Just because Sega have admitted to working on "another console" chipset, doesn't actually mean that it will be released as a purchasable console.
Just look at the Naomi chipset. For those who don't know, the Naomi chipset is essentially the dreamcast chipset, just with some extra memory used in Arcade machines.
Now, just because it has been announced that sega are working on the Naomi 2 chipset doesn't mean that they are also working on a console. They could very easially just be making Naomi 2 for VF4 and any other next-gen arcade machines - which fits in with their content focus.
It's still sad though to see the end of Sega consoles for consumers. Hopefully, the AM's will start working on GameCube stuff;p (hey, I can hope;p)
as much as I want to, I can't see the Indrema being successful. Why? Games.
The PS2 has a number of original (if not of slightly dubious quality) games, which would lead people to buy a console so they can play said original games.
The Game Cube (which I find odd that it hasn't mentioned...ahh, E3 2001 will change that;p) has a so-far-known complete line of original good quality games, leading people to buy the console to play the original games.
The X-Box doesn't have any announced original games, but instead everything so far has been a X-Box port of a PC title. Anyone who owns a PC will avoid it like the plague, but non-PC owners who want to play PC games will probably bite.
Then there's the Indrema. A console whos only claim to fame is the fact that it runs linux. Pity that the only chance of an announced game is from Loki, in which case it'll be a PC title anyway. No original games, and the only people buying them are Linux hax0rs wanting to convert it into a linux terminal, since Joe Sixpack would rather buy a MS console to play Unreal Tournament than some "unknown folks".
As soon as the Indrema guys manage to sign up someone for original content, then it has a chance. Until then, it's doomed to die as a console.
Of course it's a big disappointment for the main consumer, because they are encountering what the Japanese and the rest of the non-sony-worshipping game industry saw back in March - THERE ARE NO GOOD GAMES!
There's no point in bragging about your 66 million poly (cough with everything off cough) when the only thing you're going to do with that is port over your old PS1 code and add new models. Why the hell do I want to play RRV when it feels exactly the same as RRIV (and in some cases probably worse).
When Metal Gear Solid 2 comes out, or some other new original title comes out, I'll buy one. And when that happens, there will also be a reason for non-sony-worshippers to buy one as well. Personally, I think Hideo will be the first person to make a title worthy of all the hype (MGS2), but I'm not ruling out anything else before that (I'm keeping a keen eye myself on Team SOHO's The Getaway - if they pull that off, it could be quite cool)
But at the moment, all I see are 6 or so okish first gen eye-candied up ports, and 20-odd pieces of crap, all 26 of which that would look and play exactly the same on the DC.
Before everyone who doesn't bother reading the article (like a few people who have already posted;p) makes the "oh no, Daikatana's creators are in charge of Thief" comments, note that Ion Storm Austin has the Thief licence. Austin is responsible for such quality games like Deus Ex and..um...well now Thief. Ion Storm Dallas(or some other place in Texas - I'm tired;p) is the team responsible for John Romero's Daikatana (now in bargain bins across the world;p).
Re:2 weeks for team arena - really!
on
New Doom Details
·
· Score: 1
...except in this case, it actually *is* two weeks away!
Check the other news sites with info about the mission pack. I'd link them, but I'm tired and cranky. Bleh.
The biggest complaint I hear about installing stuff from newbies and mass market audience-types is that they can't find stuff once it has been installed. They just click on their little RPM icon in Gnome/KDE, watch the progress bar, and then wonder why it hasn't been added to their applications menu.
These people aren't going to be typing at a prompt anytime soon, so something as simple as typing the name of the app at a prompt isn't an option.
To simplify stuff for these users, we really need an advanced rpm (or equiv.) tool that figures out where the executable is, and then places an icon for it in the Gnome/KDE applications menu. This obviously isn't as simple as it seems;p
You're kidding?! And I thought that everything revolved around the earth! I guess someone forgot to tell the secondary school science teachers of the world a couple of hundred years ago;p
The guy you're thinking about is Don Bluth. He did Dragon's Lair, and then after that Space Ace (essentially the same game, just with different graphics). The sad thing is that people are still trying to sell it. I saw a DVD *player* version when I was shopping for DVD's - that's right, you play Dragon's Lair with the DVD remote! Just ignoring the fact that the IR "lag" would make the game virtually unplayable, the fact that you can replicate the same gameplay as Dragon's Lair just by using the simplistic DVD menu system describes the gameplay perfectly;p (ie nonexistent).
