Dunno, the program I used for ripping my disks said I should use DOS or Win 3.1 because the 1541 is very timing dependent and multitasking can cause data errors. I guess as long as your CPU load is low enough even MT OSes can handle that but non-MT or realtime is preferred.
A problem is that linear games often tell their story in cutscenes that are pretty much detached from the gameplay and all the player contributes to the story is move from one scene to the next. I don't mind linearly designed games that prioritize on the gameplay, i.e. the challenge and the fun that comes from it but it gets pretty silly when a game makes the story its primary focus and still tells it with movies. At that point I wonder if the designer wouldn't have been better off making a movie or a series (I've seen RPGs turned into Anime TV series, worked without a hitch) if he really wants to control all of the actions of the characters.
What really annoys me is the standard "OMG you broke the seal" plot element where the only way to make the game move forward is to do something that's obviously a bad idea and usually unleashes the biggest evil upon the world. I mean, that's just plain stupid, you know it's a bad idea but you can't just say "I'll not do it" because the game is scripted to only let you proceed if you break the seal.
On the other hand you really don't need to know much to assemble a PC once you got parts that fit together. Mainboards come with complete manuals with step-by-step instructions and jumpers are only a backup option for people unwilling to set their options in the bios these days. Cases have rounded edges so your hands no longer look like you were cutting thorn bushes, CPU sockets and DIMMs are formed so they only fit in the correct position, same for IDE cables if you're not using SATA, almost all cards you'd put in the sockets are onboard now.
I believe that games would do better to become more 'movie-esque' than vice versa.
I completely disagree. The movie is a static, linear medium whereas games are a highly non-linear medium (at least if they are used properly). They have completely different strengths. Movies have complete freedom of making the main character act in a prescribed way while games have the freedom to explore what-if scenarios. Unfortunately games these days tend to be very movielike which often manifests itself as gameplay being an interlude between movie sequences, this makes the game and story detached from each other and often the whole thing is no longer controlled by the player beyond clearing the condition for the next movie. They fail to offer the player decisions like "what if I just let the dragon eat the princess?", some even force failures in cutscenes (notorious one being FF7 having a character die with no player interaction, all newer FFs have movie-based losses that force the player to accept a loss as unchangeable despite this being a game that should be about what the player does). A game should not make the player an actor in a movie where he has to act the script or the scene is retaken, a game should be about letting the player improvise and having the world react to it.
There was a time when film critics thought that movies with sound were just stupid gimmickry. That was only changed when M - Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder was released. Why? Because it made use of the fact that it had sound to do things silent movies couldn't do. If games want to be recognized as an art form on par with other media they have to play to their strengths, not just try to copy other media while using their own medium as a gimmick. Such a game has to use its interactivity to do things a movie could never do.
Meanwhile movies are closing the gap. Lola Rennt demonstrated how what-if scenarios can be explored in movies. A game could use a much larger range of possible choices at many different points to see the different outcomes.
I'd like a game that was short by game standards, but was beautifully written, had a tight storyline and was populated by intelligent, deep and interesting characters.
Would that really be a game? To allow for player freedom you have to make sacrifices with the storyline because you can't make the player act the way you want all the time. If you want the game to be basically challenges to unlock the next movie, sure, that'll work. But don't be surprised if your game gets bashed for it.
I'd like to see games where you have to put some thought into what you are doing and the decisions you make.
Play a strategy game.
I'd like a game where you hardly fire your gun.
Point and click adventures or other peaceful games spring to mind.
I want a game to make me cry.
For many people that already happened in Final Fantasy 7.
Yeah and promising people jobs is what got Hitler elected, therefore we should distrust all politicians that promise to do something about unemployment.
I still wonder how they got the rights to Giana Sisters for that. There seem to be a whole lot of companies that think they have the rights to C64 games, was there some kind of EULA that all your software will go into the public domain quickly for that computer or what?
You can get a serial to parallel adapter that allows you to attach your whole chain of serial devices to the LPT1 port. You need a OS without preemptive multitasking for using them, though.
I think that Giana Sisters design does look closer to the sprites than the official box art. I'm not sure it's the right style to draw them in but they did have huge heads and eyes in the game as well as a bow. The original box art reminds me of Megaman 1.
