Exactly, redefine the 9 current planets as the Classical Planets and the rest according to size, easy peasy, no redefining asteroids and small distant moons orbiting a small distant rock
I don't believe Nintendo could bank too much on the admittedly unique control interface of the Revolution. Playing the XBox 360 in my local GAME, I walked away disappointed for 3 reasons... graphics weren't exactly a dream away from the latest games for the XBox, it seemed rushed out and the overall launch of the system, shortages and technical issues, just made me think... wait for the Revolution... still, I love my Amiga, I've been through 4 generations of consoles and the last game to completely turn my world on my head was Mario 64 nearly 10 years ago. The Revolution should do the same...
Ok... so the Sims sit in their little homes and play Sim City, what if those Sims within the Sims Sim City started developing a plug in to play the Sims? Then those Sims Sim City Sims Sims started playing Sim City after using the Sims Sim City Sims Sims Sims plug-in... then Maxis does a Cybernet and takes over...
Hmm... my brain hurts, more than an intravenous injection gallon of blueberry squishee
The very fact that we can forecast and predict which supposedly invunerable arms of the internet will fall first according to this article is disturbing enough, a digital Pearl Harbour, perhaps a lackey term, is inevitable but will come sooner, think of how much PC hardware costs have fell proportionally to consumer selling prices, broadband+ connections are down to an all time low (same as 56k five years ago) and the growth of the internet has not went hand in hand with updates to it's infrastructure, a policing system for the net can only be a good thing, not to check into whether Joe Bloggs is downloading the 30th anniversary Metallica SACD but to ensure that the near fragmented "backbone" of the net is not exploited by next decades bugs and programming errors which the article preaches rather well
Remember, and this is just a term off my head, an ant can support it's body mass on tiny tiny legs, enlarge the ant to human size, its legs are no thicker than a pencil, it cannot support itself
The net has became an unchecked, unpoliced medium, growing every day, there will be more than half a billion new users by 2008, the digital Pearl Harbour may come sooner than we think
Once again, a contender enters the field with completely different hardware specifications, obtuse pricing and little forecast on who will be dominating the field in 2004 and 2005. From my point of view, it is an innovation of merit, wireless access to your computer, on the fly playlists and a iPod mini-esque agenda to annouce, but... 1.5GB is the bare minimum I would believe for an audio prepherial.
Apple and HP should't lose too much sleep over this devices redeeming wireless factor, the fact it isn't a household name is becoming irrelevant as more consumers become aware of competing technologies but because it doesn't play buddies with iTMS or even Napster 2.0 is distressing, especially as the music download services enter maturity
But still, cool technology, useful placement, wrong time
Believe it or not, Roald Dahl, the slightly scary looking and GREAT writer of childrens novels was awarded the international aerial photography award during the Second World War for taking highly detailed shots of the Gaza Strip, Crete Gardens and perhaps most famously, the Great Pyramids... he later detailed these flights in his biography
I have a remarkable print upon my wall of these black and white photos, clear, amazing for the time and look almost isometric, perfect angle shots
The Macintosh appealed to everyone who had the cash really, remember, 1984 still had the ring of niche markets and professional roles in computing, games demoted to the Commodore 64 amongst others
I remember seeing the first Mac in school around 1990, it was bought in 1985 with the UK introduction and people asked where it all sat, what did it do etc...
http://www.theapplemuseum.com/index.php?id=tam&p ag e=personal&subpage=mac
A great page for somemore Apple history, especially technical details and those legendary Code Names!
