You could actually find lots of half-BASIC/half-assembly programs where the assembly complimented the BASIC program. Stuff like the hardcore graphics mode routines were done in assembly and called from BASIC with the SYS function (if I remember correctly). Heh, I think I even figured out one day where your BASIC program was stored in memory and that you could run your BASIC program with a SYS command. Fun stuff to remember.
I don't remember multi-color mode, as I think the C64 always offered 16 colors, whether in text-mode or graphics mode. Is this right? I think so and I think the mode was always 320x200 as well. (160x200x4? You must be thinking of another machine)
I can't remember it correctly, it I think it might have. If my memory serves me right, you needed to POKE to get the sprites to display. This, of course, was much more similar to doing it in assembly, so I guess that made the transition easier. One thing was that you had the text-mode and graphics mode, and doing things with BASIC in graphics mode was just too damn slow. Drawing a line in a FOR-loop took ages! But the truly amazing stuff did happen in graphics mode... what was it called? Hi-res mode versus low-res (text) mode?
Anyway, using sprites and sound in BASIC on the Commodore 64 instantly gave you knowledge of PEEK's and POKE's and the existence of a system memory. So yeah, I guess you're right.
My first computer was a Commodore 64, so I guess a lot had already been figured out and documented by others back then. Still it was fun playing around with basic and later assembly, though I never really followed through on the latter. Rasters were the thing; how incredibly satisfying it was to finally be able to make my own and move them around screen in a sine wave. Ripping off intro music from others and using their music engine in your own primitive demos... I wish I had spent more time and effort in learning more of this stuff.
The most nostalgic thing to me still are the intros and demos of the time. Nothing that is made in this day can match this unless it looks like the demos of that time. The appreggio-driven music was absolutely brilliant and brings back ancient history instantly.
I never really was able to get into the demo scene of the PC, though it was still interesting nonetheless.
Yeah, sure, they're gonna make up an elaborate story to delay their release one week. Like it'd not be much easier to just tell the world how they're be a little late with this release.
I mean, let's face it. That would just completely destroy their reputation, contrary to word that their servers have been hacked.
This is just plain wrong. Games like Doom were revolutionary at the time, as were LucasArt's. But when 3D kicked in, the adventure gaming world reluctantly caved in. It didn't work. These games did also sport fancy 3D characters, but only few managed to pull off a believable atmosphere.
Hell, I'm playing Full Throttle and Beneath A Steel Sky on ScummVM right now, as my new 2.6 kernel is compiling. There are VERY few modern games that have managed to pull me in.
Original poster was right. These games don't NEED super-graphics. The gfx that are there provide enough to get immersed.
Ah, you prefer guessing whether that one pixel hits your pointer over having visual aid that you can use to figure out if you're messing something up? Keeps the excitement in graphic design, doesn't it?
I've hit Undo more times than necessary because of this. And don't even try to smudge with an arrow as a pointer without getting frustrated.
So, does it finally have mouse pointers like Photoshop, that are the size of the currently selected brush so that you can actually see how big an area you are affecting?
I've owned a Commodore 64. You can't tell me any C64 desktop is as convenient and responsive as a modern PC. Sure, it might work. But saying upgrading would give you no benefit is just plain silly C64-zealotry. Not that you directly said it.
PC's that are nigh invulnerable to viruses? Check out any OS without Windows.
Sorry, I think you misread. I have other application that integrate well with MS-Office (and not OpenOffice). Throwing this out would not be received well.
Actually, this Slashdot article is kinda useless. If you read the article, it says the professor dropped the case and is not negotiating changes to the site with the professor to improve it. Part of the enhancements is a system in which users can flag reviews for deletetion, upon volunteers can then check it and permanently remove it.
Given the problems we've had over the last years getting this software package to run right for us, I don't think porting it all over right now would sit well with management. We've invested a lot of money and can't really back out now. Full migration to Linux desktops would be years away. In fact, we just bought brand new 2.6GHz machines with WinXP Pro. In fact, WinXP Pro isn't that bad at all, if the Microsoft company wasn't behind it.
Anyway, the software company has been rewriting the software to have better Sun VM support, but it's still underway. It works, but much slower. Listen, you gotta understand how many problems we've had with this company! Sure, we should just sue 'em, but that doesn't get us the results we want: a working software package. They're getting off their butts-- slowly. We've gone higher up a while ago and it seems to work. Actually, we were a pilot program for a new target audience of their software package. They've invested as much as we did, so it's a trade-off. Suffice it to say that some bad decisions have been made before my time, but now we're kinda stuck with it.
We definately need Office. It integrates well with all sorts of other software, like telex and fax solutions. Also, we have a server-client application that runs Linux on the server, but-- get this-- has been written towards Microsoft's Java VM on the client! Sun's VM runs it much slower on the clients.
