brpocock

Vice versa, the SID can be adressed with 8 bits, because the CPU can only set 8 bit registers. But inside the chip, 2 of them are combined... remembering "16 Bit channels". That's the cause for my comparision. Well... the SID's address bus is actually 5 bits. It's just used for memory-mapped I/O. Then you have the VIC-II (C=64/128), which has a EDIT:Typo six-bit memory-mapped I/O port, but a 14-bit outbound address fetch availability.

Haven't had much time to post -- nor to make huge strides in coding -- but game progressing approximately on cue. More significant announcements should follow this one shortly, hopefully by the end of the week.

For analog/3d... GCN controllers. The Nintendo originals are good; the MadCatz ones with soft (gel) grips are a slight improvement for some things. I particularly like the "blind" button arrangement ... A,B,X,Y are all distinct "braille'able" shapes. For digital/2d, the Saturn controller wasn't bad, but I'd have to lean toward something more like the "figure 8" SNES control pads. A bit small for my hands, but you know, Caucasians are just too damned tall. Actually, for modern digital/2d, the GBA or NDS layout is pretty nice, and a decent size. The SP and Micro are too small, and the GBA doesn't have a backlight, so it's not great for portables, but it's quite playable in e.g. multiplayer Final Fantasy on GCN, which is kinda surprising as it's a "2-and-a-half-D" game. (2D world but 3D view)

I dunno about the rest of the country, but what killed Sega around here was absolute and total lack of exposure. And (as you might guess by my presence here) I'm the kind of person who was looking for it in the shops. I saw precisely one TV advert for the Dreamcast -- now, mind you, I don't watch a lot of TV, but I've seen far more for any other modern system. I actually saw my first Dreamcast in person yesterday at a new Rhino store in the area. I never saw one at any local GameStop, Rhino, Target, K-Mart, nor Wal-Mart (but I avoid W-M so it's possible I missed it). For that matter, I have yet to see an actual production-model Saturn in person, although I've got a PC devkit for one in a box somewhere. I don't know who the retailers were that were supposed to be selling these Sega systems, but they didn't exactly "push" them around here. I'm a bit reminded of the Sears/iMac debacle. The Sears in this area that got a dozen iMacs set up one in a corner with the stack of boxes beside it ... in the basement level, behind hand tools and next to tires. (These were the CRT "five fruity flavors" iMacs, so the boxes were a little bulky to carry up the escalator to the mall level.) Then Sears stopped carrying them because they weren't selling... perhaps if they had been near, say, electronics, things would have been different.

I believe that was the general idea behind 3DO...

Mass-production, for just the drive? If it weren't a custom gizmo to handle GCN discs too, I'd say closer to $25 a unit, actually.

Back-of-envelope figuring... Mass-production figures... DVD player (semi-custom) ... $25 Main logic board ... $40 Power supply and misc ... $10 Handset and nunchuk ... $15 Pack-in game (actual costs, excl. development) ... $1 Rough production costs: ... $100 Sure, you have to offset shipping, advertising, development costs, and a lot more. But I think the other factor hitting them is, (a) people expect it to cost more than the DS (why? laptops cost more than desktops... mobile phones cost far more than desk phones...), and more significantly (b) if it's too much cheaper than the 360 and PS3, people will think it's less powerful (arguably true) and not a "real" game system... Parents walk in to Target and see $150, $400..500, and $500..600 systems they might not think the $150 was a real option... so Nintendo needs to make sure it's priced high enough to attract attention I suspect ...

Zelda packin please I'm rather hoping there's an introductory discount, as with the NDS (MSRP: $150, introductory price $120) and GCN (MSRP: $200, introductory price $150) for us fanboys who preorder the damned things.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/5016838.stm

'fraid not. It's "We/Wee/Whee"...

Not sure about "enjoyment" (...) but the human eye (excluding various disabilities like colourblindness) is just a smidge more capable than 24 bits per pixel colour discrimination. That's the "millions of colours" setting on a typical computer system. (8 bits each red, green, and blue) All current systems use 24bpp colour (although, some refer to it as 32bpp, counting 8 bits of transparency/alpha data) As for internal bus bandwidth *shrug* who cares? Aside: The GCN and Wii are both "technically" HiDef. They're just supporting the "standard" level of HD signal rather than the "super" level. I forget the names, because they're just big numbers, but it's something like 480p versus 1024i? On the GCN, the HiDef support is optional, the individual games decide whether to support it or not. (It's indicated on the packaging/manual with a TV set icon.) I think the PS2 also has (limited) support for HiDef?

A bunch of early NES titles used "weird symbols" of various kinds. I seem to think Castlevania had clergical symbols? As for 2600, those are the only two I'd heard of (and I hadn't heard of Survival Island before!)

