I have heard so much about Beaujolais being such a great wine over the years that I finally broke down and bought a 14.00 bottle last week. I ended up mixing it with 7-up for spritzers, it was super dry and simply not to my taste. Of course everyone have different tastes. I prefer any Lambrusco or wine with a fuller, less dry, fruit flavor, I also prefer a bit of sweetness to take the edge off the acidy tartness of most white wines.
Even if the simplest life came from IE it seems to me that it would still evolve over time. IMHO IE is complete bunk, all I'm saying is that if life was Designed by a higher power it could still evolve so it doesn't mean that Darwin was wrong either way.
Are you sure that's a "Bug" in the program? Or is it simply the way evolution works? It seems to me that maybe we've reached the point where our inteligence is going to start to degrade as well.
Asia Carrera http://www.asiacarrera.com/ is easily one of the hottest, if not one of the best Unreal Players around:)
*howls* *pants* *drools*
The Hoosierbilly!
Any kid, boy or girl, who hasn't figured out they can't fly by the age of 13 has either had a very, very poor education or has some major mental handicaps. In either case they shouldn't have been allowed to play a Rated "T" game as it should have been obvious to the parents that even though they might be aged 13, they obviously didn't have the full mental capacity of a 13 year old (or a 3 year old for that matter). I feel bad for the parents in this case, but blaming the gaming company for your bad parenting is an obvious case of passing the buck. I truly feel for any parent that loses a child so, I have 2 of the little buggers myself, so don't think that I don't feel sympathy for what they are going through. I'm simply trying to state the fact that kids don't gun down their school mates, commit suicide and/or acts of murder or try to fly unless there are some major underlying problems other than the game, music, movie, book or whatever other form of media the parents, lawyers and politicians try to blame it on.
Just one Hoosierbillys opinion as usual;),
Jason
Ok, it's obvious some freak and not some geek wrote this! Anyone that puts Lost in Space at number 33, includes WonderWoman at all and forgets the original Battlestar Galactica completely obviously doesn't know there ass from a "Red Dwarf"!
Are we sure they aren't looking more towards bondage, rape-fantasy, beastiality, etc.... Types of porn that leave some reason as to the "consenting" part of the consenting adults and/or consenting horse,dog,pig,cat,chicken etc....;)
Of course maybe I'm just trying to come up with excuses to give them the benefit of a doubt since I try to believe that the government isn't trying to supress our freedoms.
Untill we can tap directly into the brain and emulate movement while paralized (even though it would feel like you were truly moving) it seems like the best way would be to suspend someone in a full suit. Hard to explain what I'm saying but if you could freely move your legs (for the most part that is) in harnesses that could give you the sensation of having whatever terrain under you. Well I think you get the idea. Unfortunately I'm still talking about millions of dollars worth of gear to play a game. Seems a little extreme if you ask me, but then again I really like my games;)
What is the easiest language to learn for a complete beginner. I've been working with computers for over 20 years but the one thing I've never gotten into is writing code. I am extremely busy so I have little time for learning unfortunately. What I'm really looking for is an online tutorial that I can use to learn a very basic language.
I think that most Piracy is done simply because the pirates enjoy it. they don't care that much about what they're stealing, they're just interested in the thrill of the act itself. Therefore regardless of what you do, short of making all media "Free as in Beer" there will always be people that are going to try to counter it, and they will find a way to do exactly that. For every action there is a reaction, for every lock there is a key and for every security measure there is a hacker with plenty of free time on their hands. they should use that 30m to research ways to make their product(s)cheaper and increase their margins so they can try to gain back some of the supposed money they are losing due to piracy.
I figure that even though it's obviously not necessary to have this information on the card some over zealous, bored or almost out of things to do programmer decided to add everything but the kitchen sink just for the hell of it. He/She might do this with all their programming jobs just to create more job security for themselves. I mean the more information the longer it takes to write and the more there is to go wrong with it in the future. Call it a conspiracy theory if you like, yeah I also figure that auto mechanics break something everytime they fix something just to suck more food out of my childrens mouths, but I'm sure it happens.
I have two questions!
question 1 - why did it take 3 years to make an Outlook clone?
question 2 - Why exactly do they think we need another Outlook clone? I mean what makes this program so special? What will make me want to use this one over any other mail program out there?
It seems to me that it's a waste of time to create a program that's no more innovative than this one.
Anyone care to enlighten me?
