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General Chat
Tribes & Tribes 2 to be Released Free!
Vivendi Universal Games announced today that it will be distributing the videogames Starsiege: Tribes and Tribes 2 for free on a special-edition DVD-ROM bundled with the newsstand edition of the June issue of Computer Gaming World magazine and online via FilePlanet.com. The giveaway is meant to celebrate the fourth-quarter release of Tribes: Vengeance, the next installment in the venerable Tribes franchise of PC action games.
The special versions of these games will be available in the June issue of Computer Gaming World, which will hit newsstands starting May 4, 2004, and will be simultaneously accessible for online download through FilePlanet.com
http://www.gametab.com/jump.php?84309
Can't wait to have a go online [:)]
just me or ???
is it just me or is there a BIG lul in posting activity now the modelling comp is finished [?]
Second hand software
Anybody know some good places to buy second hand software, specifically graphics software, I try e-bay but there is rarely anything there. I'm after a newer version of 3ds max preferably 4 or 5, brand new is out of the question, so is an academic adition. All you can find on ebay is damn training cd and LE versions of photoshop5.
Any website or store would be fine :)
Please vote in the programmer challenge thread
I know some of you may be afraid to venture in the programmer sections - don't be.. they're a pretty harmless bunch!
I need a small bit of your time, and for ALL of you to download the games (only a few mb's total) and make a vote in the programmer challenge thread - we really need more votes from the community!
UT2K3
well with all the hype about 2K4, i'am giving thought to buying 2K3. 2K4 would not work on my computer, but my question is will 2K3 work.
My pc has 704 MB of pc133 ram, about 9 Gb left of the 20 Gb hard drive and a 16 mb nvidia vanta video card. Will it work, i know there are a few UT nuts out here so please help me.
UT2k4 is actually pretty good at running on most systems, even if they are dodgy and all theres a fair chance it will run, not terribly well ofcourse but it should. Also UT2k4 and 2k3 arent all that different spec wise, so if your having problems with one, its pretty fair to say youll probably have problems with the other.
I would seriously recommend NOT buying Unreal Tournament 2003 under any circumstances, unless you can get it for $10 or something. UT2k3 server support is dropping like flies since Ut2k4 has come out so you're most likely not going to find many people to play with online. Getting Ut2k4 means you get all the assets of Ut2k3 anyway.
But yeh, definately need a more beefier system for either game.
Well it runs pretty well, but im thinking of buying a mx440 of my freind, he's givin it to me for 40 bucks. It's got bots, i don't mind if i cant play online, just want to play for fun. I don't play quake 3 online.
I think the video card is my only problem. otherwise it will go pretty good, i have a 1.5 ghz Cpu. Just one question do you really need 3 Gb of Hdd space
UT2k4 demo runs ok on my athlon 600, 128mb RAM, most settings low.
I think your problem is just your gfx card, as your cpu and RAM are more than fine to play ut2k4 well.
I have a gf4 mx440 btw and it does a fine job.
I get about 15fps offline generally, although it drops a bit at times. Thats purely a problem with cpu and ram though, not graphics.
Online it sometimes drops to 5fps or so :/
But you might as well just get ut2k4, you can probably get it for like $50 or something new quite easily (i think the CD version only retails for like $70!)
CYer, Blitz
Canberra's first anime convention!
Hi everyone!
I noticed this in the paper this morning (Yes, i read the paper [:p]).
An Anime convention in Canberra (Anime.au.2004) [:)].
It seems an Anime convention will be held in Canberra this weekend (April 3, Sunday) at the Manning Clark Centre, ANU. There will be live plays, anime games, screenings (The new Astroboy series too!) etc... and even an auction! Looks like its going to be a great day!
The doors open at 10am and will be shut at around 8pm (A long, fun day out!).
Im going to try and get myself there as its the first convention for Anime ever in Canberra! So how about anyone else in the Canberra region?
[B]For more information please visit the website, Anime.au.2004 -http://www.animeau.org/[/B]
Tom
Yeah. If you would like to meet up that is cool. Chances are though, that you will look more bizarre standing next to me :p I'll be getting out there early, so if you want to meet up, just give me a time and place.
I'm pretty sure that Canberra has had some Anime conventions as well. I haven't seen any comicons down here for ages :(
I might be getting out there... im not sure yet though! Meeting up is fine, i'll probably be going with a friend so it will be two young youthful guys with you [:p].
As for Anime conventions, i think there have been some but not fully recognised, sponsored etc...
So im not sure...
On another note it is a certainly interesting weekend. Australian Idol auditions at the Canberra stadium (No, im not auditioning) and an Anime convention! [:p].
GDC stuff
Got some of the photos online now. The most important (booth babe) photos are there, i apologise in advance that you will have to look at my ugly mug :)
Theres a couple of "Not Citizen Zero" up there. I'll put the rest of the photos (mainly from GameHotel, and a couple more bigworld) up probably on the weekend, and i'll also try and put together some kind of diary/report on the whole affair over the weekend. Unfortunately, due to the nature of only having a normal camera and having to get stuff developed, i won't have any loot photo's, i'll just have to give you a list.
Anyway, photos etc.
http://www.shinnen.net/gdc2k4
More booth babes
http://www.gamedev.net/columns/events/gdc2004/view.asp?SectionID=15
CYer, Blitz
PS. I don't take any responsibility for the content or quality of the photos that other people took :)
I've been pretty slack posting due to keeping up with deadlines.
Here's my GDC photos.
http://www.groovyaudio.com/gdc/
enjoy.
List o' Loot...
Stuff i'm keeping:
CRI Japanese Fan
Cute little comic from the CRI booth called "Tell me about middleware" in english and japanese.
