Online Gaming
The FIRST console to have online gaming. It came with a 56k modem for those horrid dial-up speeds and eventually had the ability to be expanded to broadband with an adapter. Phantasy Star was one of the first (if not the first) game to be online for a console and many games for the Dreamcast joined it. Including sports games and shooters.
Not to be picky, but Nintendo's been playing in the online area (without much success) for quite a while.
When the Dreamcast first came out, I abhorred it for a number of reasons, such as lackluster 1st party games, poor 3rd party support and just a general disdain for Sega's marketing (their track record isn't so hot in that department). But right now, I'm loving the Dreamcast:-)
Right about now, the Dreamcast is somewhat prematurely in its "glory day". While most Dreamcast games sucked to no end, it had many decent PC ports (Quake III, Unreal Tournament) and a handful of other good games. Generally, you can find these games in the bargain bin at GameStop for $5-$15, usually new. The Dreamcast's current online pricepoint is often less than a new GBA game, and usually is bundled with some games. Frankly, if you're a cheap gamer who doesn't have a lot of time, the Dreamcast is the way to go.
But the main appeal of the Dreamcast to me is the "geek" community that's brought Linux, BSD and most of the APIs that they connonate (Hell, you can even use Windows APIs for the built in Windows CE ROM). This is great for people like me who want to get their feet wet with basic game development for consoles, but don't have time to learn a hacked-up graphics API, or for someone who just is looking for a fun weekend project. It makes me happy to see that the Dreamcast homebrew community is still alive and kicking, and I'm hoping that this kind of thing will continue for a while.
What RAID should you use? Well it just depends. Frankly, if the little fuckers are getting into your personal fileserver, and just generally screwing things up, then you might want to go with your plain-old RAID I. However, if they're using your motherboard as the local hotspot for insect orgies, then you might need RAID II. And let us not forget RAID III if long-term maintenance is an issue.
PacMan. I would love to see the original conceptual art for everybody's favorite pill-poppin' yellow circle. I'm talking the hardcore, underground PacMan, before he blew up and grew legs and stuff.;-)
I'm a loyal SuSE user (since 7.0), and was extremely excited when I read about 9.1 being released. I'm a frequent reader/poster on the SuSE Linux English discussion group [SLE], and from what I'm hearing, there's not much incentive to choose 9.1 over 8.2/9.0. Far more complaints than praises, and the trolling has been atrocious. So here's what I've heard about 9.1 (note that I haven't actually tried upgrading/installing 9.1 on my current machine yet. I'm quite content with 9.0:-) --
As expected, the 2.6 kernel is the default. Apparently, this is the source of many of the complaints with 9.1. Lots of complaints about hardware compatibility (especially USB and USB 2.0) that were not existent in recent releases.
Similar to previous, but some hardware support is missing. A lot of complaints about some missing RAID drivers, NIC drivers and video card drivers. Additionally, some complaints about missing ACPI and APM module sources missing seem to pop up fairly frequently.
One of the touted benefits of 9.1 was tighter hardware integration and process scheduling with the new 2.6 kernel. As pointed out by a poster in a previous article, most of these features have been backported to the 2.4 kernel and come standard with a 9.0 install (including the new 2.6 scheduler)
No improvements in Wi-Fi integration. One of the things that has frustrated me to no end with SuSE 9.0 is its lack of support for Wi-Fi profiles. Kwifimanager and YaST -> Network Device are plenty sufficient if you simply use one AP, but as soon as you wander over to a different hotspot, be prepared to reconfigure your WLAN card. This gets especially frustrating when you roam between WEP-encrypted APs and non-encrypted APs. Again, no improvement in 9.1.
Other problems are longer boot times and X seg faults, both of which I've witnessed with fresh 9.1 installs.
It seems 9.1 needs to go back in the oven for a few more minutes. It's basically 9.0 with problems. This is revealed upon further inspecting the 9.1 box and finding the product slogan : "It may be buggy as Hell, but DAMN if we don't support the 2% of the Linux user-base who use AMD64_x86"
i'd really like them to release dragon warrior, final fantasy and faxanadu
Dragon Warrior I & II were released a while back, as was Dragon Warrior III. Final Fantasy has already had some stints on the GB/GBC/GBA, but the first two are on their way to coming to the GBA as well (albeit, in Japan first)
I don't think we'll see vanilla versions released like the recent releases from Nintendo, due to licensing issues.
Seriously though, how many people will still play this game with you? It's based on old technology and even though it may still be fun single-player, the multi-player market is dead. Thus you will only get half the intended fun out of it.
That statement is the fundamental reason why the Linux gaming community has never really happened. Quite frankly, very few people want to play 3 year old FPS ports to an inferior graphics API. There's just simply not a large market for it. Not from a commercial standpoint, anyway. As someone else pointed out, these games are often more expensive then their Windows counterparts, and usually suffer from graphical issues and dead community support (not to mention an appalling price difference from the Windows versions).
But all this goes back to one of the more classic flame-war topics : who plays games on Linux? I mean, reallistically. I certainly don't, nor do any of my friends or coworkers. Support for the latest graphics cards has been iffy at best, and support for the games that do actually make it to Linux (such as Unreal Tournament) usually dwindles.
Uh, you realize that the developers of this game (Level 5) are Japanese, right?
Yes, but developer != to marketing director:-) Microsoft still holds the cards with regard to publishing the game.
Honestly, I think the game would've done alright in the US, simply because the US has a much larger Xbox user-base, many of them craving a decent RPG for their 'box. But in Japan where there are already plenty of great, arguably better RPGs, you'll be stiff to find enthusiasm.
