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To this day the only SegaCD games I can remember playing were Sonic CD and one of the Road Rash games. Similarly, the only 3DO game I can remember ever playing was some combat-racing game. It was a demo at some electronics showroom my dad took me to when I was a kid. No idea what it was, just that it was Nascar-style racing except the cars had guns/missile launchers/whatever. Also I still shed a tear for my one buddy who managed to get through Phantasy Star IV on a Nomad. We always used to tease him for that being the reason he needed glasses.
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Mar 28, 2017 21:37
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Wacky Delly posted:The PC FX. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/PC-FX I remember looking at the list of titles for that thing and all the games were creepy anime dating sims. EDIT:  quote:Unusual for a fifth generation console, the PC-FX does not have a polygon graphics processor.[5][6] NEC's reasoning for this was that polygon processors of the time were relatively low-powered, resulting in figures having a blocky appearance, and that it would be better for games to use pre-rendered polygon graphics instead. The shining quality of the PC-FX was the ability to decompress 30 JPEG pictures per second while playing digitally recorded audio (essentially a form of Motion JPEG). This resulted in the PC-FX having superior full motion video quality over all other fifth generation consoles. They basically built the thing around the idea that those lovely FMV games in the early 90s were the future. The_Franz has a new favorite as of 21:53 on Mar 28, 2017 |
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Mar 28, 2017 21:47
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Was it the PC-FX or the PC Engine that got a massively better port of one of the Castlevania games? I think it was Dracula X IIRC, and the SNES version was not nearly as good. On a similar subject, it's always funny to see when the collectability of something outshines its functionality. The example that pops into my mind: I was at Gamestop yesterday and they had a cart-only copy of Ninja Gaiden Trilogy for SNES for $150. I thought it was crazy high, but it turns out that's around what they sell for on eBay. The crazy thing is apparently that collection is literally the 3 NES games with no changes whatsoever, except a couple of levels across the 3 games display incorrectly, and the music is somehow worse than the original.
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Mar 28, 2017 21:52
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Kelp Me! posted:To this day the only SegaCD games I can remember playing were Sonic CD and one of the Road Rash games. Friend of mine had a 3D0 for some drat reason, and we played the hell out of Gex and Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo. Not arcade accurate, but still good.
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Mar 28, 2017 22:04
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I'm 8th grade I advised a classmate not to buy a Saturn, PlayStation or N65, and instead to wait for the Matsushida M2 which was iirc a 128 bit console. 
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Mar 28, 2017 22:08
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Kelp Me! posted:Was it the PC-FX or the PC Engine that got a massively better port of one of the Castlevania games? I think it was Dracula X IIRC, and the SNES version was not nearly as good. I think it was the TurboGrafx-CD I remember downloading a emulator to play just this game
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Mar 28, 2017 22:19
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FilthyImp posted:I'm 8th grade I advised a classmate not to buy a Saturn, PlayStation or N65, and instead to wait for the Matsushida M2 which was iirc a 128 bit console. I wanted a Sega Saturn so bad but after renting all 3 from blockbuster (back when you could rent a whole system for a weekend for like 30 bucks) I had to go with the N64. I was sega everything up until then. Genesis with Sega CD and 32x and a sega channel subscription. I always hated PS controllers for some reason and just couldn't get over them.
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Mar 29, 2017 01:23
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Plinkey posted:I always hated PS controllers for some reason and just couldn't get over them. While I enjoyed the GameCube controller for what it was, we really have to thank the Dualshock designers for basically solving the 3D open world interface problem with their design. The N64 and Saturn experiments were sure something...
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Mar 29, 2017 01:56
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FilthyImp posted:Pre-Dualshock PS controllers were too light. The directionals weren't too good for long play either. I remember playing Virtual On for PC and the idea of using 2 joysticks was so bizarre but it worked so drat well 
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Mar 29, 2017 02:30
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Was the 1980 Battlezone arcade machine the first game to use dual-joystick tank controls?
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Mar 29, 2017 02:37
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SubG posted:The original Atari 2600 had an add-on controller (the Video Touch Pad, bundled with the Star Raiders cart) that used overlays, but the real originator of that style of console controller was Intellivision: Playing soccer on these was an exercise in torture. I think Colecovision split the difference with a combo keypad and tiny joystick that was almost as unpleasant to use.
