Tuesday, July 19, 2005

Hi-Def console roundup

Well, today I received the final cables which require me to connect all of the current Gen consoles up to my TV through the component inputs and I have to say that overall the results are pretty good.

Gamecube

The official Nintendo Gamecube component cable isn't generally sold in Europe, so I had to track one down on the net, finally opting for £20(+p&p) from Lik Sang.

PAL games don't support Progressive Scan at all, so you'll need a Free-Loader or NTSC Cube and a Japanese/American copy of the game to get the full benefits. There are a fair few games (including most Nintendo first party titles) which will run at 480p, although none that I know of run at higher resolutions.

The only NTSC game I currently own is Shikigami no Shiro II, a nice little shooter. Enabling Progressive Scan requires holding the A button as the cube boots, but since the menus are screwed on Shikigami no Shiro II when booting through a Freeloader it took a couple of attempts to getit to work. The main improvements in Shikigami no Shiro where on the menus and sides of the screen, I have to say I noticed little difference in the main gameplay window.

One thing I would say about the Gamecube component cable is that PAL games which don't support Progressive Scan look a shitload better on my TV through the cable than they do through the standard composite cable. Ikaruga, Monkey Ball and Viewtiful Joe all suffered in the move to LCD, but with the component cable the colours are solid and vibrant and the picture seems sharper than before.

Pros:
+ Even non-progressive scan games look good.
+ Relatively easy to switch on.

Cons:
- Requires NTSC versions of games.

XBOX

When it comes to the hi-def gaming, the XBOX is definately one of the better systems. A large number of titles support 480p, and there are a few out their which support 720p and even a couple which will do 1080i. Again, the official Hi-Def pack is a little hard to get hold of in Europe, but Game sell their own Component Cable on the high street for £20, downside being there is no optical out.

Halo 2 and Project Gotham looks smooth and slick at 480p. Soul Calibur 2 is simply stunning at 720p and even Amped 2 looks pretty nice when running at 720p. One comedy thing to mention is that Dance UK supports 480p despite the fact that it is aimed at the PAL market and PAL gamers can't get 480p without modding their XBOX.

Setting up Progressive Scan on the XBOX is a little trickier though, although PAL games support it, you need an NTSC XBOX or a PAL XBOX which has been modded and had the Enigmah Videomode Switchdisk used to turn it into NTSC. This can be a little fiddly.

Pros:
+ Good range of titles supported.
+ PAL titles support progressive scan.

Cons:
- Faffing involved to get XBOX to work properly

Playstation 2

There are only a few titles on the PS2 which support Progressive Scan, I've heard Burnout 3 does, but I couldn't get it to work. Ghosthunter was the only other game on the list I owned, holding Triangle and X while it loads gives you the option and although the screen was offset far to the right when the game booted I was able to fix this and have to say it did look sharper. The widescreen option didn't appear to fill the whole screen either.

With Gran Turismo 4 supporting up to 1080i, there is obviously the capability there to do higher resolutions, but not many games support it.

The most disappointing of the 4 in terms of availability of compatible games and difference between composite and component; although a 3rd party cable can be picked up for £3 from Lik Sang, so a far cheaper option than the others.

Pros:
+ Works with a PAL PS2 and PAL games
+ Easy to set up and use

Cons:
- Limited choice of games

Dreamcast

Finally, the Dreamcast; a bit of an odd one out, no component cable is available but the Dreamcast can natively produce a 640x480 VGA signal without the need for an upscan converter. So with a little help from eBay, I purchased a 3rd party VGA box for £17 and plugged it into the DSUB input on my TV. After trying the box on the TV and 2 different monitors, I finally realised I was being a muppet and that the switch on the back was set to the wrong position.

I didn't have the correct cable to get sound, but I can say that the Dreamcast looks very nice at 480p and with most games supporting the VGA adaptor and no issues between PAL and NTSC games it seems SEGA got it right.