Nintendo recruitment pack
Mouse pads, dolby, endorphin
UBISoft/Red Storm Ent. Stubby holder
Logitech clock/calculator thing
Oddworld collector cards
S3 Temporary tattoos
5 music CD's from MagnaTune
Semi Logic Ent. Tshirt
S3 Bag
Climax Group breath mints in a funky container
Game Developer mag, march/april
Animation mag (april/GDC issue)
Develop mag march
Computer Graphics World mag, march
Stuff i'm giving away (mostly as part of sumea comps or something probably):
S3 Temporary tattoos
Oddworld collector cards
Perforce Balsawood glider
2 RAD foam gliders
UBISoft/Red Storm stubby holder
4 Nintendo recruitment packs
2 Everquest Trilogy CD packs (everquest + first 2 expansions i think, apparently it also comes with a 1 month free trial, but not sure)
Bodypaint/maxon cardboard 3d(?) glasses
Thomson Course Technology shaker/bottle opener
In-fusio cloth bag
Develop mag (march) unread
Game State mag (spring 2004) read
ATI paper/plastic bag (i doubt anyone would actually want this...but it's here :))
I'll also consider giving away the mags at some point in the future if people REALLY want them after they've been well read by other people (they'll probably sit on my desk at work for a while first :))
Unfortunately i apparently missed out on some awesomely cool lightsaber pens that lucasarts were giving out (damn me and my "I don't need another pen"). Check gamedev.net's coverage for pictures of said pen.
If you're wondering why so many nintendo recruitment packs, they come in a funky gamecube game box which i quite fancied and thought others might :)
CYer, Blitz
quote:Originally posted by Blitz
List o' Loot...
wow. I mean wow. how'd you carry all that booty back with you? I didn't bother with loot this year, I hardly had time to get around the expo floor. I spent most of my time networking, catching up with friends from last year, and meeting clients I've been dealing with only on line.
Oh I did get some Gameboy Advance SP putty again this year, but I did come home with a Tapwave Zodiac, and a new digital 8mp camera and a bunch of free Game magazines.
Did your company sponsor you to go?
Well, i collected my loot over the thursday and friday. I had a decent size bag with me, and those ATI/S3 bags came in handy when my main bag filled up :)
If you mean carry back from that states...it *just* managed to fit in the bag i took over, my bag was only about half full when i went over, and bursting on the way back (although that included a couple books/manga i'd bought) although the list looks long, it didn't take up THAT much space.
Theres plenty of socialising to be done at GDC, but a lot of the talks there are of high quality and are worth going to. I think perhaps the reason people may say AGDC s for socialising, is it's simply so small, it doesn't have the trade expo like the GDC has. A lot of people go to GDC to check out middleware/hardware/asset control solutions etc., this just doesn't happen at the AGDC because it's too small.
My company didn't sponsor me to go, i won the trip to GDC as a prize for the programmer scholarship at AIE last year.
CYer, Blitz
new resident evil 4 video!!
It looks pretty damn impressive, its not the highest quality video but its not too bad, you can see the detail fairly well. In case you didnt know the whole game has been revamped and changed from the original resident evil 4 footage and screens that were released a few years back, so theres no more guy made of black fog with a hook and chain
nor is the main character infected with the T virus anymore.
There are two camera modes. Third person and first person. You can swtich between either at any time, I think.
The video is great. Awesome visuals, which I think everyone expects from Capcom. Love the sea creature, and love the big monster guy too.
I've played through Resident Evil 1,2 and 3, and this certainly feels different. It's definately for the best though, since playing 3 was like "yep, this game again".
No idea what that Killer 7 game that was in the trailer was all about, and that game where you're an alien making people angry at the end was pretty wacky. [:)]
Need Tech help
Ok, so, photoshop 6 is fucking up on me.
Symptoms are
Pausing when in the middle of a brush stroke
Unable to close - I'm talking impossible. I cant end process it or anything.. It just sits there saying 'not responding'
This is really pissing me off, I've looked most places I can think of, the Adobe support page is typically useless
I've tried reinstalling, killing preferences, but nothing seems to work.
The only thing that is different about my computer, is that I installed a new cpu yesterday.. I can't see how that would affect things though.
Anyone had a similar problem? or any idea on how I can fix it, or where to go? I've pretty much run out of ideas, which is why I'm asking here..
Anyhow, given that I need photoshop to beat Doord up, unless I get it fixed I'm potentially screwed, dont know how well I'll finish things off in paint.
That is an odd one. When you un-install a Windows app, it seems to leave crap in your registry. You may want to try getting a registry cleaning tool or even try going in and deleting PS's settings by hand. I don't think it will do too much to help, but if you are desperate to try you can give it a go.
Hmm, I wouldn't think XP should have any problems with that upgrade then. The next thing to suggest is making sure you have all the latest relevant driver and service packs for Photoshop, XP Pro, your graphics card and your tablet or whatever you use.
If all of that doesn't help there's probably not alot we can do except suggest trying a different version of Photoshop or at the extreme end of the scale, a reformat as Hazard suggests.
never come across that one - bob, i reformat every month or 2 - helps keep me system in ship shape - ive only got a bodgy ol beast as well, so i need to.
Your motherboard could be the problem going from a celeron to a prescott chip - my dad just had the same problem with his laptop - i just remembered after reading the original post again -
does your entire computer hang ? or can you carry on opening up other programs ?
find out what chipsets your motherboard runs - and jump onto the pcuser / pcformat home pages and see if you cant find some help on there ....
sounds awfully alot like my dads laptop tho - it ended up being a motherbaord fault :(
Whats your current system?
Just thought i would start one of those what is your current system threads [:p].
So what is your current system?
My current systems:
A cheap 700mhz Celeron,
17" Acer Monitor,
256 SDRAM and a cheap TNT2 (I really hate this thing)
Pentium III 1ghz,
21" Sun Monitor,
392 SDRAM and a Geforce 2 MMX420 (Suprisingly this thing out does my friends Pentium 4's (2.6ghz's!), we think its the awesome award winning Gigabyte motherboard).