You don't have to necessarily have a degree and/or a background in science to experiment just like you don't have to have either in literature to write a book. I've attained a very high profile position in my company simply by hard work and common sense, I hold no degrees, I don't even have a certificate in anything. I also like to write on the side and I have a partially finished novel and me and my nephew are working on a screenplay. I'm not saying that going to college is a waste of time because it's not, that is unless you spend your time in a drunken stupor, learning nothing, which is what I would have done at the age of 18 had I went. I'm sure that some of the most famous people in particuliar fields were never trained for them, they simply had a knack and some common sense to back it up. It's great that your uncle is part of such an innovative team. Even if they fail, at least you'll know that he tried even when his family didn't believe/support him, he is trying because he believe in what he's doing and he believes in himself. Faith and common sense are two things they can't teach you in school!
I just purchased my first E-book from Amazon.com Last Friday. It will not download properly and I can get absolutely no response from Amazon on the problem, even after sending them 3 e-mails. There is no phone number for customer service that I can find for them which is completely ludicrous. I had to download the stupid reader and then screw around activating it, then updating the reader. I'm sorry but from now on I am going to stick with purchasing paper copies and getting them through the mail. When I can purchase an E-book and bring it up in my choice of several different formats without the hassel I'll consider trying it again.
"They can't afford it". That's the whole point of what they were telling Microsoft. In response Microsoft offers to forgive their current transgressions for a dollar a machine. However in the agreement they state they want them to use Microsoft products in the future. If they couldn't afford them before they certainly won't be able to afford them now considering the economy is still declining and at the same time Microsoft continues to make more complexed buggy software that not only has a higher base price but also requires more money to support it.
This is the first I've heard of the JDS from SUN in a while, I was wondering how it was doing and if it would ever get any kind of foothold. The market is getting desperate for a "very solid" desktop Open Source OS, whether based on Linux or something else I don't think it matters. We need something that is not only 100% compatable with MS products but that will also force MS to actually compete for a change! Maybe we would be more willing to use Microsoft programs if they actually had to compete fairly in the market. It would also help if they'd humble their attitude down a bit, the holier than thou bit is getting really irritating.
I know hardly anything about the Linux OS still, even after five years of tinkering with it here and there. However from what I have seen, heard and tinkered with, SuSe is easily the Linux company that's in the best "position" to make a killing if they'll simply stretch themselves out into the MRP/ERP, CRM, BI and other true "business" programs. They should be pushing the hell out of SuSe Open Exchange Server as well cause as far as I can tell it's easily the best replacement product out there for MS Exchange Server.
Everyone knows that there are still places out there with Novell 3.12 servers still in place and cranking away day after day. I do agree that 400(+/- a few) Netware Engineers is ridiculous. Keep about a dozen of the best you have to support your legacy systems from now till Hell Freezes over if that's what it takes but don't alienate and leave those that supported the companies beginnings high and dry of tech-support. They should at least offer the rest of those engineers re-training in Linux as apposed to just cutting the guilotine rope and letting it fall on them. Of course the shareholders are only interested in the green bottom line and re-training high dollar employees is much more expensive than hiring in entry level green meat. I think that companies should have a legal responsibility to those employees that stay with them for years through thick and thin. I've seen too many people pour their entire lives into a job/company for 30 years just to be cut loose at a moments notice without as much as an explanation and/or "thanks for your years of loyalty to us". I personally think that it should be a law that for every five years you work for a place they owe you 1 year of salary based on your yearly average over that 5 years. That way if they decide to dump you for no reason you have a year to recover mentally/emotionally/financially from the impact of what can be a very trying time in a persons life. I know we have unemployment but that's not the same, I'm not talking about a percentage paid to you by the company I mean that if I got fired today I would have the next 12 months pay come in just like normal and I could take my time planning my next career move. Oh well , nothing but a pipe dream I'm sure, dreaming isn't so bad a thing though:)
I had completely lost
my temper yesterday when I wrote to Assembly member Yee which wrote the crappy
bill theyre trying to get passed in California that is ALMOST as
bad as the one in MI. Unfortunately
I was so mad that my grammar and writing suffered horribly, not even sure how
much sense I ended up making to tell the truth, but at least I said something
so I felt better getting it off my chest.
