Duke Nukem Forever Tops Vaporware List 133
Wired has an annual list of high-profile vaporware projects and the number of games on there is just depressing. Numbers 7, 6, 5, 2, and 1 are all videogame projects. When the Phantom is only #2, you know what has to be number 1. From the article: "Announced in 1997 and promised every year since, this game takes vaporware to new heights. Think about it, in just 13 months this game will have been in one form of development or another for a decade. This project started with a game based on the Quake 2 engine, then in 1999 it moved to the Unreal engine and has been stalled ever since."
But But But (Score:3, Funny)
Say it ain't so.
Re:But But But (Score:2)
Don't Panic (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Don't Panic (Score:1)
What?? (Score:1, Funny)
Re:What?? (Score:1)
In other news... (Score:5, Interesting)
Although I think calling the new Legend of Zelda "vaporware" is off as its only late by... ooh...3 months.
Re:In other news... (Score:2)
Re:In other news... (Score:1)
Re:In other news... (Score:1)
In other news... (Score:5, Interesting)
Water is wet!
I had to laugh out loud at the moderator who labeled it interesting. If I could, I'd meta-mod that (+10 fricken halarious)!
I'd like to buy it (Score:1)
Re:I'd like to buy it (Score:1)
made me smile! (the first one today)
DNF isn't dead! (Score:2, Informative)
It will come soon (as in 10 years), I'm sure!
-- dbg
google (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:google (Score:1)
According to Wired's definition, it's vaporware. From the article:
Any negative comments about a Google service are dismissed with "it's in beta, what do you expect?" on Slashdot. Google releases products when they're ready and they take a long time to become ready.
I woul
Re:google (Score:4, Insightful)
The only thing wired's an authoritative source on is how to make a magazine so ugly, gaudy, and unreadable that you lose half your subscribers. The only people who hung onto wired for that long were the ones who wanted to look like a nerd by having it on their coffee table.
Wired articles tend to be punched up so much in order to be sensational that they lose any validity. They're not about the news, they're about giving them excuses to put pretty pictures and funky type in their magazine.
No one who is anyone important takes Wired seriously.
Re:google (Score:2)
Re:google (Score:2)
> aggregating your personal information to serve you more ads,
> and rewriting otherwise-passable native applications in
> JavaScript.
Actually, I heard they've introduced a search engine. It's supposed to be pretty good, you should try it.
Chris Mattern
Re:google (Score:1)
ho ho ho, flamebait? (Score:2)
Re:google (Score:1)
I wonder if this definition would include the many open source projects that take years to reach version 1.0, and whether people would consider it reasonable to count them as "vapourware"?
Re:google (Score:2)
Some companies
Re:google (Score:2)
The fucking article was in Wired. How much more proof do you need? Wired jumped the shark in Article #2, when they failed to bring the percentage of flourescent ink used in the magazine below 50%.
Re:google (Score:2)
Re:google (Score:2)
Re:google (Score:2)
I don't have a problem with people frequently releasing software: as a Linux user it's nice to see bugs addressed when they're fixed and satisfactorily tested. What I do have a problem with is companies hiding behind th
Re:google (Score:1)
From TFA:
Several wags nominated our vaporware story itself for an award. Yeah, we know it's late. Apologies for that. But we never promised it in 2005, so it wasn't eligible anyway.
Likewise, the PowerBook G5 is also ineligible. Apple may have occasionally hinted at it, but
DNF (Score:5, Insightful)
1.8 - Will DNF be available on DVD?
This still has not been decided yet, however the chances of this happenning are slim. It is important to note that DVD's are not mainstream yet, at least not in the software industry.
Now, I almost never do any gaming on my computer, but I definitely think that any machine that is going to run DNF is going to have a DVD drive.
Amazing that this product has been in development so long that means of distribution have even changed.
Re:DNF (Score:1)
Re:DNF (Score:2)
Re:DNF (Score:2)
Re:DNF (Score:3, Insightful)
Are you kidding? At this rate, any computer that is going to run DNF is going to have a direct neural interface and a quantum holography storage device.
Re:DNF (Score:2)
Re:DNF (Score:5, Funny)
Re:DNF (Score:2)
How something can have a product cycle that long is a project managers nightmare - I mean the original specs must have been Windows 95 with at least 16 megs of ram etc. I suspect the game has been cancled, but the site hasn't been updated.
In Capitalist America... (Score:2)
For those too lazy to RTFA (Score:5, Informative)
Re:For those too lazy to RTFA (Score:2)
And reader Aaron Ouellette said: "Tap, tap, tap, we're still waiting."
Stop waiting for TiVoToGo for the Mac. Get Galleon [galleon.tv]. It brings TiVoToGo functionality to the Mac, Linux, Unix, and Windows, as well as the GoBack ability TiVo doesn't offer and many other features.
