Comments on: The Return https://fort90.com/the-return/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-return The homebase of Matthew Hawkins Fri, 15 Mar 2024 13:57:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.2 By: The Ten Million Dollar Question | FORT90 https://fort90.com/the-return/#comment-330232 The Ten Million Dollar Question | FORT90 Mon, 04 Mar 2013 04:18:53 +0000 http://www.fort90.com/journal/?p=194#comment-330232 [...] Plus, Brian from Click-Stick passed word to be me earlier this morning about a chip tune show at The Tank tomorrow night. Bit Shifter, nullsleep, Glomag, and Bubblyfish (whom I’ve yet to see or hear) will be there. Hopefully, there won’t be any cops to pull the plug on nullsleep’s set show this time around. [...] [...] Plus, Brian from Click-Stick passed word to be me earlier this morning about a chip tune show at The Tank tomorrow night. Bit Shifter, nullsleep, Glomag, and Bubblyfish (whom I’ve yet to see or hear) will be there. Hopefully, there won’t be any cops to pull the plug on nullsleep’s set show this time around. [...]

]]> By: Matt https://fort90.com/the-return/#comment-1801 Matt Mon, 28 Mar 2005 18:05:03 +0000 http://www.fort90.com/journal/?p=194#comment-1801 <strong>Job:</strong> Well when I do get a PSP, I'm definitely am going to get it at Best Buy or Circuit City which has sensible return policies in case the screen is busted out of the box; we all know the goons at EB and Gamestop are all too happy to vigorously enforce Sony's policies since it falls well into their mission statement of giving the customer as much aggravation as possible. <strong>Jason:</strong> I will say this in relation to the bitchfest... I just find it curious how many old school game makers, who have forever heralded video games as the ultimate form of entertainment, seem so excessively bitter towards game today. Well this is it, video games are finally <strong>here</strong>. It's the hottest form of entertainment today, so should they be happy? This what everyone has been dreaming and working towards, right? With games being as popular as they are, it's become a very big business, so none of what is happening today is at all shocking, hence why such a response seems a tad bit ridiculous. Yes, what EA is doing is bad, but its hardly surprising, and bottom line is that when something is big, it's always generally diverse. People often forget that to be the little guy, you need the big guy to use yourself as a point of reference. Also, I believing in putting up or shutting up, but anyway... <strong>Goldstein:</strong> Thanks for the heads up on the broken links; since I often have so many all over the place, a few tend to get messed up along the way unfortunately... Regarding I-CON 25, my calendar is marked! And MK would definitely be up for speaking at panels, so long as there's no conflict with APE. Plus she too would need some cute little cosplay chick to follow her around to fetch her sandwiches as well. Job: Well when I do get a PSP, I’m definitely am going to get it at Best Buy or Circuit City which has sensible return policies in case the screen is busted out of the box; we all know the goons at EB and Gamestop are all too happy to vigorously enforce Sony’s policies since it falls well into their mission statement of giving the customer as much aggravation as possible.

Jason: I will say this in relation to the bitchfest… I just find it curious how many old school game makers, who have forever heralded video games as the ultimate form of entertainment, seem so excessively bitter towards game today. Well this is it, video games are finally here. It’s the hottest form of entertainment today, so should they be happy? This what everyone has been dreaming and working towards, right?

With games being as popular as they are, it’s become a very big business, so none of what is happening today is at all shocking, hence why such a response seems a tad bit ridiculous. Yes, what EA is doing is bad, but its hardly surprising, and bottom line is that when something is big, it’s always generally diverse. People often forget that to be the little guy, you need the big guy to use yourself as a point of reference.

Also, I believing in putting up or shutting up, but anyway…

Goldstein: Thanks for the heads up on the broken links; since I often have so many all over the place, a few tend to get messed up along the way unfortunately…

Regarding I-CON 25, my calendar is marked! And MK would definitely be up for speaking at panels, so long as there’s no conflict with APE. Plus she too would need some cute little cosplay chick to follow her around to fetch her sandwiches as well.

