Sega, Nintendo Team Up To Create New Graphics Board 277
TimWeigel writes "The Daily Yomiuri is reporting that Sega, Nintendo and Namco are teaming up to create a new commercial graphics board. This new board, the Triforce (tip o' the hat to all the Zelda fans), will reportedly be based on the hardware in the GameCube. The article indicates it will be targeted towards new game consoles, as well as "similar products". A prototype is scheduled to be demonstrated at the 2002 AOU Amusement Expo on 22 Feb."
Well at least they are not calling it... (Score:3, Funny)
the Pikachu
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Well at least they are not calling it... (Score:2, Funny)
Ok, you clearly know way too much about Pokemon.
Re:Well at least they are not calling it... (Score:5, Funny)
Until he was corrupted by the One Pokeball. Twisted and evil, he is now known as Gorrum.
Re:Well at least they are not calling it... (Score:2)
Rock on brother! I'm 20 and have a Pikachu pillow (helps my back when I'm doing programming runs). And my 22 year old housemate has a little stuffed Snorlax on his printer, not to mention a shirt and several big posters featuring you-know-what.
I would be interested in a Pokemon poll: love it / hate it / never seen it.
Intresting, but is it really useful? (Score:3, Insightful)
But console games, especially Nintendo's, are targeted at their controller. So playing the games on different hardware could be a useless endeavor.
Other then a few development bonuses, I dont really see the upshot.
Besides, Sega has a horrible track record with Hardware.
END COMMUNICATION
Re:Intresting, but is it really useful? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Intresting, but is it really useful? (Score:3, Informative)
Sega AM2 is one of Sega's 10 software teams along with Sonic Team, Sega Rosso, WOW Entertainment, Hitmaker, Wavemasters (GODS of video game music), Overworks, Amusement Vision, Smilebit, and UGA.
Re:Intresting, but is it really useful? (Score:1, Informative)
They have problems selling their hardware not designing it. I still love my dreamcast. IMHO I think it's a nifty piece of electronics.
I'm very happy that Sega still has some hardware R&D.
"END COMMUNICATION" ?
Re:Intresting, but is it really useful? (Score:5, Insightful)
You've either been smokin crack or have obviously never played either a Sega arcade game or a Dreamcast. The Dreamcast graphics are still almost a match for a PS2 and developers used to enjoy coding for it, as it was so easy and geared towards them.
Sega don't have a good record in MARKETING. But that's different.
Sony are the MS of the console world: they killed the Dreamcast through FUD.
Arcade games usually have extreme controllers, but many of them were sucessfully ported to many different home consoles, so that's another fallacy.
Re:Intresting, but is it really useful? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Intresting, but is it really useful? (Score:2)
And that was a big mistake on Sega of Japan's part. It cost them 10 million dollars to settle with 3DFX (company or brand, I forget), after the chipmaker sued them for breaking a deal that required Sega to use their chips. Sega of America wanted to go with the 3DFX, and SoJ practically snubbed them when they choose PowerVR. EA games refused to develop for the Dreamcast under the excuse that PowerVR was too difficult compared to the 3DFX they were used to, and that really hurt the console's prospects.
Great company. Stupid execs.
Re:Intresting, but is it really useful? (Score:2, Insightful)
Yes, I realize that Sony had something to do with this. Unfortunatly, Sega gets screwed by one thing or another, they do make great games.
Back in the day it was possiable for a company to completly design a computer/console system. Now things are so complex that it's impossiable to design a machine that will compete head on with the latest tech without outsourcing the development.
Yes, they do. (Score:2)
The Master System cartridge adaptor for the Genisis.
The SegaCD.
The Sega 32X.
The Sega Nomad.
Some of their ideas were quite good, but were outright unsuccessful. The Sega Saturn was rushed due to fear of the Sony Playstation. If they had not rushed it, they might have been able to succeed with that system outside of Japan. The Dreamcast was a great system, and easy to program for (easier then the PS2). But Sega was unable to secure the Developer support, and that was largely because of how poorly the Saturn had done.
