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For USSI a ‘month, subscribers to his service wil ave the latest sue ofthe company’s many comic products delivered right '0 thelr computers And we ae not aling hore spandex-cla, small-brained, ruscle-bound comic book heroes of ol. Ted of waiting for the bar staff to notice that your beer las Is almost fmpty and refi is in order? The Mitsubishi Electric Research sboratoris in Cambridge, Mass. have developed ew beer iss that uses a microchip to signal the Barkeep that t neds refling The technology is similar to the an then tags Used In shops to prevent peo ple from walking ou withthe merchan- ise Each Der gs s coated 0 that It fan conduct electricity. The beer acts lke a small power pac. When the glass is ful pathing 2 ful elettcal punch Just the aleoel taking). As you drink ‘more bee, the clceal change dope td at a can level the micochip will Nope, they’te to ol-Fshloned for this new internet comic book word stead, Signal the bakeep that the beer glass needs refiling, The only question now Ale i giving his reader comic that aie ‘Sim down your monthly payments tod Speier ee ce Senhincoseusamee ss Seat eae Sctaeteese ees maekedyceecnccate Svan |has ordered another round! fame satis. The site also provides a Include selence-fction, fn tary, mystery and even the Samural epic. Toay Panacclo, the company’s evelopment sd “Comics fon the Web already has Some 1,500 pages of content fom about 90 sues. He sald ‘he technology behind i i Flash to reach a many people as possible tvs test Tok ike you just cant beep the'King. down. An almost famous is Presicy impersonator has wom the right heey his Intenet domain name aftr being sud by a major New York sport ‘wear company. Steven Hen, Former “Gong. Show” constant, ot only doos the King’s mante tnd nam, bt he sometimes oes ty the moniker Johnny Blaze. He ven tas 4 domain name called SotnyBaze som And thats bow ie ran oto a bit of trouble. seems AST Sporswear has a line of tadcmared clothing called ~ you guesed doh Blase. AST ‘omplained that goad of Johnny as Jost siting on the domain name of JohnryBlazecem and not doing. anj- thing ith i AST took Jobmay to the Word Inlet! Property Organization (WIPO) to have im labeled a cyber ‘squatter and evicted from the adres. But Johnny got ludy and the WIPO ‘ued that he coud keep the name — even ‘hough Ifyou goto the steal you wil ft Unk to anoter ste sporting 8 haar pitch for what seems to be’ stomobile ant the device forum, deals of leagues and junior lenges, teams, classes and action pl Seneca students to work wth Oscar ‘nominated animator Five sodents enrolled in Torono's fame Seneca 3D Digital Animation Program ae slated to wetk with Osca™ {short fm about the fe of Ryan Lakin, Larkin wae » feed animator ‘ho, in 1969, was nominated for an Dace. By 2000, he Wat Iiing om the streets of Montreal. Landrah-and the Sens wil create a 10-15 minute im that wil chronile Larkin’ ite and wil tse both ive action and animation to fel the stone The fl expected to take about 2 yearapd-ihall to complete. Landreth tras nominated for an Oscar n 1996 for Tis shor fm The End and won a Genie ‘Avard fot his short computer animated Fim Bingo, widely regerdedsas one.of the panes of 3 animation Hockey, Singapore sje Cant get enough hockey? 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Somry to bust ‘your “simple solution” bubble "Rogers ‘makes anther boo boo’ (Api 2002) ‘ut having Rogers change their IPs more fequenly at going to fx the problems. What do you need you ran nFTP serve? Simple ~ a state 17 Nope. Anyone cam in an FTR/Webje- niall seer from bis her PC “There ate five dynamic DNS services ‘owt there that allow ses of DHCP IP “tdreeses torn these services, Just instal thelr sofware and voila! ‘They pol your domainname to. ‘your cureat IP adres automaticaly Secon moni in ct ak RGB moni ‘oc rom my ancient and mothaled Amiga 100 computer remains Bak have yet bring mp ‘treogh the agosto, or jae reading the mania ofr ot why te fc gral rom thee al does ot fo the monitor, | aside the vide eae | a ite “happy with the compote, ough | thre ate vey fe pr Poni ls Binding ust bar a, atte tip te MI he soundcar. Lavet instal sn © Ere car Live the pn ies have Jos Freie ard But the aol | might us une the Pina cal tht suc we Fer for DY ut ot ar Aves Deca, devine sill eed o get a CD-RN for ‘compute, bough might fst use ie exe ne | “have oked po my Mac. Move desions. “Anew computer is much ikea fre unt pice af sound There ae many options ~ each ond each Hat, Sy wl give scsi results when he ine come Ta Some Ways making the decor of what tod sore intgung and takes up quite ait of tine "After some more contemplation in he ware. sun {gop an made & fal devon plat onions back by ‘he camper | Nestor Gul ah be reaches by eomalngrestor@spca @ Timeline tobe established ‘My mame is Dana Harts and work {or Fishman till on betalf of Prepay. You featured an atcle (March 2002} that announced that Pressly’ would be launching i serv ice Canada in Ape We ust wanted fo cll 0 your aren ont the fae hat his Infomation While Presplay i commited ‘expanding in markets otsdeof the US. heginsing with Canada and con- tinuing in European reson afte that, the company his not yet determines 4 Specie timeline, I does expect to amnounce one sometime this yea. “ss00 tle Dana Haris Letter of the Month. For ete is mon iat Ding Moss oy af oe has Be Sees Jaret mone tenet star eee ean el Sips neil ne sak sey disticcumee Belair ere he tag hoten fone sot et hy Seed | computes. compres: Osea eran a2Connectivity l Security Solutions I [Business Solutions Perfect for business servers. Priced to please. ‘Your server wil fea ight at home with Colocation Servic. ‘AT8.T Canada's Intemet Data Centre faites boast: Finding good, lable home for your state-of the-art server can +2417 technical support + Secure faites ‘be dificit. 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Trust Colocation Service from | _wwwattcanadaca/business t [AT&T Canada for a reliable, cost-effective solution. 1 888 339-7852 amrcamde | BOUNDLESS Voice Data Internet E-Business | “Fr Ca na ar nes a eS egg alFeatures 10 Avalk through Unisoft stedos 14 Behind the scenes at EA Te (e)makng of NHL 16 Misconceptions about violence in games 16 Gaming: The horor Fiying Montes ultimate fight simulator n Reviews 34 Geaphic cards for gore hounds 41 Setting up a vial cockpit 42 Cuaselhin 4 Bipreview 2002 45 Gaming with bal Trea tiv 61-6: €h, Musical Odyssey: Sounding off with MIDI Digital Shos: Getting anc making prints Tested Fuji Fine 2800 Zoom Adventures in digital vdeo: Home movies dont have to lit horror 33. Soundeards: 16-tand beyond SzRR SRAGKRSBRHm Regulars lates News res Xide Get maging gas, sor seuting Kid Raeating inte th Nancy ew Unfit’ ie by Ke Unit Game On by Mar Sataman Telconments by igen Greiner Te Worl is my Cubicle by Aan Thats Mactan by Dad sen Profle: Ptemaly Mag — Cars Haseld < berplay ypatrels Hero action for would-be heroes Breaking the lw n Holga: Sim Ove Europe Gothicintroducet a srange ew weld A gaming dvesion Sock Thon pus aclfernt twist on FPS games kes pop games ita 3.0 Jel Outcast continues Stor Wars aga Street ve up to X-Wing Alice Reoesean tO £0 Aetso: computes! Have we got a contest for you! Win cool stuff in our Cool Tunes contest on page 26, oF in our Digital Design Contest on page 63.aN ei if L Your Mobile Computing Specialist ‘ANGEL 2600 GIGANOTE ANGEL 3900 LCD PC FRESE XEN. ORNS Sa | eee fem 35 “308 ems SPE PONE gy iti Se ee ee 7 . 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But if yu rea Ty think about itt eally sucha dream job? Just look at the complexity and deta of today's ames, Real-time seategy games are extemely detaled ith thousands of options and scarce avadale to a Solo player Shooter games are incedbly detailed Simulation games are brillant sophisticated aed do eveything to snrdte Eight or driving exept tener fing the relevant forces tothe player. Then there's the aegrevation of & shoty, knowitall reviewer com plsining thatthe artical inteligence i not upto stall 3 some other aspect of the game does aot come cose to perfection in his or her mind ‘Al the deal Inchuded in today’s games docs not come easly of automatically to the game developers Fit of, the size of @ game is huge: Games are much larger than almost any sophisticated productivity soft ware All his has to be programmed Then allthis pro ramming. has to be fered 0 the aforementioned Teviewer doesnot fall into a catatonic snl Paying Ubisoft a vist ‘na recent wal through the Ubisoft headquarters in Montreal, coud see the nimber of people it takes to create games. Locited n'a funky par of Montes there are alot of coo things about the UbiSoR head quarter and design studios. The office Is In an ol Wwarchouse and has 12-fot clings and gorcous hard= wood Mors thoughout. In terms of locaton, there are few better spots in Monel. Not ony Is the place = the source ofthe best bagels in Montreal and perhaps ‘the wold For linch, the bet souvlakls can e had at Such a cool locale stract alot of talent and the Ubisoft offices ave 450 people working fulltime Most of thee people are developing games, ether doing the hard programming or working onthe design, animation, 3-D mdeling, sound and esting. Most of the people who work here ae guys ~ Tim tld it’ about 85 per cent men. The average age of the employees is Some ofthese pups have never shaved by the looks fof But eventhough Iwas there early on a Monday ‘oring, all ofthe workstations were oceapied by peo ple staring diligently into 2-inch sreens. 