No more infolinks... transmissions of any kind... We'll start again... live in villages...
If you receive this, if you survive - then find us! Find us!
I can safely say that my parents buying me ZX Spectrum+ in '89 (some of my friends already had Amigas back then, but we couldn't afford it) was one of the best things that happened in my life.
That's when I got infatuated with computers, programming and, above all, games. That's where my fascination with insides, outsides and the logical part of electronic devices stems. That was the beginning for me.
Imagine how many possibilities this gave, how many doors to visionary worlds opened, how programming was tickling my mind - and we're talking about nine years old me in a gray reality of a freshly post-communist country.
I now meet programmers who can't tell me what processor their machine has, who don't understand the way their expensive graphic cards work, I meet engineers that barely know what's in that black box. If I still happen to like to know what's 'under the hood' (so to speak), it is because back then my childish curiosity was driving me to understand ZX Spectrum from inside out... and after that, every next generation of computers was easier to understand.
Right now, I have ZX Spectrum emulator on my PSP and I can revisit the dungeons of Knight Lore or caves of Heavy on the Magic on the bus - and it's like a trip back to childhood days, only without waiting for the game to load from the tape.
Clive Sinclair received his "Sir" title for ZX Spectrum 48 and rightly so. Happy birthsday, Speccy, and all the best to you Sir Clive.
The list is far from being complete ...
on
101 Free PC Games
·
· Score: 0, Redundant
...nowadays kids wouldn't know what Jaws, Close Encounters and Han Solo are. And Star Wars, well... maybe they would know prequel trilogy. About that guy with one artificial hand who was a good pilot and stubborn apprentice who dated Natalie Portman.
Try it - it is also enjoyable and innovative, has nice graphics and sound... no squids though. There was a PSP version called Every Extend Extra, but it was not as good.
Sure thing, I know that this can happen. Happens everywhere, not only in States, but recently in India, too (!). I'll find another job. It is perfectly normal.
I was born in Poland in 1980. I remember finding first computer magazine in my life (it was called "Bajtek") when I was nine - I have read through the walkthrough for "Three weeks in Paradise" and thought I didn't understand the rules of the game (there was a map for the game, so I thought it was a sort of board game). I got some explanations and fell in love with the idea. I was then reading on about games in other computer magazines, watching the photos of Lords of Midnight and l'Aigle d'Or in French computer magazines that my parents got - and I kept asking my parents to buy me one of these wonderful machines. Occasionally, my Dad would take me to his work, where I could play some Amstrad games (hey, Ghosts'n'Goblins!).
My dream took quite a long time to realize, since my parents didn't really have much money (plus take into account the fact the official exchange rates between Polish zloty and American dollars, as well as the availability of even 8bit computers, remember that it was still '89). On the funny note, I can vaguely remember that in the eighties the Polish radio would broadcast ZX Spectrum programs and games, so that anyone with tape recorder could record it on the tape and use. How about that, American imperialists? We shared everything in the communist period (tee hee), and come to think of it, one might consider it to be a rough equivalent of the government warez (or BBS). Gives all new meaning to the term 'radio connection'.
I finally got my first computer in 1991 - it was ZX Spectrum + with a tape recorder. Games took five minutes to load, and the loading would often crash, since it was a cheap, Polish tape recorder and read the data with a little bit of liberty. Sometimes if you touched the cable, the game would abort loading before the end. My younger brother even got beaten by me once, when he crashed loading of Draconus (I feel ashamed even today when I recall it). Of course in '92 most of my friends would already have Amigas. Words can't describe it how gorgous looking these games appeared to me back then (Wolfchild, Moonstone, Swiv, Agony). However, instead of just playing my ugly (by comparison) ZX games, I took to BASIC programming, so there was something good in the situation.
Well, things got quicker after that period. AT 286 with monochrome Hercules (I learned a lot about PCs back then, some of it trying to emulate CGA on Hercules to play games) - Colorado, Targhan, Leisure Suit Larry. Then 386DX 40MHz - Wolfenstein, Doom, my first 3D arts. Oh, on another funny note my first opinion on Doom was "Nah, it's just a sci-fi clone of Wolfenstein 3D, it won't catch". Talk about wrong. Then my highschool (had AMD K-6 200MHz with Riva 128ZX, man, was that thing powerful) and my first contact with the internet : 33.6 modem which was our only window to the world (for all of our school, remember). I remember first IRC sessions, first FTP session (I think it was sunnet.se), Battle Angel Alita covers download... And first BBSs too!