END COMMUNICATION
Re:Yes, they do. (Score:2)
The DC was kind of strange in that it was like a PSX plus. I didn't like the batarang controllers but it has some neat games. Heard that Bleemcast made GT2 look incredible but since I own BleemPC I never had any use for it.
Sega had a long string of hardware failures that eventually put them in the toilet. The 32x was a bastard. The sega cd was an expensive joke. Actually between the Sega Genesis (basically a repackaged Amiga) and the Dreamcast they haven't made anything good.
Don't even mention the Nomad. The Lynx stomped it years earlier then died quietly. Man the days of playing Electrocop, what a great game.
Re:Yes, they do. (Score:2)
The hardware itself is what I would consider the pinnacle of Innovative hardware development in video games. Unfortuantely it proved that expansions for video game consoles are never received well. Imagine that you own a SNES and a game you really want to play comes out for the 32X, on CD (say, Dragon's Lair 2: Time Warp, which was never released). You don't just go off and buy a single console, you have to buy a Mega Drive first, then a 32X and a Mega CD. While upgrades really benefit existing owners, too many in a row before you pack all the features into one product will look out potential new owners.
The Neptune was cancelled -- it would have produced a 32X/Genesis all-in-one unit. The backwards compatibility for the Saturn that was considered ultimately proved too difficult to bring to market by the time it was obvious that 3D and the PSX had won.
However, if you actually look at what was done with a system that started as a pretty average 16 bit console, how the CD add-on suddenly gave developers 600 times more storage, plus some extra audio hardware and sprite scaling. If you look at how the 32X turned a 16 bit system into a 32 bit system, adding more colours, 3D, etc. If you look at how these upgrades all interacted, letting developers tap into whatever hardware they wanted. Then you see that Sega produced some superb hardware. Hardware that, when you look at the level of innovation involved, hasn't been equalled before or since.
For the history of the 32X, which is much more interesting than any of the games for it (with the possible exception of Kolibri), I recommend this site [atani-software.net].
Re:Yes, they do. (Score:2)
The sad part about Sega CD games was that nobody knew what to do with it. There were some great rpg's released with some video footage and extra voiceovers, but other than that, it was full of utter crap like Sewer Sharks and
The 32X didn't have anything to brag about either. I played the Star Wars game on it. The Amiga/Genesis chipset can do 3d just fine when it's that simple. It takes talented coders. The 32X could push out some polygons through hardware and had improved sound (full digital with more voices IIRC). Again, nobody really took advantage of it. It's too bad because it seemed to have potential. Then again, I remember horror stories of the 32x shorting out people's machines alot. That's not good hardware design.
While it's fun to wax nostalgic, let us not forget the flaws of failed hardware (yeah that includes the Jaguar also).
Re:Yes, they do. (Score:2)
I used to own a CDTV. Only computer I ever regret selling. If I could find a CD32 locally (with Australian power fittings and/or 240V, PAL) I'd own one but they are damn hard to come by here. Meanwhile I've had the opportunity to buy 3 32Xs and 3 MegaCDs.
It's such a shame that the CD32 was a ticky-tacky plastic console. If only it had been hi-fi component style like the CDTV I would have bought one when it first came out... (I was into that look back then, now I don't care so much.)
Re:Yes, they do. (Score:2)
Preach it, brother! I still own 3 Lynxes and about 40 games, and ElectroCop was the first game I bought (apart from getting California Games with the system).
Blue Lightning was another great game released at the same time as the machine itself...
Re:Yes, they do. (Score:2)
Re:Intresting, but is it really useful? (Score:2)
Back in the Genesis days, Sega DID have the best ahrdware from a development standpoint. The Genesis was (I'm generalizing here but still) just a 68000 main processor with a z80 for sound. Nothing funky, and easy to program. Now the Dreamcast is just a mess of custom chips that you just don't find anywhere else. Not only that, there are some weird ways they interact. This makes it fairly difficult to learn how to program and even more difficult to program to it's maximum potential.
That is one thing the X-box really has going for it. You write all your code in C++ or if you need to use assembly it's an old, well known and documented standard (x86). Graphics programming is done via DirectX and again, just a single unit to deal with.
