I haven't thought about Telengard in a very long time. It was mostly in basic (maybe all in basic, I don't remember), and I printed the entire thing out on scroll paper. It was like 50 feet long and I remember crawling back and forth on the floor tracing the code looking for ways to cheat...
Let's just say that my characters never had trouble with bad stats or not enough money...
Since we are on the Commodore nostalgia kick, who remembers Phantasy or Impossible Mission?
"These little squares are tanks and those little squares are infantry..."
You have a good point about nethack. The biggest problem I have now is that I haven't played the game in almost 20 years... My memory may be a bit faulty... Of course you wouldn't want to perfectly replicate the old game, just use it as inspiration. Networked play would be fun. Not sure how well turn based play would work with multiplayer, however.
Man, I loved that game. My brother and I played the crap out of it on the C-64.
Another game I loved was Wargame Construction Set. The great thing about it was that the graphics were so primitive any schmuck could make a "mod". You didn't need to have a friggin' clue about 3D modeling... You just picked a little sprite and adjusted properties.
You could probably replicate the game in a few weeks in Java, but I doubt anyone today would accept the graphics...:-(
Yes, they were incredibly stupid to put ANY URL in ANY game without checking it and making sure they own it.
However, what this guy did was not "just being an entrepreneur" (although I agree it was sleazy).
You can't call it cybersquatting, however, since he didn't register it in hopes that someone would want it. He KNEW they would not only want this URL, but that they would HAVE to have it once he turned it into something that would damage their brand.
My guess is that he will win and they will pay him off. That will be the simplest, easiest path for them. I doubt there is any law being violated, but he is basically blackmailing them (in the ethical sense of the word, not the strict LEGAL sense). They cannot allow this URL to be associated with their game, so they will be forced to act. As long as he doesn't demand stupid amounts of money, they'll know they are better off just paying him.
Hollywood has for decades used 555 phone numbers because they do not exist. If you place a phone number in a movie or TV show or song, then bunches of people with more curiosity than activities to occupy their time are going to call it. And call it. And call it.
If I were going to place a URL in a game, book, movie, song, etc. I would either pre-pay registration on that name for at LEAST 10 years, or use a domain that isn't legal (like www.ratmeat.pdz).
Of course they are REALLY stupid for missing a DEAD simple tie in to their game. They SHOULD have made a website that would reward the curious game player with additional info, entertainment, levels packs, etc. What a missed opportunity.
I'm not the first to say this (see www.xmfan.com), but the value in the radio over CD/MP3, etc. is that you will never be surprised by something coming off a disk you create. It contains nothing you didn't put there. My commute is around an hour each way, so I find it nice to hear songs (or news) I haven't heard before. I also have the Delphi SkyFi with the indoor dock as well as the car dock, so I can listen at home and work.
Not for everyone, but it has helped save my sanity. I tried the MP3 route both for music and spoken word (www.audible.com). Trouble with audible is that even their best quality format isn't good enough for me to always understand it over the basic sounds of traffic.
LOL. Now the guy with the root password will be an OUTSIDE company. Hilarious. No security risk there. Guess what? The guy with the root password is probably going to be some guy in India or China who gets paid peanuts to guard the security of a financial institution. And the company execs will feel they have done something GOOD!
What a bunch of rubes. "The fox says the dog isn't good at guarding the hen house! Let's get rid of the dog and let the fox be the guard!" No doubt the fox will be paid a great deal of money for the report and then truck loads of money to guard the hen house.
Yes, they will get what they deserve, but their customers will get something they do not deserve. I certainly hope it isn't a financial institution I use...
First, we didn't just invent them and then fight them. We kept them as slaves. The original war with the Cylons was basically a slave revolt.
Second, Six made two references to God sending her. Nothing could be scarier than machines becoming self-aware and emotional and then getting religion. That would make for a very rich story line.
The fact that they want to kill all humans means that the humans have to try to kill them (or escape them -- good luck with that plan...), but at the same time the thinking humans will have that nagging little feeling that maybe, just maybe it is a case of just desserts. Enslaving another thinking being is utterly wrong, but self-preservation is an absolute imperative. Good stuff to chew on for the writers.
I for one hope it does make it as a series. Or at least a series of mini-serieseses...;-)
OK, I haven't seen the show yet, so I can't say how much I agree with the reviewer, BUT I can say that he included a sentence I thought was hilarious.
