Recent Comments:
Samsung m620 to be christened "UpStage" for Sprint {Engadget}
Mar 25th 2007 8:52PM UpStage sounds like the perfect name to me, IF this phone is designed to be the successor to the original Samsung UpRoar phone (the M100) -- released in 2002 and one the first (if not the very first) cell phone with MP3 playback capabilities, released just before Nokia's NGage-like MP3 phone.
I wonder however how much internal memory this phone has.. I will have to check the specs.
Leaked shots of Sony's PSone emulator for the PSP {Engadget}
Apr 6th 2006 10:12PM The idea of charging gamers $15 a pop for old PS1 games is absolutely sickening. It's no wonder more and more people are reverting to piracy, when companies are trying to squeeze every last dime out of "honest" consumers.
For god's sake, I can get old PS2 games for $15!! Old PS1 software should be no more than $3 to $5.
Concrete Revolution specs? {Engadget}
Mar 30th 2006 5:56PM #67: Maybe you should read the comments again before blasting me. I've said at least THREE times now that those people who want to do everything the legal way will appreciate the VC. Before you call me a moron, maybe you should bother to get off your ass and actually read the comments.. Jerk.
Concrete Revolution specs? {Engadget}
Mar 30th 2006 12:11PM DG: that's EXACTLY what I just said.. anyone who doesn't want to 'steal' or who isn't into emulation already will love the whole Virtual Console experience. To each their own. :)
Concrete Revolution specs? {Engadget}
Mar 30th 2006 11:54AM To Dave.. I agree that Nintendo's implementation with emulation will be easy.. this is what I meant by saying that their target audience will be those who buy music legally.. power users who are used to modding systems and such will already be able to get most of what Nintendo's service can offer for free.
It's true.. on older PC's, emulators can't produce the same game perfectly.. but most of my old NES and SNES games seem to work just fine. It's the N64 games I'm worried about, but I still don't know how I would play them with that controller.. I sure hope the gyroscopic feature also applies to these games. It's a DAMN shame that nothing from Rare's library will be included in the VC.
And in response to #51's comment:
"Well, the success of any console depends on games. And clearly with those specs nintendo wont be trying to wow you with insane graphics, but when have they?"
When have they? Actually, Nintendo ALWAYS used to push graphical innovation forward all the time. With the SNES, they pioneered the art of incorporating specialized chipsets into carts, such as the Super FX chip used for StarFox. They also helped foster companies like Rare, who helped bring rendered graphics into the 16-bit era through games like Donkey Kong Country and Killer Instinct. Don't forget that the SNES also had built-in features like Mode 7, which allowed background and foreground layers to be munipulated in the form of scrolling, rotation, and scaling. It could also be used to transform a 2D background into a 3D plane, creating a simple perspective effect.
With the N64 too, they always pushed the envelope with their games, which showed off higher polygon counts, far more realistic lighting and shading capabilities and anti-aliasing capabilities. All this from a company who used to understand, that there needs to be a PROPER BALANCE between graphics and gameplay.
Concrete Revolution specs? {Engadget}
Mar 30th 2006 11:11AM And just one more thing I wanted to add.. if you think that other companies aren't gonna copy Nintendo's controller idea, then you are being pretty naive.
When the N64 was released, Nintendo ended up releasing two key innovations: first the analog stick, and second the Rumble Pack. The analog stick was the first of its kind to be added into a modern (post Atari) controller, and provided a very fluid and reactive motion in games. The rumble pack was the first of its kind, to offer vibration and force-feedback capabilities.
Both Sony and Sega ended up copying these ideas verbatim, and doing better jobs in their implementations, I might add.
Concrete Revolution specs? {Engadget}
Mar 30th 2006 11:01AM That 'virtual console' you speak of can already be implemented on the XBox -- and will likely be implemented on the 360 and PS3 as soon as those systems are hacked. You can also play all those old school games on the PC too. The only difference between these options, and the virtual console on the Revolution? With the Revolution, you'll have to pay for EVERY game. With all these other options, the games are free -- you can find them all over the place; on torrent sites, emulation sites and ROM sites.
I don't know or understand why anyone would want to pay for a NES or SNES game when they already have the ROM on their PC. Maybe Nintendo will find some hard-to-find games to distribute or something.. and I'm sure this feature will be attractive to those who aren't in the business of using P2P software or other 'grey market' solutions (ie the same people who buy all their music from the iTunes music store). But for all those power users out there who already have most of these ROMS on their machines, this so-called virtual console will be meaningless.
Concrete Revolution specs? {Engadget}
Mar 30th 2006 10:31AM Ya know.. I really don't agree with any of this. Nintendo seems to always give graphics and hardware a 'backseat', and instead they are throwing all of their coins into this 'innovative controller'.
Only problem, is that both Sony and Microsoft could potentially release similar technologies with their next gen systems.
Here is the link to the Sony story below:
http://www.gamespot.com/news/show_blog_entry.php?topic_id=24355287
And the Microsoft story is here:
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6145348.html
The Sony article remains a rumor for now, while the MS article is very real. Both ideas are still rumors overall however; there is still no concrete evidence that either company will actually move forward on their plans. So what are they waiting for? To see how successful the Revolution will be, silly!
Should the Revolution's controller concept really be that good, Sony and Microsoft have the ability to copy Nintendo's idea verbatim. Sony can already do this on the PS2 just by creating a special gyroscope-based Dual Shock controller to sense forward/backward movement, and have it work with the Eye Toy, which already senses left/right motions. The fact that Sony is even considering doing all this with the PS2 and not the PS3 should tell you another thing: Sony knows that Nintendo doesn't care about graphics, so they'd rather put the PS2 up against the Revolution rather than getting out the big guns.
With Microsoft its a different story.. they still haven't revealed much about their camera for the 360. And why not? Again, its probably cause they are waiting for what Nintendo will do with the Revolution, and will likely come up with a product/controller of their own that will contain the same functionality as Nintendo's controller.
So in a nutshell, what all this means, is that if Nintendo DOES put graphics on the backburner, Sony and Microsoft will step in to take the victory. Nintendo clearly has the most innovation here -- why not actually back it up with the best possible graphics? Sure, graphics on their own don't make for amazing software. But you do need graphics + gameplay for a good, well rounded game.
Some games, like Katamari Damacy, have avoided this rule; opting for less defined graphics but more innovative gameplay. But a game like Katamari, in which you have to roll your ball over thousands of objects, would actually benefit GREATLY from high-resolution graphics and better GPU's, which will be able to render and create more defined objects, allowing for more objects to be collected in the ball, and allowing for further realism in the game. Is there really a problem with this concept? Of course not. If they did produce a Katamari game using the PS3 or 360 hardware, you'd see a much better looking, cleaner, more polished game, with vastly expanded gameplay. Again, it already takes ALOT of processing power to be able to take random objects off the ground and put them into a moving ball.. the PS3 would easily be able to make Katamari into a far superior game.. its a shame that the developer doesn't want to create any more Katamari games in the future.
Archos AV700 includes dual digital tuners, DVR, 40GB HDD {Engadget}
Mar 15th 2006 8:53PM Interesting how this device looks EXACTLY like Microsoft's Origami :P (same 7-inch screen too)
Celebs showered with tech gifts at the Oscars {Engadget}
Mar 5th 2006 10:24PM It is interesting that stars like these -- people who can likely afford to purchase the gift bags on their own, end up getting such items for free. Then they decide to auction the items up on eBay, so "regular" people like you and me can start bidding and outbidding (fighting) each other just to own shit that was held for all of 3 minutes by these celebs.. what an idiotic scam.