I cant remember the motherboards... all i know is that by the end of the year i will be on a nice system, as follows [:D]:
Pentium 4 3ghz,
21 inch Sun monitor,
Radeon 9800 SE 256m,
1024 DDR,
5 or 8 Piece surround sound kit
And the usual cool case etc... [;)] A machine perfect for almost every task, Doom III, Half-Life 2 and UT2004 etc... [;)]
quote:Originally posted by inglis
two sticks, some string and piece of bubblegum.
Judging by that it sounded like someone was in hurry, thus the result of the post [;)]. That and the fact you signed off MSN [:o)].
As for the bubblegum, what type? HubbaBubba, PK or Sugarfree (Despite the fact Wrigley's owns most gums)?
My current system:
AMD Athlon XP1900+
512 DDR Ram
Asus A7V266-E Mainboad
Maxtor 80GB HDD 8mb Cache
ATI Radeon 9500 128mb non-pro - Softmodded to 9700 specs
Creative Soundblaster Audigy ES
Coolermaster Praetorian Case
LG F700P 17" CRT Monitor
Logitech Z-5300 THX Certified 5.1 Channel speakers
Logitech MX Duo Wireless Keyboard & Mouse
The Radeon 9500 was a really good find. I work at the Disc Shop and I found this lying around in our returns department. Hooked it up to our test rig and it seemed to work fine, so I managed to talk my boss into letting me have it for $80.
Took it home and found out that it was the original 9500 design. Exactly the same PCB as a 9700, just 4 of the 8 pixel pipelines were disabled. Usually not all the pipelines will work as ATI uses 9700 chips that fail their QA test. Anyway, I installed the software to open up all the pipelines and it works fine. My UT framerate scores have almost doubled, with no graphical glitches at all!
It was an excellent upgrade from a GF2MX!
In the later half of the year I intend to upgrade my board, cpu and add some more ram.
I just bought Farcry from work today, hopefully it runs alright on my box.
quote:Originally posted by Sorceror Bob
I upgraded yesterday *unzips pants*Okey dokey
P4P800 Mobo (800fsb)
Intel P4 2.8e Cpu
Radeon 9800pro
Audigy 2 Sound Card
Creative inspire 5.1 Speakers(soo loud)
512 ram (the next upgrade)
21 inch sony monitor
40g HDIt's really fast now.. Went from a celeron to a full intel chip yesterday.
*zips up*
My future system beats that (Sort of) so ha! Nah, nice system how do games run? Getting a good FPS rate i would assume?
I know this thread aint much but generally these threads attract heaps of people [:)].
1.4ghz duron
kyro II
1024mb ram
fluffy dice
and here it is in action!
[img]http://www.goerigk-jever.de/BCT-RCT/bct_rak_right_m.jpg[/img]
damn I need an upgrade - it's a good job I really don't -need- anything more for now; only want something better [:)]
My current system was purchased nearly 18 months ago, but here it is.
P4 2.53Ghz
2x512 PC-2700 DDR RAM
128Mb Radeon 9700 Pro
2x60Gb IBM Deskstar HDDs (7200rpm, ATA 100 from an earlier system)
SB Live 5.1 (again from an earlier system)
Pioneer 106-D 4x DVD-RW drive
ASUS 40x CD-RW drive (makes a lot of noise and vibrates a lot so I am thinking of changing it)
All stored in a Lian-Li Alluminium case w/ 450W power supply.
17" Hercules Prophetview 920DVI LCD Monitor
Microsoft Internet Explorer Mouse (five button)
Wacom Intuos2 6x8 tablet
Canon 650U Scanner
Canon i850 Printer
Pioneer Stereo system for my speakers.
I am upgrading my MB and HDDs this week. With any luck, by Friday, I should have dual 250Gb SATA HDDs (non RAID setup). I will also buy a new chair this week (yay, adjustable back rest).
And for the hell of it, a little pic :)
[img]http://home.netspeed.com.au/mlanham/about%20me/comp_01.jpg[/img]
Very nice Aven! And as for you J.I. Styles shame on you for posting that absurd looking computer [:p]. That looks like a damn graphing machine more then anything.
So far we have seen some pretty computers but only one picture... hmmm... crank out the cameras people! [;)].
NOTE: Yes im bored, im commenting on everyones systems.
P4 1.5 Ghz
No idea about the mobo
16 mb Nvidia Vanta :(
1024 mb ram
20 Gb hdd
it's an ibm and they dont leave you to much options for upgrading. If you want to upgrade you can pretty much only get the shit from them otherwise you have to change everything, Mobo, CPU, Ram etc. It ain't state of the art but i can do low poly stuff with it. after about 10000 poly it lags. never done ten thousand polys yet, but i just made a sphere and kept meshsmoothing till i got lag, it happened after about 3.
Well I'm currently waiting on a few parts to ship in but here's the basic run-down (over-clocking details yet to be finalised)
Asus P4P800S motherboard
Pentium 4 2.8GHz (overclock to mebbe 3.2 or 3.4)
Thermaltake Pentium4 Xaser Copper CPU cooler
Sunon 80mm case fan
AOpen H500W case (soon to be replaced with something better)
ThermalTake Black Silent Purepower 480W PSU
Some Mitsu 17inch CRT black monitor (to suit other black parts)
40Gb Western Digital HDD
512Mb of pc2700 ddr ram (I should get ddr400 but I can't afford to replace my old stuff atm)
ATI-Sapphire Radeon 9600 Pro (to be overclocked upon arrival of...)
Thermaltake GiantII heatpipe videocard cooler
and
CoolerMaster Aerogate 2 Black Thermal controller
Not the most beastly of beasts, but hopefully post-overclocking it may be able to play doom 3 (when it comes out)
As far as i knew the requirements to run Doom III smoothly are a 2.5ghz, 512 DDR and a Radeon 9800 128m. But overclocking wont harm anything just improve things unless of course you kill the parts [:p].
Overall it seems that everyones planning to buy parts etc... for the new generation of games, Doom III, Half-Life 2 and FarCry etc...
