When you make a game you can sell it that way. My point is that they have produced a game that is (apparantly, I haven't played it) worth paying for, and they are offering to give the source code away after they recoup what they feel is fair compensation for their work. That's better than most games.
See, I look at it this way... Suppose that it was Blizzard who said, ok if we sell 1 million copies of World of StarDiablo 9 at $50, we will release the code to the game under the GPL. If that hapened, everyone would go apeshit crazy about how great Blizzard was, etc etc, even though they just did some math that says, "hey if we make $25 million (their cut of the $50m in sales), we will have made a tidy profit, and they we can stop supporting this game, thereby saving us $5m over the next 5 years!" But it's not Blizzard, it's some little independant shop, so instead of being "wow, that's a great show of support for the community", it's "ransomware".
So, this small game developer is trying to do a couple things, makes some cash (ppl gotta eat!) and also give back to the community. The source for his game could very well turn into the basis for alot of great opensource games, something the community is lacking. If this were, say, an office suite, it'd be stupid, since that's area already pretty well filled with alternatives, but the OSS game scene is, imo, lacking, and I think that any way we can spur some development is a Good Thing (tm).
my biggest gripe with it was the fact that the software interface for transfering files etc sucked donkey balls and the device itself could not be used within windows as a portable Magneto Optical drive (which it is) for backing up/restoring stuff...
The new HiMD players work this way, as far as I know. You can drag and drop any file onto the device (when mounted like an external USB drive) and store it there, but you CAN'T put music files there and listen to them through the device. (You can, ironically, put a gig of mp3s on a disc take it over to your buddies and dump them onto his harddrive, you just can't listen to them on the drive over there).
It seems like the SonicStage application moves the files into a special directory and adds the name/file id/location/other identifying information to an index file which the MD player uses to load all the 'authorized' music files up.
This system to me seems like there must be a way to replicate at least the copying aspect of the Sony music management software, so you can at least move Atrac encoded files on and off the device with a 3rd party (runnable under Linux/Mac) application. Maybe there is hope for MDs after all!
Actually, I think Sony sometimes included ATRAC3 versions of a CD on the disc itself. I could be wrong, but I swear I read that somewhere... I assume the idea was that the MiniDisc/Network Walkmen music management products would see the specially named folder and just copy it over to the device to make it look like the conversion was very fast...
Well, also mentioned and I think important is the bit about 'buying games with your favorite little green symbol' or whatever. Basically, this seems like game developers will be participating in some sort of collective online play system.
Based on the 'hints', what we know about the DS, Nintendo, and the Warp Pipe group, this is my theory. First, we know Nintendo has never really shown any strong support for internet gaming. They've never seemed to care if it was done (Phantasy Star Online, Warp Pipe project), but never supported it by themselves. To me this was confirmed by the DS's inclusion of 802.11 standard hardware, but Nintendo's use of a 'proprietary protocal' for games. Next, we see Warp Pipe, a group that made a system to let people play LAN games over the internet.
We know that the DS CAN connect to an AP, so could in theory get online, but it isn't specifically set up to do so. Add in a service, something like Battle.net from Blizzard or Xbox Live from MS, where a DS with a "Battle.net/Live" or, in this case, "WarpPipe" enabled game, and you can play either locally on your WLAN, or connect through an AP or adhoc wireless network w/ internet connection sharing, and your LAN become a WAN.
Pretty basic stuff, it's just like Battle.net, only supported by several developers and hence could include more games. However, if it is supported, it would be a killer feature for the DS, since it would standardize online play interface, features, connection, accounts, etc, etc, for ALL games on the system.
It woudl also make sense for the developers, as it would lower the cost of releasing a multiplayer game, perhaps paying a nominal fee per game supported to WarpPipe, who in turn deals with all the servers, bandwidth, etc, associated with something like this.
Anyways, that's my long winded theory about what this 'big feature' is going to be. Nothing revolutionary, but also something very cool at the same time. Although, it would be cool if the DS could create some sort of P2P network with packet forwarding, etc, etc.
