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Firefox 3, although it is a little heavy for a half gig of memory. Once enduring a start up time of about 30 seconds (I am not running too many addons) and just minimizing and never closing it, the resource consumption is actually no big deal here.
The customizability is really good, and those awful bugs like vanishing buttons back to 0.x days (today you can do a simple upgrade install, even before Firefox' own update mechanism was implemented) are gone since 1.x, a long time ago.
Occasionally I throw in Opera 10, which starts up quite fast - it has a very nicely done UI and looks good, even with its default theme 
Internet Explorer 8 only kicks in, if I have to use Windows Update manually which is rare, or in Firwefox via IE Tab add-on, for displaying pages properly who only work in IE [...].
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Windows XP Home, 32bit. Building an inexpensive machine with 4 gigs soon, I will go to Windows 7. As the majority of my friends either use Vista or 7 and a lot of them is satisfying about Win7's performance, I'm blindly leaping into it. 35 Euros for that student version is quite nice. Maybe toying around with it a little, like setting up a dual boot system with (K)Ubuntu. Never got into Linux, except trying Knoppix via live-CD.
I just need to think if I either will get the 64bit Home Premium or Professional version (priced the same). As for components the only thing, which might not work, could be my DVB-T USB stick, but again, either the XP mode in the Pro version will do this, or I will try to get it done in a VM with XP. Then again, every important device like my printer has all needed drivers for Windows 7 64bit.
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If I'm at thome, I just keep it running, also when going to do something outside, but only for shorter intervals, like 20 minutes. I do the same with any bigger electronic device, like TV or radio - just don't like these running when I'm not at home (of course this is excluding devices like a fridge  ). Any longer period or when I'm going to sleep (which is usually in between 23:00 and 0:00 CET) -> off. Simple as that.
Apart from that I cannot sleep if the machine is running. It uses the boxed fan, which came with the CPU, but still I want "silence" when I'm attempting to sleep. It even isn't that much noise for nearly all applications usually, but an Orthos run with two instances (to assign two cores each and all RAM) at 100% CPU usage makes this thing really loud (again, you won't to this every day, but I have/had stability issues to make it run - it apparently turns out one RAM slot is not working properly, now using slots 1 and 3 respectively).
As for start up time, as Windows 7 is installed freshly and not too many programs yet, it takes about one and a half minute, until the desktop appears and everything has been loaded.
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bsnes is pretty decent. It just lacks all those fancy enhancements and features which other emulators have (screen filters, forwarding, save states etc.), as it seems to be celarly laid out to play game "accurate". Are the requirements still really that beefy?
I just think, if your computer is not older than 5 or 6 years, it should play anything without major problems. Interesting how the website recommends at least a double core system.
The UI is somehow arkward, but on the other hand it emulates games (close to) perfectly.
Play Chrono Trigger - and you will never shed a tear if you hear when the "enemy appears" sound comes, the effect when one is killed or if you use certain spells like Lightning2
The same applies to Zelda III, hitting a wall with your wall also produces the accurate sound and no garbled audio mess.
The only game not running I tried was Dirt Racer (has one of those special chips; just wanted to know why this game seems so crappy), or my ROM just was broken as it is NOT listed as incompatible. By the way, it runs the Zelda III hack Parallel Worlds normally. I think the creators wanted to make it just that way, meaning probably to put it on a real cartdridge possible.
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Originally posted by Gunstar Green
Are those really vital features, anyway?
I honestly can't think of anything the other two emulators do that bsnes doesn't, aside from netplay and SPC dumping. The program's crammed full of features, you just need to do a little digging in the UI and documentation to find them all.
[edit]
The sound effects in Chrono Trigger and Zelda 3 sound perfect because the SPC700 core IS perfect. 
Well, I personally "need" save states when I shut off the machine, seeing these as emergency saves, also using them when saving in-game normally. Think about Lufia 2's Ancient Dungeon. I'm no pupil anymore which had (way too much) time to clear that cave in one sitting, without the ability to save there natively.
Still wondering why the program needs that much resources. Having an AMD Phenom II x4, I will try this some time to see, how much CPU it actually takes up for more SNES CPU-intense games like SMRPG, Seiken Densetsu 3 or probably Front Mission 2
As for the interface, I'm probably just biased to most Windows applications. There is no fear in using command line tools and options, but you know; if everything is served right on that silver tablet, you might just get lazy sometimes.
And, yeah, seeing the Super Game Boy emulated is just ... wow. If it just had a battery to save your custom borders/pictures, then it might have been even far more better than it already is (the ending in Donkey Kong is even more catchy in stereo, and maybe it even sounds better than on an Game Boy with headphones). I still remember one SGB commercial where someone made a forest background with lots of details, but to do this every time you switch your console on? Eh.
