We have considered butchering a GBA and using that to do something. But then we remembered that the GBA version of Defender is absolutely awful (besides, the screen is too big).
Channel 4 have quite a good write up with a realplayer video of one of their news pieces the other day.
There are some *very* cool (arcade) machines in the exhibition ranging from Computer Space through to Dance Dance Revolution, plus all the home consoles you can eat. I can barely wait...
Typical... Just when I buy myself a juicy little HP Jornada:(
I did dither about buying an IPAQ, but the use of those "jacket" things to add CF or PCMCIA capability just didn't appeal. At least the Jornada has an inbuilt CF slot.
Do not confuse the prices you see on the high street with the actual cost of the phone. You can get a "free" phone in any high street phone shop in the UK, but you're not buying it - you're leasing it. It's not "free" it's "free, with a twelve month contract". There is a difference...
If you try and buy a replacement for a lost or stolen phone, you'll get charged the actual cost of the unit.
The wonderswan is a rather lovely little handheld device - similar in size to a GBA. I've got two of them...
In hardware terms it supports one or two rather unique features. The display is full colour and comes with a brightness control which helps in extreme lighting conditions - still no backlight though. It's also got any number of rather unique peripherals (most of which are only usable in Japan) such as the Wondergate for multiplayer gaming via a mobile phone and a link up cable for the PS/2. Cream of the crop though is the mighty wonderborg" which *everyone* should play with!
There are some good games available, although for the western gamer it's a slightly mixed bag - like many JPN only consoles it's heavily dominated by Japanese language RPG's (including rocking versions of Final Fantasy I & II) and a few survival horror things. Namco have got a few of their arcade conversions available as well (Mr. Driller, Final Lap) as do Sammy (Guilty Gear) and capcom (Makimaura - Ghosts and Goblins to you and me).
Ebay is always a good place to buy, several hong kong based distributors sell consoles and games. You can also buy at Lik Sang
Anyway, probably more information than you really wanted... And yes, it is a much more exciting machine than the bloody xbox.
BZFlag now officially runs on the Vectrex! This amazing console uses vector graphics instead of the more common pixel-based graphics, making for amazing gameplay! In fact, the Vectrex has the same type of screen used in the original Battlezone.
Whoa! Is this an April 1st thing or something...
It would be very very cool - the vectrex is one of my all time desert island systems - but I can't find any more information on site or anywhere else, and I'm pretty certain that Veccie hardware would struggle.
Can anyone confirm whether this is just a particularly inspired April oneth thang?
(Gods, I hate this time of year - can't believe anything you bloody well read)
Check that you're not running an Office documents reindex. This is on by default and _despite_ the name, what it does is search every file your document pool and attempts to add it to the index. Very not recommended.
Yes, moving the documents _will_ stop this process, but it's not the most practical method is it? Better, by a long, long way, to turn off automatic indexing of office documents.
Cheers Chris
Would this stand up in International Law?
on
SSSCA Hearing
·
· Score: 1
One, admittedly fairly obvious, point here...
If we were to find ourselves in the nightmare position of enforced copy-protection being written into US law, what would be the situation with regards to the international community? What happens when Australia, or the EU or whoever else legislate *against* copy protection?
Would hardware manufactured and sold outside of the US be affected? We all know the answer to this one - Yes it would. No manufacturer is going to have one production line for the US and one for other countries.
There has already been much talk, here and elsewhere, about the legality of schemes such as DVD region encoding. Surely this is another example of the same madness. We already have the position where we cannot buy games, DVD's or god knows what else from abroad and expect them to work at home due to proprietry region encoding. Now, we're facing the situation where we won't even be able to buy things here without being affected by what the US decides is for the best.
To any 'merkins listening - you think you're pissed off? At least you voted for your government. Think how upset you'd be if this story was headlined "Japanese/EU/Australian government legislate for copy-protected hardware" and you _knew_ that it would affect you.
You're very confused... A quick timeline of the _most_ significant early games;
Tennis for Two - 1958 SpaceWar! - 1961/62 Magnavox Oddessey - 1968 Computer Space (Arcade Version of SpaceWar) - 1971 Pong - 1972 Atari Home Pong - 1974 Space Invaders - 1977
Apologies if I disremember some of the dates (can't quite remember when the Oddessey & arcade Pong units came out and I can't be bothered to go and look them up)
So you decide on a few basic rules and STICK TO THEM.
