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XBox (Games)

Xbox 360 Lightsynth 129

Posted by Zonk from the trippy dept.
Ophion writes "Renowned digital artist Jeff Minter of Llamasoft has created a new lightsynth that will be built into the Xbox 360. More information on the console's music player is available from Microsoft." From the post: "I believe it finally begins to achieve the potential that I saw all those years ago when I first made Psychedelia... and I am happier with it than I have ever been with anything I've created in my entire career. And we got it into the firmware again... Microsoft firmware. Of the Xbox360 for goat's sake. At last... after more than 20 years' work, one of my lightsynths is going to reach a decent sized audience. Millions and millions..."
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Xbox 360 Lightsynth More

Xbox 360 Lightsynth

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  • I wonder... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by KDR_11k ( 778916 )
    ... how many will now call Mr. Minter a sellout.

    • Re:I wonder... (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Golias ( 176380 )
      As soon as I get done googling Jeff Minter, reading TFA and figuring out what the hell a Lightsynth is and why the hell I should care, I'll be happy to call him a sellout. ... Not that I consider "sellout" to be a bad thing. That word stopped being an insult which carried any weight sometime around 1972.
      • You are not a nerd.
        • And you are not EXPLAINING any of this either, I notice. What is a lightsynth? Please? I'll give you a cookie...
          • Some screensaver.

            A music synthesizer is a device that can make sounds based on various inputs. Turn a knob, the sound changes. Program a beat. apply various effects on the sounds. One track, multi tracks, etc.

            This is the same, applied to light, or image.
            If you remember Cthugha, that's something close to it.
            You can let the music do the controlling, but you can also input light effects and beats with all 4 controllers. That's what the "Interactive screensaver" feature was, in this week's leak of specs.
          • A lightsynth is the thing I stare at from 10am until 7pm CST, counting the minutes until the clock tells the bossman it is okay to undo my shackles and allow me to return to my hovel for the evening. Durr.
      • Okay. I got it now. Pretty colors and music. I'm sure LSD users everywhere are going to snap up the XBox360 now. For that matter E-popping ravers will probably want to hook one up to a projector screen at their next party.

        If you don't use recreational hallucinagens, then this thing is still a quirky work of art and a clever toy, but certainly not enough to make me want to buy the console.

        When it comes to my interest in buying one, I have no questions about polygon count or built-in "Lightsynths" or fu
        • Salvia Divinorum, thanks. LSD is so 20th century....
          • Salvia is great at closed eye and low light visuals... But Shrooms are where the open-eye visuals are at in my opinion..

            Call me old school (shrooms have speculatively been used since pre-history), but salvia (even extract) can't touch the visuals on shrooms while leaving you in a state that leaves the rest of your brain capable of remembering just what the hell happened to you.

            • Huh. I've had totally immersive experiences on Salvia, with the universe totally replaced by another, and remembered it. Nothing like what shrooms can do. (or have done). Extract only, I don't even try with the straight leaf, unless it's oral.

              Salvia also has a long history. The only known collected samples came from tended plots, it's never been found in the wild, and might be extinct as a wild plant. This, along with the fact that salvia has almost totally lost its ability to grow from seed, point toward

      • Heh, I had no clue either. At first I thought you could make sound by waving your hands at a sensor or something. Apparently, looking at the site, it's the opposite. It makes ugly, meaningless crap on the screen from controller or audio input. I guess if you can't beat Mario paint you implement something like this...
        • At first I thought you could make sound by waving your hands at a sensor or something.

          Hmm... Come to think of it, a software version of the Theremin [thereminworld.com] would be extremely cool.

          Perhaps one could make it a Mac program to work with those iSight cameras.

        • Re:I wonder... (Score:4, Informative)

          by einTier ( 33752 ) on Friday May 13, 2005 @01:05PM (#12521303)
          I don't think the point is to make a game. There's two ways I see this program. One, it's just a cool screensaver to use while you're streaming MP3's during a party -- and hey, you can play with it. Two, it's meant to be used under the influence of really heavy hallucinogins. If you've never used psychedelic drugs, then that might be hard to understand, but let me assure you that combined with the right drugs, that "meaningless crap" could be the most profound thing ever.
    • how many will now call Mr. Minter a sellout

      Just the ones who are jealous.

