My last Atari joystick survived until 1988-89 or thereabouts, albeit in rather diminished form - the rubber came off the stick itself, so it was reduced to a thin white plastic column coming from the big black base, but it was still functioning there at the end. That happened to one of mine, too. After playing with it that way, I found that I preferred the feel without the black rubber, and took it off the other joysticks as well. I felt it allowed more precision. But then, I always used a light touch - unlike many of my friends who would be wrenching the things around, contorting their entire bodies, etc.
Wow, is there anyway to hook a 2600 style controller up to my Mac? I need to get my fix! I do not think my Logitech Precision is up to the task! I bought a "Stelladaptor 2600 to USB Interface" from AtariAge, but I don't see it listed on their website now. It worked fairly well in the Atari 800 emulator under OS X. I haven't tried it in a while - I really should.
"You must be new here." '$' substitution has been going on for a long time, at least as far back as T$R (TSR, makers of D&D) and CI$ (Compuserve) in the early 80s... and I recall seeing/doing it for Microsoft in the early-mid 90s. It's useful as a way to show that you believe a certain entity places far greater emphasis on being greedy at the expense of everything else about it.
I think you're very wrong about WoW here. Talents define a character's abilities much more than gear does. While better/worse gear does make a big difference in how well you can apply the talents you've chosen, a character of pretty much any class who is heavily specialized in one of the available talent trees will use different tactics and ability combinations than a character of the same class who is heavily invested in another tree. I say this as someone with 3x70th, 1x63rd, 2x60th, 2x58th, 1x37th level characters - I've tried all classes and many of the talent trees.
I agree with most of what you said otherwise; just the bit about gear in WoW strikes me as different from my experience.
I'm not familiar with Aftermath, and have read but not played too much of MERP/Rolemaster, but I think Fringeworthy and its siblings, or The Morrow Project, are probably in the same league.
If it came down to that, it would be because I don't want to support WotC anymore. I certainly wouldn't lose the people as friends or anything like that. I just wouldn't play 4ed D&D.
It's still speculation to me at this point. I intend to give 4ed a fair chance once the actual rulebooks come out. It's just that what I've heard and seen so far has not been promising.
Other people have replied, and I'll add mine to theirs. You aren't the only one.
I suspect one of the two groups I play with will adopt 4ed. If that happens I'll probably leave a gaming group I've been with for about 24 years. Everything I've read about the 4ed rules leads me to believe that it will be complete crap. I'd like to keep my EQ/WoW separate from my D&D, thanks.
I just like the irony of "Corwin of Amber" talking about not believing in parallel universes... (they figured very prominently in the fiction which is the source of that name).
In those days I liked to go into a store that was selling Apple ][ machines and type in a short program in hex codes that printed a random character to the screen and clicked the speaker, in a tight loop, so the screen would fill with scrolling garbage while the machine emitted a buzzing sound.
I remember the wannabe 'hackers' in my high school who thought they were elite (though I'm unsure whether that term was in usage back then) because they had Locksmith and a parameter list.
I remember wandering the halls during some stupid 'pep rally' or something (actually I think it may have been an awards ceremony for the senior class), and getting stopped by a teacher and asked why we weren't there. We showed her our boxes of disks and mumbled something about 'doing computer stuff' and she let us go...
But the most enjoyed were the Wizardry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wizardry series from Sir Tech. I played a pirated version of this on the local library's computers, whenever the librarian wasn't looking... After high school I joined her D&D game and we still play every Saturday night, almost 24 years later...
I wrote my own game called 'Wizardry', in Basic on Apple ][. You played a wizard in a magical duel against another wizard. It was loosely based on a T$R game whose name I don't remember anymore.
I also enjoyed Castle Wolfenstien I remmber the word "SS" and "you are caught" sending shivers down my spine. The speech was pretty amazing for the hardware I think you had to toggle the speakers memory location. $C030, still burned in my memory.
