PC still playing Amiga catchup

[Karlos]

Now my A4000 which gets turned on for use at least twice a week hasn't crashed since 1993 and still has my data on it since then, and I must admit my 2 gig hard drive is getting quite full, I still have about 1.2 gig free for use, might be another 10 years and I will have to think about installing a larger hard drive.

PC users can you claim this?

smerf

My work PC had an uptime of over 1 year until a power cut took it down. That's one full year of running a full desktop environment, without crashing or manual rebooting.

It was running fedora 5. After the reboot it was running fedora 10

[ElPolloDiabl]

I must admit my 2 gig hard drive is getting quite full, I still have about 1.2 gig free for use, might be another 10 years and I will have to think about installing a larger hard drive.

PC users can you claim this?

smerf

That's because you haven't heard of pr0n.

[Hammer]

Problem is more about getting all states of joysticks regardless of what a human's reaction time is.

If there’s a problem with USB’s data capturing capabilities then would a problem with audio capturing capabilities. Note that my mouse is basically an optical scanner.

[Hammer]

Hi,

UHHHH, Maybe if you only use a Windows installed computer once or twice a year, come to think of it I have never seen a Windows computer that is used every day go without at least 2 crashes a year, that is why the place where I work has an IT department staffed with about 200 personnel, they are either fixing computers or re-installing windows on them. My one last thought, would you board an aircraft if you knew that windows was running all the digital instrumentation on it?, or would you drive a auto if you knew windows was running your auto computer?

Now my A4000 which gets turned on for use at least twice a week hasn't crashed since 1993 and still has my data on it since then, and I must admit my 2 gig hard drive is getting quite full, I still have about 1.2 gig free for use, might be another 10 years and I will have to think about installing a larger hard drive.

PC users can you claim this?

smerf

The X64 PC can still run MS-DOS 1.0.

[Karlos]

The X64 PC can still run MS-DOS 1.0.

I wouldn't be so sure about that, unless you mean via an emulation. I thought 16-bit support was dropped in 64-bit mode. Not that I've checked too deeply.

[smerf]

It's a Q1 2008 "gaming" 15.4"  laptop. According RMclock, the entire system consumes around 25 watts to 55 watts.

Hi,

@Hammer

Ok, I would probably buy that, I keep forgetting a lot of people use laptops, even though they are unexpandable, slow, have poor graphics, and the only way to improve them is to buy a new one, I am not knocking you, I have a laptop too, a toshita satlite. I run Ubuntu 8.04 on it because I got tired of waiting for 35 minutes for it to boot up, and then another 10 minutes for it to call up Internet Explorer. With Ubuntu it cut down the load time to about 5 minutes and about a minute load time for FireFox. Sometimes i would rather use a C64, it booted and loaded faster.

smerf

[smerf]

Hi,

@Trev,

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Microsoft publishes more documentation than any other software vendor, and it's all publicly available. For free.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Hey Trev, I really read a lot of BS on this post but this line takes the cake.

By the way nice Penquin avatar, does this mean your a Linux fan boy?

smerf

[Hammer]

Only if you do buffered transfers are you going to get high transfer rates.  

The point was to capture information from analogue world and convert it to digital world.

For fetching just state of joystick, you have considerable overhead.

It doesn’t negate the higher poll rates.

  And there's a big "IF" there as well since USB joysticks are using very low rate to begin with.

Due to the dominance of 3D FPS and RTS, the mouse is the primary gaming device on the PC.

[Karlos]

Due to the dominance of 3D FPS and RTS, the mouse is the primary gaming device on the PC.

Don't forget racing simulations. Here, you still get wheels, pedals etc.

[Hammer]

Hi,

@Hammer

Ok, I would probably buy that, I keep forgetting a lot of people use laptops, even though they are unexpandable, slow, have poor graphics, and the only way to improve them is to buy a new one, I am not knocking you, I have a laptop too, a toshita satlite. I run Ubuntu 8.04 on it because I got tired of waiting for 35 minutes for it to boot up, and then another 10 minutes for it to call up Internet Explorer. With Ubuntu it cut down the load time to about 5 minutes and about a minute load time for FireFox. Sometimes i would rather use a C64, it booted and loaded faster.

smerf

Laptops are usually shipped with slow hard disks i.e. upgrade to 7200 RPM types.

After NVIDIA's mobile G8X GPU mess and EU's WEEE directive, large number of  14 to 15.4 laptops includes replaceable MXM GPU card. For example, 14.1 inch ASUS N80 laptop includes a replaceable MXM-II GPU card.

