Nintendo DS Browser showing the Wikipedia page about it.
Fun. I didn't know this was released. Gonna have to try it!
2007-07-23
2007-07-17
ConnieFest
You'll want to check out the annual ConnieFest event held in Orange County, CA. I went to one about fourteen years ago and it was a good time. Sadly, Connie didn't appear that year.
2007-07-09
GameDaily BIZ: Ted Price On Quality of Life, Resistance, Ratchet and the Power of PS3
GameDaily BIZ: Ted Price On Quality of Life, Resistance, Ratchet and the Power of PS3
I wonder just many units constitutes a "buttload"?
If you're working with the first-party folks at a console manufacturer, whether it's Microsoft or Sony, they tend to spend a lot more on marketing. So if you do end up becoming synonymous with that console you may end up selling a lot more than if your games are spread across multiple consoles. On the other hand, some of the third-party publishers have proved that being multi-console is really great. Ubisoft is a fantastic example of that. Their games are out on every single console and they end up selling a buttload when you add them all up.
I wonder just many units constitutes a "buttload"?
2007-07-04
Simpson!
I tried to make an avatar of myself as a Simpson but it's pretty tough. Try it yourself at Milk and Cookies.
© 2007 Stephen Clarke-Willson - All Rights Reserved.
2007-07-02
Random Blts: Castles
Random Blts: Castles
I finally ran through the logs from last year (2006) at Above the Garage, where my pictures are hosted, and I discovered that my Disney Castle pictures are still very popular. The most downloaded picture is from the Paris park - it was downloaded over 15,000 times. Woot!
The other Disney Castle pictures and this picture of Japan at night are still very popular - about 7,000 times for each photo in just the past six months.
I finally ran through the logs from last year (2006) at Above the Garage, where my pictures are hosted, and I discovered that my Disney Castle pictures are still very popular. The most downloaded picture is from the Paris park - it was downloaded over 15,000 times. Woot!
The other Disney Castle pictures and this picture of Japan at night are still very popular - about 7,000 times for each photo in just the past six months.
LOST-Spoilers & Discussion
Holy Cow - A giant list of Lost Podcasts
For me, half of the fun of Lost is listening to podcasts about it. Lost is in trouble because the show is just too freakin' complicated. The ratings are down - but supposedly the number of people watching the show, all at once, in order, (via iTunes or the DVD releases) has compensated for the low ratings somewhat (although that doesn't help the advertisers much). If I didn't listen to these podcasts then I wouldn't know what was going on because there are just too many characters and too many relationships and the story is unveiled over too much time.
The Official Lost Podcast is a lot of fun because Damon and Carlton, the Executive Producers, are a couple of goofballs and reveal bits of information in a very entertaining way. Luckily I can brief my wife on key facts because without those key facts the show doesn't make too much sense - although my wife says it is entertaining anyway.
Someday (at least three years from now!) I'll watch the whole series again on DVD. I think it will be pretty cool.
The next three seasons will only have 16 shows each. I think this is brilliant, because the show is the single most costly show on TV now. Cutting from 22 to 16 shows cuts the overall risk for ABC and also lets the writers spend more time on each episode and really clean up the lose ends for us. It's a big break between seasons but I'm hoping it's worth it.
For me, half of the fun of Lost is listening to podcasts about it. Lost is in trouble because the show is just too freakin' complicated. The ratings are down - but supposedly the number of people watching the show, all at once, in order, (via iTunes or the DVD releases) has compensated for the low ratings somewhat (although that doesn't help the advertisers much). If I didn't listen to these podcasts then I wouldn't know what was going on because there are just too many characters and too many relationships and the story is unveiled over too much time.
The Official Lost Podcast is a lot of fun because Damon and Carlton, the Executive Producers, are a couple of goofballs and reveal bits of information in a very entertaining way. Luckily I can brief my wife on key facts because without those key facts the show doesn't make too much sense - although my wife says it is entertaining anyway.
Someday (at least three years from now!) I'll watch the whole series again on DVD. I think it will be pretty cool.
The next three seasons will only have 16 shows each. I think this is brilliant, because the show is the single most costly show on TV now. Cutting from 22 to 16 shows cuts the overall risk for ABC and also lets the writers spend more time on each episode and really clean up the lose ends for us. It's a big break between seasons but I'm hoping it's worth it.