The press release says you "license the right to distribute 3d studio gMAX with their title". This means it's free to download for all, but if a developer modifies it and wants to put it on the same CD as the game, they have to pay a license fee.
The only other licence fee is if you decide to purchase "Game Packs", which sound very familiar to plugins. Personally, I'd consider game packs/plugins separate from the main product, and I'm not bothered that they're charging for them. Besides, someone out there in the community is bound to make freeware versions of game packs for those of you opposed to supporting a company who is releasing a product for free;p
It seems you are only focusing on two genres, and then saying "hey! I like myst! all the other games I know are genre a's and genre b's"
While the adventure genre is a lot quieter than it used to be, there have still been some good games out, and still some coming (Grim Fandango and Monkey Island 4, respectively).
On a side tangent, saying "There are too many FPS's and RTS's, lets make more Adventure games" *isn't* the way to go! That'll just lead us to a point where we'll say "There are too many adventure games, we need more (neglected genre no 17)".
What game designers (and to a greater extent, publishers) should do is make games that *don't* fit into genres, that are unique and aren't following a game model already paved out by id/blizzard/lucasarts. As someone working in the gaming industry, the most frustrating thing for me is seeing publishers sticking to genre games and not taking risks making *new* games. Will Wright with "The Sims" is a great example - he had to literally fight all the way for *seven years* just to get the game made!
Before the mid-90's, a first-person gun game would be called "a doom clone", and would be marked down for that in a review. Now, thanks to the lack of innovation being allowed by publishers (and to a degree developers), the same game is called a game in the "FPS genre", and usually boosted thanks to the not-so-subtle pushing of games on reviewers by publishers.
The main publisher/developer that doesn't do this is surprisingly Sega, and they are reaping the rewards because of it! Innovative non-genre games like Crazy Taxi, Seaman, and Jet Set Radio have made gamers wake up to the life outside FPS's and RTS's
Hopefully, genre domination will change - Things like the LithTech/Real networks deal ( http://www.lithtech.com ) and Auran Jet ( http://www.auranjet.com (disclaimer - I'm a designer at Auran Games) ) should allow the unjaded garage developer with the cool game concept to come out with genre-breaking ideas, and get them out to a large audience. Hopefully then, publishers will let developers make risky games.
And that's the end of my rant.;p
sprayNwipe -=-=-=-=-=-
And just to get this off my chest - *never* use Trespasser as an example of a good game. Even Daikatana is better than that abysmal slide-show, interface-deficient, crate-stacking-with-real-physics game. See http://www.oldmanmurray.com/longreviews/trespasser .shtml
Fireball sent us linkage to a quote (its way down there, can't link it directly) from BluesNews where Apogee's Scott Miller replies to my little tirade yesterday about the apogee license agreement.
Now this just wrong. The original article was stolen from PlanetCrap (with even a link from the story), and the response which was posted on Blues was taken off a response to said PlanetCrap story. If you go to Blues, it even has the link to the original post! (so much for "can't link to it").
In what way was this "[your] little tirade"? All you did is rip off the hard working folks at PlanetCrap. While I support posting stories which are informative, I don't support you ripping off other peoples work and claiming it as your own.
Although it's a bit unknown what the actual screen *really* is, there are devices out there that can run with a colour screen for 20+ hours: A good example is the Game Boy colour, which runs with a colour screen for over 20 hours with only 2 AA batteries.
Also, don't the Crusoe-based pads have a long battery life also?
My theory is that people are buying it to see how bad it is - with that much hype, people are going to be curious.
Whether it makes its money back or not, I don't know...I think Ion Storms other titles (Deus Ex, Anacronox) will start bringing revenue in for Ion, as well as being *shock* suprisingly good games (especially when compared to DK and Dominon;p)
Before you mark this down as flamebait, I'm just reposting what Scott Miller posted on the Shugashack at http://www.shugashack.com/reply.y?id=204292.
-------------- #91 By: Scott3dr [May 31st 2000, 06:56 pm] I have to say, I rarely visit Slashdot, and in the future I see even less reason to do so--total idiots abound there, it's a flocking ground for the herd mentality. No ability to think for themselves. Truly the sadness of our society.