True, we handed Gary Wright who was announcing the various specifications of SACD at the time of play, a 1984 Dark Side CD, a 1993 20th anniversary CD and finally a copy of Echoes which had the latest digital master before the 30th anniversary re-master
Clean, no scratches and if I recall, the Japan import 1984 cd was worth a mint
Anyhow... we played each one and came to the result that the 2 channel 30th anniversary remaster was far superior, even on a great system, and the surround mix was simply amazing to hear
With modern audio requirements, getting as close to the fidelity of the original is the "flavour of the month"
Last year, Pink Floyd released Dark Side on SACD, 24-bit audio at 48khz / 96khz, the amount of clarity over a CD, once the benchmark, was remarkable, I attended a launch party at was blown away even in a relatively acoustic poor setting
This new system for audio managment is great news for portable devices such as DVD+screen, next-gen PDA devices and even handheld game systems *Gameboy Advance II or PSP?*
I've long been following PC related audio solutions, all the way from Sonarc to the latest 5 and 6 channel set-ups, my normal set-up is bass speaker, left / right and one for routing system alerts etc... this kind of announcement coupled along with the latest cards supporting the new Dolby processing solutions could well make me upgrade
I'm all for DRM in '04 maturing into say... half a dozen vendors such as Apple and even Microsoft, all with relatively different filetypes for distribution and end-user benefits
I am worried about Microsoft though *No, not flaming*
Windows Media is a robust system for music and video quality, being a Mac user myself, I use it regularly alongside AAC but the fact Microsoft in the last few months have used the Windows format as basically an excuse to try and monopolize on key aspects of the up and coming DRM race is distressing, Apple were the first company to introduce a fair play DRM, the first to provide a quality end user service, Microsoft for one are pushing vendors into Windows Media Format, making it integral to Longhorn and beyond, this not only encompasses the OS but any app ran on it, for me... I excuse that I'm not the most privvy to reading up more closely on DRM, but I do feel Microsoft are up their old tricks again regarding DRM
Reminds Of The Pepsi Racer
on
The Star Wars Car
·
· Score: 3, Informative
I love the detail around the bonnet fringes especially to the bolts and "non-sheen" quality of the overall colour
This reminds me of the Pepsi Episode I racer debut around 5 years ago
True story, around 1993 when Streetfighter II came out for the Amiga, some minor nerd wrote in to CU Amiga magazine not only stating but complaining he couldn't understand the obviously foreign and low-quality speech samples, notably the swearing he passionately remembered *even though he couldn't understand a word?*
So in response, CU Amiga announced quite funnily, the Capcom Translation MIDI Kit, plug in to the serial port of any Amiga computer and hear Ryu in his new found English!
This was 1993 remember
So in their dozens, people then wrote in asking prices, availability, specifications etc... CU Amiga were nearly sued for false advertisement
The moral of the story kids?
One pixallated characters swear word is anothers sweet whisper
Q*Bert was fantastic for it's alien swearing though, I'm sure he said Fcuk, must sample and slow it
I agree, sitting in college using the obviously FAST connection to download the likes of Galaxian and Marble Madness was the literal sheer gorging of 80's pop culture, I never did feel guilty though... funny that
I admit, my friends organised a night in watching movies, drinking, usual banter
He had a Playstation 2 set-up with Vice City which had just been released, now, being a complete beginner to the gaming world *OS X geek you see* I was pretty well drawn into the sheer brutality of pulling some young broad out a moving car, then proceeding to smash up line after line of innocent civilians
Months later, I still play just to get my police record "topped up", sod the missions!
And yes, I thought it was rather cruel to smack an old lady in the chops with a steel bar, but... but... oh nevermind
The last era of great game packaging really began with the Elite series, notably Frontier - Elite II
http://www.planetmic.com/orbit/feinbox.htm
It contained the standard 2 diskette version - game AND pre-defined start points - surely a waste of a floppy? No! Manual with full page pictures, spaceflight timeline extending well into the 24th century, a wall chart with roughly 125,000 stars, each named and marked with planet classifications *true to the Elite universe*, novella of stories relating to to Elite, quick reference start card based around the core systems and a gazetter with game hints and tips
Here is a taster of the Elite universe chronology that was to be found as part of the package
1950s - First man in space, controlled nuclear fission, transistor, start of the nuclear arms race
1960s - First man on Moon, commercial fission power, integrated circuits, computers
1970s - Probes in Solar ststem
1980s - End of first nuclear arms race
1990s - First serious environmental problems on Earth, controlled nuclear fusion
2000s - First (minor) armed conflict between a nation and a "multi-national" corporation
2010s - First serious population problems on Earth
2020s - First international environmental protection enforcement agency, first commercial space station