Keep them systems a comin'!
My system has been ordered, should be ready in a week!
P4 3.0ghz 800fsb
asus p4p800 deluxe i865PE motherboard
1.5 gig pc3200 kingston ddr ram
120 gig sata HD
Liteon Cd writer/dvd player
GeXcube radeon 9600xt 256mb
Benq 19 inch LCD
Creative inspire 2.1 T2900 speakers
Cooler master alloy keyboard
logitech mx500 mouse
It's a big step up from a P3 600 with an 8 gig hd and a TNT 2 graphics card..
The family comp is an athlon 1700xp with 256 megs of ram and a geforce 3. It can't really handle larger file formats in photoshop at 300dpi. A3 sized or higher and it starts to kill the ram. :/
quote:Originally posted by Pantmonger
P4, 3.2 gig, 800 fsb
2 gig ram
some generic 128meg graphics card
19 inch flat screen monitor
Dvd multi burner
2 x 80 gig hard drives+ stuff.
My pants are down by my ankles and I?m blowing in the breezePantmonger
Very nice Pantmonger! The only thing i see wrong is the no-name graphics card, give it a name... how about Sumea 128m AGP X8 video card [;)].
Aven: You have the same monitor as a friend of mine...
Currently my system stands at:
Pentium 4 2.4GHz
512MB 333DDR RAM
MSI 845PE-Max2 Motherboard
ASUS Radeon 9800 XT Video Card
Creative Soundblaster Live! DE 5.1
Seagate 80GB 7200rpm HDD + Western Digital 160GB 7200rpm HDD
LG 52x/52x/24x CD Burner
Pioneer 40x/16x DVD Drive
Currently all using standard coolers, but I might change that in future since it would be better to have a cooler running box.
And Maitrek, I see that you're getting a very beefy system for games, maybe you'll be able to play some at some future lans eh? :-)
Daemin - It is a damn cool monitor. Pity you can't buy them any more. I got a dead pixel in the first week and it disapeared after another week (no it wasn;t dust or anything). I also had my Start Bar burned into the screen as I always leave it on. I left it off for three days (Sydney trip), and it is fine again. It is just such a cool monitor :D Also, what is you LG burner like? I have always been pretty sceptical of LG products, but people tend to rave about their burners. Is it good?
Picture time again! This would have to be one of the geekiest things I've done...
[img]http://members.optusnet.com.au/~cmcmurr/mypic18.jpg[/img]
specs:
Athlon XP 2100+ (1.7Ghz)
Asus A7V333 mobo
Geforce 4 Ti4200 128MB
1Gig Ram
dual 17 inch monitors
80GB seagate HDD
Nothing else that's worth mentioning.
I can't recommend the use of dual montiors enough, the space is amazing, you'll never want to go back.
E3!
So, E3 is a bit over a month away and I was wondering if anybody was going to go.
-Wes
Heh. Im a cheap bastard when it comes to expo's and what not.
My hands grab every little freebie that i can, generally i use the technique of get a promotional bag full of promo stuff then just stuff it with other goodies and keep repeating it. Most of the time i come home with 4 or so bags full of bumper stickers, fridge magnets and dozens of brochures...damn i love expos and freebies [:p].
As for E3 i suffer the same fate as millions if not billions of others suffer, the suffering of not going and having to rely on banner filled websites for information [;)].
Doh. Kinda sucks that more people from overseas can't go. I'm kinda lucky because it takes me about 15 minutes to get downtown to the LA Convention Center. So, I'm curious. Besides that Independent game developer conference they are going to have in Melbourne, are there any other video game conventions down there? Or do you all have to go to Europe for that?
There's the Australian Game Developers Conference which is coming November-December. We have a fair few game developer related small events here and there (you can see them listed on the Sumea Calendar). Of course, none of which match up to the spectacle that is E3 though! I would absolutely love to go to E3 one day just to see what it's like (although I hear there's way too many queues to view the good stuff!)
Weslouie, I'll be there. This'll be my last year I expect though as in July I'll be moving out to Perth and probably leaving the biz. Nothing quite like a mecca to the Bright lights, Thumping Sound, Fake breasts and smiles on the booth babes, and of course seeing the best the industry has to offer. Which for me, is usually found in the Nintendo booth. Oh how I love the Nintendo booth, not only does it offer some of the most Original games in the industry, but the people they hire are not only attractive, but they're knowledgable about the games they are in charge of, something the booth babes just can't pull off.
Passes for Media need to be from a "Comercial Media Outlet." What does that mean? Who knows. Anyway if you were interested you can always fill out the registration and see if you get accepted
http://www.e3expo.com/e3expo/registration/media/
For the most part, E3 is pretty relaxed with badge holders. You usually only have your ID checked once to pick up your badge, then after that your ID is never checked. This of course allows us to bring in friends but utilizing our coworkers badges (they go the first day, we "borrow" the badges the following days). Anyway E3 is definitely one of those things that you have to go to at least once in life :)
Radeon R420XT coming with CounterStrike2 voucher
quote:A well-informed source let slip that a version of Counter Strike that will based at Half Life 2 is going to shipped with these new Radeons; not only the high-ends but apparently through the whole range, at least that's what we heard.
[url="http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=14979"]From The Enquirer[/url]
Speaking of Counter-strike, Condition Zero has *finally* been released, and after 3 years of development hell and passing through numerous developers, [url="http://steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?s=5ffc30f0ba576cb31a1bfa0…"]it's pretty crappy.[/url]
I remember reading an interview with Gooseman about 2 years ago where he mentioned that he was working on Counterstrike 2 (I mean, it shouldn't really come as a surprise since, well, what else could he have been doing the last few years!). It'll be interesting to see where they take the sequel. I hope it aint just a coat of new paint [;)]
Shipping these cards with a voucher for Half life 2 or this so called "Counterstrike 2" is crap..The release is still unknown for it. by the time it is released there could be even better cards around. heheh i just was looking at the current Adrenalin Vault Pc release list....
