Yes, you'll have to "buy" it again. But it won't cost you any extra.
GameTap costs $10/month (Uru itself costs $10/mo in places were GameTap is unavailable). When you connect, all relevant files are downloaded to your system.
As I understand it, the basic Uru program is only 20 MB or so. However, each time you connect to a given area, you download the lastest version of that area (assuming that it's changed since your last visit). Total size with all Ages downloaded is about 700 MB, if I'm remembering correctly what GameTap's reps told us.
And as others mentioned, there's going to be a visitor account available. Limited access to areas, limited Avatar customization.
Gametap's evilness doesn't matter to me (and not just 'cause it isn't available outside the US yet). For the most part, if there's an older game, like a Sierra classic, that I would enjoy, I already own it. Yes, the originals, not some hastly-downloaded greyware. I treasure my favorites. (:
So for the most part, Gametap doesn't have much to offer me, and it would ordinarily slip under my radar.
Except that I'm big on Myst, and thus super-excited about Myst Online: Uru Live, which Gametap is resurrecting and making available via the Gametap network. Super-fun time.
Turner is smart. They're not just playing reruns on this station; they're going for some premium exclusive content here: Uru Live, Sam & Max, and I hear rumblings about a few other things in the works.
I remember a handful of years ago when it was full of great programs like James Burke's Connections. Hell, they even had the Hyperspace documentary not all that long ago. It was truly The Learning Channel.
But now it's just TLC. Three letters that don't mean anything. And it's full of reality shows.
Seriously, does it even have any programs that aren't reality TV?
Just want to get something out of the way... for the people who are saying "this is just as likely as believing in UFOs," you may be right on target: please distinguish Unidentified Flying Objects (which we know exist) from Alien Spacecraft (which we don't). Thankyouverymuch.
Anyhow, I recommend people check out Parapsychology: The Controversial Science by Richard S. Broughton, PhD. It gives a good overview of the current state of the field.
What seems to be true is that there is strong evidence to suggest parapsychological factors at work. Strong in that it's remarkably consistent, but it isn't a huge deviation from chance. So where chance would predict a given outcome (like a coin toss) at 50%, parapsychology tests have shown results of (fr'ex) 51 or 52%. So it's not a huge, obvious deviation, but it's consistent and certainly suggests that something is happening.
As to claims of falsification, most parapsychologists are well aware of the disdain with which they're viewed by most of the scientific community, so they're actually more careful and attentive than would be typical. There's less chance for error or falsification in most parapsych tests than in pretty much any other scientific discipline. A number of skeptics (notably James Randi and other members of CSICOP) have tried to demonstrate how some of these tests could have been falsified, but they usually involve gymnastic skill, intimate advanced knowledge of building layouts, and are often so convoluted that Occam's Razor would suggest the veracity of psychic phenomena. In fact, many parapsychologists are themselves "skeptics": "someone undecided as to what is true." They joined the field without a pre-existing belief in the paranormal and have discovered that there is, in fact, something at work.
The Wikipedia entry on Parapsychology, while a little sparse on references, does fair coverage of the subject.
New Voyages scored Takei and Gerrold, but Gerrold is not writing the Sulu episode.
From TFA:
[David Gerrold] will be writing two stories for the series. One will be a sequel to "The Trouble With Tribbles" that he says is based on an idea he had for many years. "There is a twist," Gerrold explained. "What starts out funny won't be. It will become a horror story."
Gerrold's other story will be a reworked version of "Blood and Fire", an episode he originally pitched when he was a staff member at Star Trek: The Next Generation which was ultimately rejected for its controversial content, dealing with an AIDS-like virus and the theme of homosexuality.
...
The episode in which Takei will appear, "World Enough And Time", will be co-written by Marc Scott Zicree and Michael Reaves. Zicree penned the Deep Space Nine episode "Far Beyond the Stars", in which Captain Sisko lives the life of an oppressed 20th century writer, while Reaves pitched a Sulu story for the never-produced Star Trek: Phase II that Paramount cancelled to make Star Trek feature films.
