I didn't do print on demand because it would be way way too expensive...
The book is full colour, every page... And with the unit cost being what it is for a limited print run, and Amazon wanting 55% of the cover price, the only feasible way to sell it is through a website...
Still, it worked well for the Spectrum version - I'm nearly sold out of that, and that was only available via the zxgoldenyears.com website.
If you're honestly concerned, you can check out that site where I have lots of customer testimonials... Failing that, drop into worldofspectrum.org forums where you'll find many people who will vouch for my honesty... Also retrogamer.com forums, lemon64.com forums and several others.
I'm not a big fan of blatant pimping, but this is pretty relevant, so I hope I don't get flamed too drastically...
A book (written by Andrew Fisher - who is/was a c64 games journalist back in the day) is about to be printed. "The Commodore 64 Book 1982-199x" covers about 250 of the best games in a snazzy (we think) format, and is the companion to the earlier "The ZX Spectrum Book 1982-199x"...
If anyone wants to pre-order a copy (they should be back from the printers in late January) then http://www.c64goldenyears.com/ is the place to go.
Team, nuthin'
David "Pitfall" Crane pretty much *was* the programming team (well, apart from the intro sequence!)... But yeah, if he'd done the 2600 version of ET, it would have been much better, seeing as Pitfall was up there among the best for the 2600.
I remember being jealous of the C64 version... The Speccy version was pretty crappy in comparison.
Andrew
Hehe.. Actually, not quite... Unless you count the fact that the book is themed around the Speccy, and includes screenshots... so technically, it uses Speccy colours. I did manage to overcome the colour clash issue though...
Finally, I can post this without feeling like off-topic pimping...
I've actually written and published a book (http://zxgoldenyears.com/) on the ZX Spectrum (full-colour, coffee table format) which I decided to do last year as a 'tribute' to the machine that defined my youth...
The Spectrum was a fantastic machine for the time, even though it had weedy sound. It's a shame the Clive lost his way after the Spectrum+ and didn't add enough improvements to the 128k edition of the machine. I wonder if things would have been different if he'd just repackaged the American enhanced Timex TS2068 and brought it over.
Still, even though I lot of my friends had Commodore 64s (http:c64goldenyears.com), I still preferred the speccy.
Andrew
Two of the things I miss the most about the older games were ( a ) the originality of the concepts, and ( b ) the 'game like' feel.
In the case of ( a ), there are very few games released today with off-the-wall concepts like Skool Daze or Trashman. A possible exception to this would be Bully, and some of the weirder Gamecube titles such as Cubivore. Another thing I liked was that it was easy to dip into a game for a few minutes and not feel like you were being sucked into a story... Not that I mind story games, but with the limited time us aging gamers have these days, I have to ration my time carefully... Games such as Ikaruga and Castle Shikigami (sp?) are such games. While I love playing God of War II (and similar games such as the Prince of Persia series), I often find myself returning to Mutant Storm Reloaded, Jetpac or Geometry Wars simply because I don't have the time to invest in a long game. If I do try, I often find that I have to put it down for so long that I forget where I am when I come back to it, which kind of destroys the continuity of the story for me. Having said that, a lot of Wii games do seem to have odd concepts, but for some reason they feel forced, but that may just be due to the maturation of the games industry...
For point ( b ), I guess I have a preference for games that are unashamedly games, a good example being Moonpod's Mr. Robot, which apart from the updated presentation, almost feels like an old ZX Spectrum game... There are other games that exhibit this, of course - including those I mentioned above.
Frankly, I enjoy both the cream of the modern crop (e.g. Half-life 2, PGR, God of War II, PoP:SoT) and a fair bunch of the best of the older games (e.g. Manic Miner, Quazatron, X-Com etc.)
I should point out here that I'm pretty biased towards the retro side of things though, having written and edited a couple of "showcase" coffee table books on retro games for the ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64 books... (And that's all the pimping I'm going to do here on that - if anyone is interested in looking them up, I would suggest a search for "ZX Spectrum Book" or "C64 Golden Years" in your search engine of choice.)
If they really want to get some sales, they should release Marble Madness II on this compilation... Midway still has the rights to it, I believe.
I'm chomping at the bit to finally see *that* game.
Well I guess that's the thing isn't it. That's where the research is. Just because we don't know how to do something now, doesn't mean it is not possible.
In fact, you said it yourself. If we can influence the level/wavelength/quantum parameters (e.g. spin) of a particle, we can *instantaneously* influence the energy of a particle some distance away.
Interestingly, a lot of research is also being done into non-intrusive measurement, a method by which they can measure the state of an object without affecting it too much.