A few basic facts about that agreement: [1] It's not a public page (if it is, that's a mistake and needs to be changed). It's simply a page we refer webmasters to if they want to use or logos, trademarks, and illustrations on their web site to decorate their fan page. That's ALL this is about--nothing more. [2] It's a work-in-progress, and still has typos, etc. This thing is really low priority for us -- ain't a big deal really. Still needs redrafting a few times, I'm sure, to make things more clear. [3] The sole intent is to allow web sites like www.planetduke.com and www.3dportal.com (and the many DNF sites that will be ramping up soon) to use our art/logos/etc., but only if they don't use this stuff in a way that isn't blantantly inflammatory. This does not include preventing them from posting negative reviews or comments. That's just plain crazy. Also, we're not forcing anyone to sign this. It's, y'know, like optional and stuff. [4] This doesn't cover screen shots -- I need to make this more clear. Screen shots fall under the same category as free speech. Unfortunately, most people who are in an ignorance-based panic over this agreement don't know this simple fact.;-) There are more points, but gotta run...my kid has his first little league game tonight.:-) Scott Miller, 3DR
Before you mark this down as flamebait, I'm just reposting what Scott Miller posted on the Shugashack at http://www.shugashack.com/reply.y?id=204292. -------------- #91 By: Scott3dr [May 31st 2000, 06:56 pm] I have to say, I rarely visit Slashdot, and in the future I see even less reason to do so--total idiots abound there, it's a flocking ground for the herd mentality. No ability to think for themselves. Truly the sadness of our society. A few basic facts about that agreement: [1] It's not a public page (if it is, that's a mistake and needs to be changed). It's simply a page we refer webmasters to if they want to use or logos, trademarks, and illustrations on their web site to decorate their fan page. That's ALL this is about--nothing more. [2] It's a work-in-progress, and still has typos, etc. This thing is really low priority for us -- ain't a big deal really. Still needs redrafting a few times, I'm sure, to make things more clear. [3] The sole intent is to allow web sites like www.planetduke.com and www.3dportal.com (and the many DNF sites that will be ramping up soon) to use our art/logos/etc., but only if they don't use this stuff in a way that isn't blantantly inflammatory. This does not include preventing them from posting negative reviews or comments. That's just plain crazy. Also, we're not forcing anyone to sign this. It's, y'know, like optional and stuff. [4] This doesn't cover screen shots -- I need to make this more clear. Screen shots fall under the same category as free speech. Unfortunately, most people who are in an ignorance-based panic over this agreement don't know this simple fact.;-) There are more points, but gotta run...my kid has his first little league game tonight.:-) Scott Miller, 3DR
Slashdot Mirror
http://www.bigkid.com.au/articles/00_11/cloth.htm
;p
I'm not surprised monty managed to find it, especially since he's the admin at BigKid
Of course, that was a year ago.
;pp
A year ago, MS didn't think Linux was a threat. Look at them now
Just because Sega have admitted to working on "another console" chipset, doesn't actually mean that it will be released as a purchasable console.
;p (hey, I can hope ;p)
Just look at the Naomi chipset. For those who don't know, the Naomi chipset is essentially the dreamcast chipset, just with some extra memory used in Arcade machines.
Now, just because it has been announced that sega are working on the Naomi 2 chipset doesn't mean that they are also working on a console. They could very easially just be making Naomi 2 for VF4 and any other next-gen arcade machines - which fits in with their content focus.
It's still sad though to see the end of Sega consoles for consumers. Hopefully, the AM's will start working on GameCube stuff
as much as I want to, I can't see the Indrema being successful. Why? Games.
;p) has a so-far-known complete line of original good quality games, leading people to buy the console to play the original games.
The PS2 has a number of original (if not of slightly dubious quality) games, which would lead people to buy a console so they can play said original games.
The Game Cube (which I find odd that it hasn't mentioned...ahh, E3 2001 will change that
The X-Box doesn't have any announced original games, but instead everything so far has been a X-Box port of a PC title. Anyone who owns a PC will avoid it like the plague, but non-PC owners who want to play PC games will probably bite.
Then there's the Indrema. A console whos only claim to fame is the fact that it runs linux. Pity that the only chance of an announced game is from Loki, in which case it'll be a PC title anyway. No original games, and the only people buying them are Linux hax0rs wanting to convert it into a linux terminal, since Joe Sixpack would rather buy a MS console to play Unreal Tournament than some "unknown folks".
As soon as the Indrema guys manage to sign up someone for original content, then it has a chance. Until then, it's doomed to die as a console.
Of course it's a big disappointment for the main consumer, because they are encountering what the Japanese and the rest of the non-sony-worshipping game industry saw back in March - THERE ARE NO GOOD GAMES!
