I posted this in one of the video game threads earlier today. That'll teach me not to post a story idea. I'm reposting the post here because some of the comments I thought were entertaining in the post......Post....
I particularly liked the link to the calculator. Back then 30 bucks for Pac Man for the 2600 when it came out seemed steep at the time. According to the USDL it was equal to 72.74 today.
To date - with inflation taken into account the top 5 consoles for price in today's dollars were
Neo Geo at 993.65,(pretty obvious - but the carts were even more insane at 150.00 - 230.00 in 2006 dollars ea.)
The 3DO at 967.89 (but hey - it played CDmovies too. Wave of the future BABY!)
The Intellivision at 825.62 (ever wondered why George Plimpton was hawking it - same demographic),
The Atari VCS / 2600 at 659.41 (a particularly hard sell for 1977 what with all the money going to buy Coke and bad leisurewear - and that was just the Atari employees),
And lastly the Atari 5200 priced to move in 2006 dollars at 683.52 which was comparable for your run of the mill repackaged Atari 400 computer (again - hard to sell with all the Wall Street traders spending their entertainment dollars on Coke and 800 dollar CD players)
I liked the link to the calculator. Back then 30 bucks for Pac Man for the 2600 when it came out seemed steep at the time. According to the USDL it was equal to 72.74 today.
To date - with inflation taken into account the top 5 consoles for price in today's dollars were
Neo Geo at 993.65,(pretty obvious - but the carts were even more insane at 150.00 - 230.00 in 2006 dollars ea.)
The 3DO at 967.89 (but hey - it played CDmovies too. Wave of the future BABY!)
The Intellivision at 825.62 (ever wondered why George Plimpton was hawking it - same demographic),
The Atari VCS / 2600 at 659.41 (a particularly hard sell for 1977 what with all the money going to buy Coke and bad leisurewear - and that was just the Atari employees),
And lastly the Atari 5200 priced to move in 2006 dollars at 683.52 which was comparable for your run of the mill repackaged Atari 400 computer (again - hard to sell with all the Wall Street traders spending their entertainment dollars on Coke and 800 dollar CD players)
Bang on. When I look at the featurespec of the PS3 and my Mac Mini, compared - I don't see a lot of wiggle room for Sony. Particularly considering the PS3 will eat the Mini for lunch. Now - are we going to NEED all those features in the first year - or even see them used at all? Hard to say. My first-gen PS2 still has firewireports on it which never got used, and a hard drive port that keeps spiders happy. but the console got a lot more use in 6 years than the entertainment return on - say - a flight and hotel stay in Europe. No one bitches about that very much - because those that can afford a trip appreciate them regardless.
Considering the cost-per year, the thing's cheap enough for me. Hell, if I apply it to my place of business as an entertainment device (there is a line-item for this in the tax code) for employees at the office in the break area, it's just another worthwhile deduction that I can garner some fun out of.
The real question I guess is how many "early adopters" shouldn't BE early adopters and should be saving, getting a better education, getting a better job. With the demographics of this business getting older I'd actually be seriously curious what that percentage might be.
One last muse, I wonder how many lame - "man mugged for PS3 console" headlines we'll see at launch time. By idiots who can't resist getting their "bling" one way or another.
I noticed the links were screwed up too. I love watching corporate sites fall apart like that. Hey - that downsizing and pullback on the updates really worked didn't it?
That aside, I'd have to say that most are meh-worthy, but the Shaolin Brain one was decent enough. Any commercial with a guy getting his face pounded into a book is ok with me. Perhaps he was an employee of Creative?
Actually there's been local and national press on how Craigslist is clobbering the beejeezus out of classified ads. Posting for free beats pennies - and newspapers have been getting hit where it hurts. Probably why ad inserts have been up.
re:"I always like to push technology down their throat"
I could make some filthy joke about people shoving wee's down other people's throats - but that would be crass and wrong and I'd never stoop to doing something like that, particularly in a public forum. It's just wrong.
Redundant concern I know - but consider this lil' nugget.
This Week In Tech (TWIT) broadcast for this week (ep 53) mentioned a bandwidth cost of more than 1 million a month. That's peanuts to a network (or network affiliate), but considering their cash flow is investment derrived, they're going to have to do something - and FAST - or become the pets.com of the web 2.0 era.
I'm rooting for them because some of the material is fantastic, and I'm noting more sites using it for hosting videos for other sites and blogs - which I think is it's best case for being. I know my sites couldn't handle a slashdotting - and neither could my pocketbook - but youTube makes for a great video podcasting solution.
(appendum) Jokes aside, now that I've seen all of them, 2 strikes me as best with #3 a close second. I think the second one is slightly (and I do mean slightly) less crowded. The first one didn't bring much in the way of new to the table compared to the current design already in progress.
Might be more applicable. Getting royalties to work produced has served the information industry as it exists in Los Angeles well to date. Might be time for Northern California (and other parts) to investigate this model further.
There used to be a Graphics guild back in the day, I wouldn't mind seeing that return either.