Anyway... such tie-ins make it hard to migrate to Linux. I'm not even talking about disgruntled users having to learn something new (computer illiterates abound!).
They already do this with driving, or at least they try to. It doesn't work, apparantly, if you take a look at traffic.
Grandparent has it wrong, of course. Even if the clueless teenagers don't know how to program, there will always be competent programmers developing tools to create malicious software for them, as there has been from the beginning. And these script kiddies will gobble it up like a badly written VisualBasic virus.
And here I was thinking that using triggers allowed one to set up a nice-sounding kit with more easy and less cost than an acoustic set. This is still true, of course, but apparantly it's not just a matter of plugging your module into the PA. I know lots can be done today, but some drummers just opt for this extreme electronic sound and this doesn't go well with metal/rock if you ask me. For me, it ruins the music and I can't help it. It's like some of the art is lost.
You know, I'm a drummer too. I really don't like how drummachines sound, though. Not in my genre... many drummers use triggers and even MIDI nowadays to make it sound just "perfect"... that is, as lifeless as a drummachine.
Have a listen to my failings at our website, though. No, really. I didn't reply just so that I could plug our worthless shit. As if.
I can't begin to name the problems an ISP will have when they DON'T keep logs in, for example, abuse cases, but wouldn't NOT keeping logs be the perfect way for a rebellious ISP to refuse handing over customer information? Since, hell, they don't HAVE the information the RIAA wants?
GIMP != Photoshop, blah blah blah. When's a new version of GIMP due, anyway? And what new features will it boast? Haven't seen any activity in a long time.
Dude! Great way to unconspicuously promote your band! If I had a band I would be so mentioning my band in every sentence of my Slashdot post! What a good idea to direct people to two death metal MP3's free for download.
Heh.
And how do you suppose you can express the quality of code in numbers? Hmm, maybe I should read the research paper first, but the possibility of a first post is simply... hypnotic!
What about Baldur's Gate 1+2? Neverwinter Nights? These deserve to be mentioned as well. Black Isle was one of those surprising little companies with heart for what they do that totally stunned me and became my favorite, sort of like SquareSoft on the PlayStation. This hurts, because it feels like the big corporation has won over the fanatical creative artist.
Slashdot Mirror
You could actually find lots of half-BASIC/half-assembly programs where the assembly complimented the BASIC program. Stuff like the hardcore graphics mode routines were done in assembly and called from BASIC with the SYS function (if I remember correctly). Heh, I think I even figured out one day where your BASIC program was stored in memory and that you could run your BASIC program with a SYS command. Fun stuff to remember. I don't remember multi-color mode, as I think the C64 always offered 16 colors, whether in text-mode or graphics mode. Is this right? I think so and I think the mode was always 320x200 as well. (160x200x4? You must be thinking of another machine)
I can't remember it correctly, it I think it might have. If my memory serves me right, you needed to POKE to get the sprites to display. This, of course, was much more similar to doing it in assembly, so I guess that made the transition easier. One thing was that you had the text-mode and graphics mode, and doing things with BASIC in graphics mode was just too damn slow. Drawing a line in a FOR-loop took ages! But the truly amazing stuff did happen in graphics mode... what was it called? Hi-res mode versus low-res (text) mode? Anyway, using sprites and sound in BASIC on the Commodore 64 instantly gave you knowledge of PEEK's and POKE's and the existence of a system memory. So yeah, I guess you're right.
My first computer was a Commodore 64, so I guess a lot had already been figured out and documented by others back then. Still it was fun playing around with basic and later assembly, though I never really followed through on the latter. Rasters were the thing; how incredibly satisfying it was to finally be able to make my own and move them around screen in a sine wave. Ripping off intro music from others and using their music engine in your own primitive demos... I wish I had spent more time and effort in learning more of this stuff.
The most nostalgic thing to me still are the intros and demos of the time. Nothing that is made in this day can match this unless it looks like the demos of that time. The appreggio-driven music was absolutely brilliant and brings back ancient history instantly.
I never really was able to get into the demo scene of the PC, though it was still interesting nonetheless.
Yeah, sure, they're gonna make up an elaborate story to delay their release one week. Like it'd not be much easier to just tell the world how they're be a little late with this release.
I mean, let's face it. That would just completely destroy their reputation, contrary to word that their servers have been hacked.
This is just plain wrong. Games like Doom were revolutionary at the time, as were LucasArt's. But when 3D kicked in, the adventure gaming world reluctantly caved in. It didn't work. These games did also sport fancy 3D characters, but only few managed to pull off a believable atmosphere.
Hell, I'm playing Full Throttle and Beneath A Steel Sky on ScummVM right now, as my new 2.6 kernel is compiling. There are VERY few modern games that have managed to pull me in.
