Which Games Consoles Are the Best?

Well, I guess that was a bit of a generalisation of mine. But it is certainly true that there are a lot of very underpaid actors who are excellent whilst there are some very well paid "stars" who's ability to draw a croud is not based on any great ability to act.

IMHO

But Mulder was great. Loved his sense of humor.

But if hes gotta go, then hes gotta go.

I haven't seen the new X-File Eps, any good?

True, RC. But movie making is also a lot about money making.

Yeah, I know, it's a business just like everything else.

But I can't help feeling that big Movie Stars do take advantage. Same with Football players. I was watching a documantry about football in the 30's to 60's when it was just a normal job, non of this thousands of pounds a match type players.

Let's face it, it's not the industries themselves but the entire culture we now live in.

Yep, and we're all helping by watching movies and football games, going there to see it etc etc. Money makes the world go round, I think.

Well, I'm only half helping then cos I hate football. But then I do watch Formula One and Shumey just got a deal for 25 million so I guess I do then. 😕

Meanwile...

Interesting showing at the E3 games show. PS2 was as dull and unimpressive as all the journos expected, but still with a solid base. Microsoft have yet to pull anything particualrly great for the coming X-Box. But Nintendo seem to have come out of nowhere with the Game Cube; looks great and cheap. Being a Nintendo console, howveer, it will never sell that well... the exception being the Game Boy, of course, still the most successful console in the world...

When are the GBA coming out in the UK?

Good question. The Euro release date is still... unclear.

Strictly speaking the Gameboy is a handheld, not a console.

Gameboy Advanced (aka Gameboy 2) is released in the UK on 22nd of June. We have one on pre-order for Bens birthday. That date is confirmed by Nintendo, but obviously is subject to unforeseen circumstances.

There's loads of info on the GBA in most retailers who will be selling it, we got Ben's ordered from GAME.

Some places are selling the japaneze version for arounf £150.00 but considering that the UK version is £79.99 I don't think it'sworth it.

[ May 29, 2001: Message edited by: RC ]

And they aren't even using the original SNES music for F-Zero... philistines...

Strictly speaking, though, it is called a handheld console... meaningless, I think, but that's how they rate it.

Euro console import laws are ridiculous. Sony included some basic programming stuff with the PS2 to get it classified as a computer rather than a console, so they could pay less tax...

Apparently this little box is as powerful as a regular console with a 32-Bit ARM processor with embedded memory.

Nintendo have a massive launch campaign that will really kick in about 7 days prior to release.

Also, I retract my earlier statement, Nintendo are marketing it as a console, not a handheld or a handheld console...

I wonder if THAT is a tax thing?

Doubt it, I think the TAZ thing is around whether it is a recreation device or not.

Its probably just to make us aware how powerful its meant to be.

So is the ARM chip the same as a MIPS RISC chip? Anyone know the speed?

Can't speak for technical issues, of course, but it is meant to have the same performance as a SNES and still have an efficient battery life, which is always the nub for a handheld.

I do seem to remember them saying that it could do proper 3-d stuff; a first for a handheld, but it simply wasn't worth the bother of making 3-d games for it.

There are some 3D games in the pipeline, in the mold of something like StarFox I believe.

As to the processor, not sure how it compares, but it is supposed to process data 17 times faster than it's predessor. As Ush said, the GBA has equivelant power to the Super NES.

The Gameboy had an 8-bit Z80 clone running at aroung 4.2MHz, the GBA has the 32-bit processor but I can't find anything that confirms the speed of this chip...

In any case, the coming gams look very good.

Most of them are just SNES ports, well in the first 12 at least. Though there are 40 others being released between July and Xmas.