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KozmoNaut posted:Which one did you get? If I could get a SD card MP3 player instead of my AUX in, that would be awesome. It's €230 (on ebay.de), so pretty expensive, but from what I've read, it's also by far the best MP3 solution. It emulates the CD changer, and allows 6 main folders with endless subfolders. You can navigate the music as you please, play random, configure it to show track titles on the navi screen, your MID/radio, even in the instrument cluster. It's configurable to all hell, but in its default state it's just plug and play. I just received mine yesterday, and I'm still in the process of re-organizing and tagging a lot of the music I'll be putting on it, so I can't give a real review yet, but I can't wait.
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Oct 10, 2013 20:53
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Pilsner posted:http://www.maintronic.de/en/products/cp600bmw-mp3-player.html Very snazzy, but from looking at the list of supported vehicles, my OEM radio is way too old-school. Basically all of the logic is in the radio, it more or less only sends "change CD" or "change track" to the changer, no titles or anything in the display. I guess a dumb AUX port is the best it can do.
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Oct 10, 2013 21:34
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bisticles posted:My 1988 Pontiac Grand Prix had the tape holders as well: That was 1988?? e: Right, that was a long time ago now. It's just so...brown! Is that felt? ubergnu has a new favorite as of 22:17 on Oct 10, 2013 |
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Oct 10, 2013 22:14
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ubergnu posted:Is that felt?
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Oct 10, 2013 22:53
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I won one of these in a competition I didn't remember entering: The Panasonic Q!  It was a Gamecube/DVD player combo, and annoying to use. You needed to use the horrible remote to change to the games function from the default DVD option (which is the only think I used it for, considering when it was released, nearly everyone already had a DVD player), it used to overheat, and had some lovely firmware installed to allow it to play non Japanese region games that would bug out regularly. I sold it (for a lot of money!) and bought a regular Gamecube. The coolest thing was it was mirror chromed! Sweet.
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Oct 12, 2013 03:01
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Vykuza posted:I won one of these in a competition I didn't remember entering: I always wondered if this was as cool as it sounded. Guess not. 
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Oct 12, 2013 04:47
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Vykuza posted:I won one of these in a competition I didn't remember entering: So did Nintendo just agree to do that as some sort of last-ditch middle finger to Sony after their planned "BFF" console from the mid 90's fell through? "Oh, you didn't want to partner with us and made a kick-rear end console? Well, we found someone else who will partner with us to take our already mediocre console and turn it into a mediocre DVD player! Take THAT!"
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Oct 12, 2013 05:15
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DrBouvenstein posted:So did Nintendo just agree to do that as some sort of last-ditch middle finger to Sony after their planned "BFF" console from the mid 90's fell through? Panasonic made the disc drives in the gamecube. I believe the cross-licensing that produced the Q came out of that.
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Oct 12, 2013 05:53
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DrBouvenstein posted:So did Nintendo just agree to do that as some sort of last-ditch middle finger to Sony after their planned "BFF" console from the mid 90's fell through? No, that was the CD-i.
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Oct 12, 2013 06:10
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Last Chance posted:I always wondered if this was as cool as it sounded. Guess not. I was pretty excited when I got it, but the shine wore off pretty quickly. I remember now I had to use a DVD to boot the Q, then I could swap the disk out for the Gamecube game - I guess that was the dodgy software aspect. Mostly I remember it just didn't work very well. From what I know, Athenry is spot on. Panasonic made the whacky DVD guts for the Gamecube and got the rights to make a Gamecube compatible device. I think I still have the grey controller somewhere.
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Oct 12, 2013 06:42
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DrBouvenstein posted:So did Nintendo just agree to do that as some sort of last-ditch middle finger to Sony after their planned "BFF" console from the mid 90's fell through? What?