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Mar 29, 2017 02:53
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Dick Trauma posted:Playing soccer on these was an exercise in torture. I think Colecovision split the difference with a combo keypad and tiny joystick that was almost as unpleasant to use. And for anyone wondering, no nobody liked those janky rear end controllers at the time either. I have no loving clue why console designers resolutely insisted on designing controllers that anybody with a pair of hands would be able to tell you sucked.
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Mar 29, 2017 03:51
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Kelp Me! posted:I remember playing Virtual On for PC and the idea of using 2 joysticks was so bizarre but it worked so drat well Virtual On is a drat awesome arcade game. I really do want to get an cabinet with it one day.
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Mar 29, 2017 08:49
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I got my Chromebook replacement the other day. It's more or less the antithesis of that whole concept, where the Chromebook was thin and light and sleek, the T420 is thick and bulky and heavy. It feels very substantial indeed. It's a refurbed machine, so there is a tiny bit of wear and tear, I had to shim the keyboard to keep it from flexing (known issue for pre-chiclet Thinkpad keyboards) and the hinge is only like 95% tight (after 5-6 years of use, mind). But it cost less than a decent replacement Chromebook, it still does a solid 5+ hours on the battery and it runs Linux Mint flawlessly. I'm probably never going to buy a new laptop ever again, unless I win the lottery or something.  Buying brand-new laptops is obsolete and failed, in my opinion. Let the corporations buy laptops and discard them after a couple of years, so I can pick them up for next to nothing.
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Mar 29, 2017 09:26
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There was some brouhaha about Linux mint and it's creators going off the deep end. I don't remember the details but I think it'd be worth looking into. Also sorry in advance for the vagueness, phone posting and I just don't remember the details.
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Mar 29, 2017 09:29
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As far as I know, it was mostly some people who disagree with Mint's update policy, of not necessarily pushing the latest updates to all users by default. If you leave the default settings, you will get updates to most applications, but you will not get kernel updates and the like, updates which could adversely impact stability. That said, I have never had any issues with kernel updates on Mint. Since Mint 18, I think the default has been changed to notify you of these updates, but not install them automatically. I think this is perfectly fine, Mint is targeted at users who might get panicked if their PC suddenly doesn't boot due to a forced kernel update. This is probably the article you're thinking of: http://www.infoworld.com/article/3036600/linux/is-linux-mint-a-crude-hack-of-existing-debian-based-distributions.html There is also some criticism that Mint doesn't publish security advisories (go look at the ones for Ubuntu and Debian instead, no big deal) and that it ships HORRIBLE NON-FREE SOFTWARE (optionally, if you check that option during the install). It's mostly just a bunch of bullshit bitching from rabid RMS fanboys, Free Software zealots and crusty oldtimers who don't understand why people don't just use Slackware or Linux From Scratch for their desktops. KozmoNaut has a new favorite as of 09:58 on Mar 29, 2017 |
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Mar 29, 2017 09:50
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KozmoNaut posted:Buying brand-new laptops is obsolete and failed, in my opinion. Let the corporations buy laptops and discard them after a couple of years, so I can pick them up for next to nothing. 5 hour battery life is obsolete, new laptops double or triple that Edit imo Arch is the Linux of choice for the discerning grognard in 2017
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Mar 29, 2017 11:32
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I thought the gross had all gone down the security rabbit hole that is qubes os.
