dimator | head

After years of shielding my eyes from all things having to do with low-level windows development, I’ve finally had to do it. It’s not by choice, I swear. I’d like to choose the technologies I use, but sometimes that’s not always possible.

Just look at this mess. Was the original guy typing up those function names having some kind of seizure? (I know, I know, this is not the latest-and-greatest development environment from Microsoft, but still! There’s no need for the uglyness, now or ever in the past. How long has it been since UNIX system calls have been standardized? Yet they are still sane to work with.) When you have the need to introduce underscores or “Ex” to function names, someone somewhere has screwed up.

I’m managing to avoid MFC for the time being, at least. The PopCap framework is pretty cool.

A friend linked me to this, describing (possible) Nintendo Revolution details. The big idea is to replace the standard D-Pad+Buttons combination we’ve all known since the dawn of time with a touchscreen controller. Game designers could render any number of different screen elements, buttons, widgets, sliders, etc., depending on the game.

First of all, this is just a rumor. But if it turns out to be true, and I think it’s probable, I don’t think this is a bad idea at all, and it makes it absolutely clear that Nintendo is serious about pushing the envelope. Just like with the DS, I can’t wait to see what some developers will bring to it, especially in 2nd (and +) generations of games.

I think it’s also clear that this could make or break the company, at least in its role as a contender in the next-gen console producer space. Business-wise, Sony and Microsoft have seen that, at least for the time being, people buy incremental graphics improvements. Tell them it has 10 million more polygons than PS_n-1, and they’ll buy. Tell them it has support for HD output, and they’ll buy. Nintendo seems to have the great ideas, new ideas, but no one spends the cash on them. That’s how you determine a winner in this game. You can’t deposit “cool” into the bank.

The Revolution details seem amazing from a game developer prospective, but will it sell? I’m not so sure if it will win the hearts of gamers, just because it is so different. It will absolutely need smash launch titles to avoid quickly dropping from developers’ lists of target systems, especially if you consider that a port from PS3/XboxNext to/from the Revolution would not be as simple as tweaking the game engine, and remapping some buttons. (A Mario game is in the works…) And for Christ’s sake, no more ports of older crap.

Either way, this seems like Nintendo’s end game. I wouldn’t be surprised if this is the last year Nintendo releases a console.

Despite this blog post, it seems GoogleX is no more, but after a search on guess who (ironic?), GoogleX is found and available for local mirroring.

Maybe they took it down because of concerns Apple might get pissed, but I thought you couldn’t really legally protect an application’s look and feel? Maybe they just want to stay on Apple’s good side.

Regarding the imminent release of the PSP, I think tycho has really hit the nail on the head:

I really do desire the machine, in a way that I wish I desired another new handheld with two screens, but one of these systems has a strong launch lineup and one of them dished up an eight year old port and called it a feast.

Zing! (He’s referring, of course, to Super Mario 64 for DS. Compare with new hotness.)

I think this sums up the upcoming DS/PSP battle pretty nicely. Nintendo, I’d hate to say, looks like it’s in some trouble. A-List titles come from only Nintendo, while third party developers (for the most part) ignore their systems. I’d love to see the DS come out on top at the end of this year, because it’s not just “look! shiny! new graphics!”

I just hope Revolution really is as earth-shattering as has been hyped, because that’s all that can save them.

I don’t know if it’s been postulated before, but I could swear that the original Street Fighter 2 developers based the game, to a degree, on Bloodsport. There are many similarities, and more come to mind as I re-watch the movie:

• Frank Dux reminds me of Ken, especially in his red uniform
   
• This monkey fighting guy reminds me of Blanka, especially his stance and style
   
• This guy reminds me of E. Honda, for obvious reasons
  
• This guy really reminds me of Sagat. Compare his shorts, his stance, and fighting style
  

Some story elements match too, like Frank trained with Shingo, Ken trained with Ryu. The movie fighting music is very reminiscent of some SF2 level music as well.

Kind of wierd that Van Damme later played Guile in the Street Fighter movie.