June 14 Quarter 2 2004
TEAM FORTRESS 2.......?!
It has a link to the website..and its the same one they have had there for 6 years! the last news update is Dec 2001. Way to go Valve...keep at it, eventially you'll convince us once again it is coming out.
e6studios web site
my studios website i am building -
i hope you like it so far- tell me how it loads too :)
[url]http://members.optusnet.com.au/alti2/e6flashsite.html[/url]
Free web page
Does anyone know a free web page host. I want to make a web page but i can't really find any good places to put my site up. I would most likely be using frontpage or one of the macromedia programs. I've tried tripod but it has way to many pop ups. Does anyone have any idea.
google is your friend man ;) - i tried this once before and got literally hundreds of free web hosting sites,.. alot of them were shit i admit, but there were the odd good ones that let you upload all kinda files and had pretty decent space limitations too.
that was a while ago now tho 6 months or so... give it a shot anyways.
Try www.freewebs.com , I use it, it is great, here is my site, www.freewebs.com/actionquake2maps/graphicdesign.html .
Also check out www.doteasy.com cheap domain registration, no banners, no pop-ups, reliable mail server (most of the time). I use it for my site.
inglis you wouldnt beleive the amount of useless code the frontpage puts in, i made something with frames once, a simple menu down the left hand side, managed to like fill the screen with code just to initiate the frames, a hell of a lot of 0 values and such.
php via dreamweaver seems to be the more preffered option
as far as hosting goes, the free ones are all built on pre-made templates and such and a lot (like goecities and homestead) have their own programs with which to build the site that are very limited, as is the space youll have.
www.findmyhost.com is ok to find a free host, i know a guy who offers free hosting. www.digitalwebnetwork.com . Souri, i know this is way off topic, but I was wondering how much bandwidth a month Sumea goes through.
Im (Well i think/hope) the co-webmaster of http://www.Game-Point.net (New site design coming soon via Me [:p]). My online friend owns the site, the only trouble is he has a limit of five sub-domains [:(]... i suppose i could try and get you a personal folder website thing like http://www.game-point.net/bullet/ [:p].
my website is comin along guys go have a look. I don't know if it is slow or not. cos i have cable. I haven't done the gallery yet, it's all i need to do. Nearly finished.
[url]shreik1.tripod.com[/url]
if it doesn't work just copy and past shreik1.tripod.com into the address bar, no www or it won't work.
GDC General News Talk - attention hobonation
check this out Mr. Hobo...
Microsoft announce XNA at GDC
Keynote transcript at http://www.microsoft.com/xna/gdc_keynote.aspx
Related links:
http://xbox.ign.com/articles/501/501373p1.html
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/040324/sfw008_1.html
pop ups
i have this problem where every now and then my homepage gets changed to ssome website named findyourwebsite.com. I also get a lot of pop ups when i change pages or something. Anyone know how to stop this. I have spybot but it doesn't do much.
its not spyware, its whats called a hijacker.
Start by locating and downloading hijackthis, its a program which identifys possible files on your computer that could be the hijacker, do not however delete anything (there are important files that will be identified as possible hijackers in that search), post your log on http://forum.tweakxp.com/forum/forum_posts_view.asp?TID=8675 and someone there will tell you what to delete and advise you further.
i had the same problem myself once so thats why i know :P it might help to visit windows update aswell and make sure you have some sort of firewall running
I would suggest Ad-aware from lavasoft as well. So far that free program has been the best at ridding my computer with annoying "ad-ware." Although I've never had a hijacker so who knows. In a related note, in terms of blocking popups, I've found the Google Toolbar is freak'n sweet for this! Plus Google is my main search engine anyways so the convinience plus the popup blocker makes it a winning combination in my book :)
Good luck getting rid of it though.
Anywhere free to swap or sell games?
Does anyone know a good spot for buying / selling / swapping games online?
I looked here but couldn't find any where. And most of the other gamer forums I checked weren't that great.
Anywhere where I don't have to pay eBay or Trading Post's listing fees would be best.
i think almost all those game trading places ask for money...i think there is a website called [url]http://www.gametrade.com.au[/url]...they r good but charge money still...
what games do you want to trade? i might be intrested!
I've just found a free website where you can list anything for sale and pays nothing. I just found a mobile phone for $40.
here is the site http://cracker.com.au/
Toshi
i have MotoRacer (1) if anyone wants it.
[img]http://www.intelligamer.com/action/motorace/moto02.jpg[/img]
i just recently gave away 98% of my games to a young kid I know. (TA, Hitman, Warcraft 3, Quake 1/3, Age Of Empires etc...)
(i never played them anymore and he wanted them for his first computer....im too kind.)
Only games I have left now are:
Unreal (1)
Messiah, StarTrek New Worlds (Never played them, came with video card)
NBA Drive 2000. (oh yeah...5$ bargain bin material there....come on. i know you want it lol)
any takers?
The "Look Out For This Movie" Thread
There are quite a few of us that are here that seem to be rather big movie buffs, so I decided to start this thread because of that. Basically you can tell people if there have been any movies that you have seen recently and whether it is worth watching or if we should avoid it like the plague. It doesn't have to be a new release cinema viewing either. just any movie that you have seen recently and want to warn people to look out for.
Try not to insult each others tastes. We all have our views and opinions :)
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I have seen three new movies in the past week or so. I will descibe them from worse to best (to finish on a happy note :) ).
Underworld
I love vampires as much as the next self respecting computer nerd (hell, I have a few Vampire Source books and I don't even play it). I wasn't expecting much going into this movie, and boy did it deliver.
Good Points - Kate Bekinsale looks really hot and plays a hero quite well. The costumes kick arse. The scenes where Salene jumps off a high building, lands on the ground and just keeps on walking casually look really sweet :) Some of the characters were quite cool, but...