To: Assemblymember.Yee@assembly.ca.govSubject: I dont want to live in your UtopiaMr. Yee,Since you are going to go ahead and decide whatMy kids can experience instead of me why don't you goAhead and raise them yourself. That way you make sureThey legally can't have a McDonalds Happy Meal moreThan once a month, they have to eat at least one greenVegetable a day and the police can throw you in jailIf you don't stand guard over them while they brushTheir teeth three times a day? I think what youShould do is get a grip on your self righteous saveThe world attitude and worry about saving yourselfFrom the "utopian" society you are eventually going toCreate by pushing bills like this through. Oh yeahThere are hundreds if not thousands of studies thatShow conclusively that "utopian societies" are aHorrible idea and inhumane at the basest levels. We are doing just fine without you and all theOther control freak politicians that would like to haveThe government do everything for us including wipingOur asses. There is a major flaw in your bill Mr.Yee, I can still rent video games for my kids... or isthat going to be illegal also? You going to throw mein jail for making the decision on what is ok for mykids to do and what's not? You better hurry up andedit that bill to include that if not, we wouldn't want youTo leave a loophole for us Satan worshipping, videoGame supporting, heavy metal listening parents to slipThrough now would we? Spend your time on somethingUseful Mr. Yee, like fighting Porn, Now there is a realThreat to our society, never mind the terrorists.Sincerely, Jason D. BlevinsLiving in Indiana instead of Caly for a reason!
Sorry I obviously had one too many grogs when I wrote that. Actually Sierra wrote many adventures but the lucas arts adventures were far superior. *goes back for another grog*
Oh God! The Nightmares that puzzle brings back to mind.... the horror! Still one of the best series that Sierra ever created. Too bad they don't still make games that make you THINK, laugh, cry, throw keyboards , curse, spend a fortune on tech-support and hint phone calls and well... you know good games where you actually feel as if you achieved something after you finished!
I wrote the following five
years ago trying to put my frustration with the quickly dying genre of "Adventure
Games". What I had to say here still
holds true and the last truly great game I played is still the same one this
article ends with. Once again (I've said
this several times in the past) the one and only true hope for gaming is the Indie developers, support them, praise them and pray for them,
they might be our last chance.
A skinny little blonde haired, blue eyed boy named
Jason sits down in front of the TV and fires it up He then proceeds to open the package his eyes
shine brightly as he gazes upon his brand new copy of Scott Adams adventure
game "The Count". He gently loads the
cassette into his Commodore Vic-20's new Cassette Drive and waits..... thirty minutes
later he's plunged into a medieval
castle with Count Dracula stalking him.....
watching his every move.
23 years later.......
Jason sits in front of his newly built PC and loads up
his brand new copy of Funcoms The Longest Journey and
as he waits for it to load he thinks back on all his grand adventures. From the depths of the seas to the outer
reaches of the universe he's traveled.
Just like books, adventure games open up your wildest
imagination, from sailing the seas as a pirate, exploring the deepest darkest
dungeons to discovering the wonders of Egypt and much, much more. In an age where books have been replaced by
violent movies and action games the wonders of these adventures is
dwindling. Seems like
the youth of today would rather remove the limbs of their enemies than use
their minds to outwit them.
Adventure games began to decline with the creation of
a game called "Doom" I played this game and found it a fun little distraction
but my mind couldn't comprehend such a shallow game as changing the gaming
genre to such extremes.
3D..... First Person.... Hmm.... I
thought with this technology they'll make some truly grand adventures games so
I waited and watched........... Ackkk...
another Doom clone L.
Hmm.... What's this ,
Gabriel Knight 2 The beast within all full motion video J , now we're
talking! Great game I thought as I
finished it up. So this is going to be
the future of gaming. Hmm... Under a Killing Moon, yup this is the future
what an incredible game!
So I waited......
New Sierra game, ugh... more technical problems, shallow plot and mediocre
graphics.
I waited.....
Broken Sword, Circle of Blood Demo.... WOW! Have to have this game... finish it.. wonderful game again
adventures are saved!
I waited..... Broken sword The Smoking Mirror... hmmm... ok
but not near as good as the first one L.
So I continued to wait..... I watched game after game
hit the shelves most of them too terrible too bother finishing with a few nice
exceptions such as The Pandora Directive and Overseer. Time after time I searched the shelves
finding more and more Doom clones in pretty disguises with new engines and
better graphics....
I waited... hmm... Gabriel Knight 3, hmm... 3D L, oh well I'll try it, great plot, ugh... sneaking?
