Agree so much on Space Operas. I think that's what got me so much into the TV reboot of Battlestar Gallactica. It felt like the TCS Tiger's Claw from Wing Commander. It would be so cool to see WC come back in some form with actual story lines between missions.
A while back I had a problem with the power brick for my Macbook Pro. It was running awful hot, and some of the plastic on the cable near the magnetic adapter was starting to melt. Applecare kept trying to tell me that the problem was my fault for unplugging the adapter by pulling on the cable instead of actually grabbing the magsafe plug, and that despite me having paid for applecare, they would not fix it.
A couple days later while playing a game in bootcamp, I went to unplug it, and was so hot that the power cord's coating actually melted to my hand. I called up AppleCare went through the situation again. I even explained that it had melted, I seemed to get nowhere. Where I had touched the cord it had now darkened considerably, probably from me being able to see the bare cable beneath it. I was trying to describe this to the tech and said something along the lines of, "Well there's melting damage, and the area is blackened a bit as if there was a small fire there"
Suddenly the whole tone of the conversation changed, and I was immediately transfered to a supervisor. I went through about 10 minutes answering a series of questions off a script. "Did the Fire cause any property damage?" "Was there any bodily injury caused by the fire?" "Have you suffered any loss of income due to this problem?" etc etc etc.
I answered no to everything, but simply mentioning "Fire" got me a new power brick, when no other method did. It is something Apple is clearly concerned about.
I would have thought that the Navy would have led hybrid engine research with everything that was done in WWI and WWII for submarines. Essentially those were hybrid engines, with the diesel's powering the boat on the surface and recharging the batteries, and then using the batteries when the ship was submerged.
That has all been supplanted by nuclear submarines, but you have to wonder where battery technology would be today if the Navy had kept using that system.
I ended up getting a job as a game producer thanks to Quake. I was playing online in a clan, and was one of the worst in the group but having fun. To help my score I "cheated" by figuring out how to modify the models in the game, and then adding the rocket attribute to all the player models. This caused them to smoke when they ran (pretty funny) and more importantly glow in a way which allowed me to see them when they hid in dark areas or were just around the corner.
This was long before Punkbuster, wallhacks, or any other cheats. The result was I played a lot better. One of the guys in the clan found out what I had done, and his father owned a game development studio. Next thing I know I was on a plane for Silicon Valley and working as a game producer for a few dreamcast and playstation games.
Unfortunately I was only able to continue to work until my life savings ran out. Yes the jokes about eating Tap Ramen are quite true. I was making only about 70% of what I needed just to cover basic expenses. When I asked for a raise I was told in no uncertain terms that there were plenty of other kids living with their parents who would gladly work for what I was getting.
I'm now a sysadmin living in the midwest making about 3x what I was making in the games industry, and my mortgage payment is less than the rent on my studio in Silicon Valley. I love what I do, but am really glad I took the opportunity to work in the video games industry. Have I thought about writing something on my own, sure I have. I even have a couple notebooks with fully fleshed out game designs. And I have time to do those because I'm not working 90 hours a week on somebody else's game.
So my advice for somebody wanting to get in is simple. Do something, anything, to stand out from the other potential applicants. Find a game you enjoy and mod it. If you're into graphics, find an open source game and help them out (Open source games are notorious for needing graphical help) Write flash games, make something with the XNA. In short, just do something. You'll find out a lot about yourself, and if you have the drive and dedication necessary to make it. Set yourself timelines, make milestones and meet them. But most importantly, do SOMETHING.
After the Cleveland Colleseum closed in the early 90's I went there for a sale to buy things out of it before they knocked it down. I was looking for a couple things, but specifically for a used fridge out of a loge that I could take back to college with me figuring they would be a perfect size, and at $5 how could you go wrong. Apparently they just simply cut the power after their last event without cleaning any of them out. This sale was about 2 months after that. After opening up 2 and nearly loosing my lunch, and passing a third where somebody had lost their lunch, I decided I wasn't buying a fridge.
