GeekNights 20110330 - Digital Comic Distribution

MrPeriod

Tonight on GeekNights, we consider the more interesting bits around the dissemination and consumption of comics in digital form (after arguing about the old men running Broadway). Scott geekbites Peepo Choo, and Rym rambles about the Riverside Trek Fest failing.

• Rym's Thing - Every Seagal Bone Break
• Scott's Thing - Mix March Madness!

Download MP3

Matt

Every Seagal Bone Break

I am just picturing a bloated, swollen Steven Seagal sitting in front of a mountain of picked-clean chicken bones.

Pegu

The nook doesn't have to be DRM'ed

InvaderREN

I love it when you guys argue. It's like your both right (from my perspective) as you both explain your arguments clearly. We REALLY need a triple threat Geeknights episode where you pick three topics that you are known to disagree on and go at it

Intelligent debate makes a great listen.

jtvh

Rym, excellent points about the parallels (and opportunities for lessons learned) between Star Trek conventions and anime cons. One of my slide sets for an Anime Boston panel includes a shout out to Bjo Trimble for related reasons.

Luke Burrage

I'm half way through this episode, and it's funny that you've disagreed on almost everything so far.

Churba

I'm half way through this episode, and it's funny that you've disagreed on almost everything so far.

Are they Even at the comics bit yet?

Also, I sent the episode over to Major Spoilers, to see what they had to say about it. Might take it over to the forums there, I don't know.

InvaderREN

I think Rym underestimates how nice tablets are now, especially the iPad2. Scott kinda got it, (his ideal reader would be an iPad2 type device). We are WAY beyond the creative zen phase.

A dedicated comic tab, with say, an A4 form factor and high rez display would not sell. Tablets are selling because they are everything to everyone. Web, social, media. The fact it can display comics nicely is just a bonus.

Assuming iPad3 bumps up the rez, I think you will see it become the reader of choice, iPad2 probably is now (Talking tablets here, not laptops and netbooks) and I’ve read a few comics on my friends iPad1 and they look freaken nice! I would totally read everything on it, that I cannot or will not get legally in physical form.

Music - MP3 player
Comics - Tablets

This is going to be huge. Once the distribution models are set up. And if not, torrents FTW.

Brand

I pretty much had my say about digital comics here. I do agree they need better pricing and industry needs to get it together and dive in. This pussy footing around just isn't working it any more. We are on a high speed course where a lot of the ways to consume older styles of entertainment are out the door and it's best to make the change before it's to late.

Victor Frost

'Let's have a vote: Who's better? Mario or Sonic?' And I only tell people on the sega forum."

Cremlian

Rym'Let's have a vote: Who's better? Mario or Sonic?' And I only tell people on the sega forum."

I'm pretty sure even Sonic fans have to admit now that Mario is better I mean the number of bad Sonic games compared to Mario games is like crazy!

Dragonmaster Lou

Rym'Let's have a vote: Who's better? Mario or Sonic?' And I only tell people on the sega forum."

I'm pretty sure even Sonic fans have to admit now that Mario is better I mean the number of bad Sonic games compared to Mario games is like crazy!

Mario has had fewer bad games, but Sonic's still a better character IMHO.

Yes, I'm an old school Sega fan...

Omnutia

An argument which no longer matters.

Jordan O.

Yes, I made the wrong decision as a child

Omnutia

Yes, I made the wrong decision as a child

Heretics gunna heresy.

Rym

Heretics gunna play SEGA games in the 80s.

Neito

You guys were talking about manga on the kindle, so I decided to check out some of the cheaper (50-99 cent) titles, to get a feel for what it was like.

Final result: It's not terrible, but the resolution is just low enough that it's a pain in the ass to read.

Dragonmaster Lou

Yes, I made the wrong decision as a child

Heh, I got my Genesis for Christmas of 89 (so just barely in the 80's). Before that the only console I owned was a ColecoVision. Given that my options at the time were NES, Genesis, or TurboGrafx, I think I made a fairly decent decision.

If it was a few years earlier, then yeah, it would be a no-brainer to get an NES. Although, I did have a soft spot for the Sega Master System (and Sega itself) because one of my favorite ColecoVision games was a Sega port called Carnival (granted, I think part of it was because I was a lot better at this than the ColecoVision pack-in game, Donkey Kong).

