NesterDC is cool, and works pretty well. Judging from the site, it doesn't look like it's getting maintained too well, but I have a version from 3 years ago that runs fine for most games.
I have several hundred NES games on this one CD, and I play it more often than my Xbox or Gamecube. Tetris2 is two-player, it's highly recommended when you're trying to get girls to play video games with you (my Atari 2600 works for this too).
I'm a firm believer that games haven't gotten any more fun* over the years, they are just more elaborate.
* the exception being MMORPG's - I just started Star Wars, and I'm totally blown away by how cool it is
I tend to play games 12 hours at a time, its a symptom of my conditio^^^personality. In case anyone was wondering about M:TW, here's my review/strategy guide. Summary: 7 out of 10.
I crank up the difficulty level to max, and just start conquering early on. Build a keep on your starting province, and start pumping out the vikings/infantry.
Conquer your neighbors with the intention of minimizing your borders with other countries. Look for coastal provinces (destroy the piers, so they can't sneak troops in), and natural bottlenecks in the terrain.
Keep your main army centralized, build a keep in every province you capture, and only start building money-making infrastructure once the province isn't bordering someone else's turf. Keep a unit of peasants in each castle so the pleb's don't revolt.
Expand outwards, always be fighting. Even if you can't keep a province, take it over and destroy all the buildings for money. Your army should mostly pay for itself, and the computer doesn't tend to rebuild castles.
If the folks revolt, send in the bishops and build a church. Assassinate the imams, they cause civil unrest. Only build units of vikings, feudal sargeants, and heavy cavalry - everything else is a waste. Go into battle with 50% more strength than the enemy has, and retreat from any even fights (its expensive to loose).
Once you get established, build a shipyard and start cranking out the baddest ships you can. I find it helpul to have a province on the atlantic and the mediterranean with a shipyard, so you can replace destroyed vessels more quickly. Naval superiority is easy to get if you start early, and will allow you lots of advantages.
Don't mess with the pope - you can conquer his little territory, but you get excommunicated and there's tons of rebellions. Sometimes he asks you to stop attacking nations, and its generally a good idea to listen unless you can get a major strategic advantage by conquering.
I like to start as the Danes, and conquer the bordering German province in the first few years of play. Then, once a foothold is established on the mainland, swing north and conquer Sweden. Sweden's a cash cow, tons of resouces and agriculture. Once the swede's are pacified, then resume the attack on the mainland.
If I play all night I can usually conquer most of the world, such that the game conceeds defeat. Its fun, but the AI doesn't use much long-term strategy. The game manages to be challenging just by throwing up random rebellions of really strong units.
The beginning is great fun, and your little men have their own personalities and descriptions. The endgame is a little disappointing for the amount of work required to get there. The tactical combat can be fun at first, but after the first 5 or 10 battles I just click auto-resolve. I never go into a fair fight, and its no fun to manually route and chase down a couple squads of archers.
The graphics are decent (for a strategy game), the music is good. Its one of the only games I've ever played that causes me stress. There really is alot to manage when you own 70% of the known world.
Newsflash: 8 bucks for a movie is REASONABLE. I challenge you to find me any other form of entertainment that is so cheap.
I've got one for you! My Star Wars Galaxies membership is $14.99 per month. That works out to about four cents an hour for top quality entertainment...:)
You definitely raise some valid points. Although, I think the USGS actually distributes the NED data in SDTS format.
SDTS is crappy - it isn't directly loadable by any software that I know of. (there might have been an ArcView 3.x extension to view it, I don't remember)
It's possible to export it from GRID to ASCII in ArcInfo command line. I've heard of people doing raster analysis with ASCII DEM's directly in visual basic.
The USGS is full of bloat, no doubt. I hate their strategic "partnering" with geocommunity.com to distribute the data for "free". The USGS essentially sent all their data to a commercial site, who will allow you to download one quadrangle at a time through a lame GUI. To add insult to injury, the USGS blocked all FTP access to their DEM server. The madness!
