GameTap Client 1.8 Update, Hidden X-COM

[Slack3r78]

Big news for GameTap subscribers today. Upon logging in your client will automatically update itself to the new 1.8 client, bringing with it a whole slew of new features ranging from improved game downloading and management options to a random game selector dubbed "Gotta Getta Game." Another major change is the addition of support for Windows Vista.

UI designer Dinah has outlined many of the changes over at the GameTap design blog Angled Whiteboards (http://angledwhiteboards.com/2007/02/15/gametap-18/).

The other big news today is that they've pulled a repeat of I-76's hidden early release, but with a title even dearer to gamer's hearts:
Last time was so fun, we decided to do it again. You know the drill: hit the Search ring, enter in “Skyranger” and get to playing some X-COM: UFO Defense.
Well, there go all my free gaming hours.

[Nighthold]

This still dead on Vista?

[Slack3r78]

This still dead on Vista?
Vista support is one of the big updates in this version. I'll edit the original post to reflect this.

[Nighthold]

An update, with the latest gametap client, the experience on Vista is unplayable. This is on a 2gig P Dual Core 2.4 Ghz x1950 512 system, and the display is all fucked up, game titles flicker in and out, etc. Useless.

[dinah]

An update, with the latest gametap client, the experience on Vista is unplayable. This is on a 2gig P Dual Core 2.4 Ghz x1950 512 system, and the display is all fucked up, game titles flicker in and out, etc. Useless.

From the official statement re: Vista:
Look for support and compatibility with Vista to begin on 2/15, depending on your video card. GameTap is dependent on updated video card drivers from hardware manufacturers like ATI, Nvidia, and Intel. Different video cards will be supported as those companies release their updated drivers ... You can find a list of supported video cards on the GameTap website or visit the GameTap KnowledgeBase for more information.
In other words, we're really dependent on video drivers, and until the big manufacturers come out with solid ones, everyone will see some bad behavior.

[J Arcane]

And here I'd been debating posting about this . . .

Also of note, not only is I-76b live now, but the expansion pack for it is in the coming soon page.

And URU Live is now officially, well, live.

They also released SimCity for Windows.

Plus there's TWO new episodes of the Sam & Max cartoon this week.

I was really happy and surprised by all the new information they added for downloads, because they added everything I just got done asking for in the suggestion box last week! File sizes in the info window, a proper progress bar that tells me what speed I'm getting, the whole trip.

I was blown away mainly because I don't usually expect a company to actually respond to requests . . .

And does anyone know if they've added x64 support yet? My friend wanted to join but apparently the client doesn't work on Windows XP 64-bit.

[agentgray]

Oh, man. I almost unsubscribed today!

[Nighthold]

From the official statement re: Vista:
Look for support and compatibility with Vista to begin on 2/15, depending on your video card. GameTap is dependent on updated video card drivers from hardware manufacturers like ATI, Nvidia, and Intel. Different video cards will be supported as those companies release their updated drivers ... You can find a list of supported video cards on the GameTap website or visit the GameTap KnowledgeBase for more information.
In other words, we're really dependent on video drivers, and until the big manufacturers come out with solid ones, everyone will see some bad behavior.

From the official gametap website, compatible video cards include Radeon X1950.

This is not compatible.

Pretty much all of my games work with vista, and beautifully, and yet Gametap is so unique that they cant get their act together? Its not like I am asking for DX10 support here, but I don't think basic GUI usability is too much to ask.

[J Arcane]

From the official gametap website, compatible video cards include Radeon X1950.

This is not compatible.

Pretty much all of my games work with vista, and beautifully, and yet Gametap is so unique that they cant get their act together? Its not like I am asking for DX10 support here, but I don't think basic GUI usability is too much to ask.
Getting something like Gametap to work in Vista isn't exactly gonna be an easy task.

Sure you could probably get the GUI itself to work great I'm sure, but what about the games? Most of the stuff on Gametap is stuff that's already running in emulation, or being tweaked so it'll run just on XP, and throwing a whole new OS into the mix with it's own set of compatibility issues even with XP software is gonna make a mess of things.

That's what you get for buying a MS OS so close to launch. XP had the same problems with compatibility when it came out as well.

[Suicidal ShiZuru]

I got Vista and Im gonna complain.

Its your fault for using Vista anyways. :D

I love Gametap more and more!

[Nighthold]

Getting something like Gametap to work in Vista isn't exactly gonna be an easy task.

Sure you could probably get the GUI itself to work great I'm sure, but what about the games? Most of the stuff on Gametap is stuff that's already running in emulation, or being tweaked so it'll run just on XP, and throwing a whole new OS into the mix with it's own set of compatibility issues even with XP software is gonna make a mess of things.

That's what you get for buying a MS OS so close to launch. XP had the same problems with compatibility when it came out as well.

Thats the thing though! You never even get to the games, the GUI is all fucked up. I realize that new OS's have problems, and I accept that. Trust me, I accept that every time I boot up iTunes. This is just silly though, its not like its a huge surprise.

I just dont buy the excuse that its the Videocard makers faults, if only the drivers were better, etc. If NWN2, R6:V, Civ 4, Titan Quest, and Half Life 2 all work fine, there is NO reason that gametap should be unable to get their gui up and running. Some of the older games I could understand, but in its current state its unacceptable.


now commence your vista bashing. Its actually a very nice OS.