Yup. I Agree completely. However, have you ever tried to agree a hierarchy amongst 10, 50, 100 or 1000 people? In advance of producing documents?
This type of organisation (agreed rules) works well for the organisation but not for the individual - *I* want to store the documents I'm working on in my work folder. *I* don't care where they have to live in the shared areas.
You also appear to have misread my other point - sometimes a document *has* to live in different places within the hierarchy, it rather depends on who's looking at it. Different users of documentation have vastly different needs. In IT terminolgy, do you store requirements specs together or by project, do you store cost breakdowns together, by project, by date or by customer, do you store program documentation together, or by project? What about shared modules? Answer to all of the above; Yes. And a million other combinations that can't be defined in advance.
The same document should NEVER be stored in more than one place, or else how do you know which copy is the most up to date
Yes, but remember, there is a huge difference between "Should" and "Is".
In essence this is absolutely true. You shouldn't store a document in multiple places. But, in my experience, hierarchical data storage almost forces this; people (not *systems* - *people*, real flesh and blood) mail copies around, copy them for their own convenience and do all sorts of stupid stuff with documents. & I'm not talking "typical" users here, I've seen 25 year+ IT guys do this...
The library metaphor, although a good one, is redundant. Computers, and computer systems, are not limited to what is achievable with pads of bound paper!
To clarify, I'm not talking about the computer categorising files, I'm not talking about some third party DBA/Librarian/whatever categorising files, I'm talking about individual users categorising their own (and any shared) files themselves.
I would not propose any system whereby documents were physically stored in different places, for exactly the reasons you mention. But, as has been mentioned in one of the other replies, there is no reason why a suitable relational database model wouldn't address this nicely - STORE the document once, REFERENCE the document many times. It's unlikely to be a simple one-many relationship - actually, that's a lie, I KNOW it's not a simple one-many relationship!
Agreed and documented "shared" repositories have their place, but we should expect and demand the right to create views of "our" files that suit our own individual preferences - isn't that what the whole concept of modern computing is supposed to be about?
And, no, I don't have the answers - this is all hypothetical. If I did, then I probably wouldn't be shouting them all over/. - I'd be quietly beavering away writing software;)
Basically, the user interface really isn't that important. The main problem, as I see it, is that heirarchical data storage just doesn't work for most _people_.
This is especially obvious to anyone who's worked in teams of more than, ooh, one person who have had to share a single file structure. What one person perceives as a logical structure (/docs/reports/outgoing/date) another would view as being totally redundant (/docs/date/out/reports). You end up with a compromise that suits neither party, and by the time you move up to >100 people sharing a file structure you're in real trouble...
You also get into real trouble when a document has to exist in more than one place within the heirarchy. F'rinstance documents that need to be organised by Date or by Customer or by Author or by Cost code etc etc.
Shortcuts and/or logical links can help some of these problems, but they're both pretty messy solutions.
I have seen, and worked with, several database driven document management systems which show a lot of promise. Whether this is the way forward is a debatable point, certainly having to host a database complicates the implementation for the average desktop user.
Until some form of document management can be incorporated into the operating system all that a new GUI can do is to further obscure the core organisation.
What I want is a document management system which allows me to look at my files in the way that I choose, allows my co-workers to look at the same files in the way that they choose and hides the files completely from people who have no interest in them. The organisation of the files on disk shouldn't be something that I (as a user) have to even care about - slap them in a flat structure for all I care.
Fer [insert deity here] sake, if we were designing a file system from the ground up we wouldn't seriously contemplate a heirarchical model for more than five minutes. There must be a better way!
Actually, the Extiva N2000 predates the N501 by nearly a year, if you were sold one as being the successor then you woz robbed - the N501 is a much more advanced machine featuring >150 vlm effects, full VCD and CDR support (including MP3) - although the N2000 should play VCD's AFAIK.
As for emulation on the NUON? I'm sure that will happen as soon as the SDK is publicly available...
The latest and best date we know for a european release of NUON is end of november this year for the Samsung N505. The N705 is to follow in spring next year.
