[1] All teletext is digital, but the old style teletext is usually called analogue teletext to differentiate it from the versions on digital platforms.
It's called teletext in the UK as well. It's just the BBC service that's called Ceefax (although the BBC teletext project was called Ceefax, and the ITV one was called Oracle, which both led to the names of the services). Oracle lost it's franchise in 1993, so Ceefax is the oldest teletext service in the UK, and probably the world. Oracle
To confuse things the company who have the rights to broadcast teletext on ITV, Channel 4 and Five (the rights were sold separately from the rights for general TV broadcasting on the frequencies) are now held by a company called Teletext Ltd, or just Teletext for short.
You can buy them on CD (or MP3 CD, but the encoding is apparently crap), the collectors edition (with both series) is better, as it has extra features the separate primary / secondary phase releases don't have. You might have better luck with Amazon.co.uk and other UK stores, as I don't think BBC Audio releases are officially distributed in the US.
The listen later recordings are made from the transmission stream, they have continuity, trailers, and bits of news broadcasts at the head and tail of the files. Sometimes two 15 minute programmes might be lumped together in one file. Luckily Radio 4 keeps good time (it has news broadcasts exactly on the hour, with a time signal) so bits don't get cut off at the end.
I guess the BBC have some sort of automated system that records and encodes the programmes as they're transmitted, probably separately from the live streaming.
Probably not, at least not officially (I gather there are methods to rip audio from RealPlayer files), after all the BBC will want to you buy the CD (or MP3CD if you want) in due course.
Unfortunately BBC Radio 4 isn't broadcast on Shortwave, only BBC World Service is.
BBC Radio 4 is on 198LW, 92-94FM, DAB Digital Radio, Digital Television and Online. Unless you're near the UK (I think the 198LW can be received in northern France etc.) then the Internet, through RealPlayer is the only option. It'll be on the live stream in a little under an hour (6:30pm BST (GMT+1)), and then available on demand after Thursday's repeat.
Just becuase I'm a Mac user you get all "you're not a real geek". I mean, just because those command pipe thingies confuse me, and Xintrinsic.conf.ppp.x11.linux files are inpenitrable doesn't make my less of a geek does it? All you people on the World Wide Web, I mean people complained about Outlook quoting wrong or something on newsgroups. I wish my coffee holder hadn't broken...
(I'm not that bad really (I do know how to use a command line, but I do find Linux seemingley impossible to configure, which is why I use Mac OS X for my Unixing needs), but I don't use ^H becuase I've never really used the sort of thing that would have that in reality, which is why I prefer strikeouts, but virtually no forums actually seem to support them).
Indeed. From the MegaCD, to the 32x, large updates to older gaming systems have ultimately been a failure.
Yes, but you forget that the Mega CD and 32X were both made by Sega. Great games, lousy management. But at least with the Hard Disk Drive, the 32X is beaten by the least used perephial. (I think anyway, I don't know how many games use it really as it was never releasd in Europe, and may never be now).
Look at the press release. Or the pictures. At no point does they use anything other than the PS2 logo or PlayStation 2.
People are going to call it the PStwo informally, but technically it's still the PS2, or perhaps the mini-PS2, or techincally the PlayStation 2 (SCPH-70000).
In other news, I notice the US model has a modem as well as the ethernet adaptor (PAL models don't, we've never had a modem), which seems a bit of a waste.
I wonder if Final Fantasy XI is comming out in Europe on PS2 either, the advert I've seen in Edge only mentions PC, perhaps they've given up on it as Sony are dumping the <s>MegaCD</s>[1] Hard Disk Drive (unless an external model is being reintroduced).
[1] Oi, they should enable strikeout tags, it has endless comic potential.;-)
I'm just bitter they didn't greenlight my submission.
The power supply is now external remember, that'll save some room, as well as the lack of hard drive bay. The actual size of the PCB doesn't seem to be that smaller, looking at the side view. It's probably using the Emotion Engine + Graphics Synthesizer @ 90nm (allegedly) chip instead of the seperate chips as well.
I notice they same in the IGN article some games will be incompatible - I know hard drive games won't work, but perhaps they're dumping PS1 support? (Random speculation).
Wasn't the later NES released after the SNES though? This new PS2 is more like a Mega Drive / Genesis 2, a smaller revision released during the consoles lifetime, rather than a last gasp system.
The PSone has been reasonabley sucessful, although it was released a little later in the lifespan.
Slashdot Mirror
Yes
I've seen the bits saying it's probably a hoax, and I agree, the source is very dodgy (I won't believe it until I hear it from the horse's mouth, and find it very suspicious as well)
;-) ) Two hundred Pounds isn't that bad for a console (PS2 launched at 300, so did Xbox but it's price dropped like a stone after launch), but we'll get the obligatory price hike.