On that topic, does anyone know if DS games will use both the ARM9 and ARM7 cpus, or will the ARM9 be available to DS games, while the ARM7 is used for either GBA games or for system proccess while DS games are being played? Seems like it would be within the realm of possibility for the ARM7 to handle all the network functions, including packet forwarding for a P2P network, and other 'extra' features while the ARM9 was employed with polygons and game logic... Ah well, Oct. 7th is only a week away, so I guess we will find out then.
There was some cellphone game that was big in Japan that was on Slashdot awhile back that used real places (based on cell tower "gps") to affect game play. This could be another application of a similar principle.
I remember reading about that... Now, playing a game on a cellphone doesn't seem like tons of fun to me, but these new phones are getting pretty powerful.
Now, a MMORPG for the DS with some sort of feature like this could be tits, if it was done well. You'd have a much more capable system, and a lot of potential palyers. The only trouble I can see is that the US is so large, and most people don't travel from home much,so you would be stuck in the same basic area of the game most of the time. Plus, part of the fun of the MMO games is the ability to play with people from all over at the same time. Maybe I am not familiar with how that cell phone game works.
going to get a crap conversion from MP3 to ATRAC compared to just playing ATRAC or MP3 natively, so what's the point of spending all the money on Hi-MD if that's what you are going to do with it?
Well, ya, that's basically what I was getting at... there's not any point to getting a MD player if your library is in mp3 already... if it were just CDs or Flac/some other lossless format, then it might be worht considering...
On the other side, the bitrates available on the HiMD Atrac3plus is 64kbps and 256kbps only (no middle ground, kinda silly really). My mp3s are all 128kbps vbr (I honestly can't hear the difference, even on some nice headphones... I have bad hearing, to be honest about it), so the conversion from that to th 256kbps Atrac3 would probably pretty transparent.
I am still looking at it as an option, as I would be alright with having a backup of my whole library on an external media anyways.
But really all it is is a background conversion program for win32 (no other OS support available, not even OSX, which, with the high quality recording possible with a Hi-MD device, suprises me, as I would think that Mac types would = Hi-MD types).
You can get electric motors with plenty of torque hella cheap. It's the basis of most electric assist bike conversions. It's 2am and I dont feel like googling it for you, but take a look. There's plenty of commercial bikes that are for sale that have this sort of feature.
Also, I would be willing to bet that the starter from a small 4-cylinder car would provide the torque that you need for something like this. They run on 12v DC, and usually have an internal flywheel that spin up for a second before engaging the shaft so that you don't have a stall time while the motors output is balanced equally against the resistance on the shaft, causing it to just make a sad whirring sound and not actually doing anything.
On the downside of your plan, unless you deviced some craft gearing scheme, you would be petaling against the extra drag of the electric motor all the time (with the plus that you would generate a little electricity - not nearly as much as you are putting into it, tho). On the other hand, I wonder if the above mentioned starting motor might not solve that problem by disengaging the shaft from the motor while there's no juice being applied. If so, you would be just spinning the extra weight of a smallish gear and a short steel shaft... nto much in the grand scheme of things.
I should look into that... could make a cheap bike mod.
How do YOU know? The OP could indeed be a paranoid conspiracu nut. Slashdot seems to attract them; you ever read the -1 flaimbait/troll comments? Some these people are insane, my friend.
This is the problem with Slashdot... I can't tell if you are being funny or are serious and one of those paranoid conspiracy theory types. We need a mod catagory for that, like +1 crazy, or -1 depending how you look at it.
It looked interesting. It was one of the MMORPGS that I was considering trying out when I had some disposable income to toss around.
Is there any talk of unofficial fan run servers, etc? This seems like it would be a good oppertunity for some small company to get into the market... buy the rights to the game, the source code, and maybe even the old hardware and pick up where EA left off. Anyways, are there any other games similar to this out there that could fill it shoes?
I agree that adding any sort of PDA type functions to the DS firmware would have been a mistake. The needed space for a decent PDA and basic communications package would have added at least 4 or 6 megs of flash space (gotta be patchable!), plus some decent amount for user data, so maybe 8 or 12 altogether. The cost of also writing said software and supporting it would have added an unneeded expense to the system, which is not aimed at people who want a PDA.