1 ld not se tnyone sting the Net. There was serious work abot Not all fun and games ‘Creating games ie serious busines. Iti widely held ‘hat the computer gaming industry — tis includes all the console games. ss well is anger than the Hollywood film industry, Wl Ive never seen the fie tres that prove this pin, UiSof's revenue tumover {US§235.6 milion. The Sales for 2008 to teach USS illon, Not bad fora company that stat cd in 1986 ‘The main source of new from licensing agree mens signed between the game developers and ‘other creative types. In UbiSoR’s case, cence agreements were reached vith Sony for Spielberg fora game based on ET, Disney fo “Another source for new games is found in revamping and updating of ites, Even though Ubisoft might buy the licence or recreate an older game, the game self wil go through & ‘onceptalzation phase, which invaves senior people fom te animation, 3-D modeling arts te and programming studios. A large pian of part of the process. To save time, cera dec= decision is mae a the inital planning stages, where i s determined what platforms the game wil spear on He ads that it makes difeence inthe programming ofthe game asa whole. “All games are designed on & Che sal. “Creating versions forthe Sony PS2 is the ros dificult, while making versions forthe Xbox and eating games forthe Macitoth, 0 could not say If there was a ig ference between creating game for the new OS X or forthe older operating ystems “This stage aso invelves sound, animation, 2-D mod cling and many other bits that make today’s games 50 ich and complex. While the animation and 3-D folks work side-by-side with the programmers, the sound ples oad oestiae ule fessional studios Bh with envy. It even has aspect studlo that is jst used for creating sound effects. The Canadian Ubisoft studio also has a sopistiated video lepartment, which makes videos Incorporated Ia the Al purposes Iti interesting to note that ll hese people get their batteries recharged afer the completion of a project (games take between 18 to 24 months to complete on average) They ae given refesher courses and time to fxplore new dimensions of their cra before being tiven a new project, vem play is work “Aer the games go though the production phase they ae given to the people in testing, Ordinary there are about 100 people who work here. During the sum ter, 50 more people are brought onboard to put the ffames through the ringer. Console games aréreatvey fay to fest since there are not too many complice tions PC games present the most problems, The game has to be tested On different motherboards, sing all ‘ppes of vidcocars, soundcards, contr (eerng whee, gamepads, joysticks fom all manuftcturen) and also with ofr card, such as Ethemet cats, stalled 10 fest for conics Yes, you ere paying games, but Its tedious work, afterall ~ you have to trite reports on what you dit and record dhe results There fs no sc time fr testing. Children's games take ‘very ite time to test because they are not compli Ubisoft's Reyman Avena spent one whole yar in {he testing department ‘After being shown the work It takes to crate a game at Ubisoft, am convinced that if nota dream ob for me rather review the fined productSympatico) Peer oa RY RLS Le en FOR THE FIRST 3 MONTHS, PLUS FREE SELF-INSTALLATION KIT Pen re en eee ere ee ca Beer ern Ret eee cr ea reece eae Peer sont en ee eae ie em eC en mee noe Ie Pa ae eee ecm cene ee s hours! And, you can surf and talk atthe same time, #0 you don’t need a second phone line. RPC Cat ae ec Ld RI Aaoe nee ea ee ceJr) 7 ol ueven THEE pannnes FUR aaa nt N ui - O VALUE Oem eae, UPORADE' INTEL® 1600 xp We a. ratte NTUM® 4 PRocEssop 60 Ghz Coates ni 0 ey 1.60 GH: a: @ : 5 5 i Fl o Site ours: ries MONDAY-FRIDAY: 18200m-7:209m, SATURDAY 1200m 6p an Se ie aap ml ear aot Wain nce oe od pon te Serta ey ode iil ii iVISION 1600 MTEL PENTIUM® 4 PROCESSOR 1.40 ght _ dataset etme or oe et er SAMON Set ioy UT HEE is care, seul pecan frat, lie “Tawar “e” VISION 2000 1 en INTEL® PENTIUM® 4 PROCESSOR 2.0 GHz - Bela a oh so TA elt wat ee taal ; oe ihe one” gee WEEK: s1997 Basie UML Hae aloe naa ‘ey ease {hems Cet penetra Fie masini ETT WE one VISION 2000 ¢ INTEL® PENTIUMS 4 PROCESSOR 2.0 GH * aac saute alten raogs to ie 3 eg Lita Sis ee a ere MEEK gaygg" icone 18 WEEK; cata ne ANY 0 Sd 2 =, « eee “Nest an ep Wert ween - FT WINDOWS? kl MDG PCs USE GENUINE Aree : _wewewmicrosoft,com/piracy/howiotel — Bern | =a on A oes my i sda ‘ ! i 886s 631249 | 1) 758.2807 | SI Si : | (1) 895-0650] 95-810] 5 3 =I 8 ra on 649.804 |) 2559943 | 0s 452899 | 05) 985 5 9.779 |) 42140 (9s) 7124151 | 6 29) | Lani By SHARLENE MYERS ‘letronlc Arts Canada Is located in one of the hotest high. tech hubs in BC's Lower, Mainland ~ with neighbours like Creo products IBM and the British Columbia Institute of Technology. The thre-year-oldstructare Is dominated by lange windows and walls faced with rock ad sits ontop of @ til surrounded hy tres with a wide view of Burnaby, It is EAS largest stulo, employing 750 people in offices and cubl- ‘les featuring the natural colours so popular on the West Coast rst. green, gold and blue. The on-site cafeteria was recently cited by BCBusness magazine as one ofthe best in Greater Vancouver, providing a wide variety of tes, healthy Food for breakfast lunch and dinner. ‘The whereabouts ofthe NHL production team i early marke by the jerseys hanging from the celling ove the tall ‘eubicle wall twas ive o clock in the afternoon by the time arrived, but the office was stl buzzing with activity includ Ing a wal of “Nol” from one ofthe cubicles ~ perhaps pro- ‘ammerssufer fom computer crashes, t00? Dave Warfield isa producer for EX’s popular NHL game, hich is updated each year in time forthe new hockey sei- son in the fall Is a process that takes all year and employs 42 people full-time, inching programme, 2-D and 3D adsts and animators, audio ereators and editors as wel 25 the produces, who are responsible for quality contol and design. And that doesnt even include the quality assurance testers the mat eng and public relations people and the sles at Stating over ‘Often, Warfield explained the planning for the next yer eiton begins before the current years offering has even hit store shelves. The eam may have af ture they wanted to add to the curent cdion, but didn't have time to bud it fn. From hers, he added, the process “Stars with reviewing What we Bult the previous year taking 8 really good Took at how the game plays, what ae the features we have in the game already, what ws the response of from fur fans. We've gota lo of fan sites and they are not aad 10 post messages bout I, We get alot of eters and © ral aking aout ings they ike, they Aon like, what they’ tke ose: This feedback isthe beginning of @ Wish Us forthe next years game, which Is expanded hy ideas fom the preduc~ tion team about what they wodid like to ad to the program, From ther, they Start to prortize the elements and nar- row the list down to hey features to do this year They also have to consider how the NL set changes fom year to fading or moving teams and players. “Ideally, so long as we have enough time, we aways try 10 sgetin either the latest tam ~ which means changing shed bles and alot of other things ike that ~ bu even just un form changes or players being traded to teams. We sways try to keep on top of that and try to wat until the last posible minute so that we ean get the most upsto-date pees into the same,” sid Warfield. ‘Once they have ths Ist, the programmers, artists, audio people and producers sit down together and ty to fesh ot ‘what each ofthese features involves, using mock-ups of ‘screen shots and video to provide rough prototypes of what ‘they te hoping-to do. They’ then break