He basically said it was like something you would watch in the waiting room "while a doctor probes for nodules where nodules sometimes grow."
Now THAT is funny.
I also have to say that is isn't a particularly good sign when they have to make a show about the show, defending their decisions about the show...
I will give them credit for not just doing a remake. This series is targeted at the audience who watched the original. We've all grown up now... If they kept many of the elements of the original (Moffet the daggit, for instance) we would all be shouting about it the way we shouted about Jar Jar...
I like the idea of female pilots, but I do think it was a stretch to convert TWO of the THREE main characters from male to female. That would be like Charlie's Angels with two guys and one girl, none of whom you had ever seen before...
The preview show made Apollo look like a snotty character you just wouldn't want to hang around with. Maybe Richard Hatch wasn't the best actor in the world, but at least you LIKED his Apollo. I want to hear their explanation of why he has a TOTALLY different accent then his dad... Dad is hispanic, son is painfully British. Hmm. Oh, Lucy, you have some 'splaining to do!
I found Baulders Gate to be booooring. The basic "plot" was walk waaaaay over there and get that "special thing" and bring it all the way back over here. Oh, yeah, be sure you only move at a liesurely pace. When you're done find someone else who needs a "special thing" from far away and retrieve it.
I tried to play through it, but lost interest after searching the woods for some silly dog or something (it has been several years since I played it... so forgive me if I picked the wrong pet).
More recently I tried to play through Dungeon Siege and lost interest about half way through. That was just a nearly endless sequence of kill the monsters so you can level up so you can the bigger monsters so you can level up so you can kill the... etc, etc, ad infinitum, ad nauseum.
I've been waiting since the late 70's to find a truly compelling Dungeons and Dragons computer experience. I had high hopes (once more) for NeverWinter Nights since it put the DM back into the game. The bad reviews I've read, however, lead me to think it is probably not worth the time...
Why create it so that "the illumination of the screen could keep it going" when you could just as realistically create it so that the illumination of the screen would create a SURPLUS of energy?
As a matter of fact, why not just have it create so much energy that it could "beam" the energy back to supplement the "power grid"?
Yeah! She and Moby should definitely get together.
Yeah, baby! Impossible Mission all the way! That was the first digitized speech in a game I had ever heard.
Here's a funny true story...
If you played Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight, then you remember the sound the damned probe droids made. If you heard one you had to jump around and look up so it wouldn't zap you from above before you spotted it.
One day I was in a different office than I normally work in and talking to some co-workers. From behind and above me I heard the sound of a probe droid! I almost jumped out of my skin. Turns out there was a problem with the air conditioner, but the sound it made was almost identical to the probe droid. Close enough that my subconscious mind wanted to take evasive action.
Fortunately I was able to stop short of making a diving roll!
Ah, but did you have the Bard's Tale Construction Set?
It was wicked cool (at the time) to be able to create your own levels AND you didn't need an advanced degree in 3D modeling, etc.
The thing that killed it was that you could only distribute your game to the three other people who bought the construction set...
If they don't get to the point where they'll release the game as open source, I hope they will at least release either an editor or the API so that someone else could create an editor.
The funniest part is that at the bottom of the "we ain't hiring no stinking SCO employees" page, is the admission that they DON'T HAVE ANY JOB OPENINGS.
In other words, "We aren't hiring anyone, but we are ESPECIALLY not hiring employees of SCO."
This baby has SIXTEEN luxurious shades of grey in its rich, sumptous palette, my man. Hardly, "black and white".
As for getting a portable DVD. Pshaw. There's nothing to reverse engineer! You just burn a video CD and you're done. WHERE is the fun in that? AND they have those big, bulky screens. Quite frankly I'm tired of all the color displays these days. What about the colorblind!!!
I just hope Thor Heyerdahl doesn't slap him with a patent suit.
MAN! Everybody's suing these days. Old ladies who pour scalding coffee on their crotches, smokers, gun nuts, now DEAD anthropologists? Where will the madness end?
As of today, I've only seen one decent application written in 100% Pure Java, and that's a text editor.
And that text editor can get pretty funky if you add in too many plugins... Don't get me wrong, I use jedit every day, but you have to be careful how many plugins you add...
SWT is pretty interesting. It is the AWT replacement originally from IBM that is behind the Eclipse IDE. It beats the holy crap out of swing for stability and performance. Like I said, I'm a jedit user, not an Eclipse user, but that is because I like the plugin architecture of jedit. I would personally like to see jedit based on SWT, but the development community is committed to making an editor that should run equally on just about any JVM/OS combo.
