So, I decided to list all my PC gamepads/joysticks... oldest to newest.
-Oldest is a Kraft Thunderstick joystick. It came with out Pentium 90 that we got in early/mid 1995. It has 2 buttons (trigger and a button on top that has 2 seperate parts but both just activate button 2) and a throttle, so its a 3 axis, 2 button gamepad.
This stick has almost no resistance so it is very, very touchy and inprecice. It also is analog so you have to constantly adjust the trim pots to get it even. Its not a very good joystick, but it'll do when its all you have...
-Next, I got a Capcom PC Fighter 6 in the box when I bought Mega Man X for PC. It is a 6-button digital gamepad. The only problem is that it has no drivers so its got to use the windows default drivers. This means that buttons 5 and 6 aren't buttons like the other 4 -- they actually are the Z axis. Which means that in most games you can't use them since most games don't let you assign normal game functions to axes. Very annoying...
Of course, Mega Man X (and Street Fighter 2 Turbo, which also shipped with the pad) aren't games that let you assign buttons to axes. Great planning there guys.
Still, if you have games that do or that only need 4 buttons its a quality pad. And it still works to this day -- unlike two newer pads I have...
-Microsoft SideWinder 3D Pro -- I got this one in mid/late 1997. I badly, badly needed a new joystick since my Thunderstick was awful for most games... Rebel Assualt was hard to play with that imprecise stick. So I got a Sidewinder 3D Pro. Its a very good stick... 8 buttons, 4 axes (X/Y, Throttle, and Twist (R/Z)), and its digital so no more of those annoying trim pots. And it works very well for any games that are for joysticks... I still use it for flight sims and mech games. It made TIE Fighter and Rebel Assualt 2 a lot more fun... and came with HellBender in the box. :)
-Microsoft SideWinder Gamepad -- great, great pad. It was my main pad for years after I got it sometime in 1998. I'd still be using it sometimes if it hadn't gotten dirty... 10 buttons and a d-pad are on this pad. Its still the most comfterble gamepad I've ever used... others are close but nothing quite matches it. And its got the best shoulder buttons (triggers) on any pad ever.
The only problem is that mine got dirty over the years, and the d-pad doesn't work right anymore. I did open the pad once and clean it, but within 6 months it was dirty again and I realized that I had to get a new pad... I couldn't get it open again, probably because of how the screws chew up the plastic and become hard to get out, especially without the correct screwdriver, which I didn't have.
-Though the Sidewinder still worked, in 2000 I decided I needed an analog gamepad -- lots of games use analog pads and I thought that it'd be great to be able to play gamepad games in PC in analog too. So I got a Gravis Xterminator Gamepad. Its a nice pad with LOTS of buttons -- 11 buttons, a analog stick, a d-pad, a throttle, and a rudder axis put on two shoulder buttons. That's 6 axes total, 4 analog. The D-Pad can also be assigned to 8 buttons. It also has a hat switch, allowing 4 more actions. Its nicely designed. Its not as comfterble or as well designed as the SideWinder, and the triggers are a bit awkwardly placed, and the main buttons are very close together, and the analog stick doesn't have much range of movement... but its a solid pad. Not great, but good. However... after a year and a half or so it began to fail. It'd fail to respond sometimes. I tried installing and uninstalling the drivers, downloading the latest drivers, and anything I could think of... but it got worse. After a few months it wouldn't work at all... since then I think I got it to work once or twice but not for long, and for no apparent reason. Then it'd fail again. Its very, very frusterating... and I couldn't return it since I didn't have the reciept. So I've still got a gamepad that doesn't work lying around.
-And the last is of course the Saitek P880 that I've discussed here several times before. Very high quality pad with 10 buttons, a d-pad, and dual analog sticks (with the d-pad or main analog being a hat switch when disabled). And very large shoulder buttons.
Why write this? Well, I spent a while today trying to get that stupid Capcom pad to work as a 6-button pad. I tried to get it to work using generic Saitek 6-button and Interact 6-button drivers... but it didn't work. So I went to 3-axis 4-button. That worked.
And that darn third axis still isn't recognized as buttons in most any games.
So I tried to find a joystick keyboard emulator (to map those two axes so that the games think I'm pushing some keyboard key)... but it ... didn't work too well. I found a few, but they all were either for DOS or didn't seem to work in programs... :(
...that in a society as advanced as ours, we still practice racism, under the assumed title of "minority advancement". The Supreme Court upheld the Affirmative Action constitutionality in the Michigan University case, which is a very disappointing statement of how some radicals can further drive a wedge between races just to further their own agendas. In the erroneous name of progress we just stepped backwards a few steps. Thanks a lot, guys.
On a brighter note, it wasn't a total loss of sanity for our Justices, as they did defeat the AA practices of Michigan University's undergraduate program, which will hopefully one day lead to it's eventual elimination altogether.