Original poster was right. These games don't NEED super-graphics. The gfx that are there provide enough to get immersed.
Ah, you prefer guessing whether that one pixel hits your pointer over having visual aid that you can use to figure out if you're messing something up? Keeps the excitement in graphic design, doesn't it? I've hit Undo more times than necessary because of this. And don't even try to smudge with an arrow as a pointer without getting frustrated.
So, does it finally have mouse pointers like Photoshop, that are the size of the currently selected brush so that you can actually see how big an area you are affecting?
I've owned a Commodore 64. You can't tell me any C64 desktop is as convenient and responsive as a modern PC. Sure, it might work. But saying upgrading would give you no benefit is just plain silly C64-zealotry. Not that you directly said it.
PC's that are nigh invulnerable to viruses? Check out any OS without Windows.
Right. I thought I had corrected myself, but apparantly the reply didn't make it through for some reason.
Sorry, I think you misread. I have other application that integrate well with MS-Office (and not OpenOffice). Throwing this out would not be received well.
Actually, this Slashdot article is kinda useless. If you read the article, it says the professor dropped the case and is not negotiating changes to the site with the professor to improve it. Part of the enhancements is a system in which users can flag reviews for deletetion, upon volunteers can then check it and permanently remove it.
Given the problems we've had over the last years getting this software package to run right for us, I don't think porting it all over right now would sit well with management. We've invested a lot of money and can't really back out now. Full migration to Linux desktops would be years away. In fact, we just bought brand new 2.6GHz machines with WinXP Pro. In fact, WinXP Pro isn't that bad at all, if the Microsoft company wasn't behind it. Anyway, the software company has been rewriting the software to have better Sun VM support, but it's still underway. It works, but much slower. Listen, you gotta understand how many problems we've had with this company! Sure, we should just sue 'em, but that doesn't get us the results we want: a working software package. They're getting off their butts-- slowly. We've gone higher up a while ago and it seems to work. Actually, we were a pilot program for a new target audience of their software package. They've invested as much as we did, so it's a trade-off. Suffice it to say that some bad decisions have been made before my time, but now we're kinda stuck with it.
We definately need Office. It integrates well with all sorts of other software, like telex and fax solutions. Also, we have a server-client application that runs Linux on the server, but-- get this-- has been written towards Microsoft's Java VM on the client! Sun's VM runs it much slower on the clients.
Anyway... such tie-ins make it hard to migrate to Linux. I'm not even talking about disgruntled users having to learn something new (computer illiterates abound!).
They already do this with driving, or at least they try to. It doesn't work, apparantly, if you take a look at traffic.
Grandparent has it wrong, of course. Even if the clueless teenagers don't know how to program, there will always be competent programmers developing tools to create malicious software for them, as there has been from the beginning. And these script kiddies will gobble it up like a badly written VisualBasic virus.
And here I was thinking that using triggers allowed one to set up a nice-sounding kit with more easy and less cost than an acoustic set. This is still true, of course, but apparantly it's not just a matter of plugging your module into the PA. I know lots can be done today, but some drummers just opt for this extreme electronic sound and this doesn't go well with metal/rock if you ask me. For me, it ruins the music and I can't help it. It's like some of the art is lost.
You know, I'm a drummer too. I really don't like how drummachines sound, though. Not in my genre... many drummers use triggers and even MIDI nowadays to make it sound just "perfect"... that is, as lifeless as a drummachine.
Have a listen to my failings at our website, though. No, really. I didn't reply just so that I could plug our worthless shit. As if.
I can't begin to name the problems an ISP will have when they DON'T keep logs in, for example, abuse cases, but wouldn't NOT keeping logs be the perfect way for a rebellious ISP to refuse handing over customer information? Since, hell, they don't HAVE the information the RIAA wants?
Sadly, I don't think this is viable for ISPs.
More importantly to me, what will happen to my free mine.nu dynamic DNS entry from dyndns.org?
DAMN, I'm good!
GIMP != Photoshop, blah blah blah. When's a new version of GIMP due, anyway? And what new features will it boast? Haven't seen any activity in a long time.
Dude! Great way to unconspicuously promote your band! If I had a band I would be so mentioning my band in every sentence of my Slashdot post! What a good idea to direct people to two death metal MP3's free for download. Heh.
And how do you suppose you can express the quality of code in numbers? Hmm, maybe I should read the research paper first, but the possibility of a first post is simply... hypnotic!
Yes, you will. I didn't spend hours looking for this, I swear!
Then what was Black Isle's involvement in these games?
What about Baldur's Gate 1+2? Neverwinter Nights? These deserve to be mentioned as well. Black Isle was one of those surprising little companies with heart for what they do that totally stunned me and became my favorite, sort of like SquareSoft on the PlayStation. This hurts, because it feels like the big corporation has won over the fanatical creative artist.