What for? For saying the Gamecube flopped in the UK (which it has), and that Nintendo may have trouble pursuading retailers to push the Revolution becuase of it?
The Gamecube may have great games, but it appears to UK gamer would much rather buy PlayStation 2 or Xbox stuff instead. People do note the Japanese like different games to the US, so it's obvious that the UK is going to have different tastes to the US, and that includes less of a love for Nintendo.
I should note things like Eye Toy and other PS2 party games (including quite a few from Sony themselves) seem to do reasonabley well in the UK, so the Revolution may have some hope in the "casual gamer" field. The DS is doing well as well, but AFAIK the PSP is doing better in the UK than elsewhere.
Re:Gamecube - premature death?
on
Come the Revolution
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
Where are you?
I'm in the UK, and the article is pretty accurate, the 'Cube has dissapeared from most retailer's shelves (partly pushed out by the PSP, and ironically, the DS), and it's pretty much relegated to small amounts of shelf space in specialist games shops. I'm sure people get lots of play out of their 'Cubes, but Nintendo will probably have trouble selling more games and consoles when they can't pursuade shops to actually sell them.
Nintendo fans shouldn't worry totally, the cash cows of the Game Boy and DS are doing far better.
No, as I understand it the US's digital audio broadcasting system works differently to the UK's. In our case DAB multiplexes are broadcast in an entirely seperate band to analogue radio (I think DAB uses Band III, used for ITV on the old 405 line VHF TV system that closed in the mid-80's). As I understand it US digital radio is broadcast in the same bands as analogue AM radio, and they're piggybacked onto existing channels, and increase the bandwidth they use, squeezing out stations.
It can't be RDS, as RDS is only for FM radio, and we're talking about AM.
Considering you're constantly being accussed of being a pro-Xbox troll / advocate / whatever, I'm surpised you didn't go for the more obvious route, that you don't actually have to be subscribed to Xbox Live Gold for MMORPGs on the Xbox 360, you can subscribe to them using the Silver account. So for MMOs, it's no different to a PC really.
Well, it depends on what you count as "goverment controlled", the BBFC ratings are legally enforcable, just like DVDs and videos, although the BBFC itself is independent. The PEGI ratings are advistory though.
But shops definatley don't have this hangup that US ones have about selling 18/AO rated stuff.
You wouldn't need seperate CDs for different programs, they actual program bit of games are reletivley tiny, it's the rest of the game that's huge. As far as I can tell, out of the 5GB Unreal Tournament 2004 takes up on my hard disc, 20MB is taken up with executables (EXEs and DLLs). So, it's not exactly going to fill a DVD having a few different versions of programs.
Of course you would have to take your time testing and verifying several versions of the program. I agree you'd have to be a looney to do versions for every specific processor, if it was done I'd guess they'd go for a more general set, say SSE2, SSE3 and a 64 bit version. You'd also have have to come up with some way of installing the right version (or picking the right one at runtime). So it isn't that simple, but the program size isn't a problem.
Is there any way of optimising for multiprocessor / multicore other than just writing a multithreaded program though?
Didn't Mario Kart have a chip in it's cartridge so it could do two Mode 7 screens at once? Although it wasn't as powerful as the later chips AFAIK.
Anyway, as for FFIV, whilst the map screens as fine, I have a mostly stylisic gripe about the battles, as in the "why are the enemys in a completley different art style to the heroes, and why aren't they animated?". It's particularly noticable when you're say fighting Kefka, someone who appears to be average height on the maps, but in battles he's about 30ft high.
The Legend of Zelda Collectors Edition disc didn't come out at the same time as The Wind Waker, IIRC it came out several months later, as a bonus if you bought a new Gamecube (the same time as Mario Kart?), or from Nintendo's Stars Catalogue, or some stores just started selling them seperatley anyway.
The limited edition version of The Wind Waker with the Ocarnia of Time / Master Quest disc is fairly common, as far as I can tell just about all of the initial batch that turned up in shops in the UK were the limited edition. (It wasn't a preorder thing in the UK).
