Decision to make...

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[Goldens2]

Hello all,
     As I've said before, I just purchased my new MacBook Pro and it runs the Ship Simulator 2008 Demo Perfect (almost) under VMware Fusion 2. I'm curious as to what you folks here at the forum think. Should I buy SS 08 or wait to buy SS 09/10. I know I've read that the new version of Ship Sim is supposed to come out in early 2009, so I don't want to buy SS 08 and have SS 09/10 come out 5 or 6 months down the road (Gotta' love that technology obsolescence rule ).
                                                                                              Looking for your opinions,
                                                                                                                   Jake

[Agent|Austin]

What is the problem with the demo on your mac? I have seen some other people that were able to run shipsim fine on a mac. I assume if the demo works to your liking, the game will, you can always decrease the settings to make it work better.

[Goldens2]

Well Austin, I guess the rain in the eastern hemisphere defies gravity and hovers in the air . Otherwise, the game works great on all settings maxed out. I'm going to have to install windows under Boot Camp though so it should run fine once I do that (I'm the family IT guy, so I need to have a native install of windows b/c often my relatives get impatient over the phone, and b/c windows doesn't run perfect on VMware Fusion)

[Agent|Austin]

Yeah, well in the western hemisphere rain lags everyone, including traffic.

I try to find missions without rain anyway, it lags my system so bad its not even funny.

If you install windows under Boot Camp XP might be a better system to run ship simulator on since vista will eat ALL of your RAM, and system resources. Not sure. There have been some other reports of the same problem, but I do not know if they were resolved. I will go search around and post back here.

Thanks,
Austin

Edit: Not sure if this is the same problem you are talking about: http://www.shipsim.com/ShipSimForum/index.php/topic,7106.0.html

2 Edit: It may also be that the demo is an older version. Once you buy the game and update to 1.4.2 it may go away, but no guarantees. Can a moderator or "Expert" please help here.

Thanks

[TerryRussell]

Hi Goldens2.

It's difficult to say "buy now" or "wait", really. Personally, I'd "buy now", but I'm impatient. The new version will no doubt be a significant set of steps forward, just like the leap from the 2006 to 2008 version of Ship SImulator.

I bought the 2006 version just a couple of months befor the 2008 version was released. I use them both, so it was not a waste of money in any way.

Can't help with Mac (spits on the floor) emulation problems though. Sorry. I have no experience of them, except that their fans make a lot of noise. (Joe King)

[Captain Best]

i will say you should buy SS08 and wait for SS09.

but its your own choose.

[sadsid (†2016)]

I look at it this way if you buy 2008 you get hours of pleasure while
waiting for 2009/10 this alone gets the money back.
IF you wait you will always wonder if you should have bought 2008
in the first place. and to be honest it cost a lot less than some games
sims on the market 
                                                                   Eric
End of the day only you can choose TO BUY OR NOT TO BUY

[MrFlappy102]

And for all we know when the new version comes out it could be so ridden with bugs it wouldn't even be any fun to play! (Not likley though)

[Goldens2]

     I'm probably going to end up buying SS 08 just because I've got that same impatience problem that you have Terry (Good job jake! admitting it is the first step!). My problem should be resolved when I do a native Boot Camp install of Windows Vista Ultimate just because it is such a system resource hog that I don't think running Mac OS X and Vista at the same time is a wise choice anyway (A member of my family has an almost identical laptop, to my Mac, new HP laptop and it is lacking in the extra horsepower department [It lacks the processor power and the Nvidia 9600M GT that this Mac has]) . I've got a couple of networking issues with VMware fusion (My screen sharing client doesn't like VMware I guess). I have to buy a new copy of windows anyways because I'm using an already registered copy of windows XP SP2 (OEM) that came with my old computer so It'll stop working here in a week or two because I can't activate it ( 30 day activation period).

                                                                                     ~Jake

PS: I know this is sort of off topic, but do you think they'll include in SS 09/10, a wave engine similar to the one included with SS 08 Pro?

[TerryRussell]

Who said impatience was a problem? It saves me wasting parts of my life, waiting for things to happen... 

Anyway, admitting it allows me to say "That's me" and then I don't have to worry about it. 

[Goldens2]

Well, impatience could get to be a problem at the airport or when I'm trying to fix my relatives slow as death on crutches PC's.

And for all we know when the new version comes out it could be so ridden with bugs it wouldn't even be any fun to play! (Not likley though)

     And, I doubt Vstep would let an extremely buggy piece of software see the light of day outside their offices, like Microsoft did (and see what vista did to their reputation! Well, it's sorta fixed now I guess)

[TerryRussell]

I've seen some of it on the developer's machines. It is stunning!

[Goldens2]

I do wish Vstep would preview SS 09/10, It would make my choice much simpler.

Terry, do you know of any possible date for a preview of the new Ship Simulator?

[TerryRussell]

No, sorry.

It is still in its early stages. No-one can accurately predict software completion times, I think. If Vstep said "targetted to be available in [some month], then lots of people would complain when that month duly arrived and if the software wasn't available, saying "Vstep PROMISED".

You've seen that before...

[Goldens2]

     See Terry, if I ran a software company, I'd preview the software and say that it would be released sometime in the near future, not giving an exact date. Well, anyways thats alright. I think that when Vstep feels that the software is up to Vstep quality, they will let the software see the spotlight here on the forum. I understand that they probably won't show a preview until after christmas because of sales being effected. Just look at the original iPhone sales numbers after iPhone 3G was announced, they dropped off the chart because people were waiting for a newer and better version. That would ruin any holiday sales. And, I think I'll get SS 08 just because once the new version is out in europe, it'll be another month before I can get my hands on it here in the US (Unless I order it from Vstep).

PS: How long ago was it that you saw the version in progress?

[TerryRussell]

PS: How long ago was it that you saw the version in progress?

On Monday.

See Terry, if I ran a software company, I'd...

Ah, but amongst the other things in my life, I do run a software company. It's a very specialised one and unless you are active in the field of ISO9001 certification you wouldn't have heard of it, but we never announce software until we are getting very certain of the release date.

It's a different market to the games and simulation sector, but avoiding disappointment is a lesson that all software companies learn as they go along.

[Goldens2]

So, you make business product quality management software if I understood the description on your website (great picture, by the way!) of the ISO9001  certification correct?

[TerryRussell]

Not quite correct (but close!).

We make software for Certification Bodies who work in ISO9001 and other related areas.

PS the photo was before I shaved my beard off...

[Goldens2]

Well, it's still a good picture....

Anyway, I installed the XP CD (Boot Camp) on my MacBook Pro yesterday (usually I reserve sundays for Photoshopping pictures [Adobe Photoshop CS4 runs like a screamer on this computer], but I made an exception). Ship Simulator demo runs great, as well does my screen share client. Does anybody have any idea if you can upgrade an OEM copy of XP that is not activated to vista? I can't activate the XP OEM install b/c it is tied to the mother board on my dead Dell computer (If you remember a few months back, I posted about that issue with my Dell computer's mother board), so I only have 30 days of use.

                                                                                                      ~Jake

[TerryRussell]

No you can't update an unactivated copy. Microsoft weren't that daft! Vista has very good checking built into it.

[Goldens2]

Thanks a lot Terry, for clearing that up (I couldn't find a website that gave me a clear answer so I asked). I've read about a Vista Upgrade hack (I dislike that word) that allows you to clean install a Vista Upgrade CD (I guess you update the update). I checked the EULA on Vista and sure enough that hack violated the license agreement (that most people don't actually read).

                                                                                                             ~Jake