2007-06-25
Minisodes
The big difference: TJ Hooker - Payday Pirates:
In a rather big coincidence I happen to watch The Terminator (the first) which reminded me of what happened when we were making a Terminator game at Virgin. There had been a Terminator game for the Genesis made by Neil Young, David Perry, and Nick Bruty, which was one of the shortest games we ever published. The second Terminator game for Sega CD was one of the largest console games we ever made. Each level in the Sega CD RAM could be nearly as big as an entire cartridge for the Genesis. The second version was programmed by Silas Warner who is famous for having made the very first version of Castle Wolfenstein. Nick Bruty did about half of the art - Nick was a master of specular highlights back in the days when computers didn't calculate it for you. Most of the shiny levels (heh, that's a pun [and an inside joke]!) were by him. Tommy Tallarico went to town on the sound and music.
Silas programmed up a video player and so we took the Terminator movie and edited the shit out of it. Basically, our assumption was that people playing the game knew the story, but would love to see a quick action clip between levels that moved the story along a little bit. I have to say it came out great.
Unfortunately, James Cameron didn't agree - he thought we were recutting and, well, butchering his film. Which was true, but our purpose was different from his when he created the film. Ultimately we were allowed to use one or two small clips from the movie. It was a serious bummer because a big part of our job when adapting licenses was to reinterpret the material in an interactive setting, and Mr. Cameron just didn't "get it." Oh well. (I'm still a huge fan. I'm sure if I could have sat down with him I could have convinced him of the rightness of what we were doing.)
Later on, when we made Demolition Man for 3DO, we edited the shit out of that movie, and it integrated beautifully with the game. Woot.
Which brings me to the minisodes. Someone has taken classic TV shows and cut them down to their bare essence. Which I think is pretty cool. I remember when The Phantom Edit version of The Phantom Menace came out. I never saw it but the idea of cutting all the painful parts out of Star Wars Episode I was brilliant - although George Lucas didn't see it that way and things were clamped down on that.
I guess recutting a person's movie isn't something to be done lightly. But with their permission and even better - their involvement - adding movie footage to a game can improve the game.
More recently (well, a few years ago), Griptonite Games was making the Lord of the Rings game for the Nintendo GBA and believe it or not, they had extra cartridge space. My idea was to play a short video clip at the start of the game and EA/New Line managed to approve that and I think it really helped send the message that "this game is special" (which it was) and gave the game a little extra shot of buzz. Woot.
Anyway, minisodes seem cool to me. I don't want to watch 22 minutes of TJ Hooker but I found this five minute clip entertaining. I would love five minute versions of every Star Trek episode. That would rock.
Somebody get on that.
"That's what separates the rest of us from scum like you."
In a rather big coincidence I happen to watch The Terminator (the first) which reminded me of what happened when we were making a Terminator game at Virgin. There had been a Terminator game for the Genesis made by Neil Young, David Perry, and Nick Bruty, which was one of the shortest games we ever published. The second Terminator game for Sega CD was one of the largest console games we ever made. Each level in the Sega CD RAM could be nearly as big as an entire cartridge for the Genesis. The second version was programmed by Silas Warner who is famous for having made the very first version of Castle Wolfenstein. Nick Bruty did about half of the art - Nick was a master of specular highlights back in the days when computers didn't calculate it for you. Most of the shiny levels (heh, that's a pun [and an inside joke]!) were by him. Tommy Tallarico went to town on the sound and music.
Silas programmed up a video player and so we took the Terminator movie and edited the shit out of it. Basically, our assumption was that people playing the game knew the story, but would love to see a quick action clip between levels that moved the story along a little bit. I have to say it came out great.
Unfortunately, James Cameron didn't agree - he thought we were recutting and, well, butchering his film. Which was true, but our purpose was different from his when he created the film. Ultimately we were allowed to use one or two small clips from the movie. It was a serious bummer because a big part of our job when adapting licenses was to reinterpret the material in an interactive setting, and Mr. Cameron just didn't "get it." Oh well. (I'm still a huge fan. I'm sure if I could have sat down with him I could have convinced him of the rightness of what we were doing.)
Later on, when we made Demolition Man for 3DO, we edited the shit out of that movie, and it integrated beautifully with the game. Woot.
