N64 - killed by the Playstation. Not necessarily better graphics - but it was an easier platform for folks to develop on and perhaps as a result had a much better game library.
Kinda of - there was also the carts vs CD price factor to figure in, and there was the poor to average game selection for the first year. Really, you could only play Shadows of the Empire for so long. All that, coupled with the long lead time for the PSX meant that the N64 was doomed from the get-go. Dreamcast - Killed by the Playstation 2 which had much better graphics and connectivity.
The Death Blow to the Dreamcast? It wasn't so much the PS2 power and on-line that did it in, but Sega's reputation. There were tons of folks saying "I'll never touch a Sega console because I was burned by the constant flow of Genesis/X32/Megadrive add-ons". If people didnt stay away from the DC because of that, it might have had a fair shot at a good lifespan.
The console that offers the best value right now is Xbox 360, hands down.
Best value for the money. . . all the way up until you have to spend 6 weeks waiting for Microsoft to send you a replacment 360 because your current 360 Red Ringed on you.
My cousin, Annie Coward, was going to name her first son Anonymous. But when I warned her that Anonymous Coward was already listed on the no-fly list 11,971 times, mostly for posts on Slashdot, she changed her mind and named him Albert instead.
Just you wait! The industry will tremble when I release the new GB-DVD format in a couple of months. It'll hold TWELVE layers of information, be made of pure light, and will ward off Zombie attack*
*Claims of undead repellant not approved or endorsed by the FDA and are not scientificly proven.
Although Kubrick does use music over some of the space scenes, his editing actually makes the lack of sound an artistic element, something I don't recall from any other science fiction movie.
Firefly used the silence of space very nicely and Battlestar Galactica at least muffles the sound a bit.
Fools! Do you know nothing? The sound in space is much louder because there is no air to get in the way!
Bullshit. I was at a Target a week before Christmas and saw a single PS3 being put on the shelf and went to go reach for it when 3 different people descended on it and pushed me out of the way to fight over who would grab it.
Must be a regional thing then. While I was out at the mall christmas shopping on the 23rd and 24th, I was keeping my ear to the ground for a Wii. Everywhere I asked for one, I was denied - but when I asked about the PS3 (more out of curiosity than a desire to get one), I heard stories of "Oh, theyre much easier to get. We've had them sit on the shelves for days at a time", and even found several of them on hand and in stock, sitting there cold as ice.
Archetypal evidence? Certanly, but if people are having similar experiances elsewhere, there JUST might be a shred of truth to it.
That's an interesting statement, because I've noticed everything else tends to morph into Star Trek.
Not quite EVERY thing. Doctor Who looks nothing like Star Trek, despite having plenty of time to morph (regenerate?) into Trek. In fact, I'd say Paramount needs BADLY to follow the BBC model.
Consider the post Tom Baker era, where most people consider the show in decline. There were excellent bits, and the show started to show promise again towards the end of the run. But the production team had stayed long past their shelf life (although to be fair, the producer was pretty much forced to stay in the position by the BBC. JNT had been wanting to go for some time), and the show had picked up a certain staleness about it. Even as a fan, I'll admit that there needed to be a period of rest, to step away from the show.
Now, fast forward 16 years. An all new production team - one that had grown up with the original show - that was hungry to tell good stories. The creative team casts off the old continuity that was bogging things down (keeping JUST enough to maintain a strong link to the original), they get strong leads for the series, the BBC throws it's weight behind the production, and the show takes off like a rocket! Critical acclaim, international sucess, a ratings juggernaught, and more awards than you could shake a stick at.
Since Trek is in a similar cycle, the Powers That Be would do well to look long and hard at the reborn Doctor Who's success.
I weep for the early to mid 80's, where *EVERY* single title coming out of Electronic Arts was pure gold. M.U.L.E., Mail Order Monsters, Dr J vs Larry Bird, Racing Destruction Set, The Seven Cities of Gold, Archon - the list of quality, addictive games coming from them kept me and my Commie 64 busy for ages and ages.
I walk down the toy isles (I'm 21) looking for the huge bucket of legos, and all I find are these stupid sets that have maybe 80 pieces to them, and most of those are special shaped pieces. Where'd my squares and rectangles go?