]]> By: David Goldstein https://fort90.com/the-return/#comment-1688 David Goldstein Sat, 26 Mar 2005 18:32:21 +0000 http://www.fort90.com/journal/?p=194#comment-1688 In-order vs. out-of-order execution: There is a movement in processor design academia and industry for processors that don't automatically do the runtime reorganization and optimization of crappy code. It's called "MIPS", and it's the design principle, the architecture, and the resulting CPU, on which Silicon Graphics heavy workstations, the N64 and the original PSX (and a number of 2nd-generation Windows CE handhelds) are based. The same principle is also applied to Intel's Itanium family of processors. The idea is that it takes a lot of complicated real-estate on a CPU core to do all this stuff in real-time and it can only do so much with it because it has to do it in real-time. If you want truly optimized execution, you offload this task from the CPU to the Compiler... because the Compiler doesn't *have* to do it on the fly, but can instead take all the time it needs. The downside of this is that your compiler design guys have to really know what they're doing. Without a good optimizing compiler, this actually hurts you far more than it helps. (And the need for Itaniums to run x86 executables doesn't help either.) Note that Intel's Itanium series is only the second commercially produced CPU family to do this. And given the pricing on it, it's going to get creamed as soon as MS finally releases native Windows versions for the x64-based processors (AMD Athlon64, AMD Opteron, Intel Xeon EM64T), many of which are already out there running the x86 versions of OS's that they are 100% compatible with. (Itaniums run x86 programs, but only on top of IA64-native OS's. And they don't run most of them nearly as fast as they do their native code.) Don't get me wrong, it's a wonderful idea. But like any new principle in processor design, it requires that programmers, and especially compiler programmers, understand how to take advantage of it, or your advantage is totally wasted and worse. -David In-order vs. out-of-order execution: There is a movement in processor design academia and industry for processors that don’t automatically do the runtime reorganization and optimization of crappy code. It’s called “MIPS”, and it’s the design principle, the architecture, and the resulting CPU, on which Silicon Graphics heavy workstations, the N64 and the original PSX (and a number of 2nd-generation Windows CE handhelds) are based. The same principle is also applied to Intel’s Itanium family of processors.

The idea is that it takes a lot of complicated real-estate on a CPU core to do all this stuff in real-time and it can only do so much with it because it has to do it in real-time. If you want truly optimized execution, you offload this task from the CPU to the Compiler… because the Compiler doesn’t *have* to do it on the fly, but can instead take all the time it needs.

The downside of this is that your compiler design guys have to really know what they’re doing. Without a good optimizing compiler, this actually hurts you far more than it helps. (And the need for Itaniums to run x86 executables doesn’t help either.)

Note that Intel’s Itanium series is only the second commercially produced CPU family to do this. And given the pricing on it, it’s going to get creamed as soon as MS finally releases native Windows versions for the x64-based processors (AMD Athlon64, AMD Opteron, Intel Xeon EM64T), many of which are already out there running the x86 versions of OS’s that they are 100% compatible with. (Itaniums run x86 programs, but only on top of IA64-native OS’s. And they don’t run most of them nearly as fast as they do their native code.)

Don’t get me wrong, it’s a wonderful idea. But like any new principle in processor design, it requires that programmers, and especially compiler programmers, understand how to take advantage of it, or your advantage is totally wasted and worse.

-David

]]> By: David Goldstein https://fort90.com/the-return/#comment-1686 David Goldstein Sat, 26 Mar 2005 18:24:56 +0000 http://www.fort90.com/journal/?p=194#comment-1686 It should be noted that at GenCon a few years back, some EA execs were hosting a discussion of an upcoming BattleTech-universe MMO game, loosely derived from a similar game that had been out in the early 90's as a BBS-based system (I believe). One of the creators of the original game was in the audience, and asked about a particularly well-loved feature of the original game that was not mentioned as being in the new game. The answer he received? "We'll take it under advisement." Someone I know who was there who was telling me about this was like, "WTF? Do they have any idea who he is?" -David It should be noted that at GenCon a few years back, some EA execs were hosting a discussion of an upcoming BattleTech-universe MMO game, loosely derived from a similar game that had been out in the early 90′s as a BBS-based system (I believe). One of the creators of the original game was in the audience, and asked about a particularly well-loved feature of the original game that was not mentioned as being in the new game. The answer he received? “We’ll take it under advisement.” Someone I know who was there who was telling me about this was like, “WTF? Do they have any idea who he is?”

