Don't forget Thief!
Personally, I was somewhat surprised that none of Sierra On-Line's classic adventure games made the list. Where's the love for King's Quest, Space Quest, Leisure Suit Larry, and all the rest?
I've only recently started using it, but Greymatter gets the blogging job done quite well if you have the cgi access and small amount of webspace necessary to implement it. It's not quite as fancy as Movable Type and lacks a few features like built-in support for syndication, but I was just looking for a simple, open source, ad-free piece of blogging software and it works for me.
The Game Manufacturers Association, an industry trade group, estimates that sales of non-electronic specialty games, which exclude best-selling standbys like Trivial Pursuit, Scrabble and Connect Four, have nearly quadrupled since 1995, from $700 million to $2.7 billion. Some of those sales include popular children's card games such as Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh, but one of the fastest-growing areas, industry experts say, is the adult strategy game.
Some of those sales include Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh? I would assume that they're almost entirely responsible for the upswing.
Then again, maybe I'm out of the loop; I don't know anyone who's an avid (or even casual) board-gamer.
When it comes to political simulations, it just doesn't get much better than PopTop Software's Tropico--a game with all the simplicity of SimCity with significantly more depth and a far better sense of humor.
Ah... now all the budget cuts to Virginia Tech's Department of Political Science make sense.;)
DecafJedi
Re:Alternative business models?
on
Razor Blade Games?
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· Score: 2, Interesting
Good point on reusing engines--even if they aren't cutting edge. After all, that's how Sierra On-Line managed to turn out six or seven best-sellingadventuregames per year and profit like crazy throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s.
DecafJedi
Alternative business models?
on
Razor Blade Games?
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· Score: 2, Insightful
On the PC gaming front, we've already seen companies like PopCap Games and GarageGames get around rising design costs by returning to something similar to the shareware model of the early- to mid-1990s, creating relatively simple, inexpensive, fun games. Maybe something similar would work for the console market.
Oh, who am I kidding? Anything released to the console market without 3D graphics, genuine B-list actors providing the voiceovers, and 16.7 zillion colors is doomed to failure.
Yikes! This move could have some serious implications for webmasters and companies developing various web tools. I can see quite a few projects having little choice but to start over from scratch.
Still, why do I get the feeling that Microsoft will manage to get by without making too many changes to IE before it's all said and done?
I wouldn't even consider buying it. Resist fellow geeks! They're a maniacal evil company that picks on open source projects that in no way interfere with their cash flow! Let 'em die!
Regardless of the whole FreeCraft debacle, Blizzard remains one of the few game developers out there that consistently deserves the profits it earns. Let's face it: Blizzard makes good games. Exclusively. How many other developers can make the same boast?
Until WoW, I've never had any desire whatsoever to try out a massively multiplayer game. I might just give WoW a try, though. Why? Because I'm confident that Blizzard will do it right. After all, that's what they do.
I think Fry from Futurama put it best when he argued that people always wanted more of the same when it comes to entertainment, because "clever things make people feel stupid, and unexpected things make them feel scared."
All I ever needed to know about history I learned from Civ2. Anyone else remember that time back in 1987 when Emperor Ghandi told President Alexander the Great to surrender Moscow, noting that his words were "backed by NUCLEAR WEAPONS!"
I don't see this as having a major effect, most USENET users tend to run unix these days.
Isn't that the whole idea, though? Microsoft--for better or for worse--wants to open Usenet to a more mainstream audience. Clearly, making it more user-friendly and filtering out the junk would have to be the first steps.
Something tells me that Joe Averagecomputeruser will be fairly disappointed when he gets a taste of Usenet, but that's beside the point. As CmdrTaco noted in the original news post, Usenet is to a point that it can't really get much worse. Who knows? This might be one of those rare occasions when Microsoft is actually on to something.
Then again, it will probably just end up being Usenet with pretty Outlook stationery.
Maxx Payne, he's the man who's name you'd love to touch! But you mustn't touch! His name sounds good in your ear, but when you say it, you mustn't fear! 'Cause his name can be said by anyone!
I looked at all the inkblots and still came up with "password" for my password. Maybe I should change it to something more obscure like "god" or "sex."
Another interesting question is how did cheats make it around?