Bad Points - ...They went no where. The vampires were presented as nothing more than humans with guns and pointy teeth :( The post production work was really badly done, and the colour correction has been changed to give everything a blue tint. This means that every time you see an outfit that should be a really nice crimson colour, it ends up as some terrible desaturated purple colour. The story was crap and they shouldn't have done what they did (trying not to give away too much).
This movie is probably worth seeing if you aren't a big vampire fan. Vampire fans will probably end up pissed off. Not really a cinema watching. Wait for a DVD version to come out.
Battle Royale 2
For those who have never heard of Battle Royale, you are really missing out. It is one of the most contriversal Japanese movies to have come out in recent years. It is one of my fav movies of all time and not because of the extreme amount of violence in it, or the many attractive school girls. The first one revolves around a class of Year 9 students who are kidnapped and sent to a deserted island to kill each other off. They recieve a random weapon and provisions to last for three days. At the end of the three days, there can only be one student left alive. If there are any more, then everyone who is left is killed instantly and there is no winner. They also have electronic tags around their necks to track their life signatures and pin point their position. The colars also have little explosives in them. In the three days, you get to know some of the students and how they deal with being told they have to kill their friends. It has a great story line and really leaves you thinking at the end.
Number two takes place after it, and has slightly updated rules. You now have a partner, and if they die, you die. It is team based as well. Weapons aren't random this time. Overall it is a good movie but doesn't touch the original. Seeing as many Western viewers didn't see into the sub plots, they explain everything flat out and leave you with nothing to think about. The characters aren't as cool as in the original (although actress Kou Shibasaki makes a welcome return :) ). I recomend seeing number one, but this one is cool as well.
The Returner
Another Japanese film. This time it is a Japanese take on a holywood style action flick. The basis of the story sounds really cliched, but here it goes. The movie is about a Returner (merc for hire) called Miyamoto. He is on a mission when he accidently shoots a young girl. He takes her back to his house and finds out that she has come back from the future to save the human race (Terminator anyone?). So, dressed in his leather pants and full length leather thrench, Miyamoto teams up with the young girl to save the future. As the movie progresses, the story line becomes more original -and quite frankly- very cool. For an action movie, there is very little violence and not too many action sequences. When there are action scenes though, they are quite well done, and have some effects that have the ability to show the Matrix up quite nicely. The Returner also has effects by Robot (the company responsible for the awesome Onimusha 3 intro). The effects are cool, but the compositing isn't extremely well done (although that could have been because it was on VCD). The characters are cool and actually look like they could kick arse. The bad guy is arse hole and really makes you want to see him die. I really recomend this film.
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Has anyone seen Once Upon A Time In Mexico at all? I would like to know what it is like before I go and see it in the cinema.
I felt Underworld was a bit underwhelming, really. Indeed, wait for the DVD.
Must see: City of God. Almost like a Pulp Fiction set in 1970s Brazil. If I had seen it last year, I might have called it the best movie I saw last year. But I saw it this year, so it's the one to beat for me. It's finished it's theatrical run and is on video/dvd.
I saw Underworld the other day.
I thought it was just a bit of fun, with good action, effects and a great atmosphere (and some cool violence!). The plot wasn?t that bad, if a little slow, but overall I enjoyed watching it. It wasn?t any worse then other gothic set films, in my opinion.
Though there are two negative things that I?ve heard people say about it, which I would love to counter:
?It?s a Matrix clone.? Why, because they wear black leather? There was no bullet-time, no alternate realities, and no agents? If it?s a Matrix clone, then so is every other movie set in a gothic environment.
?Why would vampires and werewolves use guns? That?s stupid?. Well, think about it ? if you had to try and kill someone, would you rather use your teeth, or a couple of rapid-fire semi-automatic machine pistols?
Anyway, that?s just my bit to combat the negativity about a film that really shouldn?t be taken so seriously. [:)] - Though if I had to rate it, I?d only give it 3 stars ? really 2.5 stars, but I?ll give it an extra half star for being too cool of TV (in other words: violent).
As for other cool movies: Donnie Darko. Very original, entertaining (if a bit weird) movie. It?s a must see.
Anyone else catch the repeat of 'The 'Burbs' late last week? That would have to be one of the few comedy movies that I actually find funny. "Sardine?" "Hey dude, PISS OFF!" "I want to kill everyone, Satan is good, satan is my pal!" Only funny if you've seen it. Ooh, then there was the repeat of Predator, hands down one of the best action flicks of all time. "Any time"
Shit I had no idea there was a sequel to battle royale, I loved the first one, looks like I'll have to keep an eye out for this new one. I didnt think too much of underworld, I thought it was very average.
Everybody should rent Undead, an australian Zombie movie, I saw it in the cinema and just recently rented it out again, its a fun movie with a rather interesting story. Its similar to Braindead but not as over the top.
I've been dying to see city of god, I've heard so many good things about it.
Anybody here seen the Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake? I really like the original, I hear from a lot of fans that the remae is pretty weak im comparison.
TheBigJ - Good luck renting Battle Royale. There are only two ways to get it (that I know of). The British release that doesn't exist any more (how I got my special tin version) and the various Cantonese versions. Your best bet is either have a look on ebay or any other asian import DVD sites. I know that it was shown in cinemas over here (well one Hoyts :/), but I haven't heard of any Aus DVD distrubutors picking it up. If you can, I recomend trying to get a hold of a second hand copy of the British version as it has some extra scenes that really help out the story and develop the characters.
BTW, about the "Matrix Clone" thing: It's really starting to annoy the f&!k out of me. It seems to apply to anything that has slow-mo, bullet time, black leather, gothic themes, heavy metal music or even the vaguest sci-fi concepts. It applies to films and games alike.
The other day I heard Prince of Persia: Sands of Time refered to as "another matrix rip-off". Naturally, I asked for my xbox controller back.
Interestingly though, I never really considered the Matrix to be particularly original in any sense. Perhaps its just an original combination of many old ideas (Neuromancer, Dark City, Dune etc).