It's even worse than that. A couple of months ago I was at the mall and I decided to stop by Toys R Us to grab some green Army Men for my 4 year old nephew. You know, just a huge bucket of a hundredred green men with guns - nice and simple, right? Hell - TRU should carry them, right? Army Men (or a Bucket o' Cowboys, or a Bucket o' Dinosaurs) are immortal!
"Oh, I'm sorry - we dont carry those. Havent for years."
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot. Do you people also not carry yo-yos and slinkies and cap guns, too
Eventually I did find a huge Bucket o' Army Men (and Cowboys and Dinosaurs) at the dollar store and picked up all three. And the kid? He loves the hell out of 'em. Viva El Old School!
Of course, I am a toy fanatic. The kids have to go outside, no console for them EVER.
Now here's what I dont get. I had an Atari 2600 when I was a kid (context: born in 1969, so I'm just a baby compared to some of you). And while yes I did play HOURS on the console, I would also go outside, play with other kids ride a bike as fast as I could (sans helmet, thank you), and climb trees. I also played indoors a lot - board games, star wars figures, hand held games and whatnot.
The key, people? Balance! All things in equilibrium. Too much of any one thing is bad. Sometimes you just have to run home after school, turn on cartoons, veg on He-Man and Transformers for the whole afternoon before finally going out to play cowboys and indians before the sun set and it was time for dinner.
Don't hate the game consoles. Hate the kids who cant put them down (or the parents who dont make them put it down)
Beating an old side scroller without saving was difficult, but not impossible, for an average player; beating a modern FPS of any respectable length without saving is damn near impossible for even an expert player. There are no extra lives, no continues, and no slot to put in more quarters - you either save or start over all the way from the beginning. And the time it takes to get to the end is so much longer as well.
Bah - if you were a true old skool gamer, you'd know that the best games didnt HAVE an endpoint. Thus no need for saving (except for the high scores, but only so you could taunt others in the arcade - that or get a giggle when you input "ASS" or "GAY" for all to see.)
This is FANTASTIC news! Now instead of not being funny on television for free, I can pay 10 dollars for the Simpsons to not be funny! I am so getting in line now!
I havent read any of his works in years - a real pity, and I should change that ASAP. But the one I remeber from back in Jr High was a short story - well, I dont remember the name of the short (or the book it was in) - but it was about a starship pilot who enounters these pockets of time distortions and duplicates of himself from diffrent points of time in the week start appearing on the ship. Soon there's like a hundred of himself in this one space - and hell if I can remember how it ended.
I *DO* remember that it was a great story, and I'd love to get my hands on it. Can any of you/.ers better versed in Lem's work point me towards this story?
A collectors item indeed! I would have scoffed at that idea just last week. That is, until I walked into a local pawn shop and saw an Atari 2600 system sitting behind the glass on the shelf. Fully operational, the sign said, with 6 carts. Asking price; $450!
Depends on the carts included. I've seen copies of Chase the Chuckwagon or Crazy Climber go for a hundred bucks each. Now odds are that this thing came with just Pac Man, ET and Combat - but you never know.
In your Preferences page, under home page a section labeled "Customize Stories on the Homepage" depending on how you rank the importance of each of the sections on/. it will make stories smaller or larger.
Ah - but I made no changes to any settings (Well, not in a very long time now) and these gray bars are brand new from a couple of days ago. Something must be borked upstream of me, because I didnt do it.
Slashdot Mirror
*sputter* Never . . . heard . .
N64 - killed by the Playstation. Not necessarily better graphics - but it was an easier platform for folks to develop on and perhaps as a result had a much better game library.
Kinda of - there was also the carts vs CD price factor to figure in, and there was the poor to average game selection for the first year. Really, you could only play Shadows of the Empire for so long. All that, coupled with the long lead time for the PSX meant that the N64 was doomed from the get-go.
Dreamcast - Killed by the Playstation 2 which had much better graphics and connectivity.
