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Post by gazz on Jun 13, 2017 19:01:20 GMT
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Post by gazz on Jun 16, 2017 8:22:14 GMT
This looks stunning! I've never played any of the previous 'Far Cry' games, but I'm getting this one:
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Post by another_ruined_saturday on Jun 16, 2017 21:42:54 GMT
the resolution and draw distance on that are awesome. really PS4 footage rather than high end pc? still never played a game on the current generation of consoles. if i eventually buy one, it'll be one of the bionic ones rather than original spec, so the visual leap from 360 ought to be pretty impressive!
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Post by gazz on Jun 29, 2017 7:41:14 GMT
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Post by gazz on Jun 29, 2017 10:00:00 GMT
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Post by gazz on Jul 18, 2017 14:39:58 GMT
Atari’s New Ataribox Will Play Classic and Current Games.When Atari announced it was getting back into the gaming hardware business, the move was met with a great deal of skepticism. After all, the original Atari went bankrupt in 2013 and little exists of that company except its brand name. Furthermore, unlike Nintendo, Atari has licensed its game library to multiple other platforms over the years. Classic compilations of games, including Atari titles, have been available for a very long time.
Nevertheless, now we have the Ataribox, a system supposedly designed for and capable of playing both classic and current games. The company will release two different physical editions of the device. For those of you feeling particularly nostalgic, there’s a wood grain option, while a more modern design (vaguely reminiscent of the Atari 7800) is also available.
Behind the system you’ll find USB ports for controllers, an SD card slot, HDMI output, and an Ethernet jack.
But the problem with classic Atari games from the 2600 era is that the controls and graphics were solimited, it’s going to be harder for the company to sell them to modern gamers. That’s partly due to clock speed and memory address limitations — the NES ran at 1.8MHz compared with the 2600’s 1.2MHz, had 2KB of RAM versus 128 bytes for the Atari 2600, and could run games that were up to 1MB in size, while the Atari 2600 games topped out at 32KB.
But it’s not just about graphics. Most Atari 2600 games (though by no means all) were play-until-you-die titles with increasingly difficult stages that would eventually either loop back to the beginning or continue until they became unplayable. By the time the NES came on the scene, games often incorporated some concept of winning, even if your win was a shoddy English translation of what happened after or a certain famous image of Samus Aran in a bikini.
Then there’s the controls. While many Atari games used innovative tricks to get around the intrinsic limit of a single-button controller, these didn’t always work well, requiring the player to either use both joysticks simultaneously, or to press the joystick in a given direction while simultaneously hitting the button. Adding a second button to the NES might seem trivial today, but it actually opened up a great deal of potential game complexity that’s become so standard, no one even questions it — in fact, we’ve just kept adding buttons.
Ultimately, whether this console works is going to come down to how heavily Atari leans on nostalgia, what its definition of “modern” games looks like (and where those games are sourced from), and how much it costs. Nintendo sold 2.3 million of its NES Classic Edition at an official price of $59.99, but that console was much simpler than what Atari is offering in included ports and hardware.
As a retro console, I can see at least some appeal to the Ataribox. But the microconsole model hasn’t worked very well for anyone, and I just don’t see much room for Atari in an already-crowded three-way match-up between Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft. Atari doesn’t have the expertise in gaming or hardware design anymore, it doesn’t have the extensive longstanding publisher agreements, and it doesn’t have a recent track record in popular hardware that might convince developers to take a chance on the system.
Atari’s spokespeople have been clear that they’re trying to make sure they get the device right and not just stringing people alon. But with the holiday season now less than six months away, and anticipation building for new releases and Microsoft’s Xbox One X, Atari doesn’t have a lot of time to get this right — especially if it’s going to ship against Nintendo’s Super NES Classic Edition (which you basically have no chance of owning, ever, but will still eat up a lot of mind share).Article link
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Post by another_ruined_saturday on Jul 18, 2017 22:18:23 GMT
i think that wood grain one is cool AF.
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Post by gazz on Jul 18, 2017 22:38:16 GMT
i think that wood grain one is cool AF. Agreed, mate - seriously cool!
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Post by gazz on Oct 23, 2017 10:38:06 GMT
Homemade Nintendo Switch runs on Raspberry Pi, plays all your retro gamesIf you want to enjoy the experience of playing classic Nintendo games on modern gaming hardware, your choices are either to buy a Nintendo Switch, and hope the company sells the games you want via its digital store, or buy the new SNES Classic. Modder Tim Lindquist has combined the best of those two options with a homemade take on the Switch that runs any classic game imaginable via a Raspberry Pi.
Dubbed the “NinTIMdo RP,” Lindquist’s creation features a Raspberry Pi cleverly housed in a 3D-printed case designed to resemble Nintendo’s console/handheld hybrid. There’s a microcontroller inside that connects the physical button inputs to the Pi, a 10,000mAh battery that charges via MicroUSB, and even LED lights to show the volume and battery levels. Oh, and it includes a 7-inch touchscreen that tops the real Switch’s in size.
Other neat touches include the two standard USB ports for connecting accessories, and a HDMI port emulates the Switch by turning off the device’s display and sending video to a TV screen when connected. As for the software, the Raspberry Pi is outfitted with RetroPie and EmulationStation for running games with an authentic console feel.
You can check out the time-lapse video above of the building process, while Lindquist has also shared the 3D models and source code of his creation on his website and Github, with a detailed build tutorial coming soon.
Slashgear article link
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Post by gazz on Mar 24, 2018 12:50:26 GMT
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Post by another_ruined_saturday on Mar 24, 2018 13:29:01 GMT
not that i play anything anymore (still get 'edge' delivered on a monthly basis though!), but i hate where it's going. this gradual creep of monetisation beyond the initial purchase price (if not 'free to play'). all this 'loot crate' shite, where players know they will have to keep slogging along for ages unless they cut the corner by paying, or where a huge disadvantage is experienced by anybody not splashing out in multi-player.
yesterday, i was 'ridding' under the supervision of my mum. i tend to accumulate stuff, and every so often, need to have a clear-out to make a bit of room for the next wave. so finally, although i'd got rid of most of it years ago, i said goodbye to 'waverace 64', 'super mario 64', and 'goldeneye'. then all my remaining gamecube games, including 'zelda: wind waker', and a load of games for the original x-box.' looking over them cursorily, it occurred to me that there was probably the better part of a grand in original purchase price......but at least that's more controllable. an initial purchase price is ok - you know whether you want to part with that cash or not. if you're slogging through a game but are being hobbled because you haven't flung more money at it on in-game purchases, or are getting ruined by other competitors, you're already invested and it's obviously a strong temptation to part with money to keep up.
that feels less fair, less controllable to me, in the way that it makes players chase the monetisation to points to get ahead, or at least get level. introducing bitcoin and other crypto-currencies into that further facilitates that, and because it's not tangible in the same way and holds a different value to your reference currency (pounds, dollars etc), probably makes it more likely for players to spend without always grasping the implications. it's a greedy, sh*tty set of moves from the designers and publishers, and if it's the future of things, i'm glad i don't make time for it any more.
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Post by gazz on Mar 24, 2018 14:56:41 GMT
if it's the future of things, i'm glad i don't make time for it any more. I totally agree with all of that, mate. If gaming is indeed going to end up a 'pay to win' environment, I won't be bothering with it anymore.
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Post by gazz on Apr 14, 2018 11:57:11 GMT
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Post by gazz on Apr 20, 2018 10:44:04 GMT
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Post by another_ruined_saturday on Apr 20, 2018 21:43:33 GMT
brilliant. i look forward to playing as merseyside reds against flourescent dortmund in the euro champ cup...
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