Redefined performance

What wasn't expected was Apple Computer's refresh of its ubiquitous iMac range yesterday! Tuesday's prediction was pretty much on the mark. The high end machine now boasts a panoramic 24" screen and GeForce 7300GT GPU.

From an avid gaming and computer graphics perspective, it's comforting to see nVIDIA back in the consumer desktop range, which is in preference to ATI. I'd start writing my Christmas wish list if it weren't for the following!

So, what's Santa Steve Jobs got in his toy sack that's so special and warrants an early iMac debut?

The Craft

Catch Scream 2 (1997) last evening on Channel 4? There was a time when Neve Campbell adorned magazine covers around the globe, and the desktop of a former Dow Jones Reuters online journalist (whom writes this very blog)! Here's a picture that captures an idyllic era.



A year after Apple announced that Dashboard would debut with Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, Yahoo! buys Konfabulator as part of its search services 'land grab'. From today the widget application is available gratis here. Regardless of this step, Yahoo! please update your IM client for Macintosh before Google consigns you to a cached page footnote. Actually, an IM widget would be an excellent idea.

Arlo Rose, part of the duo behind Konfabulator, continues to attest that Apple aped 'his' widget idea. They're from Apple's 1984 Macintosh. Remember desk accessories Arlo? It maybe overkill for Tiger users to include Konfabulator in the Dock. To quote the Dr Pepper slogan - "You've got to try it to love it".

Tomorrow should witness new announcements concerning Apple's iBook and Mini lines. I'd like to see the addition of nVIDIA GPUs to the diminutive desktop line.

Alone in Kyoto

Whilst watching Lost in Translation's impressionistic 'Alone in Kyoto' montage, I had an epiphany! In the summer of 2000 I began reading 3Dworld and briefly made the acquaintance of a Mac User, who had returned to the UK after teaching English in Japan and was an accomplished 3D artist. 3Dworld's inclusion of Metacreation's Bryce 3.x, a 3-D landscape generation application, reignited further self development within the flourishing CGI arena.

For two years Bryce was the platform from which I revived my video game artworker ambitions (Codemasters interviewed me in 1998). When I fully transitioned to Mac OS X 10.x, invariably use of Classic ceased. Bryce was consigned to a similar fate and I devoted my creative energies to web design.

Metacreations sold the application to Corel and its future was uncertain! Now with the release of Bryce 5.5 (DAZ Productions) my interest is renewed afresh. The latest version boasts enhanced OpenGL support for Macs running an nVIDIA GPU.

Somewhat serendipitous, I discovered that Scarlett Johansson is Jewish!

Proper Crimbo

Santa's little software helpers are ever industrious at this time of year! Aspyr's Brad Oliver is beta testing a new patch for Jedi Academy (1.01c). This will improve online game play and finesse the dynamic glow of lightsabers in the Mac port. Dark Forces is my favorite Star Wars licensed game and there's a new mod for Jedi Academy based on the classic FPS.

Those fine folks at Cupertino may be releasing Mac OS X 10.3.7 as soon as tonight. A revised version of OpenGL with updated ATI and nVIDIA graphics drivers is just one of the new attractions!

And Aaron Giles (of JPEGView fame) continues to rewrite the Sega System 16 driver for a future release of MAME.

Time to prepare a DVD-ROM archive for 2004.

All I Want For Christmas

In keeping with the spirit of the upcoming holidays. The following list features all my computer and video game hardware owned to date. Most of which were received as gifts at this time of year!

*Atari VCS 2600
*Binatone Mk6 Game System
*ZX Spectrum 48K
*ZX Spectrum+ (same as above, but with 'improved' keyboard)
*Commodore 64 and 1541 Floppy Disk Drive
*Nintendo Game & Watch (various Mario titles)
*Sega Megadrive (Genesis)
*Atari Lynx II
*Super NES
*Apple Macintosh Performa 5200
*N64
*PSOne
*iMac DV SE
*Sega Dreamcast
*PlayStation 2
*XBOX
*GameCube
*LCD iMac G4
*GBA SP

Over the years I purchased innumerable video games from The Fuse Box. During my teens the store, an independent brick-and-mortar retailer located in Exeter's Sidwell Street, was a treasure trove - Rescue on Fractalus!* and Koronis Rift, displayed on the in-store monitors, held me spellbound - before its untimely closure and the advent of etailing. Somewhere in the attic of our house is a dusty old cardboard box that contains Atari, Commodore and Spectrum games (cartridge, cassette and diskette formats) in their original packaging! I've no idea whether or not my Commodore 64 still works (1992 being the last time it was used) and the first ZX Spectrum was passed on to a younger relative only to meet an untimely demise.

Watching Back to the Future II (1989) I noticed Nintendo's PlayChoice-10 in the Cafe 80's scene (a veritable advertising blitz). To reiterate comments made in a previous post. PlayChoice-10 provided Nintendo with a platform to profit from the lucrative arcade market, and uniquely showcased NES titles including Mega Man 3, Super Mario Bros II and III before their home cartridge launch. PlayChoice-10 existed for 5 to 6 years and was briefly superseded by Nintendo Super System. MAME emulation of PlayChoice-10 is not yet 100% accurate, but all known titles are available including The Goonies.

nVIDIA is to produce a bespoke GeForce GPU for Sony's PS3 after Microsoft allied itself with ATi. Combined with an IBM PowerPC G5 processor and possibly OpenGL, the PS3 shares APIs with Apple! Curious said Alice. In a contractual twist, that inspires literary allusions to the one ring, IBM will power all three next generation consoles from Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo. Can you say NDA?

*Rescue on Fractalus! was the first time I'd ever seen the Apple ][ logo. Little did I know that years later the Apple Macintosh would have a profound impact on my creative life.

Glow

Now that the dust surrounding the release of the new iMac has settled. I stand by my assertion that Apple has done the brand a short-term disservice in the choice of GPU!

Last year the nVIDIA GeForce 5200 appeared in the final revision of the iMac LCD. Therefore the GeForce 6600 would have delivered considerably more 'bang' and improved future proofing. Yes, the consumer desktop is aimed at the so-called lower end of the market, but that doesn't preclude it from being a versatile gaming and publishing platform.

And Apple appears to have missed a further trick or three. The new machine has enough urban chic to silence even the most demanding of the style-obsessed! The 20" model should be the jewel in the crown of any digital lifestyle centre. And replace or supplement TiVo and Sky+! Of course Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger may contain further surprises in this regard and kick Microsoft's so-called Media Centers into a cocked hat.

Snow White and the GeForce

This morning the third generation (3G) iMac was released at Apple Expo Paris 2004. Since the 1G iMac appeared in JLo's stylish video for 'If You Had My Love' (1999), the diminutive all-in-one solution has been at the vanguard of consumer style. The latest iteration of the successful iMac brand is a slender vision of silicon perfection.



I've owned both first and second generation iMacs and can't wait to see the latest model for myself. Apple should be applauded for producing a high quality product at a competitive price. Dropping the iMac logo from the front fascia is a natural progression, the Apple logo is elegantly subliminal.

As with previous consumer desktops, the only flies in the ointment are the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) and RAM! This blemished beauty ships with the pitifully underpowered nVIDIA FX 5200 Ultra and 256MB RAM (at time of writing I'd recommend a minimum of 512MB). The first revision will, in all probability, redress this imbalance in the hardware DNA and should be timed to coincide with the retail release of Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger.