Taking the analogy a bit further, it's not so much as "reverse-engineering" as it is emulating it in software. Some people just have the hardware for it. Those who don't need to learn the algorithms involved before "rendering" charisma. For sure, it won't be as fast or fluid, but it'll mostly work for some tasks. Some of my socially-awkward, geeky friends took great pains in doing this, devouring self-help and socialization books, seminars, etc. The end result doesn't quite look natural, almost like running Crysis at 12 FPS with the lowest details, but passable enough.
Linux From Scratch boosted my Linux knowledge about a hundredfold. I cut my teeth on a modified LFS 5.1. Following the instructions, while tedious, was doable and straightforward. What made it more difficult for me was that my host distro was a bit too old for the then-current LFS (5.1). With a slow and expensive internet connection, downloading an entire distro was out of the question. Downloaded the official tarballs, mixed and matched on my Celeron 366, and I eventually got it up and running.
It's a short, good read. Made me think for days. It's analogous to the Europeans finishing the conquest over South American Indians.
"The story is set sometime in the 21st century, 50 years after an alien race called the Krolp conquered and occupied much of planet Earth. The story is told from the perspective of President of the United States, Harris Moffatt III, who rules a rump United States and Canada that runs along the Rocky Mountains. Moffat's father and grandfather were also presidents."
Wow, you too? I read somewhere that Eternal Dagger had an IBM PC port, though I've never really seen one. I loved the combat system, but I didn't like the quick combat option, especially for high-level encounters. I remember encounters dragging on and on as they got tougher. Would love to see a remake/clone of WC.
Below the Root was awesome! The graphics weren't that good even by that era's standards, but I breathed and lived it, even dreamed about it. No other game had quite captured my imagination like it after that.
It had a smart-linker too. The executables were actually smaller than that of Turbo C. IIRC, TP's Hello World weighed in at 3-4K while TC's weighed in at around 6-7K, even with all the size optimizations on, using the tiny memory model. Turbo Basic's Hello World weighed in at around 30K!
So is history repeating itself. 5 years down the line your mobile phone costing same as a handheld console, will perform equally, if not better. Only the loyalists will still buy a console.
You could say the same thing about stand-alone mp3 players now. Back in the day, my friends and I would drool over those, with increasingly bigger capacities, etc. A 1 GB player was luxurious. My current phone's memory card can store 8 GB. Coupled with a good set of earphones, they've all but obviated my need for a dedicated mp3 player. I haven't seen anyone else in a long time want one either.
LFS user here. Will 2.6.39 get the LTS treatment just like 2.6.35 down to 2.6.32? Would be nice to have a stable target for years to come. I have a box that's still using 2.6.16 (formerly LTS) and another that's 2.4.37. Moving up from "minor" releases, e.g. from 2.6.35 to 2.6.36 haven't really been as minor as they used to be. They tend to be somewhat nerve-wracking experiences. Personally sticking to 2.6.35 as long I can.
I still remember Matrix, and later Objects Layout. It had a forms designer and a flowchart mode. It actually produced tight DOS.exe files. One could also change the output to C, Pascal or even BASIC, if extra customization is needed. I got my copy for something like $200. Their tagline in Byte was "not a single damn line of code, ever" or something like it.
It had a Windows 3.1 version. Too bad it didn't take off. IIRC, its final incarnation was released around 10 years ago, Build-IT, which spitted out Java code. Those were the days.
I live in the Philippines. While we do have a knack for coming up with smart-ass names, I have yet to meet someone here named Dildo, Thumper, or Flipper. Those are most probably names of pets. No Hitler either but we do have a lot of Adolfs. Lolita is pretty common, and we hardly think of it as dodgy. You'd hear Ding-dong a lot. A popular actor here goes by that as his screen name. A senator goes by "Ping". A former church head went by Cardinal Sin. Of course, except for Adolf, Lolita, etc, those are all nicknames, the way you'd use Slim, Spike or Mac. Repeating names are another novelty here.
I recently purchased Myst, since I missed it the first time around. My machine back in the 90's wasn't up to the task. A ton of classic graphic adventure games on GOG.com! Worth checking out for those who missed the classics the first time around. Cheap too!
