The Doom games were always a showcase for the engine's technology. It probably won't be for a year or two before developers that license the technology start hitting the full capabilities of the engine. When that happens, I look for the current minimum requirements to go up so plan accordingly for the games that will be built on the engine in the near future if you are going to upgrade your hardware. I think that the current recommended requirement will soon be the minimum when you see the next wave of games built on the technology that iD has created.
To protect your Toy Story Disc from damage by children, you put it in a a safe place, and make them ask you for it before they watch it.
That's a nice theory but doesn't work in practice. Children will find a way. Case in point, I followed those procedures with my Playstation 2 games. One day a friend was over and while I was out of the room he gets a game down off the shelf to look at the cover art or manual and places it on the coffee table. In a matter of minutes the toddler is attracted to the bright, shiny packaging and the even brighter, shinier game DVD inside. Within seconds a $50 disk is scratched and unplayable in spite of all the precautions I had taken.
If you don't have to play the latest and greatest and want to play older games, DosBox lets you play hundreds of older DOS games on Linux and other operating systems. It basically emulates a DOS PC complete with sound card. Many older games that cannot be played in Windows XP/2K run well under DosBox's Win32 port as well as under the Linux ports.
I don't remember the devourer in the City but that game was more just of a leveling up adventure preparing you for the ones to come. Too bad they only ever released The Dungeon later. I have to agree with you, it was an awesome game for the time.
I remember playing the Interplay version of Lord of the Rings Volume 1 in 1990 on the Amiga. The Two Towers was released a year later on the PC but the Amiga version was cancelled.
Total Commander is definately the first program I put on in any new Windows install.
Ultra Edit is also near the top of my list, the best Windows text editor by far.
WinAmp is also one of the first programs I install.
I prefer Opera to Mozilla
ACDSee instead of Irfanview.
Except for the choice of browser and picture viewer/editor our top 5 are pretty much the same.
The rest of my top 10 would be:
Eudora - leave the virus of the day with MS LookOut behind
Win RAR - manages most archive formats
Nero Burning ROM - an alternate would be Burn At Once if you are looking for a free Windows burning program
Clipmate - great utility for managing multiple clipboard items
Secure CRT - last but not least, I have to do some work sometimes
Of course many of these programs also need plugins and codecs installed as well.
From what I remember, the paddle controllers were not very sturdy compared to the old Atari joysticks. 20 years ago my girlfriend was hooked on Breakout on the Atari 800 and would go through a paddle controller a month. They would eventually just start sticking and finally only move in one direction. Taking them apart and cleaning them internally did little to prolong their life once they started sticking. On the other hand, I still have working Atari joysticks that were heavily used on the Atari 800, Atari ST, and Amiga.
I got my first burner in 1994. Just a couple weeks ago I was playing with the newest DosBox which emulates a 386 with sound card. I wanted to play some old DOS games so I got out one of the very first cds I had burnt from 10 years ago and it read without error. I tried several others burnt at about the same time and they also read fine. All were on Verbatim media and were stored in jewel cases for the first 5 years then put in booklets and kept in a cool dry environment.
I think as long as you use quality media and use proper handling and storage precautions they will last a long time, definately longer than 5 years.
It seems you have been leading two lives. In one life, you go by the screen name c00ld3wd69 on AOL, constantly posting off topic, reposting the original post of 1000 lines and only adding "I agree" to the discussion, joining every irc channel and begging for warez/pr0n/ops, and generally making a nuisance of yourself.
In the other...you go by the AIM alias "ne0bie"...and spend all of your time seaching for trainers and aimbots for the game. When you actually play the game you just camp and shoot at friend and foe alike.
Once the price gets to double digits I will buy one. My main use would be for a divx/mp3/ogg jukebox so I will still have to pay for a modchip and larger hard drive. I have a PS2 and Gamecube for playing games already. I mainly like platformers and racing games on the console and the XBox game selection of the platform genre is lacking compared to Ratchet and Clank, Mario, and Jak and Daxter on the other consoles. I prefer a PC for RPGs and FPSs.
I also modified mine with a fliptop. I am not that handy with a soldering iron so it was the best backup solution for me. My kids had scratched a $50 game so I had to have some way to back them up.
If I really just own a license for the content then give me a replacement for a reasonable price instead of having to pay the full price again. I do not mind paying a media replacement cost since it is my fault the media failed but I do not want to pay full price again. My PS2 is placed where my kids can not reach it and I have to change every disk for them but they still managed to get hold of a disk and scratch it when a guest set the box down where they could reach it after looking at it.