The insinuation is that "tech demo", "virtual boat" and other fooferaw aren't exactly a critical hardware test of the new controller's abilities so slamming it wholesale at this point seems - gee idunno - fanboy slackjaw?
Liked the kara jab though. Coming from an AC, I can really appreciate that. It almost makes me pine for a mod joke of some kind.
The Nintendo system isn't even out yet and you're already burned out on Wii jokes? Oh my - you're going to have a long rewarding ownership experience. I can tell:
COOL! When is A PLAIN TECH DEMO going to be released? What price point will A PLAIN TECH DEMO come out at? Will A PLAIN TECH DEMO offer PSP integration so we can play A PLAIN TECH DEMO on the road?
"The virtual boat" - COOL - what price point is VIRTUAL BOAT coming out at? Will there be a PSP tie-in so we can play VIRTUAL BOAT on the road and update VIRTUAL BOAT at home?
Getting an HD tv or monitor in the next 5 or 6 years a stretch? Holy yikes - what kind of luddite are you? I mean hell Westinghouse has 1080i lcd monitors (32inch) down to 1200-1300 dollars (I'd get more accurate info - but their site is down for maintenance). They have a progessive 37" for around 2400. With the continued talk of OLED and other paper-based bright HD displays (that will proportedly be ultra-cheap), I think betting on a console that supports HD out of the box is a good thing.
Everyone pooh-pooh'ed the ps2's DVD capability, but it's been my main DVD player for 6 years, and I like the fact that it reduced the component clutter in my living room.
Mr. Lee worked out the server methodology for serving up the web and it was the forerunner of the operating system and dev-tools of the current OSX environ. Plus you don't see many working cubes these days - at least with working Magneto-Optical drives. Another triva note - the engine for the first iteration of Doom was sussed out on NeXTstep. I have the binaries around somewhere...
Slashdot Mirror
I posted this in one of the video game threads earlier today. That'll teach me not to post a story idea. I'm reposting the post here because some of the comments I thought were entertaining in the post. .....Post....
I particularly liked the link to the calculator. Back then 30 bucks for Pac Man for the 2600 when it came out seemed steep at the time. According to the USDL it was equal to 72.74 today.
To date - with inflation taken into account the top 5 consoles for price in today's dollars were
Neo Geo at 993.65,(pretty obvious - but the carts were even more insane at 150.00 - 230.00 in 2006 dollars ea.)
The 3DO at 967.89 (but hey - it played CDmovies too. Wave of the future BABY!)
The Intellivision at 825.62 (ever wondered why George Plimpton was hawking it - same demographic),
The Atari VCS / 2600 at 659.41 (a particularly hard sell for 1977 what with all the money going to buy Coke and bad leisurewear - and that was just the Atari employees),
And lastly the Atari 5200 priced to move in 2006 dollars at 683.52 which was comparable for your run of the mill repackaged Atari 400 computer (again - hard to sell with all the Wall Street traders spending their entertainment dollars on Coke and 800 dollar CD players)
don't forget the extended warrenties - otherwise known as retail for PWNED!
Great blog and info graphic on the history of console prices since the 70s onward put through the US Department of Labor's inflation calculator.
s ole-prices-or-500-aint.html
http://curmudgeongamer.com/2006/05/history-of-con
I liked the link to the calculator. Back then 30 bucks for Pac Man for the 2600 when it came out seemed steep at the time. According to the USDL it was equal to 72.74 today.
To date - with inflation taken into account the top 5 consoles for price in today's dollars were
Neo Geo at 993.65,(pretty obvious - but the carts were even more insane at 150.00 - 230.00 in 2006 dollars ea.)
The 3DO at 967.89 (but hey - it played CDmovies too. Wave of the future BABY!)
The Intellivision at 825.62 (ever wondered why George Plimpton was hawking it - same demographic),
The Atari VCS / 2600 at 659.41 (a particularly hard sell for 1977 what with all the money going to buy Coke and bad leisurewear - and that was just the Atari employees),
And lastly the Atari 5200 priced to move in 2006 dollars at 683.52 which was comparable for your run of the mill repackaged Atari 400 computer (again - hard to sell with all the Wall Street traders spending their entertainment dollars on Coke and 800 dollar CD players)
Bang on. When I look at the featurespec of the PS3 and my Mac Mini, compared - I don't see a lot of wiggle room for Sony. Particularly considering the PS3 will eat the Mini for lunch. Now - are we going to NEED all those features in the first year - or even see them used at all? Hard to say. My first-gen PS2 still has firewireports on it which never got used, and a hard drive port that keeps spiders happy. but the console got a lot more use in 6 years than the entertainment return on - say - a flight and hotel stay in Europe. No one bitches about that very much - because those that can afford a trip appreciate them regardless.
Considering the cost-per year, the thing's cheap enough for me. Hell, if I apply it to my place of business as an entertainment device (there is a line-item for this in the tax code) for employees at the office in the break area, it's just another worthwhile deduction that I can garner some fun out of.
The real question I guess is how many "early adopters" shouldn't BE early adopters and should be saving, getting a better education, getting a better job. With the demographics of this business getting older I'd actually be seriously curious what that percentage might be.