Fortunately, I've got the whole US on hard drive in two projections:)
I did a search: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF -8&q=+dri ve+a+Ferrari+at+100+mph+on+a+bridge+whilst+mowing+ down+junkies%2C+firing+rocket+launchers%2C+and+gat hering+cash+and+drugs&btnG=Google+Search
And,the google ad that popped up was for a Ferrari rental place. Hmmm...
So, if I were to buy an IBM laptop, could I get one that would reliably dual-boot linux and windows straight from the factory? Without having to glom together drivers and stuff?
That would be cool. If not from IBM, then what would be a good source for something like this?
What is the purpose of creating 3d terrain maps? What type of textures or data do you want to overlay? Is there any economic value to your project? Do you want to be able to do a virtual walkthrough, or just generate static images?
If you are trying to program a flight simulator, your needs are totally different than if you were trying to do mapping or GIS analysis. Also, you could just be trying to make a pretty picture.
Pretty picture: Use terragen (as mentioned by previous poster)
Mapping/GIS analysis of geospatial data: ArcView (not cheap)
Architectural rendering: Lightwave (not cheap) or RapidSite 3d (not sure if they are still making this one)
Goofing around with flight sim: some game engine
You might want to take a look at this site: Vterrain is a pretty cool place to get started. The community is pretty helpful - some French dude who programs flight sims gave me some pointers in developing a commercial 3d mapping application.
Finally, if you need a source for terrain maps, check out the USGS's National Elevation Dataset (NED). This is the best thing since sliced bread in the GIS community.
One of the biggest drains for me is the travel system - it costs between 300 and 3000 credits to go somewhere via starship. This is a 'sink', since the travel profits go back to the game (rather than the player characters).
You also have to clone (1000 credits), insure your items (cost varies, usually about 1200 for me), repair your vehicle (between 3000 and 5000), and a couple other things.
When you run missions and loot enemies, the game pays you money that didn't previously exist in the system.
The trick is to balance the money being paid out with the money being reabsorbed. That way, regardless of how much is sunk in player accounts, there isn't a huge supply of new money going out which would dilute the value of each credit.
It probably sucks to start in SWG as a crafter, but I have been doing combat professions for about 5 weeks and have a decent amount of money. Most weapons on my server are less than 25k, and I can earn that much in one mission on dantooine.
The tricks: 1) get buffed by a master doctor 2) get a set of good composite armor 3) buy vasarian brandy and spice to boost your mind 4) get a decent gun 5) learn novice medic, and work your way up ONLY the third skill tree (buy stim packs off the bazaar) 6) group with people more powerful than you are to run missions 7) read the trade forums for your server, so you can understand the economy better and know who the best weapon and armorsmiths are
This will take about 120k credits (on my server), but once you get there you're in pretty good shape.
Alot of experienced players will pay you upwards of 1k to train you in skills (they need apprenticeship points to master their professions).
My favorite starting combo is scout/marksman. You have to kill stuff to get marksman xp, and you have to 'harvest resources' from dead things to get scout xp. The two are pretty complimentary. Get a bundle of about 600 good quality hide (overall quality better than 500), and sell it on the bazaar for 6k.
If you do those two things (and don't waste money on a speeder bike and clothes and stuff), you can get your composite armor and weapon in just a week or two.
Try to master the scout and marksman professions, then you can be a bounty hunter. (I'm almost there!)
Slashdot Mirror
A more pertinant link.
Um, wasn't this the plot of some movie?
Why yes, yes it was.
i just blew all my points, but this is the best slashdot comment of the day
You're my hero - thanks for the link!
I was hoping there'd be an update, but I haven't really paid attention to it in years.
Back with the old version, your ROM names had to be 7 characters or less to save games - is that still the case?
You want to get this.
NesterDC is cool, and works pretty well. Judging from the site, it doesn't look like it's getting maintained too well, but I have a version from 3 years ago that runs fine for most games.
I have several hundred NES games on this one CD, and I play it more often than my Xbox or Gamecube. Tetris2 is two-player, it's highly recommended when you're trying to get girls to play video games with you (my Atari 2600 works for this too).
I'm a firm believer that games haven't gotten any more fun* over the years, they are just more elaborate.
* the exception being MMORPG's - I just started Star Wars, and I'm totally blown away by how cool it is
Dude! You're getting a centrino.