"Your father's FORTRAN compiler. He wanted you to have it, when you were old enough. Not as clumsy as Java or random as Perl. An elegant language, for a more civilized era."
Slashdot Mirror
Easy, just build a roof over the whole planet. Problem solved.
I agree. I have the dual joystick model, and it makes playing Robotron the same as the arcade.
Hey, I've programmed extensively in the various xBase languages, and always want to use '#' for inequality. It's not a laughing matter.
Sadly, the Ocular Penetration Restriction Act of 2007 makes that illegal.
*No purchase necessary. While supplies last.
"You must be new here." '$' substitution has been going on for a long time, at least as far back as T$R (TSR, makers of D&D) and CI$ (Compuserve) in the early 80s... and I recall seeing/doing it for Microsoft in the early-mid 90s. It's useful as a way to show that you believe a certain entity places far greater emphasis on being greedy at the expense of everything else about it.
I'm still waiting for my Triphibian Atomicar.
I found the similarity to "GNAA" even more chilling :-).
I think you're very wrong about WoW here. Talents define a character's abilities much more than gear does. While better/worse gear does make a big difference in how well you can apply the talents you've chosen, a character of pretty much any class who is heavily specialized in one of the available talent trees will use different tactics and ability combinations than a character of the same class who is heavily invested in another tree. I say this as someone with 3x70th, 1x63rd, 2x60th, 2x58th, 1x37th level characters - I've tried all classes and many of the talent trees.
I agree with most of what you said otherwise; just the bit about gear in WoW strikes me as different from my experience.
I'm not familiar with Aftermath, and have read but not played too much of MERP/Rolemaster, but I think Fringeworthy and its siblings, or The Morrow Project, are probably in the same league.
If it came down to that, it would be because I don't want to support WotC anymore. I certainly wouldn't lose the people as friends or anything like that. I just wouldn't play 4ed D&D.
It's still speculation to me at this point. I intend to give 4ed a fair chance once the actual rulebooks come out. It's just that what I've heard and seen so far has not been promising.
Other people have replied, and I'll add mine to theirs. You aren't the only one.
I suspect one of the two groups I play with will adopt 4ed. If that happens I'll probably leave a gaming group I've been with for about 24 years. Everything I've read about the 4ed rules leads me to believe that it will be complete crap. I'd like to keep my EQ/WoW separate from my D&D, thanks.
I just like the irony of "Corwin of Amber" talking about not believing in parallel universes... (they figured very prominently in the fiction which is the source of that name).
True, that would have been evil-er, but harder to type in the machine code from memory in under 15 seconds :-).
Ah, nice. I don't recall whether I ever tried that.
I used to use the same program, except I loaded the accumulator with the contents of a zero page location whose contents were constantly changing.
In those days I liked to go into a store that was selling Apple ][ machines and type in a short program in hex codes that printed a random character to the screen and clicked the speaker, in a tight loop, so the screen would fill with scrolling garbage while the machine emitted a buzzing sound.
I feel bad about it now.
I remember the wannabe 'hackers' in my high school who thought they were elite (though I'm unsure whether that term was in usage back then) because they had Locksmith and a parameter list.
I remember wandering the halls during some stupid 'pep rally' or something (actually I think it may have been an awards ceremony for the senior class), and getting stopped by a teacher and asked why we weren't there. We showed her our boxes of disks and mumbled something about 'doing computer stuff' and she let us go...
I wrote my own game called 'Wizardry', in Basic on Apple ][. You played a wizard in a magical duel against another wizard. It was loosely based on a T$R game whose name I don't remember anymore. I also enjoyed Castle Wolfenstien I remmber the word "SS" and "you are caught" sending shivers down my spine. The speech was pretty amazing for the hardware I think you had to toggle the speakers memory location. $C030, still burned in my memory.
... and then administer Corporal Punishment.
"Your father's FORTRAN compiler. He wanted you to have it, when you were old enough. Not as clumsy as Java or random as Perl. An elegant language, for a more civilized era."
"IT Satrap", sounds like something from a business card.