TiVo recommendations? (Offtopic) (Score:4, Interesting)
Speaking of TiVo, I'm thinking about buying one but I don't know what to get. Some of my buddies were able to do some neat things hacking into their TiVos, and I'd like the ability to save off selected shows or movies without building a MythTV box (too much effort). Which TiVo should I buy, and what Windows/Linux/FreeBSD apps should I grab? Are there non-TiVo firmware images I should download and install on my TiVo? Can I just go out and buy a TiVo brand new and use it without having to mod it? Or, even better, is there a web site out there that explains everything? I googled for "tivo recommendations" and "which tivo to buy", but they didn't turn up anything interesting. It looks like the Series 2 DVR does everything I want except for burning stuff to DVD, but if I can just FTP the files off or something that'd be good enough for me.
Re:TiVo recommendations? (Offtopic) (Score:2)
Pretty much any TiVo will be upgradable. I have a 5XXX TiVo, and I upgraded mine. You want to get a modern one (don't get an older or used one), because the later ones sport a later kernel that supports drives bigger than 120GB (or if you put a 140 in, it'll only see 137GB, or whatever that limit was). Mine has 160GB in it, and I can record 180ish hours at full quality. With compression, I can fit about 4x that, but the compression they use is pretty bad on anything other than "High". Especially if you
Re:TiVo recommendations? (Offtopic) (Score:2)
Re:TiVo recommendations? (Offtopic) (Score:1)
Thanks, both of your, for your advice. I'm off to look at Series 2 DVRs. P2P-ing recorded shows was never my intent, however it would be nice to watch Battlestar Galactica or other shows on my laptop when I travel.
Re:For those too lazy to RTFA (Score:2)
Just thinking about other things (Score:2, Interesting)
I'm sure our anticipation of that will be similar to how movie buffs react to news.
Its taken 18 years to a get a sequel for Indiana Jones.
DNF has loads of time yet.
Re:Just thinking about other things (Score:3)
Re:Just thinking about other things (Score:2)
Duke Nukem needs a DNR (Score:1)
Duke Nukem had its chance, blew it (multiple times) and has been dragged along like a piece of toilet paper stuck to the button of a shoe.
Re:Duke Nukem needs a DNR (Score:3, Funny)
Woah. News. (Score:3, Funny)
Free publicity (Score:3, Interesting)
> development or another for a decade.
I can't believe there are still people who seriously think this is what's happened. Obviously they've not been working on it for 10 years. They must have decided at some point to work on other things and simply give the impression they were working on it, and have finally (perhaps) decided to release something. Not many companies get to pay nothing to have one of their major project ranges mentioned on a regular basis - good luck to 'em. I've bought several of their games on PSX and PC but I'm hardly hanging on for new games from them (or any other company for that matter). I'm happy to wait for reviews and screenshots of the finished product.
For runners, DNF == Did Not Finish (Score:5, Funny)
WINE (Score:3, Insightful)
(yes, I know it's often useful nonethess, but...)
Re:WINE (Score:1)
Re:WINE (Score:2, Informative)
The real vaporware (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:The real vaporware (Score:2, Informative)
Re:The real vaporware (Score:4, Informative)
The people that bitch about the "linux desktop" haven't normally ever tried Linux and want something that feels like their WinXP desktop. If you're looking for that, yes, there's nothing like it now and probably won't be for a while. If you want an useable Unix desktop, there's a lot of excellent ones arround.
You have a wide [kde.org] choice [gnome.org] of desktops [xfce.org] and window [enlightenment.org] and managers [fluxbox.org], and there's a lot [openoffice.org] of [www.koffice] excellent [mozilla.com] software [gimp.org] for them [gnucash.org]. A linux desktop is useable today, and by anyone - i had Ubuntu on a desktop for a while and my mother, who's 'computer-imparied' had zero issues using it. Besides being unable to find the blue E icon
Re:The real vaporware (Score:3, Insightful)
I bought a Windows PC specifically to run Quicken after seeing how unb [versiontracker.com]
Re:The real vaporware (Score:2)
As for Quicken => GNUCash, i'm sorry - i've rarely used either lately
Re:The real vaporware (Score:2)
Re:The real vaporware (Score:3, Insightful)
What happens when I buy a multi-function printer? Will I be able to scan photos using it? Will my webcam work?
If I decide to get into photo editing, will I be able to run Photoshop? When I do my taxes, will TurboTax run? Will I be able to play games?
Will I be able to buy (mainstream) music and p
Re:The real vaporware (Score:2)
It is good enough for most people, and that's right now. Of course you'll find a lot of
Re:The real vaporware (Score:2)
Well, I can tell you after installing it on 60 lab machines for the CS department at Virginia Tech, Mathematica will run on Linux. Which it should; it's natively a Unix application, and runs on things like Alpha/True64's too.
