Airburst Extreme
Hey great work on AirBurst Extreme. I had stopped keeping up with Airburst around the time the network version was released (it didn't run so great on my old 300 MHz G3) but I got an iBook last week and one of the first things I did was download Airburst Extreme. This is everything the original was and then some. Great work. Only problem I really noticed was that it takes almost 5 minutes to regain control of my machine once the game quit. I actually thought it had crashed my machine but through some miracle I was patient enough to give it a few minutes and eventually it gave me my computer back.
You know what I think would be really cool for Airburst Extreme? If you guys ported it to Microsoft's soon to be released Xbox game download service Xbox Live Arcade.
Im pretty sure that Strange F
Im pretty sure that Strange Flavour is Mac only and will always Mac only. Xbox is a console, and is microsoft. Though I do like it when games are bought to everyone, I doubt it will happen here.
However, I don't have any idea what this Xbox arcade is or what it does so...
Yes, we don't do Windows :) W
Yes, we don't do Windows
We're planning on expanding to consoles at some point, but X-Box is a bit of a dead end at the moment. X-Box arcade is a nice idea (downloadable titles to the X-Box hard drive), but as it would involve us effectively doing a Direct X port of Airburst first, along with the costs of an X-Box devkit we'd be better off forking out for a Sony devkit and going for the bigger market first 
As far as the long time it's taking to come back to the OS on your Mac, it could be one of two things. If you're running with a relatively low memory spec ( < 384mb) and only a small amount of hard disk space left it could well be that it's taking the OS a while to swap the memory back from the disk, although I've never seen it take more than 30 seconds even on really low spec Macs (500Ghz G3 iBook with 384mb memory). The other possibility is that the AppleScript Airburst Extreme launches on quitting to unpause iTunes is having some sort of problem. If you go into the script directory and rename the AppleScripts there to something like "whateveritwascalled_dontuse" they won't get launched (which will stop the iTunes pause/unpause) and this may solve the problem.
The idea of ABE going to a co
The idea of ABE going to a console never really occurred to me...
But now someone mentions it and it sounds like a good idea. You know what'd really rock though? ABE on a portable console... well, apart from the fact that the only portable console at the moment is way too small to effectively run ABE. Maybe the DS or PSP could...
The machine is a 1 GHz iBook
The machine is a 1 GHz iBook with 256 megs of RAM and 20 gigs of free HD space. I will check the script thing, which I have no need for and I would think most other people wouldn't but I could be wrong. I tend to quit all applications before playing a game.
Xbox Live Arcade is supposedly doing a lot of stuff through emulation, who knows they may have an OpenGL emulator built-in, though I doubt it since it is designed more for old arcades and shockwave based games than fully rendered 3D games. PS2 might be a bigger market but you would have to go for a disc based release (which would still be sweet especially if it was released as a value title like Katamari Damacy, which is the most addictive games I have played since Airburst) and all the hassles associated with that since the PS2 HD has very little support or market saturation and there is no service like Xbox Live Arcade at present. I would suggest you at least look into Microsoft's XNA development tools since I have heard rumors that it will be able to make builds targeted for Xbox, Xbox 2, Windows, and possibly even Mac OS X (this is the rumored part) all from the same code. I really doubt the Mac OS X rumor but there were some news items not too long ago about M$ trying to bring more games to the Mac platform (well in Japan at least).
I thought of it a while back,
I thought of it a while back, maybe I should have said something sooner. Too bad none of the big three have a hobbyist developer kit like the one Sony had for the PSone. Make it a lot easier for small companies like StrangeFlavour to get in on the console market. And if the games could be released through a download service like XBox Live Arcade I think it would really bring some much needed game-play back to the consoles.
Most console developers seem to spend more time worrying about the graphics and how much sex/gore/violence they can cram into a game and yet still get it released with a teen rating than they spend worrying about game-play. The shareware game market has always been filled full of fun titles, especially the Mac side since we don't have to be as trojan paranoid as the users on the Windows side of the street. You rarely see anything new or novel from console developers and if they do try to do something different they often can't find a publisher brave enough to release it (big props to Namco for releasing Katamari Damacy here in the U.S.).