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Mar 29, 2017 11:45
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SubG posted:The original Atari 2600 had an add-on controller (the Video Touch Pad, bundled with the Star Raiders cart) that used overlays, but the real originator of that style of console controller was Intellivision: I still own a working Intellivision and a 3DO. The Intellivision controller pictured was a hallmark of lovely design. What's weird is - at the time - the entire point of consoles was to at least try and recreate the arcade experience at home. Atari at least figured out that "stick. button." was the language arcade gamers already understood. The Intellivision was trying to brand itself as the "smart" choice, but those controllers were so clunky and inaccurate to use - and more importantly - weren't anything like ANY arcade game. Even something simple like the Space Invaders clone (Astrosmash) was an exercise in frustration with that silly disc. The keypad rarely had interesting/worthwhile uses either. Intellivison had some good games, but all would have been improved with a better controller. The ColecoVision controller at least had a thumbstick that iirc was locked to 8 directions, and above the keypad instead of below. But the controllers were twice as thick as the Intellivision's already not-hand-friendly keypad. The one spot where ColecoVision excelled was arcade translations. They were as close to perfect as you could get at the time. The 3DO is a pretty great system - it just never got the developer support it needed and was priced WAY to high when it entered the market. Still - there are some gems there you can't get anywhere else.
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Mar 29, 2017 12:23
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Yeah, the 3D0 gets poo poo on a lot, but it wasn't a bad system by any means, just overpriced and lack of support. Certainly better than the rest of the also-rans of the 5th gen. The Jaguar might have been interesting, again with more support and not handicapped with a crippling hardware bug. (And if Atari didn't go with the cheapest production possible)
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Mar 29, 2017 12:29
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KozmoNaut posted:I'm probably never going to buy a new laptop ever again, unless I win the lottery or something. My job gave me a ThinkPad T520 eight years ago. Everyone else in IT has upgraded to whatever the new flavor of the month is. I kept mine. They will have to pry it from my cold dead hands. The thing is indestructible and still chugging away happily. It's used 12-13 hours a day, five days a week and has never complained. VVVVV Hinges are rock solid stable and tight. Mistayke has a new favorite as of 14:36 on Mar 29, 2017 |
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Mar 29, 2017 12:34
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shovelbum posted:5 hour battery life is obsolete, new laptops double or triple that 5-6 hours is the battery life left after 5-6 years, it was 8-9 hours originally. And I can still buy brand new batteries for this battleship, a brand-new Duracell battery is ~$50. Plus, they're user-replaceable  Funny thing is that I actually switched from Arch to Mint, because I was tired of having to be a grognard to maintain my PCs. Mistayke posted:My job gave me a ThinkPad T520 eight years ago. Everyone else in IT has upgraded to whatever the new flavor of the month is. I kept mine. How are the hinges on yours? Firm movement, but a slight wobble (~½cm at the top) when the screen is up? KozmoNaut has a new favorite as of 12:44 on Mar 29, 2017 |
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Mar 29, 2017 12:41
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KozmoNaut posted:I got my Chromebook replacement the other day. It's more or less the antithesis of that whole concept, where the Chromebook was thin and light and sleek, the T420 is thick and bulky and heavy. It feels very substantial indeed. 'sup T420 buddy. I bought mine used in 2014, bought 3G modem and smart card reader bit later, and got ExpressCard USB 3.0 controller, there is no more need to get another laptop ever again.
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Mar 29, 2017 12:54
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Apparently I have a T460 is that good or bad?
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Mar 29, 2017 12:57
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Jerry Cotton posted:Apparently I have a T460 is that good or bad? Good. I've been extremely satisfied with the T440 I have at work, and the T460s they're handing out currently seem equally good.
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Mar 29, 2017 12:58
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KozmoNaut posted:Good. I'm just amazed at how slow boot-up can be with a SSD. I guess there's a lot more going on than with my home computer.
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Mar 29, 2017 13:00
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whiteyfats posted:Yeah, the 3D0 gets poo poo on a lot, but it wasn't a bad system by any means, just overpriced and lack of support. Certainly better than the rest of the also-rans of the 5th gen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZAWAqyjedo
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Mar 29, 2017 13:36
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Jerry Cotton posted:I'm just amazed at how slow boot-up can be with a SSD. I guess there's a lot more going on than with my home computer. Corporate bullshit can take up a ton of resources. A freshly-installed PC without all of that poo poo will absolutely fly with an SSD.
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Mar 29, 2017 14:12
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KozmoNaut posted:5-6 hours is the battery life left after 5-6 years, it was 8-9 hours originally. And I can still buy brand new batteries for this battleship, a brand-new Duracell battery is ~$50. Plus, they're user-replaceable
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Mar 29, 2017 14:46
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KozmoNaut posted:Corporate bullshit can take up a ton of resources. A freshly-installed PC without all of that poo poo will absolutely fly with an SSD. Yeah, I'm running a stock Windows install at home on an SSD and boot up just flies by so fast my monitor takes longer to finish than the PC does.