Nintendo has stated they don't plan to develop any non-game software for it, and I am glad they have. It would be a disaster, as they seem to market to kids almost exclusively, and I don't want a Pokeman themed PDA suite. However, they have also stated that other developers should feel free to do this sort of thing. Even with that, I am still looking to the opensource/community for the best package in this games. Once some 'developer' cards become available, and some sort of development enviroment is released, this is the kind of software that homebrewers excel at. On the other hand, I don't want to wait that long, so maybe Palm wil get in on the act and release something snazzy with the Nintendo Seal of Approval.
Ideally I'd like just something basic: graphitti style handwrighting recognition, an address book, a notepad app that doubles as a universal document reader, an alarm clock/timer type program, a webbrowser, based on konqueor maybe, a simple email client, multo platform chat, or at least AOL, and a file management program to let me sync data back and forth from my PC to my DS wirelessly. A media player that streams audio and low bitrate video from a server computer would be kinda snazzy, too, but really superfalous(sp?). Some decent amount of on card flash memory, maybe 16 or 32 megs, would be plenty for what it needs to do. even 8 would probably suffice.
As it is I am hesitant to get a DS when they launch (I've got a GBA atm, and would get a DS before a PSP in almost any case). I'll either wait until it can double as a portable wireless web/email/chat device or a must have MMORPG or a price drop to $99 to get one.
Oh, as to the previous reply, the DS has integrate 802.11b so a USB syncing PDA cart would be uneeded, much better to utilize the wireless. Something like that for the GBA would be doable, but seems like the limited input capabilies and smallish screen would be a limiting factor.
I've been reserching MiniDisc players his week because I am in the market for a new MP3 player, and I'd like something with cheap removable media.
The ATRAC format, in all it's versions (there's like ATRAC1, ATRAC2, ATRAC3, ATRAC 2 (note the space), and ATRAC3plus, and maybe something I am missing) seems to something that has little to do with the MP* codecs, as far as the actual mechanics (it's similar in the theories involved, but handled differently). ATRAC3plus seems to be a hit with users, many of whom estimate that 64kbps ATRAC3plus sounds about the same as 128kbps MP3. The high bitrate option for ATRAC3plus, 256kbps is suposedly indistiguishable from the source. I haven't heard anything off a ATRAC3plus player, so I can't say, but I have pretty aweful hearing, so I am guessing I would have no idea.
The new Hi-MD discs, which use the ATRAC3plus format, are a higher density material and hold 1gig each. They can record uncompressed PCM data (presumably 100minutes a disc), and a wide range of ATRAC datarates, from 48kbps to 256, holding from 45 hours on a disc to about 8 hours. a Hi-MD disc costs about $7. You can put a regular MiniDisc into a HiMD player and reformat it to hold 305mb, roughly doubling what it can hold in a non HiMD player/recorder. Thats 2.5hrs to 13 hrs dependsing on compression. Standard MDs are about a buck.
Technologically, the Hi-MD player are a winner, and according to the marketing speak they are, too. If you ask Sony, they can play MP3, OGG, WMA, Wave, etc etc. But they don't, they include software to convert those format over to ATRAC3 on he fly as you copy them. This has several downfalls, not least of which is the fact that it won't work w/ Linux. Plus, if you have an older computer, it slows the conversion way down. On the upside, the HiMD players mount like regular USB drives and can be used for data storage. With 1gb per disc, thats a pretty decent way to move data around.
Now, with recent talk of Sony supporting MP3 playback, I am hoping to see a HiMD player that natively supports MP3s, and also lets you just drag MP3's to the mounted device to load them up, so it would add Linux support. Alternatively, if you can drag ATRAC3 files to the player in Linux and play them, and there was a library availe to play them on my PC, then I would actually consider moving my library over to ATRAC3 just to use a HiMD player, as technologically it seems like a pretty great device.
It doesn't cost them anything to keep they copyrights for decades or centuries.