Which brings me to the minisodes. Someone has taken classic TV shows and cut them down to their bare essence. Which I think is pretty cool. I remember when The Phantom Edit version of The Phantom Menace came out. I never saw it but the idea of cutting all the painful parts out of Star Wars Episode I was brilliant - although George Lucas didn't see it that way and things were clamped down on that.
I guess recutting a person's movie isn't something to be done lightly. But with their permission and even better - their involvement - adding movie footage to a game can improve the game.
More recently (well, a few years ago), Griptonite Games was making the Lord of the Rings game for the Nintendo GBA and believe it or not, they had extra cartridge space. My idea was to play a short video clip at the start of the game and EA/New Line managed to approve that and I think it really helped send the message that "this game is special" (which it was) and gave the game a little extra shot of buzz. Woot.
Anyway, minisodes seem cool to me. I don't want to watch 22 minutes of TJ Hooker but I found this five minute clip entertaining. I would love five minute versions of every Star Trek episode. That would rock.
Somebody get on that.
2007-06-20
I Dare You
I dare you to watch this Dennis Kucinich video and actually listen to him instead of staring at his wife while her hair blows in the wind. (I confess I read about this in Vanity Fair magazine.)
Go on - I dare you.
© 2007 Stephen Clarke-Willson - All Rights Reserved.
Go on - I dare you.
© 2007 Stephen Clarke-Willson - All Rights Reserved.
2007-06-12
Safari
Guy Johnson's Safari - click on the picture to proceed to Google Maps
My friend Guy Johnson who I have known for many years (15? 20?) recently went on a huge road trip and documented it as he went using Google Maps. He posted a little anecdote from each stop he made. Most of it is true except generally the last sentence, which is a joke, which I need to point out, because Guy's humor is very dry.
Anyway, check it out - it's pretty cool.
My friend Guy Johnson who I have known for many years (15? 20?) recently went on a huge road trip and documented it as he went using Google Maps. He posted a little anecdote from each stop he made. Most of it is true except generally the last sentence, which is a joke, which I need to point out, because Guy's humor is very dry.
Anyway, check it out - it's pretty cool.
2007-06-07
Windows Vista: Under the Hood: Page 6
Windows Vista: Under the Hood: Page 6:
People keep saying Vista was Longhorn but it sounds to me like whatever Longhorn was, was completely scrapped. Which sounds like a good thing. I have to say, someone deserves the "big balls" award for tossing all the garbage and hitting the "reset button." That was some gutsy move.
So the entire codebase was 'reset.' Instead of being based on XP, it would be based on Windows 2003 Service Pack 1. Although 2003 is itself based on XP, it had seen improvements in important areas such as reliability and security. That codebase also formed the basis for Windows XP on x86-64 platforms, so was probably better from a compatibility perspective, too. The development work on the old Longhorn wasn't completely scrapped; features from the old codebase were integrated into the new one, but this time they had to achieve much better standards of reliability and quality.
People keep saying Vista was Longhorn but it sounds to me like whatever Longhorn was, was completely scrapped. Which sounds like a good thing. I have to say, someone deserves the "big balls" award for tossing all the garbage and hitting the "reset button." That was some gutsy move.
How does a dirty word get that way? - By Michelle Tsai - Slate Magazine
How does a dirty word get that way? - By Michelle Tsai - Slate Magazine
I didn't see Bull Crap in that article anywhere.
I didn't see Bull Crap in that article anywhere.
2007-06-05
Ancient History
vcr plus encryption scheme - rec.video | Google Groups
Wow. A Usenet post from 1991. Does anyone still use VCR Plus? For that matter, does anyone still get the paper version of TV Guide?
Here's a post from 1987 about the X Window system.
Back to the Future!. (A post from 1989.) I think the filmmakers revealed in the box set that in fact this was an editing error.
Wow. A Usenet post from 1991. Does anyone still use VCR Plus? For that matter, does anyone still get the paper version of TV Guide?
Here's a post from 1987 about the X Window system.
Back to the Future!. (A post from 1989.) I think the filmmakers revealed in the box set that in fact this was an editing error.
2007-06-04
Universal's gamble: Will consumers win?