The Death Blow to the Dreamcast? It wasn't so much the PS2 power and on-line that did it in, but Sega's reputation. There were tons of folks saying "I'll never touch a Sega console because I was burned by the constant flow of Genesis/X32/Megadrive add-ons". If people didnt stay away from the DC because of that, it might have had a fair shot at a good lifespan.
The console that offers the best value right now is Xbox 360, hands down.
Best value for the money. . . all the way up until you have to spend 6 weeks waiting for Microsoft to send you a replacment 360 because your current 360 Red Ringed on you.
OK I'll bite, what's the joke?
Time Dimension To Become Space-like = Time And Relative Dimensions In Space = TARDIS
Christ, I never thought I'd have to explain a Doctor Who joke on Slashdot. And you people call yourselves nerds.
So that would be Time and Relitive Dimensions in Space? (oh, and first?)
My cousin, Annie Coward, was going to name her first son Anonymous. But when I warned her that Anonymous Coward was already listed on the no-fly list 11,971 times, mostly for posts on Slashdot, she changed her mind and named him Albert instead.
She named him Albert Coward? How mean!
Just you wait! The industry will tremble when I release the new GB-DVD format in a couple of months. It'll hold TWELVE layers of information, be made of pure light, and will ward off Zombie attack*
*Claims of undead repellant not approved or endorsed by the FDA and are not scientificly proven.
Although Kubrick does use music over some of the space scenes, his editing actually makes the lack of sound an artistic element, something I don't recall from any other science fiction movie.
Firefly used the silence of space very nicely and Battlestar Galactica at least muffles the sound a bit.
Fools! Do you know nothing? The sound in space is much louder because there is no air to get in the way!
Ever the eternal optimist, are you?
More importantly - do you think that Duke Nukem Forever will be out by then?
Bullshit. I was at a Target a week before Christmas and saw a single PS3 being put on the shelf and went to go reach for it when 3 different people descended on it and pushed me out of the way to fight over who would grab it.
Must be a regional thing then. While I was out at the mall christmas shopping on the 23rd and 24th, I was keeping my ear to the ground for a Wii. Everywhere I asked for one, I was denied - but when I asked about the PS3 (more out of curiosity than a desire to get one), I heard stories of "Oh, theyre much easier to get. We've had them sit on the shelves for days at a time", and even found several of them on hand and in stock, sitting there cold as ice.
Archetypal evidence? Certanly, but if people are having similar experiances elsewhere, there JUST might be a shred of truth to it.
That's an interesting statement, because I've noticed everything else tends to morph into Star Trek.
Not quite EVERY thing. Doctor Who looks nothing like Star Trek, despite having plenty of time to morph (regenerate?) into Trek. In fact, I'd say Paramount needs BADLY to follow the BBC model.
Consider the post Tom Baker era, where most people consider the show in decline. There were excellent bits, and the show started to show promise again towards the end of the run. But the production team had stayed long past their shelf life (although to be fair, the producer was pretty much forced to stay in the position by the BBC. JNT had been wanting to go for some time), and the show had picked up a certain staleness about it. Even as a fan, I'll admit that there needed to be a period of rest, to step away from the show.
Now, fast forward 16 years. An all new production team - one that had grown up with the original show - that was hungry to tell good stories. The creative team casts off the old continuity that was bogging things down (keeping JUST enough to maintain a strong link to the original), they get strong leads for the series, the BBC throws it's weight behind the production, and the show takes off like a rocket! Critical acclaim, international sucess, a ratings juggernaught, and more awards than you could shake a stick at.
Since Trek is in a similar cycle, the Powers That Be would do well to look long and hard at the reborn Doctor Who's success.
Yeah, this does seem awfully close to re-pitching Andromeda
Which in itself was dangerously close to stealing Blake's 7 part and parcel.
I weep for the early to mid 80's, where *EVERY* single title coming out of Electronic Arts was pure gold. M.U.L.E., Mail Order Monsters, Dr J vs Larry Bird, Racing Destruction Set, The Seven Cities of Gold, Archon - the list of quality, addictive games coming from them kept me and my Commie 64 busy for ages and ages.
And claiming that the PM has no input into operational decisions in a matter like this is transparent nonsense. Why do you think COBRA exists?
I thought they existed to give G.I. Joe something to do?