I used to work at a Quarter Mile Drag Strip, and my office was about 70 ft from the starting line. The track allowed people to rent the track during the day, so you either had something like a mustang club burning out and going down the track every 30 seconds for the entire day, with the endless drone of engines and tires. Or there would be a top fuel team renting the track and there would be an hour of silence followed by 170+ decibel noise of the fueler burning out and launching. Getting surprised by that because I was deep in code led to quite a few bashed knees as I jumped out of my seat at that noise. My boss didn't believe in headphones, because we all needed to be able to answer the phone, and telecommuting was completely out of the question.
If their forensic evidence was that he was sharing it on BitTorrent, how did they find it? If they connected to the same torrent as him, they would have been sharing it the same as him, and thus guilty of the same offense...
How can you complain about somebody on a torrent sharing your IP, if you're on the same torrent also sharing your IP.
I worked on the team that did Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future for the Sega Dreamcast (later ported to the PS2) They were looking for a next title and I wrote up a game design to use the same underwater engine and create a submarine racing game. Something set in the future sort of along the lines of Wipeout only underwater with full 3 dimensions of freedom (pass above, below, or to the side of your opponent etc.)
Unfortunately they made a REALLY bad racing game for the PS1 instead.
Otherwise you end up with the Sega CD situation. You've fractured your customer base to those that can play games on a HD-DVD, and those that can not. If by some miracle 35% of all 360 owners buy the HD-DVD add on, just how many games do you think would be produced for it. In this day and age where game production decisions are made by accountants, ("another Madden Game, Sure!", "It's not done yet? Put it on the shelves, we need the cash.") just how many bean counters are going to approve a game that 65% of the potential customers can't buy.
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Agree so much on Space Operas. I think that's what got me so much into the TV reboot of Battlestar Gallactica. It felt like the TCS Tiger's Claw from Wing Commander. It would be so cool to see WC come back in some form with actual story lines between missions.
I'd even settle for the re-skinning of Space Quest like they recently did for Monkey's Island.
Wow, I haven't thought about Syndicate in a long time. Such a great game, and one that has so many possibilities.
A while back I had a problem with the power brick for my Macbook Pro. It was running awful hot, and some of the plastic on the cable near the magnetic adapter was starting to melt. Applecare kept trying to tell me that the problem was my fault for unplugging the adapter by pulling on the cable instead of actually grabbing the magsafe plug, and that despite me having paid for applecare, they would not fix it.
A couple days later while playing a game in bootcamp, I went to unplug it, and was so hot that the power cord's coating actually melted to my hand. I called up AppleCare went through the situation again. I even explained that it had melted, I seemed to get nowhere. Where I had touched the cord it had now darkened considerably, probably from me being able to see the bare cable beneath it. I was trying to describe this to the tech and said something along the lines of, "Well there's melting damage, and the area is blackened a bit as if there was a small fire there"
Suddenly the whole tone of the conversation changed, and I was immediately transfered to a supervisor. I went through about 10 minutes answering a series of questions off a script. "Did the Fire cause any property damage?" "Was there any bodily injury caused by the fire?" "Have you suffered any loss of income due to this problem?" etc etc etc.
I answered no to everything, but simply mentioning "Fire" got me a new power brick, when no other method did. It is something Apple is clearly concerned about.
I would have thought that the Navy would have led hybrid engine research with everything that was done in WWI and WWII for submarines. Essentially those were hybrid engines, with the diesel's powering the boat on the surface and recharging the batteries, and then using the batteries when the ship was submerged.
That has all been supplanted by nuclear submarines, but you have to wonder where battery technology would be today if the Navy had kept using that system.
I ended up getting a job as a game producer thanks to Quake. I was playing online in a clan, and was one of the worst in the group but having fun. To help my score I "cheated" by figuring out how to modify the models in the game, and then adding the rocket attribute to all the player models. This caused them to smoke when they ran (pretty funny) and more importantly glow in a way which allowed me to see them when they hid in dark areas or were just around the corner.
This was long before Punkbuster, wallhacks, or any other cheats. The result was I played a lot better. One of the guys in the clan found out what I had done, and his father owned a game development studio. Next thing I know I was on a plane for Silicon Valley and working as a game producer for a few dreamcast and playstation games.