2030s - Major energy crisis, fossil fuel restrictions, religious unrest, first baby born off Earth
2040s - World War III. Huge technological advancements, huge loss of life, dreadful environmental damage
2050s - War gradually abandoned due to popular rebellions. Commercial fusion power
2060s - Rebuilding. Dominance of corporations increased
2070s - First man on Mars, first permanent Moon base
2080s - Manned exploration of solar system, orbital cities around Earth, first interstellar probes launched
2090s - First permanent Mars base, heavy industry on Moon
2100s - Discovery of fossils on Mars base, "hyperspace" discovered, humans throughout solar system
2110s - Arrival of message from first interstellar probe to Alpha Centauri system. First pictures taken of an extra-solar planet in the Lagrange point on the two main stars
2120s - Presence of life on Tau Ceti 3 detected, first armed conflict in space over rights in the asteroid belt
2130s - Hyperspace capable probes sent to all nearby systems
2140s - Manned space craft sent to Tau Ceti
2150s - Colony established on Tau Ceti 3. Major corporations sending first private colony ships
2160s - The race for the stars. Enourmous production effort to produce ships, and mass exodus started
2170s - First attempt to terra-form Mars started
2180s - Life on Delta Parvonis discovered and made extinct in same year from bacteriological infection
2190s - Discovery of life on Beta Hydri 4, Altair 5. Human colonials spreading out of control
2200s - Earth environmental recovery program started, terraforming of Mars abandoned
2220s - Extinctions on Tau Ceti 3 increasing. Earth threatens to send a police force if nothing is done about it
2230s - Ultimatum sent to Tau Ceti ignored
2240s - First interstellar battle, formation of the Federation, founder members: Earth, Tau Ceti, Delta Pavonis, Altair, Beta Hydri
2260s - Spread of Federation influence
2270s - Second attempt to terra-form Mars started
2280s - Discovery of first non-human relic in space. Origin still unknown in 3200
2290s - First man "outside" on Mars (ie breathing unaided) on completion of terraforming
2300s - Remaining indigenous life on Tau Ceti 3 preserved in special enclosures
2310s - News of elimination of a reputedly sentient race on Achenar 6d by private colonists causes outrage in the Federation. Achenar refuses to join Federation, many terra-forming projects started
2320s - Federation sends war fleet to Achenar. Resulting enormous space battle won by Achenar
2330s - Spread of Empire from Achenar to surrounding worlds. War between Emp
Slashdot Mirror
Exactly, redefine the 9 current planets as the Classical Planets and the rest according to size, easy peasy, no redefining asteroids and small distant moons orbiting a small distant rock
I don't believe Nintendo could bank too much on the admittedly unique control interface of the Revolution. Playing the XBox 360 in my local GAME, I walked away disappointed for 3 reasons... graphics weren't exactly a dream away from the latest games for the XBox, it seemed rushed out and the overall launch of the system, shortages and technical issues, just made me think... wait for the Revolution... still, I love my Amiga, I've been through 4 generations of consoles and the last game to completely turn my world on my head was Mario 64 nearly 10 years ago. The Revolution should do the same...
Ok... so the Sims sit in their little homes and play Sim City, what if those Sims within the Sims Sim City started developing a plug in to play the Sims? Then those Sims Sim City Sims Sims started playing Sim City after using the Sims Sim City Sims Sims Sims plug-in... then Maxis does a Cybernet and takes over...
Hmm... my brain hurts, more than an intravenous injection gallon of blueberry squishee
The very fact that we can forecast and predict which supposedly invunerable arms of the internet will fall first according to this article is disturbing enough, a digital Pearl Harbour, perhaps a lackey term, is inevitable but will come sooner, think of how much PC hardware costs have fell proportionally to consumer selling prices, broadband+ connections are down to an all time low (same as 56k five years ago) and the growth of the internet has not went hand in hand with updates to it's infrastructure, a policing system for the net can only be a good thing, not to check into whether Joe Bloggs is downloading the 30th anniversary Metallica SACD but to ensure that the near fragmented "backbone" of the net is not exploited by next decades bugs and programming errors which the article preaches rather well
Remember, and this is just a term off my head, an ant can support it's body mass on tiny tiny legs, enlarge the ant to human size, its legs are no thicker than a pencil, it cannot support itself
The net has became an unchecked, unpoliced medium, growing every day, there will be more than half a billion new users by 2008, the digital Pearl Harbour may come sooner than we think
I use it for Slashdot, other than that... nada
Once again, a contender enters the field with completely different hardware specifications, obtuse pricing and little forecast on who will be dominating the field in 2004 and 2005. From my point of view, it is an innovation of merit, wireless access to your computer, on the fly playlists and a iPod mini-esque agenda to annouce, but... 1.5GB is the bare minimum I would believe for an audio prepherial.