The "Rand as Tasha Yar" was the idea of director Jack Marshall, who has left New Voyages to pursue his own visions. With him gone, they're going to tone her back down some and have "hired" a new actress: Katrina Kernodle.
Now maybe it's just me, but when I think of "Dungeons & Dragons," I primarily think of settings such as Greyhawk, Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms. When I think of an MMORPG which uses the D&D brand, I'd expect it to use one of these iconic D&D settings (probably Forgotten Realms due to the higher magical content) rather than a newish pseudo-pulp fantasy setting.
Unfortunately, they've decided the latter, and are using Eberron. Not that there's anything wrong with Eberron: If they marketed it as "Eberron Online," I'd be all over it. But D&D Online? Gimme something classic. Something with staying power. Something that D&D fans from five, ten, fifteen years ago will still be familiar with.
Of course, I'd kill for a Planescape MMORPG, but that's neither here nor there.
The original King's Quest (1983) was one of the very first games released for the (at the time) brand-new IBM PC. It was fantastic for the time, but looking back it's painfully obvious that it was sixteen colours. (Screenshot)
Several years later (1990), they re-released it with newer graphics, but it was still 16 colours. This is probably the one you're thinking of. 1990 was also about the time they switched over to VGA (256 colours), so all subsequent Sierra remakes got the VGA treatment. (Screenshot)
DeSalle, who is played by Ron Boyd, is a character whipped up to replace Sulu in the first episode when the Sulu actor split just before production. He's developing into an interesting character, and will probably have some rivalry with Sulu (now being played in this and future episodes by John Lim).
While they did put Ron Boyd in as DeSalle because the previous Sulu bailed, they didn't make DeSalle up. He was actually featured in many original series episodes. (The Squire of Gothos, This Side of Paradise, Catspaw.)
Check out his Memory Alpha entry (Memory Alpha is a Trek Wiki).
What happened to Yeoman Rand? She was only ever the Captain's eyecandy, not a Lt. or a helmsman
The first NV episode establishes that the reason she was absent for Seasons 2 and 3 of TOS was because she was receiving "additional training" at Starfleet. So now she's a more in-charge kinda gal rather than Kirk's secretary.
Sulu's absence in the first episode is also explained as additional training. The NV crew has mentioned that when he returns, it'll be for a sort of training mission (think TNG's Peak Performance), with Sulu acting as First Officer. So there may not be a lot of Sulu/DeSalle rivalry.
I like the crew reshuffling. It gives them the opportunity to further develop certain characters and explore more about their personalities. As well as helping to bridge the gap between TOS and the movies.
We don't know much about the episode at this point, but the plot seems to be that Chekov (played by Andy Bray) has suddenly aged to his twilight years. Similar to the episode where everyone except Chekov rapidly ages over the course of several days. The ep's largely about how he deals with life now that he's old.
You don't think D.C. Fontana qualifies as a good writer?:D
Episode 4, which is apparently going to be feature-length, is being written by Jack Trevino and Ethan Calk, two DS9 writers.
As far as lighting and special effect, I'm willing to give them leeway given that they're paying for this whole thing out-of-pocket. They don't have a "budget," they can't get donations. They're scraping together what money they have to try to produce episodes of as high quality as they can.
I think they're doing a fantastic job. They've got a good part of the sets seen in the original series, as well as a shuttlepod. Lots of costumes and props as well. It's pretty amazing.
Well, they've been going on and on about the impending Gehenna (for Vampire) and other related end-of-the-world scenarios in other games since 1991. I mean, "Apocalypse" is right in the name of "Werewolf: The Apocalypse."
It was a combination of finally deciding take the "impending" out of "impending doom," and seeing that nearly every book that could conceivably have been written had already been written. Sales were flagging, too.
So they released four books which each presented multiple different scenarios for ending the world. Called it the Time of Judgment.
Then they took a page from Marvel's Ultimates. Gone was the 13 years of continuity people had to keep track of, gone were some of the stifling structures. Of course, people got pissed at the Wolf, but it's not like they sent their Canon Ninja Death Squads to peoples houses to burn all their old books.