these features down. Im Individual elements to hep estimate bow much time each wll ake and how the work can be divided among team ‘members. Only then can they make the final decision about What's going in and what will have to walt for another yer. From ceneapt to contraller The work is then broken dovn nto what Warf calls “threads A thread i single problem-solving element. The ‘ea is that when a thread is complete, there is something ‘hat canbe reviewed and tested on Is own. Last year, for e, Warf said they added feature called a break- ‘way camera to the game. The first thread in that feature involved being abe to slow down tine and contal the player ‘within that slowed down time period. The second thred was to bring the camera in closer tothe player andthe thin thread was toad the audio, ‘nce the threads are completed, they reach the stage Warfield refered fas “Apa,” where all the separate peces fare integrated into the game. Ths is his favourite tage ofthe proces. At Alpha, the game goes into fll review end Fine ‘uning, “looking for bugs, looking fr things that could make ‘he game play litle beter, more responsive, making sure {hat the features are plished and completed tothe best deta ‘ne can give itand geting rid ofall the Bags we can Warfield said. “We're sting here playing hour upon hour, we hhavea whole QA department thats paying hour upon hour to find all the problems withthe game, get those ised and ‘nce those ae done, we've done. And then we stat planning for the nest year With so many variables in play, there area Jot of things that can go wrong and cause delays. Sometimes a new ee- ‘ment wil conflic with oder elements inthe game and cause problems, Sometimes things wil just abe longer than Planned." lot of times the tuning and tweaking ofthe qusl- ity level takes alot more time than even the mplessentston othe featur” saié Warf, ‘And then there ae the stakeholders to please. The NHL revlews almost every piece of the game, coring to Warfield, and he NH Players’ Associaton does the same, “The NHL wants to make sore tat thelr uniforms and their game that ther name is atached to and onthe front of he box is epresentative ofa product tht they te happy to have go out to everybody, from Kids to adults” Warfield sa. “The INL Player” Association I ls loking at that, but theyre [aso] looking at thee players, and making sure the players are reflected In good Tight” Tn the end, ial comes dovn toa deadline. For the ast two to three months, while the game iin Alpha, Warfield admits Ihe sees ite of his family and sacfices his personal if working ftom 10 am. to midnight six or even seven days a ‘neck, "AS might be expected, Wafleld admits that he spends less tine playing games ouside of work than he used to. But the Inner game, Rist dawn to Pong and arcade games asa thi teen-yearol, lives om. Playing games, al sorts of gates, is Part of his job, he sal. He plays at work. His curent Favourlesinlude Grand Theft Auto, eda of Honour snd ‘Agent Under Fire. And the whole team sometines takes breaks to play games over the network and blow off seam. Is always checking out what everybody els doing and being ontop of the industry, I think is a rally important part of my Joh. And any ofthe producers or asistant produc- fs have tobe game knowledgeable ~ what are the hot things ut there, what ae the game players looking for and what are the features In those games that sppeato them, tse if Some of that makes sease fo g0 into ur games.” @| aes add- a Pray Tar ees) Ree eo bga on $999 Peau See Coe ene ee eee ee CT) tecere tee Conve acacia ct een crc Cans SmartWeb solution from Bell makes it easy fo you to create your own Renee a ae ae Ca CeCe? You can do it, There’: nothing to download and nothing to install, Just access the application on the web, choose the template you like, click using the tools provided and your web site i up and running. And you can revise BCR CeCe Gece ec eter ree ence riccn! Pee Pe ert eee rae Cae er Cec Srenear Cnr vert irate Car ieee ee Perera Cer mean earn a site by registering it on yellowpages.ca and bellzinc.ca so customers Cerne?VSG NCE Viol Saas) im by ERIK SEBELLN There x wolence in games. This Ie “ateoent no one ean question Not ll ‘the games, not all the time am not oF ‘equal buat; bit yes, many games have at least some elements of vile, “And is this violence that has many parent up-in-arms if youl forgive the pn, But are gemes thet valent A i they ave, what con parents da to protect dei children fom inagpro~ Date violence? ‘Are games violent? ‘Gans run the gamut from simple mainstream edutsnment desig "each everything fom sping haw plans gro o andeground hate games But even the simplest of games offen have sme violence. For example, ML 2002, raed for everyone sx yar ld ‘ad up, yeu se violence i he hs Doeteen layers. Ad In Star Wars Racer ‘Revenge, cise are ete 10 Violence sch vehicle (o yeh combat The player his pistol apd slams ent the guar’ ac ard, wit aw and one-dite eh des The player, 2 he th gle, moves on Tn another game, the groovy female secret agent Cate Jestches a man inher si act. Because the sees a spray of ples to the ground, Shooting character evaracter, the payer says is allen Archer sand palls the tg cha lod option is tured on, theo The sec White. nthe fist, the from my p olence is intimate but bleeds. In the se ‘Gaines for teasers have tore vor lence, Om one han, we have games such a the very popula The Sins, Here, he valence consists of characters slapping eat oer when provoked or fussing 4 eatoon-sple cloud of st: On the other hand, we fi ‘ames, such a8 Cammond & Conquer Renegade. This game includes violent acts aning from destoying veces to shooting and Kling characters. Both ames are devoid of bod. ‘Games designed For ads include Counter-Sirke and Solder of Fortune ‘hese games not only incl violent acts such as stabbing and shooting and ling characters, but hey els incl od fathough many of these types of games allow the paver to spec the Aogree of blood and gre “Ths Far, thls sa rata os gates However here sone niche gene thats ferming than pure Wy violet games Hate games. al the tid the violence com an animal, 1am horse Someone would choose to afer _ where the Fun consists Ing o Kling. point of my hands on. Adm Regardless of how bloody th ter and whether tis directed ‘am hofied that ngage In east in part of ure of al 1am horse by the delight the player displays in the vokent acts ssi The “ Made by hie sypremiss, te slimes are wlatvely new and Incredibly distressing miporiy. Very ‘yt ind oning, thse games, ‘which range fom fst person shoot= fs 0 PacMan clones, ten to Se priced fof a teenage budget ~ fom fe Svmloads to only $20 or 0, Thee ames are honfving because they mamry ‘Violence with hate. For example it one ‘ame, players hunt North American ‘minorities, icing blacks and Jews oppose to mainsiream games, jhith a designed for fun, thse hate ames are developed spctcaly to spread bigoy, orf the act of Kling won-white = ple and indoctrinate teragers at "wot ot hate, Protection So how can {her chien fom inapprop ae games? Beyond te abvi- cos steps = tale Ing with your chide and being sare of what they are Aoing ~ parents fan refer the nt Software Rating Board (SRB) rating stem The ESRB 3 volun- (ary organizatin that sls ratings 10 ames. The eats can be found on the gover oF game boxes dook fora small Box with Black leets on a white Baek geound) and on the ESRB Web sie (umesrbor “There te six ESRB satis. The Barty Chidboed (EC) ating 1S given to tls whose content conialts no ‘questionable ms tera, These ides ae abe for cilaren age thrse and older Ties ted Eveijane () may comin winimal vi lence. sate comic mischit (uch a0 slapstick comedy) or some crue fan- tage These tiles have broad appeat fnd ave suitable for hase ayes six and * ales. ‘The two flings of most interest 0 Dares of teenagers are Teen (7) and Mature (Ml The Teen rating i forties that may contain vilent content, mit ‘orstong language andjor suggestive themes These tes are rated suitable for persons ages 13 and ole The Mature rating, which indicates the same inclodes more Intense vislence or language and more mature sexial ‘hemes than Teen les, are decried sulle for those ages 17 and older, Tiles withthe reraiing to Tangs. Adlts Only (AD) an Rating Pending ate not pleat foun in mine So what’ the bottom tine? ‘Wie live ina society that has 60 ‘major misconexptions about games The ‘rst misconception fs chat must games are Violent. The second misconeeption SS tbat Eds play most games. The reality i mont mes purchased are nor-viclent and purchased by. ‘adults 1p 2000, Douglas Lowenstein, Presiden of the Interactive Digital