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Great historic article about the father of games Atari:
A good read
A good read
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Atari is dead to me.
(Although I'm enjoying the Witcher, so maybe there is hope yet.)<Reverend> IRC is just multiplayer notepad.
I like your SNOOPY POSTER! - While you Wait quote. -
I went to the official website to have a look, but the horribly large Flash file took too long to load for me. So what do you think?(\__/) 07/07/1937 - Never forget
(='.'=) "Claims demand evidence; extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence." -- Carl Sagan
(")_(") "Starting the fire from within."Comment
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@Urban Ranger, if you mean what do I think.......well I hate big flash only sites also, one of the reasons I no longer go to the official Total War site, but use the .org site instead. It's unfortunatly a common theme with game sites - big eye candy excites the kids I guess? Gloss over content etc etc.
As for Atari themselves, well as with all the big names that survived from yesteryear they don't mean anything special to me anymore because the computer game industry has changed so much and imo for the worse. Labels now really are just lables - they don't stand for anything like the quality they once did.
Interesting article about the benefits of a single console platform(as opposed to the mutli-platforms we have now) to develope for as discussed by heads at both EA and Silican Knights:
remember MSX?Comment
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"Future Play 2007: Espen Aarseth Asks Are Games Only Good For Us?"
Interesting points, and maybe more relevent than many would think. I think we have a lot of two-facedness in the games industry over these issues.
On the one hand you have the larger defensive "Games do not corrupt kids" brigade, often from the larger more profitable studios that produce mostly very graphicaly violent games.
Then when you have games that maybe are themed around training terrorists, or uncovering the murky world of politics, these same people will often join the bandwagon of condeming the game for "corrupting the kidz!"
I think it goes without reason that if you have a mechanism for repeating an action over and over, but with no real world consequence, you have a brilliant teaching system. The military+pilot schools wouldn't use computer simulations if they didn't do anything.
Now take that same aproach to gaming, wether joining a terror training camp or the military to take out those terrorists, or maybe a game about rape or what about serial killing?
Playing games is as old as time, and the main function of all games has been to teach, sure they can be fun, but fun is just the vessel that helps to engage.
Anyway it's an interesting article and to be honest I do feel uncomfortable when I look at our store shelves and many of the titles they now contain.
As a parent, this insider knowledge i have on games(especialy the graphicaly complex modern ones) will mean I'm going to be very carefull about what games my children, especialy when they are young, will be allowed to play.
It's just so obvious the game producers themselves have surrenderd up any responsibility in this area - anything goes, as long as it makes money.Comment
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What is now called Atari will always be TCFKAI (the company formerly known as Infogrames) and not the Atari we have known in our childhood/youth, no matter what they doOriginally posted by snoopy369
Atari is dead to me.
(Although I'm enjoying the Witcher, so maybe there is hope yet.)
As for the original Atari:
I always found the stories cool about the tub they had in their office
Electronic Arts obviously wanted to copy them with their swimming pool at their main office building, but sadly they also introduced so much stress into the development of their games that noone dared to use it out of fear of getting firedLast edited by Proteus_MST; November 19, 2007, 05:54.Tamsin (Lost Girl): "I am the Harbinger of Death. I arrive on winds of blessed air. Air that you no longer deserve."
Tamsin (Lost Girl): "He has fallen in battle and I must take him to the Einherjar in Valhalla"Comment
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lol now why do I not find that unsuprising. Things are better there now(apparantly?), but i wonder if all EA employees are now getting to discuss business in the poolOriginally posted by Proteus_MST
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Electronic Arts obviously wanted to copy them with their swimming pool at their main office building, but sadly they also introduced so much stress into the development of their games that noone dared to use it out of fear of getting fired
One day that nivarna may come to pass.
Another intersting article(to me) about the same kind of topic in my last post:
Its a good point that with more government interest in games and suitability for minors, the main players should make it part of their policy to be more sensitve about their produce. If they keep their heads in the sand over this they will just end up alienating themselves through draconian law making and parent dissaproval.Comment
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Another 'Atari future uncertain' post, how many years now have we been getting these?
EDIT:
And is this finaly it - on the ropes again!(I swear it's like a 40year old ex-champ that should have quit a while back, but still refuses to fall down!):
Last edited by El_Cid; November 20, 2007, 12:39.Comment
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EU gives french developers green light for tax breaks:
I find that interesting, especially so that in recent months the UK government basicaly ruled out the same for the UK:
And some UK devs are now looking to relocate:
Of course compared to the USA and Japanese scene, the UK is pretty small developement wise. Still if the french/EU can see the worth of their games industry why not the UK?Comment
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Some legal milestone for Open Source development. I'm not sure exactly what it will mean other than if you don't credit the source of the opensource software(if it is required by the license) you have used in your product/game/etc then you could face a law suit?
Personally I think it only fair to credit your sources, even if not requested, but I'm sure this is something that could easily get overlooked by a busy developer and might leave them open to litigation?
Good thing/bad thing for Open Source?
In other news I've been noticing a slight increase in the amount of lay-off's in the industry over recent months. Here's an example:
Probably just a reflection on the general economic downturn, but added to something like this:
And it could spell a bigger storm coming?Last edited by El_Cid; August 15, 2008, 05:32.Comment
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Some stuff about XNA/XBLA, from devs who have tried it/are using it and others thinking about it:
XNA:
And a few about XBLA:
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Another fantastic article about the company that started the whole 'games' ball rolling:
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