Most likely... (Score:4, Insightful)
This card most likely has nothing to do with the home segment at all. It will be marketed toard third-party arcade and home entertainment vendors, as well as used for Sega's and Namco's arcade hardware needs. Believe it or not, a lot of the bigger arcade games these days are powered by basically PC's with powerful graphics boards, like the ones of Quantum3D. Heck, 3Dfx got its start with arcade graphics chips, and the Voodoo 2 powered more than just PC's--arcade games as well.
So, I'd bet that this is not the least bit geared towards the end user.
Breakdown of Sega Hardware (Score:2)
Sega Master System: Superior to the Nintendo Entertainment Center... actually I'm not sure why it failed to seriously compete with Nintendo. I remember wanting one, but Nintendo was the way to go then.
Genesis: More powerful than competition, but virtually no customer hardware. The SNES was slower, but kicked the Genesis's butt graphically.
Game Gear: Sega's answer to the Game Boy, with whoo-dee-doo-battery eating-too large-but at least it has a color screen- features. This system was a pitiful portable system. It didn't fit in your pocket, battery life as 3 hours on 6 AA's, and the screen wasn't really that clear.
SegaCD: this one's debatable. The SegaCD had a faster processor, and the 1x CD ROM, that's about it tho. Yet it cost about 2x what the Genesis did, plus you needed the Genesis. The games ranged from suck to mediochre. I think the hardware was mostly untapped, but they made the horrible mistake of sticking with the original Genesis's palette of 64/512 colors. So the whoopee full screen video looked like Windows in 16 color mode trying to play a DVD.
32x: Supposedly the SaturnJR. I think Sega's marketing was trying to act like the car industry by offering the low cost version and the luxury version of their systems. They didn't seem to realize that companies don't want to develop CD based games, and then watered down cartridge ports of those games also that would presumably sell for a lower price. Fat chance. The hardware was ok, but never fully utilized.
Saturn: Oh my.. if you opened one of these bad boys up, you'd have computer guts spilled all over the place. The Saturn was intended to be a SNES asskicker. But Sega didn't think that 3D Games would be that interesting. When the Playstation was announced, the pres of Sega said "we need to do 3D too.", so a second processor was band-aided into the Saturn. Result? A 2D machine tried to compete in a 3D market. It was too difficult to program for, and rather inferior to the PS 3D capabilities. I think Sega would have been better off sticking with the 2D approach and giving people a reason to own both systems.
Sega Dreamcast: This is where Sega actually got it right. They used semi-custom hardware (I think.. I haven't researched this machine as much as I have the others.) It was fairly innovative. It was cheap. And the developers had no trouble cranking out kick ass games. I have no complaints about this sytem. It's too bad Sega didn't go this route a few years ago.
Before the Dreamcast came out, Sega was designing hardware with off the shelf parts. I guess they did good with what they had, but it lead to their downfall. I think their biggest blunder was trying to keep the Genesis as the central attraction.
Re:Breakdown of Sega Hardware (Score:2)
Sony largely used off-the shelf components where it counts in both the PSX and PS2. Microsoft's doing the same thing with the X-Box (Even moreso, the controllers are nothing more than USB controllers with special IDs to make them X-Box controllers. Nothing fancy needed in the electronics there that isn't already done.)
Re:Breakdown of Sega Hardware (Score:2)
The XBOX has a custom version of the Nvidia chipset, although it may eventually turn into an 'off the shelf product'.
The Dreamcast had custom PowerVR chips I think.. but I will happily admit I'm not so well informed on the DC.
The Playstation had a custom graphics chip made also, but I honestly can't give you a whole lotta info on it. I remember reading a magazine article about how Sony did a wonderful thing by merging two processors on the same die to improve efficiency.
I don't think custom hardware necessarily means more expensive to manufacture. Compare the GC to the XBOX. The GC is almost completely custom built in some form or another, and is a very small efficient design. The XBOX is somewhat convluted, resembling a PC on the inside. The XBOX costs $100 more, and I bet you that Microsoft actually paid more than $300 per unit to have it built. I've heard rumors that they cost roughly $420, at least in the beginning. One of the processes that Nintendo takes to the extreme is to get it all one one tiny little mobo with as simple of architecture as possible.