If you're wondering, USD350 is about GBP £200, or EUR 290. (All hail the weak dollar! Long may it continue!
If I had enough money for the Japanese launch I'd get it perhaps, because it seems cooler than a DS (I'm not that much of an Nintendo fan). But I don't really have any money to show off with, so I might just stick to my GBA and NGPC, barring winning the lottery. Although the battery thing does sound dodgy, although it might be partly the Nintendo fanboys trying to whip up bad publicity before launch (same with the "it's going to cost a bomb" thing as well really).
I do think early adopters are going to get gouged massively by the PSP however, especially if you use an importer to get one early (IIRC it's coming out in Japan first by quite a while).
PS2 has USB1 (unless the mini-PS2 has a boost), the hard drives will be about the same speed as the DVD drive. That'll be fun, at least for loading times. The only hope for an external hard drive really is if theres still some sort of higher speed expansion port.
In Japan they did release (or at least show) an external hard drive at one point, as eary PS2 models didn't have the hard drive bay, but they still plugged into the back of the console.
Didn't the SNES still use battery RAM though?
I think the GameBoy Advance uses flash, but otherwise it's CD consoles that use flash, noteably the PlayStation. Not sure what the Sega Mega CD, Saturn (external cartridges, I know they use battery RAM for external memory) and the N64 use though.
That's a null issue, as it's still offically a PS2 (and I'm sure that the lack of a hard drive was confimed when it was launched). It's just a load of morons in the media who've latched onto the PStwo monikor, which is a stupid way to differenciating the models anyway (outside of text), seeing as you point out, they're pronounced exactly the same way.
Names like mini-PS2, tray loading PS2, networked PS2 or ickle-PS2-chan would all be more appropiate.
You'd need an official Sony drive anyway, AFAIK it uses a custom interface in the first place, PS2's as a base have neither Ethernet nor any kind of hard disk interface, they have to be bolted on. It might be possible to replace the hard disk once you get the adaptor, but I'm not expert, and I can't be bothered to check as a) I don't have a PS2 and b) I live in Europe, and AFAIK, Sony have said they're not releasing the hard drive here.
Considering that the shuttle apparently isn't even a working model (if it's test article), I'd guess it was shipped to Bahrain instead.
It wouldn't be much use for starting a space program, seeing as it has no engines at all, it relied on the external engines to launch it...
I thought it only flew into space once? They had a second flight planned, but it was pulled because of minor issues like the Soviet Union falling apart. ;-)
Teletext and Digital text seem to take about the same time to load a page really (unless you're using an ex-ONdigital box). But digital services load all the multiple pages, you don't have to wait for each subpages to load.
Teletext has more information, but it's harder to find, unless you memorise the index. Otherwise you have to look it up in the index, which is a mass of subpages, so you have to wait ages for the right pages to come around. With digital text services you can actually use a menu. which I like.
Personally I think the main problem with digital text is that Ceefax has more information, I just wish they'd port it all to the digital service myself...
Does NTL have digital box subtitles? Both Sky and Digital Terrestrial have non-teletext / page 888 subtitles (buried in the menus on Sky boxes however, the lack of a subtitles button on the Sky remote is annoying), or aren't they provided on cable either?
Sky News only offer there multiscreen thingy on Sky, I don't think they bother with competing platforms (this is the danger if your channel provider also owns a platform as well). It's up to Sky to provide them, but I don't think they would really want to bother with non-Sky platforms.
The BBC try to offer equal / near equal services however, hence stuff like the World Cup being interactive on all platforms. Have you tried BBC News 24 instead? Maybe they have mutliscreens of some kind (they even have multiscreens on Digital Terrestrial, albeit a grand total of 2).
No UK broadcasters have online feeds, but the Teletext Now and Then site does have a couple of snapshots of Ceefax, one from the early 1980's, and a couple of current ones. The Irish broadcaster RTÉ has it's service, Aertel availible online however.
That's because one of the BBC's design requirements for the BBC Micro was that it would be able to display Ceefax. Hence Mode 7 on the BBC Micro, which is a teletext display mode (there's a separate section the manual saying how to do graphics etc. in this mode, as it's a bit different from the way other modes work). AFAIK I think the BBC Micro has a separate chip just for that mode, which is why (AFAIK) it isn't available on the low cost Acorn Electron.
Digital TV services do have better interactive functionality, although naturally Terrestrial, Cable and Satellite services all use different methods though. BBC, Teletext Ltd., and BSkyB all offer some form of general digital text service (rather than specialised interactive stuff like multi-angle sport, news multiscreens etc.), and a few other channels have more channel specific information services, like UKTV.
