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2003 Vaporware Awards 502

Posted by CmdrTaco from the annual-traditions dept.
7x7 writes "Wired News has the 2003 Vaporware Awards available for your perusal. Winning the Lifetime Achievement Award, if you hadn't guessed already: Duke Nukem Forever!"
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2003 Vaporware Awards More

2003 Vaporware Awards

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  • RIP, Fallout 3 (Score:5, Interesting)

    by frenetic3 ( 166950 ) * <houston&alum,mit,edu> on Tuesday January 20, 2004 @12:01PM (#8033101) Homepage Journal
    let us have a moment of silence. (seriously).

    that was such a kick in the nuts.

    -fren

    • Re:RIP, Fallout 3 (Score:5, Interesting)

      by viniosity ( 592905 ) on Tuesday January 20, 2004 @12:11PM (#8033233) Homepage Journal
      I too really enjoyed Fallout 1&2 but had never heard the 3rd one was in progress. I hope that some organization picks up the genre though. It's nice that there are some RPGs that are not set in the medieval universe but none really had the flavor that Fallout did. A follow-up, whether it was called Fallout3 or not, would be welcome by me as long as it:

      -retained the ability to name/improve your char
      -supported portraits (c'mon guys it's not that hard!
      -allowed different weapons and strategies
      -had a nice 3D system like NWN

      I know that last one might be a little controversial, but after getting used to zooming and panning in the 3D world it's hard to go back to pixels..

      • And hopefully it will be done justice by the original creator [google.ca]

        He was even kind enough to ask for input from devoted fans [yahoo.com].
    • Lets not forget Total Annihilation 2. There's another toasted title we'll miss (but then, some of us didn't have high expectations).
  • Perhaps someone should comprise a list of things that should of been vaporware, for the sake of corporations that stupidly put them out and consumers who shelled out cash for them. NGage anyone?

    Mike

  • So... (Score:5, Funny)

    by CaptainAlbert ( 162776 ) on Tuesday January 20, 2004 @12:02PM (#8033117) Homepage
    ...do these awards, erm, ever get presented? :)

  • Duke Nukem Forever (Score:4, Funny)

    by gazuga ( 128955 ) on Tuesday January 20, 2004 @12:02PM (#8033123) Homepage
    Winning the Lifetime Achievement Award, if you hadn't guessed already: Duke Nukem Forever!

    How do you think it got its name in the first place?

  • missed the vote (Score:4, Funny)

    by grub ( 11606 ) <slashdot@grub.net> on Tuesday January 20, 2004 @12:03PM (#8033125) Homepage Journal

    I would have voted for "SCO's Evidence Against Linux" had the thought crossed my mind.

  • Hurd (Score:5, Funny)

    by neodymium ( 411811 ) on Tuesday January 20, 2004 @12:03PM (#8033134) Homepage
    GNU Hurd didn't make it into the list. Odd....:-)
  • ...looks to be on schedule. The "Forever" in the name is how much you have to wait to see it (you know, a lot of games, like unreal tournament uses the same tactic in the name).

  • The List (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 20, 2004 @12:04PM (#8033144)
    Lifetime Achievement Award: Duke Nukem Forever

    10. RadioShark (Griffin Technology)
    9. Amiga OS 4.0 (Amiga)
    8. Wrist PDA (Fossil)
    7. HDTV TiVo (TiVo)
    6. RealPC (FWB)
    5. Wi-Fi SD Card for Palm (SanDisk)
    4. Team Fortress 2 (Valve)
    3. Phantom Gaming System (Infinium Labs)
    2. Fallout 3 (Black Isle Studios)
    1. Half-Life 2 (Valve) /anon

    • Re:The List (Score:3, Informative)

      by Amiga Lover ( 708890 )
      > 9. Amiga OS 4.0 (Amiga)

      Heh. they might regret picking on the AmigaOS this time. Hints from the producers show it'll be out at the beginning of february, and sent to existing AmigaOne owners by the end of January

    • Re:The List (Score:3, Informative)

      by semper ( 187862 )
      Don't forget the DisHonorable Mentions
      1. SCO for the as-yet-unseen Unix code that the company alleges was ripped off in Linux
      2. Microsoft for its "secure computing initiative" and the ever-slipping ship date for Longhorn, which is shaping up to be a very promising candidate for the Vaporware awards in 2006, 2007 and maybe even 2008.

