Slashdot Mirror


User: JCZwart

JCZwart's activity in the archive.

Stories
0
Comments
57
First seen
Last seen
Profile
(view on slashdot.org)

Comments · 57

  1. Not newsworthy on Study Deconstructs Canadian Copyright Lobby Deception · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    What's newsworthy? This news will be forgotten. What will be remembered is that IP is violated on a large scale. This will fuel incentives towards more grotesque punishments of the violators.

    </sarcasm>

  2. Re:Signed up in 1987 on AOL Shuts Down CompuServe · · Score: 1

    I remember a relative bought a modem back in the days. It came with 2 diskettes (anyone still remember what that were? ;) ). One labeled 'Compuserve' (IIRC), and the other one containing the communication apps. I seem to remember reading the user's manual of Kermit, and not understanding a single word of it. Of course, I would understand things right now - thanks to the right amount of experience and a degree in IT. And thanks to things now being handled by the appropriate communication drivers.

    The BBS'es of that time of course looked like nothing compared to the internet of now. I do remember they featured 'graphics', though. Ah, the secret joys of viewing big blobs of ASCII art - in no more than 16 colors, for those lucky enough to own an EGA monitor!

  3. Re:The times they are changing... on Despite New Owner, id Still Lives Or Dies By Their Engines · · Score: 1

    Interesting. I was always wondering which game companies actually wrote their own engines.

    Which makes Carmacks position even more amazing. Imagine having the graphics engine you wrote yourself powering a multitude of games...

  4. Re:The times they are changing... on Despite New Owner, id Still Lives Or Dies By Their Engines · · Score: 1

    I found the QuakeC compiler endlessly exciting. Never gotten a grip on the QuakeC structure, though. I remember the Reaper Bot, a very intelligent Quake bot. Of course, Quake 3 and Unreal all have their own bots now. Still, I'm excited by the idea of a programmed bot being able to 'learn' the layouts of a map and reacting more or less intelligently to a player's actions.

    If only I'd have a little more time, I'd be diving more deeply into neural networks, pathfinding, etc.

  5. Re:The times they are changing... on Despite New Owner, id Still Lives Or Dies By Their Engines · · Score: 1

    And only now do I find out that Id has actually been acquired by Zenimax, which owns Bethesda as well. According to this interview with John Carmack, Doom 4 will actually be a Bethesda title.

    So I guess we might as well expect a Doom-4-engine-powered Oblivion II. Exciting!

  6. Re:The times they are changing... on Despite New Owner, id Still Lives Or Dies By Their Engines · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I always thought Id's games were perfect examples of engine showcases. I remember being very fascinated with Quake; read all about it, BSP modeling etc. (I even tried to create my own 3d-engine, which failed miserable, by the way).

    Anyone else remember Ramblings in Real-time by Mike Abrash? Worth a read if you're interested in the mechanics of the Quake 3D-engine.

    But Quake still wasn't very much more than showcasing... Id often seemed to rely on parties such as Raven Software for convincing storylines, exciting level designs, etc. I'd like to see them produce a game like Oblivion... A cutting edge 3d engine to power a convincing RPG world, what more would you want!

  7. Re:Privacy? Huh? on US Couple Gets Prison Time For Internet Obscenity · · Score: 1

    Legislation should not restrict everyone's freedoms based wrong choices an individual might make that only affects him/her.

    That wasn't really the point of the guys anecdote, now was it? Nice job skewing the perspective here.

    No where in your story do you attribute any of her downfall to anything but peer pressure. That's too bad for her that she was weak willed and couldn't see what she was getting into until it was too late, and even then, she couldn't get out before it got worse (the modeling with titties should have clued her in if that's not what she wanted to do).

    A typical reaction of someone who doesn't know what they're talking about. I know of an ugly example myself of a person being very unable to handle peer pressure. And pressure from a loved one can be very hard to deal with. This form of peer pressure easily leads to abuse - oh yes, and it's all legal, because the ill-treated one didn't complain!

    Don't underestimate this kind of peer pressure play. Be glad you've never experienced things like this in your own life. Or seen things like this happen in the lives of people you care about. Oh, and a little compassion with people failing the Strong Will test wouldn't do harm, either. Most of us make bad decisions during some time in life, and only some of us get to suffer the consequences. Doesn't make them complete morons, you know.