Ikaruga looks very nice; definately better than the cube version and without the horrible porting issues which plague it. Zero Gunner 2 is also sharp with bold colours and although the lo-res characters models in Capcom vs. SNK 2 look a bit rubbish, the backdrops and special moves are vibrant. Overall, a huge step up from the RF adaptor I've been using on my Dreamcast until now.

Pros:
+ Supported by most games
+ Easy to Use

Cons:
- Cables required a bit annoying.

Roundup

Overall, the XBOX is probably the console which has the best Hi-Def support followed by the Dreamcast which deserves a special mention for doing things properly with no fannying around. The Cube is ok if you want to play Nintendo games at 480p and the PS2 trails the field with few games supporting Progressive Scan.

One thing I have to mention is the fact that as PAL gamers we have been shafted on this yet again. Having had to put up with dodgy release dates and decades of nasty borders and a 17% slow down in our games we now have Microsoft deliberately limiting the XBOX despite the fact that PAL games and hardware can support progressive scan; Nintendo removing options from PAL games despite the fact the hardware can do it; Sony removing the option from some PAL games. The only one of the 4 who seem to cater for the PAL gamer are SEGA and they no longer make hardware which is a damn shame.

A costly incentive?

It seems that the Government have just gone plain crazy, at one time obeying the laws of the land and not being a little shit was expected of young people, but now it appears that those few who choose to live as responsible members of society are to be rewarded for what I always presumed was the correct way to behave.

Yesterday, the Government was talking about free vouchers for kids to give them access to cinemas and other activities in exchange for not getting into trouble with the police, now council officials in Fraserburgh are giving out vouchers for kids who are seen putting their litter in a bin. I mean come on, kids getting rewardedfor not littering! Putting rubbish in a bin is something a five year old should know to do, to me it seems a sad day when even the most basic of normal respectable behaviour requires an incentive for the youth of today to get them to do it.

What next? Tax breaks for those of us who manage a whole year without breaking into houses; stealing cars or stabbing people in the street, after all these are far serious crimes than littering, so if not littering should be rewarded, maybe not doing these should be to.

Tuesday, July 05, 2005

Carnival of Full Enjoyment

With the papers and websites today filled with pictures and stories of yesterday's trouble in Edinburgh city centre there seems to be a lot of focus on the small number of troublemakers who were fighting battles with the police.

Yet the side I saw to the demonstrations was a completely different one. A group of protestors dressed as clowns were dancing around, pretending to be dead, kissing the riot police and generally making a nuisance of themselves in a comic way which wasn't going to cause any damage to property or harm to those around.

While I don't agree with the clown's politics and assuming they weren't a diversionary tactic to move police resources away from trouble being caused by more violent protestors I have to say that I don't have a problem with the way they went about their protest. Sure they caused trouble tying up the centre of Edinburgh for 6 hours, but the organised Make Poverty History march caused more roads to be closed and caused just as much hassle for local residents (albiet for a more focused cause).

Civil disobediance such as this makes a point that an organised march can't in that it causes hassle for the Police and forces Government to realise that even a small number of the unsatisfied public can make trouble. The only shame is the clowns didn't really seem to make their point clear to the hundreds of bystanders who came to watch the action.

Much of the congestion caused by the protest was caused by Edinburgh citizens who turned out at lunchtime wanting to see what was happening. While protestors filmed the police and the police filmed the protestors, the city of Edinburgh were filming them both.

Accusations of heavy handed Police tactics are flying about but again aside from one instance where a Police horse charged forward into the crowd and a heavy presence of Police in riot gear, the policing I saw was all reasonable.

Profiting from other's misery

When eBayers started offering Live8 tickets for sale they were lambasted by many for attempting to profit from the misery of those living in Poverty in Africa. A child dies of extreme poverty every 3 seconds and the only reason these eBayers could make money is because others are dying.

Jump forward to last Saturday when 225,000 people converged in Edinburgh for the Make Poverty History march. The Meadows was the centre of attention and there was no shortage of people there ready to take advantage of the situation. Burger vans, coffee stalls, guys selling whistles, the Mirror had arrived with huge pallets of placards all emblazoned with the Mirror slogan.