    • Re:The List (Score:3, Funny)

      by cpeterso ( 19082 )

      Shouldn't the #1 vaporware of 2003 be Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction? :-)

  • 2003 Grand Champion of Vaporwar is.... (Score:4, Funny)

    by macdaddy ( 38372 ) on Tuesday January 20, 2004 @12:04PM (#8033145) Homepage Journal
    Weapons of Mass Destruction

    Lets give it up for WMD ladies and gentlemen!

    *cough* Well, I did say it was Vaporwar. :-)

  • They quoted... me?!? (Score:5, Funny)

    by downix ( 84795 ) on Tuesday January 20, 2004 @12:05PM (#8033156) Homepage
    Come on, out of who knows how many votes for AmigaOS 4, they picked me?

  • HL2 should not have been #1... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by fireduck ( 197000 ) on Tuesday January 20, 2004 @12:05PM (#8033159)
    I think Team Fortress 2/Half-Life Fortress should take that spot, if one really feels the need to slam Valve. Fortress was preselling at the time of HL's release. It then disappeared, sorta re-appeared as the free TF mod, and was re-confirmed with the announcement and subsequent E3 showing of TF2. Then it re-disappeared again, and apparently is gone, now that HL2 is soon to be up to bat?

    HL2 had the source code stolen thing, and that's an understandable delay in shipping. TF2 just makes no sense... (particularly given how impressive the technology demonstrations were at E3 however many years ago that was, 4?)

    • Re:HL2 should not have been #1... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 20, 2004 @12:19PM (#8033331)
      from reading/playing with the code (erm, I mean a friend told me, yeah, that's it), the hl2 source was no were near ready in Sept./Oct. HL2 ship date would have been pushed back even if the source had not been stolen, because it simply wasn't done. If anything, having it release was a good thing, because it gave them a public excuse to delay, and causes them to perform a decent code review when it's finally "done."

      As for TF2, it's now a mod for HL2, so of course it's delayed.
    • How does the stealing of source code delay shipping?

      Was there just the one copy?

    • Agreed. I still have my Team Fortress 2 poster hanging on the wall. At the bottom it says "MARCH" but for the life of my I can't remember what year. I think it was '98 or'99.
  • Was that ever officially announced? How can it be vaporware if they never announced that they were making it?
    • Screenshots had been released, and the developers commented often both on Interplay and nma-fallout.com forums. It was never officially announced, no.

  • Pre-Order for Duke Nukem Forever (Score:5, Funny)

    by FraggleMI ( 117868 ) on Tuesday January 20, 2004 @12:06PM (#8033169) Homepage
    I think I might have pre-ordered DNF, but I have moved 4 times since, and have a feeling some lucky person will end up with my copy in 2054.

    Holy crap, think about, all those people that pre-ordered will end up buying another copy just because they forgot they preordered.

  • Radio Shark (Score:3, Interesting)

    by ilsie ( 227381 ) on Tuesday January 20, 2004 @12:07PM (#8033179)
    I would love to have radio timeshifting capabilities, especially in my car. Mainly due to being spoiled by my TiVo, I'm always looking for the rewind button when listening to NPR.

    Incidentally, TiVo is supposed to be putting in XM capability into one of their new receivers, does anyone know if you'll be able to timeshift it?
    • I second this! I would love to rewind radio the way I do my TV (TiVo)

    • Re:Radio Shark (Score:3, Informative)

      by Zathrus ( 232140 )
      Incidentally, TiVo is supposed to be putting in XM capability into one of their new receivers, does anyone know if you'll be able to timeshift it?