I think all digital TV in the UK can theoretically carry old style subtitles as well (teletext is sent separate from the MPEG stream, and reinserted afterwards), although Digital Terrestrial doesn't usually carry it, and most channel don't offer services anyway (even the BBC, using teletext on digital just gives you a message saying you should use the BBCi Digital[1] Text service instead).
[1] All teletext is digital, but the old style teletext is usually called analogue teletext to differentiate it from the versions on digital platforms.
It's called teletext in the UK as well. It's just the BBC service that's called Ceefax (although the BBC teletext project was called Ceefax, and the ITV one was called Oracle, which both led to the names of the services). Oracle lost it's franchise in 1993, so Ceefax is the oldest teletext service in the UK, and probably the world. Oracle
To confuse things the company who have the rights to broadcast teletext on ITV, Channel 4 and Five (the rights were sold separately from the rights for general TV broadcasting on the frequencies) are now held by a company called Teletext Ltd, or just Teletext for short.
You can buy them on CD (or MP3 CD, but the encoding is apparently crap), the collectors edition (with both series) is better, as it has extra features the separate primary / secondary phase releases don't have. You might have better luck with Amazon.co.uk and other UK stores, as I don't think BBC Audio releases are officially distributed in the US.
The listen later recordings are made from the transmission stream, they have continuity, trailers, and bits of news broadcasts at the head and tail of the files. Sometimes two 15 minute programmes might be lumped together in one file. Luckily Radio 4 keeps good time (it has news broadcasts exactly on the hour, with a time signal) so bits don't get cut off at the end.
I guess the BBC have some sort of automated system that records and encodes the programmes as they're transmitted, probably separately from the live streaming.
Probably not, at least not officially (I gather there are methods to rip audio from RealPlayer files), after all the BBC will want to you buy the CD (or MP3CD if you want) in due course.
Unfortunately BBC Radio 4 isn't broadcast on Shortwave, only BBC World Service is.
BBC Radio 4 is on 198LW, 92-94FM, DAB Digital Radio, Digital Television and Online. Unless you're near the UK (I think the 198LW can be received in northern France etc.) then the Internet, through RealPlayer is the only option. It'll be on the live stream in a little under an hour (6:30pm BST (GMT+1)), and then available on demand after Thursday's repeat.
Just becuase I'm a Mac user you get all "you're not a real geek". I mean, just because those command pipe thingies confuse me, and Xintrinsic.conf.ppp.x11.linux files are inpenitrable doesn't make my less of a geek does it? All you people on the World Wide Web, I mean people complained about Outlook quoting wrong or something on newsgroups. I wish my coffee holder hadn't broken...
(I'm not that bad really (I do know how to use a command line, but I do find Linux seemingley impossible to configure, which is why I use Mac OS X for my Unixing needs), but I don't use ^H becuase I've never really used the sort of thing that would have that in reality, which is why I prefer strikeouts, but virtually no forums actually seem to support them).
I hearby eat my own hat for say next Christmas. I should've believed the rumours. :-)
Indeed. From the MegaCD, to the 32x, large updates to older gaming systems have ultimately been a failure.
Yes, but you forget that the Mega CD and 32X were both made by Sega. Great games, lousy management. But at least with the Hard Disk Drive, the 32X is beaten by the least used perephial. (I think anyway, I don't know how many games use it really as it was never releasd in Europe, and may never be now).
Look at the press release. Or the pictures. At no point does they use anything other than the PS2 logo or PlayStation 2.
People are going to call it the PStwo informally, but technically it's still the PS2, or perhaps the mini-PS2, or techincally the PlayStation 2 (SCPH-70000).
In other news, I notice the US model has a modem as well as the ethernet adaptor (PAL models don't, we've never had a modem), which seems a bit of a waste.
I wonder if Final Fantasy XI is comming out in Europe on PS2 either, the advert I've seen in Edge only mentions PC, perhaps they've given up on it as Sony are dumping the <s>MegaCD</s>[1] Hard Disk Drive (unless an external model is being reintroduced).
[1] Oi, they should enable strikeout tags, it has endless comic potential. ;-)
I'm just bitter they didn't greenlight my submission.
The power supply is now external remember, that'll save some room, as well as the lack of hard drive bay. The actual size of the PCB doesn't seem to be that smaller, looking at the side view. It's probably using the Emotion Engine + Graphics Synthesizer @ 90nm (allegedly) chip instead of the seperate chips as well.
I notice they same in the IGN article some games will be incompatible - I know hard drive games won't work, but perhaps they're dumping PS1 support? (Random speculation).
Wasn't the later NES released after the SNES though? This new PS2 is more like a Mega Drive / Genesis 2, a smaller revision released during the consoles lifetime, rather than a last gasp system.
The PSone has been reasonabley sucessful, although it was released a little later in the lifespan.