Apple and HP should't lose too much sleep over this devices redeeming wireless factor, the fact it isn't a household name is becoming irrelevant as more consumers become aware of competing technologies but because it doesn't play buddies with iTMS or even Napster 2.0 is distressing, especially as the music download services enter maturity
But still, cool technology, useful placement, wrong time
Kudos to it
Believe it or not, Roald Dahl, the slightly scary looking and GREAT writer of childrens novels was awarded the international aerial photography award during the Second World War for taking highly detailed shots of the Gaza Strip, Crete Gardens and perhaps most famously, the Great Pyramids... he later detailed these flights in his biography
I have a remarkable print upon my wall of these black and white photos, clear, amazing for the time and look almost isometric, perfect angle shots
Not bad for a man who wrote about a "cunning" fox
Kudos
The Macintosh appealed to everyone who had the cash really, remember, 1984 still had the ring of niche markets and professional roles in computing, games demoted to the Commodore 64 amongst others
p ag e=personal&subpage=mac
I remember seeing the first Mac in school around 1990, it was bought in 1985 with the UK introduction and people asked where it all sat, what did it do etc...
http://www.theapplemuseum.com/index.php?id=tam&
A great page for somemore Apple history, especially technical details and those legendary Code Names!
True, we handed Gary Wright who was announcing the various specifications of SACD at the time of play, a 1984 Dark Side CD, a 1993 20th anniversary CD and finally a copy of Echoes which had the latest digital master before the 30th anniversary re-master
Clean, no scratches and if I recall, the Japan import 1984 cd was worth a mint
Anyhow... we played each one and came to the result that the 2 channel 30th anniversary remaster was far superior, even on a great system, and the surround mix was simply amazing to hear
With modern audio requirements, getting as close to the fidelity of the original is the "flavour of the month"
Last year, Pink Floyd released Dark Side on SACD, 24-bit audio at 48khz / 96khz, the amount of clarity over a CD, once the benchmark, was remarkable, I attended a launch party at was blown away even in a relatively acoustic poor setting
I for one welcome consumer 32-bit audio
True progress from Intel, strange but true
This new system for audio managment is great news for portable devices such as DVD+screen, next-gen PDA devices and even handheld game systems *Gameboy Advance II or PSP?*
I've long been following PC related audio solutions, all the way from Sonarc to the latest 5 and 6 channel set-ups, my normal set-up is bass speaker, left / right and one for routing system alerts etc... this kind of announcement coupled along with the latest cards supporting the new Dolby processing solutions could well make me upgrade
More to post...
I'm all for DRM in '04 maturing into say... half a dozen vendors such as Apple and even Microsoft, all with relatively different filetypes for distribution and end-user benefits
I am worried about Microsoft though *No, not flaming*
Windows Media is a robust system for music and video quality, being a Mac user myself, I use it regularly alongside AAC but the fact Microsoft in the last few months have used the Windows format as basically an excuse to try and monopolize on key aspects of the up and coming DRM race is distressing, Apple were the first company to introduce a fair play DRM, the first to provide a quality end user service, Microsoft for one are pushing vendors into Windows Media Format, making it integral to Longhorn and beyond, this not only encompasses the OS but any app ran on it, for me... I excuse that I'm not the most privvy to reading up more closely on DRM, but I do feel Microsoft are up their old tricks again regarding DRM
I love the detail around the bonnet fringes especially to the bolts and "non-sheen" quality of the overall colour
9 .2 .jpg
This reminds me of the Pepsi Episode I racer debut around 5 years ago
http://www.sugarfreeracing.com/images/coke/5279
Obviously this is a fan mod to his very own car, kudos
True story, around 1993 when Streetfighter II came out for the Amiga, some minor nerd wrote in to CU Amiga magazine not only stating but complaining he couldn't understand the obviously foreign and low-quality speech samples, notably the swearing he passionately remembered *even though he couldn't understand a word?*
So in response, CU Amiga announced quite funnily, the Capcom Translation MIDI Kit, plug in to the serial port of any Amiga computer and hear Ryu in his new found English!
This was 1993 remember
So in their dozens, people then wrote in asking prices, availability, specifications etc... CU Amiga were nearly sued for false advertisement
The moral of the story kids?