      Sigh.

      No, they're not. They're adding the ability to use an XM receiver via HMO -- that's it. Nothing more. No, you can't timeshift it. It's essentially taking an XM receiver and making it networkable to HMO-enabled TiVos. It's really deeply underwhelming.
  • I don't know what is that Duke. But I know what is E17... or what is E17 supposed to be after being released. It's been too long already (3 years?) for me to lose any hope to see it working.

  • I nominate (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 20, 2004 @12:07PM (#8033188)
    HTML standards-compliant Slashcode [slashcode.com]. ;)

  • Team Fortress 2 (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Bender Unit 22 ( 216955 ) on Tuesday January 20, 2004 @12:07PM (#8033189) Journal
    I still say Team Fortress 2 [sierra.com].

    Remember how cool it looked when the first videos surfaced.. it even won "TF (TM) 2 Wins E3.Net Awards " in 1999.

  • Straight From the duke's mouth... (Score:3, Informative)

    by GillBates0 ( 664202 ) on Tuesday January 20, 2004 @12:08PM (#8033193) Homepage Journal
    Incase you were wondering about the projected timeline for duke nukem forever; from their website [3drealms.com]: There is no release date set, we are not taking pre-orders for the game. End of story.

    Once we begin taking pre-orders, believe us, you'll know about it. :)

    The release date of this game is "When it's done". Anything else, and we mean anything else is someone's speculation. There is no date. We don't know any date. If you have a friend who claims they have "inside info", or there's some game news site, or some computer store at the mall who claims they know - they do not. They are making it up. There is no date. Period.

  • Amiga OS 4.0

    Hmm, shouldn't Amizilla [slashdot.org] be on the list too?

  • Story of Duke Nukem Forever? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by notcreative ( 623238 ) on Tuesday January 20, 2004 @12:08PM (#8033198) Journal
    Does anyone here know the story of why Duke Nukem Forever has become vaporware? I'm interested in the seedy underbelly of the gaming industry.

  • Phantom Game Console (Score:3, Informative)

    by jetkust ( 596906 ) on Tuesday January 20, 2004 @12:08PM (#8033201)
    Phantom Game Console [newsforge.com] isn't exactly vaporware. Photos of it are here [gamespot.com]. Not sure if this is a working model though.

  • Just A Reminder Everyone (Score:5, Interesting)

    by devphaeton ( 695736 ) on Tuesday January 20, 2004 @12:09PM (#8033203)
    .... of why you shouldn't Pre-Order stuff.

    I'm still waiting for Gran Turismo 2000 to hit the shelves.

    Software Etc. will listen with empathy about my loud proclamations of GT2K == GT3-Aspec, and the sales weasels will agree with me. But the mgmt. shall not, will not, could not would not refund my money, nor give me a store credit until:

    1) A game called Gran Turismo 2000 ships.
    2) Official word from Sony arrives that the game is canceled.

    bastards.
    • if you paid them anything other than cash and it doesn't ship out in 90 days you have grounds for a small claims court judgement. With cash I think it is 120 days. Needless to say go to small claims court and file a suit against them for the amount of the prepay + whatever it costs you to file ( usually about 10 dollars) and unspecified legal costs. I can virtually garantee you that you will have a check from them before the court date. The reason? even if they feel they are entirely correct in not refundin
  • My guess is that they are trying to get Bruce Campbell [imdb.com] himself to do the voices for Duke Nukem Forever, and he won't...

  • Next Slashdot poll (Score:5, Funny)

    by C_Kode ( 102755 ) on Tuesday January 20, 2004 @12:09PM (#8033209) Journal
    I think we should take a poll to rename the word "Vaporware" to "Duke Nukem".

    Then next year we can have " the 2003 Duke Nukem Awards"..

    Ahh, just a thought...