It is all a history now, but these were great times and we had incredible sense of power, forcing this crude (but then they appeared almost almighty) devices to do what we wanted them to do. And then the feeling of being connected to the world, even through an old copper phone cable, it was something special. I think I am not the only one that was a little behind the global trends, but nevertheless the beginning of information era was a great time to all of us involved.
Once in my life I felt proud to be Polish - it was when we blocked the issue of software patents.
It looks like we have won the battle, but the war will continue as long as there is overload of bureacracy in EU and moloch corporations to be lobbying.
Personally, being a Linux user (perhaps not the most advanced around, but at least trying) I shiver at the tought of software patents being introduced and what effect this might have on our distributions. No left-click, no double-click, no <insert_your_favourite_nix_feature_here>?
I do hope this issue will be bounced back again. For the sake of us all.
Buy them new Lego Mindstorms NXT - with the ease of graphical programming and instant results they may see the results quickly enough not to get discouraged. I think it might be an option.
I know it may come as a shock to nerdy Slashdot community, but there are people out there who hasn't seen Firefly yet. It is aimed at them and also the devoted fans who will take any excuse to see the series again.
I hope Firefly might acquire some more interest, enlarge its fanbase, and maybe one day we might see the continuation.
Anyways, this seems not too probable and (judging by "Serenity" movie) it might be better if there was no follow-ups, if they are to screw the ambience of the series.
Still, one can only hope. I really liked it a lot.
I use it at work and it is a very good, multi-purpose editor. Our company has generously bought a handful of licences, and I dare say it rocks.
Although vi, vim, emacs are very configurable and do have a lot of features, I would assume that most of developers still prefer some more visual IDE. I, for that matter, like to have class,file and reference browser window somewhere near when I'm tapping my code.
Each genius or prodigy is a result of years of hard work... but there is also a little spark of talent that makes him stand out above the level of simply very good.
My sensei in karate club always said that you can make a very good fighter out of anyone, if only he works hard enough. He used to say "I can make a craftsman in fighting out of almost anyone.. but you have to have that something to become an artist [in fighting]".
Three to five years of training and you have someone who will be able to fight effectively both on the street or in official tournament. But in order to make someone really extraordinary, he (or she) has to have some talent as well. And that's the difference between craftsman and an artist.
As far as I have seen, this observation is perfectly true in all other domains as well. If you don't develop your skill (even if you are talented), you will always be mediocre. If you work hard enough, you can become very good in almost anything you want. But if you have that spark of talent AND you work hard - only that combination can bring you to supreme level.
While most of the arguments against writing games running under Linux as well have already been given here, I will add two more :
- if people use free software, they probably are not that eager to throw fifty bucks on a game every month / week. Therefore, Linux users are even less interesting as a market.
- whatever we say about DirectX, it is now much more powerful platform for games development then any combination of what OpenGL, OpenAL, SDL et consortes can offer for games developers. So in fact developping a game under Open[$insertNameHere]is much longer and tedious process, while developing using both is practically equal to developing two games at once. No wonder game companies don't want to do that.
I must say that as a long time Linux user I am a little annoyed by the situation, but I see the logic behind it and don't think it will change soon. Still, what I actually can do is support the companies that try to include Linux users on their customers list and buy the games that run under Linux (UT 2004, Doom 3).
Slashdot Mirror
...I would like to recommend keeping an eye on this interesting project, called Aviary :
http://a.viary.com/
No more infolinks... transmissions of any kind... We'll start again... live in villages... If you receive this, if you survive - then find us! Find us!
I can safely say that my parents buying me ZX Spectrum+ in '89 (some of my friends already had Amigas back then, but we couldn't afford it) was one of the best things that happened in my life.