Although please note that these dates are not official yet - samsung are unusually secretive about their new releases. There is a spec sheet for the N705 at Samsung[Samsungelectronics.com].
This has been a bit of an open-secret for a while but, unfortunately, it's not actually available _yet_
NUON, for those who don't know, is an integrated DVD processor produced by VMLabs, currently available in the US in three consumer models Toshiba SD2300, Samsung Extiva and Samsung N501. There are european models due RSN. It provides advanced processing capable of at least N64 level games as well as enhanced DVD playback (>20x digital zoom, advanced frame management) and NUON specific DVD content. It also features Jeff Minter's VLM2 which is an update to the Jag VLM and, were VMLabs to realise it, is about the coolest thing on the planet at the moment.
The NUON open SDK does exist, and _will_ be made available to the public RSN. But, it hasn't been released yet. There is a FAQ available at NuonDev.com which, although not official, does show the currently known state of open-NUON.
Surely Sega's new board will work natively with an arcade monitor? Hey, it might be med-res, but even that's unlikely. Low res (or, more accurately, low sync) monitors are still pretty much the norm in arcade games...
Remember; JAMMA is still the "standard" for arcade games. Underneath all of the hydraulics, fancy controllers and projection displays most modern arcade games will still run on a standard +5v,+12v 52pin edge connector with a low resolution monitor - you don't _need_ an adaptor!
(And if you do need a medium res monitor then there's no reall alternative to buying another cab...)
After far too many years of formulaic beat 'em up nonsense, there has been quite a resurgence recently in arcade games providing experiences you won't get at home. The best examples of these are games such as Dance Dance Revolution (which although looking like no-one in their right mind would play in public is hugely successful) but head to head racers (daytona is still the no.1 blueprint) and even FPS games (anyone seen SWAT 24/7? Cracking game) are light-years ahead of home consoles - mainly because designers have finally got rid of the up-down-left-right-fire mentality so beloved of the JAMMA era
Arcade designers are, it seems, finally realising that they can't really compete with home consoles on the graphics and sound front and are pretty much returning to root design principles. Make the _game_ different in the arcade; provide controls customised for the game; put players head-to-head; in short give the player something extra!
Or are you intending to buy different controllers for each game you get for the x-box? Your living room is going to be pretty cluttered...
Personally, I think this is great news. The easier arcade games are to produce the better.
I'm afraid I completely disagree, there are any number of _real_ advantages to LCD's and they more than outweigh the cost as far as I'm concerned.
My top three (without even mentioning power saving) is as follows...
Space; Deskspace is EXPENSIVE! A 17" or larger screen is purely impractical on my desk. I have a printer, scanner, keyboard, desk lamp and working space to fit onto an area about 2' by 4' Losing the massive bulk of the CRT has been a life-changing experience.
Ergonomics; Kind of related to the space issue, but still important. Something that is about 6" deep can be positioned a lot more comfortably that a 25"+ deep monitor. My previous monitor had to be positioned at the side of my desk overhanging the edge to make room for all the rest of my junk - not at all comfortable to use for a long stretch of time. My lovely new LCD is slap bang central, right in front of my keyboard.
Clarity; There is _no_ distortion on an LCD panel. This makes a huge difference when you're editing text, code or whatever.
(And *yes* I know that some of these points have been made elsewhere...)
There will always be a place for CRT's (well, for the next five years or so at least) but once you've used a quality LCD Panel for an hour you will never want to go back to a CRT display.
As for the cost, I paid about the same (give or take £50) for my 15" LCD panel two months ago as I did for a 17" CRT about four years ago.
Cheers
Chris
How true is this? (You can never be sure with the Aphex...) I love the track to pieces, but I've always assumed he ripped the game sounds from MAME. Confirmation of this story would be lovely...
You _could_ buy the rights to a particular game, but there's a whole list of 'if's;
IF you can find the original author IF they actually hold the copyright (very often it's held by a publisher) IF they're not going to make any money from it IF they're willing to let it go
then you might have a chance, you'd be better placed lobbying them to place the code in the public domain though. There has been some success with some of the old 8-bit titles released into the public domain (Spectrum stuff particularly) but I can't remember the URL!