It would really rock to see a set of cheap hobbyist devtools for a system like the PSP since it has a memory stick slot and the WiFI and whatever else they are packing into that thing. I think the black PSone was a flop mainly because there wasn't a way to share the games you had made with others unless they also had the black PSone. Now with the internet and hard drives and memory sticks all being integrated with portables and consoles it opens up some really interesting possibilities. Possibilities that game publishers probably don't want to think about, and since all three of the big console players are also some of the biggest publishers in the game industry it is most likely something we will never see.
As for the DS vs. the PSP, they both look really neat. If there is a decent PDA application suite for the DS I will buy one in a minute, which is sad I know but I could kind of use a PDA but not enough to actually get one. The DS could be a good platform for emulating Newton OS or running a Newton-like suite at least.
the 256 megs of RAM is the bi
the 256 megs of RAM is the bit that will be giving you the slow recovery. That's the absolute minimum amount and would probably involve OS X swapping the entire system to the virtual memory to play the game and then swapping it back afterwards! If you get the chance, get as much extra RAM in the iBook as you can. It's relatively cheap nowadays and makes a *big* difference on OS X.
As far as other platforms are concerned, while we're looking into possible console targets at a later date, we're not overimpressed by Microsofts morals or standards, so they'd be way down the list, and if we were going to have to learn a new set of development tools, it might as well be for the PS2 as it has a much bigger user base.
Microsoft has morals and stan
Microsoft has morals and standards??? Guess I learned something new today
Anyway no matter what you think of Microsoft the Xbox is a great console. The PS2 is really showing its age these days. The PS3 and Xbox 2 are both out there on the horizon and since M$ plans to have the Xbox 2 out a year in advance of the PS3 it could be the dominate next gen console. By the time you get up to speed on the PS2 it will probably be a dead system and there is no telling how different developing for the PS3 is going to be. At least M$ has tools out now that can develop for the current and next generation of their consoles. Both systems are great and I own both of them but the Xbox is a superior system IMHO. I am a huge Microsoft critic and a big Sony fanboy but I have to admit that M$ did a much better job on their console even though there are things they do that really tick me off as far as the fees for Live and download content goes.
As for the RAM yes I know 256 is a little light but I could barely afford the iBook alone so the RAM is going to have to wait a bit. I plan to add 512 megs to it ASAP but I am just a college student living from grant to grant now so it may be next spring before I have the money to spare. Just buying the iBook was actually an act of major irresponsibility on my part but I couldn't resist.
Purely out of interest, did y
Purely out of interest, did you know the next Xbox will be running on a chip made by IBM called the PowerPC 970 (more affectionately known as the G5)? I imagine that would make developing easier, or have I got completely the wrong end of the stick?
While based on the same core
While based on the same core as the G5, the end result will still require a specific compiler and the dev tools will be custom. As XBox 2 is looking like not being backwardly compatible with XBox and Microsoft haven't shown a great ability to sign up actual console developers, I suspect Sony will still have the lead on console sales.
Remember, coming out first with a new console isn't always a good idea. The people thinking about buying an XBox 2 when it first comes out (and can make money for Microsoft) will always have the thought that the PlayStation 3 is just around the corner to make them hang onto their money
Actually, do you know why Vir
Actually, do you know why Virtual PC 7 was taking so long?
Yup. Micro$oft are using it to run Xbox (Pentium) games on the Xbox 2 (PowerPC) chip. Or at least, they're developing a hybrid of it that's optimized for the Xbox 2. Or something like that.
But yeah, PS2/3 would probably be a better choice for you guys.
I have heard both about the C
I have heard both about the CPU being based on the IBM 970 (with the current dev kits being G5's running a custom 64-bit NT based OS) and them supposedly using VPC to provide backwards compatibility.
The PS3 will have the advantage of being in development longer but Sony reps have been talking about some pretty crazy ideas for it like multiple versions, some with single Cell processors and some with multiple Cell processors. They have also mentioned some plans for distributed processing and other stuff. This all sounds very un-console like and not very user or developer friendly to me. It is Sony though and they usually do a really good job but they may be trying to be a little too cutting edge with the PS3.
One advantage I have heard the Xbox has over PS2 is that it is much easier to develop for thanks to its x86 based nature while the PS2's weird multiple CPU design makes it that much tougher to work with.
Chances are I will own both the Xbox 2 and the PS3 just like I now own the Xbox and PS2. I might wait until the PS3 is out before I get either though. Unless the Xbox 2 has some really great looking launch titles.