It doesn't want to run, however, over cygwin on a windows box. Of course, there's a native Windows install for it, but running over cygwin, it's looking for fonts that no one knows where are. And if you said
A multifunction printer will probab
Re:The real vaporware (Score:5, Interesting)
He called me the next day, ready to try it out, apprehensive as hell. I told him not to sweat it, that he didn't even need me on the line.
He booted from DVD, "Next-buttoned" everything from then on. It detected his 3D accelerator, his flatscreen monitor, his wireless network, and all of his hardware and dropped him in a nice desktop.
He plugged in his late-model Brother laser printer. Autodetected upon plugin and away he went, printing.
He plugged in his USB flash drive to test out access to office files. BOOM, icon appears on desktop. He double-clicks and up pops a file manager window showing his files.
He double clicks on an MS Word file and it opens in OpenOffice, no problem.
He plugs in his scanner and asks what program he needs to use to scan. I tell him to start GIMP and use the acquire tool, just like he would in Photoshop. The nice, user-friendly scanner dialog was just like he was used to in windows, and he scans three or four test scans and says "all good!"
He wants to use his Olympus digital camera. I tell him to go for it, so he plugs it into USB and BOOM, an icon appears on his desktop. He starts copying images off of it.
He normally copies his images to DVD-RAM, and he's got an external DVD-RAM drive that he made by installing a Panasonic LFD-211 in a USB case. I get a little nervous about this one, but he plugs it in to his USB hub, inserts a 4.7GB disk, and BOOM, there it is on his desktop.
He drags-drops the files from his digital camera to the DVD-RAM drive, prints out the photo he'd scanned with gimp, and tells me that he has one last need: he's got to install MS Office, Photoshop CS, and FrameMaker.
FrameMaker and Office, I tell him, are a go. Photoshop CS, not so fast. Does he need the whole suite? No? Then does he have Photoshop 7 onsite? Can he use that? Yes? Then we have a go. I point him to the Codeweavers website and he buys Crossover Office for the price of pizza and soda delivery, well under the cost of similar software for Mac OS.
After downloading it, he double-clicks on the Crossover Office icon on his desktop. Up pops a window asking for his password, and a moment later, it's installed itself.
I tell him to insert the Office XP CD and double-click on the "Setup" icon, just like he would in Windows. He does, and a few minutes later, he's got Office XP installed, including completed activation. He quickly does the same for FrameMaker 7 and Photoshop 7.
He begins to ask "how do I start these," and a moment later cuts himself off with, "oh never mind, they've gone into the start menu in a group called 'Windows Applications'."
He launches each one to test that it opens, saves, and prints files.
An hour and forty five minutes after he originally called, we've gone from nothing to a full Fedora desktop, complete with printer, scanner, digital camera, flash drive, DVD-RAM drive, and major Windows applications, and I haven't had to answer a SINGLE QUESTION and have instead been listening to him talk mostly about his family.
It's two weeks later, and I haven't had a SINGLE CALL from him asking for tech support help. His one comment, sent via e-mail:
"Man, I can't believe how fast Linux is. Starting about last year I was thinkin' this PC was due for a replacement request, but I guess it was just XP."
--
Linux is ready NOW. Five years ago, there were a few unmitigated optimists that refused to admit that Linux wasn't ready yet. Today, there are a few unmitigated cynics that refuse to admit that it became ready sometime in the last 24 months.
Wipes tear. . . (Score:2)
Oh, that's so sweet. Wish I had mod-points.
-FL
Re:The real vaporware (Score:1)
He said he wanted to replace his pc so I assume it's already a few years old and that explains all the hardware was recognised, but if you try this with a new machine you still have the problem that the latest wireless/usb/sound/etc devices are not yet supported and to get it to work is not exactly easy. It's not like you can just download a driver and install it like under Windows (in theory you could but the drivers s
Re:The real vaporware (Score:2)
What you won't have is the 97% of users that have remained loyal to Windows and the Mac. OS Platform Stats (January 2006) [w3schools.com]
Re:The real vaporware (Score:2)
Re:The real vaporware (Score:2)
Re:The real vaporware (Score:2)
The OS that supplants Windows will not need to be "Windows Like" It will need to be vastly superior to Windows, in the same way that DVD's were vastly superior to VHS.