Your biggest hurdle, and this applies to the MAME ROMS especially, is that very often the copyright holders still feel that they can make money out of these old games - check out http://www.shockwave.com for example, where you can play (legal!) versions of missile command, frogger, asteroids and a few others - all of which act as extended adverts for the new remakes - which are mostly (if not completely) rubbish. In this case, the softies are hoping that by nudging your nostalgic tendancies you'll be more likely to forgive the shortcomings of the modern versions.
As for NES stuff specifically? Nintendo seem to be among the most zealous of the copyright hounders - they've shut down several sites already for distributing NES and SNES roms.
A nice article, if a little out of date, but with one discordant note at the end. I was very worried to see a, rather throwaway, reference at the end to "taking a Galaxians or defender cab and putting a PC inside". Now, we all know that MAME cabs are becoming more and more popular - but this tendancy to destroy the very thing that MAME is trying so hard to preserve is absolutely flabberghasting.
A little story to illustrate my point. About two months ago I was browsing loot (UK free ads paper) and found an ad for a "1979 asteroids tabletop" in good condition. I rang the bloke up and was told "The game didn't work, but it's alright, I ripped it out and I've fitted a Playstation in it - it's lovely" (or words to that effect). Quite frankly, words fail me.
Please, please, please, if you have an original cab (even if it doesn't work - especially if it doesn't work!) try and resist the temptation to drill a few extra holes in the control panel and fit a PC inside it. Get it working! Or, if you don't fancy the challenge, find someone else to take it off your hands and keep it dedicated! http://www.vaps.org is as good a place as any to start.
Good condition dedicated cabs are already as rare as hen's teeth, and this kind of practice amounts to barbarism.
This has been a public service annoucement. Normal bickering may now resume...
Slashdot Mirror
Cheers
Chris
That wouldn't have been the Warp Pool Party in London would it?
;)
If so, the demo's you saw were none other than the Yak's VLM-3 (Virtual Light Machine) running on as-yet-unannounced hardware
Pictures and a write up can be found at the Warp Records site
Cheers
Chris
If i see an IT in suit i cant take him serious, ill assume point'n'click level.
So, who's being prejudiced here then?
Cheers
Chris
Channel 4 have quite a good write up with a realplayer video of one of their news pieces the other day.
There are some *very* cool (arcade) machines in the exhibition ranging from Computer Space through to Dance Dance Revolution, plus all the home consoles you can eat. I can barely wait...
Cheers
Chris
Typical... Just when I buy myself a juicy little HP Jornada :(
I did dither about buying an IPAQ, but the use of those "jacket" things to add CF or PCMCIA capability just didn't appeal. At least the Jornada has an inbuilt CF slot.
Cheers
Chris
Have you actually tried to _buy_ a mobile phone?
Do not confuse the prices you see on the high street with the actual cost of the phone. You can get a "free" phone in any high street phone shop in the UK, but you're not buying it - you're leasing it. It's not "free" it's "free, with a twelve month contract". There is a difference...
If you try and buy a replacement for a lost or stolen phone, you'll get charged the actual cost of the unit.
Cheers
Chris
Just as a bit of information...
The wonderswan is a rather lovely little handheld device - similar in size to a GBA. I've got two of them...
In hardware terms it supports one or two rather unique features. The display is full colour and comes with a brightness control which helps in extreme lighting conditions - still no backlight though. It's also got any number of rather unique peripherals (most of which are only usable in Japan) such as the Wondergate for multiplayer gaming via a mobile phone and a link up cable for the PS/2. Cream of the crop though is the mighty wonderborg" which *everyone* should play with!
There are some good games available, although for the western gamer it's a slightly mixed bag - like many JPN only consoles it's heavily dominated by Japanese language RPG's (including rocking versions of Final Fantasy I & II) and a few survival horror things. Namco have got a few of their arcade conversions available as well (Mr. Driller, Final Lap) as do Sammy (Guilty Gear) and capcom (Makimaura - Ghosts and Goblins to you and me).
Ebay is always a good place to buy, several hong kong based distributors sell consoles and games. You can also buy at Lik Sang
Anyway, probably more information than you really wanted... And yes, it is a much more exciting machine than the bloody xbox.