The PS2 media is very fragile and it doesn't take much to damage it. In this case it was just a matter of simply opening up the case and the disk fell out and bounced on the floor. It was scratched and unplayable after that. It's not like they used the disk for a frisbee, just a simple accident and $50 was out the window. I got the fliptop after that.
Not Metamucil, but ordinary laundry detergent actually works to set off a geyser. I remember when I was in New Zealand seeing a ranger at one of the Rotorua thermal areas walk up to the Lady Knox geyser and pour some detergent into it. A few minutes later it starting bubbling and erupted.
You are correct about the old PC games being tied to the hardware clock. I remember trying to run Frogger on a 386/25 (it was originally an XT game at 4.77mhz). If you are familiar with the game you know that the object is to get the frog across the road avoiding the traffic. On a 386 the traffic is doing close to Warp 10 and only the most suicidal of frogs would even think of venturing out into it.
Attachments in emails are just going to be opened, period. No one ever learns their lesson in that regard.
I strongly agree with that. When the I Love You virus was going around 5-6 years ago we had one girl that opened the attachment 3 times, even after a lecture from the IT staff the first time.
In order to use this system, developers will have to write compatible games for both the PS2 and PSP, and it's unclear whether Sony is proposing that these titles should be sold separately or in a single package.
If the latter is true, that would be a major selling point of the PSP to me, buying a game and having the ability to play it at home or on the road without having to buy both PS2 and PSP versions.
compared to the original. I for one didn't like the darker theme and the addition of GTA style carjackings. I hope they bring back the style of Jak and Daxter for the next sequel. I completed the original 2 times, but got bored about halfway through Jak II.
On the other hand, Ratchet and Clank Going Commando was improved in almost every way - different puzzle types, the ability to import weapons from R&C, and more Giant Clank missions to name a few of the many improvements. I just completed it two weekends ago and I am ready and waiting for R&C3.
I have to agree. Origin was one of the most innovative companies around with the Ultima series, Wing Commander, and one of my favorites, Crusader No Remorse/Regret. After being assimilated by EA, the third in the Crusader series was shelved, and the Ultima series had two very bad releases which were rushed out the door and very buggy to the point of being nearly unplayable.
Another casualty was Looking Glass Studios, a real innovator in the industry. They practically created the entire genre of modern stealth games with their Thief series. They showed what could be done with a 3D engine besides just making another FPS with Ultima Underworld and System Shock. Both games would really draw you into the story and had serveral innovations over anything out at that time, features like looking up and down while Doom and it's clones just had 2D vision.
These days I look to Europe for innovation. Most of the new developments I am excited about are coming from smaller studios there, Arx Fatalis, Gothic II, and the upcoming Sacred in the RPG genre to name a few. Serious Sam was another good effort from a small studio. It used the same tried and true formula as many others but somehow managed to bring the fun back to the genre.
EA tries to dumb down everything they touch to appeal to the lowest common denominator and leaves the real gamers lacking.
With my own children growing old enough to play games I have found my own interest rekindled playing with them, showing them the games of my youth. I got the old Atari 800 out and they are having a blast with the classics from that system - River Raid, Pac Man, Ballblazer to name a few. After getting them a PS2 my interest has also picked up. I find myself playing Ratchet and Clank 1 & 2, Jak and Daxter, and Sly Cooper long into the night after they have went to bed. On the other hand, I have found the PC game scene to be stagnating with every new release just more eye candy with the same game play with previous titles in the same genre. For instance, the graphics in the latest FPS are amazing, but the basic gameplay is still "if it moves, shoot it", unchanged since Doom and Wolf3D.
There have been times I have played the demo and went and bought the game afterwards and guess what? The game wouldn't work because of the copy protection that the demo did not have. Telling the developer that you are not going to buy from them again does little to replace the hard earned money you have already lost on the current purchase since most vendors will not accept returns on opened software. The only avenues open to recoup that loss is hoping the vendor releases a patch, which might be months away if they even bother to fix it, or getting the version stripped of copy protection, the so called "pirate" version.
Dream Job? I've been dreaming of finding a job
on
Dream Jobs of 2004
·
· Score: 1
In the present economy I have been dreaming of just finding a decent job, much less a dream job. It's been a couple rough years in the networking/telecommunications industry.