One pixallated characters swear word is anothers sweet whisper
Q*Bert was fantastic for it's alien swearing though, I'm sure he said Fcuk, must sample and slow it
I agree, sitting in college using the obviously FAST connection to download the likes of Galaxian and Marble Madness was the literal sheer gorging of 80's pop culture, I never did feel guilty though... funny that
I admit, my friends organised a night in watching movies, drinking, usual banter
He had a Playstation 2 set-up with Vice City which had just been released, now, being a complete beginner to the gaming world *OS X geek you see* I was pretty well drawn into the sheer brutality of pulling some young broad out a moving car, then proceeding to smash up line after line of innocent civilians
Months later, I still play just to get my police record "topped up", sod the missions!
And yes, I thought it was rather cruel to smack an old lady in the chops with a steel bar, but... but... oh nevermind
The last era of great game packaging really began with the Elite series, notably Frontier - Elite II
http://www.planetmic.com/orbit/feinbox.htm
It contained the standard 2 diskette version - game AND pre-defined start points - surely a waste of a floppy? No! Manual with full page pictures, spaceflight timeline extending well into the 24th century, a wall chart with roughly 125,000 stars, each named and marked with planet classifications *true to the Elite universe*, novella of stories relating to to Elite, quick reference start card based around the core systems and a gazetter with game hints and tips
Here is a taster of the Elite universe chronology that was to be found as part of the package
1950s - First man in space, controlled nuclear fission, transistor, start of the nuclear arms race
1960s - First man on Moon, commercial fission power, integrated circuits, computers
1970s - Probes in Solar ststem
1980s - End of first nuclear arms race
1990s - First serious environmental problems on Earth, controlled nuclear fusion
2000s - First (minor) armed conflict between a nation and a "multi-national" corporation
2010s - First serious population problems on Earth
2020s - First international environmental protection enforcement agency, first commercial space station
2030s - Major energy crisis, fossil fuel restrictions, religious unrest, first baby born off Earth
2040s - World War III. Huge technological advancements, huge loss of life, dreadful environmental damage
2050s - War gradually abandoned due to popular rebellions. Commercial fusion power
2060s - Rebuilding. Dominance of corporations increased
2070s - First man on Mars, first permanent Moon base
2080s - Manned exploration of solar system, orbital cities around Earth, first interstellar probes launched
2090s - First permanent Mars base, heavy industry on Moon
2100s - Discovery of fossils on Mars base, "hyperspace" discovered, humans throughout solar system
2110s - Arrival of message from first interstellar probe to Alpha Centauri system. First pictures taken of an extra-solar planet in the Lagrange point on the two main stars
2120s - Presence of life on Tau Ceti 3 detected, first armed conflict in space over rights in the asteroid belt
2130s - Hyperspace capable probes sent to all nearby systems
2140s - Manned space craft sent to Tau Ceti
2150s - Colony established on Tau Ceti 3. Major corporations sending first private colony ships
2160s - The race for the stars. Enourmous production effort to produce ships, and mass exodus started
2170s - First attempt to terra-form Mars started
2180s - Life on Delta Parvonis discovered and made extinct in same year from bacteriological infection
2190s - Discovery of life on Beta Hydri 4, Altair 5. Human colonials spreading out of control
2200s - Earth environmental recovery program started, terraforming of Mars abandoned
2220s - Extinctions on Tau Ceti 3 increasing. Earth threatens to send a police force if nothing is done about it
2230s - Ultimatum sent to Tau Ceti ignored
2240s - First interstellar battle, formation of the Federation, founder members: Earth, Tau Ceti, Delta Pavonis, Altair, Beta Hydri
2260s - Spread of Federation influence
2270s - Second attempt to terra-form Mars started
2280s - Discovery of first non-human relic in space. Origin still unknown in 3200
2290s - First man "outside" on Mars (ie breathing unaided) on completion of terraforming
2300s - Remaining indigenous life on Tau Ceti 3 preserved in special enclosures
2310s - News of elimination of a reputedly sentient race on Achenar 6d by private colonists causes outrage in the Federation. Achenar refuses to join Federation, many terra-forming projects started
2320s - Federation sends war fleet to Achenar. Resulting enormous space battle won by Achenar
2330s - Spread of Empire from Achenar to surrounding worlds. War between Emp