Xbox 360 Lightsynth 129
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..."
I wonder... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:I wonder... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:I wonder... (Score:1)
Re:I wonder... (Score:2)
Re:I wonder... (Score:2)
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.
Re:I wonder... (Score:1)
Re:I wonder... (Score:1)
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
Re:I wonder... (Score:2)
Re:I wonder... (Score:2)
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.
Re:I wonder... (Score:2)
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
Re:I wonder... (Score:2)
Re:I wonder... (Score:2)
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)
Re:I wonder... (Score:2)
Just the ones who are jealous.
Re:I wonder... (Score:2)
I'm happy he gets to be a sellout this way.
sheep need food, you know.
Wow... (Score:1, Flamebait)
Re:Wow... (Score:1)
Re:Wow... (Score:2)
Maybe not respect that's relevant these days (he was creating cool stuff on C64 era machines) but still, his stuff was always ahead of its time.
Re:Wow... (Score:1)
Dude. I've been around gaming since PONG, and I've never heard of either of those games!
What did "Attack of the Mutant Camels" run on anyway?
Shit. I just googled it. The C64. I owned a C64, and a Vic20 before that. Even had the goofy mercury-switch handheled joystick for it. Still never heard of "Attac of the Mutant Camels."
He's obviously not as huge a
Re:Wow... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Wow... (Score:4, Interesting)
I think Mr. Yak's problems are that he has an uncanny knack of choosing hardware platforms which are doomed to utter failure.
Witness his numerous games for the Atari ST and Commodore Amiga, and then the Atari-commissioned Llamazap for the Falcon 030. If you've never heard of that particular Atari computer, then that should indicate how successful it was.
He wrote Tempest 2000 for the Atari Jaguar. Then another version for the Nuon. Which you've probably not heard of either. Oh, and he was working on Unity for the Nintendo Gamecube, but presumably some Nintendo bigwigs sensed that impending-doom vibe - the game got cancelled instead of the console.
So, basically, Minter on Xbox 360 means that the Xbox is going to die a horrible, horrible death in the marketplace...
Re:Wow... (Score:2, Informative)
hello dude, you must be american. minters' big successes in the early 80's were
i was always pretty surprised, personally, by the secular nation of american video game markets in the 80's.. a lot of really cool shit happened that the average american video junky missed out on because of the different 'scene' in the states
Re:Wow... (Score:2)
Secular?
Did graphics programs in the 80s have something to do with your religion?
Shouldn't you have abandoned the Earth on the Hale-Bopp comet along with the rest of the Heaven's Gate members? I hate to be the one to tell you, but you've missed the last train out by about eight years.
Re:Wow... (Score:1)
pfftt... you haven't actually played any games from the 80's, have you?
stupid person. of course video games are a religion! you moron, go back to new-world-order combat school, leave us old people alone.
hail qix! praise crazy climber!
Re:Wow... (Score:2)
Of course I imagine that those playing bootlegged games back when they were using Ataris and Commodore 64s had more exposure to UK releases.
The biggest thing I could never understand was why the UK loved the Speccy so much. I guess it was cheap and came out before the C-64. All those ports of Spectrum games to the C-64 had completely crap graphics.
Re:Wow... (Score:1)
the C-64 was anything but sensible. the brits laughed hard at 'the american computer with all its PEEKs and POKEs', and continued bouncing away at the little rubber keys all the while..
me, personally, i was way more fond of my oric than either C64 or Speccy, though i eventually had all three in my repertoire.. amstrad too, which i thought was pure dope, but i warrant very few Am
Re:Wow... (Score:2)
Yeah, that tends to happen when you're primarily responsible for a whole series of the most important innvations in human history.
Re:Wow... (Score:1)
you can't wrap human progress in a flag. to do so is degrading.
Re:Wow... (Score:2)
Re:Wow... (Score:2)
This is very possible... I've met a number of people who made and continue to make all the wrong choices. One kid I met in a gameshop had gotten a Saturn, Virtual Boy, Dreamcast, and was picking up an XBOX, convinced that this would be the #1 console. (This was back when the XBOX was pretty new.)