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Oct 12, 2013 07:27
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DrBouvenstein posted:So did Nintendo just agree to do that as some sort of last-ditch middle finger to Sony after their planned "BFF" console from the mid 90's fell through? The Gamecube wasn't mediocre, it was hella awesome. Xbox-beating graphics quality in a form factor 1/4th the size, arguably one of the best and most ergonomic controllers ever (the button layout alone is genius), and built from 100% pure super-durable Nintendium. The hardware was awesome and brilliantly designed, but Nintendo hosed it up by not getting enough third-party developers on board. Despite that, the game library spans over 600 games, and Wind Waker and Super Mario Sunshine are still among the best games I've ever played.
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Oct 12, 2013 07:39
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KozmoNaut posted:arguably one of the best and most ergonomic controllers ever (the button layout alone is genius) There are rules against drunkposting
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Oct 12, 2013 08:09
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KozmoNaut posted:The Gamecube wasn't mediocre, it was hella awesome. Xbox-beating graphics quality in a form factor 1/4th the size, arguably one of the best and most ergonomic controllers ever (the button layout alone is genius), and built from 100% pure super-durable Nintendium. The Gamecube was obsolete out of the gate because of its minidisc format. It wasn't an issue of being short on third-party developers, it was the third-party developers not wanting to play ball with Nintendo's special discs when the Xbox and PS2 were identical.
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Oct 12, 2013 08:46
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death .cab for qt posted:The Gamecube was obsolete out of the gate because of its minidisc format. It wasn't an issue of being short on third-party developers, it was the third-party developers not wanting to play ball with Nintendo's special discs when the Xbox and PS2 were identical. It also ensured that there was basically no piracy on the GC until some crazy-rear end scheme was developed, using a bug in Phantasy Star Online and the network adapter to stream games onto the GC. It never really worked though, as the game rips were incomplete and buggy, and the network link was 10mbit only, leading to severe lag and loading errors in the games. So effectively, piracy was way too impractical and involved on the GC. Compare this to the PS2 or the Xbox where you could more or less force them into playing pirated games with nothing but a stern look.
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Oct 12, 2013 08:57
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KozmoNaut posted:It also ensured that there was basically no piracy on the GC until some crazy-rear end scheme was developed, using a bug in Phantasy Star Online and the network adapter to stream games onto the GC. It never really worked though, as the game rips were incomplete and buggy, and the network link was 10mbit only, leading to severe lag and loading errors in the games. So effectively, piracy was way too impractical and involved on the GC. It goes to show how very little piracy can affect your product's lifespan. Isn't the PS2 still getting a FIFA release?
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Oct 12, 2013 09:35
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The best thing about the Nintendo Gamecube was toilet bong sexhole. Then goatsplosions, making people poo poo on other consoles and fingat.
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Oct 12, 2013 10:15
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Crankit posted:The best thing about the Nintendo Gamecube was toilet bong sexhole. Then goatsplosions, making people poo poo on other consoles and fingat. I hate that I understood all of this but if I said those words to my friends they'd politely call the police
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Oct 12, 2013 10:18
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death .cab for qt posted:I hate that I understood all of this but if I said those words to my friends they'd politely call the police Explanation for those of us unenlightened?
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Oct 12, 2013 11:20
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SaltyJesus posted:Explanation for those of us unenlightened? Attain enlightenment.
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Oct 12, 2013 11:42
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KozmoNaut posted:It also ensured that there was basically no piracy on the GC until some crazy-rear end scheme was developed, using a bug in Phantasy Star Online and the network adapter to stream games onto the GC. It never really worked though, as the game rips were incomplete and buggy, and the network link was 10mbit only, leading to severe lag and loading errors in the games. So effectively, piracy was way too impractical and involved on the GC. I didn't personally get into the GameCube nor do I know all of the details of the piracy on it, but I know that everyone I ever knew who had a GC (maybe seven or eight different people) pirated the poo poo out of everything for it. They all had these special lids for them that allowed them to use full sized DVDs. I'll give you the Xbox thing, but from where I was standing GC piracy sure seemed a lot more popular and easy than PS2 piracy.
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Oct 12, 2013 14:57
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That is an amazing thread. 