The new game is fresh, and allows for a lot more possibilities than the old one. Fr'ex, where V:TM had the Camarilla and the Sabbat (and certain clans had to be members of certain sects by default,) V:TR has five different political groups.
I like it a lot better, as do a lot of others. People who don't like it can still play with the old games. No one's stopping them.
SEC. 102. WAIVER OF LAWS NECESSARY FOR IMPROVEMENT OF BARRIERS AT BORDERS.
Section 102(c) of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (8 U.S.C. 1103 note) is amended to read as follows:
`(c) Waiver-
`(1) IN GENERAL- Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Secretary of Homeland Security shall have the authority to waive, and shall waive, all laws such Secretary, in such Secretary's sole discretion, determines necessary to ensure expeditious construction of the barriers and roads under this section.
`(2) NO JUDICIAL REVIEW- Notwithstanding any other provision of law (statutory or nonstatutory), no court shall have jurisdiction--
`(A) to hear any cause or claim arising from any action undertaken, or any decision made, by the Secretary of Homeland Security pursuant to paragraph (1); or
`(B) to order compensatory, declaratory, injunctive, equitable, or any other relief for damage alleged to arise from any such action or decision.'.
The Secretary of Homeland Security can waive any and all laws he or she sees fit in order to build barriers at the US border. Any laws at all. It also would prohibit any judicial review of the Secretary of Homeland Security's decision to suspend any law.
DTRPG's recommended price scheme is that more recent PDFs cost 2/3 what the original dead-tree version cost. Older (i.e. out-of-print) books are about 1/2 original price.
They can recommend whatever they like, but the actual pricing is up to the publishers. WotC is the first one I've seen where the PDF is the same cost as the deadtree.
I've never understood the big appeal of tabbed browsing, really. And I've been using Firefox for months.
What does it offer me that new windows don't?
New windows at least let me select a specific browser window if I'm Alt-Tabbing from application to application. Likewise, if I'm using the mouse, the Windows taskbar is at the bottom of the screen and the tabs are at the top. I shouldn't have to zip my cursor all over the place just to select a particular browser window.
Yeah, I would have, but when I say "last resort" I mean that. I searched through the roughly eight billion floppies hanging around the house and none of them were functional boot discs. So there was no way I could boot in DOS.
I run WinXP (yeah, shut up) and wanted to give Lindows (shut up, I said) a shot, since I had come across a link where I could get it for free.
I ran it for a bit. It was awkward to figure out, and a lot of what I wanted to use was either impossible to get to, I'd have to pay a bunch of money for, or it was broken. The only thing of any use on it was SIPphone, which you can get for Windows anyhow.
So, anyhow, Lindows has some sort of OS selection menu system set up when you first boot, even though it's on the secondary partition. I don't know if this is standard or not, but I disliked the "hijacking" of my primary drive.
I was in Windows, working on a couple of things, when I decided I'd toast my Lindows partition, since I wasn't using it anymore. So I toasted the partition. Still working in the foreground while the partition erased in the background.
Then all of a sudden, the partition program decided it needed an immediate reboot, without giving me a chance to save what I was doing, or giving me a chance to double-check on that startup menu.
So the computer reboots. And hangs. I imagine it was looking for the menu on the now-nonexistent partition.
After a few days, my final resort was to install a second copy of WinXP on my primary partition. It got the computer working again, although everything was fscked up.
Eventually I got everything back up to snuff except video. It worked, but really poorly. A friend eventually traced the problem to a missing AGP driver. So I've been running problem-free for a couple of months now.
It was about at that point that the core of what made Sierra into Sierra, the Yosemite Entertainment division, was shut down. The last thing I bought from them was Quest for Glory V, the last thing they did before the shutdown. That was 1998.
I have. Zak McCracken, Sam & Max... I like 'em too. Doesn't mean I can't like Sierra games. And I'm not the only one.
I don't tell you what you should or shouldn't like. Long as you've found something you enjoy and you're having fun with it, cool. I don't like horror movies, I don't like romantic comedies, but that doesn't invalidate them, and I don't tell people who do enjoy them that they're insane. So let me enjoy my games, and you can enjoy yours.