Unfortunately I was only able to continue to work until my life savings ran out. Yes the jokes about eating Tap Ramen are quite true. I was making only about 70% of what I needed just to cover basic expenses. When I asked for a raise I was told in no uncertain terms that there were plenty of other kids living with their parents who would gladly work for what I was getting.
I'm now a sysadmin living in the midwest making about 3x what I was making in the games industry, and my mortgage payment is less than the rent on my studio in Silicon Valley. I love what I do, but am really glad I took the opportunity to work in the video games industry. Have I thought about writing something on my own, sure I have. I even have a couple notebooks with fully fleshed out game designs. And I have time to do those because I'm not working 90 hours a week on somebody else's game.
So my advice for somebody wanting to get in is simple. Do something, anything, to stand out from the other potential applicants. Find a game you enjoy and mod it. If you're into graphics, find an open source game and help them out (Open source games are notorious for needing graphical help) Write flash games, make something with the XNA. In short, just do something. You'll find out a lot about yourself, and if you have the drive and dedication necessary to make it. Set yourself timelines, make milestones and meet them. But most importantly, do SOMETHING.
For years we played games with an Atari joystick with one red button. AND WE LIKED IT! Sheesh kids these days need to stay off my lawn.
Perhaps you're looking for the eslick?
After the Cleveland Colleseum closed in the early 90's I went there for a sale to buy things out of it before they knocked it down. I was looking for a couple things, but specifically for a used fridge out of a loge that I could take back to college with me figuring they would be a perfect size, and at $5 how could you go wrong. Apparently they just simply cut the power after their last event without cleaning any of them out. This sale was about 2 months after that. After opening up 2 and nearly loosing my lunch, and passing a third where somebody had lost their lunch, I decided I wasn't buying a fridge.
...since Virginia is for Lovers. The hardest part will be determining weather their prescription was for C1A1iS or V1AGR4
Oh he loved for the caller on the other end to hear the noise. "It builds excitement for them to hear it" he used to say.
I used to work at a Quarter Mile Drag Strip, and my office was about 70 ft from the starting line. The track allowed people to rent the track during the day, so you either had something like a mustang club burning out and going down the track every 30 seconds for the entire day, with the endless drone of engines and tires. Or there would be a top fuel team renting the track and there would be an hour of silence followed by 170+ decibel noise of the fueler burning out and launching. Getting surprised by that because I was deep in code led to quite a few bashed knees as I jumped out of my seat at that noise. My boss didn't believe in headphones, because we all needed to be able to answer the phone, and telecommuting was completely out of the question.
I'm still waiting for a company to come out with a Dvorak smartphone.
BELIEVE IT!!!!!
If their forensic evidence was that he was sharing it on BitTorrent, how did they find it? If they connected to the same torrent as him, they would have been sharing it the same as him, and thus guilty of the same offense...
How can you complain about somebody on a torrent sharing your IP, if you're on the same torrent also sharing your IP.
or Hockey?
don't ask me why I still remember that stupid jingle
I worked on the team that did Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future for the Sega Dreamcast (later ported to the PS2) They were looking for a next title and I wrote up a game design to use the same underwater engine and create a submarine racing game. Something set in the future sort of along the lines of Wipeout only underwater with full 3 dimensions of freedom (pass above, below, or to the side of your opponent etc.)
Unfortunately they made a REALLY bad racing game for the PS1 instead.
Here I thought computers were powered by electricity.
Linux keeps getting better and better every day it seems.
Come on Mods, that was the funniest thing I've read all day. Excuse me while I get back to my cobol programming.
But is it fast enough to figure out the Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything?
How would that work? You're a motorcycle cop armed with a polaroid and you go around asking everybody "Have you seen this boy?"
Yeah, you'd think he would do a 360 instead.
I vote for the dog from nethack. Nothing like kicking butt with a fully rendered "d" in all it's glory.
Otherwise you end up with the Sega CD situation. You've fractured your customer base to those that can play games on a HD-DVD, and those that can not. If by some miracle 35% of all 360 owners buy the HD-DVD add on, just how many games do you think would be produced for it. In this day and age where game production decisions are made by accountants, ("another Madden Game, Sure!", "It's not done yet? Put it on the shelves, we need the cash.") just how many bean counters are going to approve a game that 65% of the potential customers can't buy.