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Wheee, direct contact to a developer, that's sweet
byuu, thanks for your answers. Should really be no offense to your work/emulator, but I was used to only two emulators beforehand - but I always wondered how accurate these emulators were, when it comes to comparison what a real SNES/SFC can run, and what an emulator runs.
For most people it wouldn't make too much difference or even is fine though.
I don't know which bsnes version I used anyome. It was downloaded several years ago, but having a new computers since the last three weeks (and reformatting the old drive, also running a drive-fitness test) I don't know the version number. But I think it was an older build, so anything already is in without knowing me. Sorry for that.
The only thing vital for me is, as said, the save state feature.
Of course it is nothing real consoles offer(ed), save states could make challenges incredibly cheap, but really only used due to lack of time often, as when getting to work or doing other stuff. Getting familiar with these comes pretty quickly, like when you upgrade to a bigger resolution monitor (you probably don't want to have a lower resolution ever again). Everything else was just mentioned, except Interpolation I never used anything else too much. As stated; some people could see these features like unneccessary features (as it goes beyond what the real console does, or you see it the other way: enhancing the game experience).
Similar if you want to get a simple program for writing CDs and DVDs, but don't want to install a gig for an audio editor, CD cover designer or other parts you never need.
And again, thanks very much for your reply.
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1280x1024@85 Hz, SyncMaster 957p. Anything higher is not fitted for this 19" CRT, although it can go up to 1600x1200, but only at 60 Hz. A resolution on a non-LCD with that refresh rate is probably going to kill your eyes.
Still sufficient, found no uses for that space, other than having more room when using Firefox, OpenOffice or GIMP. I'm not too much into playing semi-current games, but I like Fallout 3 which runs at that resolution, and although you would see far less edges and polygons with more pixels, it still looks damn good on ultra high
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As well as you have no warranty on your console ...
If these are the same screws as Nintendo used on the Gamecube, there might be a way to make yourself one screwdriver from a fineliner - although it is kinda a the dirty solution, as it might or might not work on all those screws, or even fail. On the other hand it is relatively cheap and requires nothing more than that fineliner and a lighter. The end of that pen has to be heated until it is sufficient enough to be abled to "copy" shapes - enough to be pressed on one of those screws. Now wait until it cools down fully and got the right shape/imprint. If the secrews are not too tight in place, you can unscrew all of them, again it could fail the first time. Just be sure to use regular screws to close the case again - you probably don't want to do this every time.
I can only provide you some very basic images from a German website:
http://www.langhans-wg.de/cms/index.php?nintendo-gamecube-1
Search for
Der "Stabilo-Trick" (with quotes, just press F3 in your browser and look for it)
Stabilo is a common brand for fineliners. I just don't know if there are any similar brands outside Germany having a smilar hard plastic end, which is just good enough for those damn tricky screws.
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Same here, didn't recognize BMF at first. Layouts might be nice (as long as these don't hog up too much system resources, and luckily can be turned off), but if you browse as a guest or post while not logged in, it is quite hard to distinguish many people only by avatar, changed user name and obviously the writing style - but since these are the same people anyway, it shouldn't be that much of a problem. At least I read the name "byuu" before, I knew it a developer of an emulator, but just knew it isn't ZSNES
As for bsnes, it runs sweet. Again, didn't test a game which demans the "maximum" out of it. The only lag which comes, is if I run bsnes windowed, open up the "About ..." and close it. Then the fps drops to 55 once for a split-second, then reverts back to 60 fps. My graphic card anyway seems to have some problems, as it's an ATI one, produces 10-12 (not critical) error entries in the ACEEventlog, and probably is the reason why Fallout 3 sometimes crashes. No graphical errors or BSODs from it, just stops or hangs sometimes after 5 minutes and warping, other times it runs some hours (just exits/stops the application, didn't lock up the computer yet).
Again, I think the video card itself should not be that important for bsnes, as long as it supports the OpenGL standard.
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Finally going page up and down in Jul with smooth scrolling is really fun. No more sluggish scrolling. Nothing against Ikachan, but it always caused a horizontal line of tearing here, even on this newer machine (on a HD4770, nothing special, but still should be way more than enough to display a regular website!).
As for issues, never had those with Firefox 3.x, no crash and as for memory I know Firefox is a resource hog. But it "only" goes up to maybe 200-300 MB usually anyway. To be honest, I don't care anymore, since I jumped straight from 0,5 to 4 GB of RAM with this new machine.
