Path: chuka.playstation.co.uk!scea!peter_alau@playstation.sony.com From: "Steve Spiller" Newsgroups: scee.yaroze.freetalk.english Subject: Re: S*ga Dreamc*st Date: Wed, 5 Aug 1998 09:04:37 -0700 Organization: SCEA News Server Lines: 118 Message-ID: <6q9v97$ii03@scea> References: <3569980E.51FC@saqnet.co.uk> <35C13D80.8B4BB88F@mail.datasys.net> <35C86017.363C@127.0.0.1> NNTP-Posting-Host: gateway.connext.com X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 4.72.3110.1 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V4.72.3110.3 Ok, ok, I just have to comment on some of this... Majik wrote in message <35C86017.363C@127.0.0.1>... >Its no use, I feel compelled to stick my oar in here.. > >lets start with the basics, I hate MS and I think Windows XXXX >is rubbish.. but enough of the irrational hatred.. > >DEnnis Brinkhuis wrote: >> >> Windows CE in a games-console SUCK!! > >I agree, I certainly wont be having a dreamcast That's just plain foolish. You mean to tell me that you won't be buying a console simply because you don't like who wrote the OS? That's like the state of Texas' education board dropping all their Disney stock simply because they didn't like the "loose morals" of the movies that a sub-division was creating. >some one wrote something along the lines of: >> WinCE is smaller than 95/NT and is therefore likely to be >> more stable >I'm sorry I think this is wrong, we (work) gto hold of one of those >new Cassiopea thingies, with WinCE 2.0 (oooh the thrills), and within >hours of being turned on we had it showing a nice little box complaining >that an application had caused a memory fault etc... good old windows > Oh, so when you try to dereference a NULL pointer, it's the OS's fault for telling you that you did? It seems to me that I'd like my OS to tell me that an application has faulted. Remember, even though the apps may be shipped with the OS, they are not one and the same. >on the other hand, Ive never seen an App/ the OS crash on my Psion 3c, >which >has been running for 2 years now... > >some one else reckoned that: >>WinCE is written from scratch... >Now I really doubt it, but I dont know for sure... I just know the way >MS works > Well, I may get flamed just for saying this, but... I worked in the Windows CE group at Microsoft and shipped version 1.0. I can say that the codebase was completely written from scratch. It is the single smallest, fastest and most stable OS that Microsoft has ever written. Each version is tuned for the CPU it will be running on, SH3, R4100, etc. >and also: >>Win95 code base has reached critical mass ...bugs have gone unnoticed >while this is certainly true, I bet a fair few bugs _do_ get noticed, >just >no one at MS dare fix them in case they cause even bigger bugs >elsewhere. > I'll agree with you there, 95 needs to die a horrible death, but it's all we've got until NTC is released... >I can see the plus points of having the DirectX API on a console, and >this was >probably the deciding factor (that, and maybe the huge Bank of Gates >cheque) >I mean it would make porting a whole lot simpler (maybe) but I think a >much simler >API that maps directly onto the hardware would be a whole lot more >useful, I bet to >start with the DirectX API is used exclusively unitl about 12 months >down the line >developers get fed up of the Sega blue-screening, and being generally >slow, and start >to hit the hardware. > As a Microsoft API, DirectX is overly complex, but very stable. I've never run into a bug with the API. Anytime I get an access violation, it's my fault. Also, as a developer, I love the idea that I can write a game on my PC and easily port it to another platform. >anyway, hope I havent offended anyone.. except of course BG > Nope, no offence, I just see a lot of people making negative assumptions about things simply because the name Microsoft is attached. Let me tell you what I would fear... Sega Dreamcast: Build your games in Java! New JIT technology from Sun enables us to interpret your overly abstracted code up to .2% faster! And you can run it anywhere!! Bah! >ttfn, > >Majik > >oh yes, for anyone thats interested there will be a new verison >of PS-ZX out soon, and its a _little_ bit faster > >-- >-- Majik - Owner/Curator of the Sinclair Microcomputer Museum >-- Spod in a suitcase - ' Have Compiler, will travel ' >-- http://mudhole.spodnet.uk.com/~majik/ >-- Steve Spiller C/C++ Developer ConnexT, Inc. http://www.connext.com ICQ# 15056972 "The dumber people think you are, the more surprised they're going to be when you kill them." -- William Clayton