AFAIK most GBA sales are actually GBASPs, not Micros. Perhaps it's because if you're getting a GBA you can just as well get one that plays all GB games and can fold to protect its screen.
Well, the GBA is obsolete for years now (since the DS plays GBA games and more). The PS3 is a new console. While it's reasonable that the PS2 would outsell the PS3 at this point (mostly due to price) the GBA should have died a year ago because the DS is juat a better choice (unless you want to play GBC and GB games but is that really something that people will buy a GBA for NOW?).
I disagree. Often CD using games get official patches that disable the CD check, where that isn't the case you can just get a crack. I've yet to hear of any online-authenticating game getting an official no auth patch.
You're not looking hard enough. In theory that thing won't work with anything older than XP either but in reality there's opensource drivers available for it.
Of course there's little reason to buy it because most games that can use a gamepad on the PC are designed for digital control and the 360 controller is awful for that. Of course a gamepad only makes sense over a keyboard if the game has lots of buttons. Most 2d PC games seem to use only 2-3 buttons, the keyboard is best for that because it's more precise than any other controller save maybe a Nintendo or Sega gamepad with a USB adapter (the Sega USB pad sucks from what I heard).
Podcasts are the worst. One hour of audio that contains roughly the amount of information that would fit on one A4 page. But instead of downloading a few kBs of text and reading it in five minutes you get a file of several megabytes that takes a looong time to listen to. Never mind that in the age of multimedia you can put images or even videos to illustrate something in your text instead of talking for five minutes to explain what you mean. You can't easily skip uninteresting bits in a podcast like you can in a text since there are no visible paragraphs. Also the usual complaints about radio still apply to podcasts.
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Dunno, the program I used for ripping my disks said I should use DOS or Win 3.1 because the 1541 is very timing dependent and multitasking can cause data errors. I guess as long as your CPU load is low enough even MT OSes can handle that but non-MT or realtime is preferred.
A problem is that linear games often tell their story in cutscenes that are pretty much detached from the gameplay and all the player contributes to the story is move from one scene to the next. I don't mind linearly designed games that prioritize on the gameplay, i.e. the challenge and the fun that comes from it but it gets pretty silly when a game makes the story its primary focus and still tells it with movies. At that point I wonder if the designer wouldn't have been better off making a movie or a series (I've seen RPGs turned into Anime TV series, worked without a hitch) if he really wants to control all of the actions of the characters.
What really annoys me is the standard "OMG you broke the seal" plot element where the only way to make the game move forward is to do something that's obviously a bad idea and usually unleashes the biggest evil upon the world. I mean, that's just plain stupid, you know it's a bad idea but you can't just say "I'll not do it" because the game is scripted to only let you proceed if you break the seal.
On the other hand you really don't need to know much to assemble a PC once you got parts that fit together. Mainboards come with complete manuals with step-by-step instructions and jumpers are only a backup option for people unwilling to set their options in the bios these days. Cases have rounded edges so your hands no longer look like you were cutting thorn bushes, CPU sockets and DIMMs are formed so they only fit in the correct position, same for IDE cables if you're not using SATA, almost all cards you'd put in the sockets are onboard now.
I believe that games would do better to become more 'movie-esque' than vice versa.
I completely disagree. The movie is a static, linear medium whereas games are a highly non-linear medium (at least if they are used properly). They have completely different strengths. Movies have complete freedom of making the main character act in a prescribed way while games have the freedom to explore what-if scenarios. Unfortunately games these days tend to be very movielike which often manifests itself as gameplay being an interlude between movie sequences, this makes the game and story detached from each other and often the whole thing is no longer controlled by the player beyond clearing the condition for the next movie. They fail to offer the player decisions like "what if I just let the dragon eat the princess?", some even force failures in cutscenes (notorious one being FF7 having a character die with no player interaction, all newer FFs have movie-based losses that force the player to accept a loss as unchangeable despite this being a game that should be about what the player does). A game should not make the player an actor in a movie where he has to act the script or the scene is retaken, a game should be about letting the player improvise and having the world react to it.
There was a time when film critics thought that movies with sound were just stupid gimmickry. That was only changed when M - Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder was released. Why? Because it made use of the fact that it had sound to do things silent movies couldn't do. If games want to be recognized as an art form on par with other media they have to play to their strengths, not just try to copy other media while using their own medium as a gimmick. Such a game has to use its interactivity to do things a movie could never do.