Some could argue that the GameCube could graphically hold its own against the XBOX. That's still to be proven, but considering the machine costs roughly half as much, I'd say that using custom designed hardware has proven to be much less expensive for Nintendo. It's a shame that Microsoft and Sony hadn't gone the same route. Both the PS2 and the XBOX are pretty convoluted in one way or another.
Re:Breakdown of Sega Hardware (Score:2)
Re:Breakdown of Sega Hardware (Score:2)
Ok, I'll correct you. The Genesis could only put 64 different colors on screen at a time. It's palette is 512 colors. I've heard that it had a graphics mode where you could do 16/4096, not sure I've ever seen it tho. It's pretty obvious when you play Sonic the Hedgehog, and when the screen fades from white to black, it hits some blue on the way.
The Super NES had a color palette of 256/32768 colors, and most games made really good use of that pallete. That's one of the reasons the SNES's graphics were so much nicer. Donkey Kong Country in particular made excellent use of the SNES's capabilities. I think once that game came out, few people wanted a Genesis. Not to mention that the SNES had far superior audio hardware.
Re:now to correct the corrections (Score:2)
Re:now to correct the corrections (Score:2)
I vaguely remember reading about the HAM technique you mentioned. I think SNES used a similar technique in Killer Instinct, too, where it displayed 512 instead of 256 colors. Unfortunately, I think I got that bit of info from Electronic Gaming Monthly, so consider the source if you know what I mean.
Regarding the sound on the SNES, my comment about the sound being superior comes from having a rather sensitive ear. The SNES definitely had a better range of capabilities than the Genesis did. Take, for example, in Super Mario World whenever Mario was in a cave. Everything would echo inside the cave. Final Fantasy 3 had what sounded like a chorus chanting/singing, that was pretty cool. Voices in Mortal Kombat sounded pretty good on the SNES, but on the Genesis they sounded like they had laryngitis (sp?). The Genesis always sounded like midi to me. I think I remember reading that the SNES had a really cool Yamaha sound chip in it, but I don't have much more info than that.
I think most people would agree that the SNES consistently had better sound than the Genesis. I'm not talking about music here, I'm talking about sound in general. Heh, I really did like the music in the first Sonic game.
Re:Breakdown of Sega Hardware (Score:2)
"Dreamcast: Too small of a technological jump. Wasn't very much better than the PSX (just compare Air Force Delta to Ace Combat 3 or any racing game to Gran Turismo 2). Didn't have enough games and didn't have a DVD drive. Graphical hardware is weaker than a Voodoo 3"
The Dreamcast has a pretty decent library, and now they're gonna bomb the games out for really cheap. The DVD ROM... well that'd up to the individual's tastes. If you consider that a DVD would likely add $100 to the price tag, you could get a stand-alone DVD player for about that much. Personally I'd rather go that way, but I concede that people have differing tastes. Given how cheap the system was, I was pretty satisfied. I think most people who purchased it were.
As for being graphically weaker than Voodoo 3, Im not sure that is apples to apples. PowerVR has some efficiences that made a lot of Dreamcast games look a lot better than the PS2. I don't know how it stacks up to the Voodoo3, but I also don't worry to much about it. I can't play Jet Grind Radio on the PC. So no matter how good a 3D Card is on the PC, the DC has tons of games the PC doesn't. I'm very happy with the games I play on it.
One thing I really like about the DC is that they ported BSD over to it. That doesn't mean a whole lot yet, but the idea of downloading a CD image, burning it, and running apps on the Dreamcast is enticing. Playing VCD's on it, for example, is pretty cool.
Re:Intresting, but is it really useful? (Score:2)
Probably all of the above. AFAIK, the Nintendo/Williams Ultra64 arcade titles were a moderate success. I certainly dumped enough money into Crusin' USA when that came out. And Sega and Namco are actively developing for the GameCube.
No, Sega has never had a problem with their hardware. Since Genisis, they've always been a step or two ahead of everyone else. Generally, it's their software that sucks, but it was a total lack of direction that brought the company down. That's why they're out of the (home) hardware business and only doing software now.