Perhaps if it did, things would change. They'd have to decide, song by song, which are worth holding onto. But, if holding copyrights are a financial burden to the holder, it'd bar regular folks from the same protection that rich folks or corporations have.
That's probably the best idea I've heard this week. Also, it doesn't need to bar the 'little guy' from holding a copyright. Give them the first 20 years for free, then charge some amount, adjusted annually for inflation, to maintain the copyright for each work. Make it high enough that if you add up a a large libraries worth it becomes prohibitive, unless the work is still generating income. The 'little guy' got 20 free years, and then if his work is still making him income then he has to pay a small-ish part of that to keep doing so with it, otherwise, if it isn't making them any money, then why would they care if it became PD?
I'd suggest something like $200 per work for a 2 year extension, so an album would cost a couple thousand every two years, and a big record label like RCA, who is likely to have 100,000's of copyrighted albums is looking at a few million each year.
What I foresee in a system like this is that after the 'free' copyright expires a record compay would likely just extend the one or two 'hit singles' from the album and let the rest lapse into the Public Domain. The upshot for is that radio stations, online or over the air, could play and distribute them for free, hopefully generating interest in the older peice of work, especially the hit song or two on it that you aren't getting for free, and maybe you will go buy the special remastered super digital whatever format is the thing then. Oh well, babbling over.
Ya there are a couple of other, older, mini-cd mp3 players... trouble with those is that the mini-cd format only holds abotu 160mb of data, as opposed to 1.4gb for mini dvds. At the sub 256mb range, flash memory seems like a superior option.
Now since my last post I have been trying to figure out this whole MiniDisc thing... do they play MP3s or not? They seem to claim mp3 compatibility, but that may be just through software that converts mp3 to whatever the native minidisc format is. Things get even more confusing with the Hi-MD stuff, and I'm not really finding answers.
They also claim to have a drag and drop interface, but again, is that just an automated Windows convertion? You can also use it for file storage, which indicates that you can raw copy data to it, but will the player play it if it were, for example, an mp3 file?
How about Linux compatibility? I'm in the market for a portable mp3 player, and if the MiniDisc players truely play mp3's, then it seems like a fairly cost effective solution (a low end Hi-MD player holds up to 45 hours of music at low bitrate, 13 at the highest bitrates, and costs about $125... add on another $50 or less and you can get one with analog recording capabilities and FM tuner, which seems hella usefull to me)!
I have this hang up on MP3 players with built in storage devices. I'd like an MP3 player with, ideally, ports for several formats of flash memory, again ideally, that I could have a card in each of them concurrently. This would let me buy memory as my needs grow, and get whatever format happens to be onsale at the time. I've been thinking about building somethign like this with the shell of a HD based player that has had the HD recycled from it, but it seems like to much of a hassle.
Alternatively, a slot loading mini DVD-r/w player would be nice. The mini DVD/CD format is small enough the player would still fint in a pocket, and also the reduction of spinning mass should save batteries.
Lastly, a question... I'm confused my the Sony MiniDisc players. I thought that they supported MP3 now? Is that not true?
The DS has some protection from ending up as a virtualboy level flop... it plays GBA games, which is the biggest selling console still available (of all time?). That combined with its fairly low price should keep it from being a complete flop.
I still have high hopes for it as a game machine that will (eventually, with the right software) fullfill basic PDA and portable communications needs.
Seems like alot of PDA users have a machine that they want to do basic address book, note taking, etc with (things that that Palm, or even Newton) could do years and years ago, but want to be able to check their mail, do some limited webbrowsing and chatting, play games on, especially older emulated systems, and also use as a multimedia player on the go.
For games, the DS has an PDA out there licked from the start, and it has all the hardware you would need for web, email, chat, and basic PDA functions, just lacks the software. Sadly, I don't see any good way to get multimedia content onto the DS, otherwise it could really be a great all in one gadget. (The PSP tries to do that, but is going to fail due to the high cost of getting content onto it, and, for web/pda type stuff, lack of a touch screen/non-gaming type controls).