One last muse, I wonder how many lame - "man mugged for PS3 console" headlines we'll see at launch time. By idiots who can't resist getting their "bling" one way or another.
I noticed the links were screwed up too. I love watching corporate sites fall apart like that. Hey - that downsizing and pullback on the updates really worked didn't it?
That aside, I'd have to say that most are meh-worthy, but the Shaolin Brain one was decent enough. Any commercial with a guy getting his face pounded into a book is ok with me. Perhaps he was an employee of Creative?
It's the same article he posted on the industry crashing with some minor tweaks. Just another click-whore, move along.
Actually there's been local and national press on how Craigslist is clobbering the beejeezus out of classified ads. Posting for free beats pennies - and newspapers have been getting hit where it hurts. Probably why ad inserts have been up.
re:"I always like to push technology down their throat"
I could make some filthy joke about people shoving wee's down other people's throats - but that would be crass and wrong and I'd never stoop to doing something like that, particularly in a public forum. It's just wrong.
Oh come on - a cheesy joke like that and you made no reference to my "magic wand". You're not trying hard enough people!
Redundant concern I know - but consider this lil' nugget.
This Week In Tech (TWIT) broadcast for this week (ep 53) mentioned a bandwidth cost of more than 1 million a month. That's peanuts to a network (or network affiliate), but considering their cash flow is investment derrived, they're going to have to do something - and FAST - or become the pets.com of the web 2.0 era.
I'm rooting for them because some of the material is fantastic, and I'm noting more sites using it for hosting videos for other sites and blogs - which I think is it's best case for being. I know my sites couldn't handle a slashdotting - and neither could my pocketbook - but youTube makes for a great video podcasting solution.
(appendum) Jokes aside, now that I've seen all of them, 2 strikes me as best with #3 a close second. I think the second one is slightly (and I do mean slightly) less crowded. The first one didn't bring much in the way of new to the table compared to the current design already in progress.
Might be more applicable. Getting royalties to work produced has served the information industry as it exists in Los Angeles well to date. Might be time for Northern California (and other parts) to investigate this model further.
There used to be a Graphics guild back in the day, I wouldn't mind seeing that return either.
For those who rode the short-bus to school...
The insinuation is that "tech demo", "virtual boat" and other fooferaw aren't exactly a critical hardware test of the new controller's abilities so slamming it wholesale at this point seems - gee idunno - fanboy slackjaw?
Liked the kara jab though. Coming from an AC, I can really appreciate that. It almost makes me pine for a mod joke of some kind.
Almost.
The Nintendo system isn't even out yet and you're already burned out on Wii jokes? Oh my - you're going to have a long rewarding ownership experience. I can tell:
http://www.ucomics.com/foxtrot/2006/05/09/
COOL! When is A PLAIN TECH DEMO going to be released? What price point will A PLAIN TECH DEMO come out at? Will A PLAIN TECH DEMO offer PSP integration so we can play A PLAIN TECH DEMO on the road?
Since it's the only one that didn't meltdown in seconds after being posted. If you're going to make a slashdot site - might as well be slashdot proof.
"The virtual boat" - COOL - what price point is VIRTUAL BOAT coming out at? Will there be a PSP tie-in so we can play VIRTUAL BOAT on the road and update VIRTUAL BOAT at home?
re:"unresponsive 3D movement)"
COOL! What games did you try it with? I've been watching Slashdot for ages for some hands-on reports with the PS3. Please tell us!
Grand Theft Auto for Gamecube - oops - never saw that one. Oh well.
http://www.ucomics.com/foxtrot/2006/05/09/
I'll foist over few extra bucks to avoid this in the future.
I like the NEO GEO argument - except for the fact that NEO GEOs games were 200-plus dollars each:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neo-Geo
Now for a real comparrison to NEO GEO - remember how much RE2 or Quake were for the N64? Yowch!
Joystick had some of the best design out there. From cover to spread the game oozed art direction by those who "got it" in the business.
"The Sega Dreamcast was about as powerful in practice as the PS2, but got killed by hype."
That's odd - I thought it was killed by SEGA.
a stretch?
Getting an HD tv or monitor in the next 5 or 6 years a stretch? Holy yikes - what kind of luddite are you? I mean hell Westinghouse has 1080i lcd monitors (32inch) down to 1200-1300 dollars (I'd get more accurate info - but their site is down for maintenance). They have a progessive 37" for around 2400. With the continued talk of OLED and other paper-based bright HD displays (that will proportedly be ultra-cheap), I think betting on a console that supports HD out of the box is a good thing.
Everyone pooh-pooh'ed the ps2's DVD capability, but it's been my main DVD player for 6 years, and I like the fact that it reduced the component clutter in my living room.
Mr. Lee worked out the server methodology for serving up the web and it was the forerunner of the operating system and dev-tools of the current OSX environ. Plus you don't see many working cubes these days - at least with working Magneto-Optical drives. Another triva note - the engine for the first iteration of Doom was sussed out on NeXTstep. I have the binaries around somewhere...