This looks to be a good fit for both Nintendo and Sega, though. Sega has had success with their commercial arcade hardware, but they might not be able to go it alone any more.
Re:Intresting, but is it really useful? (Score:2)
I'm pretty sure that's what he means by 'Sega has a horrible track record with hardware'.
Scroll down a bit, I wrote a response titled 'Breakdown of Sega Hardware' in this thread, it talks in a little more detail about the problems with each bit of hardware I mentioned.
Re:Intresting, but is it really useful? (Score:2)
The Saturn is the best 2D console ever produced. The 32X is the most innovative upgrade ever produced, bringing (at the time) the nearest thing to arcade 3D there was. The Game Gear was a colour, backlit portable Sega Master System and the Sega CD set the ball rolling on CD-based consoles (don't confuse crap FMV games with the hardware). What was wrong with these were high price points and lack of committment on Sega's behalf. Also, the Game Gear had some battery life issues. If Sega had never released the Saturn, sure the 32X would have struggled against the PSX, but developers wouldn't have been screwed around and who knows how popular the 32X would have been.
Wow! (Score:1, Insightful)
Dacs
upgrades? (Score:1)
What about the new Kart? (Score:1)
Re:upgrades? (Score:2)
Haven't you seen the anandtech [anandtech.com] piece on it? The thing is t-i-n-y...
here's [icrontic.com] a site where they actually crack one open.
maybe they'll offer it in other revisions (like how the N64 had that expansion port), but I doubt it... I'm sure the new board they're working on won't be compatible with the rest of the GC hardware... but we could get lucky...
Re:upgrades? (Score:1)
Re:To compensate for lack of FMV (Score:2)
I don't think that's a problem at all. Skies of Arcadia used standard DC polygons for it's sequences, and the game still looked terrific. In fact, I'm a bigger fan of the GameCube because it has less space for FMV. Game companies just go nuts with all of those sequences and tend to forget that the user actually expects to play a game. If I wanted all of that, I'd just go to a theatre. It makes sense to keep the developers on a leash so they don't go overboard.
I was never upset by the performance of my NES due to it's lack of FMV. In fact, it was the most entertaining console I ever owned. I think that's proof right there that you don't need FMV to have a good game system.
I can see this req spec (Score:2, Funny)
"Ones who does not possess Triforce cannot play."
Force (Score:1)
May the force be with you
Re:Force (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Force (Score:1)
Re:Force (Score:3, Funny)
TRIXP ARE FOR KIDS ! (Score:2)
Sorry I had to....
Re:TRIXP ARE FOR KIDS ! (Score:2)
I think 96........Maybe 95...dont remember
I figure any Slashdotters that send me mail, I really dont wanna read anyway
Triforce (Score:1)
Like the article says, it's a tip o' the hat for Zelda fans. The Triforce (beat Ganon at the end of the game for it) was the ultimate goal in the early Zelda games, especially the first one and the SNES's "Link to the Past".
And it makes sense, for three developers (Nintendo, Sega and Namco) are involved.
Therefore, Triforce.
yay. (Score:1)
Long Article (Score:1)
Will it have VBlank? (Score:1)
Will it have a VBlank interrupt?
I really hate using a computer widtout a VBLank interrupt, nothing scrolls smooth -(((
Martin Tilsted
The real question... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:The real question... (Score:1)
Now what song on my ocarina do I play to get this??
Re:The real question... (Score:2)
Waiver of Fair Use
Power of Attorney
Surrender of First-Born Male Offspring
Only Positive, Nintendo-Approved Reviews
Opt-In Spam Signup
Wearing of Nintendo Official Clothing
$250/Month Purchasing of Nintendo Merchandise
Term of 6 Hours/Day Gaming Committment
More info, clarification (Score:1)
Re:More info, clarification (Score:1)
"similar products" (Score:2)
Maybe we'll see this stuck in a homework & boredom console sometime soon.