Well, for the price of a single copy of WinXP you can go buy a brand new GameCube, a used Playstation2, or a used XBox. And that's comparing to the cheapest copy of XP available, an OEM Home edition. If you want a retail Pro edition or a non upgrade or OEM home copy, you'd be able to add an extra controller and a game or two to that console system.
I used to be an anti-console kinda guy, and played all my games on PC, but I switched to Linux and got a GameCube, which I have liked quite a bit. Also, from what I can see, consoles are where games are going to be at in the future. As more publishers become fed up with PC game piracy, and increased cost of technical support and development that PC games bring due to variations in hardware, they will see the console as being a better deal.
If only some FPS game maker would sell their game with a mouse and a keyboard (even a small keypad size affair that I could custom map to my liking)...
Oh, I forgot to add in the saved costs of not needing a $150-200 video card, and whatever extra hardware a gaming rig would have over a internet/office suite/multimedia PC. There's another 4 games at least!
I was gonna post something to the effect of what you just said, so I guess this is just a Mod Parent Up post...
Something else related is that to develop wireless infrastructure in a country that hasn't got either wireless or a wired infrastructure, it is many times faster and cheaper to deploy a wireless one. As a result, there may be a time in the new future when barely developed nations will have superior wireless data connectivity than the US has at the time.
Laf, you need to calm down and remember it's only a game!:) As something to keep in mind, it doesn't look like the DS will support GBA multiplayer features, so if you are having these fits while playing Mario Kart with your boss or something, you may want to grab another SP =P
I can honestly say I have never encountered a situation where this would be a problem, as I have never had a Windows box stay up for more than a week without either crashing, getting so bogged down it needed a reboot just to open Word, or requiring me to reboot after I installed some ridiculously little program.
Slashdot Mirror
When you make a game you can sell it that way. My point is that they have produced a game that is (apparantly, I haven't played it) worth paying for, and they are offering to give the source code away after they recoup what they feel is fair compensation for their work. That's better than most games.
So, this small game developer is trying to do a couple things, makes some cash (ppl gotta eat!) and also give back to the community. The source for his game could very well turn into the basis for alot of great opensource games, something the community is lacking. If this were, say, an office suite, it'd be stupid, since that's area already pretty well filled with alternatives, but the OSS game scene is, imo, lacking, and I think that any way we can spur some development is a Good Thing (tm).
The new HiMD players work this way, as far as I know. You can drag and drop any file onto the device (when mounted like an external USB drive) and store it there, but you CAN'T put music files there and listen to them through the device. (You can, ironically, put a gig of mp3s on a disc take it over to your buddies and dump them onto his harddrive, you just can't listen to them on the drive over there).
It seems like the SonicStage application moves the files into a special directory and adds the name/file id/location/other identifying information to an index file which the MD player uses to load all the 'authorized' music files up.
This system to me seems like there must be a way to replicate at least the copying aspect of the Sony music management software, so you can at least move Atrac encoded files on and off the device with a 3rd party (runnable under Linux/Mac) application. Maybe there is hope for MDs after all!
Actually, I think Sony sometimes included ATRAC3 versions of a CD on the disc itself. I could be wrong, but I swear I read that somewhere... I assume the idea was that the MiniDisc/Network Walkmen music management products would see the specially named folder and just copy it over to the device to make it look like the conversion was very fast...
Based on the 'hints', what we know about the DS, Nintendo, and the Warp Pipe group, this is my theory. First, we know Nintendo has never really shown any strong support for internet gaming. They've never seemed to care if it was done (Phantasy Star Online, Warp Pipe project), but never supported it by themselves. To me this was confirmed by the DS's inclusion of 802.11 standard hardware, but Nintendo's use of a 'proprietary protocal' for games. Next, we see Warp Pipe, a group that made a system to let people play LAN games over the internet.
We know that the DS CAN connect to an AP, so could in theory get online, but it isn't specifically set up to do so. Add in a service, something like Battle.net from Blizzard or Xbox Live from MS, where a DS with a "Battle.net/Live" or, in this case, "WarpPipe" enabled game, and you can play either locally on your WLAN, or connect through an AP or adhoc wireless network w/ internet connection sharing, and your LAN become a WAN.