Also, you might want to look at the results of the quantum teleportation experiments from a year or so ago, where they did indeed 'force object B's measurement to have a desired result' by superimposing a quantum wavestate of an existing photon over a new photon, effectively teleporting the photon.
I think the reasons these early results seems so difficult for some people to grasp, it that it appears to violate some pre-established rules. However, it's possible that (a)Those rules are wrong, or (b)Those rules are incomplete.
Personally, I favor the latter. Specifically, if you look at some aspects of multidimensional theory, then it's feasible that the entangled particles are not violating the speed of light (provided you assume more than three dimensions, a la superstring theory.)
Quantum Non-locality
The link goes to an American Institute of Physics bulletin on successful instantaneous determination of a photon's energy from a distance of 10km. It's still got a long way to go until it's true 'communication', but this stuff was known back in 1998. A google search on 'Wolfgang Tittel' brings up quite a few interesting links, including discussions on Quantum Cryptography. It seems that we're limited currently by our tools, but it's entirely possible that these limitations can/will be overcome in the future.
Actually the ansible physics wasn't as far fetched as it seemed to you.
I haven't read the book for a year or so, but IIRC, the Ansible operation was explained in terms of quantum entanglement, which is a real phenomenon, currently being researched for... you guessed it, faster than light communication, and quantum cryptography...
I guess this will finally answer any lingering doubts as to whether Microsoft (or more accurately, an unscrupulous employee with an impossible deadline) ever incorporated any GPLd or LGPLd code in there.
Of course, if they did, that wouldn't necessarily be a good thing for the GPL, because then it Microsoft would have a *really* good reason to try and destroy it.
I can thoroughly recommend the following games...
Any GIPF project game... These are abstract strategy games for two players... The games link into one megagame, and individually and collectively they are extremely compelling...
I recommend trying them in this order...
each game is based around a different core mechanic. For example, Gipf is sliding, Zertz is jumping, Dvonn is stacking, Tamsk is time, and Yinsh is... well I'm not sure, but it's different.
The linked megagame uses Gipf as a hub, and introduces characteristics from the other games (e.g. jumping from Zertz) to augment the rules.
Other highly recommended games are Bohnanza and Mamma Mia!, although the rules of the latter are hard to follow from the printed documentation. There are plenty of explanations available on the web though.
These (and of course the classic Settlers of Catan, are games that our gaming group play repeatedly, and have stood up well to the test of time.
Before this whole thread turns into a rabid Microsoft bash, this actually sounds like a cool idea. Also, it not light-years away from what google do with their pagerank system. In fact, it's almost a 'pagerank for newsnet', and I don't see many people screaming about google's system. (Apart from SearchKing:) )
From reading the article, it sounds like they're dealing with the privacy issues fairly well, although obviously, precautions would need to be taken in case a tool becomes available for, for example, potential employers to judge your worth by your newsnet postings.
You're obviously not looking in the right places. Or not looking for the right thing.
Try going to www.pompom.org.uk or garagegames.com before blindly condemning Indie gaming.
Not everybody has the time or inclination to play fifty hour waste-of-time-fests. Occasionally, family life and reality intervenes to the extent that only a quick five minute blast inbetween obligations is possible.
The "mass market" doesn't seem to cater to that too well. Indie games, such as Space Tripper, Mutant Storm and Crimsonland fill that game nicely.
Oh. You can probably find them online to steal too, so no worries there. (dumb*ss)
It didn't have quite the same "balls-to-the-wall" feel of the PomPom games though.
StarScape has a definite 'old' feel to it, due to the sprite based engine. It's great, don't get me wrong, but it doesn't feel quite as dynamic as the PomPom games. Space Tripper and Mutant Storm are rendered very impressively using OpenGL - so they're "2d" games in a fully 3d environment.
Also, the camera control and skill level settings in Mutant Storm are the best and most balanced I've yet seen.
Shame that by all accounts those guys are being stiffed in sales - apparently Space Tripper sold pretty well, and got pushed into stores, but Mutant Storm (which IMHO is the better game) isn't seeing quite the same success.
It has been nominated for an award at the Edinburgh Games Festival along with titles such as Zelda, Halo and Vice City, so it can't be that bad:)
The best new shareware games I've played recently are Space Tripper and Mutant Storm from PomPom, a two-man UK company.
Alright, I admit it, I used to work with the guys who wrote them, but they're still the most awesome Defender / Robotron-style (respectively) updates I've ever played.
Oh... they have windows, mac and *linux* versions, so I guess the slashdot crowd should appreciate that.
Slashdot Mirror
I didn't do print on demand because it would be way way too expensive...
The book is full colour, every page... And with the unit cost being what it is for a limited print run, and Amazon wanting 55% of the cover price, the only feasible way to sell it is through a website...