By homebrew, it usually actually means emualtors, and most of the software people actually run on those emulators is copyright infringing as well.
I think the main idea of running stuff from a console is conveinience, you don't have to mess around configuring a PC etc. to run well on a bog standard TV, you just plug it in and it just works.
Well, Star Trek Enterprise was made in HD, so that could easily be put onto a HD disc.
Star Trek (the original series) could also be done, as it was entirely produced on film, you could just run it through a HD telecine, and you've got a HD master. I'm not sure if much would be gained from a HD version (it's not like it was made with HD in mind at the time), but I'm sure Paramount will do it at some point.
The other three series were shot on film, but post produced on SD video, so if you wanted a HD version, you'd basically have to go back and reedit every episode from the raw footage, and redo any electronic effects, so it would probably be rather expensive.
I think both HD disc formats also allow SD content on them, so you could theoretically use HD discs just as very large DVDs as well.
A transformer / stepdown convertor to convert the power system would work. I'd guess you'd need to look in electrical supply catalogues etc. I think you should be able to get away with US 120V 60Hz, even though Japan is technically 100V 50/60Hz. (I think Japan and the US use the same plugs).
There is the possability that the power supply is universal (so all you'd need is the appropriate plug convertor), but I don't know if it is (and the GBASP / DS one isn't IIRC).
Actually, there are v1 and v2 Internet Explorers, it's just that v3 was the first one Microsoft really pushed. (AFAIK it's the first one Microsoft actually bundled with an OS)
Xbox 360 is a rather obvious ploy to avoid <football results voice>Xbox 2, PlayStation 3</rfv> though.
What's your opinion about the large amount of "geeky" trivia that seems to have accumulated on Wikipedia? I'm particularly thinking of stuff like large articles about fictional characters, rather comprehensive episode guides and that sort of stuff, usually about Sci-Fi and anime etc.
I'd presume trademark laws are why the Gizmondo is actually sold by companies called "Gizmondo" (including this example of Gizmondo Europe Ltd), rather than under the parent company's name. Tiger Telematics itself seems to do more stuff with GPS systems for business use, which is presumably a different enough business for trademarks not be an issue.
But Windows NT 3.1 is actually the first version of Windows NT, they used that number to bring it on par with the then current version of non-NT Windows. Unless you mean NT 5.0 (Windows 2000), in which case you're probably right.
Well, Rockstar North and Rockstar Leeds are British studios (and Rockstar Vienna is Austria, of course), so Grand Theft Audio is pretty European, but AFAIK Rockstar Games itself is an Ameican company (a Take 2 brand name reall).
Kinda in reverse Ubisoft is a French company (so if the current Atari), but Prince of Persia was developed in Ubisoft Montreal.
I really don't get this logic, I could see a limited supply creating buzz, but the main buzz this Xbox shortage has created is stuff like "Microsoft abandons sales target" and "Preorder backlog not clear until March".Microsoft are just incompetant at consumer electronics, this sort of proves why they usually leave the hardware side to others.
Microsoft had a limited amount of consoles they could make before the launch, and as they'd (rather stupidly, IMO)[1] committed to a launch in the three major markets nearly simulataneously, their initial production would be split between the three areas, and they obviously overproduced for the Japanese market. I'd imagine if they're only done a North American launch, they could've had a reasonable amount of consoles ready. But as they didn't, they ended up with two regions that had a large amount of undersupply, and one that had a surplus.
[1] Even though I live in Europe and it's nice to get a console launched at about the same time as everywhere else.
Slashdot Mirror
What for? For saying the Gamecube flopped in the UK (which it has), and that Nintendo may have trouble pursuading retailers to push the Revolution becuase of it?
The Gamecube may have great games, but it appears to UK gamer would much rather buy PlayStation 2 or Xbox stuff instead. People do note the Japanese like different games to the US, so it's obvious that the UK is going to have different tastes to the US, and that includes less of a love for Nintendo.