[dinah]

It's Open GL drivers that GameTap needs.

[J Arcane]

It's Open GL drivers that GameTap needs.
Personally I'd settle for some peppier Dreamcast emulation.

Despite my machine meeting all the requirements, Crazy Taxi runs like it's in slow motion, which just sort of kills it. It's supposed to be a speedy game.

[SymetriX]

Somewhat related--It doesn't sound like there a whole heck of a lot of reasons for a gamer to upgrade to Vista, no?

Well, I'm sure I'm forgetting maybe some glossy high-rez version of Solitaire :-)

I predict it will take Crysis for people to get their act together.

[J Arcane]

Somewhat related--It doesn't sound like there a whole heck of a lot of reasons for a gamer to upgrade to Vista, no?

Well, I'm sure I'm forgetting maybe some glossy high-rez version of Solitaire :-)

I predict it will take Crysis for people to get their act together.
There isn't.

Unless you think have a folder with pretty pictures of game boxes instead of icons constitutes a "great feature for games".

Hell, even Crysis announced it's gonna have a DX 9 mode after all.

[Slack3r78]

It's Open GL drivers that GameTap needs.
And that explains it. My understanding is ATI's Vista drivers are sorely lacking in the OpenGL department right now.

I didn't realize the client was built on OpenGL, but given the other pieces the client's made up of, it kinda makes sense now that I think about it.

[LilAbner]

Still waiting for the "I can get all these games through emulation on my PC/Xbox" post........which of course, totally misses the point of GameTap.

[Slack3r78]

There isn't.

Unless you think have a folder with pretty pictures of game boxes instead of icons constitutes a "great feature for games".

Hell, even Crysis announced it's gonna have a DX 9 mode after all.
Conversely, if you do anything with your computer other than just play games, there are plenty of decent reasons to upgrade.

[J Arcane]

Conversely, if you do anything with your computer other than just play games, there are plenty of decent reasons to upgrade.
If you aren't considering gaming in the mix there wasn't really even a reason to update past 98SE.

Hell there really isn't any good reason to use Windows at all at that point.

[total]

If you aren't considering gaming in the mix there wasn't really even a reason to update past 98SE.

Hell there really isn't any good reason to use Windows at all at that point.


QFT...

Ubuntu can look just as good or better as Vista with very slim hardware. Hell you can even get some damn good free software to boot.

[Slack3r78]

If you aren't considering gaming in the mix there wasn't really even a reason to update past 98SE.

Hell there really isn't any good reason to use Windows at all at that point.
If your computer is nothing more to you than a fancy typewriter, sure.

And even that's debatable.

[kid cabelgo]

Well I normally hate these commercials, but this one is pretty good:

http://images.apple.com/movies/us/apple/getamac/apple-getamac-security_480x376.mov

[J Arcane]

If your computer is nothing more to you than a fancy typewriter, sure.

And even that's debatable.
I don't need 9 GB of OS with a recommended 2GB memory requirement just to surf the web and use Openoffice, nor do I need that for the GIMP, or even for my terrain rendering stuff. Or to play movies and music, or even to make movies and music.

There's nothing that any of MS' OSes do that makes them any more useful for those purposes, and basically any OS will serve pretty damn well these days, if all you want are apps.

Fuck you don't even need windows for MS Office anymore apparently, the Mac versions been praised to high heaven since Office 2000.

Windows is for DirectX. Vista is for DirectX 10. The rest is just bells and whistles designed to desperately try to justify an utterly undeserved marketshare borne of decades of a busive business practices.

[Slack3r78]

I don't need 9 GB of OS with a recommended 2GB memory requirement just to surf the web and use Openoffice, nor do I need that for the GIMP, or even for my terrain rendering stuff. Or to play movies and music, or even to make movies and music.
Vista's actual recommended memory requirement is 1GB and, in all reality, it'll run just fine on 768MB. I know this for a fact -- I did it for 9 months.

And I'm sorry but I just can't get worked up over a 9GB OS footprint when 250GB hard drives cost under $75 these days. Do you long for the 50MB base install of Windows 95, too?

There's nothing that any of MS' OSes do that makes them any more useful for those purposes, and basically any OS will serve pretty damn well these days, if all you want are apps.
You specifically suggested that there was no need to use Windows beyond 98SE. Suggesting that the hack on top of DOS that was the 9x series is in any way comparable to any of the NT based releases of Windows is delusional. From stability to performance to any other number of reasons, the 9x releases just plain are not up to comparative snuff.

Fuck you don't even need windows for MS Office anymore apparently, the Mac versions been praised to high heaven since Office 2000.
Let me know when you can buy a $300 Mac.

(This coming from a Mac-owning open source kind of guy).

Windows is for DirectX. Vista is for DirectX 10. The rest is just bells and whistles designed to desperately try to justify an utterly undeserved marketshare borne of decades of a busive business practices.
Windows is for any number of applications where no better solution exists. You don't seem to believe it, but there are plenty of fields where software required to Get Things Done(TM) does not have a Unix analogue. Any improvement to the OS that gets it the hell out of your way and helps you Get Things Done is a good thing.

Though if I may take a stab in the dark at personality types -- in XP, which version of the Start menu do you use?

[J Arcane]

Though if I may take a stab in the dark at personality types -- in XP, which version of the Start menu do you use?

I use Blackbox.