On one hand, you want to feel sorry; on the other, you have to wonder at what p
Re:Wow... (Score:2)
I have a GameCube, PS2 and Xbox in my house. The GameCube and Xbox get the most play (although in the Xbox case it's more to play
Re:Wow... (Score:2)
The only real reason for any of those platforms now is as a collector's piece. For all intents and purposes, they're failed platforms. If I saw a Virtual Boy for sale (reasonably), I'd probably pick it up... not because I'd play it, but to collect a piece of Nintendo history, even if it was a darker moment.
The sales status of something doesn't matter to me... if it did, I'd hardly run Linux, or play various lesser RPGs (Everblue 2 rocks), etc. What does interest me is simply the games. XBOX never had
Re:Wow... (Score:2)
Wow. State that the PS2 is the least favorite console at my house and get branded a Madden fan.
I enjoy a wide variety of games and have ever since the Atari 2600 I had in 1979. I am a PC gamer primarily (preferring strategy, FPS, MMOs and RPGs). On the console side the Gamecube gets a lot of use partially because it has more kid friendly games.
The rash of generic looking 3rd person action games on the current generation of
Re:Wow... (Score:2)
Prediction noted..
Re:Wow... (Score:1)
Rambling... (Score:2, Funny)
Damn... And I thought I could ramble on... and on... for several lines r
millions... (Score:1)
Re:millions... (Score:2, Informative)
30 Million Xboxs sold (Score:1, Informative)
Re:30 Million Xboxs sold (Score:1, Informative)
Re:30 Million Xboxs sold (Score:2)
Redpoint (artists in the video)'s record label (Score:3, Informative)
Let me be the first to say something POSITIVE (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Let me be the first to say something POSITIVE (Score:2)
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:2)
Re:Let me be the first to say something POSITIVE (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Let me be the first to say something POSITIVE (Score:2)
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.
Re:Let me be the first to say something POSITIVE (Score:2)
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.
When the 360 falls in price (Score:2)
Llamatron? (Score:2)
Re:Llamatron? (Score:1)
Potential evil? (Score:2)
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)
Re:Quicktime? (Score:1)
You guys should listen... (Score:1, Insightful)
NO, NO, NO!! (Score:2)
The difference is that Microsoft is a convicted monopollist!!!!111oneoneelevenonehundredeleven
Re:You guys should listen... (Score:1)
Re:You guys should listen... (Score:1)
no.
every os sucks.
except for the one used on the Nintendo DS.
I love that.
whooo!
double line breaks.
How does this compare to Milkdrop... (Score:1)
Anyone seen both in action?
Re:How does this compare to Milkdrop... (Score:1)
Re:How does this compare to Milkdrop... (Score:1)
Re:How does this compare to Milkdrop... (Score:1)
Re:How does this compare to Milkdrop... (Score:1)
metaslashdot (Score:1, Offtopic)
Let's all ho
Re:metaslashdot (Score:2)
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!
Re:metaslashdot (Score:2)
The XBOX 360... (Score:2)
the coolest thing MS ever did (Score:2)
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...
Re:the coolest thing MS ever did (Score:2)
Okay, so it's not the book or its title, but have some Slit-Scan photography [wikipedia.org], including the 2001 imagery unwrapped! [seriss.com]
Re:the coolest thing MS ever did (Score:2)
Re:the coolest thing MS ever did (Score:2)
Re:the coolest thing MS ever did (Score:1)
I agree completely. Having the VLM (lightsynth) built in to the JagCD was perhaps that doomed unit's single greatest saving grace. I was surprised when the Dreamcast, Playstation 2, and Xbox did not bother to include a similair feature even though all those units were developed post-Jag and all featured audio CD playback.
Gddammit..... (Score:2)
this is great (Score:1)
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)
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.
Re:Yay for Jeff! (Score:2)
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.
Re:Yay for Jeff! (Score:1)
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?
Visualization is cool, but... (Score:1)
I can't imagine why I'm suddenly missing my Vic-20...
Ah, finally... (Score:1)
if('Virtual Light Machine' == 'God'); (Score:1)
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
Re:if('Virtual Light Machine' == 'God'); (Score:2)
Microsoft is definitely a hit-or
Re:if('Virtual Light Machine' == 'God'); (Score:1)
People have opinions. If you prefer something else, or just hate the Microsoft there's no need to question someone else's sexuality over it. It just makes you look insecure.
Finally! (Score:2)
Re:Ugh, why did it have to be the XBox360? (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Ugh, why did it have to be the XBox360? (Score:1)
and the revolution is smaller than both of them.