  • Harpoon 4 ? (Score:3, Informative)

    by applemasker ( 694059 ) on Tuesday January 20, 2004 @12:10PM (#8033225)
    In development since 1997, transferred to about 43 different development teams, this project was most recently killed by UbiSoft in November 2003. Amazon was still taking orders last time I checked though, nice of them. By the time it ships, no one will even remember the Cold War.

  • The SCO Group [caldera.com] seems to have promised, but never delivered, UNIX code that was "copied verbatim" into Linux . None of the millions of lines, 65 files, or some new type of undefined intellectual property have yet materialized.

    Hey, maybe this isn't as much a troll as I thought. Oh well, the mod points are yours.

    ------
    UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the U.S. and other countries
    Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds.

  • Apprently these guys where at the CES show in Vegas this year showing off. Does anyone have an actual sighting perhaps something grainy, blurry and easily mistaken for a log in the water?

    • Re:Phantom at CES? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by ashitaka ( 27544 ) on Tuesday January 20, 2004 @12:41PM (#8033548) Homepage
      Gamespot has some hi-res photos [gamespot.com].

      However, the number and types of ports on the back of this box ring alarm bells with me. How many PC-based consoles have:

      Composite and S-Video and component video?

      RCA and optical and "coax" audio?

      Other little signs:

      Power adapter plug has changed from previous regular PC style to circular multi-pin.

      There is a coax connector for an optional internal cable modem (according to the proposed specs [phantom.net] but an internal ADSL modem is also an option. How do you choose which?

      This reminds me of the Moller SkyCar [moller.com] where they produce just enough prototypes to keep the investors happy but never actually produce anything.

      If they didn't turn the thing on then this is probably just an empty box with some ports stuck on the back.

  • very important missing game (Score:4, Informative)

    by dAzED1 ( 33635 ) on Tuesday January 20, 2004 @12:13PM (#8033263) Journal
    Ummm...EQ2?

    A long time ago, the EQ2 FAQ said that EQ2 would be out Q32003. Then, it said Q42003. Then it said Q12004.

    Now, it simply says:
    n will EverQuest II be released?
    EverQuest II will launch in 2004.

    I know that EQ2 will arrive eventually, but it definately fits in the group of "all those eagerly anticipated gizmos in 2003 that were put off, put away or quietly put down."

    Isn't EQ a big game, relative to anyone that would be playing Duke Nukem, even if it had come out?

  • SplashPad? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Speare ( 84249 ) on Tuesday January 20, 2004 @12:14PM (#8033281) Homepage Journal

    Where is the SplashPower SplashPad [splashpower.com]?

    Several [popsci.com] press [badassgeek.com] articles [i4u.com] have promised this for the past year. They're stuck on "looking for partnerships." I want one. Today.

  • Well, I suppose in some sense it's good to note that some of the items on the list were for the Macintosh. RadioShark, RealPC, there's mac stuff there.

  • I remember... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by eglamkowski ( 631706 ) <eglamkowski.angelfire@com> on Tuesday January 20, 2004 @12:15PM (#8033286) Homepage Journal
    I remember when Battlecruiser 3000 was the vaporware champion.

    Original Release Date: April 1993
    Actual Release Date: October 1996

    And that '96 release date was only because the publisher forced the matter, even though Smart thought it wasn't yet ready for publication.

    And bear in mind that the original release date in 1993 meant it was already being worked on MUCH earlier. In fact, it had been in development for 7 years by the time it was pushed onto the shelves in '96. I mean,

    And for all that, it probably should have stayed as vaporware :-p

    I mean, how long has Duke Nukem been in development anyways? More then 7 years? Or is BC3K still king?