I should note things like Eye Toy and other PS2 party games (including quite a few from Sony themselves) seem to do reasonabley well in the UK, so the Revolution may have some hope in the "casual gamer" field. The DS is doing well as well, but AFAIK the PSP is doing better in the UK than elsewhere.
Where are you?
I'm in the UK, and the article is pretty accurate, the 'Cube has dissapeared from most retailer's shelves (partly pushed out by the PSP, and ironically, the DS), and it's pretty much relegated to small amounts of shelf space in specialist games shops. I'm sure people get lots of play out of their 'Cubes, but Nintendo will probably have trouble selling more games and consoles when they can't pursuade shops to actually sell them.
Nintendo fans shouldn't worry totally, the cash cows of the Game Boy and DS are doing far better.
Apparently we Europeans are getting it in October, so it could be worse. Especially as we pay more for the privilege.
If I get a new console, I'll probably get a US one...
No, as I understand it the US's digital audio broadcasting system works differently to the UK's. In our case DAB multiplexes are broadcast in an entirely seperate band to analogue radio (I think DAB uses Band III, used for ITV on the old 405 line VHF TV system that closed in the mid-80's). As I understand it US digital radio is broadcast in the same bands as analogue AM radio, and they're piggybacked onto existing channels, and increase the bandwidth they use, squeezing out stations.
It can't be RDS, as RDS is only for FM radio, and we're talking about AM.
Yeah, but they were saying until now that a spring launch was a sure thing, so why say that if it wasn't?
Considering you're constantly being accussed of being a pro-Xbox troll / advocate / whatever, I'm surpised you didn't go for the more obvious route, that you don't actually have to be subscribed to Xbox Live Gold for MMORPGs on the Xbox 360, you can subscribe to them using the Silver account. So for MMOs, it's no different to a PC really.
Well, it depends on what you count as "goverment controlled", the BBFC ratings are legally enforcable, just like DVDs and videos, although the BBFC itself is independent. The PEGI ratings are advistory though.
But shops definatley don't have this hangup that US ones have about selling 18/AO rated stuff.
But the original Atari died in about 1998 (home computing) and 2003 (arcade bit), the current Atari is Infrogrames in disguise.
Erm, doesn't the PSP have a web browser already?
You wouldn't need seperate CDs for different programs, they actual program bit of games are reletivley tiny, it's the rest of the game that's huge. As far as I can tell, out of the 5GB Unreal Tournament 2004 takes up on my hard disc, 20MB is taken up with executables (EXEs and DLLs). So, it's not exactly going to fill a DVD having a few different versions of programs.
Of course you would have to take your time testing and verifying several versions of the program. I agree you'd have to be a looney to do versions for every specific processor, if it was done I'd guess they'd go for a more general set, say SSE2, SSE3 and a 64 bit version. You'd also have have to come up with some way of installing the right version (or picking the right one at runtime). So it isn't that simple, but the program size isn't a problem.
Is there any way of optimising for multiprocessor / multicore other than just writing a multithreaded program though?
Didn't Mario Kart have a chip in it's cartridge so it could do two Mode 7 screens at once? Although it wasn't as powerful as the later chips AFAIK.
Anyway, as for FFIV, whilst the map screens as fine, I have a mostly stylisic gripe about the battles, as in the "why are the enemys in a completley different art style to the heroes, and why aren't they animated?". It's particularly noticable when you're say fighting Kefka, someone who appears to be average height on the maps, but in battles he's about 30ft high.
The Legend of Zelda Collectors Edition disc didn't come out at the same time as The Wind Waker, IIRC it came out several months later, as a bonus if you bought a new Gamecube (the same time as Mario Kart?), or from Nintendo's Stars Catalogue, or some stores just started selling them seperatley anyway.
The limited edition version of The Wind Waker with the Ocarnia of Time / Master Quest disc is fairly common, as far as I can tell just about all of the initial batch that turned up in shops in the UK were the limited edition. (It wasn't a preorder thing in the UK).
Both discs are fairly common on eBay anyway.