Anyhow, I prefer not to type anything... Sierra came up with an innovation around 1990 where you select the appropriate "mouse cursor," "point" to the object you want to perform the action on, and "click."
The only Sierra game I want to play that involves the old parser interface right now is Quest for Glory 2, and the aforementioned AGDI is remaking it so I don't have to.
Slashdot Mirror
Yes, you'll have to "buy" it again. But it won't cost you any extra.
GameTap costs $10/month (Uru itself costs $10/mo in places were GameTap is unavailable). When you connect, all relevant files are downloaded to your system.
As I understand it, the basic Uru program is only 20 MB or so. However, each time you connect to a given area, you download the lastest version of that area (assuming that it's changed since your last visit). Total size with all Ages downloaded is about 700 MB, if I'm remembering correctly what GameTap's reps told us.
And as others mentioned, there's going to be a visitor account available. Limited access to areas, limited Avatar customization.
Gametap's evilness doesn't matter to me (and not just 'cause it isn't available outside the US yet). For the most part, if there's an older game, like a Sierra classic, that I would enjoy, I already own it. Yes, the originals, not some hastly-downloaded greyware. I treasure my favorites. (:
So for the most part, Gametap doesn't have much to offer me, and it would ordinarily slip under my radar.
Except that I'm big on Myst, and thus super-excited about Myst Online: Uru Live, which Gametap is resurrecting and making available via the Gametap network. Super-fun time.
Turner is smart. They're not just playing reruns on this station; they're going for some premium exclusive content here: Uru Live, Sam & Max, and I hear rumblings about a few other things in the works.
And this is going to kill the game industry how?
I view TLC as a microcosm of the problem.
I remember a handful of years ago when it was full of great programs like James Burke's Connections. Hell, they even had the Hyperspace documentary not all that long ago. It was truly The Learning Channel.
But now it's just TLC. Three letters that don't mean anything. And it's full of reality shows.
Seriously, does it even have any programs that aren't reality TV?
For... $85(70 Euros) a month you also get free phone and TV.
Ummm.... if it's $85/month, it isn't really "free," is it?
Just want to get something out of the way... for the people who are saying "this is just as likely as believing in UFOs," you may be right on target: please distinguish Unidentified Flying Objects (which we know exist) from Alien Spacecraft (which we don't). Thankyouverymuch.
Anyhow, I recommend people check out Parapsychology: The Controversial Science by Richard S. Broughton, PhD. It gives a good overview of the current state of the field.
What seems to be true is that there is strong evidence to suggest parapsychological factors at work. Strong in that it's remarkably consistent, but it isn't a huge deviation from chance. So where chance would predict a given outcome (like a coin toss) at 50%, parapsychology tests have shown results of (fr'ex) 51 or 52%. So it's not a huge, obvious deviation, but it's consistent and certainly suggests that something is happening.
As to claims of falsification, most parapsychologists are well aware of the disdain with which they're viewed by most of the scientific community, so they're actually more careful and attentive than would be typical. There's less chance for error or falsification in most parapsych tests than in pretty much any other scientific discipline. A number of skeptics (notably James Randi and other members of CSICOP) have tried to demonstrate how some of these tests could have been falsified, but they usually involve gymnastic skill, intimate advanced knowledge of building layouts, and are often so convoluted that Occam's Razor would suggest the veracity of psychic phenomena. In fact, many parapsychologists are themselves "skeptics": "someone undecided as to what is true." They joined the field without a pre-existing belief in the paranormal and have discovered that there is, in fact, something at work.
The Wikipedia entry on Parapsychology, while a little sparse on references, does fair coverage of the subject.
Well, the article is "since November." Let's see the big releases which have come out since then...
- A Game of Thrones
- Racer Knights of Falconus
- World of Darkness: Chicago
- Vampire: Prince of the City (boardgame)
- Exalted Second Edition
Except for Exalted 2, there really hasn't been much worth mentioning. But yes, Exalted definitely deserved a mention.
Amusingly enough, Silent Hill was filmed in Hamilton, Ontario, the same location where Resident Evil 2 was filmed.