At first I was scared to click this link (I know I'm not the only one), but I had to come back for it.
I am relieved to say that it is both work-safe (as long as no one is in your immediate vicinity) and somewhat amusing.
I tend to play games 12 hours at a time, its a symptom of my conditio^^^personality. In case anyone was wondering about M:TW, here's my review/strategy guide. Summary: 7 out of 10.
I crank up the difficulty level to max, and just start conquering early on. Build a keep on your starting province, and start pumping out the vikings/infantry.
Conquer your neighbors with the intention of minimizing your borders with other countries. Look for coastal provinces (destroy the piers, so they can't sneak troops in), and natural bottlenecks in the terrain.
Keep your main army centralized, build a keep in every province you capture, and only start building money-making infrastructure once the province isn't bordering someone else's turf. Keep a unit of peasants in each castle so the pleb's don't revolt.
Expand outwards, always be fighting. Even if you can't keep a province, take it over and destroy all the buildings for money. Your army should mostly pay for itself, and the computer doesn't tend to rebuild castles.
If the folks revolt, send in the bishops and build a church. Assassinate the imams, they cause civil unrest. Only build units of vikings, feudal sargeants, and heavy cavalry - everything else is a waste. Go into battle with 50% more strength than the enemy has, and retreat from any even fights (its expensive to loose).
Once you get established, build a shipyard and start cranking out the baddest ships you can. I find it helpul to have a province on the atlantic and the mediterranean with a shipyard, so you can replace destroyed vessels more quickly. Naval superiority is easy to get if you start early, and will allow you lots of advantages.
Don't mess with the pope - you can conquer his little territory, but you get excommunicated and there's tons of rebellions. Sometimes he asks you to stop attacking nations, and its generally a good idea to listen unless you can get a major strategic advantage by conquering.
I like to start as the Danes, and conquer the bordering German province in the first few years of play. Then, once a foothold is established on the mainland, swing north and conquer Sweden. Sweden's a cash cow, tons of resouces and agriculture. Once the swede's are pacified, then resume the attack on the mainland.
If I play all night I can usually conquer most of the world, such that the game conceeds defeat. Its fun, but the AI doesn't use much long-term strategy. The game manages to be challenging just by throwing up random rebellions of really strong units.
The beginning is great fun, and your little men have their own personalities and descriptions. The endgame is a little disappointing for the amount of work required to get there. The tactical combat can be fun at first, but after the first 5 or 10 battles I just click auto-resolve. I never go into a fair fight, and its no fun to manually route and chase down a couple squads of archers.
The graphics are decent (for a strategy game), the music is good. Its one of the only games I've ever played that causes me stress. There really is alot to manage when you own 70% of the known world.
This was my longest slashdot post ever, whew!
I'm genuinely impressed. That's the cleverest disguise for an offtopic post I've ever seen on Slashdot.
Of course, I am new here.
I recently purchsed a couple Bose PC speakers, and have been pretty happy with them.
I'm not a big audio person, but they sound fine to me. Not a ton of low end, but the mids and highs are nice.
Actually, people have been known to make knives out of meteorites.
Kind of like Conan's sword, but different. Thats cool.
if i had mod points, they would belong to you
My name is Inigo Montoya... and I have come to kill your horse.
Newsflash: 8 bucks for a movie is REASONABLE. I challenge you to find me any other form of entertainment that is so cheap.
I've got one for you!
My Star Wars Galaxies membership is $14.99 per month. That works out to about four cents an hour for top quality entertainment...
You definitely raise some valid points. Although, I think the USGS actually distributes the NED data in SDTS format.
:)
SDTS is crappy - it isn't directly loadable by any software that I know of. (there might have been an ArcView 3.x extension to view it, I don't remember)
It's possible to export it from GRID to ASCII in ArcInfo command line. I've heard of people doing raster analysis with ASCII DEM's directly in visual basic.
The USGS is full of bloat, no doubt. I hate their strategic "partnering" with geocommunity.com to distribute the data for "free". The USGS essentially sent all their data to a commercial site, who will allow you to download one quadrangle at a time through a lame GUI. To add insult to injury, the USGS blocked all FTP access to their DEM server. The madness!