Dragonmaster Lou

You guys were talking about manga on the kindle, so I decided to check out some of the cheaper (50-99 cent) titles, to get a feel for what it was like.

Final result: It's not terrible, but the resolution is just low enough that it's a pain in the ass to read.

Was the problem excessive scrolling? If so, yeah, I can see that, though I find the Kindle screen itself high-enough res for text and images that happen to be just the right size for it.

Neito

Was the problem excessive scrolling? If so, yeah, I can see that, though I find the Kindle screen itself high-enough res for text and images that happen to be just the right size for it.

No, I could read everything, but for some, I really had to concentrate, and figure out some words from context. If I zoomed it, that would've fixed that problem, but annoyed me with another.

It's within five paces of being the right thing, I'll put it that way.

DevilUknow

My dad was tricked into getting a Genesis by a jerk face at Compucentre who told him that it was way more powerful than the SNES because it was TRUELY 16bit while the SNES had 2 8bit chips and thus was slower.

All my friends had an SNES though so the pain was somewhat mitigated.

On the upside I got to play Herzog Zwei, Fantasy Star 4, Shining Force 1 and 2, Gunstar Heroes, General Chaos and MK with BLUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUD.

Matt

I had a Sega Master System for my whole early childhood. I did get exposure to the NES when an uncle went into the service and loaned my family his for just over a year (1990-1991), and then my family went Genesis until I finally got an SNES two years after launch.

I have always been an Nintendo man, but I dealt with the older brother conundrum, where he got more say in how the family spent it's video game money. I vastly prefered the Nintendo systems, but I do have really fond memories of the Master System and its games. I feel like part of some select club. We did always have a Game Boy from the very beginning at least.

Dragonmaster Lou

My dad was tricked into getting a Genesis by a jerk face at Compucentre who told him that it was way more powerful than the SNES because it was TRUELY 16bit while the SNES had 2 8bit chips and thus was slower.

All my friends had an SNES though so the pain was somewhat mitigated.

On the upside I got to play Herzog Zwei, Fantasy Star 4, Shining Force 1 and 2, Gunstar Heroes, General Chaos and MK with BLUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUD.

Bullshit reasoning, but the Genesis's main CPU (16-bit Motorola 68000 running at 7.67 MHz) was arguably more powerful than the SNES's (Ricoh-customized version of the WDC 65C816, a 16-bit version of the NES's 6502, running at 3.58 MHz). On the flip side, the SNES had superior graphics and sound co-processors in addition to more RAM. The increased CPU horsepower did allow the Genesis to emulate some of the SNES's hardware effects in software, but it wasn't easy and therefore they weren't used as often. The 68000 CPU and its descendants were also commonly used in various personal computers of the day (Macintosh, Amiga, Atari ST) whereas the SNES's CPU was only used elsewhere in the Apple IIgs. The commonality of the Genesis's CPU may also have allowed for the perception of increased "power" as developers were probably more familiar with it (especially when porting games over from the Amiga or something) than with the SNES's and could better optimize for it.

I'd say the Genesis was probably more powerful in functions that are purely CPU-bound (the AI in sports games seems to have been a noted example of this) whereas the SNES was more powerful in graphics and sound processing due to its increased RAM and superior support hardware (hence why games on both systems usually looked and sounded better on the SNES).

Interestingly enough, that jerk face may have confused the SNES with the TurboGrafx 16, which basically used an overclocked version of the same 8-bit 6502 CPU that the original NES did, although it did combine it with a pair of 16-bit graphics coprocessors.

Brand

Lesson here don't listen to most sales people at big box stores, do your own research first. They come in two types (for the most part), either don't know anything, or they are some sort of smug asshat who thinks he/she knows what's best for you without knowing your needs. Sometimes you get an awesome person who is cool and does know their stuff but so rare, at least in my experience.

I had a Genesis as a kid, it was my choice. Though I think I only ever owned like three games for it. I played a lot of Sonic 2 and Sonic Spinball.

WindUpBird

You guys were talking about manga on the kindle, so I decided to check out some of the cheaper (50-99 cent) titles, to get a feel for what it was like.

Final result: It's not terrible, but the resolution is just low enough that it's a pain in the ass to read.

Maybe if you're buying that shit. I download scans and then use Mangle to convert them into archives of properly named and formatted JPEGs, and it's like reading a Tankobon. It's how I'm reading out-of-print stuff (Sanctuary) and stuff that runs too long (Berserk).