Exactly, the Matrix concept is far from original. The idea that the world as we see it is not real has been done in stories for centuries. As have gothic themes.
I find it annoying that people think that the first mainstream popular success of a certain genre or concept is where that genre began. It's kind of the same how some people seem to think that Peter Jackson invented the fantasy genre...
Quote from a foolish person inspecting my bookshelf shortly after the release of The Fellowship Of The Ring at cinemas: ?Wow, they made that into a book quickly!? -And yes, they were actually serious.
Hey, did anyone see that Aussie movie on TV the other week? I think it was called "On the Beach". About the end of the world after the US fired their nuclear arsenal. Not bad for a low budget movie. I found it rather poignant, with all life on the planet dieing in the end.
Palantir: Yeah, I wasn't even talking about philosophical content, etc. I was mainly refering to the style. There's nothing even remotely original in the Matrix, philosophically. Ideas like zionism, solipsism and mentalism have been around for centuries: In stories, philosophy and RELIGION!
The LOTR thing annoys me as well. Someone I work with has heard the exact same thing in a bookstore. I was amazed at how many people had never heard of LOTR when the movies came out.
Underworld was an ok film. I mean it wasnt earth-shattering but it was enjoyable enough. Had some cool moments. The lycons were far better done then the vampires (yeah, humans with pointy teeth about sums it up) and the plot was a romeo and juliet re-hash but that was intended (read a interview with the writers).
Underworld had too many "power-walk through the mansion while onlookers look at how important you are" scenes. I think there were about 4 or 5 [;)].. All the big movies came last year (Terminator 3, Matrix Reloaded, Lord of the Rings etc), and there's not as much to look forward to this year. I'm looking forward to [url="http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1578"]Cashern[/url] though (that live action anime from Japan)
I saw a trailer for Shaun Of The Dead today, and it looks like it's going to be a pretty funny zombie movie.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0365748/
Also looking forward to the new Kevin Smith film, Jersey Girl.
here here to the LOTR comment inglis - someone needs to make another massive epic.... an old jap kung fu movie called Storm Riders was quite a cool movie for martial arts and crazy / silly crouching tiger "AIR" fighting with some pretty shnazzy special effetcs.
REALLY hard to get hold of in video shops nowadays tho...
Last Supper: The story of a group of left wing students and young workers in a share house who feel they are not doing enough to change the world, so they start inviting vocal right wing individuals over for dinner, and attempt to change their view on the world, if they fail they kill them. (Fantastic black comedy that makes you think)
Pantmonger
Hey HazarD, there is another massive epic coming soon - Troy. It may look a bit Hollywood with the star-studded cast line-up, but it's going to be an epic of LOTR proportions. Should be good. (Though of course nothing can touch LOTR!)
The success of the LOTR trilogy has made popular the epic once more, and there are several massive epic productions in the making. Unfortunately (IMO) nothing can come close to something that is based on Tolkien?s books. Looks like we are going to have to wait a few years for the Hobbit (a LOTR prequel of sorts) to be truly satisfied again.
BTW, LOTR fans also have the extended edition of ROTK to look forward to later this year, with something like 45 minutes of extra footage and hours of documentaries.
Flicks that I?m personally really looking forward to this year:
?Spider-Man 2?, ?Van Helsing?, ?The Alamo? (another epic), ?Troy?, and ?I, Robot?. ?I, Robot? is based on the book by brilliant science fiction author Isaac Asimov, though the fact the Will Smith is in it, gives me the impression that it could be disappointing. Though director Alex Proyas has the experience with dark/gothic setting films (such as Dark City and the Crow) that he could do a decent job of it.
Then next year we have (hopefully), two epics a long time in the making: Star Wars III around May, and Alexander the Great around December, though the trouble that production has been having, I wouldn?t be suppressed if we don?t see it until 2006.
Go the epic!!!
quote:massive epic coming soon - Troy. It may look a bit Hollywood
it is more than a 'bit hollywood'. the actual events of troy was a small army with some rafts. not 500,000 guys, thousands of boats etc.
but thats hollywood. has to make everything huge and epic at the moment.
ill see no doubt. ill go in with low expectations.
Oooooooohh King Kong hay, that sounds interesting. What about in terms of CG, what's in the works.
-The incredible: the pixar one, have no idea when it will be released.
-Sharks Tale: Dreamworks is doing it about the shark mafia, it has will smith and they are using softimage.
Anyhthing else full of 3d goodness.
tech help: "out of video memory"
this, or something similar is popping up with allmost every game i try to run now. Im not entirely sure what it means and i cant seem to find an answer anywhere (well ok its self explanitory but i was un-aware of video memory). Does anyone know what i can do to fix this problem.
At present i am using a onboard SiS graphics card (yeah i know it stinks something bad, but i dont have the money right now for a gfx card) that has caused me no trouble beyond low frame rates in the past, now this. Anyone got any ideas?
If it's on-board there may be BIOS settings that allow you to change the amount of system RAM dedicated to the video processor. The settings may be "How much memory to allow for AGP" or something but i'm not sure.
If not, you're just gonna have to upgrade :)
CYer, Blitz
Edit:
If it automatically uses free system memory for video memory, then you could make sure you aren't running any other programs in the background when playing games to free up memory.
MoonUnit, Do you happen to know the name/model of your motherboard? If so, that information can be benificial for us to help you out :)
At least on my laptop (onboard POS graphics card) I have limited control over the amount of system memory I can allocate for it (like Blitz was discribing). Depending on the Make and Model of the Motherboard these setting will vary. At least here in the US, Memory is crazy cheap and if your Motherboard does give you freedom to reallocate the amount that's dedicated to the Graphics Processor, you may be able to pick up a stick of ram for a whole lot cheaper then a new video card.
Cashern - live action anime from Japan
Cashern is apparently a live version of an anime cartoon. I've never heard of before, unfortunately. [url="http://slashdot.org/articles/04/03/19/2251251.shtml?tid=168&tid=186&tid…"]Slashdot has some discussion on it[/url] where you'll find some explanations on the series.