That's when I got infatuated with computers, programming and, above all, games. That's where my fascination with insides, outsides and the logical part of electronic devices stems. That was the beginning for me.
Imagine how many possibilities this gave, how many doors to visionary worlds opened, how programming was tickling my mind - and we're talking about nine years old me in a gray reality of a freshly post-communist country.
I now meet programmers who can't tell me what processor their machine has, who don't understand the way their expensive graphic cards work, I meet engineers that barely know what's in that black box. If I still happen to like to know what's 'under the hood' (so to speak), it is because back then my childish curiosity was driving me to understand ZX Spectrum from inside out... and after that, every next generation of computers was easier to understand.
Right now, I have ZX Spectrum emulator on my PSP and I can revisit the dungeons of Knight Lore or caves of Heavy on the Magic on the bus - and it's like a trip back to childhood days, only without waiting for the game to load from the tape.
Clive Sinclair received his "Sir" title for ZX Spectrum 48 and rightly so. Happy birthsday, Speccy, and all the best to you Sir Clive.
...without Every Extend :
Description
Download link
...nowadays kids wouldn't know what Jaws, Close Encounters and Han Solo are. And Star Wars, well... maybe they would know prequel trilogy. About that guy with one artificial hand who was a good pilot and stubborn apprentice who dated Natalie Portman.
...they have found evidence that little apple symbol was cleaved on the outside.
Which makes you wonder...
My statcounter shows mere 300 hits today. If google can't handle that, then they are not what they used to be...
Try it - it is also enjoyable and innovative, has nice graphics and sound... no squids though. There was a PSP version called Every Extend Extra, but it was not as good.
You can download it from here :http://nagoya.cool.ne.jp/o_mega/product/e2.html
If you want to read a little more about it before and see screenshots, my mini-review is available here :
http://bartsnews.blogspot.com/2006/11/every-exten
...just look at this :
http://www.koders.com/
Sure thing, I know that this can happen. Happens everywhere, not only in States, but recently in India, too (!). I'll find another job. It is perfectly normal.
...in a Polish branch of big American holding, I can safely say that I like this trend.
I was born in Poland in 1980. I remember finding first computer magazine in my life (it was called "Bajtek") when I was nine - I have read through the walkthrough for "Three weeks in Paradise" and thought I didn't understand the rules of the game (there was a map for the game, so I thought it was a sort of board game). I got some explanations and fell in love with the idea. I was then reading on about games in other computer magazines, watching the photos of Lords of Midnight and l'Aigle d'Or in French computer magazines that my parents got - and I kept asking my parents to buy me one of these wonderful machines. Occasionally, my Dad would take me to his work, where I could play some Amstrad games (hey, Ghosts'n'Goblins!).
My dream took quite a long time to realize, since my parents didn't really have much money (plus take into account the fact the official exchange rates between Polish zloty and American dollars, as well as the availability of even 8bit computers, remember that it was still '89). On the funny note, I can vaguely remember that in the eighties the Polish radio would broadcast ZX Spectrum programs and games, so that anyone with tape recorder could record it on the tape and use. How about that, American imperialists? We shared everything in the communist period (tee hee), and come to think of it, one might consider it to be a rough equivalent of the government warez (or BBS). Gives all new meaning to the term 'radio connection'.
I finally got my first computer in 1991 - it was ZX Spectrum + with a tape recorder. Games took five minutes to load, and the loading would often crash, since it was a cheap, Polish tape recorder and read the data with a little bit of liberty. Sometimes if you touched the cable, the game would abort loading before the end. My younger brother even got beaten by me once, when he crashed loading of Draconus (I feel ashamed even today when I recall it). Of course in '92 most of my friends would already have Amigas. Words can't describe it how gorgous looking these games appeared to me back then (Wolfchild, Moonstone, Swiv, Agony). However, instead of just playing my ugly (by comparison) ZX games, I took to BASIC programming, so there was something good in the situation.