Cheers
Chris
From bzflag.org
BZFlag now officially runs on the Vectrex! This amazing console uses vector graphics instead of the more common pixel-based graphics, making for amazing gameplay! In fact, the Vectrex has the same type of screen used in the original Battlezone.
Whoa! Is this an April 1st thing or something...
It would be very very cool - the vectrex is one of my all time desert island systems - but I can't find any more information on site or anywhere else, and I'm pretty certain that Veccie hardware would struggle.
Can anyone confirm whether this is just a particularly inspired April oneth thang?
(Gods, I hate this time of year - can't believe anything you bloody well read)
Cheers
Chris
All back to yours for the next UKVAC meet then?
Cheers
Chris
Check that you're not running an Office documents reindex. This is on by default and _despite_ the name, what it does is search every file your document pool and attempts to add it to the index. Very not recommended.
Yes, moving the documents _will_ stop this process, but it's not the most practical method is it? Better, by a long, long way, to turn off automatic indexing of office documents.
Cheers
Chris
One, admittedly fairly obvious, point here...
If we were to find ourselves in the nightmare position of enforced copy-protection being written into US law, what would be the situation with regards to the international community? What happens when Australia, or the EU or whoever else legislate *against* copy protection?
Would hardware manufactured and sold outside of the US be affected? We all know the answer to this one - Yes it would. No manufacturer is going to have one production line for the US and one for other countries.
There has already been much talk, here and elsewhere, about the legality of schemes such as DVD region encoding. Surely this is another example of the same madness. We already have the position where we cannot buy games, DVD's or god knows what else from abroad and expect them to work at home due to proprietry region encoding. Now, we're facing the situation where we won't even be able to buy things here without being affected by what the US decides is for the best.
To any 'merkins listening - you think you're pissed off? At least you voted for your government. Think how upset you'd be if this story was headlined "Japanese/EU/Australian government legislate for copy-protected hardware" and you _knew_ that it would affect you.
Cheers
Chris
You're very confused... A quick timeline of the _most_ significant early games;
Tennis for Two - 1958
SpaceWar! - 1961/62
Magnavox Oddessey - 1968
Computer Space (Arcade Version of SpaceWar) - 1971
Pong - 1972
Atari Home Pong - 1974
Space Invaders - 1977
Apologies if I disremember some of the dates (can't quite remember when the Oddessey & arcade Pong units came out and I can't be bothered to go and look them up)
Cheers
Chris
Good points, I'll try and respond...
/. - I'd be quietly beavering away writing software ;)
So you decide on a few basic rules and STICK TO THEM.
Yup. I Agree completely. However, have you ever tried to agree a hierarchy amongst 10, 50, 100 or 1000 people? In advance of producing documents?
This type of organisation (agreed rules) works well for the organisation but not for the individual - *I* want to store the documents I'm working on in my work folder. *I* don't care where they have to live in the shared areas.
You also appear to have misread my other point - sometimes a document *has* to live in different places within the hierarchy, it rather depends on who's looking at it. Different users of documentation have vastly different needs. In IT terminolgy, do you store requirements specs together or by project, do you store cost breakdowns together, by project, by date or by customer, do you store program documentation together, or by project? What about shared modules? Answer to all of the above; Yes. And a million other combinations that can't be defined in advance.
The same document should NEVER be stored in more than one place, or else how do you know which copy is the most up to date
Yes, but remember, there is a huge difference between "Should" and "Is".
In essence this is absolutely true. You shouldn't store a document in multiple places. But, in my experience, hierarchical data storage almost forces this; people (not *systems* - *people*, real flesh and blood) mail copies around, copy them for their own convenience and do all sorts of stupid stuff with documents. & I'm not talking "typical" users here, I've seen 25 year+ IT guys do this...
The library metaphor, although a good one, is redundant. Computers, and computer systems, are not limited to what is achievable with pads of bound paper!
To clarify, I'm not talking about the computer categorising files, I'm not talking about some third party DBA/Librarian/whatever categorising files, I'm talking about individual users categorising their own (and any shared) files themselves.
