I think the original poster simply does not know what "low level" in terms of programming languages means. He probably just means "low skill" programmer.

I think Minecraft has way more complexities in it than its simple graphical style might suggest.

I think actually graphically intensive application can work fine, as you can offload many tasks to the GPU.

It's not high level either.

You can program C/C++ to be just as fast as assembly if needed. They're very thin layers.

Yeah of course, assembly/machine code level is about as low as you can get before the physical layer.

C/C++ are actually very low level languages. They were designed to be portable assemblers.

C is not a functional language. Haskell is a functional language (read up on it). Functional languages are very mathematical languages that have nothing to do with the sort of languages that you would commonly call programming language.

(Standard) C++ compiles into C, and in fact has many more pitfalls and fallacies associated with virtual function calls, memory allocation and pointer arithmetics. You NEED to know low level stuff (i.e. how specific C++ code compiles into C or ASM/machine code) in order to effectively use C++.

C/C++ was designed as a portable assembler.

Still pretty expensive considering that lenses like the Canon 50mm 1.8 don't cost THAT much more but are tack sharp and feature autofocus (but admittedly are also larger).

It's not that soft actually. It's still quite flat, but the edges between the darker and lighter shades is "softer". It's really like a digital cel animation, and I'm pretty sure I've seen that sort of cel animation before (digitally handdrawn/handpainted).

I've found that using the softer "spring" pen tip on Intuos pens, that I can more easily control pressure - makes calligraphic types of work (line art etc.) easier. Same helps also on my Windows 7 Tablet PC.

Cintiq probably not, as Cintiq/Intuos is a different technology.

It works with Wacom pens from their "Penabled" range that was also used on older Windows Tablet PCs and the PL series of displays. Doesn't work with the entry level Graphire/Bamboo, nor the pro level Intuos/Cintiq, but it's in the middle range of them, haptics wise. There's the "Bamboo Feel" series which is compatible…

It is technically cel shading, as "cel shading" might have come from cels, but are a pretty clearly defined rendering technique in computer graphics. That was my point. The term isn't purely aesthetic or artistic anymore, it's also technical.

The AWE soundcard's synthesizer had sampling capabilities, i.e. you could load up soundbanks (so called soundfonts). The default General-MIDI Soundbank was "adequate" though not great (I upgraded my AWE32 back then with a Yamaha DB50-XG daughterboard which had 4 MB AWM2 Wave Memory with a great sounding soundbank).

I doubt it will cut THAT much into 3DS sales because the main point of a 3DS is still mobility.

80$ is not exactly much...

Well those things are really interconnected in Japan. Doesn't do videogames justice if you just seperate them from the other things.