It's probably not so much that you've lost your "mojo" as your preferences have changed over the years. Also, you probably have less time to kill now than when you were younger.
You didn't specify how old you were when you were at your peak, but I'm guessing you were a heavy gamer in the late 90s or early 00s. You'll find a ton of games from that era from Good Old Games that ought to keep you busy for a while. There are lots of games there that I couldn't afford and/or my machine couldn't run decently back then. You could also try free retro-clones of your old favorites.
I agree with the other posters that you ought to try your hand at writing your own games, maybe surprise yourself in the process.
In the JLA Earth-2 graphic novel, the Justice League has "evil" counterparts in a parallel universe. Called the "Crime Syndicate of Amerika", they are almost identical to, but the complete moral opposite of our Justice League. Lex Luthor is the sole "hero" of that world. In that universe, evil literally is good, while good is evil. Their Luthor fights a losing, but never-ending battle against the forces of evil, just as our Lex is destined to lose in a "good" universe. Crime, greed and corruption are lauded while heroism is a dirty word over there.
Their Luthor successfully crosses over to our universe and temporarily recruits our Justice League. Their attempts to "set the world right", (from our point of view) is ultimately rejected by their society. The mission ended in apparent failure. That is of course, from our perspective.
You're absolutely right. My bad. I do hope that this really is a publicity stunt. I'd be a bit annoyed, just like being on the receiving end of a bad April Fool's joke, but my desire for inexpensive, classic DRM-free games far outweighs whatever irritation this might warrant. I just want them back.
Slashdot Mirror
Try Code::Blocks. It runs on Windows, Linux and Mac.
Taking the analogy a bit further, it's not so much as "reverse-engineering" as it is emulating it in software. Some people just have the hardware for it. Those who don't need to learn the algorithms involved before "rendering" charisma. For sure, it won't be as fast or fluid, but it'll mostly work for some tasks. Some of my socially-awkward, geeky friends took great pains in doing this, devouring self-help and socialization books, seminars, etc. The end result doesn't quite look natural, almost like running Crysis at 12 FPS with the lowest details, but passable enough.
We localize the names to make them easier to remember, at least for us over here.
Shouldn't be too much of a stretch since this was written using Free Pascal.
Star Wars 7: Part I, then parts 2 & 3 before hitting Star Wars 8.
Linux From Scratch boosted my Linux knowledge about a hundredfold. I cut my teeth on a modified LFS 5.1. Following the instructions, while tedious, was doable and straightforward. What made it more difficult for me was that my host distro was a bit too old for the then-current LFS (5.1). With a slow and expensive internet connection, downloading an entire distro was out of the question. Downloaded the official tarballs, mixed and matched on my Celeron 366, and I eventually got it up and running.
Speaking of 5 years ago, we're still waiting for this to go commercial.
Vilcabamba by Harry Turtledove.
It's a short, good read. Made me think for days. It's analogous to the Europeans finishing the conquest over South American Indians.
"The story is set sometime in the 21st century, 50 years after an alien race called the Krolp conquered and occupied much of planet Earth. The story is told from the perspective of President of the United States, Harris Moffatt III, who rules a rump United States and Canada that runs along the Rocky Mountains. Moffat's father and grandfather were also presidents."
The online text is here.
Using Unity...
Wow, you too? I read somewhere that Eternal Dagger had an IBM PC port, though I've never really seen one. I loved the combat system, but I didn't like the quick combat option, especially for high-level encounters. I remember encounters dragging on and on as they got tougher. Would love to see a remake/clone of WC.
Below the Root was awesome! The graphics weren't that good even by that era's standards, but I breathed and lived it, even dreamed about it. No other game had quite captured my imagination like it after that.
Yeah. Wish they'd bring back that game, plus its sequel, Eternal Dagger. I miss WC, with its complex turn-based tactical combat system.
It had a smart-linker too. The executables were actually smaller than that of Turbo C. IIRC, TP's Hello World weighed in at 3-4K while TC's weighed in at around 6-7K, even with all the size optimizations on, using the tiny memory model. Turbo Basic's Hello World weighed in at around 30K!
So is history repeating itself. 5 years down the line your mobile phone costing same as a handheld console, will perform equally, if not better. Only the loyalists will still buy a console.