KRT Wire | 06/04/2007 | Universal's gamble: Will consumers win?:
Q: Sales figures for Blu-Ray movie discs are significantly higher this year than for HD-DVD. How do you counter the argument that the tide has turned in Blu-Ray's favor?
A: We didn't have many hot releases in the first quarter, or many releases at all. They had some real biggies, like "Casino Royale." The fourth quarter will be telling. Our releases will be stronger, and we're looking for a big attach rate [that's disc sales per player] when people jump for an inexpensive HD-DVD machine to show off their new high-def TV set.
To that end, we're doing a lot to educate the retailers and the consumers. You know, there are now HD sets in probably 25 million households. But more than half of those owners still believe, incorrectly, that anything they plug in_including basic cable and standard-definition DVD_is going to be in "high definition" on those sets. We've got to show them what they're missing.
2007-06-03
2007-06-01
Don't Cry for Me ...
I was just listening to this song "Don't Cry for Me" and I swear I thought the words were:
but apparently it's
© 2007 Stephen Clarke-Willson - All Rights Reserved.
Don't Cry for Me
If your NUTS are cold and lonely
but apparently it's
Don't Cry for Me
If your NIGHTS are cold and lonely
© 2007 Stephen Clarke-Willson - All Rights Reserved.
2007-05-31
Mark Regnerus' Forbidden Fruit: Sex & Religion in the Lives of American Teenagers. - By Hanna Rosin - Slate Magazine
Mark Regnerus' Forbidden Fruit: Sex & Religion in the Lives of American Teenagers. - By Hanna Rosin - Slate Magazine: "Evangelical teens today are much less sheltered than their parents were; they watch the same TV and listen to the same music as everyone else, which causes a "cultural collision," according to Regnerus. "Be in the world, but not of it," is the standard Christian formula for how to engage with mainstream culture. But in a world hypersaturated with information, this is difficult for tech-savvy teenagers to pull off. There are no specific instructions in the Bible on how to avoid a Beyoncé video or Scarlett Johansson's lips calling to you from YouTube, not to mention the ubiquitous porn sites. For evangelicals, sex is a "symbolic boundary" marking a good Christian from a bad one, but in reality, the kids are always "sneaking across enemy lines," Regnerus argues."
2007-05-28
All this is that: "Who has killed more, God or Satan?"
All this is that: "Who has killed more, God or Satan?"
What could be a more appropriate question on Memorial Day?
What could be a more appropriate question on Memorial Day?
2007-05-21
It's about time ...
Education: Getting Your Freak On Just Got Harder (Seattle Weekly)
I was wondering when teens would do a proper job of inventing behavior that would be repugnant to their parents.
They've finally done it!
I know there was the tongue splitting thing ... but let's face it, hardly anyone did it.
But now there is "freak dancing" which basically simulates sex while dancing. (See picture near top of linked article.)
Now we're getting somewhere. And apparently everyone is doing it!
So many kids are doing it, and getting kicked out of school dances, that there is no one left at the dance when it is supposed to end!
Thank God we homeschool our children and they aren't exposed to this stuff. (You don't suppose they read my blog, do you? [Actually, they don't. Not interested.])
[I re-read this and it sounds like I'm a prude which I'm not. Heh. It's not so much that I'm against grind dancing as I am pro childhood. Childhood is a precious thing and kids are pushed out of it too quickly. That's one of the premises of unschooling - let your kids play! They'll learn to explore and have fun and it turns out (in general) they'll actually retain the information they do learn. Imagine that.]
I was wondering when teens would do a proper job of inventing behavior that would be repugnant to their parents.
They've finally done it!
I know there was the tongue splitting thing ... but let's face it, hardly anyone did it.
But now there is "freak dancing" which basically simulates sex while dancing. (See picture near top of linked article.)
Now we're getting somewhere. And apparently everyone is doing it!
So many kids are doing it, and getting kicked out of school dances, that there is no one left at the dance when it is supposed to end!
Thank God we homeschool our children and they aren't exposed to this stuff. (You don't suppose they read my blog, do you? [Actually, they don't. Not interested.])
[I re-read this and it sounds like I'm a prude which I'm not. Heh. It's not so much that I'm against grind dancing as I am pro childhood. Childhood is a precious thing and kids are pushed out of it too quickly. That's one of the premises of unschooling - let your kids play! They'll learn to explore and have fun and it turns out (in general) they'll actually retain the information they do learn. Imagine that.]