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Mar 29, 2017 15:03
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KozmoNaut posted:I got my Chromebook replacement the other day. It's more or less the antithesis of that whole concept, where the Chromebook was thin and light and sleek, the T420 is thick and bulky and heavy. It feels very substantial indeed. Used Thinkpads have pretty much changed my strategy on buying laptops. They're cheap, parts are abundant, and there is abundance of info on repair, modding, maintenance online. I started with a barebones T420 off of eBay for under $100 and have since purchased a T430s, X240, and T440p all off of eBay in various states of disrepair.
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Mar 29, 2017 15:29
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Pilsner posted:What brand and from which shop do you recommend buying a new ThinkPad battery? I have an X200s, which I like since it's super light and small, but one thing that will eventually deteriorate in a used laptop is the battery, and new original Lenovo batteries are like 1000 DKK. I've have a 1/3 success rate buying a cheape non-OEM battery from ebay.de (1 is still good, 2 of them ended up being duds). See if you can get someone to rebuilt a pack, they're usually just 18650 cells. Back when the laptops was made, battery technology was probably only capable of 1200-1600mah. These days sanyo/panasonic make 3400mah cells - no idea how pricey or hard to get they are, but 2250mah+ cells are cheap. Just stick to pana, not Chinese or Korean cheapies. Sanyo were the leader in battery tech and that's one of the reasons panasonic bought them, probably making bank in electric cars now.
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Mar 29, 2017 15:35
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ReidRansom posted:In case of emergency or if other infrastructure is down for some reason, I could see it being very useful, though that's a long way to go for emergency preparedness when an FRS/GMRS/CB would probably work for basic communication in that sort of scenario. And when they're bored, they can help out a fellow radio operator in smaller ways -- when my father was in Vietnam as an Army radio operator, and in a long period of "hurry up and wait", he'd tinker with the dials on his set (well, presumably he'd bribe somebody to get graveyard watch at the base radio hooch for the night, because the AN/PRC-77* he carried on his back at his normal job probably couldn't call home), do some other arcane majicks that only radio operators know, and it the weather was right, could talk to a HAM operator in Dallas. The guy was in a wheelchair and had other health problems, and the radio was pretty much his only contact with the outside world/source of joy. So he'd call my father's wife-at-the-time on the phone (Dad never said whether the guy paid for the long-distance, I'm assuming he was an early phreaker and just never mentioned it, OPSEC is just as important in both cases), and do whatever one does to connect the radio to the landline (there were devices to interface the systems, or maybe he just held the radio mic up to the phone handset and taught the wife to say "over".) Dad got to talk to his family from half a world away, the guy doing the relay got to brighten another person's day and live vicariously through chatting with a soldier who could only imply where he was and what he was doing**. And also one hell of a QSL card with most of the details blacked out (okay, I made that last part up, but surely Dad sent the guy something from Da Nang when he had the chance).  [*Yes, they called it "the prick" in the field. Tales of nailing one's prick to a tree (for a better electrical ground, or something) abounded. **technically OPSEC at the time so he could only hint at his derring-do, but Dad's job was basically "jump out of helicopter, look for VC, if found call in arty/Arc Light, RTB on foot and drink beer until time to get back to da choppa to do it again,"] The local HAM club has a decent number of young folks. Of course, they're all typical neckbeards who were probably too nerdy for the local D&D club, but since when have the amateur radio set not been? Well, I guess up until the '50s or so, but the mindset was there even if grooming was better in general back in the day. 
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Mar 29, 2017 15:42
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Bad Angus! Bad!
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Dick Trauma posted:Playing soccer on these was an exercise in torture. I think Colecovision split the difference with a combo keypad and tiny joystick that was almost as unpleasant to use. Playing anything was. You could buy adhesive-backed joysticks that just stuck directly to the circular pad that made them infinitely better, but still lovely. 
