Yeah, it's a little known fact among pc gamers.

Jeez I should look into that, I'd graduate with honors.

PZ
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Reading: J.R.R. Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings: Return of the King"
Listening To: Sam Roberts - "We Were Born In A Flame"

You can be a masters student in Unreal Tournament?

Yeah, it's a little known fact among pc gamers.

heh...I am writing a paper as we speak. Where do you go to school in Canada?

This semester Douglas College in beautiful BC, and next semester the lovely University of Victoria. Working on a BSc in Comp Sci.

I am a masters student at UT.

You can be a masters student in Unreal Tournament?


PZ
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Currently Reading: J.R.R. Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings: Return of the King" -- Last Read: Kenneth Lux's "Adam Smith's Mistake: How a Moral Philosopher Invented Economics
This comment was edited on Dec 9, 22:13.

Anyways, I have to go write my exam.

heh...I am writing a paper as we speak. Where do you go to school in Canada? I am a masters student at UT.

This is actually a really bad analogy here. You are implying that either win98 (with its lovely memory leak) or firestarter doesn't work, which is utterly untrue.

Fair enough, but actually my intent was to imply that Win98 isn't stable (I actually wasn't commenting on Firestarter at all), which is what the Pro-XP'ers on here are implying, that we should all upgrade to 2K/XP because it's more stable.

You are also implying that win98 and XP are the same, which they are not

Architecturally speaking, yes I am. Like I said they are both 32bit OS's running on x86 hardware.

Perhaps the way I worded it was confusing, I do realize that XP/2K is built upon the NT core, whereas 98 was built from the 95 core, so the two are completely different in the sense they are totally separate software projects. They both however still run 32bit Windows apps the same.

I don't think that one $100 upgrade

My figures were Canadian $$$'s, so no, for me it wouldn't be less than $100 (even with the Canadian dollar being so strong as of late)

but I don't think that one ... upgrade ... in 6 years is unfair here.

No dor I, if it brings with it value. The only value I see in XP over 98 is increased stability. Everything else in XP (from my perspective) is fluff, fluff which I don't think is worth the $100+ for the upgrade. And like I said, I don't think stability is something that we should be required to upgrade to get, it should come with the product.

Look at it this way, if Id puts out Doom 3 and it's buggier than hell, but they address these bugs in an paid expansion pack, would you not have a problem? Would you not have the expectation that as a paid customer of Doom 3 that any bugs should be fixed free of charge to you? Why is Windows any different?

There will always be people like you, refusing to upgrade and making game companies take longer to develop products for the rest of us

So IOW, my decision not to use XP on my gaming machine is adversely affecting you, so I should then upgrade? Uhm, no. The console market will always be easier to develop for, not only because of the variety of OS's (Wintel vs Mac vs Linux), but also the variety of hardware (ATI vs NVidia, etc etc). This is fundamental to the PC world, and while it's its greatest strength (unlimited capabilities, hardware/software can grow to meet new needs), it is simultaneously the biggest obstacle that developers (particularly game developers) face (non-standardized platform).

how long do you really expect win98 support to last?

In terms of bug fixes/stability/security issues, for as long as MS is around. The unfortunate thing is that software doesn't come with warranties, so this isn't realistic in the current software world.

Your system has stability and speed....fine; just don't expect to be able to play the latest and greatest games for long

But that's the point, that 98 doesn't have the stability of XP (in fact, XP's biggest selling point was the increased stability of the NT core). And if it means I can't play the latest & greatest, I'm willing to accept that (for now, largely because I can't play the latest & greatest anyways due to hardware limitations).

Anyways, I have to go write my exam.


PZ
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Currently Reading: J.R.R. Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings: Return of the King" -- Last Read: Kenneth Lux's "Adam Smith's Mistake: How a Moral Philosopher Invented Economics
This comment was edited on Dec 9, 13:33.

An analogy: if you buy a TV, and then later decide that you want picture-in-picture, or high-definition reception, etc, then you'd go out and buy a new TV to get the new features. And this is perfectly acceptable. On the other hand, if you bought a TV, and the thing simply didn't work, yeah you'd buy a new TV, but you'd never buy from the same manufacturer simply because you'd feel like you got screwed. Why is it that we have the expectation of quality in tangible products like TV's, cars, etc, etc, but not in software?

This is actually a really bad analogy here. You are implying that either win98 (with its lovely memory leak) or firestarter doesn't work, which is utterly untrue. You are also implying that win98 and XP are the same, which they are not (btw, after I installed my first piece of hardware and setup my first lan with XP, I kissed that POS known as win98 goodbye forever). I understand that nobody likes giving $$ to MS (hell, I hate the bastards), but I don't think that one $100 upgrade (you can find it less with a bit of work) in 6 years is unfair here. There will always be people like you, refusing to upgrade and making game companies take longer to develop products for the rest of us. This is, again, a main reason for companies to abandon PC for consoles, where they don't have to deal with all the OS compatibility crap. Seriously though, how long do you really expect win98 support to last? Your system has stability and speed....fine; just don't expect to be able to play the latest and greatest games for long.

This comment was edited on Dec 9, 12:25.

The patch addresses the issues with character movement speed and clarifies RPG aspects of the game by providing the player with a selection of differently-upgraded characters

Thanks for that, because the demo itself portrays a very vanilla FPS gameplay with a few relatively minor twists that appear to be intended to convince the player that there's depth that doesn't actually exist.

Here's to hoping that the patch resolves that. (And hoping that companies start paying more attention to the demos they release)

A FireStarter demo patch is out now. The patch addresses the issues with character movement speed and clarifies RPG aspects of the game by providing the player with a selection of differently-upgraded characters. Check out www.firestarter-game.com for patch download links.

so I opened up dxdiag and went to the "Display" tab. Sure enough, AGP Texture Acceleration was disabled.