The MMORPG genre, across all platforms, has become an incredibly crowded and competitive marketplace. In response, Microsoft Game Studios has decided.
READ:
The MMORPG genre, across all platforms, has become an incredibly crowded and competitive marketplace. In response, Microsoft Game Studios has decided that 'True Fantasy Online' might be too blatant a rip-off of other RPGs from more experienced competition, especially given that the everyone's favorite pseudo-PC has had such great success in the exclusive RPG genre
C'mon, with a name like "True Fantasy Online", you're pretty much begging Japan to laugh at you. I guess this sort of adds insult to injury with regard to acceptance in Japan. But at least our Japanese brethren have an equally anticipated and deep game
to play 'til Halo 2 comes and dies on a cross for our sins (or whatever ailment the Xbox evangelists are proclaiming it will heal)
Slashdot Mirror
Not to be picky, but Nintendo's been playing in the online area (without much success) for quite a while.
When the Dreamcast first came out, I abhorred it for a number of reasons, such as lackluster 1st party games, poor 3rd party support and just a general disdain for Sega's marketing (their track record isn't so hot in that department). But right now, I'm loving the Dreamcast :-)
Right about now, the Dreamcast is somewhat prematurely in its "glory day". While most Dreamcast games sucked to no end, it had many decent PC ports (Quake III, Unreal Tournament) and a handful of other good games. Generally, you can find these games in the bargain bin at GameStop for $5-$15, usually new. The Dreamcast's current online pricepoint is often less than a new GBA game, and usually is bundled with some games. Frankly, if you're a cheap gamer who doesn't have a lot of time, the Dreamcast is the way to go.
But the main appeal of the Dreamcast to me is the "geek" community that's brought Linux, BSD and most of the APIs that they connonate (Hell, you can even use Windows APIs for the built in Windows CE ROM). This is great for people like me who want to get their feet wet with basic game development for consoles, but don't have time to learn a hacked-up graphics API, or for someone who just is looking for a fun weekend project. It makes me happy to see that the Dreamcast homebrew community is still alive and kicking, and I'm hoping that this kind of thing will continue for a while.
I've always used Xiino on my M130. Renders Slashdot pretty nicely as well.
What RAID should you use? Well it just depends. Frankly, if the little fuckers are getting into your personal fileserver, and just generally screwing things up, then you might want to go with your plain-old RAID I. However, if they're using your motherboard as the local hotspot for insect orgies, then you might need RAID II. And let us not forget RAID III if long-term maintenance is an issue.
A bit off-topic, but Slashdot actually renders quite nicely in PocketIE for PocketPC 2002, and renders _very_ nicely in Opera on the Zaurus.
example of how Geek.com looks under Pocket Opera
PacMan. I would love to see the original conceptual art for everybody's favorite pill-poppin' yellow circle. I'm talking the hardcore, underground PacMan, before he blew up and grew legs and stuff. ;-)
It seems 9.1 needs to go back in the oven for a few more minutes. It's basically 9.0 with problems. This is revealed upon further inspecting the 9.1 box and finding the product slogan : "It may be buggy as Hell, but DAMN if we don't support the 2% of the Linux user-base who use AMD64_x86"
As always, YMMV.
Dragon Warrior I & II were released a while back, as was Dragon Warrior III. Final Fantasy has already had some stints on the GB/GBC/GBA, but the first two are on their way to coming to the GBA as well (albeit, in Japan first)
I don't think we'll see vanilla versions released like the recent releases from Nintendo, due to licensing issues.
That statement is the fundamental reason why the Linux gaming community has never really happened. Quite frankly, very few people want to play 3 year old FPS ports to an inferior graphics API. There's just simply not a large market for it. Not from a commercial standpoint, anyway. As someone else pointed out, these games are often more expensive then their Windows counterparts, and usually suffer from graphical issues and dead community support (not to mention an appalling price difference from the Windows versions).
But all this goes back to one of the more classic flame-war topics : who plays games on Linux? I mean, reallistically. I certainly don't, nor do any of my friends or coworkers. Support for the latest graphics cards has been iffy at best, and support for the games that do actually make it to Linux (such as Unreal Tournament) usually dwindles.
You evil bastard. How dare you insult the brilliance of a game like "Grabbed by the Ghoulies". It was not a failed experiment. It was a revived one
It's just like P.Diddy said! Microsoft does care about its gamers.
Uh, you realize that the developers of this game (Level 5) are Japanese, right?
:-) Microsoft still holds the cards with regard to publishing the game.
Yes, but developer != to marketing director
Honestly, I think the game would've done alright in the US, simply because the US has a much larger Xbox user-base, many of them craving a decent RPG for their 'box. But in Japan where there are already plenty of great, arguably better RPGs, you'll be stiff to find enthusiasm.
The MMORPG genre, across all platforms, has become an incredibly crowded and competitive marketplace. In response, Microsoft Game Studios has decided.
READ:
The MMORPG genre, across all platforms, has become an incredibly crowded and competitive marketplace. In response, Microsoft Game Studios has decided that 'True Fantasy Online' might be too blatant a rip-off of other RPGs from more experienced competition, especially given that the everyone's favorite pseudo-PC has had such great success in the exclusive RPG genre
C'mon, with a name like "True Fantasy Online", you're pretty much begging Japan to laugh at you. I guess this sort of adds insult to injury with regard to acceptance in Japan. But at least our Japanese brethren have an equally anticipated and deep game to play 'til Halo 2 comes and dies on a cross for our sins (or whatever ailment the Xbox evangelists are proclaiming it will heal)