Just when you think the shit has hit the fan, everyone goes shopping.

Download Google Earth and get the extension that shows all orbiting satellites (including junk). It's pretty startling how much crap has been shot up into space and just left there.

It makes a good reminder of how stupid some things are that seem to make so much sense at the time we're doing them.

-Matt

Then China targets the moon? It may take them longer, but I fail to see how that's better.

-Matt

That's a shallow view of the past, at best. At worst, you may be wearing poop-colored-glasses! ;)

Apple had a superior product in the Apple I and II (etc)! Apple again had a superior product in the Mac.

The only reason Apple didn't keep flogging the Apple I system forever is that THEY KILLED IT with their next superior product.

It's a little more questionable if the Mac will be killed off completely, but the IOS system is clearly having the same effect as the Mac had on the Apple I system back in it's day.

So that they have style (or not) is another question entirely - it certainly entered the scene at some point. But they DO have a long track record of superior products AND BRINGING THEM SUCCESSFULLY TO MARKET. (They have a long list of copycats, detractors, naysayers and FUD'ers that go all the way back to Day 1 too....some of whom made if even bigger than Apple for a while.)

-Matt

P.S. Not every product Apple released was outright superior, of course, but I didn't take that as your point either.

Everything spot-on!

You did forget to mention that they established Windows by essentially dumping the product on the market, benefitting from rampant piracy of Windows and more or less preventing anyone from making money developing a competing OS. (MSDOS was so bad that it made this an easy play...certainly nothing they'd want to stop or curtail.)

This is what built the Windows monopoly. If piracy wasn't such an easy option, I doubt Windows would ever have achieved critical mass.

Sure you COULD pay for Windows back then, but if you DID pay for windows you were called a "CIO".

Today we call those same people "14%-ers".

-Matt

Sorry, but this conversation can't even happen without mentioning Alternate Reality.

Click the link and read about it - the Technology and Gameplay sections might be particularly interesting/relevant. Dig up the disks/ROMS and play it on your old computer or an emulator if you can. (Yes you can!)

I know of no game that set "the bar" higher, or earlier. And nothing more than an 8-bit computer was required.

Some days I really wonder what happened to the computer industry (and gaming with it)....then I remember about Microsoft. Them and their legions of knucklehead IT manager/customers that gave them power spelled the end of the competitive computer industry (Apple, Atari, Commodore, etc) and replaced it with PC cloning. That's the last we saw of innovation. Apple is the only survivor of that era....and while theirs is the best computer available, even their computer is a PC these days.

Sad. Hey, at least we have phat grafix cardz!

-Matt

Bingo!

Hah! There's no freakin jobs here to switch to and we're better off than many areas! Where u from that you can still feel so cavalier about your current position?

If humanity has any luck left this will spell the end of shitty automated phone systems (which is about 99.9% of them). With Windows as my bell weather, I'll not be holding my breath.

Platitudinal thinking will get you nowhere...

Without going and digging up all the proof, my understanding is that 2/3 of Shuttle missons were military in nature. Pretty consistent with what you are saying. The PR neither was nor is just for Russians me-thinks. :)

-Matt (re-remembering that Eisenhower quote.)

I'm not in a hurry to disagree with you but I think you might not have this quite right.

Someone sold more consoles and more software....so plz define "pitifully few" and then come again with who wouldn't want to develop software for them? :)

(Software numbers are easy to find and current...hardware numbers are harder to come by...these are 2011 hardware numbers...but solid source.)

Xbox360
Consoles: 39 million
Games: 618 million

PS3
Consoles: 30 million
Games: 595 million

Wii
Consoles: 59 million
Games: 827 million

The elephant in the console-room is really the PS2.

PS2
Consoles: 155 million
Games: 1.5 Billion As of last year they were still selling something like 8 million PS2 games per year on is 12-year-old platform! The biggest selling game on the PS2 was in 2009 (San Andreas) for crying out loud - 4-years after the 360 and 3-years after the PS3. LOL!

More than anything else the PS2's continued success puts the lie to the "underpowered Wii" theory. Too much power just makes it too easy on the devs...too little is not a real limit, but a challenge. (Recall how much fun was had with "all the power" of the Atari 2600 after all. Go 4K ROM!)