Still, it worked well for the Spectrum version - I'm nearly sold out of that, and that was only available via the zxgoldenyears.com website.
If you're honestly concerned, you can check out that site where I have lots of customer testimonials... Failing that, drop into worldofspectrum.org forums where you'll find many people who will vouch for my honesty... Also retrogamer.com forums, lemon64.com forums and several others.
Andrew
I'm not a big fan of blatant pimping, but this is pretty relevant, so I hope I don't get flamed too drastically...
A book (written by Andrew Fisher - who is/was a c64 games journalist back in the day) is about to be printed.
"The Commodore 64 Book 1982-199x" covers about 250 of the best games in a snazzy (we think) format, and is the companion to the earlier "The ZX Spectrum Book 1982-199x"...
If anyone wants to pre-order a copy (they should be back from the printers in late January) then http://www.c64goldenyears.com/ is the place to go.
Thanks
Andrew
Team, nuthin' David "Pitfall" Crane pretty much *was* the programming team (well, apart from the intro sequence!)... But yeah, if he'd done the 2600 version of ET, it would have been much better, seeing as Pitfall was up there among the best for the 2600. I remember being jealous of the C64 version... The Speccy version was pretty crappy in comparison. Andrew
Yes. They are brilliant... Thoroughly recommended. :)
Andrew
Hehe.. Actually, not quite... Unless you count the fact that the book is themed around the Speccy, and includes screenshots... so technically, it uses Speccy colours. I did manage to overcome the colour clash issue though...
Finally, I can post this without feeling like off-topic pimping... I've actually written and published a book (http://zxgoldenyears.com/) on the ZX Spectrum (full-colour, coffee table format) which I decided to do last year as a 'tribute' to the machine that defined my youth... The Spectrum was a fantastic machine for the time, even though it had weedy sound. It's a shame the Clive lost his way after the Spectrum+ and didn't add enough improvements to the 128k edition of the machine. I wonder if things would have been different if he'd just repackaged the American enhanced Timex TS2068 and brought it over. Still, even though I lot of my friends had Commodore 64s (http:c64goldenyears.com), I still preferred the speccy. Andrew
Two of the things I miss the most about the older games were ( a ) the originality of the concepts, and ( b ) the 'game like' feel.
In the case of ( a ), there are very few games released today with off-the-wall concepts like Skool Daze or Trashman. A possible exception to this would be Bully, and some of the weirder Gamecube titles such as Cubivore. Another thing I liked was that it was easy to dip into a game for a few minutes and not feel like you were being sucked into a story... Not that I mind story games, but with the limited time us aging gamers have these days, I have to ration my time carefully... Games such as Ikaruga and Castle Shikigami (sp?) are such games. While I love playing God of War II (and similar games such as the Prince of Persia series), I often find myself returning to Mutant Storm Reloaded, Jetpac or Geometry Wars simply because I don't have the time to invest in a long game. If I do try, I often find that I have to put it down for so long that I forget where I am when I come back to it, which kind of destroys the continuity of the story for me.
Having said that, a lot of Wii games do seem to have odd concepts, but for some reason they feel forced, but that may just be due to the maturation of the games industry...
For point ( b ), I guess I have a preference for games that are unashamedly games, a good example being Moonpod's Mr. Robot, which apart from the updated presentation, almost feels like an old ZX Spectrum game...
There are other games that exhibit this, of course - including those I mentioned above.
Frankly, I enjoy both the cream of the modern crop (e.g. Half-life 2, PGR, God of War II, PoP:SoT) and a fair bunch of the best of the older games (e.g. Manic Miner, Quazatron, X-Com etc.)
I should point out here that I'm pretty biased towards the retro side of things though, having written and edited a couple of "showcase" coffee table books on retro games for the ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64 books...
(And that's all the pimping I'm going to do here on that - if anyone is interested in looking them up, I would suggest a search for "ZX Spectrum Book" or "C64 Golden Years" in your search engine of choice.)
Agreed - if that was the *only* piece of crap on there... but some of those other games were pretty crappy too.
If they really want to get some sales, they should release Marble Madness II on this compilation... Midway still has the rights to it, I believe. I'm chomping at the bit to finally see *that* game.
Well I guess that's the thing isn't it. That's where the research is. Just because we don't know how to do something now, doesn't mean it is not possible.
In fact, you said it yourself. If we can influence the level/wavelength/quantum parameters (e.g. spin) of a particle, we can *instantaneously* influence the energy of a particle some distance away.
Interestingly, a lot of research is also being done into non-intrusive measurement, a method by which they can measure the state of an object without affecting it too much.
Also, you might want to look at the results of the quantum teleportation experiments from a year or so ago, where they did indeed 'force object B's measurement to have a desired result' by superimposing a quantum wavestate of an existing photon over a new photon, effectively teleporting the photon.