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Oct 12, 2013 15:08
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Kalos posted:There are rules against drunkposting The Gamecube controller is pretty good, though.
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Oct 12, 2013 19:47
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Farecoal posted:The Gamecube controller is pretty good, though. The only real problem I had with the controller was that the layout made playing games that weren't designed for it hard as hell. (Ever tried playing an SNES game that actually utilized the X/Y buttons on one?) Otherwise it was comfortable as gently caress and worked a lot better than you'd think. The lack of a second shoulder button on the left side definitely hurt its ability to play PS2 ports, though.
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Oct 12, 2013 20:07
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Zonekeeper posted:The only real problem I had with the controller was that the layout made playing games that weren't designed for it hard as hell. (Ever tried playing an SNES game that actually utilized the X/Y buttons on one?) Yeah, I remember when my roommates and I first got a Wii, we got several SNES games from the virtual console, and figured we'd be ok using one of the several GC controllers we had lying around...NOPE! You cannot play Super Mario World with a GC controller.
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Oct 13, 2013 02:44
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Just finished reading the thread from start to finish over the past ~6 months or so. I know they were already mentioned, but they're pretty much my favorite failed technology: THE CYBIKO  These were insanely ahead of their time in some aspects. Basically, on the surface the Cybiko was a PDA with very limited wirless capabilities--it communicated via RF at a pretty pitiful range (500 Feet in north america, boostable via a software hack.) You could chat, send e-mail and even browse the web on WAP-enabled sites, although the process for getting online was really annoying--you either needed to have two cybikos (one to act as a base) or needed to buy a RF base station. It ran on two Lithium Ion batteries and you could get a few hours of use on the RF with them. It was also one of the first devices you could get an MP3 player addon for, although they were super expensive and only held 256mb of data. Where the device really shined was the fact that it actually had a bunch of apps & games developed for it for the 2-3 years it was sold--I want to say there were about 150-200 official games created for it. Some of them were lovely but there were a few really good ones; I think one of the last ones released was a super advanced virtual pet app. It also had a really dedicated developer community and it was pretty easy to program for--you could program in C, or in their proprietary language CyBasic. Alas the product failed for a few reasons: first, it was expensive for the market it was targeting; about $200 for the basic model iirc. Also, even though some of the stuff was ahead of it's time (wireless communication, the ability to surf the web) technology just hadn't evolved enough to really support it--the hardware was super underpowered and a lot of the more advanced features just were plain not convenient to use. The keyboard was also really terrible on it so it wasn't really great for taking notes or any actual PDA functions. They did eventually release an upgraded model that was faster, had a better keyboard and an updated OS, but shortly after that the company stopped releasing new apps and stopped producing more devices. I actually happened across one of my old Cybikos a few months ago but the batteries had corroded badly and the charge outlet was broken so I couldn't boot it up  I almost want to go on eBay and find one but it would be strictly for nostalgia purposes as the device is pretty much useless now.\/\/ Yeah, although if you did find the data cables they're likely useless now because iirc the original model used a serial connection (do PCs still come with a serial port?) The "Extreme" model I think supported USB but good luck finding a working USB cord for it! robodex has a new favorite as of 22:07 on Oct 16, 2013 |
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Oct 16, 2013 20:38
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Hey, I have one of those. I tried to get it going for the games awhile back and didn't get very far and now I can't remember where I put it.  Probably didn't get far because I don't have the power or data cables.
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Oct 16, 2013 21:57
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robodex posted:\/\/ Yeah, although if you did find the data cables they're likely useless now because iirc the original model used a serial connection (do PCs still come with a serial port?) The "Extreme" model I think supported USB but good luck finding a working USB cord for it! A lot of motherboards still come with the pins for a single serial port. You just need a cheap breakout cable and possibly to switch it on in the BIOS as well. It's how I connect my home-built IR receiver to use with a cheap universal remote to control my media players.