Re:"similar products" (Score:2)
Good! (Score:1)
Getting one will be hard (Score:4, Funny)
ATI? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:ATI? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:ATI? (Score:1)
http://www.ati.com/na/pages/corporate/press/200
http://www.sharkyextreme.com/hardware/interview
Re:ATI? (Score:2, Informative)
Last I checked the Slashdot forums are positively overflowing with well researched comments posted by informed individuals, and hasty remarks are never modded to +4. GameCube had nothing of the sort.
The facts of the matter are:
1. Nintendo signed ArtX to design the graphics chip for GameCube circa 1998. This chip is really the heart of GameCube, just like the RCP was the heart of N64.
2. ArtX was a start-up graphics chip company formed largely from ex SGI employees -- similar to nvidia in that respect.
3. After the design was basically finished, circa 2001 ATI bought ArtX. Net result: ATI's name goes on the chip and on the GameCube; millions of people think ATI designed the chip.
4. A chip is not a board. ArtX designed the chip.
Consequently: in no useful sense is there an ATI board in GameCube.
On topic addendum: One could reasonably presume that the Graphics Processing Unit from GameCube will be used in this newly touted hardware.
sounds kind of pathetic (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:sounds kind of pathetic (Score:2)
Never thought I'd see the day . . . (Score:3, Funny)
On the other hand, the speed of Sonic with the fire-throwing power of Mario would probably do us all some good . . .
Re:Never thought I'd see the day . . . (Score:2)
Hell's been frozen for months.
Re:Never thought I'd see the day . . . (Score:2, Funny)
-prator
Re:Never thought I'd see the day . . . (Score:2)
Arcade board, not graphics board (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Arcade board, not graphics board (Score:2)
Arcade boards have become consumer cards before... (Score:2)
Good to see irony is alive and well (Score:2)
Everyone who couldn't stop laughing at the irony when they first saw "Sonic the Hedghog" for a Nintendo system, raise your hand.
Dogs and cats! (Score:5, Funny)
A Lawyers Poem (Score:1, Troll)
GeForce, TriForce.
Monopoly, Wanabee.
Smell the Money?
It's been a while... (Score:1)
hopefully MIPS and not PowerPC (Score:2)
while MIPS you can go and get cores and put it ALL
on one chip
MIPS do the 20Kc hard core comeing out of TSMC now
PMC do a chip
broadcom do a dual core chip
NEC do a wacky vr5500 (lots of MIPS B-)
ATI (artX people who did the Gamecube) are doing a SOC mips chip with everthing on board such as MPEG4 and USB/IDE/UARTS + ATI radeon output
AMD do a SOC with 2 net interfaces + USB/UART which runs better than the StrongARM or Xscale at 500MHz
I would bet on the NEC or ATI chips for this
regards
john jones
WARNING: acronym allowance exceeded (Score:5, Funny)
Please be warned that you have exceeded your legally mandated acronym allowance for the month of February. Any further acronym usage in the remainder of this month will result in fines accruing.
Additionally in the above post you have exceeded the Maximum Acronym Density (MAD) permissable for a single posting. If you persist in using excessive numbers of Acronyms Capital letters will be forcably removed from your vocabulary.
Regards
Assoc. for National Acronym Reduction and Systematic Elimination
Re:hopefully MIPS and not PowerPC (Score:2)
I honestly think they are both quite suitable chips.
You can integrate the core with other designs- it's just that nobody's doing it right now because they don't want to pay the licensing to IBM or Motorola (depending on which core they use...). Everybody's able to license MIPS cores and architechture designs because MIPS is a fabless design house and that is how they make their money.
It's faster than a corresponding MIPS (not to say that MIPS is slow or it's bad, mind...)- for a console, I'd like as much headroom as is reasonable so it can do incredible, knock my socks off type gaming.
Now, having said this, the ATI SOC is an interesting beastie- Radeon and MIPS on one chip. The only drawbacks I see with that design is that it's MIPS based so there is no chances whatsoever of finding already built stuff from third party providers. You're going to have to arrange all kinds of deals to make that really go. I'm trying to wrangle a engineering sample for my company right now to see what we can do with it, though- I'm not going to overlook a seriously fast, but way low-power solution for our product offerings.