It's definately worth downloading the trailer!!! [url="http://www.apple.com/jp/quicktime/trailers/casshern_large.mov"]Here's a direct link to the .mov file[/url]. It looks like a mix of The Matrix and Final Fantasy.. Definately a nice visual feast [:)]
errr that .mov link dosent really work, its a 60something kb file that just crackles every now and again with no picture. So i went to the apple site link.
its great when these kinda things actually get a budget to make them apear to be a proper rendition of the animie series, i personally havent seen the series but the movie looks promising. Hopefully it releases here dubbed/subtitled.
Going to GDC
I'll be going to the GDC this year (only the last 3 days). If theres anything anyone wants me to take a look at or take photos of etc. let me know and i'll see what i can do.
CYer, Blitz
Hey Blitz - did you stop by the Maxon booth?
quote:
They had a woman in clear 5 inch stiletto like heels with a pastel blue "shirt" and "skirt" of which the skirt barely covered her bottom and I was waiting for her to fall out of the sides of her top. Since they were advertising Bodypainting which is a tool they had her body painted in an animal print all over.So I was almost handling it until they decided to get the audience involved....their trick you say?
Place rolls of smarties in between her butt and her skirt and then have men walk up to her as she bent over and grab the smarties out of her skirt with their mouths.
*the quote above is from an email list I am on*
That's A Lot Of Piracy
http://www.independent.com.mt/daily/newsview.asp?id=24219 I hope they get everything that is coming to them.
Re. Makk's comment: Let that be a lesson to everybody, don't leave your CD burner tray open and unattended!
If they were 3400 different titles they could claim them as their personal collection (a lesser charge I would think.) It would be hard to explain 680 copies of 5 different titles without using the phrase 'personal profit'. I wonder if they were busted selling them at a school fate or something stupid like that?
I honestly can't see the appeal of being the leader in some massive software/movie pirating group. Sure, you probably get your stuff for free and early, but what else is there? Maybe it's just an ego thing.
Oh, just realised they probably made a lot of money selling them.. feel no pitty for them then.
I imagine that it would be a money thing. They could potentially make more doing that than they could with regular jobs at their age.
I doubt that they would have much idea of what intellectual property is at their age either, so they wouldn't really understand what is wrong with what they are doing.
I wonder if they purchaced the discs that they burnt everything to? ie 'we shouldn't steal the discs because that is wrong.'
I think it would be fairly naive to say that the 14 year old had no idea what he/she was doing was wrong, okay - maybe not a *full* understanding but they would be fairly aware of piracy and it's implications. I'm fairly sure at the age of 14 most people had a fair understanding of the world, and probably got p***ed off when people told/assumed that they didn't :P
I wonder if everyone played by the rules and we lived in a world without piracy - how much cheaper would games/movies/music be? If companies didn't have to spend any money on anti-piracy, and they didn't loose any sales to piracy, the average price for their product would have to come down. -Then I could afford to buy more games!
Games would probably be more expensive since there would be no "alternative" method for getting the games, so they can jack up the price.
If you don't believe me, countries where piracy is rampant (such as china) sell games for 70-80% less because they are competing with the pirates for market share!
(In fact, piracy may be the reason that game prices have stayed reasonably static the last 5-10 years or so instead of rising with inflation).
CYer, Blitz
Dead Or Alive: Online
Just a little bit of eye candy :)
http://games.kikizo.com/news/200403/022.asp
Good to see that there is a return of the school girl uniform :D Let's just hope that we get the Mrs Clause costume in our versions.
hooray for gratuitous panty-shots.
Seriously though, I never personally enjoyed playing the one previous to it (oh god no not beach volleyball! The previous doa fighter) - it had a fuzzy mix of other beat-em-up systems and struggled with game balance which deteriated into "mastering" it once you could recognise every move. With the hook of softcore porn and pretty graphics, it never really did anything for me.
Wheel of Fortune
Incredibly off topic, but I don't give a shit!
A good mate of mine is going to be one of the contenstants. We're all going up to sydney on the 22nd to sledge him, and throw out random letters.
This is seriously the funniest thing I've heard in a long time.. Put my mate in front of a camera, and his dacks come down.
He's already said he's going to ask for an 'E for idiot please'.
Anyhow, I've wasted your time if you've read this, but I ran out of people to tell.
well, he didn't say much about the process, other than that he had to goto an audition.. I dunno, he musta thought it was for australian idol or something..
Next thing he knows, he gets a call asking him to goto a second audition.. He does that, and the day after he's on wheel of fortune. But before all that, I couldn't tell you.
He told me, that if I yell out 'dylan is, a homosexual!!', he'll give me one of the prizes (dylan is one of our mates)
Much as I dislike the "sedatives for the masses" that is the wheel of fortune (or is that weal? well nm), and other prime time crap, I have unfortunately suffered through a couple of shows. Anyway, I promised myself that if I ever had the cosmic misfortune of being kidnapped and forced to appear on the show, I'd take a handy letters-in-english-text distribution table along ;) Such as the one at:
http://www.csm.astate.edu/~rossa/datasec/frequency.html
When there's no other context to go on, go by the table :)
Reminds me of a good poster I saw - "Free your mind - smash your TV" ;)
Actually I've noticed that a lot of the time they don't seem to cut out things like that. I was watching The Price is Right one time over christmas and when a contestant missed out on the grand prize she goes "Oh, Shit!" and then covered her mouth and said "Oops".
I reckon if you yelled out something random, the host would probably make a joke out of it and they would leave it in, so long as its not too inappropriate. Maybe you should put this to the test. [;)]
computer gaming worlds is not a mag ive ever seen before, is it a new publication or has anyone else seen it? a interesting one being done by pc powerplay is that with their promotional DVD on the front, 100 copies will have the full version of far cry next month. Not quite a competition and not quite free distribution, but a really neat idea :D