Mozilla Firefox - Smart Keywords
Mozilla Firefox - Smart Keywords
These are so useful and I always forget how to set them up. The built-in help in Firefox is useless in this regard.
These are so useful and I always forget how to set them up. The built-in help in Firefox is useless in this regard.
2007-05-20
Why I still don't have Hi-Def
What's the Matter with HDMI? — Audioholics Home Theater Reviews and News
I don't have hi-def because it's easy to buy a hi-def TV but to really enjoy TV these days requires an entire ecosystem of support. In the early days of DVD it was necessary to tell your tuner/amp what kind of audio signal it was receiving and if you screwed up you got a blast of noise that would hurt your ears.
Today, you can buy a decent up-converting tuner/amp for $450.00, with a modest number of HDMI inputs (two or three). In the long run, this is no where near enough inputs. And since there's potentially copy protection to deal with, the entire food chain from your hi-def source to your TV needs to obey some obscure and poorly implemented rules in order to reliably produce a picture you can enjoy.
The whole "standardization" situation right now is a cluster fuck - you know that's true when HDMI cables have version numbers.
If I was a single guy with one TV and an Xbox 360 or PS3 and some other Hi-Def source (cable box or even over-the-air antennae) then it would be easy to buy the right equipment and it would work tolerably. But if you want the same flexibility you have now with standard-def then I think waiting a couple of more years until things settle out is a good idea.
Certainly waiting until now has been a good idea, as most hi-def TVs weren't "Full hi-def" (1080p) and didn't have anywhere enough pixels to even display a reasonable "hi-def" picture.
So I'm waiting a couple of more years. Eventually the S3 TiVo (with more disk space) will be cheap, and oversampling LCD hi-def TVs will be cheap, and the cables will work, and the tuners will work, DVD burners of some type will exist and be cheap, and so on. Then I'll consider upgrading the whole house. Until then, I'm enjoying the fact that standard-def keeps looking better and better as a result of the overall video pipelines converting to hi-def and then downsampling for standard-def.
(Update 2007-11-24: I have Hi-Def now, a year ahead of schedule. It's 1080p, it looks great, and even standard def looks pretty good. And supposedly the fluorescent lights that power the backlight won't get dim for 22 years. At least, that's the hope.)
I don't have hi-def because it's easy to buy a hi-def TV but to really enjoy TV these days requires an entire ecosystem of support. In the early days of DVD it was necessary to tell your tuner/amp what kind of audio signal it was receiving and if you screwed up you got a blast of noise that would hurt your ears.
Today, you can buy a decent up-converting tuner/amp for $450.00, with a modest number of HDMI inputs (two or three). In the long run, this is no where near enough inputs. And since there's potentially copy protection to deal with, the entire food chain from your hi-def source to your TV needs to obey some obscure and poorly implemented rules in order to reliably produce a picture you can enjoy.
The whole "standardization" situation right now is a cluster fuck - you know that's true when HDMI cables have version numbers.
If I was a single guy with one TV and an Xbox 360 or PS3 and some other Hi-Def source (cable box or even over-the-air antennae) then it would be easy to buy the right equipment and it would work tolerably. But if you want the same flexibility you have now with standard-def then I think waiting a couple of more years until things settle out is a good idea.
Certainly waiting until now has been a good idea, as most hi-def TVs weren't "Full hi-def" (1080p) and didn't have anywhere enough pixels to even display a reasonable "hi-def" picture.
So I'm waiting a couple of more years. Eventually the S3 TiVo (with more disk space) will be cheap, and oversampling LCD hi-def TVs will be cheap, and the cables will work, and the tuners will work, DVD burners of some type will exist and be cheap, and so on. Then I'll consider upgrading the whole house. Until then, I'm enjoying the fact that standard-def keeps looking better and better as a result of the overall video pipelines converting to hi-def and then downsampling for standard-def.
(Update 2007-11-24: I have Hi-Def now, a year ahead of schedule. It's 1080p, it looks great, and even standard def looks pretty good. And supposedly the fluorescent lights that power the backlight won't get dim for 22 years. At least, that's the hope.)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)