List is useless without the Neo Geo... $250 per game - oh yeah!

Every mac ever has been overpriced, especially lately. Way back when, you could actually somewhat justify the price since they built their own hardware in house. Now, they're exactly the same thing as a Windows computer with a shiny aluminum case, their own proprietary OS, and a $500 markup.

ZAZ: BlackBerry PlayBook ($499)

You buy the PlayBook if you want a bigger computer that gets along with your to pay entirely too much for a mediocre 7" tablet with no app ecosystem to speak of and no e-mail support unless you own a BlackBerry smartphone.

FTFY.

Did they forget about any kind of cable ever made?

What, no Neo-geo or 3DO? Both were interesting systems killed by insane prices on the console and games. I'd say the ps3 ranks up there, at launch anyways, but those two are still king.

As someone reading this from a Wifi Only Xoom purchased at launch price I'm getting a k... OK, I can't hide my shame... kill me. Please.

brigid_fitch: Where are Word Processors? They were huge in the mid- late-80s. "Hey, I know--let's make a computer than only does word processing, using proprietary computer disks & proprietary ribbon cartridges for the printer! And we'll charge only a couple hundred dollars less than an actual computer!"

/Yes, ribbon cartridges. Like a typewriter

What's a ribbon cart...Oh I see.
What's a typewriter?

ypur mom's stinky clam hole should be on there...

Elzar: List is useless without the Neo Geo... $250 per game - oh yeah!

The Neo Geo wasn't overpriced, really. It was expensive because it was VERY advanced technology. For 1990, anyway.

And the games were $250 each because they had ENORMOUS amounts of storage. Again, for the time.

Remember, the Neo Geo gave you 100% arcade quality.

The 3DO, on the other hand....yeah. They blew it with that thing.

Antimatter: What, no Neo-geo or 3DO? Both were interesting systems killed by insane prices on the console and games. I'd say the ps3 ranks up there, at launch anyways, but those two are still king.

At least they were honest about being game consoles

A few of those a truly mind boggling. The DIVX thing, the umi, etc.

Some of them I'm surprised by. I thought people figured tablets weren't overpriced. I felt like the only one somtimes that just shakes my head at someone charging almost a thousand dollars for a not-computer with limited functionality.

Also, I now know that Microsoft is not serious about the tablet market. Charging $119 for their cover thing when it only costs $16 to manufacture? Moronic.

Abe Vigoda's Ghost: [i48.tinypic.com image 705x344]

$300 and it did... well not much of anything.
You could stream media from your Nexus device if you had JellyBean.
Oh, and you could only stream media purchased from the Google Store.

That was freaking ludicrous. I mean, if they put Google TV on there, and had the extra features as a value-add, you could almost justify it... but as it was, it didn't do much of anything.

You guys ever get tired of ragging on Apple around here? Or is the hate towards Apple products a Pavlovian response at this point?
/yeah yeah, Welcome to Fark

DubyaHater: You guys ever get tired of ragging on Apple around here? Or is the hate towards Apple products a Pavlovian response at this point?
/yeah yeah, Welcome to Fark

I know, right? I mean, nothing but hate directed to the Apple Playbook, the Apple 3D0, the Apple DIVX, and the Apple Nexus Q. Stop hating Apple, haters.

/am I doing this right?
/not sure

Motorola Xoom ($1,079 Over Two Years)

That price fell hard. I got mine later that year for much less than $800. (WiFI only, though).

I was real excited to get my hands on one after that Super Bowl commercial, then I saw the price. What the hell, Motorola?

realmolo: Elzar: List is useless without the Neo Geo... $250 per game - oh yeah!

The Neo Geo wasn't overpriced, really. It was expensive because it was VERY advanced technology. For 1990, anyway.

And the games were $250 each because they had ENORMOUS amounts of storage. Again, for the time.

Remember, the Neo Geo gave you 100% arcade quality.

The 3DO, on the other hand....yeah. They blew it with that thing.