Things like the contra 30 lives cheat.
I remember the kid who showed me, but who showed it to him?
I'd imagine that most of the cheats got out to the public through Nintendo Power. After all, everyone knew someone with a subscription to the magazine. I can't imagine Nintendo bothered to publish a how-to on the old "shake and blow" technique of overcoming the limitations of their flimsy hardware in Nintendo Power, though.
Did I just use the phrase "the old shake and blow?" Sigh...
Here's the big question: what kid was the first to pioneer that technique? Every kid in America (and, I'd assume, Japan) somehow knew that blowing into the cartridge and shaking it around would magically make it work. Where did this knowledge come from? Or was it just instinct?
"Cartridge no work! Me shake now!"
My best friend's NES eventually deteriorated to the point that he had to cram a pencil into the deck to keep the cartridges from popping up. Can you imagine the consumer outrage if one of the modern consoles had these kinds of problems? I guess we were willing to tolerate a little more way back when.
Let's see... lately, I've been playing games like Thief, Tropico, The Longest Journey, Quake 3, Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds, and a ton of old-school adventure games (including the recently-released Space Quest 0: Replicated).
Basically, I spend my time playing whatever was cutting edge three or four years ago. It works out fairly well when you're too cheap to buy games when they first hit the shelves anyway. Unfortunately, even the bargain bin games are starting to exceed my specs. Oh, well... someday I'll scratch together enough dough to upgrade. Stupid grad school.;)
Slashdot Mirror
Don't forget Thief! Personally, I was somewhat surprised that none of Sierra On-Line's classic adventure games made the list. Where's the love for King's Quest, Space Quest, Leisure Suit Larry, and all the rest?
I've only recently started using it, but Greymatter gets the blogging job done quite well if you have the cgi access and small amount of webspace necessary to implement it. It's not quite as fancy as Movable Type and lacks a few features like built-in support for syndication, but I was just looking for a simple, open source, ad-free piece of blogging software and it works for me.
Then again, maybe I'm out of the loop; I don't know anyone who's an avid (or even casual) board-gamer.
Today's Penny Arcade offers a great perspective on this story.
If they shut down the campus networks, how will the students download all the music and movie files they need to start the semester off right? ;)
DecafJedi
DecafJedi
DecafJedi
Oh, who am I kidding? Anything released to the console market without 3D graphics, genuine B-list actors providing the voiceovers, and 16.7 zillion colors is doomed to failure.
DecafJedi
Still, why do I get the feeling that Microsoft will manage to get by without making too many changes to IE before it's all said and done?
DecafJedi
Until WoW, I've never had any desire whatsoever to try out a massively multiplayer game. I might just give WoW a try, though. Why? Because I'm confident that Blizzard will do it right. After all, that's what they do.
DecafJedi
DecafJedi
DecafJedi
DecafJedi
DecafJedi
DecafJedi
Something tells me that Joe Averagecomputeruser will be fairly disappointed when he gets a taste of Usenet, but that's beside the point. As CmdrTaco noted in the original news post, Usenet is to a point that it can't really get much worse. Who knows? This might be one of those rare occasions when Microsoft is actually on to something.
Then again, it will probably just end up being Usenet with pretty Outlook stationery.
DecafJedi
DecafJedi
DecafJedi
I looked at all the inkblots and still came up with "password" for my password. Maybe I should change it to something more obscure like "god" or "sex."
Did I just use the phrase "the old shake and blow?" Sigh...
DecafJedi
"Cartridge no work! Me shake now!"
My best friend's NES eventually deteriorated to the point that he had to cram a pencil into the deck to keep the cartridges from popping up. Can you imagine the consumer outrage if one of the modern consoles had these kinds of problems? I guess we were willing to tolerate a little more way back when.
DecafJedi
Maybe he just needs a Region 2 toilet.
So, does your toilet handle toilet paper, or does that require an industrial model, too? ;)
Basically, I spend my time playing whatever was cutting edge three or four years ago. It works out fairly well when you're too cheap to buy games when they first hit the shelves anyway. Unfortunately, even the bargain bin games are starting to exceed my specs. Oh, well... someday I'll scratch together enough dough to upgrade. Stupid grad school. ;)
DecafJedi