I rarely ever buy any game at full price. If you wait 6 months it will be half price or less for most titles. $20 is a decent price point - I can get 5 greatest hits for the price of 2 new games. In the case of computer games many times if you wait you also get the Gold edition which will have an expansion pack and other extras. I have plenty of unfinished games I can play without having to go get the latest and greatest while I am waiting for them to come down in price.
I finished the original. At the end it said "Report your feat to Lord British". I sent Origin a letter and they actually sent back a certificate saying that you had completed the game. I may have that confused with IV though. I finished Ultima III-VI but never finished I, II, or VII, and didn't play VIII and IX. I remember the end of Ultima V had some tricky dungeons where you had to use magic to remove obstacles to reveal the exits from rooms.
For beginning game programming I would recommend Dark Basic http://darkbasic.thegamecreators.com/
It is geared toward game programming and there is a beginners book available. A version of basic would be a good start for a 9 year old. At least they would learn some programming structure and concepts that would build the foundations for learning more complex languages in the future.
Others of this type are: http://www.ethosbasic.com/ http://www.click team.com/English/jamagic.htm http://www.blitzbasi c.com/
In my household, I see this being used more for a cheap media jukebox for playing DivX, MP3, OGG, or XviD than anything else. The other main use I would have for it would be as an emulation machine - MAME, Atari800Win, Stella, JNES, WinUAE, STeem, WinSTon, and VisualBoy Advance to name a few. You can find most of those for a modified XBox, but it is a hassle since they would have been created with an XBox Developers Kit and so couldn't be distibuted except through unofficial means. For the latest and greatest FPS a pc would be the logical choice, but for emulation and older games that do not require a fast 3D video card this box would be a good alternative.
I could build a similar spec PC for about the same cost of this or less but I like the small form factor and the fact I don't have to spend my time building it.
Ultima IV had some of the best music I remember in a computer game. On the Atari ST version it would even use the MIDI out ports built into those computers. I ran it through a Yamaha DX7 and Ensoniq Mirage which had people dropping their jaws at the music in that game back in 1986.
Slashdot Mirror
The Doom games were always a showcase for the engine's technology. It probably won't be for a year or two before developers that license the technology start hitting the full capabilities of the engine. When that happens, I look for the current minimum requirements to go up so plan accordingly for the games that will be built on the engine in the near future if you are going to upgrade your hardware. I think that the current recommended requirement will soon be the minimum when you see the next wave of games built on the technology that iD has created.
To protect your Toy Story Disc from damage by children, you put it in a a safe place, and make them ask you for it before they watch it.
That's a nice theory but doesn't work in practice. Children will find a way. Case in point, I followed those procedures with my Playstation 2 games. One day a friend was over and while I was out of the room he gets a game down off the shelf to look at the cover art or manual and places it on the coffee table. In a matter of minutes the toddler is attracted to the bright, shiny packaging and the even brighter, shinier game DVD inside. Within seconds a $50 disk is scratched and unplayable in spite of all the precautions I had taken.
If you don't have to play the latest and greatest and want to play older games, DosBox lets you play hundreds of older DOS games on Linux and other operating systems. It basically emulates a DOS PC complete with sound card. Many older games that cannot be played in Windows XP/2K run well under DosBox's Win32 port as well as under the Linux ports.
I don't remember the devourer in the City but that game was more just of a leveling up adventure preparing you for the ones to come. Too bad they only ever released The Dungeon later. I have to agree with you, it was an awesome game for the time.
Tolkien was already made into RPGs years ago.
7 0/8 0/
I remember playing the Interplay version of Lord of the Rings Volume 1 in 1990 on the Amiga. The Two Towers was released a year later on the PC but the Amiga version was cancelled.
http://www.mobygames.com/game/sheet/p,2/gameId,38
http://www.mobygames.com/game/sheet/p,2/gameId,14
If you liked the old style Ultima games both were very similar - top down perspective and similar gameplay.
I have to agree here.
Total Commander is definately the first program I put on in any new Windows install.
Ultra Edit is also near the top of my list, the best Windows text editor by far.
WinAmp is also one of the first programs I install.
I prefer Opera to Mozilla
ACDSee instead of Irfanview.
Except for the choice of browser and picture viewer/editor our top 5 are pretty much the same.