Fortunately, I've got the whole US on hard drive in two projections
Ok, I couldn't resist:
F -8&q=+dri ve+a+Ferrari+at+100+mph+on+a+bridge+whilst+mowing+ down+junkies%2C+firing+rocket+launchers%2C+and+gat hering+cash+and+drugs&btnG=Google+Search
I did a search:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UT
And,the google ad that popped up was for a Ferrari rental place. Hmmm...
Don't mod me down til someone answers
So, if I were to buy an IBM laptop, could I get one that would reliably dual-boot linux and windows straight from the factory?
Without having to glom together drivers and stuff?
That would be cool. If not from IBM, then what would be a good source for something like this?
I can see myself spending ages playing this game...I've sunk close to 100 hours into over the years
Heck, I've played Star Wars Galaxies more than that this week!
What is the purpose of creating 3d terrain maps? What type of textures or data do you want to overlay? Is there any economic value to your project? Do you want to be able to do a virtual walkthrough, or just generate static images?
If you are trying to program a flight simulator, your needs are totally different than if you were trying to do mapping or GIS analysis. Also, you could just be trying to make a pretty picture.
Pretty picture:
Use terragen (as mentioned by previous poster)
Mapping/GIS analysis of geospatial data:
ArcView (not cheap)
Architectural rendering:
Lightwave (not cheap) or RapidSite 3d (not sure if they are still making this one)
Goofing around with flight sim:
some game engine
You might want to take a look at this site:
Vterrain is a pretty cool place to get started. The community is pretty helpful - some French dude who programs flight sims gave me some pointers in developing a commercial 3d mapping application.
Finally, if you need a source for terrain maps, check out the USGS's National Elevation Dataset (NED). This is the best thing since sliced bread in the GIS community.
Good luck...
This is the best one
With the replacement cost being out of my range, I've either got to live with it, fix it myself or find a good lawyer.
And you think hinges are expensive?
One of the biggest drains for me is the travel system - it costs between 300 and 3000 credits to go somewhere via starship. This is a 'sink', since the travel profits go back to the game (rather than the player characters).
You also have to clone (1000 credits), insure your items (cost varies, usually about 1200 for me), repair your vehicle (between 3000 and 5000), and a couple other things.
When you run missions and loot enemies, the game pays you money that didn't previously exist in the system.
The trick is to balance the money being paid out with the money being reabsorbed. That way, regardless of how much is sunk in player accounts, there isn't a huge supply of new money going out which would dilute the value of each credit.
Here is some data about the real world.
It probably sucks to start in SWG as a crafter, but I have been doing combat professions for about 5 weeks and have a decent amount of money. Most weapons on my server are less than 25k, and I can earn that much in one mission on dantooine.
The tricks:
1) get buffed by a master doctor
2) get a set of good composite armor
3) buy vasarian brandy and spice to boost your mind
4) get a decent gun
5) learn novice medic, and work your way up ONLY the third skill tree (buy stim packs off the bazaar)
6) group with people more powerful than you are to run missions
7) read the trade forums for your server, so you can understand the economy better and know who the best weapon and armorsmiths are
This will take about 120k credits (on my server), but once you get there you're in pretty good shape.
Alot of experienced players will pay you upwards of 1k to train you in skills (they need apprenticeship points to master their professions).
My favorite starting combo is scout/marksman. You have to kill stuff to get marksman xp, and you have to 'harvest resources' from dead things to get scout xp. The two are pretty complimentary. Get a bundle of about 600 good quality hide (overall quality better than 500), and sell it on the bazaar for 6k.
If you do those two things (and don't waste money on a speeder bike and clothes and stuff), you can get your composite armor and weapon in just a week or two.
Try to master the scout and marksman professions, then you can be a bounty hunter. (I'm almost there!)
and she said, 'Well...I think I'm personally responsible for the loss of a $400 million national asset.
Those women drivers... Sheesh!
He made Gollum, and he's only an assistant professor? Give the man an endowment, lots of research funds, and the "Coolest Computer Person EV4R" award.
Do they have a nobel prize for computerized skin?