Sony PSP vs Nintendo DS

It's been a hot topic lately. Today is 12/12/04... the day Sony PSP is launched in Japan with only 200 000 in stock. Nintendo DS launched on 21/11/04 and have already secured 1 million units sold. click. Many people are having the hardest time deciding which to buy.. since they're both a Sony and Nintendo loyalist.

The DS is very innovative: a touch screen with stylus and 2 screens. It is backwards compatable with GBA games and a satisfactory battery life.. With better than N64-like graphics, it looks like developers will have loads of fun making cool games. There's already a SSB-like game coming out in Japan.. (Shonen) Jump Superstars 1 2 3 4, and there's also a game called Nintendogs currently in development. The DS holds a lot of potential. There's even a petition which many people have signed, begging Blizzard Entertainment to port StarCraft to NDS.

The PSP is a sleek multimedia device with 16:9 ratio screen. It is able to display pictures, play (atrac/mp3) music and (mp4) video through a memory stick duo, but everyone seems to be aware of it's less-than-ideal battery life..click. Also, it's been know that all who have challenged Nintendo at the handheld market have failed: Top Ten Handhelds that Never Made It

Company executives noted that this isn't the first time a competitor has challenged Nintendo in the mobile market, but pointed out that nine of nine have failed to succeed.

"As a tenth serious competitor makes a run at Game Boy, we're raising the bar before they even get started," said Reggie Fils-Aime, Nintendo of America's executive vice president, pointing to the company's upcoming dual-screen unit. "This redefines portable entertainment."

On a side note, one reason why PS2 is doing better than GameCube right now is because the fact that people were also buying a DVD player when they bought a PS2, compared to the GameCube which acted strictly as a gaming console. The same might apply here: buying a portable picture displayer, music and video player when you buy a PSP will drive sales, while the Nintendo DS will focus on interactive gaming. Nintendo has previously stated that

If the DS succeeds, we will rise to heaven, but if it fails we will sink to hell. The next two years will decide Nintendo's fate.

It will be good to see Nintendo gain some of its lossed share in the gaming industry. This can only happen with the greatest SNES ports and interatives games coming to NDS. If not, it will be a shame to see Nintendo leave and industry in which they've made their presence known for decades. It's a tough decision.... maybe I'll just buy both.

here are some pictures: pics
and another good blog on the issue.

Dec. 13, 2004 update: One day after it's launch and gamers reported problems with the PSP... They include (the common) dead pixels, broken analog nubs, and UMDs flying out of the drive when you twist the PSP in a certain way... Although it is a defect, why would anyone want to twist a brand new PSP like that?!

Dec. 21, 2004 update: Nintendo has announced that NDS sales have reached 2 million units. Amazing... source

'Tis the season to be @$$ raped

I did it... After sleeping at 5am for the past few nights, working and studying, I have managed to finish 3 assignments and do 2 exams over 4 days: CSC207 Exercise 5, CSC258 Assignment 3, STA247 Assignment 3, CSC207 exam and AST101 exam. All this hard work better pay off one day.... If not, I'll forever regret not going to Waterloo for it's co-op program. On second thought... CS@Waterloo is under the Faculty of Mathematics... I definately would not survive.

There's a saying: The best bridge between hope and despair is often a good night's sleep. I better catch up on some sleep for more ass rapage on Tuesday and Wednesday where I'll have to face 2 more exams.. CSC258 and STA247... two courses where I think I'm clueless....

and this is how the Wonderland chapter ends... for now

"Dragon Fire and Paramount Canada's Wonderland is now closed for the season. We hope you enjoyed your stay, and we wish you a safe and enjoyable drive home.. see you next season.."

When I first applied for the job as a ride operator at Wonderland, I was simply looking for something to do during my summer days instead of wasting them like in previous summers. It seemed to me that a job at Wonderland was the best job you can ever have. Sure, it was really stressful at times because of idiotic guests or parents who forced their children on our rides or pressure from managers to improve on the stupidest things. But there were fun times too, like when we'd all make guests on Spinovator scream as loud as they can when doing SOP (Spinovator OP), shown in this example of Chan (*Note: You need Divx installed...download DivX). Near the end of the season, most of the crap that comes from guests and managers becomes unimportant because you're with all your friends and we ran so freely. The last weekend of work brought a lot of closure to a long season of hard work and just simply being together. We all hugged goodbye and all the girls cried.. Now I realize that it's not the best job you can ever have because you have free admissions to the park, but because you meet so many people and make so many friends.

I'd say my summer definately was not wasted. I don't think I will ever have as much fun working anywhere as I did working here. Thanks Dragon Fire... for the best summer I ever had.

Victoria Day Fireworks at Wonderland 2004

Nothing short of spectacular is how I'd describe it. With a POP (probablilty of precipitation) at 100% for Sunday evening (May 23,2004), the pouring rain make it look like everyone was gonna leave cause they'd know that fireworks would be cancelled. Lighting and pouring rain shut down all the rides at the last moments before 10:30PM, the time they'd have fireworks. Miraculously, the rain just stopped, so they decided to go ahead with it. Throughout the aprx. 20 min. show of non-stop fireworks: no rain. What an amazing show: the main show of fireworks over Vortex, and a little background fireworks show at the top of the Paramount moutain, located in the middle of the park, behind us. The atmosphere was so relaxing.... It wasn't a hot night, but a cool breezy one. THIS is the reason I'd want to be and work at Wonderland whole summer long: more work? or more play? Both seems so good. Once the show was over, immidiately, the rain started MASSIVELY pouring. Funny how the weather works..... Then, Monday May 24, Victoria Day. Residents that live very close to Wonderland, firing fireworks non-stop for the almost a whole hour I waited for the YRT bus, (since they must be rich to be able to afford a house close to Wonderland). It's like the whole horizon lit up, that's how many residents were firing fireworks. I sat on the grass and just watched. Then, once I got to Steels and McCowan, Miliken park was firing loads of fireworks too. On my walk back home to Denison and McCowan, all I heard was lotsa popping, crackling, sizzling and whistling. I look forward to this many fireworks when Canada day comes. Happy Victoria Day everyone.

First ever post

Well, I've always wanted a blog, and here it is. My HTML skills were never up to par so AsianAvenue never really worked for me, and I didn't like the fact that Friendster loaded up so slow, so I'll stick to a simple blog. Now to figure out how everything works....