By homebrew, it usually actually means emualtors, and most of the software people actually run on those emulators is copyright infringing as well.
I think the main idea of running stuff from a console is conveinience, you don't have to mess around configuring a PC etc. to run well on a bog standard TV, you just plug it in and it just works.
Well, Star Trek Enterprise was made in HD, so that could easily be put onto a HD disc.
Star Trek (the original series) could also be done, as it was entirely produced on film, you could just run it through a HD telecine, and you've got a HD master. I'm not sure if much would be gained from a HD version (it's not like it was made with HD in mind at the time), but I'm sure Paramount will do it at some point.
The other three series were shot on film, but post produced on SD video, so if you wanted a HD version, you'd basically have to go back and reedit every episode from the raw footage, and redo any electronic effects, so it would probably be rather expensive.
I think both HD disc formats also allow SD content on them, so you could theoretically use HD discs just as very large DVDs as well.
A transformer / stepdown convertor to convert the power system would work. I'd guess you'd need to look in electrical supply catalogues etc. I think you should be able to get away with US 120V 60Hz, even though Japan is technically 100V 50/60Hz. (I think Japan and the US use the same plugs).
There is the possability that the power supply is universal (so all you'd need is the appropriate plug convertor), but I don't know if it is (and the GBASP / DS one isn't IIRC).
Actually, there are v1 and v2 Internet Explorers, it's just that v3 was the first one Microsoft really pushed. (AFAIK it's the first one Microsoft actually bundled with an OS)
Xbox 360 is a rather obvious ploy to avoid <football results voice>Xbox 2, PlayStation 3</rfv> though.
What's your opinion about the large amount of "geeky" trivia that seems to have accumulated on Wikipedia? I'm particularly thinking of stuff like large articles about fictional characters, rather comprehensive episode guides and that sort of stuff, usually about Sci-Fi and anime etc.
I'd presume trademark laws are why the Gizmondo is actually sold by companies called "Gizmondo" (including this example of Gizmondo Europe Ltd), rather than under the parent company's name. Tiger Telematics itself seems to do more stuff with GPS systems for business use, which is presumably a different enough business for trademarks not be an issue.
But Windows NT 3.1 is actually the first version of Windows NT, they used that number to bring it on par with the then current version of non-NT Windows. Unless you mean NT 5.0 (Windows 2000), in which case you're probably right.
What? I thought it was Oasis. :-)
It did in fact have , rather than any particular country, but "Plain Old Text" was a little too unplain, and it got interpreted as a HTML tag.
I was trying to get a joke that could be read as more of a jibe over politics as a whole rather than any particular entity.
As 's elections show, there's an unlimited supply of stupid people in the world.
Well, Rockstar North and Rockstar Leeds are British studios (and Rockstar Vienna is Austria, of course), so Grand Theft Audio is pretty European, but AFAIK Rockstar Games itself is an Ameican company (a Take 2 brand name reall).
Kinda in reverse Ubisoft is a French company (so if the current Atari), but Prince of Persia was developed in Ubisoft Montreal.
The Woolworths in Solihull had a Core unit as well, and the CeX had a Premium system... for about £400, over £100 over the RRP.
My local Woolworths still has "PSP now in stock" signs up.
I really don't get this logic, I could see a limited supply creating buzz, but the main buzz this Xbox shortage has created is stuff like "Microsoft abandons sales target" and "Preorder backlog not clear until March".Microsoft are just incompetant at consumer electronics, this sort of proves why they usually leave the hardware side to others.
Microsoft had a limited amount of consoles they could make before the launch, and as they'd (rather stupidly, IMO)[1] committed to a launch in the three major markets nearly simulataneously, their initial production would be split between the three areas, and they obviously overproduced for the Japanese market. I'd imagine if they're only done a North American launch, they could've had a reasonable amount of consoles ready. But as they didn't, they ended up with two regions that had a large amount of undersupply, and one that had a surplus.
[1] Even though I live in Europe and it's nice to get a console launched at about the same time as everywhere else.