-David

]]> By: David Goldstein https://fort90.com/the-return/#comment-1685 David Goldstein Sat, 26 Mar 2005 18:06:01 +0000 http://www.fort90.com/journal/?p=194#comment-1685 The moan and bendover and sudden gushing water: If she was pregnant, that could have been her water breaking, meaning she was about to go into labor... Cats: Ask your doctor if a little catnip mouse toy (or Clarinex) is right for you. Non-descript bars: If there hadn't been a bouncer standing outside the last GNG event to check IDs, I wouldn't have been able to find it. And that was in Manhattan. The Mike DeNardo link doen't turn into a link. Check your HTML. I-CON had a move a few years back to add an "Electronic Music" track to the Performances group. It collapsed when the guy who was given it to run found out he had only $500-600 to use as "Guest Fees" and wasn't going to be allowed to pay himself as a performer... Talk to me during I-CON Breakdown if you have time. How was Steamboy? Which theater, and was it the subbed or the dubbed? I-CON 25 (next year's) is March 24-26, 2006. Please mark your (and MK's) calendar. (Do you think MK might be interested in doing some Comics panels?) Shooting-Typing games: Remember MasterType? It's in a large part responsible I think for my having a typing speed of as high as 70 using Word Processing rules (and in the low 50's using typewriter rules). Dead pixels: Ok, for the record, if I called Dell about a single dead pixel on my laptop screen (which has an awful lot of pixels on it that could go dead), I'd have a new screen on my parents' doorstep within 48 hours. I'd have to install it myself, but it's one plug and a couple of screws. I've done it once already because of a backlighting problem that turned out to be something wrong with the mainboard; when we figured out it wasn't the screen they actually sent a tech out to change the mainboard and video board. I would expect Sony to be the same with their laptops; especially considering some of their laptops are more than $3k. The fact that they're publically refusing to fix these under warranty / recall makes me smell a class-action suit in their future... The DS had potential due to the double screen, but the stylus isn't really a good controller for anything twitchy. (Hence why the PocketPC version of Tomb Raider uses the cross-key and application buttons.) There are ways to take advantage of that second screen but they really call for slightly more complex games... or a dual-screen-based concept from ground zero (like that old Donkey Kong II game of theirs I have)... or use of it to give the game a portrait screen format like an arcade machine. This seems like a good challange to give your game design class: Come up with a design that will properly leverage the DS's unique features. The "ebay auction for the haunted NES" highlights but doesn't link... Is it supposed to be a link? Colossus: Do you have any info on the story behind that? Got to seem the Doom boardgame in action, and it actually looks really cool, well worth the $50. -David The moan and bendover and sudden gushing water: If she was pregnant, that could have been her water breaking, meaning she was about to go into labor…

Cats: Ask your doctor if a little catnip mouse toy (or Clarinex) is right for you.

Non-descript bars: If there hadn’t been a bouncer standing outside the last GNG event to check IDs, I wouldn’t have been able to find it. And that was in Manhattan.

The Mike DeNardo link doen’t turn into a link. Check your HTML.

I-CON had a move a few years back to add an “Electronic Music” track to the Performances group. It collapsed when the guy who was given it to run found out he had only $500-600 to use as “Guest Fees” and wasn’t going to be allowed to pay himself as a performer… Talk to me during I-CON Breakdown if you have time.

How was Steamboy? Which theater, and was it the subbed or the dubbed?

I-CON 25 (next year’s) is March 24-26, 2006. Please mark your (and MK’s) calendar. (Do you think MK might be interested in doing some Comics panels?)

Shooting-Typing games: Remember MasterType? It’s in a large part responsible I think for my having a typing speed of as high as 70 using Word Processing rules (and in the low 50′s using typewriter rules).

Dead pixels: Ok, for the record, if I called Dell about a single dead pixel on my laptop screen (which has an awful lot of pixels on it that could go dead), I’d have a new screen on my parents’ doorstep within 48 hours. I’d have to install it myself, but it’s one plug and a couple of screws. I’ve done it once already because of a backlighting problem that turned out to be something wrong with the mainboard; when we figured out it wasn’t the screen they actually sent a tech out to change the mainboard and video board. I would expect Sony to be the same with their laptops; especially considering some of their laptops are more than $3k. The fact that they’re publically refusing to fix these under warranty / recall makes me smell a class-action suit in their future…

The DS had potential due to the double screen, but the stylus isn’t really a good controller for anything twitchy. (Hence why the PocketPC version of Tomb Raider uses the cross-key and application buttons.) There are ways to take advantage of that second screen but they really call for slightly more complex games… or a dual-screen-based concept from ground zero (like that old Donkey Kong II game of theirs I have)… or use of it to give the game a portrait screen format like an arcade machine. This seems like a good challange to give your game design class: Come up with a design that will properly leverage the DS’s unique features.

The “ebay auction for the haunted NES” highlights but doesn’t link… Is it supposed to be a link?

Colossus: Do you have any info on the story behind that?

Got to seem the Doom boardgame in action, and it actually looks really cool, well worth the $50.