Fair Use is taking a lot of abuse lately, but I for one am a big fan. B.S. like the DMCA has made serious inroads toward circumventing those rights unfortunately :-( Incidentally, totally O-T at this point, but both the HD-DVD and Blu-Ray are attempts to eradicate Fair Use rights by making it illegal to exercise your fair use rights. EG: years ago, VCR's were judged to be legal (ironically, I seem to recall Sony was the defendant?) for copying copyrighted TV shows and movies for personal viewing, i.e. time-shifting, but the encrypted digital signal crap that Sony wants built in to all Blu-Ray players and compatible TV's is specifically to prevent you from videotaping, &c. I think the act of disassembly is, itself, something like translating or copying? EULA's usually explicitly forbid reverse-engineering (e.g. disassembly), but same is clearly "research" so it's grey area... IANAL of course, either... just wanted to point out in case anyone were to get the idea into their head that they had any civil rights left

Currently, console software doesn't come with any form of license agreement. Thus, short of violating the law you can do anything you damn well please with your games, including reselling them. False. The license agreement, on GCN games, is usually in the printed manual. I believe the same is true for Xbox and PSx software, as well. However, most (not all) software licenses have a "transfer" clause. That's easier with console games, as it basically says, "if you give someone this disc/cart, they're bound to the same license terms as you are." With PC stuff (installed to HD), there's usually more complicated language reminding you to remove everything from your HD and so forth. A notable example of "no resale permitted" software is Windows XP...

Actually, it's still illegal (at least in the USA), which IMHO is ridiculous. But, luckily, it's also practically impossible to prove it, if it's not distributed, so it hardly matters. Also, the Secret Service doesn't typically investigate stuff like this unless the copyright-holders (which, sadly, would be Infogrames for the Atari stuff, not the original authors) file a complaint, making abandonware kinda grey-market "safe."

I'd have to agree as well. While "hacks" are always technically illegal without the author's permission, I think everyone here would agree that "abandonware" canethically be considered fair game... but not "current" titles like Gunfight or Starfire. (Without permission of the author(s), of course.)

Requires Flash, though. Are these posted someplace in an open format?

Well, "plumbing" and mechanics of programming probably being out of that age range: animation, 3D, level/map design... puzzle designs/paradigms, progressive difficulty, exposition/tutorials, music as relates to actions in game, control layouts and on-screen user interface design, perspectives and camera placement, design documents (software design, subscreen flowcharts, game world maps, character sheets), ... and maybe discuss how hardware affects design...e.g. control placement, limitations on display and music, integrating full-motion video vs. 2D/3D animations, ... I assume you're discussing modern console gaming, since you mentioned 3D?

SErvice/GAmes. You'd have to hope the service was good, they put it first :-) (Of course, around here (NE Florida) it can also mean SouthEast GeorgiA, so...)

Yep, Perl. It's mostly oriented to sprites and tiles... that clever HMOVE gimmick is well out of its repertoire.

Sure, I'd 'preciate it. I'm actually modifying my nasty "mkart." I'll jot you a PM with my evil secret plans for world domination

Actually, the Commodore 64 KERNAL keeps a table of indirect vectors in ZP RAM for various service routines, including (IIRC) keyscan, print a character, and so forth. So, at least in their case, there's a good case for having a jump table in RAM indexed to find a service routine.

Annoying, but happening anyways. Too frustrating to fix up the tile drawing so scratched around some support and infrastructure stuff. Have a really interesting idea for a playfield conversion program based mostly on SpiceWare's dragon converter. Might monkey with that tonight but I think I know someone who has other plans for my time.

Yeah, ... I don't think anyone gets into game programming for the money. (Managers at Mc Donald's make more.) And Atari programming, less so. (I rather suspect the average Hemming Plaza panhandler makes more.) However, a designer who has a good concept and is willing to learn enough about the platform's limitations/features to come up with a reasonable design plan, detailed design documents, and the like ... that's worth the effort. Incidentally, as relates to advertising, think about things like vertical screen zones (score, playfield, whatever) or windows (on a machine newer than the 2600) and learn a little about the target machine's limitations, take what you learn into account. EG, don't plan on a VCS game having giant multicoloured characters as a critical part of the design ... but then, "slightly impossible" things may be well worth asking-for. What you'd end up with will be a lot like an animatic, a storyboard, but with notes about interactions and so forth. Something else that's often useful in formulating a design is to write the "fine" manual... having to explain how the game is played to an imaginary user can help gell the ideas. PS: I dunno who else may have "won" that game, but it should be noted that Mayday was an "idea peddler" and I'm the programmer who picked up with his idea, i.e. CiE. And before Batari's insinuations are taken into account, I've not the slightest idea what he looks like ...

Y's was a kickass series for the ... TurboGrafx? was it? ... Only Y's III was ported to SNES, I think. RPG in the Ultima/Final Fantasy school. Populous was the original "god game," actually I think it's where the genre got that name. (i.e. similar to Sim City or Theme Park.) You're a god, you lead your little followers around, perform miracles, and so forth. The game play is very similar to the Warcraft games -- the original "wargame" ones, i.e. You can't directly order your followers to do much, specific, but you can "nudge" them through indirect controls. I think this one was on practically every platform at the time: PC/DOS, Amiga, Nintendo ...