Well, things got quicker after that period. AT 286 with monochrome Hercules (I learned a lot about PCs back then, some of it trying to emulate CGA on Hercules to play games) - Colorado, Targhan, Leisure Suit Larry. Then 386DX 40MHz - Wolfenstein, Doom, my first 3D arts. Oh, on another funny note my first opinion on Doom was "Nah, it's just a sci-fi clone of Wolfenstein 3D, it won't catch". Talk about wrong. Then my highschool (had AMD K-6 200MHz with Riva 128ZX, man, was that thing powerful) and my first contact with the internet : 33.6 modem which was our only window to the world (for all of our school, remember). I remember first IRC sessions, first FTP session (I think it was sunnet.se), Battle Angel Alita covers download... And first BBSs too!
It is all a history now, but these were great times and we had incredible sense of power, forcing this crude (but then they appeared almost almighty) devices to do what we wanted them to do. And then the feeling of being connected to the world, even through an old copper phone cable, it was something special. I think I am not the only one that was a little behind the global trends, but nevertheless the beginning of information era was a great time to all of us involved.
Once in my life I felt proud to be Polish - it was when we blocked the issue of software patents.
It looks like we have won the battle, but the war will continue as long as there is overload of bureacracy in EU and moloch corporations to be lobbying.
Personally, being a Linux user (perhaps not the most advanced around, but at least trying) I shiver at the tought of software patents being introduced and what effect this might have on our distributions. No left-click, no double-click, no <insert_your_favourite_nix_feature_here>?
I do hope this issue will be bounced back again. For the sake of us all.
I see lots of gold to be farmed in that technology!
Buy them new Lego Mindstorms NXT - with the ease of graphical programming and instant results they may see the results quickly enough not to get discouraged. I think it might be an option.
...didn't you?
Just admit it.
I don't see either "Heart of Gold" or "Objects in space"... guess it is not 'the entire' series then.
I know it may come as a shock to nerdy Slashdot community, but there are people out there who hasn't seen Firefly yet. It is aimed at them and also the devoted fans who will take any excuse to see the series again.
I hope Firefly might acquire some more interest, enlarge its fanbase, and maybe one day we might see the continuation.
Anyways, this seems not too probable and (judging by "Serenity" movie) it might be better if there was no follow-ups, if they are to screw the ambience of the series.
Still, one can only hope. I really liked it a lot.
I use it at work and it is a very good, multi-purpose editor. Our company has generously bought a handful of licences, and I dare say it rocks.
Although vi, vim, emacs are very configurable and do have a lot of features, I would assume that most of developers still prefer some more visual IDE. I, for that matter, like to have class,file and reference browser window somewhere near when I'm tapping my code.
Each genius or prodigy is a result of years of hard work... but there is also a little spark of talent that makes him stand out above the level of simply very good.
My sensei in karate club always said that you can make a very good fighter out of anyone, if only he works hard enough. He used to say "I can make a craftsman in fighting out of almost anyone.. but you have to have that something to become an artist [in fighting]".
Three to five years of training and you have someone who will be able to fight effectively both on the street or in official tournament. But in order to make someone really extraordinary, he (or she) has to have some talent as well. And that's the difference between craftsman and an artist.
As far as I have seen, this observation is perfectly true in all other domains as well. If you don't develop your skill (even if you are talented), you will always be mediocre. If you work hard enough, you can become very good in almost anything you want. But if you have that spark of talent AND you work hard - only that combination can bring you to supreme level.
Since I didn't know what a tourniquet is, when I first read the headline, I immediately visualised something like Atreides Sonic Tank from the Dune.
Guess I wasn't that far from the truth...
While most of the arguments against writing games running under Linux as well have already been given here, I will add two more : - if people use free software, they probably are not that eager to throw fifty bucks on a game every month / week. Therefore, Linux users are even less interesting as a market. - whatever we say about DirectX, it is now much more powerful platform for games development then any combination of what OpenGL, OpenAL, SDL et consortes can offer for games developers. So in fact developping a game under Open[$insertNameHere]is much longer and tedious process, while developing using both is practically equal to developing two games at once. No wonder game companies don't want to do that. I must say that as a long time Linux user I am a little annoyed by the situation, but I see the logic behind it and don't think it will change soon. Still, what I actually can do is support the companies that try to include Linux users on their customers list and buy the games that run under Linux (UT 2004, Doom 3).