-David

]]> By: Jason https://fort90.com/the-return/#comment-1674 Jason Sat, 26 Mar 2005 13:51:15 +0000 http://www.fort90.com/journal/?p=194#comment-1674 RE: The GDC 'bitchfest' summary. I see the following. There's nothing wrong with game design/innovation today. Perhaps the more creative games coming from the proverbial garage aren't readily appreciated because they aren't in Wal-Mart, but that doesn't mean it's not happening. All it will take is for one small studio to have their shit together and produce a marketable title that's also innovative. Voila, commercial payoff. Then the marketing mavens swoop in and get that ball rolling. And you'll probably see a slow decline in quality from the said studio as they have to deal with more on their plate than they anticipated, as they (with desire to make more money) will heed the advice of marketing and start to make decisions less for creativity (usually time consuming, read: not cost-effective) and more for profit. As for alternate means of distribution, games have that too. Who says any one game idea can't be sold as a board game, mobile game, card game, dice game, arcade game or Flash game? Are these not alternative channels? As for people working 80-hour weeks, that's their problem, there's no reason for anyone to bow to an employer for more than 40, this goes for any profession. RE: The GDC ‘bitchfest’ summary. I see the following.

There’s nothing wrong with game design/innovation today. Perhaps the more creative games coming from the proverbial garage aren’t readily appreciated because they aren’t in Wal-Mart, but that doesn’t mean it’s not happening. All it will take is for one small studio to have their shit together and produce a marketable title that’s also innovative. Voila, commercial payoff. Then the marketing mavens swoop in and get that ball rolling. And you’ll probably see a slow decline in quality from the said studio as they have to deal with more on their plate than they anticipated, as they (with desire to make more money) will heed the advice of marketing and start to make decisions less for creativity (usually time consuming, read: not cost-effective) and more for profit.

As for alternate means of distribution, games have that too. Who says any one game idea can’t be sold as a board game, mobile game, card game, dice game, arcade game or Flash game? Are these not alternative channels?

As for people working 80-hour weeks, that’s their problem, there’s no reason for anyone to bow to an employer for more than 40, this goes for any profession.

]]> By: Job https://fort90.com/the-return/#comment-1641 Job Sat, 26 Mar 2005 00:01:37 +0000 http://www.fort90.com/journal/?p=194#comment-1641 You're alive! dead pixels suck. i went through three... count em.. THREE PSP's until the pixels were so bad on the third one... I had to go back and settle for the first PSP with only one dead pixel on the bottom-left. also... FLIPNIC has been on my watchlist forever! awesome news. (who's putting it out? Ubi?) Chulip could only get better.... Natsume had it at their E3 booth last May, it definately had its quirky charm, but up close, it did look pretty dated. And I'm not ripping on its simple visuals, that was charming, but it was a bit choppy and took forever to load into new areas... I'd also guess that if Natsume put it out last year... it would have been on a "Blue CD" PS2 disc... which wouldn't help sales considering how many people's PS2's wouldnt play them.... now if they'd get cracking on "Finny the Fish and the Seven Waters" instead of releasing the the EXACT SAME Harvest Moon games... with girls playable instead of guys. I'm sorry... but that should all be in one package. Gunstar SuperHeroes still has hope.... As long as Treasure is maybe involved... *crosses fingers* Treasure sort of reminds me... if you haven't seen them.. check out the pics of Ubi's GBA Revenge of the Sith. Totally wasn't expecting that art-direction or beat-em up gameplay... what do you think? You’re alive!
dead pixels suck.
i went through three… count em.. THREE PSP’s until the pixels were so bad on the third one… I had to go back and settle for the first PSP with only one dead pixel on the bottom-left.

also…
FLIPNIC has been on my watchlist forever!
awesome news. (who’s putting it out? Ubi?)

Chulip could only get better….
Natsume had it at their E3 booth last May, it definately had its quirky charm, but up close, it did look pretty dated. And I’m not ripping on its simple visuals, that was charming, but it was a bit choppy and took forever to load into new areas… I’d also guess that if Natsume put it out last year… it would have been on a “Blue CD” PS2 disc… which wouldn’t help sales considering how many people’s PS2′s wouldnt play them…. now if they’d get cracking on “Finny the Fish and the Seven Waters” instead of releasing the the EXACT SAME Harvest Moon games… with girls playable instead of guys. I’m sorry… but that should all be in one package.

Gunstar SuperHeroes still has hope….
As long as Treasure is maybe involved… *crosses fingers*

Treasure sort of reminds me… if you haven’t seen them.. check out the pics of Ubi’s GBA Revenge of the Sith. Totally wasn’t expecting that art-direction or beat-em up gameplay… what do you think?

]]>