good old times

[fuzzy70]

Some hardware is more solid than others, the current generation of consoles are nothing to write home about though as in the 360 & PS3. I have an original XBOX (modded but only the bios not the cooling) & during the time I have had that I have gone through 4x 360's with RROD problems yet my original XBOX is still going strong. It may have just been bad luck with my 360's but ebay has always been full of RROD ones for sale, & yes I do look after my gear (my 360's where in well vented places as well).

It might be just some tech gear shouldn't be crammed in such a small package, remember the Shuttle cube pc's, another prime example of too much heat generated in a small space. Advancements have been made though & cpu's etc are getting more efficient & generating less heat so I class the previous examples as "Technical Blips" 

Going back to old school tapes/cartridges is something that sends shivers down my spine thinking about all the time lost loading, having a quick bash at a game (other than cartridge ones obviously) was not really an option. Anyone ever played "Racing Car Destruction Set" on a C64 via tape, that was seriously painful, only advantage the disk version had was lack of swapping/rewinding as C64 floppys where not speed demons either. In fact any multi load game like Summer Games etc was not a quick experience.

One thing that does get my back up with new games, although not all, is the developers "Safety Net", i.e the internet. That is definitely one thing retro systems where better for as a developer/publisher would be committing nearly commercial suicide if it released games full of bugs or problems. The cost of product recalls as well as getting a bad name back then could easily make a company broke or make life difficult for them.

Lee

[Crivens]

Heheh, I remember the Spectrum 48k (rubber keys) used to have a built in speaker that you couldn't adjust the volume. So when I was supposed to be asleep and was having a sneaky game it used to belt out full volume with stupid whiney noises.

I remember having to pretty much smother it with a pillow to get it to shut up and not alert my parents. Heheh, I must have looked like a demented weirdo killing off their wife or something. Of course at the time I loved it too much for that...

Cheers

[MrTAToad]

Should have gone for a C64

[Ian Price]

fuzzy70 - the original XBox360s suffered from a serious design flaw, rather than normal  technical breakdowns. The XBox360 was fecked up from the beginning. All machines from that first design (non-Jasper) WILL break down due to that design flaw - it's just a matter or time. Breakdowns from the later XBox360s is actually incredibly rare.

Inferring that the 360 are unreliable because you had 4 RRODs (from the original range of 360s no doubt) and that there are plenty of them on eBay doesn't do the 360 (or Microsoft) the service that it deserves. Once MS was aware and accepted responsibility the original problem they invested heavily in repair and re-design to fix it. The problem was widely reported, but it was also quickly sorted. I had an RROD on my 360, MS replaced it with a new "Jasper" version and back to me within 8 days, plus they gave me a month's extra Live and a brand new facia for free and gave everyone a three year warranty on top. I've had that XBox360 for over three years now with no problems.

back in the day I had a CPC with green screen when they first game out (1984) that died after just a couple of months - sent it back, got a full refund and then upgraded to a colour screen, which I had for about 5 years before getting an Amiga. The colour screen was repaired a couple of times during that time period.

Newer kit is NOT less reliable than older kit. It's just not generally as easy to fix yourself nowadays though.

[Crivens]

Should have gone for a C64

I didn't like my games in shades of brown And so it begins. Wow is like the 90's/2000's never even happened

Cheers

[MrTAToad]

I didn't like my games in shades of brown

Oooh - cheeky!

[Kitty Hello]

The C64 wasn't all brown. It had all sorts of colours!
dark-red, ochre, orange, skin-colour, ... XD

[Crivens]

Ahhhh... it's like coming home... just 30 years too late...

*cough*C64 also had colour clash*cough*just not quite*cough*as bad*cough*hence the pink*cough*and brown*cough*Frankenstein*cough*type heads on things*cough*.

Cheers

AlthoughItWasQuiteGoodForAdventuresAndSportGamesForSomeReason (Say really quickly with me...).

[Ruidesco]

Bob Russell, creator of the VIC-II graphics chip, literally said that he chose colours he liked for the palette and you can really see he didn't try to strike any kind of balance; purple and yellow seem to be there just as an afterthought, there is no pink, fuchsia, dark green, etc while you get three different gray tones (apart from white and black), three blues and four red-based colours.

In any case his decision gave the C64 graphics a distinctive image.

[erico]

You can also try work out "inexistent colors" out of it! 
http://books.google.com.br/books/about/Da_cor_%C3%A0_cor_inexistente.html?id=0BnWDhxTHsgC&redir_esc=y

Best color book there is, a must. I can´t seem to find an english translation though.

If you are really into painful pallete, you should check the coco 1 and 2 color abilities:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRS-80_Color_Computer#Artifact_colors

Scroll down to the ARTIFACT COLORS for a real pain, C64 is heaven close to it.
still...some people could do marvels with it

[Leginus]

Did i hear some spectrum fanboy having the cheek to complain about the C64!!!  Really!!  Really!!
lol just kidding....I guess we all had our favourites, and you're allowed to.....as long as its the c64...fanboy indeed!

[MrTAToad]

Ahhhh... it's like coming home... just 30 years too late...

*cough*C64 also had colour clash*cough*just not quite*cough*as bad*cough*hence the pink*cough*and brown*cough*Frankenstein*cough*type heads on things*cough*.

Cheers

AlthoughItWasQuiteGoodForAdventuresAndSportGamesForSomeReason (Say really quickly with me...).

It was also rather good for arcade games too.  And had more colours available than a certain system with a spongy keyboard

[doimus]

Regarding the past vs. present issue...

People, we are walking around with multi-core multi-GHz multi-touch phones in our pockets.... 

Now repeat that 100 times: we are walking around with multi-core multi-GHz multi-touch phones in our pockets.... 
... that, at least in my case, have C64, NES, SNES, GB, DOS emus on it, nevertheless. Never mind the GPS, internet browser, music apps and well, phone capabilities.

Now, f*ck me, but that's way better than how I imagined future technology quarter a century ago.
OK, we still don't have hovering skateboards, but patience...

[MrTAToad]

Oh yes, you can't help appreciate the advances made in computer technology - 3d systems that the poor old C64 wouldn't be able to fit in memory, let alone run.

However, this process has become victim to operating systems suffering from a need to be usable by everyone, adding unneeded bits.  In addition, with the exception of handheld devices, no operating system is on ROM

[erico]

...And had more colours available than a certain system with a spongy keyboard