Software ASsoeiatin (IDSA) told the US. House Subcommittee on ‘Telecommunications and the laveret that 117 of 1.600 ties produced tat year were rated Bor mature, with NE ames gesting Jus nine percent of Teta sales. And in 2001, according to {the IDSA, 90 per cent of games were purchased by people over the age of 18 Tals amounts fo more than 225 mali ames. Also 2001, 18 of the top 20 Fess games of 2001 were rte E for eveyone of T for Tren "This mans that with ie due di ence, patents eam relax sit dames ‘Not only are most of thes not the ri ‘aly Violent games mony parens fea, but ofthe games that are, most oF them are not played by childrenPOWERFUL WEBHOSTING & EMAIL The Developer’s Dream! Websites as lo $7.49 Virtual Managed Server YM Server works lke a dedicated server, We challenge you to find a more ‘with superior rellabitty and scalability. robust or easier to use solution Its eas0.0f uS®, robust tools and Lunfied control panel takes the worry out of hosting your clients. + FrontPage 2002 "| H+ Robust Customer Self + Email Virus Scanning fi Management Tool : + 99.9% Network Upti es pore oan iptime * Cold Fusion » CGLBIN © Free 24 hours live siipport * Shopping Carts + Java Applets sales@bluegenesiHow's your web host? Getting the most features for your dollar? Getting help from people who actually know their stuff? 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Violent video games. soldier dolls to events. suck as.” ther bullets ip bloody holes in other 1 do not know; lam not an expert. So aly we Santa wort of peace. A WresteMania music with violent or characters {have seen graphic so gory I fumed to an expert for am answer. 1 rotd nha people tun to constructive hateful irc, slapstick Saturday mom-. they eval my worst nights, And tamed toa dicchard gamer. This game Wekies as opposed to destructive ing cartoons, brtal movies and televi- while [recognize that, or many players, who spent countess hours every di [iStucs to vent their frustations. A sion shows and even the evening news, the trl Is in the chase rather than in, playing a sniper in Ties, did not believe Cid where people sole their differ violent video. games and not ali the violence, a generation of gamers is that wilnt video games translated into cea np as opposed to hurting games ac violent — are certainly not receiving training in tactical manocu- rea lif violence. Howeves, edi el me CE othe in Sth words, we want's guronly avemues of violence. But thee vres while leaming everything. they he was starting tose Il ed triangles ‘Word shaped by love not violence: video games have two stributes not possibly can about an incredible variety ~ symbols connoting targets — over peo- "Video gemes do not lead us to this found in conjunction with any other of weapons, sort of actully fring one. p's Heads, Only now, the heads. under ‘world, This Is not necessarily bad; form of violent entrainment Intima- Clearly, violent video games lead to a the triangles belonged to real people «5 Entertainment, afterall snot required cy-and graphic coment familiarity with violence. But the real opposed to characters. He found this fo have a constctive purpose. 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SECM E L) chee Te nS ee RT)[14 Years in Business LucursNORTHOF STEELES 'BLOGRWESTOF WARDEN GREY « TEC COMPUTER _ INE a HARDWARE © SOFTWARE 380 Aion Ra Uni 710 ‘wouRs: Mon. -FRt. 800.0. 6:00 pin. row CORMVORT EE ascuomyes —— Ine [ee earns © eee ee 3 Sietemmnne oe Peco comma vm IE EIT eS 3 Seen “HEHE a erence es Sateen roma ua ee ae Rie Gaeamay ie seen Stesee Cieeets les "cmon sm iy ee ray — om merece ne is Weekereita—. we Siemens ie 52 SERS ana) — on recan somes a coe —— os mnameees os ee ee eed ee eeaeeeaes i Et maa ens Saas peal eve PEeeRoe SD TOOMBYB0MIN 2x-32x 50 Pack Spindle ‘21.99 a 3 3 Bie 1 LEKARawwo tetera trae cee erered at con. 5 Sona RST ses core FEWCErT PACKARD 2 TERI an sgBunt ionsepte exec Heseatter sa08 6 = Penne etparener = —— ig Setanta iiccnkas—3———— oe, ue 2 ie ns a a eosFlying Montreal's ultimate flight simulator ‘By NESTOR GULA for long tie, a very smal percentage Commercial and. military pilots have of humans have ever taken fo the alt. sophisticated simulators at thelr dspos- | me fuse thing that strick me about And most of these sojoumns have been al that not only mimic the sensation of | controling the Airs A330_ was the a cattle (oops! — pascengers, herded flying but alo recreate the. speial total absence of a central yoke or whee. and squeezed into the bowls Of large atmosphere of siting ins rel almplane’s ‘Tere was a joystick very similar fo the commercial irra. Relatively few peo- cockpit. Luckily, the company that the one in my home, including a trigger and ple actualy pilot an aicplane world leader in Might simulator tecknol= second red bution to my right side." Fying a plane is expensive ~ very ogy ls Canaan was controling the 173 meric tonne expensive. For those who realize thet (381,400 pound) silane (maximum they wil never take tothe skies, fight Providing a safe place to crash ‘Weight with no fuel) from the co-pilo’s simulators for PCs have been around for Located in Montreal just a short hop Seat, The plots joystick was on his let- nearly as long as there have been per” ffom Dorval ltport CAE Inc. suplice hand side. 1 was banking to the left to. sonal computers. The fst Mig simuln- about 80 percent of the wer Might align the plane for approach to Hong tor program I used was for my Amiga simulator markt, Inan effort to dver- Canadian Vitor clas submarines, Kong's new Chek Lap Kok intemational 1000 back in 1986. Looking atthe lat- ify, CAE has made the move into pro- siting in the cockpit ofthe A330, one alrport. Te turbulence was not too bad, est, Microsoft's Fight Simulator 2002, viding actual aviation taining. This Is soon forgets tat this i» 8 simulton although there were thunderstorms the basic commands and controls for an astute move since the market for Everything there is exactly Ike the real bout Although I never really left the the Cessna 172 a east haven' changed flight training estimated. to be thing. The graphs are not exactly lke ground | finaly had the true sensation much. The graphics are much beter and between $12 and $135 bilion worl ineality although they are much et. of piloting plane ~ ax close to fying there ae more alrpors and places to ly wide. CAE is now considered to be the ter than in any fight simulation pro Astute las nuclear submarines and the as ever get. ~ after alli does come on three CDs, worl’ second largest independent 2vi- gram but you soon forget this because Humans have nt been fying for very while the Amiga version was on asin~ aon training provider. Besides design- ofthe motion you feel and the realism long. The fst recorded ascent fom the gle double sided diskette ing and producing Might simulators of that sround you, round upwards was a balloon fight by . "There was always something missing, commercial seat, CAE also provides The eet is lke an IMAX movie. The... the Montgofer brothers in Paris on though when running Flight Simulator. Simulators and training for the itary, visual system wraps around. you 180 November 21, 1782. Powered flight Iti the sensation of flying - the feel of with planes such s the CF-18 Hornet, degrees Inthe visual systems testbed. a ‘occured less than 100 years ago when geforce on your body when the plane the Tornado, the EuroFighter and hel: non-moving smlator where the vistal Onvlle and Wilbur Wright flew theif banks into a tum, the ordinary fum- copters such asthe EHI Merlin, Not all system feted, you get the feling of biplane a Kitty Hawk on December 17, drum turbulence oF the bang when the the simulators are in the alr CAE has motion “due to” your senses. being 190. Not only have we not been flying sheds hit the round on landing. produced simulators for the British es ExT Ce cae eee Chea M ack C eke ‘Start Bid $1 - Save up to 70% off Retail age | 2.Save $76 $199 Annual Unlimited Plan Pieter sore eee eee Save almost 30%. Prepay $199'and your monthly rate will be oer less than $17/month. Save money and enjoy a full year of service without the hassle of a monthly bill. OEE TE CC Ce ee ees nited B ‘ Pee Ree ae Pee eee a enue Subscribe on a monthly basis and Look will offer you the first 3 months for only $9.95/month, Toe aL CUR ata] eae For each friend, family member, or colleague you refer to Look, youll get'a free month's credit on your Internet ‘account. Visit us online at wwwlook.ca for more details. (up to $22.95 per referral) Sign up online at www.look.ca/home and Look will offer you the first 4 months at $9.95! r » TOD ‘t co www.look.ca/home 1-800-356-5665anumued fom pese22_ very realistic: According to Perey, CAE piloting tht stil must be cared out really simulate i sustained. g-forct faveloped by. the moving scenery. bulls telrowitcstom image genera- manually Plots can switch on the auto Toads. There is only so much movement Philippe Perey, director of engineering tors wsing ATI's Radeon chips In paral- plot once they are berween 20 and 40 in the simulator (68 inches up. and for visual systems sald thatthe vials elon custom cards, Imetes above ground sind not touch the down, 120 Inches sde to side an back ae achieved through a collimated dis- Easing this 295 passenger plane into a controls ‘until the plane has landed. to front it wil give you abitof the ink lay system. The image i focused 30 t0 wide tur to align it with the runway, | Captain Yavner sid ost pls perform tal gore but wort give you that en 35 feet away from the viewer (you are could feel the nose dig in and start to manual landings unless the weather is sation for. very long, Gesbard actualy looking ata mior~thescreen pitch downward. 