What is this Thief the Dark Project or an adventure game? *Sighs Deeply*
Jason snaps out of his trance as The Longest Journey
finishes loading and he fires it up... hoping... praying... this is the one.
8 hours later... I got to get some sleep!
And so it went... The game was the best of the best even
including the great adventure games of old!
Adventures were granted at least a reprieve.
Sits and waits for Mystery of the Druids and hopes
other companies will pick up the trend that Funcom
has followed from the days of old creating truly incredible "adventures" for us
to partake in.
Amen... Point and Click and even text adventures are such a step above the mind numbing experience of "most" of todays games. I don't care about the graphics I want to truly get "immersed" in the storyline! Storyline? is what some of you are probably thinking right now. Yeah back in the dark ages games actually had Plots and purposes other than slicing, dicing and mowing bloody swathes through hordes of undead hookers! Not that I'm knocking that.. killing a few undead hookers in disgustingly perverse ways is fun for up to an hour but after that I simply lose interest for some odd reason. I said it when the game came out and by my comment here it will be easy for most of you to age date me but "Doom spelled Doom for the computer game industry" long ago! Look at the games up to the point that Doom came out and look at what's came out since and you'll see a steady decline in quality right through to today.
Till something gives as far as more Indi development houses getting published and/or self publishing/distribution of their games I don't see the situation getting any better. The same can be said for the movie/music industries as well. I mean has there been a good band come out since "Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction"? *snickers*
Just an old hoosierbillies opinion as usual. http://www.hoosierbilly.blogspot.com/
I have a new USB pocket drive coming in that has built in USB key security for the desktop and also has Biometric security (thumbprint) built in as well. I'm going to store a password.doc and other items on it that I don't want to leave laying around on our Network or my local drive. It seems to me that using a key with biometric security would be a great idea for "Car security" and the technology is there and readily available. What do you think?
Borrowed Time for the last 50 years. The place has been sinking and they've been losing land by the day. The historical and Cultural losses are going to be horrible if they can't re-claim the city from Mother Nature. Yet I ask myself.... Can you really fight Mother Nature? And if so how long will it be after we re-gain a foothold before she strikes again and pushes us back? Maybe it would simply be best to leave the city at rest where it lies and spend the money re-locating the residents to more habitable and safer locales.
Slashdot Mirror
I have heard so much about Beaujolais being such a great wine over the years that I finally broke down and bought a 14.00 bottle last week. I ended up mixing it with 7-up for spritzers, it was super dry and simply not to my taste. Of course everyone have different tastes. I prefer any Lambrusco or wine with a fuller, less dry, fruit flavor, I also prefer a bit of sweetness to take the edge off the acidy tartness of most white wines.
Even if the simplest life came from IE it seems to me that it would still evolve over time. IMHO IE is complete bunk, all I'm saying is that if life was Designed by a higher power it could still evolve so it doesn't mean that Darwin was wrong either way.
Are you sure that's a "Bug" in the program? Or is it simply the way evolution works? It seems to me that maybe we've reached the point where our inteligence is going to start to degrade as well.
Here is a link directly to an interview with Asia about Unreal Tournament and online playing. http://www.asiacarrera.com/me2/xsreality/
Asia Carrera http://www.asiacarrera.com/ is easily one of the hottest, if not one of the best Unreal Players around :)
*howls* *pants* *drools*
The Hoosierbilly!
Any kid, boy or girl, who hasn't figured out they can't fly by the age of 13 has either had a very, very poor education or has some major mental handicaps. In either case they shouldn't have been allowed to play a Rated "T" game as it should have been obvious to the parents that even though they might be aged 13, they obviously didn't have the full mental capacity of a 13 year old (or a 3 year old for that matter). I feel bad for the parents in this case, but blaming the gaming company for your bad parenting is an obvious case of passing the buck. I truly feel for any parent that loses a child so, I have 2 of the little buggers myself, so don't think that I don't feel sympathy for what they are going through. I'm simply trying to state the fact that kids don't gun down their school mates, commit suicide and/or acts of murder or try to fly unless there are some major underlying problems other than the game, music, movie, book or whatever other form of media the parents, lawyers and politicians try to blame it on. Just one Hoosierbillys opinion as usual ;),
Jason
Ok, it's obvious some freak and not some geek wrote this! Anyone that puts Lost in Space at number 33, includes WonderWoman at all and forgets the original Battlestar Galactica completely obviously doesn't know there ass from a "Red Dwarf"!