It can probably be said that racial equality will never be achieved by governmental policies, but by the eventual tolerance of successive generations. Our generation is more racially tolerant than any before. It should go without saying that our children will hopefully continue that trend, and that we can become a truly color-blind nation without the interference of self-serving liberal interests. Only time will tell, but I think, and hope, that's how it happens.
Unfortunately in the short term, the liberal mobs continue to spread messages to minorities that they cannot succeed without liberal help, that only by having special advantages will they ever achieve anything. Of course, few people realize what long-term damage that thinking will cause (and has been causing for years, so we continue to promote state-sponsered racism, a sort of watered-down reversal of Jim Crow. And that's to say nothing of the degradation of the black people, who by way of affirmative action are being told that they cannot be successes without help, that they are incapable of doing it themselves. It's this sort of short-sightedness by liberals that have racial tensions still brewing after all these years.
The funny thing is, I know that during the course of the argument that will inevitably follow this post, I will be called, if not in name then in spirit, a racist, bigoted right-wing neo-Hitler, but it's the cry of people who are exactly what they call people like me. I don't advocate racism or inequality. I simply do not believe that you can eliminate inequality by creating more inequality. It's a stupid in theory and stupid in application.
Therefore, I look at the Supreme Court decision with mixed feelings. I hope that it's a step in the right direction, which is the eventual disintegration of AA policies, even though the Court unwisely upheld some of those policies. That they did not uphold them all is definitely a good sign though.
Quote:According to an article on MCV, Acclaim has no further plans to develop games for Nintendo's Gamecube console.
Acclaim CEO Rod Cousens recently commented on the matter, saying, "Why are we to develop games for platforms that do not supply appropriate yields? We still support PS2 and Xbox, but Nintendo? No, not in the foreseeable future. "
Acclaim's current projects will still be released, but no new software is planned for Gamecube. The games still set for release are Legends Of Wrestling III, Urban Freestyle Soccer, and XGRA.
The Gamecube versions of Alias, NBA JAM 2004, and Gladiator are apparently not going to surface now, but we'll keep our eyes on this situation and keep you posted.
Source: MCV
Posted by pizzicato on 6.23.2003
On one hand I don't care about this since most of their Gamecube games have been mediocre X-Box or PS2 ports, but on the other hand this is pretty bad for Nintendo since third-party support is already bad.
Perhaps if the idiots at Acclaim had made Turok Evolution for the Gamecube and only the Gamecube it would have sold better since the game would have looked better and might have been filled with less bugs (since they only would have had to concentrate on one version of the game).
Who is your favorite character? As there are too many, I won't do a poll.
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On second thought, I'm gonna do a poll anyway, because I'll use any excuse to make a poll. I even made a new username just to do polls once.
Fable. It was originally supposed to come out soon after the launch of the Xbox. It was touted as one of the major reasons why you, as a gamer, absolutely had to have an Xbox. It was much talked about and it seemed it's release was close at hand. But it was not to be. The shadow of delay fell over this beloved jewel of programming genius. At first it was a only a slight delay.
"Just wait a few months", they told us. But a few months turned into half a year. Half a year turned into a year. A year turned into two years. Now the release is tentatively set for Winter 2003. But with winter quickly approaching will we see two years grow into three? Will we finally be able to play this game, which according to it's creator, will be beyond our imagination? Or will continuing delays sink it into oblivion?
All doom and gloom aside, well most of anyway, people have been waiting a long time, me being on those, for this game and if it isn't one of the greatest games ever then I will be very dissapointed. I hope it doesn't end up like Malice, which was delayed into oblivion, because if Fable turns out the way Peter M. says it going to be one heck of a game.
Details about Fable, for those who care:
Forge a Hero Based on Your Actions: Age and evolve a hero or villain through the actions you choose and the path you follow ¡V be it for good, evil or in-between. Ply the way of the sword and see your muscles bulge. Weave the dark arts and witness power crackle at your fingertips. Skulk in the shadows and watch your skin bleach.
Engage in Intense Real Time Combat: Collect battle scars as you duel with a world of cunning foes and deadly creatures. Master an array of deadly weaponry as you hone the art of blade-craft. Hunt your quarry using subterfuge and stealth. Weave death from the elements as you harness the dark arts of the arcane.
Build Your Living Legend: Through deeds and actions, build a name for yourself across the land. Recruit allies and followers. Gain glory or notoriety. Make friends and enemies. Interact with a living world of people, places and event all reactive to you. Hero or butcher? Who will you be?
Explore and Shape a Living, Evolving World: Champion or manipulate an ever-changing land with competitive and cooperative heroes, dynamic weather systems and deformable environments. Interact with teeming cultures, creatures, and citizens from various towns and cities.
Hone Your Character with Scores of Unique Skills and Extras: Master new abilities and add possessions as you develop.
Never Play the Same Game Twice: Once you finish your adventure, go back and try the experience again, forging your character and thereby a new tale with unexpected twists and turns, new skills, powers, influences, allies and enemies.
