I think I can agree with most of the games on this list. I definitely think that Myst deserves a big reward for how utterly innovative it was at the time (especially graphically!), and I'm glad to see that they're at least putting it on display for folks to play. I can see why they chose Fallout 3 over Myst. I have to wonder, though, how fun it can possibly be without spending several hours immersing oneself in it? My dad and I worked on that game over the course of several months, scratching notes, diagrams, and drawings in the provided(!) "journal." Man, those are some fond memories.
My only major beef, though, was the inclusion of Doom II. For starters, the original Doom was much more innovative for its time, and I had a LOT more fun playing it than I ever had with Doom II. The real travesty, however, is that Doom II beat out Deus Ex, of all things! Not only was Deus Ex a much more beautiful game, artistically (in terms of music, video, story, etc.), but there has yet to be another game that truly so masters the FPS-with-RPG elements that Deus Ex so deftly and artfully included. I think that this is truly one of the best games of all time, despite how dated the graphics were when it was released (although still prettier than Doom II, due to better hardware available). I'm REALLY hoping that the up-and-coming Deus Ex sequel isn't the hopeless disappointment that Deus Ex 2 (Invisible War) was.
Doom II was truly a good game, but I never thought it was nearly as fun as Doom 1, and it certainly can't hold a candle to Deus Ex.
Another article you may be interested in: 30 Games to Play Before You Die. It's a bit dated (2009) but at least they got the first game right.:-D The others on the list are certainly all worthy of the mention. It might not be the first thing I recommend a terminally ill person to read, but I think a gaming enthusiast would be missing-out on some great, classic fun, were he/she to not at least give it a glance.
Way to go, Mozilla, for standing up to these tyrants! I might just write Mozilla an email, congratulating them for it.
As for the take-down notice itself...having never heard of the add-on before, I've just installed it. Good job, DHS guys! (Who says they don't promote freedom?)
Although this is only like an iPad in the most ostensible sense, I still find it amazing for its time, given what it can do. Really, we still don't have a fax device (i.e. one that you write on and it prints to paper on the other side) that can do anything like this. Sure, we have email, scanners, etc., but this sort of device could be really useful for when you have to fill out a lot of hand-written forms and such remotely. Despite the advent of PDFs and other formats with fillable fields, some forms in use by the US government and various businesses still require actual handwriting. This would also be great for editing a hand-drawn design cooperatively with somebody on the other end. Even though you can do that on a computer, through various input devices, I still find pencil-and-paper far more intuitive. This could also be very cool for messing with D&D and other RPG character sheets if you're teleconferencing an RPG session and aren't using a virtual tabletop. (Some games still aren't supported, or are supported badly. Also, some people just like pencil-and-paper over digital formats for its easy customization and erase-ability.)
Does anybody know why this hasn't been made into a modern equivalent? Was it ever put into production in the 19th and 20th centuries? More than the device itself, I find it amazing that most people have never heard of such a thing, other than its distantly-related tablet PCs and similar. This would have been of great service during the various war efforts before the digital age, and still may be of some use in situations where it's impractical to power a computer or similar (such as in a 3rd-world country where electrical communication lines could be established but power is unreliable--just insert 4 AA batteries!). Given some good encryption, this could have been/could still be used as a sort of Enigma device where practical.
I wonder if those who can easily afford to have 3 drinks a day (but who don't over-imbibe) largely fall into the same demographic of those who can also afford decent medical treatment (in places where there isn't decent universal health care).
Here are some links to (1) a really nice, (and not *too* pricey) arcade console controller for USB; and (2) a modern gamepad with a port for plugging in original Atari controllers.
I have a friend who recently was laid off from a smallish Fresno, CA-based company (I think it was Fresno...) that makes computers and software for radiation dosing and administration. Apparently, the owner of the company bought it from the previous owner, who in turn had purchased it from the original owner. The original owner sold it some 20 years ago, and in the shuffle of ownership, all of the people who actually wrote the original code (which was buggy to begin with) were lost. So, for the last 20 years or so, the company has been trying to "band-aide" software that they don't really understand themselves. Essentially they were one of the first companies to come up with software for the treatment of radiation, but due to bad ownership and terrible business decisions (such as firing all the employees that know what they're doing, because it costs them too much in payroll), they've basically been relegated to servicing poor hospitals and nations who can't afford anything better.
Personally, if I were to get radiation treatments, knowing what I've heard from an inside source, I'd very much want to research the companies that make the software and hardware that I'll be at the mercy of. That, and not go to a poor hospital that can't afford the good stuff.
$0.02
Cheers!