Still, I dislike the fact many authors go big, fat websites, also those annoying flash-only ones (like corporate video game pages). Come on, at least always make it optional for _all_ of them. Here on Jul layouts are turned off for guests, so there should be no bigger problems, but if other sites rely on resource hogging pain - hell, no. Even 2010.
There is enough users who just need a netbook, and if these already struggle displaying certain websites I don't want to know how this will be in the near future.
I just miss my mouse gestures, which got broken in 3.6. Everything else works fine; hope the authors will update them soon.
Otherwise Firefox still is the browser of choice here. Close before Opera and Chrome.
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My mother and grandmother smoked several years ago, 10 and 15 years respectively. And as far as I know they didn't pick up any kind of tobacco again (my grandmother must not smoke anyway, as she has quite a bad heart, but her lungs function like perfect for her 72 years).
I never smoked - there were times with those party cigarettes, like 10 or 15 a year, and even about 95% of my friends smoke (hella, but they at least care where to smoke, asking if they may or may not). But doing crazy stuff together with them I don't care that much, although the smell is quite nasty if you come home and your clothes stink. And don't want to begin either - not only the money you blow into the air, but your healthiness decreases also. But on the other hand it is never sure, as I hate some serious ant-smokers ("You smokers suck! Cannot live without your drug, too bad!") which then begin to smoke THEMSELVES. I'd love to comment on those then 
On the other hand, although I do not smoke, I think it is bad if you may not smoke in all bars, or do not let the bartender/keeper decide if they allow smoking or not. In Germany you have to provide a separate room for smokers, what is entirely okay (or just go outside). But sometimes I just don't mind if people smoke. It is not that I HAVE to go in that bar, it is your own choice if you want to go there or not. And no smokers at all & beer = less expectation sales, which could probably kill all those smaller bars.
As for those vapor-thingies, I think it is a good idea to protect people outside; the question is, does it feel the same in terms of holding and actually smoking a regular cigarette? But I doubt this device will be too successful in near future.
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StarCraft/BroodWar may have issues on newer operating systems (that is, on Windows, from Vista onwards). On MacOS there is an own version which should run smoothly, as for Linux there is always Wine.
On Windows 7 most people can resolve issues by simply klling explorer.exe before starting the game (as this is difficult to do in-game, a small batch which terminates explorer.exe, starts Broodwar and restores the Explorer after exiting the game should suffice), but personally didn't play too many matches on Windows 7 yet.
Sweet cute game, really nice and entertaining campaigns - albeit due to its age quite challenging, if you attempt to play online. The first few hundred games you will literally be slaughtered if you don't invest some serious time into practicing it. On the other hand the balance is just perfect, and most funmaps are really nice.
I can recommend easy-to-pick-up ones like Turret Defense, Random Beacon Defense, as well as those RPs (not RPGs) or even something like BattleShip command, which is a lot of fun, involving some serious strategy (but sadly is played rarely and requires a team not consisting of morons).
Let's see if SC2 can live up. But even if not, this game has to be bought, although it will be split up in three own games.
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The problems don't apply to all users. Basically some players have graphical glitches while Broodwar is running or even occasional freezes (tested RAM and other components, while newer, much more demanding, games run without any problems). I circuumvented that by simply using that mentioned batch from start (StarCradt.exe running in XP SP3 compatibility mode), and never got any issues with it. And it was mostly related to the "new" explorer.exe, although I don't know if it still occurs if you disable Aero Glass.
Although enabling "CPU Throttling" slightly slows down the window rendering of the Battle.Net menus and buttons. So, off for that, and this game runs like a charm, even on four cores which could have problems in the past
I especially like the replay feature, really nice to see older games from pro-gamers like Slayers_Boxer. He lockdowns six Battlecruisers almost at the same time with Ghosts (no, giving those Ghosts the command in plain sight, not miles away from those BCs), switches start positions with another player in a nice match and other things.
And as for the CD-key, there is no other check required. Just pop in your CD, the key, install it and you're done. If you have a legit key, you can even download the game from the Blizzard Store directly at any time and computer, getting a new key then (it will "replace" the older one, but I think it should still work. You just won't be able to be online with the same two keys at the time, as these are still only one licence actually). This can be looked up any time. But the download from Blizzard seems pretty slow at times, so installing it directly is of course far better.
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| Posted on 02-02-10 09:49:49 AM, in Multitasking (last edited by Surlent at 02-02-10 06:52 AM) |
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I can only multitask on easier things, say being on the phone while going to the stove, preparing easier meals and such (I just suck at that 'trapping your handset between shoulder and ear'). But as far as reading a book, listening to music or even having the television running it just disturbs me. Understanding easier book is no that much of a problem (while doing anything where you won't take the eyes off your book obiously ), but any more complicated literature is quite troublesome, when trying to listen to music simultaneously, too.
On the computer, personal multitasking is limited to idling in IRC, running Winamp and a browser, probably putting up a document where I need information. But that's it, really. More or less serious work or even games are pretty much single tasks for me, only.
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Also being in the video game nerd fraction, the Codec Call from MGS. For messages it is the "exclamation mark" sound.
But except from being home I never get it to listen to the tones, as my phone is in vibration mode as well when I'm not at home. Don't like listening to annoying sounds inside the bus. I also don't want to annoy people if my phone rang (it may be the best theme I like ever, but not for other people probably) outside too much.
Sometimes it just sucks if you are tired - and suddenly a bag emits a weird sound, the cell phone owner then searches and searches for that, and after only 20 seconds he or she finds the phone, to answer that he/she indeed will bring some potatoes
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I really liked the first Sonic Adventure as well. But the "old" ones (personal favourite being Sonic 3&K somehow) rocked a lot more.
From any games since Sonic 2006 I may think, that those games may really had good ideas, using the environment (if you count grinding grab rails on staircases for that) and still trying to maintain collecting rings and such.
But these felt more like a racing game than Sonic. The only thing which might distract the 2D Sonic fans might be the length of the game. If it only has 6 or 7 zones like in the original, it would feel a little short, despite a smaller price tag than the first (boxed) games.
The score display is funny: NINE digits. Will you ever max this out, as some games are weird where the first zero never changes ?
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Anya, your spoiler doesn't work when layouts are turned on, at least here (Firefox on Windows 7, no theme or other addons used, which may alter page display)
As a guest, it works as intended.
Doesn't affect me, as I finished the first Mass Effect, which was pretty nice. I also enjoyed the Mako sections unlike many others (except the part you get a shitload of experience and armor, if you "want" to be a completionist ...), but do not need to play ME2. I wait until it drops in price, then will get it.
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At least you can watch replays in StarCraft II using the beta client, without requiring to log into Battle.net (which is impossible without creating an account, which requires a beta key), you either need to replace some folders or just drag and drop a replay onto the .exe, but in both cases you need the maps, which should be in one of those SCII's Cache folders around the net. But just wait, you might probably end up getting a key in one of the future waves.
I will buy the product, even if it will suck (three games sounds expeeeeensive, but I hope for a lot of new units and an interesting campaign again). It's StarCraft, that should be enough.
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Maybe some specific benchmarks could help or provide more information than those random crashes?
Like stressing only selected components like CPU, video memory and/or RAM.
For CPU, you can try Prime95 or Orthos. Just run the most demanding tests there, but be sure to backup the most important data, as a malfunctioning component could always die if stressed a lot.
As for your video card, something like Furmark could come into mind. If it glitches or makes the system freeze, it could show a broken or dying GPU ...
And maybe just open up the case, search for any damaged electrolyt capacitors, like these below.
It is often a sign of a failing mainboard, as it can cause many different effects, from fluctuations in terms of voltage, to random reboots, errors and many other things. If you have any of those capacitors broken, you will have to replace your board - hoping it _was_ the actual cause for that:
(Taken from this source for showing purposes only, and uploaded to an image hoster, not stealing the site's bandwith:
http://www.mad-monkey.co.uk/resources/pchf/capacitor.jpg)
The bad thing is, that computers are similar like cars. Often you just have to replace and try certain parts, until you find the cause for most problems.
By the way, in terms of diagnostics, Vista and Windows 7 are very good. The Event Viewer is much more better than XP's. It actually logs everything, marking critical system errors, and giving you more clues to find something. You could just install Windows 7 to provoke a blue screen, as an installation already is some kind of small test for the hardware itself. I don't want you to just install Windows 7 for this, as older hardware and problems may even disrupt the installation process, damaging other partitions or any other things (although you said your HDD is okay) and being not to access you previous installation.
I went straight from Windows XP to Windows 7. And never regretted it. Personally really a worthy sequel to XP
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Peggle (Nights) is a pretty nice game, but I think there is a little too much luck involved. Sometimes the ball bounces badly, and even though you can predict the ricochet (even without Super Guide, which sucks imho), still - with the moving bucket, the randomness is quite an element. There is only few maps where you have full control. Some people know that trick in the original Peggle on that map, which imitates a moving double helix. You can hit all pegs in one shot, which gives you insane amount of points, filling your meter several times in a row (five million should be possible, and combine that with triple score...).
Nevertheless, the game is just fun. I won't get it, as this is one of those little time wasters (and finished the regular mode back then, but not too many of those challenges).
They could give you Plants vs. Zombies for free, I think it is quite nice, if you like Tower Defense style games even remotely. And there is no or little to none luck involved
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