I like Java, but I have to agree that for games C#/.Net has a better shot at success whether I like it or not...
Slashdot Mirror
I haven't thought about Telengard in a very long time. It was mostly in basic (maybe all in basic, I don't remember), and I printed the entire thing out on scroll paper. It was like 50 feet long and I remember crawling back and forth on the floor tracing the code looking for ways to cheat...
Let's just say that my characters never had trouble with bad stats or not enough money...
Since we are on the Commodore nostalgia kick, who remembers Phantasy or Impossible Mission?
You have a good point about nethack. The biggest problem I have now is that I haven't played the game in almost 20 years... My memory may be a bit faulty... Of course you wouldn't want to perfectly replicate the old game, just use it as inspiration. Networked play would be fun. Not sure how well turn based play would work with multiplayer, however.
Must...fight...urge...to...take...on...another.. .project... ;-)
Another game I loved was Wargame Construction Set. The great thing about it was that the graphics were so primitive any schmuck could make a "mod". You didn't need to have a friggin' clue about 3D modeling... You just picked a little sprite and adjusted properties.
You could probably replicate the game in a few weeks in Java, but I doubt anyone today would accept the graphics... :-(
However, what this guy did was not "just being an entrepreneur" (although I agree it was sleazy).
You can't call it cybersquatting, however, since he didn't register it in hopes that someone would want it. He KNEW they would not only want this URL, but that they would HAVE to have it once he turned it into something that would damage their brand.
My guess is that he will win and they will pay him off. That will be the simplest, easiest path for them. I doubt there is any law being violated, but he is basically blackmailing them (in the ethical sense of the word, not the strict LEGAL sense). They cannot allow this URL to be associated with their game, so they will be forced to act. As long as he doesn't demand stupid amounts of money, they'll know they are better off just paying him.
Hollywood has for decades used 555 phone numbers because they do not exist. If you place a phone number in a movie or TV show or song, then bunches of people with more curiosity than activities to occupy their time are going to call it. And call it. And call it.
If I were going to place a URL in a game, book, movie, song, etc. I would either pre-pay registration on that name for at LEAST 10 years, or use a domain that isn't legal (like www.ratmeat.pdz).
Of course they are REALLY stupid for missing a DEAD simple tie in to their game. They SHOULD have made a website that would reward the curious game player with additional info, entertainment, levels packs, etc. What a missed opportunity.
Not for everyone, but it has helped save my sanity. I tried the MP3 route both for music and spoken word (www.audible.com). Trouble with audible is that even their best quality format isn't good enough for me to always understand it over the basic sounds of traffic.
What a bunch of rubes. "The fox says the dog isn't good at guarding the hen house! Let's get rid of the dog and let the fox be the guard!" No doubt the fox will be paid a great deal of money for the report and then truck loads of money to guard the hen house.
Yes, they will get what they deserve, but their customers will get something they do not deserve. I certainly hope it isn't a financial institution I use...
First, we didn't just invent them and then fight them. We kept them as slaves. The original war with the Cylons was basically a slave revolt.
Second, Six made two references to God sending her. Nothing could be scarier than machines becoming self-aware and emotional and then getting religion. That would make for a very rich story line.
The fact that they want to kill all humans means that the humans have to try to kill them (or escape them -- good luck with that plan...), but at the same time the thinking humans will have that nagging little feeling that maybe, just maybe it is a case of just desserts. Enslaving another thinking being is utterly wrong, but self-preservation is an absolute imperative. Good stuff to chew on for the writers.
I for one hope it does make it as a series. Or at least a series of mini-serieseses... ;-)
He basically said it was like something you would watch in the waiting room "while a doctor probes for nodules where nodules sometimes grow."
Now THAT is funny.
I also have to say that is isn't a particularly good sign when they have to make a show about the show, defending their decisions about the show...
I will give them credit for not just doing a remake. This series is targeted at the audience who watched the original. We've all grown up now... If they kept many of the elements of the original (Moffet the daggit, for instance) we would all be shouting about it the way we shouted about Jar Jar...
I like the idea of female pilots, but I do think it was a stretch to convert TWO of the THREE main characters from male to female. That would be like Charlie's Angels with two guys and one girl, none of whom you had ever seen before...