I would not propose any system whereby documents were physically stored in different places, for exactly the reasons you mention. But, as has been mentioned in one of the other replies, there is no reason why a suitable relational database model wouldn't address this nicely - STORE the document once, REFERENCE the document many times. It's unlikely to be a simple one-many relationship - actually, that's a lie, I KNOW it's not a simple one-many relationship!
Agreed and documented "shared" repositories have their place, but we should expect and demand the right to create views of "our" files that suit our own individual preferences - isn't that what the whole concept of modern computing is supposed to be about?
And, no, I don't have the answers - this is all hypothetical. If I did, then I probably wouldn't be shouting them all over
Cheers
Chris
Basically, the user interface really isn't that important. The main problem, as I see it, is that heirarchical data storage just doesn't work for most _people_.
This is especially obvious to anyone who's worked in teams of more than, ooh, one person who have had to share a single file structure. What one person perceives as a logical structure (/docs/reports/outgoing/date) another would view as being totally redundant (/docs/date/out/reports). You end up with a compromise that suits neither party, and by the time you move up to >100 people sharing a file structure you're in real trouble...
You also get into real trouble when a document has to exist in more than one place within the heirarchy. F'rinstance documents that need to be organised by Date or by Customer or by Author or by Cost code etc etc.
Shortcuts and/or logical links can help some of these problems, but they're both pretty messy solutions.
I have seen, and worked with, several database driven document management systems which show a lot of promise. Whether this is the way forward is a debatable point, certainly having to host a database complicates the implementation for the average desktop user.
Until some form of document management can be incorporated into the operating system all that a new GUI can do is to further obscure the core organisation.
What I want is a document management system which allows me to look at my files in the way that I choose, allows my co-workers to look at the same files in the way that they choose and hides the files completely from people who have no interest in them. The organisation of the files on disk shouldn't be something that I (as a user) have to even care about - slap them in a flat structure for all I care.
Fer [insert deity here] sake, if we were designing a file system from the ground up we wouldn't seriously contemplate a heirarchical model for more than five minutes. There must be a better way!
Cheers
Chris
Actually, the Extiva N2000 predates the N501 by nearly a year, if you were sold one as being the successor then you woz robbed - the N501 is a much more advanced machine featuring >150 vlm effects, full VCD and CDR support (including MP3) - although the N2000 should play VCD's AFAIK.
As for emulation on the NUON? I'm sure that will happen as soon as the SDK is publicly available...
Oh yeah, and try Tempest 3000!
Cheers
Chris
The latest and best date we know for a european release of NUON is end of november this year for the Samsung N505. The N705 is to follow in spring next year.
Although please note that these dates are not official yet - samsung are unusually secretive about their new releases. There is a spec sheet for the N705 at Samsung[Samsungelectronics.com].
Cheers
Chris
This has been a bit of an open-secret for a while but, unfortunately, it's not actually available _yet_
NUON, for those who don't know, is an integrated DVD processor produced by VMLabs, currently available in the US in three consumer models Toshiba SD2300, Samsung Extiva and Samsung N501. There are european models due RSN. It provides advanced processing capable of at least N64 level games as well as enhanced DVD playback (>20x digital zoom, advanced frame management) and NUON specific DVD content. It also features Jeff Minter's VLM2 which is an update to the Jag VLM and, were VMLabs to realise it, is about the coolest thing on the planet at the moment.
The NUON open SDK does exist, and _will_ be made available to the public RSN. But, it hasn't been released yet. There is a FAQ available at NuonDev.com which, although not official, does show the currently known state of open-NUON.
Cheers
Chris
Umm? Confused?
Surely Sega's new board will work natively with an arcade monitor? Hey, it might be med-res, but even that's unlikely. Low res (or, more accurately, low sync) monitors are still pretty much the norm in arcade games...
Remember; JAMMA is still the "standard" for arcade games. Underneath all of the hydraulics, fancy controllers and projection displays most modern arcade games will still run on a standard +5v,+12v 52pin edge connector with a low resolution monitor - you don't _need_ an adaptor!
(And if you do need a medium res monitor then there's no reall alternative to buying another cab...)
Ummm. Have you been to an arcade recently?