Slashdot Mirror
I think I can agree with most of the games on this list. I definitely think that Myst deserves a big reward for how utterly innovative it was at the time (especially graphically!), and I'm glad to see that they're at least putting it on display for folks to play. I can see why they chose Fallout 3 over Myst. I have to wonder, though, how fun it can possibly be without spending several hours immersing oneself in it? My dad and I worked on that game over the course of several months, scratching notes, diagrams, and drawings in the provided(!) "journal." Man, those are some fond memories.
My only major beef, though, was the inclusion of Doom II. For starters, the original Doom was much more innovative for its time, and I had a LOT more fun playing it than I ever had with Doom II. The real travesty, however, is that Doom II beat out Deus Ex, of all things! Not only was Deus Ex a much more beautiful game, artistically (in terms of music, video, story, etc.), but there has yet to be another game that truly so masters the FPS-with-RPG elements that Deus Ex so deftly and artfully included. I think that this is truly one of the best games of all time, despite how dated the graphics were when it was released (although still prettier than Doom II, due to better hardware available). I'm REALLY hoping that the up-and-coming Deus Ex sequel isn't the hopeless disappointment that Deus Ex 2 (Invisible War) was.
Doom II was truly a good game, but I never thought it was nearly as fun as Doom 1, and it certainly can't hold a candle to Deus Ex.
Another article you may be interested in: 30 Games to Play Before You Die. It's a bit dated (2009) but at least they got the first game right. :-D The others on the list are certainly all worthy of the mention. It might not be the first thing I recommend a terminally ill person to read, but I think a gaming enthusiast would be missing-out on some great, classic fun, were he/she to not at least give it a glance.
Way to go, Mozilla, for standing up to these tyrants! I might just write Mozilla an email, congratulating them for it.
As for the take-down notice itself...having never heard of the add-on before, I've just installed it. Good job, DHS guys! (Who says they don't promote freedom?)
Although this is only like an iPad in the most ostensible sense, I still find it amazing for its time, given what it can do. Really, we still don't have a fax device (i.e. one that you write on and it prints to paper on the other side) that can do anything like this. Sure, we have email, scanners, etc., but this sort of device could be really useful for when you have to fill out a lot of hand-written forms and such remotely. Despite the advent of PDFs and other formats with fillable fields, some forms in use by the US government and various businesses still require actual handwriting. This would also be great for editing a hand-drawn design cooperatively with somebody on the other end. Even though you can do that on a computer, through various input devices, I still find pencil-and-paper far more intuitive. This could also be very cool for messing with D&D and other RPG character sheets if you're teleconferencing an RPG session and aren't using a virtual tabletop. (Some games still aren't supported, or are supported badly. Also, some people just like pencil-and-paper over digital formats for its easy customization and erase-ability.)
Does anybody know why this hasn't been made into a modern equivalent? Was it ever put into production in the 19th and 20th centuries? More than the device itself, I find it amazing that most people have never heard of such a thing, other than its distantly-related tablet PCs and similar. This would have been of great service during the various war efforts before the digital age, and still may be of some use in situations where it's impractical to power a computer or similar (such as in a 3rd-world country where electrical communication lines could be established but power is unreliable--just insert 4 AA batteries!). Given some good encryption, this could have been/could still be used as a sort of Enigma device where practical.
I wonder if those who can easily afford to have 3 drinks a day (but who don't over-imbibe) largely fall into the same demographic of those who can also afford decent medical treatment (in places where there isn't decent universal health care).
Here are some links to (1) a really nice, (and not *too* pricey) arcade console controller for USB; and (2) a modern gamepad with a port for plugging in original Atari controllers.
http://www.viperlair.com/reviews/misc/input/misc/xarcade/dual/index.shtml
http://www.geekalerts.com/usb-retro-arcade-controller/
While the "coffee" machine in the summary may be long gone, it is not without descendants!
BEHOLD: THE FUTURE!
http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Coffee.html
Now your computer can actually MAKE coffee!
I have a friend who recently was laid off from a smallish Fresno, CA-based company (I think it was Fresno...) that makes computers and software for radiation dosing and administration. Apparently, the owner of the company bought it from the previous owner, who in turn had purchased it from the original owner. The original owner sold it some 20 years ago, and in the shuffle of ownership, all of the people who actually wrote the original code (which was buggy to begin with) were lost. So, for the last 20 years or so, the company has been trying to "band-aide" software that they don't really understand themselves. Essentially they were one of the first companies to come up with software for the treatment of radiation, but due to bad ownership and terrible business decisions (such as firing all the employees that know what they're doing, because it costs them too much in payroll), they've basically been relegated to servicing poor hospitals and nations who can't afford anything better. Personally, if I were to get radiation treatments, knowing what I've heard from an inside source, I'd very much want to research the companies that make the software and hardware that I'll be at the mercy of. That, and not go to a poor hospital that can't afford the good stuff. $0.02 Cheers!
All they need to do now is make a movie of it and play it every night in a largish restaurant! Now THAT would be progress.