  • Wow... (Score:1, Flamebait)

    by hsteck_ylf ( 695640 )
    Well isn't Jeff Special that his most acclaimed development is included in the Xbox 360...

  • Rambling... (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I believe it finally begins to achieve the potential that I saw all those years ago when I first made Psychedelia... and I am happier with it than I have ever been with anything I've created in my entire career. And we got it into the firmware again... Microsoft firmware. Of the Xbox360 for goat's sake. At last... after more than 20 years' work, one of my lightsynths is going to reach a decent sized audience. Millions and millions...

    Damn... And I thought I could ramble on... and on... for several lines r
  • At last... after more than 20 years' work, one of my lightsynths is going to reach a decent sized audience. Millions and millions...
    Really? How much Xbox was sold? 3 millions? Does someone have the sales figures?

  • 30 Million Xboxs sold (Score:1, Informative)

    by lake2112 ( 748837 )
    According to the article on CNN.com, there have been about 30 million Xboxs sold world-wide.

  • Redpoint (artists in the video)'s record label (Score:3, Informative)

    by Acronym ( 7913 ) on Friday May 13, 2005 @11:57AM (#12520462) Homepage
    If you like the music in the demo video, visit http://www.hiddenmusic.co.uk/ [hiddenmusic.co.uk] - the website of Redpoint's label.
  • Jeez, four comments already, all whining. C'mon, this is a good guy who writes great games, LOVES his work and loves to make other people happy. You'll know I'm right when you actually try this thing and see, and feel, what a cool thing it is. And if you'd waited 20 years for a project to reach a wide audience, you'd write a fair bit too. Nicely done, Jeff, Giles and crew.
    • I think the problem is that this was posted on games.slashdot.com.

      Not a lot of FPS and MMORPG players are going to give a crap about an obscure work of visual art from the 80s showing up in the firmware of the upcoming XBox360.

      I see the logic of posting it here, since it is a feature on a game console we are talking about... but it probably would have been more well-received on the front page.

    • Re:Let me be the first to say something POSITIVE (Score:5, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 13, 2005 @12:30PM (#12520813)
      furthermore, his previous work is basically the foundation for much of modern audio visualization programs (iTunes; WinAmp, WinMediaPlayer, various xmmc plugins). this software is likely to further influence the field, given it's unique qualities. there has been some experimentation with 3d visualizations and various filters and effects, but this is pretty much state of the art. it's running in HD, and quite fluidly. it's realtime interactive, and it should be pretty accessible being in ROM and using a wireless analouge controller. 4 people can control the thing simultaneously using a variety of control inputs (buttons, sticks,.. I don't know the exact mappings). impressively, this thing is under a half meg of code. check out the video's, which are compressed, low resolution, low framerate relative to the actual realtime xbox360 HD output...
      • That's a stretch. It isn't as if he invented the idea.

        Actually if you read his "History" ramblings on his website, he was rather far behind the curve when it comes to computer stuff across the board. Not that it makes him a bad person or anything, but it's a far cry from giving him credit for subsequent things which happen to resemble something he did at one point.
    • minter is awesome..

      and well.. fuck.. i might just get xbox360 just because of this.

      minter is a nice guy, does awesome things and well, some platforms he devved for just had bad luck.

    • I might have to buy one. The VLM on the Jaguar (also in ROM, written by Jeff) was awesome for it's time and still looks fairly cool.
  • Woohoo, can't wait for the Xbox 360 version of Llamatron! I just hope it's as good as the C-64 version was.
  • At last... after more than 20 years' work, one of my lightsynths is going to reach a decent sized audience. Millions and millions...

    Maybe it's just me, but this sounded like something Dr. Evil would say (with a pinkie finger to his mouth) :)

  • Quicktime? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by John Harrison ( 223649 ) <johnharrison@@@gmail...com> on Friday May 13, 2005 @12:19PM (#12520703) Homepage Journal
    Is anybody else impressed that Minter has posted movie files of his xbox 360 lightsynth in quicktime format? I'm sure someone at MS is having a fit about this right now.

  • You guys should listen... (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    to yourselves. Nearly all of you sound like whining brats. The guy's proud of his achievement for god's sake. You geeks simply do not want anything... ANYTHING... associated with MS to do well. You're all stuck in this rigid and inflexible, adolescent mindset.
  • I found Milkdrop [nullsoft.com] before Winamp 3 hit the scenes, and I had loads of fun being the one to introduce it to all my friends, seeing as Nullsoft only started including it by default with Winamp 5.0.