Linux, sad to say, is not supe
Hardware support is a problem for switchers (Score:2)
The people that bitch about the "linux desktop" haven't normally ever tried Linux
Or they have tried Linux and have had hardware whose driver successfully installed on Windows fail to install on Linux. I tried Mandrakelinux 9.1 when it came out and it found my ATI Radeon 9000 video card (but failed to start X), found my Canon S520 inkjet printer (but printed everything at 60% size because it misdetected my 600 dpi printer as a 360 dpi printer), and completely failed to find my Microtek Scanmaker 4850 fla
Bullshit (Score:1)
Ie, for anything in windows, you either right click or go to the control panel, and if you can't figure it out from there you have a really odd problem. I've only used a mac a few times, but whenever I try out my friends OS X laptop, everything seems intuitive
Re:Bullshit (Score:1)
Re:The real vaporware (Score:2)
Re:The real vaporware (Score:2)
The most common comment I get when I say that my family runs it is "yeah,
Desktop Linux (Score:2)
What about Too Human? Or Mario 128? (Score:3, Insightful)
For that matter, why is Zelda on the list but not Mario 128? Mario 128 has been promised to us since, what was it, Spaceworld 2000? I could be mistaken, but regardless, it's been a while and we have seen no demoes, videos, or even screenshots, and it's switched development from the Gamecube to the Revolution. How is Twilight Princess being delayed 4 or 5 months but still having videos, screens, and demoes galore count as vaporware, but Mario 128 not? Odd...
-Moses
Re:What about Too Human? Or Mario 128? (Score:2)
Re:What about Too Human? Or Mario 128? (Score:1)
For that matter, why is Zelda on the list but not Mario 128?
For one thing, Zelda: TP was promoted last year, but Super Mario 128 wasn't. In fact, Nintendo's Super Mario 128 is already released, as it was rejiggered into mission 22 of Super Smash Bros. Melee.
Yes, thank you. -- team fortress 2 (Score:3, Insightful)
but this whole hl2, but no tf2 experience has left me pretty raw towards valve. heck I was even willing to go along with their steam delivery, hoping that they'd deliver tf2 one of these days, but they've been dragging their feet too long..
in the mean time we've had the wonderful and free Wolfenstein: ET released, and the upcoming quake wars: ET, which should be the best game ever made...
i'm glad someone has the courage to tell valve that they've dropped the ball on this one.
Re:Yes, thank you. -- team fortress 2 (Score:1)
Re:Yes, thank you. -- team fortress 2 (Score:1)
Re:Yes, thank you. -- team fortress 2 (Score:2)
HD-TiVo (Score:4, Informative)
Actually, it was announced at CES 2004 for release in the first half of 2006. It's not even late yet.
It's a joke, kids... (Score:2)
The studio has other products that they focus on and they're going to be the ones forever. DKF is dead, really it is, but every time someone says it's dead, someone goes to the site and checks the forums where George Broussard has posted "It's not dead" for the nth time.
Give it up people, laugh at George Broussard's joke and move on with life....
uh... ultimate dupe? (Score:2, Interesting)
I thought they would stop nominating it after a life time award... I mean, dead horse and all that
Weak, as usual (Score:5, Interesting)
Personally, I don't consider something vapourware that's delayed from the end of the year in question to first quarter of the following. Maybe I'm picky, but I prefer my vapourware to be talking in years, not months. But every year, they pick at least one or two. Zelda being delayed 3 months does not, I think, get it the 'vapourware' sticker.
And c'mon, Google? That's a real strech. All the things they mention you can use just fine. By other people's definition, they're finished, but Google's fussy. That's not 'vapourware'. Geez, they must have been seriously hard up for ideas or something.
Starcraft: Ghost is more on the nose, though not in Duke Nuke Em's league. The Phantom is aptly named. Complaining about Blu-Ray or HD-DVD seems a touch premature I think, given how long it takes hardware standards to formalize, but at least there's a little substance there. TF2 has been in the works forever.
Vista, well, it's been delayed a couple of years so I guess it qualifies, even if it's one of those things that's guranteed to come out, in a way like nothing else on that list, even if does take another three years.
Re:Weak, as usual (Score:2)
I'd rather they took their time to get things right, rather than the EA model of "ready
Re:Weak, as usual (Score:2, Insightful)
> one of those things that's guranteed to come out, in a way like nothing else on that
> list, even if does take another three years.
I'd count Longhorn/Vista as vaporware. It was going to come out in 2003 (or was it 2002?). The original projected release date for *Blackcomb* (the release that was going to be after Longhorn) passed in late 2004. It's now early 2006. However, it's not the total quantity of dela
Re:Weak, as usual (Score:2)
Forever Tops? (Score:2)
Well... (Score:2)
Futurama (Score:1)
lame (Score:1)
bah!
they are both 'in production' I guess....oh well - some day =/
Project Xanadu (Score:1)
As always... (Score:2)
My top vapourware vote goes to Elite IV [frontier.co.uk]. I doubt that it will ever see the light of day, despite how many rumours and articles I read about it.
Larry 4 (Score:1)
Another forgotten item (Score:2)
Another one for the list (Score:2)
Ogg Vorbis bitrate peeling.
Remember how it was going to revolutionise portable audio? Download/rip your music once and peel bits for whatever your application - keep the original for your home theatre and peel lots of bits for your iRiver.
Re:Yay Wired (Score:2, Informative)