There's no point in bragging about your 66 million poly (cough with everything off cough) when the only thing you're going to do with that is port over your old PS1 code and add new models. Why the hell do I want to play RRV when it feels exactly the same as RRIV (and in some cases probably worse).
When Metal Gear Solid 2 comes out, or some other new original title comes out, I'll buy one. And when that happens, there will also be a reason for non-sony-worshippers to buy one as well. Personally, I think Hideo will be the first person to make a title worthy of all the hype (MGS2), but I'm not ruling out anything else before that (I'm keeping a keen eye myself on Team SOHO's The Getaway - if they pull that off, it could be quite cool)
But at the moment, all I see are 6 or so okish first gen eye-candied up ports, and 20-odd pieces of crap, all 26 of which that would look and play exactly the same on the DC.
Somehow, I doubt the *real* Yu Suzuki wrote it, more like some Suzuki fanboy who registered his name on /. wrote it.
I can just imagine Yu Suzuki thinking "What to do...Virtua Fighter 4? Shenmue 2? Daytona on DC? nah, I'll write an amusing article on slashdot!"
Before everyone who doesn't bother reading the article (like a few people who have already posted ;p) makes the "oh no, Daikatana's creators are in charge of Thief" comments, note that Ion Storm Austin has the Thief licence. Austin is responsible for such quality games like Deus Ex and..um...well now Thief. Ion Storm Dallas(or some other place in Texas - I'm tired ;p) is the team responsible for John Romero's Daikatana (now in bargain bins across the world ;p).
...except in this case, it actually *is* two weeks away!
Check the other news sites with info about the mission pack. I'd link them, but I'm tired and cranky. Bleh.
The biggest complaint I hear about installing stuff from newbies and mass market audience-types is that they can't find stuff once it has been installed. They just click on their little RPM icon in Gnome/KDE, watch the progress bar, and then wonder why it hasn't been added to their applications menu.
;p
These people aren't going to be typing at a prompt anytime soon, so something as simple as typing the name of the app at a prompt isn't an option.
To simplify stuff for these users, we really need an advanced rpm (or equiv.) tool that figures out where the executable is, and then places an icon for it in the Gnome/KDE applications menu. This obviously isn't as simple as it seems
I'll be grumpy all week if they don't port to Irix!
...but I'll be grumpy all year if they don't port to the Atari 2600!
The 2 weeks is for Quake 3:Team Arena, not Doom. The Shugashack article is about his QuakeCon speech, not just Doom.
You're kidding?! And I thought that everything revolved around the earth! I guess someone forgot to tell the secondary school science teachers of the world a couple of hundred years ago ;p
The guy you're thinking about is Don Bluth. He did Dragon's Lair, and then after that Space Ace (essentially the same game, just with different graphics). The sad thing is that people are still trying to sell it. I saw a DVD *player* version when I was shopping for DVD's - that's right, you play Dragon's Lair with the DVD remote! Just ignoring the fact that the IR "lag" would make the game virtually unplayable, the fact that you can replicate the same gameplay as Dragon's Lair just by using the simplistic DVD menu system describes the gameplay perfectly ;p (ie nonexistent).
The press release says you "license the right to distribute 3d studio gMAX with their title". This means it's free to download for all, but if a developer modifies it and wants to put it on the same CD as the game, they have to pay a license fee.
;p
The only other licence fee is if you decide to purchase "Game Packs", which sound very familiar to plugins. Personally, I'd consider game packs/plugins separate from the main product, and I'm not bothered that they're charging for them. Besides, someone out there in the community is bound to make freeware versions of game packs for those of you opposed to supporting a company who is releasing a product for free
It seems you are only focusing on two genres, and then saying "hey! I like myst! all the other games I know are genre a's and genre b's"
;p
r .shtml
While the adventure genre is a lot quieter than it used to be, there have still been some good games out, and still some coming (Grim Fandango and Monkey Island 4, respectively).
On a side tangent, saying "There are too many FPS's and RTS's, lets make more Adventure games" *isn't* the way to go! That'll just lead us to a point where we'll say "There are too many adventure games, we need more (neglected genre no 17)".
What game designers (and to a greater extent, publishers) should do is make games that *don't* fit into genres, that are unique and aren't following a game model already paved out by id/blizzard/lucasarts. As someone working in the gaming industry, the most frustrating thing for me is seeing publishers sticking to genre games and not taking risks making *new* games. Will Wright with "The Sims" is a great example - he had to literally fight all the way for *seven years* just to get the game made!