Are we sure they aren't looking more towards bondage, rape-fantasy, beastiality, etc.... Types of porn that leave some reason as to the "consenting" part of the consenting adults and/or consenting horse,dog,pig,cat,chicken etc.... ;)
Of course maybe I'm just trying to come up with excuses to give them the benefit of a doubt since I try to believe that the government isn't trying to supress our freedoms.
Untill we can tap directly into the brain and emulate movement while paralized (even though it would feel like you were truly moving) it seems like the best way would be to suspend someone in a full suit. Hard to explain what I'm saying but if you could freely move your legs (for the most part that is) in harnesses that could give you the sensation of having whatever terrain under you. Well I think you get the idea. Unfortunately I'm still talking about millions of dollars worth of gear to play a game. Seems a little extreme if you ask me, but then again I really like my games ;)
What is the easiest language to learn for a complete beginner. I've been working with computers for over 20 years but the one thing I've never gotten into is writing code. I am extremely busy so I have little time for learning unfortunately. What I'm really looking for is an online tutorial that I can use to learn a very basic language.
I think that most Piracy is done simply because the pirates enjoy it. they don't care that much about what they're stealing, they're just interested in the thrill of the act itself. Therefore regardless of what you do, short of making all media "Free as in Beer" there will always be people that are going to try to counter it, and they will find a way to do exactly that. For every action there is a reaction, for every lock there is a key and for every security measure there is a hacker with plenty of free time on their hands. they should use that 30m to research ways to make their product(s)cheaper and increase their margins so they can try to gain back some of the supposed money they are losing due to piracy.
I figure that even though it's obviously not necessary to have this information on the card some over zealous, bored or almost out of things to do programmer decided to add everything but the kitchen sink just for the hell of it. He/She might do this with all their programming jobs just to create more job security for themselves. I mean the more information the longer it takes to write and the more there is to go wrong with it in the future. Call it a conspiracy theory if you like, yeah I also figure that auto mechanics break something everytime they fix something just to suck more food out of my childrens mouths, but I'm sure it happens.
I have two questions! question 1 - why did it take 3 years to make an Outlook clone? question 2 - Why exactly do they think we need another Outlook clone? I mean what makes this program so special? What will make me want to use this one over any other mail program out there? It seems to me that it's a waste of time to create a program that's no more innovative than this one. Anyone care to enlighten me?
You don't have to necessarily have a degree and/or a background in science to experiment just like you don't have to have either in literature to write a book. I've attained a very high profile position in my company simply by hard work and common sense, I hold no degrees, I don't even have a certificate in anything. I also like to write on the side and I have a partially finished novel and me and my nephew are working on a screenplay. I'm not saying that going to college is a waste of time because it's not, that is unless you spend your time in a drunken stupor, learning nothing, which is what I would have done at the age of 18 had I went. I'm sure that some of the most famous people in particuliar fields were never trained for them, they simply had a knack and some common sense to back it up. It's great that your uncle is part of such an innovative team. Even if they fail, at least you'll know that he tried even when his family didn't believe/support him, he is trying because he believe in what he's doing and he believes in himself. Faith and common sense are two things they can't teach you in school!
I just purchased my first E-book from Amazon.com Last Friday. It will not download properly and I can get absolutely no response from Amazon on the problem, even after sending them 3 e-mails. There is no phone number for customer service that I can find for them which is completely ludicrous. I had to download the stupid reader and then screw around activating it, then updating the reader. I'm sorry but from now on I am going to stick with purchasing paper copies and getting them through the mail. When I can purchase an E-book and bring it up in my choice of several different formats without the hassel I'll consider trying it again.
"They can't afford it". That's the whole point of what they were telling Microsoft. In response Microsoft offers to forgive their current transgressions for a dollar a machine. However in the agreement they state they want them to use Microsoft products in the future. If they couldn't afford them before they certainly won't be able to afford them now considering the economy is still declining and at the same time Microsoft continues to make more complexed buggy software that not only has a higher base price but also requires more money to support it. This is the first I've heard of the JDS from SUN in a while, I was wondering how it was doing and if it would ever get any kind of foothold. The market is getting desperate for a "very solid" desktop Open Source OS, whether based on Linux or something else I don't think it matters. We need something that is not only 100% compatable with MS products but that will also force MS to actually compete for a change! Maybe we would be more willing to use Microsoft programs if they actually had to compete fairly in the market. It would also help if they'd humble their attitude down a bit, the holier than thou bit is getting really irritating.