  • 7. HDTV TiVo (TiVo) ... (Score:5, Informative)

    by goofballs ( 585077 ) on Tuesday January 20, 2004 @12:18PM (#8033315)

    is actually coming out it looks like: models to be available [tivocommunity.com]

  • The definition of vaporware (Score:3, Funny)

    by ooby ( 729259 ) on Tuesday January 20, 2004 @12:18PM (#8033316)
    A Lifetime Achievement Award goes to Duke Nukem Forever on the suggestion of reader Jeff White, who wrote, "First proposed in 1801 (or something close to that), Duke Nukem Forever has now come to define the term 'vaporware.' I wouldn't be surprised if dictionaries actually began printing it: 'vaporware: n. See Duke Nukem Forever.'"

    Don't be suprised, Jeff. Wikipedia has bested you [wikipedia.org]

  • Knuth V4 (Score:5, Insightful)

    by jefu ( 53450 ) on Tuesday January 20, 2004 @12:19PM (#8033326) Homepage Journal
    About six years ago I got a response card thingy from one of the publishing companies. They were telling me that I could sign up then to buy Vol. 4 of Knuth's Art of Computer Programming. So I guess that can't count as last years vaporware. Their optimism should have counted for something though.

  • Speaking of which... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by devphaeton ( 695736 ) on Tuesday January 20, 2004 @12:19PM (#8033330)
    any one got a news on Gran Turismo 4 and Driver 3 for the Playstation2?

    I've followed these for the first year, and after watching the dates get pushed back again and again, i haven't looked in a bit.

    Just curious if anyone's got info before i spend half the day weeding through all the google hits for "driver 3 release date" over the last 1.5 years.

    oh please oh please oh please be better than the Stuntman game

  • Vaporware (Score:3, Interesting)

    by rogabean ( 741411 ) on Tuesday January 20, 2004 @12:26PM (#8033397)
    I think Microcode Solution [microcode-solutions.com]'s PowerPC emulator for x86 should be in the running now for Lifetime Achievement Vaporware Award as well at this point.
    They however have learned to at least stop updating at all since their last showing and instead have only this to say:
    "Microcode Solutions has received what we believe will be the final hardware revision of the PCI based PowerPC card being manufacturered by a well known PowerPC accelerator company. The current board is a high speed G3 board. Other models are being prototyped right now, and these are G4 and dual processor configurations. Microcode Solutions has always been the leader in Macintosh emulation technology, developing the first PowerPC emulation for a non-Macintosh platform. We will continue this tradition by releasing the first Power Macintosh emulation for the PC. Besides having a PCI based hardware solution, Microcode Solutions will also be releasing a completely software based emulation to the public at an amazingly low price (under $50). We know that people have waited an extremely long time for Microcode Solutions to release a new product, and we appreciate your patience. Just like our successful product "FUSION-PC", we feel we should wait to release the product until it is perfected. We are nearing that stage right now."

  • A modest announcement (Score:5, Funny)

    by inode_buddha ( 576844 ) on Tuesday January 20, 2004 @12:39PM (#8033531) Journal
    I've recently begun work on the next-generation game engine called "WMD Hunt". Current version is 0.0.001-pre-alpha. Notable changes include leveraging multiple synergies across player groups and enabling your gaming buddies to achieve your goals via graft and military-industrial contracts. Some degree of randomness has been added to account for the "lone strikers" play meme. I'm still trying to speedup and optimise the UN code though - it's slow enough that most players won't be able to use that option. Also, the "relative agression level" needs to be more fine-grained; You could be agressive towards your own relatives, or turn your level down instead of simply having a blanket policy. As opposed to a *real* blanket, if your home was recently destroyed.

  • My vote... (Score:4, Funny)

    by The Gline ( 173269 ) on Tuesday January 20, 2004 @12:39PM (#8033534) Homepage
    There was a product -- I don't remember the name -- which was supposed to be a module you could drop into a conventional 35mm film camera that would turn it into a digital camera. It never materialized, of course.

    • Re:My vote... (Score:3, Informative)

      by Mr_Silver ( 213637 )
      There was a product -- I don't remember the name -- which was supposed to be a module you could drop into a conventional 35mm film camera that would turn it into a digital camera. It never materialized, of course.