The preview show made Apollo look like a snotty character you just wouldn't want to hang around with. Maybe Richard Hatch wasn't the best actor in the world, but at least you LIKED his Apollo. I want to hear their explanation of why he has a TOTALLY different accent then his dad... Dad is hispanic, son is painfully British. Hmm. Oh, Lucy, you have some 'splaining to do!
Well I for one welcome our new hottie robot overlords with rabid sexual desires!
I tried to play through it, but lost interest after searching the woods for some silly dog or something (it has been several years since I played it... so forgive me if I picked the wrong pet).
More recently I tried to play through Dungeon Siege and lost interest about half way through. That was just a nearly endless sequence of kill the monsters so you can level up so you can the bigger monsters so you can level up so you can kill the ... etc, etc, ad infinitum, ad nauseum.
I've been waiting since the late 70's to find a truly compelling Dungeons and Dragons computer experience. I had high hopes (once more) for NeverWinter Nights since it put the DM back into the game. The bad reviews I've read, however, lead me to think it is probably not worth the time...
So much for the grumpy old roleplayer rant...
Hordes? All this time I've been waiting with baited breath for Whores of the Underdark and it turns out to be Hordes! Damn!!!
Is it just me, or is Senator Lieberman the father from the Alf show? Every time he's on TV I expect him to start yelling at Alf to spit out the cat.
She's not thinking BIG enough!
;-)
Why create it so that "the illumination of the screen could keep it going" when you could just as realistically create it so that the illumination of the screen would create a SURPLUS of energy?
As a matter of fact, why not just have it create so much energy that it could "beam" the energy back to supplement the "power grid"?
Yeah! She and Moby should definitely get together.
Seriously, if it would yell at my cat when she gets on it, it might be worth it...
Here's a funny true story...
If you played Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight, then you remember the sound the damned probe droids made. If you heard one you had to jump around and look up so it wouldn't zap you from above before you spotted it.
One day I was in a different office than I normally work in and talking to some co-workers. From behind and above me I heard the sound of a probe droid! I almost jumped out of my skin. Turns out there was a problem with the air conditioner, but the sound it made was almost identical to the probe droid. Close enough that my subconscious mind wanted to take evasive action.
Fortunately I was able to stop short of making a diving roll!
It was wicked cool (at the time) to be able to create your own levels AND you didn't need an advanced degree in 3D modeling, etc.
The thing that killed it was that you could only distribute your game to the three other people who bought the construction set...
If they don't get to the point where they'll release the game as open source, I hope they will at least release either an editor or the API so that someone else could create an editor.
In other words, "We aren't hiring anyone, but we are ESPECIALLY not hiring employees of SCO."
As for getting a portable DVD. Pshaw. There's nothing to reverse engineer! You just burn a video CD and you're done. WHERE is the fun in that? AND they have those big, bulky screens. Quite frankly I'm tired of all the color displays these days. What about the colorblind!!!
That's a lot of money and a loooong way to go to get around child labor laws...
GET the robots, then use them to colonize the moon AND Mars!
No, no! Get the robots, use them to colonize the moon and Mars, then get a HYPERDRIVE thingy and colonize the whole galaxy!
Our neighborhood didn't have a bit, so we had to just PRETEND we had a bit.
We were so hungry from eating nothing but paint chips that our imaginations were crap so our pretend bit was ALWAYS off, so we ALWAYS lost!
But we were HAPPY to have our pretend bit!
MAN! Everybody's suing these days. Old ladies who pour scalding coffee on their crotches, smokers, gun nuts, now DEAD anthropologists? Where will the madness end?
HA!
REAL geeks still PLAY 1st edition!
And live in their parent's basement.
And hope someday they'll actually meet a real GIRL (with +5 ta-tas).
No game is so good that I will buy or even play it from a site that is affiliated with CPU sucking spyware!
And that text editor can get pretty funky if you add in too many plugins... Don't get me wrong, I use jedit every day, but you have to be careful how many plugins you add...
SWT is pretty interesting. It is the AWT replacement originally from IBM that is behind the Eclipse IDE. It beats the holy crap out of swing for stability and performance. Like I said, I'm a jedit user, not an Eclipse user, but that is because I like the plugin architecture of jedit. I would personally like to see jedit based on SWT, but the development community is committed to making an editor that should run equally on just about any JVM/OS combo.
I like Java, but I have to agree that for games C#/.Net has a better shot at success whether I like it or not...