After far too many years of formulaic beat 'em up nonsense, there has been quite a resurgence recently in arcade games providing experiences you won't get at home. The best examples of these are games such as Dance Dance Revolution (which although looking like no-one in their right mind would play in public is hugely successful) but head to head racers (daytona is still the no.1 blueprint) and even FPS games (anyone seen SWAT 24/7? Cracking game) are light-years ahead of home consoles - mainly because designers have finally got rid of the up-down-left-right-fire mentality so beloved of the JAMMA era
Arcade designers are, it seems, finally realising that they can't really compete with home consoles on the graphics and sound front and are pretty much returning to root design principles. Make the _game_ different in the arcade; provide controls customised for the game; put players head-to-head; in short give the player something extra!
Or are you intending to buy different controllers for each game you get for the x-box? Your living room is going to be pretty cluttered...
Personally, I think this is great news. The easier arcade games are to produce the better.
I'm afraid I completely disagree, there are any number of _real_ advantages to LCD's and they more than outweigh the cost as far as I'm concerned. My top three (without even mentioning power saving) is as follows... Space; Deskspace is EXPENSIVE! A 17" or larger screen is purely impractical on my desk. I have a printer, scanner, keyboard, desk lamp and working space to fit onto an area about 2' by 4' Losing the massive bulk of the CRT has been a life-changing experience. Ergonomics; Kind of related to the space issue, but still important. Something that is about 6" deep can be positioned a lot more comfortably that a 25"+ deep monitor. My previous monitor had to be positioned at the side of my desk overhanging the edge to make room for all the rest of my junk - not at all comfortable to use for a long stretch of time. My lovely new LCD is slap bang central, right in front of my keyboard. Clarity; There is _no_ distortion on an LCD panel. This makes a huge difference when you're editing text, code or whatever. (And *yes* I know that some of these points have been made elsewhere...) There will always be a place for CRT's (well, for the next five years or so at least) but once you've used a quality LCD Panel for an hour you will never want to go back to a CRT display. As for the cost, I paid about the same (give or take £50) for my 15" LCD panel two months ago as I did for a 17" CRT about four years ago. Cheers Chris
How true is this? (You can never be sure with the Aphex...) I love the track to pieces, but I've always assumed he ripped the game sounds from MAME. Confirmation of this story would be lovely...
IF you can find the original author
IF they actually hold the copyright (very often it's held by a publisher)
IF they're not going to make any money from it
IF they're willing to let it go
then you might have a chance, you'd be better placed lobbying them to place the code in the public domain though. There has been some success with some of the old 8-bit titles released into the public domain (Spectrum stuff particularly) but I can't remember the URL!
Your biggest hurdle, and this applies to the MAME ROMS especially, is that very often the copyright holders still feel that they can make money out of these old games - check out http://www.shockwave.com for example, where you can play (legal!) versions of missile command, frogger, asteroids and a few others - all of which act as extended adverts for the new remakes - which are mostly (if not completely) rubbish. In this case, the softies are hoping that by nudging your nostalgic tendancies you'll be more likely to forgive the shortcomings of the modern versions.
As for NES stuff specifically? Nintendo seem to be among the most zealous of the copyright hounders - they've shut down several sites already for distributing NES and SNES roms.
A nice article, if a little out of date, but with one discordant note at the end. I was very worried to see a, rather throwaway, reference at the end to "taking a Galaxians or defender cab and putting a PC inside". Now, we all know that MAME cabs are becoming more and more popular - but this tendancy to destroy the very thing that MAME is trying so hard to preserve is absolutely flabberghasting.
A little story to illustrate my point. About two months ago I was browsing loot (UK free ads paper) and found an ad for a "1979 asteroids tabletop" in good condition. I rang the bloke up and was told "The game didn't work, but it's alright, I ripped it out and I've fitted a Playstation in it - it's lovely" (or words to that effect). Quite frankly, words fail me.
Please, please, please, if you have an original cab (even if it doesn't work - especially if it doesn't work!) try and resist the temptation to drill a few extra holes in the control panel and fit a PC inside it. Get it working! Or, if you don't fancy the challenge, find someone else to take it off your hands and keep it dedicated! http://www.vaps.org is as good a place as any to start.
Good condition dedicated cabs are already as rare as hen's teeth, and this kind of practice amounts to barbarism.
This has been a public service annoucement. Normal bickering may now resume...