1 pull back on the very bad. When things go cwry, the” Serapinms, manager of research. and is mounted. above. the simulator: sick, Whol The engines rev up and the taining and experience pay off In a development for commercial simulation | Systems’ that cover 220 degrees of plane stars to climb simulator, you cam make any numberof and taining explains, “long turns cat vision are already being made, Miliary" Airraf, especially commercial pas~ things go wrong and the plot has to realy be simulated because you can't applications are even more advancél, senger Jes, are highly automated. react to the situation, Captain Yavner really simulate the sustained. g-frce covering 240 degrees horizontal and 90 Captain David R. Yavner, chief simula~ simulated an engine freon taleof. He limits given the range of motions ofthe segres vertical Theres no jerkines in. ton engineering test pilot, guided my handed this station calmly. There re simulators fven the tinjest deal. The blowing experience on the simulator platform. procedures and actions performed in We are coming in fora landing, The situations Ite this that Can never be visibility zero, Wel, about 100 metres e ‘ying Montreal's ultimate flight snow on the runway’ in-Greenland.was He said takeoff ts the only aspect of ~The one thing these simulators cantt done by a computer "consider that we’ att traveling. at about 260 kilometres per Hour, s0 100 Simulator as amusement park ride metres Is practically zero. The landing Being the kind of person that Iam, I Sequence is automated, so. Captain ask Captain Yavnero doa bal ollonYavner is monitoring the gauges and the AI30. He doesnt link He tums wating for the sport to: come Into found and punches @ few keys on the view. The plane's computer starts the Simulation computer at the back ofthe countdown’ to landing’ before we ste cabin. and we are instandy located anything. “Thee. Two. One. Reta 10000 fet above the South China Sen The plane did not express its contempt few kilometers oust of Hong Kong. He forthe pilot ~ this isthe word Abus tums off the safety features of the plane's chose fa tell the plot Yo put the engines contol system and does a barr rol. The tide sensation is relist to about 65 pe cent The landing is perfect. I leave the (of the way. You get It going vprsround cockpit and from the Hong Kong airport meee pe ene ae eis caeseae eae eee ea eect ipa, 60 [3 bere Toa SA BCE: one @ Red Hot Deal 1 ee BASICS = Bprenieersiaeraran | Senate connie ‘uae ony UAL He, tt et ‘Spec pn rem owe ty fracas row baie, 20 br accasat 2 trp tation 477 faces sta % 28] [ace wie termes fr seneg PE 2c sia] fs 2TORONTO NORTH YORK BEST PRICE , BEST SERVICE SASSAMSUNGISISLCD $585 +19SAMSUNGSSSDFFLAT $357 3225 SUNG 7508 S193 9 99 S16 s ny 300 Oe r “TYAN TIGER 200 puta $335 _* SOH {TORNADO (GRAND P4 $1849 (GRAND XP ham aravon xe ‘anos Susi gear naa ‘tes lew SANE) VIDEOCARD J ; H Srsows genes oer Senate Eh seenerareee Bots, ee ee SINE Soi Sree en Sa NENeEMAaDON ‘gen asc0u00 sooo EPSON SYN Coke 152) HB Re te AU, simatt nS eitaeagere> coop es Gees nae atieas mummers werner | ene Se ies ze Sri aan Sis sciences & QELS ton SPEAKER Boas acieete cereal eoewancae, tn tRiMetemris., fe Senet #2 ote 2 meaner i eee inbeeecrmtae se See‘Artist Laure Anderon wed to have a dligtal audio. MIDL which stands for home. My DX7, whichis polyphonic but that iin the soundcard of every om. jacket wirel ep wityswtchey which ‘Musial instrument Digital Interface, is only monotibral, meaning that while puter f you have more sophintcated he would ht eagerag « Mb dere sta compute language that transits i wil play many noes atthe same time software that allows you to have plo Tye used ay drum machine as both Information between asia iste it ony plays one sound. connected ins of virtual synthesizers, which shimic MIDI contr and « MIDI steve, ‘enix This information is primarily 4 TX? sound module iascaly a DX7 the sounds of “real syntheses, then Syntheses are ponte s 0 con what mote the receiving Insrument without the keyboard). When {hit the you will have a linidess suply of oles simply cee thor me cote should pay and for how long and with middle Con my DX7 keyboard, Twi Sounds what intensity an colour Theres other hear two Sounds Both playing the mid-. If you have a MID wack recorded on information that MIDI can abo send, dle C. The DX7 is controling the fun your computer and would like tw be alg colour and kextare vo te noley Sach as system specific messages that tions ofthe TX7.Incldentally, the DX? layed on your computer you would th fs MDI Reseed ease fel the machine to swith to another snd TA? are synthesizers made by revere the postion ofthe MIDI cables. and thy crete great sind mach bee Sound or to change parameters of the Yamaha in the late ‘ds that use FM In thi case the computer isthe mater instrument ~ for example, switehing modulation to produce sounds while the symthesiter Is the slave and between mono and polyphonic modes. "When I want to record some MIDI what you heve on the compete wil be But how do you generate these mes- tracks on my home recording studlo, I translated by the sym to sound Sages to make your computer or hey- connect the MIDI cable between the I'you have a parclanyintiate MIDI syniiesigr sounds by using » snd boar play some nots? MID-OUT port on my synesizer and track on your computer that you want rode. As deserbed eae. ths is a A symtbeslaer with MIDI is both a the MID-N port on my compute. The to record Wing the Sound of yout and. ‘musi instrument and a MIDI con- notes play an the keyboard ee record- alone. synthesize, you will need. (0 toll: A simple MIDI hookups two ed by the recording software as raw sttach aul cables to your synthesizer synthesizers connected, with one having information There ‘sno sound esociat~ and have. your sofware, record the the MIDI cable in the MIDEOUT port ed with itl can change the sound of Sound as dita aon and when you hit play, after making and the otber inthe MIDLIN port The what I played using the software. While controllers tid to be Key sural the cables are conneted prope first synthesizer is called the mast, played something and it sounde like 2 boards they donot always have o bey and the stings set Jus gt. you hile the later isthe lave. The maser plano, is realy no problem to switch so, Thee are guitar MIDI controllers and ill hear whet you composed © sate. They have a keyboard for ener Ing notes, wheels and. buttons. for ter than most computers General MIDI Sounds. If you donot have any Key oad sls snd donot want to lets any, you can sll benef from the great Synthesizer without the keyboard, You an manually compose whatever you Ie in most recording software pack ges or use special notation software, ala By NESTOR GULA synthesizer must have its MIDI-SEND’ ito bins chirping or tubular bel of @ even contoles made from woodwind, Set to the same channel asthe slave's funkybass sound. hee are teat 128 bres and vious singed iste; ‘he term MIDI soften confused with MIDE-RECEIVE Ihave this setup in my sounds in the General MIDI synthestaet Ocspaton/Shet Tene er Denese Coram ae Pere eee ee ns oteEnron PAIR)Digital Shots: Getting FTE Cite ye hy By Chis TALBOT es one of those sid but tue realities ~ most digs] photographs are never sen by anybody ut thei cre= Bor Once the photos are snapped and transfered to a har disk or backup medium, they are It to the evils af obscurity in electronic heaven, which begs the ques thon: What was the point in aking the pictare in the Ft place? ‘No. matter how you display your photographs, you Should del she one cardinal rule of photography