Pretty basic stuff, it's just like Battle.net, only supported by several developers and hence could include more games. However, if it is supported, it would be a killer feature for the DS, since it would standardize online play interface, features, connection, accounts, etc, etc, for ALL games on the system.
It woudl also make sense for the developers, as it would lower the cost of releasing a multiplayer game, perhaps paying a nominal fee per game supported to WarpPipe, who in turn deals with all the servers, bandwidth, etc, associated with something like this.
Anyways, that's my long winded theory about what this 'big feature' is going to be. Nothing revolutionary, but also something very cool at the same time. Although, it would be cool if the DS could create some sort of P2P network with packet forwarding, etc, etc.
On that topic, does anyone know if DS games will use both the ARM9 and ARM7 cpus, or will the ARM9 be available to DS games, while the ARM7 is used for either GBA games or for system proccess while DS games are being played? Seems like it would be within the realm of possibility for the ARM7 to handle all the network functions, including packet forwarding for a P2P network, and other 'extra' features while the ARM9 was employed with polygons and game logic... Ah well, Oct. 7th is only a week away, so I guess we will find out then.
I remember reading about that... Now, playing a game on a cellphone doesn't seem like tons of fun to me, but these new phones are getting pretty powerful.
Now, a MMORPG for the DS with some sort of feature like this could be tits, if it was done well. You'd have a much more capable system, and a lot of potential palyers. The only trouble I can see is that the US is so large, and most people don't travel from home much,so you would be stuck in the same basic area of the game most of the time. Plus, part of the fun of the MMO games is the ability to play with people from all over at the same time. Maybe I am not familiar with how that cell phone game works.
Well, ya, that's basically what I was getting at... there's not any point to getting a MD player if your library is in mp3 already... if it were just CDs or Flac/some other lossless format, then it might be worht considering...
On the other side, the bitrates available on the HiMD Atrac3plus is 64kbps and 256kbps only (no middle ground, kinda silly really). My mp3s are all 128kbps vbr (I honestly can't hear the difference, even on some nice headphones... I have bad hearing, to be honest about it), so the conversion from that to th 256kbps Atrac3 would probably pretty transparent.
I am still looking at it as an option, as I would be alright with having a backup of my whole library on an external media anyways.
The Sony website specifically says that it 'supports mp3', so maybe the PSP will support mp3 playback the same way?
Makes me sad, as a Linux user who would have bought a Hi-MD deck. :(
Sadly, some of us live in places that have this thing called 'winter'.
You see, you have use your BRAIN to come up with an idea... I had an idea once... It was a Jump to Conclusions mat!
Also, I would be willing to bet that the starter from a small 4-cylinder car would provide the torque that you need for something like this. They run on 12v DC, and usually have an internal flywheel that spin up for a second before engaging the shaft so that you don't have a stall time while the motors output is balanced equally against the resistance on the shaft, causing it to just make a sad whirring sound and not actually doing anything.
On the downside of your plan, unless you deviced some craft gearing scheme, you would be petaling against the extra drag of the electric motor all the time (with the plus that you would generate a little electricity - not nearly as much as you are putting into it, tho). On the other hand, I wonder if the above mentioned starting motor might not solve that problem by disengaging the shaft from the motor while there's no juice being applied. If so, you would be just spinning the extra weight of a smallish gear and a short steel shaft... nto much in the grand scheme of things.
I should look into that... could make a cheap bike mod.
Rob
PS Thanks to mod who gave me the +1 funny =p
This is the problem with Slashdot... I can't tell if you are being funny or are serious and one of those paranoid conspiracy theory types. We need a mod catagory for that, like +1 crazy, or -1 depending how you look at it.
Is there any talk of unofficial fan run servers, etc? This seems like it would be a good oppertunity for some small company to get into the market... buy the rights to the game, the source code, and maybe even the old hardware and pick up where EA left off. Anyways, are there any other games similar to this out there that could fill it shoes?
Yes, just die already.