A poor excuse though. $250 a game for arcade boards just wasn't realistic to ask of your average consumer, who could get games that were close to being as good for $70 on a snes or genesis.

It basically killed any chance for any mainstream neo-geo adoption. But your right, at least it was for a reason.

brigid_fitch: Where are Word Processors? They were huge in the mid- late-80s. "Hey, I know--let's make a computer than only does word processing, using proprietary computer disks & proprietary ribbon cartridges for the printer! And we'll charge only a couple hundred dollars less than an actual computer!"

/Yes, ribbon cartridges. Like a typewriter

Hey now, I had one of these from Brother that got me through high school in 1989-93:

 

I think it cost about $200-300 at the time, but for my parents it was a hell of a lot cheaper than getting me a PC to use for my papers and college applications:



Maybe it was better if you lived near a Fry's, but I don't remember seeing any PCs in my neck of the woods that were even vaguely affordable back then, especially once you added on a printer that was good enough quality to replace a typewriter.

Plus, you could always get the nylon ribbon that lasted longer than the cartridges. You couldn't do any corrections, granted, but you don't need to if you type out your whole paper in advance on the 5 line LCD display. Which was a pain in retrospect, but it sure as hell beat banging it out on a manual typewriter. Sure, they weren't prefect, but in the late 80s/early 90s, a lot of families couldn't afford to spend the cost of a decent used car for a computer that would be hopelessly outdated in three years.

Abe Vigoda's Ghost: Honest Bender: [maxcdn.fooyoh.com image 540x271]

Apple TV is $99, and it's actually not a bad deal.
I've never rented a movie through the thing, but it's nice for streaming Netflix, plus some other free content.

and it can play anything on your mac with airplay.

HeartBurnKid: ZAZ: BlackBerry PlayBook ($499)

You buy the PlayBook if you want a bigger computer that gets along with your to pay entirely too much for a mediocre 7" tablet with no app ecosystem to speak of and no e-mail support unless you own a BlackBerry smartphone.

FTFY.

wut? email is built in, no tethering required. app selection sucks, os takes way to long to spool up, but it has silverlight support. for $150 you get email etc, a good browser and the ability to view nfl season pass when on the road.

Overpriced Mac?


$7500 iMac.

realmolo: Elzar: List is useless without the Neo Geo... $250 per game - oh yeah!

The Neo Geo wasn't overpriced, really. It was expensive because it was VERY advanced technology. For 1990, anyway.

And the games were $250 each because they had ENORMOUS amounts of storage. Again, for the time.

Remember, the Neo Geo gave you 100% arcade quality.

The 3DO, on the other hand....yeah. They blew it with that thing.

Well, the 3DO was also very advanced technology for the time. Plus they couldn't do the whole "sell the console close to cost, make profit on games and licensing" bit because the whole idea was that it was an open standard.

Bareefer Obonghit: As someone reading this from a Wifi Only Xoom purchased at launch price I'm getting a k... OK, I can't hide my shame... kill me. Please.

but you have jelly bean. there's that. plus one of the only "newer" tablets to support true a/b/g/n

Entry one had so many factual errors I just closed the tab. I don't suppose they mentioned the iPhone. $650 for a micro iPad with a $5 phone attached seems nuts to me.

Mad_Radhu: Hey now, I had one of these from Brother that got me through high school in 1989-93:

I actually learned how to type on that model sometime around 1990, iirc. I dont remember it being able to keep multiple lines in mememory... I could have swarn it would only hold one line, so you would type up to the end of a line, you made sure there were no glaring errors and then proceeded to the dump at the end of the line and the typewriter would just bang away.

Abe Vigoda's Ghost: Honest Bender: [maxcdn.fooyoh.com image 540x271]

Apple TV is $99, and it's actually not a bad deal.
I've never rented a movie through the thing, but it's nice for streaming Netflix, plus some other free content.