into ‘your head: Pictures are meant tobe Seen. Take look round your house, your parents’ house, finds homes, etc. Framed pictures cater mantles, end tables and the lke IF you lok carefully (or asi there are probably photo albums filed with hundreds of pictures Scattered around 2s well fot remember, i your buddy drags ou his 10-pound vacation albums, you deserve what you ged, ‘The Web masters among our readership will probably seni me nasty e-malls stating they share thelr pletres ‘withthe worl, and who am fo ane? One arquain- fance of mine has archived more than 500 photos on Ils Website Well look at creating & Web-based photo slbom another month, though. ‘Tere is a good argument for making and displaying print at the very Teast in your home, something fim ‘hotographers take for grinted and most digial pho- tographers don't take vantage of Chances are. you dont ave a darkroom or a photo processor in your home, but you probably have the wo most basic pcces of technology for making prin ~ a computer and & Printer Depending on the printer, you might not even need the computer. Some photo quality printers onthe market are capable of reading, CompactFlash ot SmartMedia memory cards and printing direc from Do it yoursett The fst option for making print isto do it yourself at home. If you were shooting fm, ‘you'd require a darroom with all the Bll Wises and ‘sids Involved in making {Your own prints come to life. You can be {hanfl that you're working withthe atest and greatest technology has to offer, so a daskroom isnt even recommended ‘What you vil need is computer and a printer. The specs on your computer won't ‘ater too much, Anything more of less recent should be fine. Its the printer you need to worry about. Not 5s any old primer ll do When looklng fora printer, the words “photo quall- ty” are ey. If-a priner can" print photo quality Images, then you probably won't be happy with the resul. A colour inet prince might do wonders with those Garfield comic sips youve bec pti of the Web, but photo quality images require a special kindof ink. Many Inkjet come withthe ability to se photo- quality ink caries, which are cally swappable with the regular colour ink caries. Just make sure the Fight one sin there when you star to printout your plete. Printing images isn't quite as easy as one-two-thee, but close enough, The firs thing you need to remem ber isto set your resolution propery: Resolution, the ‘quality ofthe image itself i usualy measure in dats Derinch (images stripped off the Web are typical Ty. not sulable for printing because they have (or should have) 2 resolution of 72 dp, whichis what most ‘monitors have asa maximum resolution ‘On paper, though, pictres shouldbe printed with st east 200 dpi, and preferably 200 dp thls s what mag- farines and newspapers use). Using. 300 api shoul ‘epending on the printer, give you ance, lean image on paper Allof the major printer man sfactarers make enka and. laser printers Unfortunatly, the- most persistent problem is in the archivability of photographs. What that means iif you took a photo printed on an inkjet printer and held it under light Source for year, the colour would fade and the image would eventually look tebe. ‘Some printer manufacturers cai they have printers that greatly Increase the archivabity of prints. Many ofthese, lke Xerox's ine of soli ink printers, are out DF the pice range ofthe average person, though Hire the pros ‘Achivablt tnt as much of an isue with profes: onal prints (Le. photographs). Typically, you can hang a print on a wall and is colour wil oullst you = and ‘maybe your childrens children, as well ‘Dropping off a roll of fl and picking up «set of pints one, three or five days Inter is something most ‘hotographers are used to, Although print developers fare just starting’ to advertise the fact that they do indeed print eigtal photographs, many of them have ‘ben doing I for some time. Best of all, I’ about the same price as getting a pint made from a negative Also the printer sein processing labs are high-end unis, They can pump out hundred or even thousands of photographs per hour with supertor quality. Ifyou have a digital shot with & high enough resolution I ‘might loo ike afl print when ifs retuned to you. © Make 2 the heart-of your digital darkroom 1 | Sages Sede MGC eta boTested: Fujifilm FinePix 2800 Zoom By CiRIS TALBOT The Fujii FinePix 2800 oom is a com- pact lightweight ‘camera. capable of taking sil limages oF short video clips. and [sable to double as. Webcam on Windows platform comptes. ‘As part of Full’ mid-range ai the 2000 Zoom i 2:1 megapixel camera that has 6x ‘opccal 200m, 25x digital 200m and a 1Bsingh LCD display. Other features fncide 60-sccond video clips co tured in AVI (compressed JPEG) for ‘mat, 20-second voice captioning and ‘Adobe PhotoDeluse 4.0 sofware Despite its small size and box-like shape, te 2800 Zoom offers a com= fortable grip and is easy to use out of the box. The unit uses SmartMedia sorage cards (a 16 MB cad Is inlud- cd) and requires four AA Alaline bat- teri for operation, Overall ifs & od, compact move you could se 10 apture decent snapshots T paricularly Tike the attempt by Fujfim to simulate single lens reflex (SLR) eyepiece. Looking through the eyepiece (oF on the LCD display it it's on) will show you exactly what the Tens ses. The mens on the camera are fairly easy to navigate but the placement and design of the diection- al buttons ould have been better Instead ofthe three diectional buttons ‘on the unt (ef ight and up/down), would've prefered ether four buttons Uke the artow keys on a keyboard) oF ‘one baton (like the directional buton fn agamepad) None of the above ea Sons are enough to discount the FinePix 2800 Zoom a6 2 good mid- range camera, though. For snapshots, Fell do the Joh. At 2.1. megapixel, however, i won't be enough power for the serious habbylt. For vacationers, Td recommend it for is size and weight (95 ounces). I's. prced. at $790, Dut set aside atleast another $50 to $100 to pick up a base mem- ry card # COMPAQ / DELL / 18M $199.00 190 DAY WARRANTY DURON Systems (ARID DURON 950 Sex oe Upgrade oF828,00.,. Upgrade or Add = Tes. (905)678-1242 ‘COMPAQ 7800 evra to ses soni, ixconon IRTTSOEN 19" MAG XI 810 INTEL CELERON 500 MHZ $299.00 sean iam Wane Green Line Systems WSBAEEATHLON 7-950 ater Upgrade, 529.00 (ONE YEAR LIMITED WARRANTY Gold Line Business peNTUM 6 cPU ee ia came. tie tas Sirens ee he $699.00 Wa WHOLESALE WELCOMED Visit our showroom for in store Specials! ws BNC BNC Systems Inc. 720. 88288 une www.bnccom.com Fax. (@o8)e76-4252 9:30amNeSopm 11:085m 8 opm $469.00 Bo oar wanna XP Systems (WlapmIxr 1600 siketrnoee Upgrade exeonow wt ss Soxvsc rarwonen XP" #000 mm $629.00 ‘ONE YEAR LIMITED WARRANTY Red Line Gaming PENTIUM 1.6 CPU idea torre oucome 9a 9 en $1085.00 none Couryivereew: eRe. By NESTOR GULA Tn the pas, when you would suggest {0 guests that you would like them t0 sees home movie or vide, the reaction ‘was usually one of homo. In some ‘Cases, the duets might even be offend fd. OF course, being Canadian, we would usualy meekly trudge down t0 | terumpus room and endure the wen durable ~ hours upon hours of badly shot badly Ti unedited footage, with the host explaining what you (STORE HOURS: should be seeing Tati suites for analogue video oF ‘lim were costly and required extensive, and expensive, training to operate Some analogue camcorders It you do basi editing and Gling, This vas not only cumbersome and dificult, the results were feeble — they reflected badly on the amount of work you bad done. Most home movies and. home videos have never been edited and thus are rarely watched In speaking with Ralph Bond, the con- sumer education manager for Intel, we Agreed thatthe era of bad home movies has ended, Weare now living in an era, where home videos can be relatvely Short, well paced and (gasp) exciting and interesting. They no longer have to be viewed on a computer monitor ot twansfeed to a VHS tape They can be played on your home’ theate’s DVD player the home movies digital fidelity preserved by authoring a DVD of ‘VCD (Video Compact Dis) The biggest problem for the MON-FRI 10-7M, SAT. 10-5P™) CI TURBOCOM CONEUTERS MISSISSAUGA NORTH YORK. cane sac AaB HP-1800+ 5/STER> $1128.00 & chair Arab ot ‘32/1040 CD-RW earisner res PA-1600 s75r6n—> 'S $1148.00 Seeeviiita aes* acceptance of DVD authoring is the ‘ost Bond sid that the cost ofboth the DVD-R drives and media have fallen quite dramatically. Currently the price ‘of @ DVD-R hovers around $700 atthe Bottom end of the scale. Blank media costs bout $20 per dis, although ‘Apple as a deal that packages five discs for $40. Note: These have been massaged and cannot be duplicated) Bond & bullsh on DVD authoring but smite that the cost Will discourage mass ‘Most people. nov, and forthe next year fortwo, will only have the VED option open to them, Bond has had mixed results with VCDs, “ve had some VS that look ter ic and others that Tooked.terble be ssid. "T used the same quipment, same sof Adventures in digital video: Home movies don't have to elicit horror ware, same evrything and can't figure fout why, some look great and others homie” As for al he VHS taps languishing In the basements and’ on the book Shelves of the word, Bond said people Should convert them all digital for- mat, offering suggestions for various trays to do thi. There are services that er o take your VHS tapes and trans- fer them onto. DVD, “The service is01," sald Bond, but “Do you want to guys did I ight, and dd It rght from Send the only copy of your wedding the beginning” said Bond, "They had « tape in the mail” software environment that et" you ‘There are also devices tha wil allow record tothe hard dst edit and bur to you to do the conversion. Dazzle f 2 the CD/DVD in one holsde software S24 10? GAMING GADGETS BEL"Fine!