I know hardly anything about the Linux OS still, even after five years of tinkering with it here and there. However from what I have seen, heard and tinkered with, SuSe is easily the Linux company that's in the best "position" to make a killing if they'll simply stretch themselves out into the MRP/ERP, CRM, BI and other true "business" programs. They should be pushing the hell out of SuSe Open Exchange Server as well cause as far as I can tell it's easily the best replacement product out there for MS Exchange Server.
Everyone knows that there are still places out there with Novell 3.12 servers still in place and cranking away day after day. I do agree that 400(+/- a few) Netware Engineers is ridiculous. Keep about a dozen of the best you have to support your legacy systems from now till Hell Freezes over if that's what it takes but don't alienate and leave those that supported the companies beginnings high and dry of tech-support. They should at least offer the rest of those engineers re-training in Linux as apposed to just cutting the guilotine rope and letting it fall on them. Of course the shareholders are only interested in the green bottom line and re-training high dollar employees is much more expensive than hiring in entry level green meat. I think that companies should have a legal responsibility to those employees that stay with them for years through thick and thin. I've seen too many people pour their entire lives into a job/company for 30 years just to be cut loose at a moments notice without as much as an explanation and/or "thanks for your years of loyalty to us". I personally think that it should be a law that for every five years you work for a place they owe you 1 year of salary based on your yearly average over that 5 years. That way if they decide to dump you for no reason you have a year to recover mentally/emotionally/financially from the impact of what can be a very trying time in a persons life. I know we have unemployment but that's not the same, I'm not talking about a percentage paid to you by the company I mean that if I got fired today I would have the next 12 months pay come in just like normal and I could take my time planning my next career move. Oh well , nothing but a pipe dream I'm sure, dreaming isn't so bad a thing though :)
I had completely lost my temper yesterday when I wrote to Assembly member Yee which wrote the crappy bill theyre trying to get passed in California that is ALMOST as bad as the one in MI. Unfortunately I was so mad that my grammar and writing suffered horribly, not even sure how much sense I ended up making to tell the truth, but at least I said something so I felt better getting it off my chest.
To: Assemblymember.Yee@assembly.ca.gov Subject: I dont want to live in your Utopia Mr. Yee, Since you are going to go ahead and decide what My kids can experience instead of me why don't you go Ahead and raise them yourself. That way you make sure They legally can't have a McDonalds Happy Meal more Than once a month, they have to eat at least one green Vegetable a day and the police can throw you in jail If you don't stand guard over them while they brush Their teeth three times a day? I think what you Should do is get a grip on your self righteous save The world attitude and worry about saving yourself From the "utopian" society you are eventually going to Create by pushing bills like this through. Oh yeah There are hundreds if not thousands of studies that Show conclusively that "utopian societies" are a Horrible idea and inhumane at the basest levels. We are doing just fine without you and all the Other control freak politicians that would like to have The government do everything for us including wiping Our asses. There is a major flaw in your bill Mr. Yee, I can still rent video games for my kids... or is that going to be illegal also? You going to throw me in jail for making the decision on what is ok for my kids to do and what's not? You better hurry up and edit that bill to include that if not, we wouldn't want you To leave a loophole for us Satan worshipping, video Game supporting, heavy metal listening parents to slip Through now would we? Spend your time on something Useful Mr. Yee, like fighting Porn, Now there is a real Threat to our society, never mind the terrorists. Sincerely, Jason D. Blevins Living in Indiana instead of Caly for a reason!
Sorry I obviously had one too many grogs when I wrote that. Actually Sierra wrote many adventures but the lucas arts adventures were far superior. *goes back for another grog*
Oh God! The Nightmares that puzzle brings back to mind.... the horror! Still one of the best series that Sierra ever created. Too bad they don't still make games that make you THINK, laugh, cry, throw keyboards , curse, spend a fortune on tech-support and hint phone calls and well... you know good games where you actually feel as if you achieved something after you finished!
I wrote the following five years ago trying to put my frustration with the quickly dying genre of "Adventure Games". What I had to say here still holds true and the last truly great game I played is still the same one this article ends with. Once again (I've said this several times in the past) the one and only true hope for gaming is the Indie developers, support them, praise them and pray for them, they might be our last chance.