I think the reasons these early results seems so difficult for some people to grasp, it that it appears to violate some pre-established rules. However, it's possible that (a)Those rules are wrong, or (b)Those rules are incomplete.
Personally, I favor the latter. Specifically, if you look at some aspects of multidimensional theory, then it's feasible that the entangled particles are not violating the speed of light (provided you assume more than three dimensions, a la superstring theory.)
I beg to differ, sir...
Quantum Non-locality
The link goes to an American Institute of Physics bulletin on successful instantaneous determination of a photon's energy from a distance of 10km. It's still got a long way to go until it's true 'communication', but this stuff was known back in 1998.
A google search on 'Wolfgang Tittel' brings up quite a few interesting links, including discussions on Quantum Cryptography.
It seems that we're limited currently by our tools, but it's entirely possible that these limitations can/will be overcome in the future.
Actually the ansible physics wasn't as far fetched as it seemed to you.
I haven't read the book for a year or so, but IIRC, the Ansible operation was explained in terms of quantum entanglement, which is a real phenomenon, currently being researched for... you guessed it, faster than light communication, and quantum cryptography...
I guess this will finally answer any lingering doubts as to whether Microsoft (or more accurately, an unscrupulous employee with an impossible deadline) ever incorporated any GPLd or LGPLd code in there.
Of course, if they did, that wouldn't necessarily be a good thing for the GPL, because then it Microsoft would have a *really* good reason to try and destroy it.
I can thoroughly recommend the following games...
Any GIPF project game... These are abstract strategy games for two players... The games link into one megagame, and individually and collectively they are extremely compelling...
I recommend trying them in this order...
Zertz
Yinsh
Dvonn
Gipf
Tamsk
each game is based around a different core mechanic. For example, Gipf is sliding, Zertz is jumping, Dvonn is stacking, Tamsk is time, and Yinsh is... well I'm not sure, but it's different.
The linked megagame uses Gipf as a hub, and introduces characteristics from the other games (e.g. jumping from Zertz) to augment the rules.
Other highly recommended games are Bohnanza and Mamma Mia!, although the rules of the latter are hard to follow from the printed documentation. There are plenty of explanations available on the web though.
These (and of course the classic Settlers of Catan, are games that our gaming group play repeatedly, and have stood up well to the test of time.
Before this whole thread turns into a rabid Microsoft bash, this actually sounds like a cool idea. Also, it not light-years away from what google do with their pagerank system. In fact, it's almost a 'pagerank for newsnet', and I don't see many people screaming about google's system. (Apart from SearchKing :) )
From reading the article, it sounds like they're dealing with the privacy issues fairly well, although obviously, precautions would need to be taken in case a tool becomes available for, for example, potential employers to judge your worth by your newsnet postings.
You're obviously not looking in the right places. Or not looking for the right thing. Try going to www.pompom.org.uk or garagegames.com before blindly condemning Indie gaming. Not everybody has the time or inclination to play fifty hour waste-of-time-fests. Occasionally, family life and reality intervenes to the extent that only a quick five minute blast inbetween obligations is possible. The "mass market" doesn't seem to cater to that too well. Indie games, such as Space Tripper, Mutant Storm and Crimsonland fill that game nicely. Oh. You can probably find them online to steal too, so no worries there. (dumb*ss)
Who cares about those game? They've been sitting on Marble Madness II (Marble Man) since 1991.
9 &l etter=M
Why don't they release *that* ROM on the disc?
http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?game_id=861
I agree, that was also a good game.
:)
It didn't have quite the same "balls-to-the-wall" feel of the PomPom games though.
StarScape has a definite 'old' feel to it, due to the sprite based engine. It's great, don't get me wrong, but it doesn't feel quite as dynamic as the PomPom games. Space Tripper and Mutant Storm are rendered very impressively using OpenGL - so they're "2d" games in a fully 3d environment.
Also, the camera control and skill level settings in Mutant Storm are the best and most balanced I've yet seen.
Shame that by all accounts those guys are being stiffed in sales - apparently Space Tripper sold pretty well, and got pushed into stores, but Mutant Storm (which IMHO is the better game) isn't seeing quite the same success.
It has been nominated for an award at the Edinburgh Games Festival along with titles such as Zelda, Halo and Vice City, so it can't be that bad
The best new shareware games I've played recently are Space Tripper and Mutant Storm from PomPom, a two-man UK company.
Alright, I admit it, I used to work with the guys who wrote them, but they're still the most awesome Defender / Robotron-style (respectively) updates I've ever played.
Oh... they have windows, mac and *linux* versions, so I guess the slashdot crowd should appreciate that.