      And it still hasn't.

      Stand up Silicon Film Technologies [siliconfilm.com] ...

  • WMD (Score:3, Funny)

    by CGP314 ( 672613 ) <CGP@NOSpAM.ColinGregoryPalmer.net> on Tuesday January 20, 2004 @01:01PM (#8033764) Homepage
    I think I know something else that should be on that list.

    ::Nods head at George Bush::


    --
    In London? Need a Physics Tutor? [colingregorypalmer.net]

    American Weblog in London [colingregorypalmer.net]

  • List is dominated by games (Score:3, Insightful)

    by The I Shing ( 700142 ) * on Tuesday January 20, 2004 @01:07PM (#8033822) Journal
    I'd like to see the Vaporware Awards split up into some major categories like "Games," "Software," and "Hardware," or something like that.

    I don't eagerly await shipment of new games, being an old fuddyduddy with not a lot of free time, and I'd like to see some actual productivity and imaging products get on that list, in addition to all the games and wrist gadgets.

    What about that digital film that was supposed to come along? Whatever happened to that? I've got an old, sturdy 1970s Canon AE-1 Program that's just dying to come out of semi-retirement and use those extra-sharp FD lenses to make digital photos.

  • Add Longhorn to the list (Score:4, Funny)

    by DesScorp ( 410532 ) on Tuesday January 20, 2004 @01:10PM (#8033873) Journal
    At this rate, it'll get here in, oh, I don't know, 2012.....

  • They forgot Bitboys Oy! (Score:4, Informative)

    by SiliconJesus101 ( 622291 ) on Tuesday January 20, 2004 @01:18PM (#8033953) Homepage
    Wow, I would almost have to give Bitboys Oy ( http://www.bitboys.com ) the lifetime acheivement award. they have been announcing their "Glaze 3D" chips since Rendition was still a player in the 3D chip market.

    Ahhh, the fond memories of my Intergraph Rendition Verite' 1000 card. You could play 3D accellerated vquake at 640x480 with all the prettiness of openGL at full speed on a Pentium 166; those were the days.

  • The obvious one is missing (Score:3, Interesting)

    by edxwelch ( 600979 ) on Tuesday January 20, 2004 @01:37PM (#8034171)
    Weren't we promised a secure version of Windows from the so-called Trustworthy Computing inititive that was started 2 years ago?
    Where is it?

  • Psychonauts (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Monkelectric ( 546685 ) <slashdot@mo n k e l e c t r ic.com> on Tuesday January 20, 2004 @01:41PM (#8034211)
    Touted as one of the REASONS to own an XBOX, an exclusive title from the author of Grim Fandango. Trailers released in 2002, still *no* sign of the thing.

  • THIS STUFF IS *NOT* VAPORWARE (Score:5, Interesting)

    by popo ( 107611 ) on Tuesday January 20, 2004 @01:58PM (#8034387) Homepage
    Jesus Christ, Half Life II? Doom III?

    I for one am extremely stoked that game studios have finally adopted the "Its done when its done" mantra of releasing games.

    Let's not forget that 'etched-in-stone' release dates are responsible for most of the really atrocious games inflicted on us over the last decade.

    Blizzard, id, & Valve deserve enormous kudos for sticking firm to their convictions, and holding their corporate masters at bay while producing games that are polished and bug free.

    Vaporware suggests that these companies have promised something that has not, and will not be delivered. We should keep in mind that at *no* point have any of these companies offered firm release dates. And they should be commended for not doing so.

    What's funny is the really guilty party -- that is, the party which has most frequently made false promises of "what's coming down the pipeline" *has* to be Wired Magazine.

    My 2 cents.

  • Duke Nukem Forever (Score:5, Funny)

    by euxneks ( 516538 ) on Tuesday January 20, 2004 @02:38PM (#8034807)
    I wonder if they'll put that on the box, if/when it ever comes out:

    "Duke Nukem winner of _many_ vaporware awards!"

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