It's pretty good if you are invested in the entire Mac ecosystem, and have devices where you can take advantage of Airplay and Airplay mirroring. For anyone else looking for a set top box for streaming media, you are probably better off with either a cheaper Roku or going full out and buying an Xbox 360 or PS3, which can not only handle media streaming but can also handle gaming and even Blu-Rays in the case of then PS3. For me personally, I prefer to spend a little more for something like the PS3, which can handle just about all of my media in one box with gaming as a bonus cherry on top.

DubyaHater: You guys ever get tired of ragging on Apple around here? Or is the hate towards Apple products a Pavlovian response at this point?
/yeah yeah, Welcome to Fark

What can we say, everyone loves hates a winner company that hasn't marketed an original product in their entire existence, yet still manage to get lauded as innovators.

Apple is the Andrew Lloyd Webber of the computer and consumer electronics industries.

Discs for Zip Drive should be on the list.

What is the today's money conversion on what a NeoGeo cost? What was the console, like $799? Sony doesn't even have the nerve to put that kind of price on a console in today's figures.

It's not about hating Apple. It's about having to listen to Apple fanboys drone on and on about everything else....

PCJr?



I have a great "The one that got away" story about the OQO. I found a tech website that had mispriced the OQO for $189.90, a simple matter of a typo in a spreadsheet somewhere. But I guess they had a flood of orders that weekend and a human intercepted all the orders and erased them from the system.

Antimatter: What, no Neo-geo or 3DO? Both were interesting systems killed by insane prices on the console and games. I'd say the ps3 ranks up there, at launch anyways, but those two are still king.

The 3DO was an abortion.

The Neo-Geo Arcade Entertainment System (Multi-Video System is the arcade cabinet) was genuinely successful. The hardware was a direct clone, even down to the serial numbers. It wasn't a "console" by even the stretchiest of words. It was an arcade machine that you could jack into RCA outlets.

It also invented the Memory Card. Every MVS up to 1994 has two slots where you can slide your AES save games into the system itself, plug in a quarter and play where you left off. Nascent save-state speedrunning. Say that three times fast...

The main selling factor to it was that it didn't run cartridges, per se, it ran FULL ARCADE BOARDS. Justification for the $109.99 (Ninja Combat, Magician Lord, Baseball Stars: Professional, 'Nam 1975) to a WHOPPING $799.95 (Fatal Fury 1, Thunder Force, Last Resort) price tags on the games was because it used onboard RAM to power them, not system-side. Considering it launched in 1989 (only as a mail-order system from SNK-USA) and eventually went wide in 1991, it may seem that it was meant and built for an exclusive group.

It was.

The main point SNK used in selling the AES was to get arcade operators to show off future games to interested customers AHEAD of when they'd be available, thereby driving up revenue. Even though the games were the exact same, it was SNK's choice to sell a set number of "shells" before production of the arcade boards to see what opinion would be of them... it really didn't matter, though, 95% of all Japanese games were ported to America.

Another thing that the AES had going for it was that the RAREST games (something like the "Top 25") available in North America are all AES/MVS titles. Last Blade 2 will set you back anywhere from $1,500 bare board to $10,000 for a Mint-In-Box. Collectors will sell their first-born children for a copy.

Although it isn't said much, there are a good number of titles designed exclusively for the system, and not meant as arcade titles; Samurai Shodown RPG can be had for a relatively cheap $300 in box, Garou: Mark of The Wolves (Fatal Fury 4) was ported from the console to the arcade - the only game in SNK's catalog that holds that distinction. Rumors abound of there being a Magician Lord 2 game finished and floating among the ether that was designed as AES-exclusive in 1998.

All told, it ran from 1989 to 2005, and the final game released for it is SNK Vs. Capcom: SVC CHAOS which sold over 5,000 units for a home system that hadn't been made in almost a decade.

It did, however, cost a steep $599.99. Still a bargain next to the memory-maxed-out Metal Slug 4 - it retailed for a jaw-dropping $1,999.99 in 2000.

