Path: chuka.playstation.co.uk!scea!peter_alau@playstation.sony.com
From: matth@bellatlantic.net (Matthew Hulett)
Newsgroups: scea.yaroze.freetalk
Subject: Re: What to buy for X-mas? Etc...
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1998 20:54:40 GMT
Organization: SCEA News Server
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>Hey Matt,

   Hi Scott. How goes Project X?  I don't read much about the project
lately. It seems to me, an uninformed consumer, that VM Labs is
missing an important window before Dreamcast and PSX II are released.
Sort-of, a cross between CD-i and M2. Is there a definitive release
date yet? I can't help but wonder, since I believe Dreamcast and PSX
II will be very developer friendly, while Project X was described as
being relatively difficult to program for. 2000 is going to be an
interesting year. The affordibility of the X development kits will
still be a trump card.

>
>> Hey, Sony, don't pull the plug on us. This is an intense
>> endeavor, well worthy of a few years of learning and time investment.
>
>I second that, but judging from what I've seen, we may be pulling
>the plug on ourselves.  The SCEE scene seems much more alive than us.
>Chicken or the egg?

    Hmmm... I suppose all must accept responsibility. I have spoken of
my desire to get more people involved from my first days in the
program. I got some support, I got flamed too... I still think the
majority of members don't participate because they are intimidated.
How many members do we all converse with in e-mail, who do not post?
The atmosphere has improved a great deal since the horn butting and
sharpening of the first few months of the program though...
   I could write up a list of those who have not followed through on
their stated ambitions to provide tutiledge to the yaroze masses, from
advanced members to the Sony staff. The entire onus cannot be upon
those who are inexperienced to lead. I do what I can. I update my
site, I post, I provide what advice I can, I encourage newbies and
e-mail out megs of files and helpful info... albeit I took a break for
a time of late. I am aware of your contributions, and willingness to
aid all comers. I remember when Jay posted the link on his page for
you to receive input... such a shame Jay walked away. 
   I assert that we would benefit greatly from a "Peter Passmore" in
the United States, and a team that would just forget the stipulation
about "only experienced programmers need apply". In the U.S., it is
obvious that we have a great number of people who are not  advanced,
and would benefit from any kind of input that would get the ball
rolling. I have 50 Megs of sample code, and yet I still would benefit
greatly from a formal tutorial. Something to work through the text
intro programs, work through the code involved in displaying a sprite
line by line, advance to a simple program akin to the Ball demo, and
then deal with the analytical concepts involved around a game similar
to Walz. 
   I have decided not to wait any longer for this aid, I have waited
six months, and can wait no longer. Nevertheless, for those who
scratch thier heads and wonder what would get the SCEA side of things
going, well, it seems obvious to me that an instructional set of docs
would be very productive. Imagine, if you wanted to start learning C,
and I just dropped a slew of sample code in your lap. You would
eventually get where you want to go, after an extreme effort and much
wasted energy. And, yet, so many nuances of understanding of the code
would be lost to you. Each character, most spaces, all punctuation has
meaning and importance. There's the nitty-gritty of each function, and
it's coding peculiarities, and then there is the forest of the entire
program, and how the functions work together. One can get a good sense
of the forest studying PC programming, but those trees are still
somewhat cryptic when one dives into LibGs. I will be forced to ask
many insignificant questions in the groups. Hopefully, many will
benefit from this, and my questions will be noticed and answered.
   If I could, I would do the Grail my self at this point. I have the
time, I have the energy and desire, but I am in the position of having
to make the switch from PC programming to yaroze programming.
I am not the person who can do this. Perhaps, the day will come when I
will, and I won't be duplicating another's effort. See you in 2
years...
   As an aside, it is also odd how Joel Summer disapeared. MW told me
that version 3.0 would be released last May. No new release, no posts
from Joel... odd.

>>    And, for Sega fans, please don't get touchy. I don't see Dreamcast
>> around yet, although I assume it has been released in Japan for a few
>> weeks now... 
>
>Just saw one in the mall.  You could buy it for only $1100.  Come on,
>who the hell is going to spend that much dough on a machine with one
>good game?  And I don't even like fighters too much...

   Yeah, right... if I were wealthy, maybe. Sad, that it took them so
long to learn their lessons, Sega may never be the same again.
And, once again, they are rushing a release with a few titles, delayed
titles, etc... Hopefully, what they do provide will be good quality.
Oh well, Sony seems to have 'em all by the balls at this point, I love
it!

   I may go with MGS. Does it have replay value, or is it boorish to
play after you know all the tricks and secrets? I could always just
purchase Final Doom. I just remember the engine got ripped in the
reviews compared to the original, so I never purchased it. There is
Disruptor and Alien vs. Predator...

-Matt