    Anyone seen both in action?

  • metaslashdot (Score:1, Offtopic)

    by warmcat ( 3545 )
    In a shocking turn of events today the metaslashdotter posts outstripped the real slashdotter posts on a story about a stoned coder who sees dead people. Predicting the surge of "so, do MSFT balls *taste better* than llama balls, Jeff?" comments, metaslashdotters hurried to decry the plebian urge to urinate on MSFT, only to find the story overstocked with metaposts decrying an urge that did not materialize prior to the embarassment of metaposters crying "shame!" on an nonexistant denouncement.

    Let's all ho
    • Wow. And now you've started a metathread complaining of all the metacomments.

      Now all we need are a few dozen posts complaining about moderation before anything actually falls to the -1 threshold, and our journey to the Dark Side will be complete!
  • ...bought to you by Llama Man [llamasoft.co.uk] and Monkey Boy [ntk.net]!
  • Wow!!!

    I normally slag off Microsoft like everyone else, but in this case it seems like they had a clue.

    An aside: I remember reading once that Jeff had got into this stuff after reading a book by the guy who did the visual effects in the trippy scene in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Does anyone remember the name of that book? I have a nasty deeling it's out of print now...
  • I really wanted to avoid giving Microsoft any of my hard earned cash. Then again it's in the firmware, so if MS subsidise the console price then maybe I can justify it.
  • Oh finally I can override that damn Need for Speed Underground 2 soundtrack!

    I wonder how customizable this whole audio set up will be. Will the annoying Holo flavored start menu be replaced and can we play our own music while it sits idle? I'm tired of the creepy sounds.

    The Lightsynth is a great addition but I like a simpler Ambient Light [thinkgeek.com]. Now, if only the hard drive weren't so loud...

  • Yay for Jeff! (Score:2, Troll)

    by zulux ( 112259 )
    Too bad for us that is with the XBOX, but congrats to Jeff for getting some eyeballs in front of his work.

    Unity (Jeff's VLM/Game) for the Gamecube was cancelled too soon.

    Sucks that it's an XBOX. I like the XBOX360 PowerPC clone of Nintedo's Revolution but hate the fact that Microsoft is using one monopoly in one market to buy their way into a second.

    Some of us like to see people earn their sucess, and not steal it.

    • Some of us like to see people earn their sucess, and not steal it.

      I don't remember Gates or Ballmer being prosecuted for any bank robberies lately. I think, maybe, they earned their success by, you know, selling lots of software. And I really like how the Xbox360 is a "clone" of a product which hasn't even been announced and doesn't have a public spec.
    • you seem to be forgetting the only member of the RIAA and MPAA is making consoles and games...

      i'll give you a hint: it's spelled ynos backwards and it's sony forwards.

      and lets not forget the price fixing, sue happy nintendo (i'm being terribly concise, so forgive me if i miss anything).

      so basically i say a BIG FUCK YOU to all 3 console manufacturers. even more so for their damn DRM schemes to rob us of our ability to own our own hardware.

      is that sufficient?
  • ... will it also feature GridRunner? [llamasoft.co.uk]

    I can't imagine why I'm suddenly missing my Vic-20...

  • A killer app that will allow Microsoft to sell systems like Atari or VMLabs. I don't know if they'll be able to do it without a launch title like Merlin Racing, though.
  • Say what you will about Microsoft, but if the original VLM was addicting enough to make me actually want to hunt down a Jaguar and Jaguar CD, then I think I'll be more than willing to pick up an Xbox 360. Once the price goes under $200, of course.

    One more thing: have any of you ever spent any time with an Xbox? The company may be a piece of trash, but their hardware design is, in my experience, immaculate. I'm still using a Microsoft mouse from.. God, must be 1995 or something. The thing just won't die
    • I have to admit I was one of those massive skeptics when word came out that Microsoft was releasing a gaming console. Having actually owned one since a few months after it launched, though, I'm in love. The power supply issues aside, Microsoft put together an excellent system both from the hardware and software sides. Xbox Live works brilliantly, I've had nary a disc read problem, and unlike my PS2 (and PSX before it), I haven't had to replace any controllers due to failure.

      Microsoft is definitely a hit-or
  • A good reason to start dropping acid again!

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