I walk down the toy isles (I'm 21) looking for the huge bucket of legos, and all I find are these stupid sets that have maybe 80 pieces to them, and most of those are special shaped pieces. Where'd my squares and rectangles go?
It's even worse than that. A couple of months ago I was at the mall and I decided to stop by Toys R Us to grab some green Army Men for my 4 year old nephew. You know, just a huge bucket of a hundredred green men with guns - nice and simple, right? Hell - TRU should carry them, right? Army Men (or a Bucket o' Cowboys, or a Bucket o' Dinosaurs) are immortal!
"Oh, I'm sorry - we dont carry those. Havent for years."
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot. Do you people also not carry yo-yos and slinkies and cap guns, too
Eventually I did find a huge Bucket o' Army Men (and Cowboys and Dinosaurs) at the dollar store and picked up all three. And the kid? He loves the hell out of 'em. Viva El Old School!
Of course, I am a toy fanatic. The kids have to go outside, no console for them EVER.
Now here's what I dont get. I had an Atari 2600 when I was a kid (context: born in 1969, so I'm just a baby compared to some of you). And while yes I did play HOURS on the console, I would also go outside, play with other kids ride a bike as fast as I could (sans helmet, thank you), and climb trees. I also played indoors a lot - board games, star wars figures, hand held games and whatnot.
The key, people? Balance! All things in equilibrium. Too much of any one thing is bad. Sometimes you just have to run home after school, turn on cartoons, veg on He-Man and Transformers for the whole afternoon before finally going out to play cowboys and indians before the sun set and it was time for dinner.
Don't hate the game consoles. Hate the kids who cant put them down (or the parents who dont make them put it down)
Beating an old side scroller without saving was difficult, but not impossible, for an average player; beating a modern FPS of any respectable length without saving is damn near impossible for even an expert player. There are no extra lives, no continues, and no slot to put in more quarters - you either save or start over all the way from the beginning. And the time it takes to get to the end is so much longer as well.
Bah - if you were a true old skool gamer, you'd know that the best games didnt HAVE an endpoint. Thus no need for saving (except for the high scores, but only so you could taunt others in the arcade - that or get a giggle when you input "ASS" or "GAY" for all to see.)
Better yet, what SHOULD be original about it? ...a one-button controller for simpler learning curves?
That wouldn't be original
Didnt you mean THIS ONE instead?
(Old school for teh win!)
This is FANTASTIC news! Now instead of not being funny on television for free, I can pay 10 dollars for the Simpsons to not be funny! I am so getting in line now!
Yeah, thanks - that's the one! I found a copy of it online - and yeah, it was as good as I remember from years ago.
Now off to place my order at Amazon.
I havent read any of his works in years - a real pity, and I should change that ASAP. But the one I remeber from back in Jr High was a short story - well, I dont remember the name of the short (or the book it was in) - but it was about a starship pilot who enounters these pockets of time distortions and duplicates of himself from diffrent points of time in the week start appearing on the ship. Soon there's like a hundred of himself in this one space - and hell if I can remember how it ended.
/.ers better versed in Lem's work point me towards this story?
I *DO* remember that it was a great story, and I'd love to get my hands on it. Can any of you
A collectors item indeed! I would have scoffed at that idea just last week. That is, until I walked into a local pawn shop and saw an Atari 2600 system sitting behind the glass on the shelf. Fully operational, the sign said, with 6 carts. Asking price; $450!
Depends on the carts included. I've seen copies of Chase the Chuckwagon or Crazy Climber go for a hundred bucks each. Now odds are that this thing came with just Pac Man, ET and Combat - but you never know.
Mauve might be to harsh. It is, after all, the universal color for danger.
But what about Red?
So they have all these sensors and stuff in place - but has anyone put a guard on the Goodyear Blimp hangers yet?
In your Preferences page, under home page a section labeled "Customize Stories on the Homepage" depending on how you rank the importance of each of the sections on /. it will make stories smaller or larger.
Ah - but I made no changes to any settings (Well, not in a very long time now) and these gray bars are brand new from a couple of days ago. Something must be borked upstream of me, because I didnt do it.