Actually...... (Score:2, Informative)
Nice thing about the Triforce (Score:4, Funny)
There will also be some interesting effects if you daisy chain 8 of them.
Re:Nice thing about the Triforce (Score:2)
Hell, that alone is a good thing.
Slashdot got it wrong the triforce is.... (Score:2, Informative)
So You can see Nintendo Has done stuff like this in the past, I remember seeing this bad boy at E3 , Just because Nintendo makes a new board doesn't mean they will release it.
My 2 cents
A Few Corrections... (Score:2, Informative)
Sloganeering (Score:2)
Sega/Nintendo working together is *amazing* (Score:2, Interesting)
It would give gamers a straight choice:
a) Western "realism" games: games focused on their graphics and physics engines during development. This is definite Xbox/PS2 territory.
b) Japanese games: Games focused on providing a shedload of fun, no matter how ludicrous the basic premise is. Super Monkey Ball anyone?
I'd go for door number 2 myself. That is not to say there are huge exceptions to my insane logic: Final Fantasy and Shenmue for example are as fine as Japanese games get, but are steeped in realism. They also have something quite a few Western games seem to lack: fun. But I'm rambling off-topic now. Just one of my little insights
Yet Another Triforce Joke (Score:2)
And as long as it doesn't come with a #^*%(@#^$ Navi Office Helper, I'll put my money behind them.
"Link! It looks like you're working on a resume! Would you like to know their weakness? Look! Look!"
Ok, that was lame. But not as lame as this cheap shot at Nintendo [gogeek.org].
PC Card? (Score:2)
Amigori
Pandora's Cube? (Score:2)
Pandora's Cube? (Score:2)
It seems obvious that if you put GameCube hardware into a PC it will become that much easier to write a GameCube emulator. Why try to translate between console-native code and Direc3D or OpenGL when you can just feed in the machine-native code directly? The only speed bump I see after this is the question of those proprietary disks.
Re:triforce? (Score:1)
Triforce has probably been around longer (Score:5, Informative)
If that's the case, nvidia probably wouldn't have a leg to stand on.
Re:triforce? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:triforce? (Score:2)
I hope it doesn't come to a lawsuit. Triforce is a damn cool name. It'd be cool if Nintendo/Sega could arrange the look of the chips to resemble a gold triangle on the hardware, too.
Re:Disbelief (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Disbelief (Score:2)
I wouldn't say Mario and Zelda were just rehashes. Mario 64 was really different than the previous ones. Majora's Mask, while it shared the same engine and a lot of the graphics of Ocarina of Time, definately played very differently due to the 3 day time limit restrictions.
The Zelda and Mario games sold really well. They certainly didn't hurt Nintendo at all. If anything is rehashed over and over, I'd say Square's stuff is. If you're not really into RPGs, then the vast majority of them look identical (and really really boring).
Re:Disbelief (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Disbelief (Score:2)
And honestly, most of the Zelda series is better than FF7 or FF8 in my opinion. Even though FF7 and Resident Evil were basically the "killer apps" for the PS1, Zelda 64 was a more enjoyable game.
What irks me is that people complain about Nintendo's tendancy to release lots of Mario and Zelda games. Then they go and rave about how
the newest Resident Evil, Metal Gear, or Tekken is so great for Sony's console.
Which isn't to say that these games AREN'T great.
I've got a PS2 and a Game Cube, and I enjoy games
on both systems.
How S3 texture compression works (Score:2)
The thing that is very different about the gamecube graphics is that it uses compressed textures rather than bitmap textures. I wonder what that means in terms of compatability.
Both GCN and recent DirectX can use S3 texture compression. For each 4x4 pixel block, it stores two full (16 or 32 bit) colors, plus 16 bytes of blending information (0 = all color#1; 255 = all color#2). It produces an effect similar to that of JPEG but doesn't require nearly as much computation to get the value of a pixel.
Re:Triforce Board = Trojan horse? (Score:2)
Some Naomi arcade games could use the Dreamcast VMS/VMU for storage. Similarly, NeoGeo arcade and home systems used the same memory card.
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