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Mar 29, 2017 15:51
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Pilsner posted:What brand and from which shop do you recommend buying a new ThinkPad battery? I have an X200s, which I like since it's super light and small, but one thing that will eventually deteriorate in a used laptop is the battery, and new original Lenovo batteries are like 1000 DKK. I've have a 1/3 success rate buying a cheape non-OEM battery from ebay.de (1 is still good, 2 of them ended up being duds). I haven't tried any batteries from them, but Duracell Direct has a bunch of different Thinkpad batteries at decent prices. Bonus points for being a local webshop and not some rando on Ebay. http://www.duracelldirect.dk/baerbar-laptop-notebook/lenovo/thinkpad-t420-batteri--cx324n.html JayKay posted:Used Thinkpads have pretty much changed my strategy on buying laptops. They're cheap, parts are abundant, and there is abundance of info on repair, modding, maintenance online. Unless you're hooked on absolute thinness and other gimmicks, Thinkpads really are the best laptops out there. HP EliteBooks and Dell Fo3 posted:See if you can get someone to rebuilt a pack, they're usually just 18650 cells. Back when the laptops was made, battery technology was probably only capable of 1200-1600mah. These days sanyo/panasonic make 3400mah cells - no idea how pricey or hard to get they are, but 2250mah+ cells are cheap. Just stick to pana, not Chinese or Korean cheapies. Sanyo were the leader in battery tech and that's one of the reasons panasonic bought them, probably making bank in electric cars now. The problem with rebuilding a pack (I've considered doing it myself), is that it's hard to get the original packs apart nicely, and it's pretty much impossible to put them back together again. Plus, welding lithium cells is not for the faint of heart. https://hackaday.io/page/247-replacing-lenovo-laptop-lithium-batteries KozmoNaut has a new favorite as of 16:42 on Mar 30, 2017 |
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Mar 29, 2017 16:03
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Phanatic posted:Playing anything was. You could buy adhesive-backed joysticks that just stuck directly to the circular pad that made them infinitely better, but still lovely. I was a teenager during that time so I gobbled up all the info I could about videogames and arcade games. I even bought one of those paperback arcade game strategy books. EDIT: Oh poo poo here it is! I bought it around 1982. 
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Mar 29, 2017 16:17
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I haven't ripped apart my dell vostro laptop 9 cell battery pack apart yet, but have done a couple of drills. It's not too hard to do, heaps of youtube videos* showing how easy it is. Normally they aren't glued - I guess because they're batteries and you need venting and not a plastic thermal grenade on consumer products. My suggestion is to find someone who knows what they're doing anyway, not a DIY for a first timer. *just looked up a couple. gently caress that 8 bit guy for 1) buying some possibly dodgey batteries, 2) soldering on nipple or flat tops rather than buying ones with welded solder tabs on them already. Fo3 has a new favorite as of 16:21 on Mar 29, 2017 |
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Mar 29, 2017 16:18
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Phanatic posted:Playing anything was. You could buy adhesive-backed joysticks that just stuck directly to the circular pad that made them infinitely better, but still lovely. Man so reasonable on the prices. I never knew Sears made their own home video console. Makes sense though.
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Mar 29, 2017 16:35
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Trebek posted:Man so reasonable on the prices. I never knew Sears made their own home video console. Makes sense though. It was a Sears branded Intellivision, not an original console. Most of their Sears-branded products where just products they slapped their label on.
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Mar 29, 2017 16:40
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SubG posted:And for anyone wondering, no nobody liked those janky rear end controllers at the time either. I have no loving clue why console designers resolutely insisted on designing controllers that anybody with a pair of hands would be able to tell you sucked. My guess is because actual designers weren't actually involved in consoles until... what, the 16-bit era at best? You could probably argue the entire field (UI, ergonomics, etc.) was barely applied to consumer electronics until the 90's (and late 90's at that), although there were obviously some great designs along the way when experts were hired/consulted. I suspect CE companies often stumbled onto the good outcomes, rather than having planned them. Basically, if a design isn't suitable to human use, it's probably because it was cheap and/or made sense to an engineer. And I say that as an ex-engineer.
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Mar 29, 2017 17:31
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