Am I stupid?
I just don’t seem to understand the point of this (from ‘Slashdot’):
Andre Lamothe Launches XgameStation
Posted by michael on Saturday August 21, @12:50PM
from the everything-old-is-new-again dept.
TheAdventurer writes "Andre Lamothe, author of many popular video game programming books, has released his XGameStation. The initial offering, the XGameStation Micro Edition, is a retro level hardware platform, similar to the old Atari and NES systems, designed to teach enthusiasts and students the elements of console hardware design and effective low level programming skills. The unit comes with an e-book written by Andre on how to develop on the platform using its assembly language IDE (included) and how to make your own extensions to the device. It is priced at $199."
Hmmmmmm. Not much call for assembler these days. Don’t get me wrong. I’m from that time. I had much more fun with 6502 and 8086 than any other language. Hitting the hardware was great back in the day – but now?
I donno – maybe it’s one of them things for people with too much time on their hands, but why not just use Direct X, Visual Basic, or Dark/Blitz Basic instead and focus on creating a game – not just some plasma effect from 10 years ago.
Nic.
Vote for me...
http://www.walkofgame.com/
Nic.
P.S. Just kiddin'
Handheld Surgery...
There’s a big debate (I guess) about which of the new handheld platforms is going to dominate. The Sony PSP, or the Nintendo DS.
The way I see it – Sony have a problem. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a lovely looking and very powerful bit of kit – but it seems like everything is a port of a PS2 title. Why? Because they can.
But here’s my point. How many PSP owners are not going to have a PS2? How many PSP owners are going to buy two versions of the same game – one to play at home, the other to play on the train.
I think Sony might kill their own sales by spreading the same games across two platforms.
On the other hand – the DS is a completely different beast. It’s making designers think about how to make games that could only be played on the DS.
For example:
“Atlus announced a new Nintendo DS action game called Caduceus Surgical Operation, which is a surgery action game which operates with touch panel and voice. You play as a young doctor, to perform operations on patients, you follow instructions on the top screen and operate on the touch panel, and you can cheer up patients with voice. The game is scheduled for a spring 2005 release in Japan.”
I’m working on a design for a DS game that could only be played on the DS. It’s an interesting device – and a device that you can still build games on with a small team.
I think there is space in this world for both the PSP and DS because they are very different machines... I just think Nintendo understand this market a little better and after the initial lust for the PSP, things might go Nintendo’s way.
We shall see.
Nic.
Yo shortie...
…It’s my birthday!!! And the weirdest thing has happened. I woke up and I could not get the song “Save all your kisses for me” by ‘The Brotherhood of Man’ out of my head.
It’s premature dementia I tells ya...
Nic.
Damn it...
I was planning to fly out to Japan in October with a spare suitcase to pick up this...
But now they’ve toned it down to this...
Boooooo...
Maybe I should start my own life-size hugging pillow company. Hmmmmm.
Nic.
P.S. I'm just kiddin by the way!!!
Doom and Gloom...
I tried that Doom 3 rip that’s floating around the internet at the mo. My PC needs a serious upgrade I guess… it was unplayable on my GFX card. Thing is – I can’t really justify spending £100+ on a new graphics card. I mean – I could buy a new Ps2, or Gamecube, or Xbox for that money.
Maybe when Half-Life 2 comes out...
Nic.
P.S. Dunwich no mushi atsui desu!!!