A skinny little blonde haired, blue eyed boy named Jason sits down in front of the TV and fires it up He then proceeds to open the package his eyes shine brightly as he gazes upon his brand new copy of Scott Adams adventure game "The Count". He gently loads the cassette into his Commodore Vic-20's new Cassette Drive and waits ..... thirty minutes
later he's plunged into a medieval
castle with Count Dracula stalking him.....
watching his every move.
23 years later .......
Jason sits in front of his newly built PC and loads up his brand new copy of Funcoms The Longest Journey and as he waits for it to load he thinks back on all his grand adventures. From the depths of the seas to the outer reaches of the universe he's traveled.
Just like books, adventure games open up your wildest imagination, from sailing the seas as a pirate, exploring the deepest darkest dungeons to discovering the wonders of Egypt and much, much more. In an age where books have been replaced by violent movies and action games the wonders of these adventures is dwindling. Seems like the youth of today would rather remove the limbs of their enemies than use their minds to outwit them.
Adventure games began to decline with the creation of a game called "Doom" I played this game and found it a fun little distraction but my mind couldn't comprehend such a shallow game as changing the gaming genre to such extremes.
3D..... First Person.... Hmm.... I thought with this technology they'll make some truly grand adventures games so I waited and watched........... Ackkk... another Doom clone L .
Hmm.... What's this , Gabriel Knight 2 The beast within all full motion video J , now we're talking! Great game I thought as I finished it up. So this is going to be the future of gaming. Hmm... Under a Killing Moon, yup this is the future what an incredible game!
So I waited ......
New Sierra game, ugh... more technical problems, shallow plot and mediocre
graphics.
I waited..... Broken Sword, Circle of Blood Demo.... WOW! Have to have this game... finish it .. wonderful game again
adventures are saved!
I waited..... Broken sword The Smoking Mirror... hmmm... ok but not near as good as the first one L .
So I continued to wait..... I watched game after game hit the shelves most of them too terrible too bother finishing with a few nice exceptions such as The Pandora Directive and Overseer. Time after time I searched the shelves finding more and more Doom clones in pretty disguises with new engines and better graphics....
I waited... hmm... Gabriel Knight 3, hmm... 3D L , oh well I'll try it, great plot, ugh ... sneaking?
What is this Thief the Dark Project or an adventure game? *Sighs Deeply*
Jason snaps out of his trance as The Longest Journey finishes loading and he fires it up ... hoping... praying... this is the one.
8 hours later... I got to get some sleep!
And so it went... The game was the best of the best even including the great adventure games of old! Adventures were granted at least a reprieve.
Sits and waits for Mystery of the Druids and hopes other companies will pick up the trend that Funcom has followed from the days of old creating truly incredible "adventures" for us to partake in.
Jason D. Blevins
The Adventurer ;)
Amen... Point and Click and even text adventures are such a step above the mind numbing experience of "most" of todays games. I don't care about the graphics I want to truly get "immersed" in the storyline! Storyline? is what some of you are probably thinking right now. Yeah back in the dark ages games actually had Plots and purposes other than slicing, dicing and mowing bloody swathes through hordes of undead hookers! Not that I'm knocking that.. killing a few undead hookers in disgustingly perverse ways is fun for up to an hour but after that I simply lose interest for some odd reason. I said it when the game came out and by my comment here it will be easy for most of you to age date me but "Doom spelled Doom for the computer game industry" long ago! Look at the games up to the point that Doom came out and look at what's came out since and you'll see a steady decline in quality right through to today. Till something gives as far as more Indi development houses getting published and/or self publishing/distribution of their games I don't see the situation getting any better. The same can be said for the movie/music industries as well. I mean has there been a good band come out since "Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction"? *snickers* Just an old hoosierbillies opinion as usual. http://www.hoosierbilly.blogspot.com/
I have a new USB pocket drive coming in that has built in USB key security for the desktop and also has Biometric security (thumbprint) built in as well. I'm going to store a password .doc and other items on it that I don't want to leave laying around on our Network or my local drive. It seems to me that using a key with biometric security would be a great idea for "Car security" and the technology is there and readily available. What do you think?
Borrowed Time for the last 50 years. The place has been sinking and they've been losing land by the day. The historical and Cultural losses are going to be horrible if they can't re-claim the city from Mother Nature. Yet I ask myself.... Can you really fight Mother Nature? And if so how long will it be after we re-gain a foothold before she strikes again and pushes us back? Maybe it would simply be best to leave the city at rest where it lies and spend the money re-locating the residents to more habitable and safer locales.