These things taken into consideration, however, the AES holds a very vaunted position:

The Longest-Living Console In History - 16 Years.

Mad_Radhu: Abe Vigoda's Ghost: Honest Bender: [maxcdn.fooyoh.com image 540x271]

Apple TV is $99, and it's actually not a bad deal.
I've never rented a movie through the thing, but it's nice for streaming Netflix, plus some other free content.

It's pretty good if you are invested in the entire Mac ecosystem, and have devices where you can take advantage of Airplay and Airplay mirroring. For anyone else looking for a set top box for streaming media, you are probably better off with either a cheaper Roku or going full out and buying an Xbox 360 or PS3, which can not only handle media streaming but can also handle gaming and even Blu-Rays in the case of then PS3. For me personally, I prefer to spend a little more for something like the PS3, which can handle just about all of my media in one box with gaming as a bonus cherry on top.

The Roku can play games. There is the horible looking bejeweled clone and the almost unplayable soduku game and angry birds if you are willing to shell out something line $50 for a motion remote.

Saiga410: Mad_Radhu: Hey now, I had one of these from Brother that got me through high school in 1989-93:

I actually learned how to type on that model sometime around 1990, iirc. I dont remember it being able to keep multiple lines in mememory... I could have swarn it would only hold one line, so you would type up to the end of a line, you made sure there were no glaring errors and then proceeded to the dump at the end of the line and the typewriter would just bang away.

There were basic models that only did a few lines at a time, but mine was the deluxe model that had a floppy drive for storing entire documents. I'd write up my papers, then hit the print button and let it autotype out the papers, feeding it new pages of paper when necessary.

Treygreen13: wildcardjack: PCJr?

[toastytech.com image 765x533]

I have a great "The one that got away" story about the OQO. I found a tech website that had mispriced the OQO for $189.90, a simple matter of a typo in a spreadsheet somewhere. But I guess they had a flood of orders that weekend and a human intercepted all the orders and erased them from the system.

Bananamanager?

It did come with 256k of Bananarama

Saiga410: Mad_Radhu: Abe Vigoda's Ghost: Honest Bender: [maxcdn.fooyoh.com image 540x271]

Apple TV is $99, and it's actually not a bad deal.
I've never rented a movie through the thing, but it's nice for streaming Netflix, plus some other free content.

It's pretty good if you are invested in the entire Mac ecosystem, and have devices where you can take advantage of Airplay and Airplay mirroring. For anyone else looking for a set top box for streaming media, you are probably better off with either a cheaper Roku or going full out and buying an Xbox 360 or PS3, which can not only handle media streaming but can also handle gaming and even Blu-Rays in the case of then PS3. For me personally, I prefer to spend a little more for something like the PS3, which can handle just about all of my media in one box with gaming as a bonus cherry on top.

The Roku can play games. There is the horible looking bejeweled clone and the almost unplayable soduku game and angry birds if you are willing to shell out something line $50 for a motion remote.

You can get a Roku 2 XS with the motion remote today for $50.

Half the price of AppleTV and you're not locked into their BS.

Mad_Radhu: Abe Vigoda's Ghost: Honest Bender: [maxcdn.fooyoh.com image 540x271]

Apple TV is $99, and it's actually not a bad deal.
I've never rented a movie through the thing, but it's nice for streaming Netflix, plus some other free content.

It's pretty good if you are invested in the entire Mac ecosystem, and have devices where you can take advantage of Airplay and Airplay mirroring. For anyone else looking for a set top box for streaming media, you are probably better off with either a cheaper Roku or going full out and buying an Xbox 360 or PS3, which can not only handle media streaming but can also handle gaming and even Blu-Rays in the case of then PS3. For me personally, I prefer to spend a little more for something like the PS3, which can handle just about all of my media in one box with gaming as a bonus cherry on top.

I think anyone with a bit of technical know how is better off with a Pi box than a XBOX/PS3. Can play any 1080p file you throw at it for under $70 and you can add a few TB of HD space and keep it under $150.