™bapls "Se Ssh, Scot's & | Gravis Destroyer PC Game Pad $15) +2002 issue.) will also do this, as will various applications. *Now there are FLIGHT SIMULATOR CONTROLLERS Faas Sule Beets mach wore dng pba tt te erveacy robles) an wt tard Se? Nea “Te aes by eee tae ny cling ver” Tee po won oe te pam catvarrete chase eae rays aca | Ado Freee nples Sivate Goa | ia abt rf fe Bon.“ aet Spl tlig tel al | ee Steere ae apo es ante mela ‘he elo wear her ete Sone pate ae ee eee poe oes ro Seals have ah dent oa pac oat hr ‘Thrust Master Pro Pedals USB, $199 ‘Thrust Master Flight Stick Yoke USB........-$199 Saitek X45 Joystick & Flight Throtile.........$149 IMicrosoft Sidewinder Force Feedback V2...$149, Logitech Wingman 3D Foree Feedback... $119 RACING STEERING WHEELS Saitok R100 USB. 2 pacmna ats) Logitech Formula GP 369 Logitech Formula Force Feedback GP $139 Logitech Formula Force Feedback MOMO,..$259 Microsoft SideWinder Force Feeback... $169 ADVANCED GAME PADS Logitech RumplePad Vibrating Foodback......849 Logitech RumplePad Cordiess/Vibrating...... $79 Microsoft Sidewinder Freestyle Pro Pad... $49 Belkin Nostromo SpeedPad N50 Pad w/kod._. $59 www.oztech.ca Just a. digital replace- ment for your andlogue higher) you don't really camcorde. Its the Hest analogie-to- "need to spend all that much to create (1) 905 270 2900 liga ste there is” Something that wil withstand scathing : (F) 905 270 8743 Ediing is geting easier, as well “One eiteism; something you can watch Taoe Cunces ae east thing T have to say is thatthe Apple proudly years hence. © MICROPOINT sano ) Honan, Pak COMPUTERS een. - i a Monthly Special, MRO Peet See aes | 3 SSSSere ees, Bees[vr mele A | ve | enaSoundcards: 16-bit and beyond By HAROLD LASS ‘Time was when computers were mute (except Yor aceasonal beeps from an Inert speaker on the matherboard With the advent of soundcards (or Sound boars) In the ‘80s, though, the talkies ad asved and suddenly com: puters werent only number cruncher ‘They'd become enterainment centres ‘Virtually every computer these days Ships with a soundcard anda set of speakers to “enhance” dhe computer experience ‘The process of recording sound comes down to-Is and 0s as usual. Basically, to record, a microphone jacked into the ‘ard picks up the sound (your voice, for Instance) as an analogue signal, chip fn the soundcard conver this aiatogue signal toa digital output (the binary Is and Os — the language of computers The digital output is com- presse, sent to your computer's proces- for and ends up on your harddrive a & wa le, "To listen to this (or any other) wav fle, the process is reversed. The digital wav file on your hard. dive is sent to the processor, then to the soundcard to bbe converted to an. analogue signal, ‘whlch Is ten picked up by Your speak (or headset, ‘So much for recording and playing sound. Now, if all soundcards perfor ‘hese two basi functions, are some bet- ter than others? You bet Fact not all soundcards, wel, sound alike. The importance to you of aio qual~ ity and card versatty will determine what Kind’ of soundeard you might be alter, do you want gaming audio with 53-D sound {so you know where the next ambush is coming from]? Stlo quall= ty recording and playback capabilites Including special effects and MIDI sup= port? Full music Istening pleasure? Or do you just want to be able to hear the sound? I you're only after the ability to hear sound and nothing else, then all you ‘eed i a relatively inexpensive 16> or $-bit soundcard The terms 16-bit and 3a-bit refer tothe bus structure ofthe card. A PCI 32-bit soundeard can process more bis of Information at a ‘bus soundcards are preferable because the ISA busi becoming obsolete ‘The mame most often associated with sound cards s SoundBlaster by Creative Labs because it wat one of the fst. But restive Labs ie nt the only manufac- turer. AOpen, Philips, Hercules, Zoli, Turle Beach and VideoLogic are some others For a bref overview of cards, one place fo start is About: Rick Russell's Gulde to Sound and Aus. youre a ant-come games, youll want something more than gener Soundeard though. Gamers Depot high- lights some ofthe more popula gamers’ soundcards of choice. For each eard name the se provides a link to the manufacturer, reviewer Impresions of the card, the features, sess, installation pros and. cons anda ‘inal ating Llove thelr eating system ronment’ characteristics, 3D spataliza® ‘the “drool” awar. Five drops means its ‘ion and foalzation of an upcoming ot tops distant environment. and 2D. sound ‘OF course, you sosld go for versatile” imaging in both mult-speaker spats high-end performance and get your and headphones, allowing you to find hhands on’ the SoundBlaster Audigy and frag your opponents quickly.” Ah Platinum eX (extemal deve). According yes, also features a hey price ta to-Creative Labs, it features “up co four ($399100 extemal model/$319.00 Font simultaneous audio environments In panel intemal mode) teal time, a natural audio transition" Soundcards ae regula reviewed by’ {homo environment to shother with us and’ the reviews canbe found’ at real-time morphing of each audio exvi-- wwevcanadacomputes.com.@ LET'S TALK NOTEBOOKS TED OTEROOES Fas feltertter mm Ynctgat Tomei nome se ve | Soom Sauitwosoer fax | Snconowaenes ten | Sena Sa ermetsintictawen” fe | ouchmaae saa tan | Sa tt Sirs. Bone 6 |S Smanoorasrmsa "fan | Soncoorttnssam fn | Aten Benetune tm fan PUR So Dae sR MAAS ‘NOTEBOOK UNIVERSE 63 Que seu gle 726005 CT Te ea me ceseanice. aa a eerarie Peseuarc-1ass000" 75 [-Doptcoivowe <4 9} [risteningacsTToe AJ Leese 229) oaSPRING CLEARANCE SALE! 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Hard Drive oppy Drive : Mid-Tower eat ae Leal AMD Duroi!.0 Ghz ) Rom Drive = P4 Mid Tower included | 128 meg Sonam Pci33 AGP Video ED Asus P4B266-C$189.77 Pe Si Socket A Motherboard eyboard ‘Asus P4333. $169.77 |W: Power Supply ATX Mid Tower Case Mouse ASUSPATE $249.77 Sound Integrated § 90.77 $499 7 $329” eat Board w. Sound, Fak & VGA Newmarket Burlington Hamilton St. Catharines 1100 Davis Drive Unit #1 744 Guelph Line 1320 Barton Street E. 277 Lake St. : “Tel: (905) 953-9900 Tek: (905) 631-9555 Tel: (905) 548-9555 Tel: (905) 682-9555 Fax: (905) 953-5 (905) 631-768) Fax:(905) 548-0200 Fax:(905) 682-9968 ©Graphic cards for game hounds Where the MX cards come through is yey. provides a ot of performance at a pret= mune orm ss In price. The performance is stl reason- _Simsed pice $259 (converted rom USS60)_ good pri. Ssctually sports letier performance, for ably good, mostly rivaling the higher» = Gefore4 MX #40 GPU, JF] tue most pare During our benchmark end Geforce) and older GeForce Ulue 64 MB DDR st Gan0e<40 esting. we noted that while the cards, but the entry-level price makes *AGP Fro: ico Sr temas [Bl Gerorces"ix edged the GeForce? at them quite atrative overall We looked “VGA Sido ou (ames wih a). wsmsaputrcom ‘ho2ax768 with 22-b8 colour and no ata pir of cards using the MX440 GPU, + 24856 maaan reson mated pice: 510 Antalosing, the. GeForce) gained though thete are GPUs bracketing the «Cometh Commande 4 veson and + Gfurct M40 CPU fai noticeable edge when ant-alias~ 440: The MXAOD offers beter peform- Gin ower. +64 mB ODR ing was tured on. Ths is because the ance, while the MX4OD and MX620 = Compal wih WnSQMMEINTPI0RP + AGP. GeForcet MX cards don't incorporate processors will provide much more +Oneyetwaray VG Sidenomposte outcomes wh the same level of new technology that modest performance