From TFA:
The "Rand as Tasha Yar" was the idea of director Jack Marshall, who has left New Voyages to pursue his own visions. With him gone, they're going to tone her back down some and have "hired" a new actress: Katrina Kernodle.
Now maybe it's just me, but when I think of "Dungeons & Dragons," I primarily think of settings such as Greyhawk, Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms. When I think of an MMORPG which uses the D&D brand, I'd expect it to use one of these iconic D&D settings (probably Forgotten Realms due to the higher magical content) rather than a newish pseudo-pulp fantasy setting.
Unfortunately, they've decided the latter, and are using Eberron. Not that there's anything wrong with Eberron: If they marketed it as "Eberron Online," I'd be all over it. But D&D Online? Gimme something classic. Something with staying power. Something that D&D fans from five, ten, fifteen years ago will still be familiar with.
Of course, I'd kill for a Planescape MMORPG, but that's neither here nor there.
The people that make the Generation NEX make wireless SNES controllers. No Generation SNEX yet, but I wouldn't think it'd be far off.
You're misremembering somewhat.
The original King's Quest (1983) was one of the very first games released for the (at the time) brand-new IBM PC. It was fantastic for the time, but looking back it's painfully obvious that it was sixteen colours. (Screenshot)
Several years later (1990), they re-released it with newer graphics, but it was still 16 colours. This is probably the one you're thinking of. 1990 was also about the time they switched over to VGA (256 colours), so all subsequent Sierra remakes got the VGA treatment. (Screenshot)
Just a few side notes on what you said...
DeSalle, who is played by Ron Boyd, is a character whipped up to replace Sulu in the first episode when the Sulu actor split just before production. He's developing into an interesting character, and will probably have some rivalry with Sulu (now being played in this and future episodes by John Lim).
While they did put Ron Boyd in as DeSalle because the previous Sulu bailed, they didn't make DeSalle up. He was actually featured in many original series episodes. (The Squire of Gothos, This Side of Paradise, Catspaw.)
Check out his Memory Alpha entry (Memory Alpha is a Trek Wiki).
What happened to Yeoman Rand? She was only ever the Captain's eyecandy, not a Lt. or a helmsman
The first NV episode establishes that the reason she was absent for Seasons 2 and 3 of TOS was because she was receiving "additional training" at Starfleet. So now she's a more in-charge kinda gal rather than Kirk's secretary.
Sulu's absence in the first episode is also explained as additional training. The NV crew has mentioned that when he returns, it'll be for a sort of training mission (think TNG's Peak Performance), with Sulu acting as First Officer. So there may not be a lot of Sulu/DeSalle rivalry.
I like the crew reshuffling. It gives them the opportunity to further develop certain characters and explore more about their personalities. As well as helping to bridge the gap between TOS and the movies.
He's playing a 70-year-old Ensign Chekov.
We don't know much about the episode at this point, but the plot seems to be that Chekov (played by Andy Bray) has suddenly aged to his twilight years. Similar to the episode where everyone except Chekov rapidly ages over the course of several days. The ep's largely about how he deals with life now that he's old.
You don't think D.C. Fontana qualifies as a good writer? :D
Episode 4, which is apparently going to be feature-length, is being written by Jack Trevino and Ethan Calk, two DS9 writers.
As far as lighting and special effect, I'm willing to give them leeway given that they're paying for this whole thing out-of-pocket. They don't have a "budget," they can't get donations. They're scraping together what money they have to try to produce episodes of as high quality as they can.
I think they're doing a fantastic job. They've got a good part of the sets seen in the original series, as well as a shuttlepod. Lots of costumes and props as well. It's pretty amazing.
Well, they've been going on and on about the impending Gehenna (for Vampire) and other related end-of-the-world scenarios in other games since 1991. I mean, "Apocalypse" is right in the name of "Werewolf: The Apocalypse."
It was a combination of finally deciding take the "impending" out of "impending doom," and seeing that nearly every book that could conceivably have been written had already been written. Sales were flagging, too.
So they released four books which each presented multiple different scenarios for ending the world. Called it the Time of Judgment.