"Core" gamer, "hardcore" gamer... I'm going to take my own stab at defining these lame-brained terms.

They have nothing to do with violent games, time spent playing, or anything else I've seen mentioned so far. What they are is euphemisms for "PC gamers". And this is true regardless of platform - PC=Xbox and Playstation is a bite off of that market. So what defines them? THEY ALWAYS WANT MORE OF THE SAME, but bigger, faster, and flashier. Minimal to no fucus on innovation or fun. We've been living their dream since the early 90's! (Anyone check out the cost of developing a new PC/XBox/PS game? Glitz doesn't add fun to a game, but at least it costs a lot!! How about the number of original titles in their Top 10? Hahahah.)

Wii was (and I'm hoping just a little here) the beginning of a revolution against that whole way of thinking. There is almost no reflection of "hardcore" in their game library. I and the rest of the people still enjoying their Wii's LIKE THAT. :)

What there is in the Wii equation, is a less ridiculously priced console, better prices on games, tons of classic console and arcade games and some decent new ones on Wii Online Store, and games that are establishing new dynamics in gaming. Personally, I still dig Wii Sports, as well as the Sports and Play sequells and Wii Fit+. Those and associated titles have alone more than justified the cost of the console (and two ROM drive repairs). The fact that I've gotten a great darts game for $5 as well as a dozen or more classic console and arcade games from the online store is just a huge bonus! I do watch Netflix on it, and the seperate Netflix-kids app is a really nice touch.

I will add that the 90/10 rule of computer games still applies, even on the Wii - only about 10% of the games on any platform are really all that good/worth playing. A Gamefly account (or generally renting vs buying) is the best thing you can do for a new console. I have many good games as a result of that.

As to the f'ing article, it sounds like a puff piece for whatever software they mentioned. People (within the industry and without) pretty soundly laughed at the prospect of the Wii. In spite of the success of the Wii, some people are still trying to laugh at Nintendo and their strategy. The magazine's failure to see potential of the Wii U isn't interesting for the same reason, IMO.

If Nintendo can maintain their price point against the other consoles and deliver the new feautres and experience as promised, I see no reason that Nintendo will do any worse than the trajectory they are on - selling more consoles and more games than their competitors. And with those new features, it seems there should be a lot of new potential as well.

The hard part for Nintendo (due to their being the pioneer) is getting a third party who can - after pouring money down the "hardcore" rathole - still afford to develop a new kind of game. Their catalog of super-fun games is growing, but it will take some time given the momentum third parties have in the style of games you find duplicated across all the other platforms.

-Matt

Just looking at Nintendo and the Wii rationally, Nintendo couldn't have painted a cleared picture of what the Wii was supposed to be to consumers: A family and/or group oriented gaming console. It just couldn't have been clearer. They sold *a lot* of consoles on this basis! The games that the article cite as not doing well all made me say to myself (as a Wii owner, and near middle-aged gamer): Little wonder. They do not look interesting.

My opinion may have been different 25 years ago, but honestly playing Seven Cities of Gold, Rescue on Fractalus or MULE (some games from 25 years ago) on my old Atari 800 still sounds more appealing than a session of any of those games in the article. I think that's the problem with these games that don't do well: They aren't fun.

No, "harcore gamer" opinions on this don't count. That's a rarified market composed almost exclusively of teens (or younger). And going back to the beginning of my statement, it's not who Nintendo has been targeting *or selling* their console to.

Personally, I'm still pleased with Wii Sports (will be upgrading to Sports Resort when the budget allows), Play, Mario Kart Wii (the only Mario game I've ever really liked after Mario Bros), Zack & Wiki, Punchout!, among several others. I've also got a slew of WiWare games. I love "Cards" - best Euchre game I've seen on any computer platform; has several other card games as well. Donkey Kong, DK Jr, Spellunker and Load Runner are all great games to sit down and play for a few minutes.

I can't speak for Nintendo to say how this is working out for them, but from my angle as a customer, I'm pleased with the experience *and* that I only spent $200 vs $400+ on a new console. Go Nintendo!

-Matt

Not to support a fallacious meme, but I think what they're driving at with the drugs = terrorism thing is all the poppies they grow in Afghanistan. So if you do a drug that's derivative of the poppy (like Tylenol III) you're officially an Enemy Combatant.

-Matt