Refer to
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/hardware/0,1000000091,39253999,00.htm

In 2008, there's about 31 million gaming laptops sold i.e. an install base that rivals Xbox360 and larger than PS3.
Refer to http://au.gamespot.com/news/6210424.html

"The study further found that 42 million PC desktops and 31 million notebooks capable of playing games were shipped during the year;"

In terms of annual gaming laptop unit growth (i.e. 31 million per year), it easily beats the combined Nintendo Wii/Xbox 360/PS3 annual unit growth.

[Hammer]

Don't forget racing simulations. Here, you still get wheels, pedals etc.

In terms of revenue, racing simulations is minor in the PC market. **PC is dominated by MMORPG (in FPS format) and casual gaming (e.g. EA's Sims).

Anyway, US tax payer funded America’s Army 3.0 (using UnrealEngine3) is reported to have 20 million connections(downloads, on-line play) since June 17.

Stats
http://www.strategyinformer.com/news/3766/pc-largest-single-platform-for-gaming-revenue-is-about-11-billion

[Trev]

... that is why the place where I work has an IT department staffed with about 200 personnel, they are either fixing computers or re-installing windows on them.

I'm one of those IT department staffers and have been for about 15 years. Not in your company, most likley, but nonetheless, it's what I do. We spend the majority of our time dealing with application issues. Hardware and operating system issues are few and far between.

My one last thought, would you board an aircraft if you knew that windows was running all the digital instrumentation on it?, or would you drive a auto if you knew windows was running your auto computer?

Absolutely not. Windows wasn't designed for critical aircraft and auto systems. It's OK if Windows is running my stereo, though. EDIT: I wouldn't want Amiga OS flying the plane either. What was your point?

Now my A4000 which gets turned on for use at least twice a week hasn't crashed since 1993 and still has my data on it since then, and I must admit my 2 gig hard drive is getting quite full, I still have about 1.2 gig free for use, might be another 10 years and I will have to think about installing a larger hard drive.

At the moment, my towered A1200 mysteriously resets every time I attempt to use a Voodoo.card video mode. !@#% I would reinstall and get everything to a known good state, but something's wrong with Paula or one of the CIAs. Every drive I try seeks/clicks three times and then fails to read the disk.

PC users can you claim this?

I'd been running my last Windows XP-based system using the same base install for about three years when one of my hard disks failed. (Before anyone says anything re: my previous post, yes, I'd been ignoring the warning signs.) It was a stripe sans parity, so I lost everything. C'est la vie. There's nothing I hate worse than dealing with backups, so of course, I don't run them at home.

[Trev]

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Microsoft publishes more documentation than any other software vendor, and it's all publicly available. For free.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Hey Trev, I really read a lot of BS on this post but this line takes the cake.

You're kidding, right? I'm assuming you haven't visited Microsoft's web site any time in the last ten years.

By the way nice Penquin avatar, does this mean your a Linux fan boy?

You meant "you're," but that's OK. No, it means I run (or ran--it's been a while) Linux on my Sega Dreamcast, hence the orange Sega Swirl.

I enjoy computing in general and have lots of different systems. I can afford whatever the industry throws at me, so unlike most people, I don't have to choose one thing or the other and then vehemently claim I made the best choice in a dire effort to avoid buyer's remorse.

The only thing that's brought me close to fanboy status is The Cure, but even Robert Smith tests my patience now and again.

At any rate, we both like Amigas or else we wouldn't be here, right?

[alexatkin]

And THIS is what happens with modern hardware when you force developers to "bang on the hardware" vs developer friendly, API driven devkits. (not that the PS3 does not have APIs, but it requires the developer to do the work to get the 7 SPEs doing anything useful whereas the 360 does not)

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/06/17/ghostbusters-on-ps3-lags-behind-360-version-developer-explains/

[Trev]

And THIS is what happens with modern hardware when you force developers to "bang on the hardware" vs developer friendly, API driven devkits.

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/06/17/ghostbusters-on-ps3-lags-behind-360-version-developer-explains/

Dude. Thanks for that. I haven't opened my PS3 copy of Ghostbusters yet, so I'm going to take it back and get the Xbox 360 version instead. I prefer the Xbox 360 controllers anyway. I'm 6'5". The PlayStation controllers are made for little people with little hands. ;-)

[Hammer]

And THIS is what happens with modern hardware when you force developers to "bang on the hardware" vs developer friendly, API driven devkits.

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/06/17/ghostbusters-on-ps3-lags-behind-360-version-developer-explains/

Factor in RSX's pixel shaders stalling during texture operations i.e. a known designed flaw for Geforce 6/7 series.

Anyway, more on
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/xbox-360-vs-ps3-face-off-round-20

Xbox 360 wins again in most of the multi-platforms.