The rest of my top 10 would be:
Eudora - leave the virus of the day with MS LookOut behind
Win RAR - manages most archive formats
Nero Burning ROM - an alternate would be Burn At Once if you are looking for a free Windows burning program
Clipmate - great utility for managing multiple clipboard items
Secure CRT - last but not least, I have to do some work sometimes
Of course many of these programs also need plugins and codecs installed as well.
From what I remember, the paddle controllers were not very sturdy compared to the old Atari joysticks. 20 years ago my girlfriend was hooked on Breakout on the Atari 800 and would go through a paddle controller a month. They would eventually just start sticking and finally only move in one direction. Taking them apart and cleaning them internally did little to prolong their life once they started sticking. On the other hand, I still have working Atari joysticks that were heavily used on the Atari 800, Atari ST, and Amiga.
I got my first burner in 1994. Just a couple weeks ago I was playing with the newest DosBox which emulates a 386 with sound card. I wanted to play some old DOS games so I got out one of the very first cds I had burnt from 10 years ago and it read without error. I tried several others burnt at about the same time and they also read fine. All were on Verbatim media and were stored in jewel cases for the first 5 years then put in booklets and kept in a cool dry environment.
I think as long as you use quality media and use proper handling and storage precautions they will last a long time, definately longer than 5 years.
It seems you have been leading two lives. In one life, you go by the screen name c00ld3wd69 on AOL, constantly posting off topic, reposting the original post of 1000 lines and only adding "I agree" to the discussion, joining every irc channel and begging for warez/pr0n/ops, and generally making a nuisance of yourself.
In the other...you go by the AIM alias "ne0bie"...and spend all of your time seaching for trainers and aimbots for the game. When you actually play the game you just camp and shoot at friend and foe alike.
Sadly, neither one of these has a future.
Once the price gets to double digits I will buy one. My main use would be for a divx/mp3/ogg jukebox so I will still have to pay for a modchip and larger hard drive. I have a PS2 and Gamecube for playing games already. I mainly like platformers and racing games on the console and the XBox game selection of the platform genre is lacking compared to Ratchet and Clank, Mario, and Jak and Daxter on the other consoles. I prefer a PC for RPGs and FPSs.
I also modified mine with a fliptop. I am not that handy with a soldering iron so it was the best backup solution for me. My kids had scratched a $50 game so I had to have some way to back them up.
If I really just own a license for the content then give me a replacement for a reasonable price instead of having to pay the full price again. I do not mind paying a media replacement cost since it is my fault the media failed but I do not want to pay full price again. My PS2 is placed where my kids can not reach it and I have to change every disk for them but they still managed to get hold of a disk and scratch it when a guest set the box down where they could reach it after looking at it.
The PS2 media is very fragile and it doesn't take much to damage it. In this case it was just a matter of simply opening up the case and the disk fell out and bounced on the floor. It was scratched and unplayable after that. It's not like they used the disk for a frisbee, just a simple accident and $50 was out the window. I got the fliptop after that.
Not Metamucil, but ordinary laundry detergent actually works to set off a geyser. I remember when I was in New Zealand seeing a ranger at one of the Rotorua thermal areas walk up to the Lady Knox geyser and pour some detergent into it. A few minutes later it starting bubbling and erupted.
You are correct about the old PC games being tied to the hardware clock. I remember trying to run Frogger on a 386/25 (it was originally an XT game at 4.77mhz). If you are familiar with the game you know that the object is to get the frog across the road avoiding the traffic. On a 386 the traffic is doing close to Warp 10 and only the most suicidal of frogs would even think of venturing out into it.
Attachments in emails are just going to be opened, period. No one ever learns their lesson in that regard.
I strongly agree with that. When the I Love You virus was going around 5-6 years ago we had one girl that opened the attachment 3 times, even after a lecture from the IT staff the first time.
In order to use this system, developers will have to write compatible games for both the PS2 and PSP, and it's unclear whether Sony is proposing that these titles should be sold separately or in a single package.
If the latter is true, that would be a major selling point of the PSP to me, buying a game and having the ability to play it at home or on the road without having to buy both PS2 and PSP versions.
compared to the original. I for one didn't like the darker theme and the addition of GTA style carjackings. I hope they bring back the style of Jak and Daxter for the next sequel. I completed the original 2 times, but got bored about halfway through Jak II.
On the other hand, Ratchet and Clank Going Commando was improved in almost every way - different puzzle types, the ability to import weapons from R&C, and more Giant Clank missions to name a few of the many improvements. I just completed it two weekends ago and I am ready and waiting for R&C3.