Then they took a page from Marvel's Ultimates. Gone was the 13 years of continuity people had to keep track of, gone were some of the stifling structures. Of course, people got pissed at the Wolf, but it's not like they sent their Canon Ninja Death Squads to peoples houses to burn all their old books.
The new game is fresh, and allows for a lot more possibilities than the old one. Fr'ex, where V:TM had the Camarilla and the Sabbat (and certain clans had to be members of certain sects by default,) V:TR has five different political groups.
I like it a lot better, as do a lot of others. People who don't like it can still play with the old games. No one's stopping them.
The Secretary of Homeland Security can waive any and all laws he or she sees fit in order to build barriers at the US border. Any laws at all. It also would prohibit any judicial review of the Secretary of Homeland Security's decision to suspend any law.
That scares me, and I don't even live in the US.
I agree about TNG.
But hey, Spike shows CSI twice a day, back to back. So they do have their redeeming factor.
DTRPG's recommended price scheme is that more recent PDFs cost 2/3 what the original dead-tree version cost. Older (i.e. out-of-print) books are about 1/2 original price.
They can recommend whatever they like, but the actual pricing is up to the publishers. WotC is the first one I've seen where the PDF is the same cost as the deadtree.
I've never understood the big appeal of tabbed browsing, really. And I've been using Firefox for months.
What does it offer me that new windows don't?
New windows at least let me select a specific browser window if I'm Alt-Tabbing from application to application. Likewise, if I'm using the mouse, the Windows taskbar is at the bottom of the screen and the tabs are at the top. I shouldn't have to zip my cursor all over the place just to select a particular browser window.
Yeah, I would have, but when I say "last resort" I mean that. I searched through the roughly eight billion floppies hanging around the house and none of them were functional boot discs. So there was no way I could boot in DOS.
I run WinXP (yeah, shut up) and wanted to give Lindows (shut up, I said) a shot, since I had come across a link where I could get it for free.
I ran it for a bit. It was awkward to figure out, and a lot of what I wanted to use was either impossible to get to, I'd have to pay a bunch of money for, or it was broken. The only thing of any use on it was SIPphone, which you can get for Windows anyhow.
So, anyhow, Lindows has some sort of OS selection menu system set up when you first boot, even though it's on the secondary partition. I don't know if this is standard or not, but I disliked the "hijacking" of my primary drive.
I was in Windows, working on a couple of things, when I decided I'd toast my Lindows partition, since I wasn't using it anymore. So I toasted the partition. Still working in the foreground while the partition erased in the background.
Then all of a sudden, the partition program decided it needed an immediate reboot, without giving me a chance to save what I was doing, or giving me a chance to double-check on that startup menu.
So the computer reboots. And hangs. I imagine it was looking for the menu on the now-nonexistent partition.
After a few days, my final resort was to install a second copy of WinXP on my primary partition. It got the computer working again, although everything was fscked up.
Eventually I got everything back up to snuff except video. It worked, but really poorly. A friend eventually traced the problem to a missing AGP driver. So I've been running problem-free for a couple of months now.
It was about at that point that the core of what made Sierra into Sierra, the Yosemite Entertainment division, was shut down. The last thing I bought from them was Quest for Glory V, the last thing they did before the shutdown. That was 1998.
That'd be the Starship Exeter that everyone here's been mentioning. (:
I have. Zak McCracken, Sam & Max... I like 'em too. Doesn't mean I can't like Sierra games. And I'm not the only one.
I don't tell you what you should or shouldn't like. Long as you've found something you enjoy and you're having fun with it, cool. I don't like horror movies, I don't like romantic comedies, but that doesn't invalidate them, and I don't tell people who do enjoy them that they're insane. So let me enjoy my games, and you can enjoy yours.
Anyhow, I prefer not to type anything... Sierra came up with an innovation around 1990 where you select the appropriate "mouse cursor," "point" to the object you want to perform the action on, and "click."
The only Sierra game I want to play that involves the old parser interface right now is Quest for Glory 2, and the aforementioned AGDI is remaking it so I don't have to.