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I'm not buying anything at the moment, but when I start buying again I might as well have a link to the 100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time. I looked over the list, I must say I mostly agree with it, but I do think I would have moved The Dire Straights Money For Nothin' up a little higher.
I don't think they could have chosen #1 any better.
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Occasionally I link to a very addicting awesome flash or JAVA game. This is one of them.
Time Fcuk
Very unique, very cool. Inverse gravity, multilayer playing field, mid air layer shifts, lots of strategy and unique puzzles. There actually is an end to it, and unlike the laser game it's not so many it's unbearable - I honestly think it should be expanded and turned into a PSP game. It seems like it would fit in the game library somewhere between C.R.U.S.H and Echochrome.
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Sega - You're doing it right!
Here's the post I'm referencing.
To sum up that previous post I argued that companies could cut down on piracy by continuing to offer their back catalog in a useful manner. Sega did that, they're cutting into the pirate market in more than one way, and they're doing it in a manner that respects the customers!
Retro-Bit is one of those Asian companies that has sprung up as a clone system maker. What sets them apart from other clone system makers is they actually make good hardware - not cheap barely passing fall apart junk. Courts have ruled knock off systems to be legal after patents expire etc... so one way or the other Retro-Bit was going to make(and has made) Genesis/Mega-Drive knock offs. They make the Retro-Duo I use at home to replace my NES and SNES consoles.
Sega actually licensed games to them. Here's the Firecore Genesis System, it's as though they read my post or something. This system comes pre-loaded with 20 games, accepts the old cartridges AND has an SD reader for "licensed ROMS". I don't know what that last part means exactly - apparently there's going to be a way to buy them legally, put them on the SD card and play them in the system. If they do this, then they're doing exactly what I said game companies should do in my previous post. Another company also in on the licensing arrangement is making a "Retro Gen" system which for all intents and purposes is a modernized remake of the Nomad system - and it also takes original cartridges AND SD cards. They both apparently support modern "True Color" games. I don't know what this means exactly, I'm guessing home brew, and there's some good home brew out there.
Arguably, Atari beat Sega to the punch on most of this, but never mind that.
Nintendo needs to get on the ball. They are notorious for hating anything unlicensed, it pisses them off to no end that the Retro-Duo even exist and they have failed lawsuits to prove it. Instead of fighting it, they need to follow Sega and Atari's lead, and while they're at it, Sony needs to get on the ball to. You're not going to beat the pirates, the classic market is thriving, either get into the game or stew on the sidelines. Nintendo - that Wii online classic game market is great, but it can't stop there.
Main post over - babble follows.
I think it's great they're not doing it themselves and they're licensing it. Those companies were going to make knock-offs anyways, I would rather Sega have a little bit of a hand in the process to ensure quality. I also think Sega has produced much better quality games since they've gotten out of the hardware business themselves and decided to just be a publisher.
I wasn't much of a Sega guy back in the day. I loved my Game Gear, but other than that I didn't get a Genesis or Dream Cast until recent years, after both systems were already shelved.
Rachael picked up my Think Geek catalog in the bathroom, set her eyes on this thing which I think is just a renamed Dingoo. I had to explain to her what ROMs were, then I showed her my PSP hacked to play SNES games and SNES9x on my Mac, she played Mario Kart and loved it. I think she's getting a Dingoo for Christmas. (Don't worry, she doesn't read my LJ, I think)
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Starting about two years ago I started using Apple products. Really, Apple makes awesome hardware, and a rock solid operating system. I rather like it. The iPhone is just like it's desktop Mac counter part great for the same reasons. Why am I going to bail? "Apple says no". Seriously, if I were selling mobile phones to compete with Apple I would make my slogan just that "Because Apple says no".
Opera made a browser for the iPhone - Apple said no, not yours, wont let them distribute it.
Apple acts like they have a vendetta against Ogg/Vorbis Ogg/Theora. I can make them work on the Mac simply by dropping a couple of files in the appropriate places. Unfortunately, I can't do that as easily on my iPhone. Using Apple products COMPLETELY screwed up my music management scheme which worked until I brought Apple into the pack.
When I'm on a Linux machine I'm lucky if I can even charge my iPhone using it - this is due to Apple choosing not to honor the USB standards which they helped to create. Forget doing anything more than charging it.
Apple is very tight lipped about what each of their updates actually contains and they enjoy removing features and screwing people with these mystery updates.
They intentionally make their hardware difficult to upgrade/work on, they expect me to be a moron and take my system in for every little thing I want to do with it.
They cripple software they provide and on the iPhone they enforce using it. Anything someone makes that's cooler than what Apple makes is denied due to being a duplication of features. It goes well beyond that linked article.
The fact they cripple my calendar is especially annoying. I can sync my phone to loads of different calendars, but unless I subscribe to mobile me for a small fortune on top of the fortunate I had to spend to get the iPhone/Mac any updates I make from the phone end STAY on the phone end, even if I do select a Google or Exchange calendar. Why should it have to be one way? The technologies in place, Apple is just acting like a bunch of douche bags over it.
I'm typing this on a Mac Mini, my daughter has a Dual Power Mac G5, and I have an iPhone. I'm not going to hurry to replace them, I don't have the budget, but they're going to get worked out of active use and replaced with something specifically NOT Apple. (caveat - I have considered putting Linux on Apple hardware - I may make an exception to make this happen)
APPLE FORBIDS OPEN SOURCE even though everything they do rides on the back of BSD code.
The modern Apple is acting like the mid 90's Microsoft. The main difference between modern Apple and old Microsoft is Apple, despite acting like a bunch of jack asses, is actually putting out a good product.
Right now I'm contemplating jumping ship on nVida also, I'm keeping an eye on them, if they pull much more douchebaggery they're next. |
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Carl Sagan and Stephen Hawking sing about the universe.
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The game was on at work. I'm not liking Buffalo's uniform, I kept double taking and wondering how the hell the Oilers were playing. WTF? It was even worse when the pants were in view (I had a heck of a time finding pics of the Bills in the uniform they wore tonight) |
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Usually I rant about companies I don't like and are stepping on the little guy or are pulling some other, usually legal/patent/copywrite asshattery. This rants going to be different, in this case I'm going to rant about a company I really do like and I think is one of the best in the industry.
( Logitech )
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I want to share this video because I like this game so much. The game is called CRUSH, it's a very unique platform/puzzle game. The object is for the crazy guy to collect his marbles (literally) by navigating the world switching between 2D and 3D modes.
The guy who recorded this made this level look easy - I assure you, this level was nowhere near as easy as this guy made it look. This one actually took me a little bit of time to figure out, but is simple compared to the levels I'm on now.
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pecosdave's journal