ata bangain-base be the GeForcet Ti series does (no pixel ment price (a ow as USS50) when they Fits thing you notice when you get *Z0481536 maqmm reli. Shaders or vertex shaders, fr example). are nally inroduced Inco the market this card out ofthe bor i the big yellow > Cones wih MS OVD, No ne es Fre What the GeForces MIX series does fan brackel known aS the eVGA (ulyesonAquanr (ul) Soi (Ul), sa, though, 8 View multi-monitor eVGA.com e-GeForces MX Asymmetric Cooling System, 2 playful _7-ane ges colin anda ties dc Suppor’ (generally ina VGA(S-Video Fam-e¥GAcom Cop. toueh on a fay serous card, (Even *Corpatbie wih s/o MNT 200970 combination), Lightspeed Memory fore you get the card out of “Architecture I (hee in = more strippet down form than the GeForcedT spor), PE (or Video Processing Engine, Which adds hardware support for DVD play back) and Aceuview anti-aliasing teh While nVidia’ claim was that trang sptallasing on wouldn't be a huge pe formance hit, thats not necessary as true with the MX models as nVidia would scem to indicate — the bench marking numbers dropped substantially 35. soon as the antialiasing was gaged. The feature Is far more eee five when you mave tothe T ser the box, you cat see what fis MSI has recently claimed the tie of through a window onthe back, “Worldwide No.1 VGA. Card So you cam venfy the card is _Manufacture” (something that we may Tegit before you even take ie not have yealized here in Canada home) Ava lower-end GF4,the because the cards are perhaps not as e-GeForeed MX ls sll preny widespread as, say, ATT), and the adc Tmpresive. outperforming. the ton of the GeFarcet cards to its line reference GeForce? Ultm by a only add extra sales potential. The Susanah Rati at most set- GAMXGA0 card wll be certain fo move tings emember that the MX is. ‘ifs, too, because the performance Is She valueline athe GF2 Ulua right at the GF4 MX level and the price ‘fas high-end not toons ago}. Is ight This toode features a gold snatng fm as Rts only embellishment otherwise caped on page 40 rates, thie card sil -S @rr Computer Systems Inc eae ee ee, Eoky eae . ee com g Je gee | @Cos ae ee Ee, Mepdor’ ea 60G 7200 RPMHARD DISK $159 ‘AMR AS, ae ce, ei EZMRTETMRE @ 10 cictronics pee Bee” gee SASL Slam io corewnneR DME 119 Ciaeune Leb ta 2 gp BOOTIE aarp EEE St hen as Dion ot nemo we Sire geese 8 Wacom’ yore) Perea) " ao haste 10 ‘i roncae e | BMSAMSUNG 19° FLAT955DE $359 1 nator comm 8) AM net rss Rowton teh ‘Sm aeons 5 er feuoetne 8 & 2 santa 8 vege i Ae corenon 4 LOGITECH CORDLESS FREEDOMS129 fneac sm mec GV reserves inns cB, Bima A a Z = fe eonsBy SEAN CARRUTHERS + Comes wih AT mutimeia cen Gncdudes + Compal th Wins 20007 resertatons, ue Pass (7 progam DvD ple, Tree yer waranty ming as wel asa pack of Hoi games (One of the must-have items for hari» Conpable wih Wis4/MEAT/2009%2 core. gamers is a high-performance Theses waranty, Siting onthe op of ATs performance _Ifyou'e looking for the full-mea dst, traphics car, and it’ a good time tobe heap is the Radcon 8500, hich comes it's stil prety hard to best ATI's All-n- Tooking for one: NVidia has recently Even at the more modest end of the in Both 64 and 128 MB versions: the G4 Wonder lin, which was the frst con- announced the GeForce line of graph Radeon lin, you have fay good per- MB card is slightly older model and sumer-Level card to bring video and TV cs processors and ATI's Radeon line formance: The Radeon 7500 holds its the 128 MB version shouldbe available right onto the cad an stil he most, ‘continues to expand. own agains both the GeForce and the for roughly the same price, according to popular all-in-one. To save space, the ‘We've rounded up a smattering of em GeForees MX line, performance-wise, ATI, o youl probably want to hold out Card dispenses with the VGA connector cars this month, and have put them but adds dual-monitor support on the for the 128 MB unless you can get the in favour of DVI, instead providing through thei paces using MadOnion’s card In practice as well as priciple by 64 MB version ata ood price break, The dongle inthe box for those who want to 3-DMark 2001 Special. Editi 3-D _inchading the DVI connector and a don- 128 MB version wil also outperform the use their analogue moniter. The back of etichmarking software (wumacoion — gle for ue with monitors with the older 64 MB version slightly and the 64 MB the card also features one leit port, om), The test bench Featured an AMD VGA connector. (By contrat most ofthe version (which we tested) already holds the CATV connector and an interface for AthlonXP_ 7000+ processor, 256 MB GeForcet MX cards we've seen specs for up prety well compared tothe Titanium the breakaway box, which as the rest DDR memory "from. Crucial simply inchide one VGA connector and version of the GeForcet, At $450, it of the audilvideo Connector. All of (owincrcalcon) and “the Shutle one S-Video out, which the Radeon seems a bit pricey anil you look atthe this Fall impressive, allowing you to Spacewalker AK3SGT-R motherboard. 7500 alo sports) Arjoably, the card ir GeForced cars, which are sometimes. hook up your cable TV connection, your We tested all cards using Windows XP asic, witha smaller data pipeline lower running the same cost but im U'S. cur. VOR or DVD and your DV camer, but Home alton. performance tan the 0500 and a small: rency (about $650 Canaan), es the software that comes with the software bundle (hough i sil comes cad that makes i rly impresive. AS Wwith the DVD player ofher ATI cards ATE All-in-Wonder Radeon 85000¥ with previous models, the salfware bun ATI Radeon come with). From a price perspective, From Al Technologies in. die includes a program that allows you Canada's own ATI remains one of the the 7500 i one of the better choces, if wacom to “pause” lve television ~ estentilly big. players in the graphics market you want tbalancelower cost with rea- Este pice: $29 suiting you from live TV over to hard ‘thanks tits Radeon line of cards, While Sonable performance. Those who want + Radeon 8500 CP Arve ecordng and then replaying from the cards aren't necessarily the best per~ something beter-suited for high-end = 64MB DDR ‘he beginning ofthat recorded ie when formers out there, they afe nonetheless gaming wil want to move up to the ~AGPAY2X you fein ~ a well staring your PC high-performing cas that come in ata §500 or take a Took at the more expen- = CV\ and brelanaybox(composte iyo, into 8 “digtal VOR" by recording pro- much more justifiable price point. ATI sive GeForce Titanium line ‘Said info Seo aio ou. igams at specie times The inclusion of flso get high marks for being the Fst * OMiONGA dange de frie th BV ports on this cad is also a hue plas, company to really run with dual-monl-- ATL Radeon 8500 64§8/128M anda mantos. Allowing you to attach other FireWire {or capably n gaming card = while From AT Teens + To ree prs one on car, ane on devies lke an external har drive. So, fellow Canadians Matrox were the fist —waneatcon beaanay bo how mich gaming performance do you to introduce dual-head capability Tor the Ele rice: $60 Rema conoid aswell as USB to give up forall of these extra fea eneral consumer audience, those cards + eon 8500 GPU reco. tures? Not much, as it tums out ‘were mor suitable or business and pro- + We ood a the 6¢ NB DDR ves. + 20461586 masini elt, Compared dizetly tothe Radeon 8500 ductivity apps, and were not'a great + AGP > + Dual support basic model, which this is based on, it ‘choice for gamers “VAD Sido ou (comes wi cables and scores ower, but is stil far and ‘One thing thats changed: In the past," D/MoVGA alae). fvay beter than the GeForce 2 and ‘ATT was the sole manufacture of graphy +2048 rsimn reson, 5) models, and outperforms or Jes cards containing ATU technology, but + Duan spp. that’s recently changed: Now you can + Comes wth ll mained te (cides also find Radeon cards under the O¥D ple and aHaPLie ge bund Hercules and Gigabyte brands, among thers R's an Interesting change, of ‘strategy and it will be interesting to see how that pays off for ATT. equals GeForees MX models in ‘most ress. The biggest thing youll have to give up it'2 wad of extra cash, but with ll the added multe media functionality, ifs not quite a hard to take a you'd think fd i stl comes tt cesper than the highestend GeForce cards. st aeon 7500 fom a pes ‘veer dia GeForce Estimated price: $250, NVidia Gel tess 0G 4 MX ieepoe ‘ 1 pein, Minty pea 4 Hae : Cana raid core Gfot cnttanes ae $n wont NGA DML Sealed a (ome (ces particularly need the MX version of the Scan Dietctpe) Siope der teeenteso eta ine bese te oar) + 2086536 masini eae, at + Daan sip eo) Matere Medio (cele ‘coined on page 38