How long until instant-on consoles come back?
Spouse: You know what I miss about Atari?
Me: What?
Spouse: Turning it on and just playing.
When we get back to zero-boot-time computers and game machines, things will really start feeling futuristic again. PS2 wasn't even close to loading GT3 in the duration of that conversation. Macs are improving, but still not great, and I don't even want to talk about the travesty of my employer-issued Dell Inspiron 1700's glacial wake-from-sleep times.
Instant-on, if we ever get back to it, will give me that Jetsons feeling I don't get enough of these days.
Me: What?
Spouse: Turning it on and just playing.
When we get back to zero-boot-time computers and game machines, things will really start feeling futuristic again. PS2 wasn't even close to loading GT3 in the duration of that conversation. Macs are improving, but still not great, and I don't even want to talk about the travesty of my employer-issued Dell Inspiron 1700's glacial wake-from-sleep times.
Instant-on, if we ever get back to it, will give me that Jetsons feeling I don't get enough of these days.
posted by $!# at 4/25/2006 08:39:00 PM
3 Comments:
Perhaps the answer is not in reducing bootup time, but in changing to a kind of suspend/hibernate mode for consoles.
Yeah, for sure, that would help.
Playing gran turismo last night, though, I was thinking that there's an additional issue: loading time between levels and the like. Tons of games have this infuriating little pause where they load up whatever you're about to do. There are various artful ways to work around this (cf Katamari Damacy, We [heart] Katamari), but at the core of it there's this dead time in games which would be way, way cool to eliminate.
Some of the time, the wait's intentional. It's hard to say with the PS2, where it's unclear whether a lot of those splash screen graphics are a cover for stuff loading, or just "Ooh, let's make the consumers look at the Sony logo for a while!"
The thing is, I often get the same feeling navigating DVDs, where there's no software to load. I just wanna watch a movie. If I can't fast-forward through the anti-piracy warning and the motion picture company's corporate animation, it's not like I'll magically start paying attention to them: they just cause this visceral loathing for the whole industry to seep up in me. And when I have to wait for some cheezy animation on the main dvd menu before I can choose a chapter to play, I curse the imbecilic graphic artist responsible.
I just wanna watch a movie/play my game/whatever. Oh, for the days of the early 80s, when you stuck the VHS tape in and fast-forwarded to the part you wanted to watch, then, later, switched over to your Atari for some instant-gratification fun.
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