You could say the same thing about stand-alone mp3 players now. Back in the day, my friends and I would drool over those, with increasingly bigger capacities, etc. A 1 GB player was luxurious. My current phone's memory card can store 8 GB. Coupled with a good set of earphones, they've all but obviated my need for a dedicated mp3 player. I haven't seen anyone else in a long time want one either.
LFS user here. Will 2.6.39 get the LTS treatment just like 2.6.35 down to 2.6.32? Would be nice to have a stable target for years to come. I have a box that's still using 2.6.16 (formerly LTS) and another that's 2.4.37. Moving up from "minor" releases, e.g. from 2.6.35 to 2.6.36 haven't really been as minor as they used to be. They tend to be somewhat nerve-wracking experiences. Personally sticking to 2.6.35 as long I can.
Thought I was the only one. Chrome 11.0.696.65 and FF3.6 under Ubuntu 10.04.
I still remember Matrix, and later Objects Layout. It had a forms designer and a flowchart mode. It actually produced tight DOS .exe files. One could also change the output to C, Pascal or even BASIC, if extra customization is needed. I got my copy for something like $200. Their tagline in Byte was "not a single damn line of code, ever" or something like it.
It had a Windows 3.1 version. Too bad it didn't take off. IIRC, its final incarnation was released around 10 years ago, Build-IT, which spitted out Java code. Those were the days.
I live in the Philippines. While we do have a knack for coming up with smart-ass names, I have yet to meet someone here named Dildo, Thumper, or Flipper. Those are most probably names of pets. No Hitler either but we do have a lot of Adolfs. Lolita is pretty common, and we hardly think of it as dodgy. You'd hear Ding-dong a lot. A popular actor here goes by that as his screen name. A senator goes by "Ping". A former church head went by Cardinal Sin. Of course, except for Adolf, Lolita, etc, those are all nicknames, the way you'd use Slim, Spike or Mac. Repeating names are another novelty here.
...the more Slashdot friends you have, the more likely you are to feel stressed out by the site.
I recently purchased Myst, since I missed it the first time around. My machine back in the 90's wasn't up to the task. A ton of classic graphic adventure games on GOG.com! Worth checking out for those who missed the classics the first time around. Cheap too!
It's probably not so much that you've lost your "mojo" as your preferences have changed over the years. Also, you probably have less time to kill now than when you were younger.
You didn't specify how old you were when you were at your peak, but I'm guessing you were a heavy gamer in the late 90s or early 00s. You'll find a ton of games from that era from Good Old Games that ought to keep you busy for a while. There are lots of games there that I couldn't afford and/or my machine couldn't run decently back then. You could also try free retro-clones of your old favorites.
I agree with the other posters that you ought to try your hand at writing your own games, maybe surprise yourself in the process.
Yeah, me too. Before reading TFS, I thought it had something to do with getting a $300 netbook out the door.
In the JLA Earth-2 graphic novel, the Justice League has "evil" counterparts in a parallel universe. Called the "Crime Syndicate of Amerika", they are almost identical to, but the complete moral opposite of our Justice League. Lex Luthor is the sole "hero" of that world. In that universe, evil literally is good, while good is evil. Their Luthor fights a losing, but never-ending battle against the forces of evil, just as our Lex is destined to lose in a "good" universe. Crime, greed and corruption are lauded while heroism is a dirty word over there.
Their Luthor successfully crosses over to our universe and temporarily recruits our Justice League. Their attempts to "set the world right", (from our point of view) is ultimately rejected by their society. The mission ended in apparent failure. That is of course, from our perspective.
You're absolutely right. My bad. I do hope that this really is a publicity stunt. I'd be a bit annoyed, just like being on the receiving end of a bad April Fool's joke, but my desire for inexpensive, classic DRM-free games far outweighs whatever irritation this might warrant. I just want them back.
Posted 3 hours ago:
The official statement from GOG.com's management about the whole situation will be announced soon. We'll have more details about this tomorrow.
Sigh. Sure hope this isn't just a gimmick. Like many here, I still have or had quite a number of planned purchases.
Or the nazi who's never heard of Adolf Hitler.