Before the mid-90's, a first-person gun game would be called "a doom clone", and would be marked down for that in a review. Now, thanks to the lack of innovation being allowed by publishers (and to a degree developers), the same game is called a game in the "FPS genre", and usually boosted thanks to the not-so-subtle pushing of games on reviewers by publishers.
The main publisher/developer that doesn't do this is surprisingly Sega, and they are reaping the rewards because of it! Innovative non-genre games like Crazy Taxi, Seaman, and Jet Set Radio have made gamers wake up to the life outside FPS's and RTS's
Hopefully, genre domination will change - Things like the LithTech/Real networks deal ( http://www.lithtech.com ) and Auran Jet ( http://www.auranjet.com (disclaimer - I'm a designer at Auran Games) ) should allow the unjaded garage developer with the cool game concept to come out with genre-breaking ideas, and get them out to a large audience. Hopefully then, publishers will let developers make risky games.
And that's the end of my rant.
sprayNwipe
-=-=-=-=-=-
And just to get this off my chest - *never* use Trespasser as an example of a good game. Even Daikatana is better than that abysmal slide-show, interface-deficient, crate-stacking-with-real-physics game. See http://www.oldmanmurray.com/longreviews/trespasse
Besides this, somebody already has written an open source version of Q3A: http://www.planetquake.com/aftershock/
From memory, the bit that runs all the time is the BillMinder app, which pops up a dialog when bills are due.
Fireball sent us linkage to a quote (its way down there, can't link it directly) from BluesNews where Apogee's Scott Miller replies to my little tirade yesterday about the apogee license agreement.
Now this just wrong. The original article was stolen from PlanetCrap (with even a link from the story), and the response which was posted on Blues was taken off a response to said PlanetCrap story. If you go to Blues, it even has the link to the original post! (so much for "can't link to it").
In what way was this "[your] little tirade"? All you did is rip off the hard working folks at PlanetCrap. While I support posting stories which are informative, I don't support you ripping off other peoples work and claiming it as your own.
Bleh.
Although it's a bit unknown what the actual screen *really* is, there are devices out there that can run with a colour screen for 20+ hours: A good example is the Game Boy colour, which runs with a colour screen for over 20 hours with only 2 AA batteries.
Also, don't the Crusoe-based pads have a long battery life also?
Unfortunately, it doesn't matter if DK is good or not anymore for romero - It's already at #5 for sales last week:
;p)
GameWEEK Sales charts for 5/21/00
My theory is that people are buying it to see how bad it is - with that much hype, people are going to be curious.
Whether it makes its money back or not, I don't know...I think Ion Storms other titles (Deus Ex, Anacronox) will start bringing revenue in for Ion, as well as being *shock* suprisingly good games (especially when compared to DK and Dominon
Before you mark this down as flamebait, I'm just reposting what Scott Miller posted on the Shugashack at http://www.shugashack.com/reply.y?id=204292. -------------- #91 By: Scott3dr [May 31st 2000, 06:56 pm] I have to say, I rarely visit Slashdot, and in the future I see even less reason to do so--total idiots abound there, it's a flocking ground for the herd mentality. No ability to think for themselves. Truly the sadness of our society. A few basic facts about that agreement: [1] It's not a public page (if it is, that's a mistake and needs to be changed). It's simply a page we refer webmasters to if they want to use or logos, trademarks, and illustrations on their web site to decorate their fan page. That's ALL this is about--nothing more. [2] It's a work-in-progress, and still has typos, etc. This thing is really low priority for us -- ain't a big deal really. Still needs redrafting a few times, I'm sure, to make things more clear. [3] The sole intent is to allow web sites like www.planetduke.com and www.3dportal.com (and the many DNF sites that will be ramping up soon) to use our art/logos/etc., but only if they don't use this stuff in a way that isn't blantantly inflammatory. This does not include preventing them from posting negative reviews or comments. That's just plain crazy. Also, we're not forcing anyone to sign this. It's, y'know, like optional and stuff. [4] This doesn't cover screen shots -- I need to make this more clear. Screen shots fall under the same category as free speech. Unfortunately, most people who are in an ignorance-based panic over this agreement don't know this simple fact. ;-) There are more points, but gotta run...my kid has his first little league game tonight. :-) Scott Miller, 3DR