Meanwhile movies are closing the gap. Lola Rennt demonstrated how what-if scenarios can be explored in movies. A game could use a much larger range of possible choices at many different points to see the different outcomes.
I'd like a game that was short by game standards, but was beautifully written, had a tight storyline and was populated by intelligent, deep and interesting characters.
Would that really be a game? To allow for player freedom you have to make sacrifices with the storyline because you can't make the player act the way you want all the time. If you want the game to be basically challenges to unlock the next movie, sure, that'll work. But don't be surprised if your game gets bashed for it.
I'd like to see games where you have to put some thought into what you are doing and the decisions you make.
Play a strategy game.
I'd like a game where you hardly fire your gun.
Point and click adventures or other peaceful games spring to mind.
I want a game to make me cry.
For many people that already happened in Final Fantasy 7.
Yeah and promising people jobs is what got Hitler elected, therefore we should distrust all politicians that promise to do something about unemployment.
You just start another war. Has the USA ever been without an enemy to unite the nation?
I still wonder how they got the rights to Giana Sisters for that. There seem to be a whole lot of companies that think they have the rights to C64 games, was there some kind of EULA that all your software will go into the public domain quickly for that computer or what?
You can get a serial to parallel adapter that allows you to attach your whole chain of serial devices to the LPT1 port. You need a OS without preemptive multitasking for using them, though.
I think that Giana Sisters design does look closer to the sprites than the official box art. I'm not sure it's the right style to draw them in but they did have huge heads and eyes in the game as well as a bow. The original box art reminds me of Megaman 1.
I've seen cases with handles before, that wouldn't be revolutionary either.
AFAIK most GBA sales are actually GBASPs, not Micros. Perhaps it's because if you're getting a GBA you can just as well get one that plays all GB games and can fold to protect its screen.
They can still do that later when needed, right now Wii Sports seems to work well enough for selling these.
Well, the GBA is obsolete for years now (since the DS plays GBA games and more). The PS3 is a new console. While it's reasonable that the PS2 would outsell the PS3 at this point (mostly due to price) the GBA should have died a year ago because the DS is juat a better choice (unless you want to play GBC and GB games but is that really something that people will buy a GBA for NOW?).
IW wasn't Spector's fault. He was opposed to "great" ideas like the unified ammo system but the team overruled him.
To be fair, it did say "anarchy online" right there on the box, when has anarchy ever worked?
Steam is so effective at preventing piracy you can (or could for a very long time) download a program that gets you warez right off the Steam servers.
That sounds like you downloaded a full game, are there no simple cracks available that just remove the check?
I disagree. Often CD using games get official patches that disable the CD check, where that isn't the case you can just get a crack. I've yet to hear of any online-authenticating game getting an official no auth patch.
The volcano would be insulted if you offered it any Slashdot virgin.
You're not looking hard enough. In theory that thing won't work with anything older than XP either but in reality there's opensource drivers available for it.
Of course there's little reason to buy it because most games that can use a gamepad on the PC are designed for digital control and the 360 controller is awful for that. Of course a gamepad only makes sense over a keyboard if the game has lots of buttons. Most 2d PC games seem to use only 2-3 buttons, the keyboard is best for that because it's more precise than any other controller save maybe a Nintendo or Sega gamepad with a USB adapter (the Sega USB pad sucks from what I heard).
How do they expect Lunix and the Apple monopoly to catch up when they just keep improving their product like this... and FOR FREE?
The whole point of Live is that you pay a monthly fee to use it.
That's probably why it's not popular with the /. crowd. Virgins don't have firstborns.
Podcasts are the worst. One hour of audio that contains roughly the amount of information that would fit on one A4 page. But instead of downloading a few kBs of text and reading it in five minutes you get a file of several megabytes that takes a looong time to listen to. Never mind that in the age of multimedia you can put images or even videos to illustrate something in your text instead of talking for five minutes to explain what you mean. You can't easily skip uninteresting bits in a podcast like you can in a text since there are no visible paragraphs. Also the usual complaints about radio still apply to podcasts.
Politicians don't take dump trucks anymore, now they want a series of tubes that keeps the money flowing to them.
If he wants that he can go to Europe, it's a violation of privacy laws to post someone's photo on the net without their approval.