Nintendo has stated they don't plan to develop any non-game software for it, and I am glad they have. It would be a disaster, as they seem to market to kids almost exclusively, and I don't want a Pokeman themed PDA suite. However, they have also stated that other developers should feel free to do this sort of thing. Even with that, I am still looking to the opensource/community for the best package in this games. Once some 'developer' cards become available, and some sort of development enviroment is released, this is the kind of software that homebrewers excel at. On the other hand, I don't want to wait that long, so maybe Palm wil get in on the act and release something snazzy with the Nintendo Seal of Approval.
Ideally I'd like just something basic: graphitti style handwrighting recognition, an address book, a notepad app that doubles as a universal document reader, an alarm clock/timer type program, a webbrowser, based on konqueor maybe, a simple email client, multo platform chat, or at least AOL, and a file management program to let me sync data back and forth from my PC to my DS wirelessly. A media player that streams audio and low bitrate video from a server computer would be kinda snazzy, too, but really superfalous(sp?). Some decent amount of on card flash memory, maybe 16 or 32 megs, would be plenty for what it needs to do. even 8 would probably suffice.
As it is I am hesitant to get a DS when they launch (I've got a GBA atm, and would get a DS before a PSP in almost any case). I'll either wait until it can double as a portable wireless web/email/chat device or a must have MMORPG or a price drop to $99 to get one.
Oh, as to the previous reply, the DS has integrate 802.11b so a USB syncing PDA cart would be uneeded, much better to utilize the wireless. Something like that for the GBA would be doable, but seems like the limited input capabilies and smallish screen would be a limiting factor.
The ATRAC format, in all it's versions (there's like ATRAC1, ATRAC2, ATRAC3, ATRAC 2 (note the space), and ATRAC3plus, and maybe something I am missing) seems to something that has little to do with the MP* codecs, as far as the actual mechanics (it's similar in the theories involved, but handled differently). ATRAC3plus seems to be a hit with users, many of whom estimate that 64kbps ATRAC3plus sounds about the same as 128kbps MP3. The high bitrate option for ATRAC3plus, 256kbps is suposedly indistiguishable from the source. I haven't heard anything off a ATRAC3plus player, so I can't say, but I have pretty aweful hearing, so I am guessing I would have no idea.
The new Hi-MD discs, which use the ATRAC3plus format, are a higher density material and hold 1gig each. They can record uncompressed PCM data (presumably 100minutes a disc), and a wide range of ATRAC datarates, from 48kbps to 256, holding from 45 hours on a disc to about 8 hours. a Hi-MD disc costs about $7. You can put a regular MiniDisc into a HiMD player and reformat it to hold 305mb, roughly doubling what it can hold in a non HiMD player/recorder. Thats 2.5hrs to 13 hrs dependsing on compression. Standard MDs are about a buck.
Technologically, the Hi-MD player are a winner, and according to the marketing speak they are, too. If you ask Sony, they can play MP3, OGG, WMA, Wave, etc etc. But they don't, they include software to convert those format over to ATRAC3 on he fly as you copy them. This has several downfalls, not least of which is the fact that it won't work w/ Linux. Plus, if you have an older computer, it slows the conversion way down. On the upside, the HiMD players mount like regular USB drives and can be used for data storage. With 1gb per disc, thats a pretty decent way to move data around.
Now, with recent talk of Sony supporting MP3 playback, I am hoping to see a HiMD player that natively supports MP3s, and also lets you just drag MP3's to the mounted device to load them up, so it would add Linux support. Alternatively, if you can drag ATRAC3 files to the player in Linux and play them, and there was a library availe to play them on my PC, then I would actually consider moving my library over to ATRAC3 just to use a HiMD player, as technologically it seems like a pretty great device.
Perhaps if it did, things would change. They'd have to decide, song by song, which are worth holding onto. But, if holding copyrights are a financial burden to the holder, it'd bar regular folks from the same protection that rich folks or corporations have.
That's probably the best idea I've heard this week. Also, it doesn't need to bar the 'little guy' from holding a copyright. Give them the first 20 years for free, then charge some amount, adjusted annually for inflation, to maintain the copyright for each work. Make it high enough that if you add up a a large libraries worth it becomes prohibitive, unless the work is still generating income. The 'little guy' got 20 free years, and then if his work is still making him income then he has to pay a small-ish part of that to keep doing so with it, otherwise, if it isn't making them any money, then why would they care if it became PD?