I'll have to check that on mine...don't think I have that problem, but it's always something to look out for.

Thanks!

http://www.craigarmstrong.com

So how did you find out there was a problem?

On day I was looking through the display settings, I forgot why, but I noticed in the nVidia tab of the display settings there was an "Adapter information" setting. It said my card was set to PCI mode. I thought that was odd, so I opened up dxdiag and went to the "Display" tab. Sure enough, AGP Texture Acceleration was disabled.

I did a quick search on the internet and found out that sometimes the AGP drivers aren't installed automatically. If you search google for "AGP drivers", the second link is to Intel's AGP drivers. I downloaded their driver package and boom, I'm at AGP 8X now.

I'd buy FS out of a bargain bin for $10, no more.

The gameplay is moderately okay on a mindless level, but there are a lot of rough edges, at least in the demo.

As usual I'm quoting from a number of posts.

As for complaining that a game doesn't support 98, you might as well complain that games don't support DOS, or that GC games don't support the N64.

The problem with this analogy though is that the GC is a fundamentally different architecture (both in terms of hardware & software) than the N64. Same with DOS vs Windows (DOS is 16 bit real mode, whereas Windows 9x & greater is 32bit protected mode).

Different operating systems have different functions, and in order to do some things you need to either abandon the old, or waste time writing workarounds for it.

Really? Like what specifically? The thing is that WinXP (or 2K), while more stable due to architectural design choices (such as the abandonment of compatitibility with legacy hardware/software) it is still a 32bit OS running on x86 architecture. And so is Win9x. I am not aware of any fundamental difference that prevents code written for a 32 bit windows platform to run under Win9x. Exception: when Microsoft denounces Win 9x and thus support for it ceases, but this isn't a case of it can't be done, but rather that MS is pushing consumers to a new platform for economic reasons). Note I'm not trying to start a MS bashing type debate (like those that are oh so trendy on /.), but rather just pointing out that the reasons we seem to upgrade have little to do with technical limiations of current OS's, and more to do with being "pushed" in the direction of newer and (I use the term loosely) "better" OS's.

Bottom line XP is way to expensive for the performance improvements it brings! If you get it with a nes PC then no need to go back to 98.

Exactly. Why should I spend the $150 to "upgrade" when the only real thing XP brings is stability? (which IMO is something that should just be a given, if you purchase an OS it should work)

Yes, I was about to say the same thing. XP becomes happy at 512

But why should I be forced to upgrade to get stability? I can understand if you want greater performance upgrades are necessary, but stability isn't a perk, it's an expectation of the systems we buy (or at least, it should be).

An analogy: if you buy a TV, and then later decide that you want picture-in-picture, or high-definition reception, etc, then you'd go out and buy a new TV to get the new features. And this is perfectly acceptable. On the other hand, if you bought a TV, and the thing simply didn't work, yeah you'd buy a new TV, but you'd never buy from the same manufacturer simply because you'd feel like you got screwed. Why is it that we have the expectation of quality in tangible products like TV's, cars, etc, etc, but not in software?

And spare me the "but software design is such a complex process" argument. I'm a comp sci major, so I can appreciate this point, but that doesn't excuse sofware manufacturers from releasing updates that address stability for free.

</rant> hehe


PZ
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Currently Reading: J.R.R. Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings: Return of the King" -- Last Read: Kenneth Lux's "Adam Smith's Mistake: How a Moral Philosopher Invented Economics and Ended Morality"
This comment was edited on Dec 8, 21:28.

When it comes to games, i dont really have anything against these two OS's. [concerning games...] Its just that this developer has cut off anyone running a different OS than these two. Now anyone can post replies about how XP runs on thier system, but the fact is that this is hardly a big enough *game*, for any developer to stand there and say "If your not running Windows 2k or XP, then youll never get your hands on this little gem!" DOOM 3, HALO 1 or 2, Halflife 2, maybe... a developer could try to "take a stand" and say hey guys, its time to upgrade. *They* have something tangable to offer. But this game? I think not-

yea why don't you play it, smacktard.

finally downloaded it,its pretty cool.

"more physics than Q3"

rofl :\

if you are going to make a warhammer 40K game do it right and dont rip the license and make this first person shooter bullshit

make a damn turn based strategy game like the earlier SSI ones but MAKE IT BETTER

DONT WASTE THE LICENSE

either you have a brilliant deadpan sense of humor or you have your games confused.

This is FireSTARTER...the Warhammer 40k game you're talking about is FireWARRIOR

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Currently Playing: Armed and Dangerous, Dues Ex 1, Halo MP, DC .5. Hotly Anticipating: Firestarter, UT2004, Far Cry Pondering: Second Life Listening to: Dropkick Murp

if you are going to make a warhammer 40K game do it right and dont rip the license and make this first person shooter bullshit

make a damn turn based strategy game like the earlier SSI ones but MAKE IT BETTER

DONT WASTE THE LICENSE

You can play multiplayer on LAN only, Internet is not supported.

Does this go for the full game as well?????!!!!

thats a pretty big oversight. No telling how many people are trying to create a game with no luck thinking its an issue with the code or what have you...

thats something you might want to "clarify" as well.


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Currently Playing: Armed and Dangerous, Dues Ex 1, Halo MP, DC .5. Hotly Anticipating: Firestarter, UT2004, Far Cry Pondering: Second Life Listening to: Dropkick Murp

This comment was edited on Dec 8, 17:26.

Yes, I was about to say the same thing. XP becomes happy at 512.