I have to agree. Origin was one of the most innovative companies around with the Ultima series, Wing Commander, and one of my favorites, Crusader No Remorse/Regret. After being assimilated by EA, the third in the Crusader series was shelved, and the Ultima series had two very bad releases which were rushed out the door and very buggy to the point of being nearly unplayable.
Another casualty was Looking Glass Studios, a real innovator in the industry. They practically created the entire genre of modern stealth games with their Thief series. They showed what could be done with a 3D engine besides just making another FPS with Ultima Underworld and System Shock. Both games would really draw you into the story and had serveral innovations over anything out at that time, features like looking up and down while Doom and it's clones just had 2D vision.
These days I look to Europe for innovation. Most of the new developments I am excited about are coming from smaller studios there, Arx Fatalis, Gothic II, and the upcoming Sacred in the RPG genre to name a few. Serious Sam was another good effort from a small studio. It used the same tried and true formula as many others but somehow managed to bring the fun back to the genre.
EA tries to dumb down everything they touch to appeal to the lowest common denominator and leaves the real gamers lacking.
With my own children growing old enough to play games I have found my own interest rekindled playing with them, showing them the games of my youth. I got the old Atari 800 out and they are having a blast with the classics from that system - River Raid, Pac Man, Ballblazer to name a few. After getting them a PS2 my interest has also picked up. I find myself playing Ratchet and Clank 1 & 2, Jak and Daxter, and Sly Cooper long into the night after they have went to bed. On the other hand, I have found the PC game scene to be stagnating with every new release just more eye candy with the same game play with previous titles in the same genre. For instance, the graphics in the latest FPS are amazing, but the basic gameplay is still "if it moves, shoot it", unchanged since Doom and Wolf3D.
There have been times I have played the demo and went and bought the game afterwards and guess what? The game wouldn't work because of the copy protection that the demo did not have. Telling the developer that you are not going to buy from them again does little to replace the hard earned money you have already lost on the current purchase since most vendors will not accept returns on opened software. The only avenues open to recoup that loss is hoping the vendor releases a patch, which might be months away if they even bother to fix it, or getting the version stripped of copy protection, the so called "pirate" version.
In the present economy I have been dreaming of just finding a decent job, much less a dream job. It's been a couple rough years in the networking/telecommunications industry.
I rarely ever buy any game at full price. If you wait 6 months it will be half price or less for most titles. $20 is a decent price point - I can get 5 greatest hits for the price of 2 new games. In the case of computer games many times if you wait you also get the Gold edition which will have an expansion pack and other extras. I have plenty of unfinished games I can play without having to go get the latest and greatest while I am waiting for them to come down in price.
I finished the original. At the end it said "Report your feat to Lord British". I sent Origin a letter and they actually sent back a certificate saying that you had completed the game. I may have that confused with IV though. I finished Ultima III-VI but never finished I, II, or VII, and didn't play VIII and IX. I remember the end of Ultima V had some tricky dungeons where you had to use magic to remove obstacles to reveal the exits from rooms.
For beginning game programming I would recommend Dark Basic
k team.com/English/jamagic.htmi c.com/
http://darkbasic.thegamecreators.com/
It is geared toward game programming and there is a beginners book available. A version of basic would be a good start for a 9 year old. At least they would learn some programming structure and concepts that would build the foundations for learning more complex languages in the future.
Others of this type are:
http://www.ethosbasic.com/
http://www.clic
http://www.blitzbas
In my household, I see this being used more for a cheap media jukebox for playing DivX, MP3, OGG, or XviD than anything else. The other main use I would have for it would be as an emulation machine - MAME, Atari800Win, Stella, JNES, WinUAE, STeem, WinSTon, and VisualBoy Advance to name a few. You can find most of those for a modified XBox, but it is a hassle since they would have been created with an XBox Developers Kit and so couldn't be distibuted except through unofficial means. For the latest and greatest FPS a pc would be the logical choice, but for emulation and older games that do not require a fast 3D video card this box would be a good alternative. I could build a similar spec PC for about the same cost of this or less but I like the small form factor and the fact I don't have to spend my time building it.
Ultima IV had some of the best music I remember in a computer game. On the Atari ST version it would even use the MIDI out ports built into those computers. I ran it through a Yamaha DX7 and Ensoniq Mirage which had people dropping their jaws at the music in that game back in 1986.