I'd suggest something like $200 per work for a 2 year extension, so an album would cost a couple thousand every two years, and a big record label like RCA, who is likely to have 100,000's of copyrighted albums is looking at a few million each year.
What I foresee in a system like this is that after the 'free' copyright expires a record compay would likely just extend the one or two 'hit singles' from the album and let the rest lapse into the Public Domain. The upshot for is that radio stations, online or over the air, could play and distribute them for free, hopefully generating interest in the older peice of work, especially the hit song or two on it that you aren't getting for free, and maybe you will go buy the special remastered super digital whatever format is the thing then. Oh well, babbling over.
Good idea.
Now since my last post I have been trying to figure out this whole MiniDisc thing... do they play MP3s or not? They seem to claim mp3 compatibility, but that may be just through software that converts mp3 to whatever the native minidisc format is. Things get even more confusing with the Hi-MD stuff, and I'm not really finding answers.
They also claim to have a drag and drop interface, but again, is that just an automated Windows convertion? You can also use it for file storage, which indicates that you can raw copy data to it, but will the player play it if it were, for example, an mp3 file?
How about Linux compatibility? I'm in the market for a portable mp3 player, and if the MiniDisc players truely play mp3's, then it seems like a fairly cost effective solution (a low end Hi-MD player holds up to 45 hours of music at low bitrate, 13 at the highest bitrates, and costs about $125... add on another $50 or less and you can get one with analog recording capabilities and FM tuner, which seems hella usefull to me)!
Alternatively, a slot loading mini DVD-r/w player would be nice. The mini DVD/CD format is small enough the player would still fint in a pocket, and also the reduction of spinning mass should save batteries.
Lastly, a question... I'm confused my the Sony MiniDisc players. I thought that they supported MP3 now? Is that not true?
I still have high hopes for it as a game machine that will (eventually, with the right software) fullfill basic PDA and portable communications needs.
Seems like alot of PDA users have a machine that they want to do basic address book, note taking, etc with (things that that Palm, or even Newton) could do years and years ago, but want to be able to check their mail, do some limited webbrowsing and chatting, play games on, especially older emulated systems, and also use as a multimedia player on the go.
For games, the DS has an PDA out there licked from the start, and it has all the hardware you would need for web, email, chat, and basic PDA functions, just lacks the software. Sadly, I don't see any good way to get multimedia content onto the DS, otherwise it could really be a great all in one gadget. (The PSP tries to do that, but is going to fail due to the high cost of getting content onto it, and, for web/pda type stuff, lack of a touch screen/non-gaming type controls).
I used to be an anti-console kinda guy, and played all my games on PC, but I switched to Linux and got a GameCube, which I have liked quite a bit. Also, from what I can see, consoles are where games are going to be at in the future. As more publishers become fed up with PC game piracy, and increased cost of technical support and development that PC games bring due to variations in hardware, they will see the console as being a better deal.
If only some FPS game maker would sell their game with a mouse and a keyboard (even a small keypad size affair that I could custom map to my liking)...
Oh, I forgot to add in the saved costs of not needing a $150-200 video card, and whatever extra hardware a gaming rig would have over a internet/office suite/multimedia PC. There's another 4 games at least!
Something else related is that to develop wireless infrastructure in a country that hasn't got either wireless or a wired infrastructure, it is many times faster and cheaper to deploy a wireless one. As a result, there may be a time in the new future when barely developed nations will have superior wireless data connectivity than the US has at the time.
Laf, you need to calm down and remember it's only a game! :) As something to keep in mind, it doesn't look like the DS will support GBA multiplayer features, so if you are having these fits while playing Mario Kart with your boss or something, you may want to grab another SP =P
I can honestly say I have never encountered a situation where this would be a problem, as I have never had a Windows box stay up for more than a week without either crashing, getting so bogged down it needed a reboot just to open Word, or requiring me to reboot after I installed some ridiculously little program.