Ralph Baer, father of the Magnavox Odyssey home videogame system, is not exactly the "father of Pong." It is true that the Odyssey, which predates Nolan Bushnell's Pong, featured a "Tennis" game whose gameplay is pretty close to indistinguishable from Pong's, and that there is an historical debate over whether or not Bushnell saw the game before he built Pong. But then again, neither Pong nor Baer's Tennis game are all that different from Willy Higginbotham's 1958 "Tennis for Two."
It would be more accurate to call Baer the "father of the videogame" than the "father of Pong," since he unquestionably did create the first multi-game home videogame system.
I really don't know how best to communicate to the slashdot people without bashing my servers farther, and I really appreciate your help!
I think it would be nice to let people know that the funny part of the story is not that Microsoft chickened out. They didn't, really. My contact there was ready to run with the tune, with a few minor changes, right up to the last minute.
The funny part is
1. that this song was about not doing things for the money, and it almost did make it into a MS keynote talk!
2. The making of the song was surrounded by miraculous coincidences
3. I ended up having to choose between cash and integrity--and with lyrics like these, you CAN'T pick the cash!!!"
The Fat Man has sent me a copy of the MP3--his servers are, not surprisingly, overloaded. Unfortunately, my ISP won't let me set up a Bittorrent tracker--if you have the ability to do so, please email me at costik--that is, that word before an at, and after the at, followed by dot com -- two costiks dot com -- and I'll happily link to your BitTorrent, and suggest to Zonk that he do so as well.... Thanks!
Really, I mean, I'm willing to take slag for mixing up the Atari Lynx with the Jaguar... Or thinking the Net Yaroze had something to do with online gaming.... But to accuse me of having something to do with D&D is too much. The original edition of Dungeons & Dragons was designed by Dave Arneson and Gary Gygax.
Slashdot Mirror
Same page explains why I think the controversy is wrong-headed, and why this game has merit.
Oh well. Guess we get a stress test today as well.
Ralph Baer, father of the Magnavox Odyssey home videogame system, is not exactly the "father of Pong." It is true that the Odyssey, which predates Nolan Bushnell's Pong, featured a "Tennis" game whose gameplay is pretty close to indistinguishable from Pong's, and that there is an historical debate over whether or not Bushnell saw the game before he built Pong. But then again, neither Pong nor Baer's Tennis game are all that different from Willy Higginbotham's 1958 "Tennis for Two."
It would be more accurate to call Baer the "father of the videogame" than the "father of Pong," since he unquestionably did create the first multi-game home videogame system.
If they want to give a Hugo to best SF-themed game, I'm all for that... though I'll probably nominate something from Cheapass.
Oh fer chrissakes.... How long have D&D novels been on sale? There were Zork novels in the 80s, one by George Alec Effinger, which I still have....
Also, George says:
"Here is the story of Viva La Resolution.
I really don't know how best to communicate to the slashdot people without bashing my servers farther, and I really appreciate your help!
I think it would be nice to let people know that the funny part of the story is not that Microsoft chickened out. They didn't, really. My contact there was ready to run with the tune, with a few minor changes, right up to the last minute.
The funny part is
1. that this song was about not doing things for the money, and it almost did make it into a MS keynote talk!
2. The making of the song was surrounded by miraculous coincidences
3. I ended up having to choose between cash and integrity--and with lyrics like these, you CAN'T pick the cash!!!"
It's here, thanks to the miracle of Coral:
n %20oa.mp3
http://www.costik.com.nyud.net:8090/viva.mp3
And mZam is hosting it at:
http://www.thedrunktank.com/Viva%20La%20Resolutio
Thanks!
The Fat Man has sent me a copy of the MP3--his servers are, not surprisingly, overloaded. Unfortunately, my ISP won't let me set up a Bittorrent tracker--if you have the ability to do so, please email me at costik--that is, that word before an at, and after the at, followed by dot com -- two costiks dot com -- and I'll happily link to your BitTorrent, and suggest to Zonk that he do so as well.... Thanks!
The computer game rights are, ah, available for negotiations.
Really, I mean, I'm willing to take slag for mixing up the Atari Lynx with the Jaguar... Or thinking the Net Yaroze had something to do with online gaming.... But to accuse me of having something to do with D&D is too much. The original edition of Dungeons & Dragons was designed by Dave Arneson and Gary Gygax.