Yet no-one cared, there was no shortage of people willing to buy fast food from a burger stall who are only there making money because of the situation in Africa. It seems that when it's an easy target like eBayers and those who oppose haven't got anything to gain from it then people will berate them and try to shut down the auctions; yet when there are other blatant examples of profiteering, people turn a blind eye.

Who is worse? Someone who makes £100 or so profit from a free Live8 ticket, or a national tabloid newspaper attempting to gain mass advertising by handing out placards with their logo affixed to the top?

Monday, July 04, 2005

Customer Service Award

The Chored customer service award goes to ... Boots the Chemists for their amazing ability to imply that I was up to no good despite being the only customer in the shop.

Saturday morning I was getting some photos of Princes St. before the Make Poverty History march, and also getting a bit of shopping in at the same time. All the shops were understandbly very quiet and in every one I went into there were more staff than shoppers, made even worse by the increased presence of security guards in most shops.

So I'm passing Boots, and decide to nip in to buy some moisturiser. No sooner have a stepped into the empty shop when a security guard says "You're not allowed to take Photos in here", pointing to the camera in my hand. Now I don't know what exciting stuff he had hidden in the back which I would have wanted a photo of since taking pictures of cosmetics and medicines don't really do it for me.

I explain to the man I have no intention of taking any photos inside the store and if it would make him feel better I'll put the camera in my bag. But no, he's not happy with that, I obviously look like the kind of person who is likely to run away, remove the camera from the bag and get some lurid pictures of hair colouring. Eventually, he makes me leave my bag at the door while I walk into the shop being followed like I'm going to steal something and run away leaving my bag with camera in his capable hands.

So a little hint to Boots, I don't appreciate being treated with suspicion and basically accused of being up to something dodgy and having my belongings confiscated when all I want to do is spend money in your shop. This is especially true when:
a.) I am the only customer in the shop.
b.) You are having to pay out extra for increased security.
c.) Profits for the day are going to be severley reduced as it is.

Friday, July 01, 2005

Godwin's rule of Nazi analogies invoked by Scottish Socialist MSP

Godwin's Law states that:

"As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one."

And pretty much as soon as someone does this, they have lost the argument. I therefore got a good chuckle out of a comment made by Scottish Socialist MSP Colin Fox about how unfair it was that his MSP's have been banned from the parliament after their anti-G8 protest. Mr. Fox is quoted in the Edinburgh Evening News as saying:

"We had a short, peaceful, silent protest and they went from banning us for a day to banning us for a month, taking away our wages, banning us from the building, taking our staff's wages - I thought they were going to invade Poland next." (My Emphasis).

I mean as far as stupid quotes go this takes the biscuit (and no scummy Rich Teas here, this takes a big fat Chocolate coated Hob-Nob), there was absolutely no need to add the Nazi analogy on the end, by doing so Mr. Fox has just shot himself in the foot. If the worst Hitler had done was suspended 4 of his parliament with no pay for a month, it's very likely that WWII would have been avoided.

Protest against...err...you know

Despite the fact many of Edinburgh's cyclist piss me off on a daily basis with their messing about and cycling slowly, it would seem I still have an affinity with the Cycling massive. I was approached yesterday by a cycle courier, who wanted to know what I was up to at 5:30 today.

At first I thought he was going to offer me some ad-hoc courier work or something, but no, apparently there are a bunch of cyclists meeting in the Meadows who are going to stage a go slow through Edinburgh and try and disrupt the traffic in the city centre (not a hard feat considering the Council have managed to do this all on their own without the aid of go slow cyclists).

"We're protesting against... errr.... well you know" he explained. I didn't try to get any further details as it was obvious he they either weren't protesting against anything in particular, or didn't want to say incase I wasn't with his cause.

Edinburgh readies itself for G8 lockdown

With the impending G8 Summit in Gleneages drawing very close, Edinburgh has started to go into a state of lockdown with a couple of shops on Princes Street already boarded up. With just over a day till the Make Poverty History march, I've seen 3 shops so far which are completed boarded although I suspect by the end of trade today that number may be greater.