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Oct 16, 2013 22:22
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You can get USB to Serial converters. Be careful, because the quality on some is really dodgy and can be a serious PITA to get working. I've used them at work when you have an old protective relay (monitors really big pieces of electrical equipment like transformers and motors) that will only communicate over RS232 or RS485.
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Oct 17, 2013 02:39
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Three-Phase posted:You can get USB to Serial converters. Be careful, because the quality on some is really dodgy and can be a serious PITA to get working. Anything that isn't bottom-of-the-barrel cheap will work fine. I have a half dozen on my desk at work for various bits of legacy bullshit.
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Oct 17, 2013 03:08
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Three-Phase posted:
Or even current devices from major manufacturers that refuse to let initial setup happen over anything BUT serial port DESPITE the device having multiple other ports. Or firmware updates. Looking at you, SEL. I keep a laptop with serial port around for just that purpose.
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Oct 17, 2013 03:55
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Three-Phase posted:You can get USB to Serial converters. Be careful, because the quality on some is really dodgy and can be a serious PITA to get working. Also be careful that very few USB to serial converters will supply the full voltage specified in the RS232 spec. A valid signal must be between +3v and +15v or between -3v and -15v in relation to ground. Most USB to serial converters can't do that. Some equipment, especially older stuff, will not work properly at the voltage levels USB can supply. Fancy USB to serial converters will deliver the correct voltage levels, but they're more expensive. For instance, the DIY IR receiver I'm using will not work with any of the USB to serial converters I've tried.
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Oct 17, 2013 08:34
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Not failed, but definitely obsolete: One of the greatest expressions of that optimistic '90s technophilia I can think of. For anyone who doesn't recognize it, it's Deep Blue, the computer that beat Garry Kasparov.
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Oct 24, 2013 18:35
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Obsolete and failed (at least commercially): The Connection Machines CM-2, anno 1987:  And its successor the CM-5, 1991:  Connection Machines were built around extreme multiprocessing. The CM-2 consisted of up to 65,000 single-bit processors, each with 4kbit of RAM. Additionally there was a floating point coprocessor per 32 processors. It had an external RAID enclosure storing a whopping 25 Gigabytes.  The CM-5 was a RISC-based supercomputer which bore little functional similarity to the CM-2, and is probably most known for its appearance in Jurassic Park.
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Oct 25, 2013 16:49
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Collateral Damage posted:Obsolete and failed (at least commercially): Society went a little backward the day we decided that Computers shouldn't look like that. Hack the Gibson!
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Oct 25, 2013 18:43
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Collateral Damage posted:Obsolete and failed (at least commercially): Are the evil/cool red lights incidental to the design of the computer or did they want it to look like that? Because it is awesome. It looks like a giant cheesy gamer rig or something.
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Oct 25, 2013 18:47
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Athenry posted:Society went a little backward the day we decided that Computers shouldn't look like that. Hack the Gibson! When the future went away from brushed steel and red lights, the world became more boring. Now we just have lots of long flat things that slide in and out of enclosures that wouldn't look too out of place in a kitchen. 
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Oct 25, 2013 18:50
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They're status lights for the processors inside. If a processor is working on something, its LED comes on -- so technically if the computer is running properly, executing a well-written highly parallel job, all the lights should be on and steady. People expect computers with lots of lights on them to be blinking like the bat-computer, though, so when Connection Machines were a thing, it was really common to add extra spurious instructions to make them blink in interesting patterns.
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Oct 25, 2013 18:51
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Sagebrush posted:They're status lights for the processors inside. If a processor is working on something, its LED comes on -- so technically if the computer is running properly, executing a well-written highly parallel job, all the lights should be on and steady. People expect computers with lots of lights on them to be blinking like the bat-computer, though, so when Connection Machines were a thing, it was really common to add extra spurious instructions to make them blink in interesting patterns. The BeBox had two rows of lights showing the CPU load (it had two processors - in 1996).  I sold mine
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Oct 25, 2013 20:34
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Collateral Damage posted:Obsolete and failed (at least commercially): 
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