AndrewZabar

@AndrewZabar@lemmy.world

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨It's a simple thing, but one good way to make games memorable is for the developers to leave you words of encouragement in the pack-in material.⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Well I was thinking of more like late 80s early to mid 90s. Games were written by actual writers like Roberta Williams, Jane Jensen, Sid Meir, Raymond Feist, and people like them. I’m thinking of titles by Sierra, Apogee, Activision, Brøderbund, Sir-tech, 3DO, Infocom… you get my meaning, I trust.

  If you’re gonna suggest that games like Myst, Zork, all the Quest series by Sierra, the Might & Magics and Wizardry titles - if you think those were made with the kinds of greed that we have today where it’s cheaply made junk with every deceptive money-making practice imaginable… then you may just be younger and not aware of what it was like. Those titles made money, yeah, but they put their heart and soul into the quality of the product and never expected money in the billions. And they got paid ONCE for the game from each customer. And many games gave people years worth of play. Today games popup in your face telling enticing the player to spend money, and they give the player enough progress to think they know what they need to do in order to advance, only to introduce newer currency and demand money for it. Etc etc. there are dozens of tactics to scam people out of continual payments. I don’t play any of the garbage they make today. And I feel so sorry for young people now that they don’t even know what it’s like to get immersed in a game’s creative narrative for months and they already paid for all of it one time.

  It’s not a fallacy, I know there were also loser titles back then, and of course. Not everything is a hit. But games like the Krondor series which were written by an actual award winning author (Raymond E. Feist)? Find me anything like that today amongst the sea of sewage. Sorry to be so negative because I know there’s some really great stuff. It’s just afloat in a vast sea of garbage and hard to find. The app shops bury them because they’re not as profitable. Greed has become all-consuming and insatiable. It’s a cancer to the whole industry.

  Yeah anyway… no survivorship bias here. I lived through those times of gaming. Fuckin paradise, it was.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨It's a simple thing, but one good way to make games memorable is for the developers to leave you words of encouragement in the pack-in material.⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  It’s because the games were made with passion; the creators wanted to share their story and gameplay vision with people who will appreciate it and their hard work.

  Unfortunately nowadays you really have to comb through the muck to find this kind of thing, because the world is flooded with games that were made not with passion and creativity in mind, but only greed and manipulation, and greed, and deceptive marketing, and also more greed. They don’t care if you like it, they don’t have pride in their work, they don’t give a damn about a single thing other than more and more revenue.

  So I think this kind of thing does still exist, in small independent developers who make something special and creative. And I love finding those things. But the swill you have to wade through to find them… ick. I mean… the Apple App Store? One gambling app after another? The games with so many forms of currency, micro-transactions, and outright deceptive promo content… tell me, please, when did Apple become bottom-feeders?!

  Makes me appreciate the old days of gaming sooo much more.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Heretic + Hexen re-release - Launch Trailer | Nightdive Studios⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Anyone else ever play Blood?

  “I want Jojo, Jojo, JOJO!!!”

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Heretic + Hexen re-release - Launch Trailer | Nightdive Studios⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Likewise!!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨YSK that Gerrymandering allows politicians to choose their own voters. In many countries, it's illegal. Gerrymandering is common in the United States⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Well it’s already been this way for like 20 years almost. It’s been forming for many decades, but it’s a done deal.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨YSK that Gerrymandering allows politicians to choose their own voters. In many countries, it's illegal. Gerrymandering is common in the United States⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Not exactly, but similar. The dynamics of the haves and have-nots are different because of the sheer numbers. But we are at a point where if just a certain amount more of the wealth is shifted to the oligarchs, then the entire system will collapse.

  I’ve already gotten a three day ban on Reddit for making certain statements, so I’ll just state my opinion that the only way to stop this is to mortify a few billionaires. But aside from that, the problem is apathy, complacency, and lack of unity. This is why they came up with all the petty divisive “issues” which are really not issues. This is why the Orange Feces-Man did that whole mask thing. Because if people were united and everyone felt they were on the same side, there would be rebellion - nay, revolution. It’s happened in the past many, many, many times around the world through history. But I don’t think they ever had the sheer magnitude of distractions that we have today. Bread and Circuses vs Streaming, social media, entertainment more than all the humans of the earth could collectively consume. THAT, the Romans did not have at their disposal to weaponize.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨YSK that Gerrymandering allows politicians to choose their own voters. In many countries, it's illegal. Gerrymandering is common in the United States⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  The United States is not a nation anymore. It’s a corporation. It’s also 100% corrupt. When will people come to terms with this? As long as most people are in denial of this, it will always be so.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  This is true too.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  No, some people say make decision, and some people make a typo, or just plain don’t have a decent rudimentary vocabulary.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨YSK: This recent war on adult content was mostly started by a single law in 2018, pushed by a few evangelical groups pretending to fight sexual exploitation⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Sounds good, Chief. Adios.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨YSK: This recent war on adult content was mostly started by a single law in 2018, pushed by a few evangelical groups pretending to fight sexual exploitation⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I did, but you refused to provide the info. What are you smoking that makes you not think straight? I ask, you refuse, then you say I didn’t want to know. Thats some contortionist logic right there.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨YSK: This recent war on adult content was mostly started by a single law in 2018, pushed by a few evangelical groups pretending to fight sexual exploitation⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Yeah that’s what I thought. Lol.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨YSK: This recent war on adult content was mostly started by a single law in 2018, pushed by a few evangelical groups pretending to fight sexual exploitation⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Could you cite some sources for this please? Seriously.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨YSK: This recent war on adult content was mostly started by a single law in 2018, pushed by a few evangelical groups pretending to fight sexual exploitation⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Well if you call putting it into the constitution “settling” for neutrality, then so be it, have whatever terminology you want. They didn’t want a theocracy, but the fundies of today would like nothing more than that.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨YSK: This recent war on adult content was mostly started by a single law in 2018, pushed by a few evangelical groups pretending to fight sexual exploitation⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  The point is that they put the separation of church and state right into the constitution in the first amendment. The fact that they codified it as such, established that it was a primary principle they wanted for the nation’s foundational philosophy.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨YSK: This recent war on adult content was mostly started by a single law in 2018, pushed by a few evangelical groups pretending to fight sexual exploitation⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  They were not even the same religions as one-another, so that makes no sense. Also, there’s no basis for that idea.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨YSK: This recent war on adult content was mostly started by a single law in 2018, pushed by a few evangelical groups pretending to fight sexual exploitation⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Makes sense.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨YSK: This recent war on adult content was mostly started by a single law in 2018, pushed by a few evangelical groups pretending to fight sexual exploitation⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  But they left Europe in part to get away from church government. First amendment and all that. Most of them were religious but they wanted it out of government.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨YSK: This recent war on adult content was mostly started by a single law in 2018, pushed by a few evangelical groups pretending to fight sexual exploitation⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Well, since the 1950s, but this only inspired them with a clear depiction and got them to amp it up even more.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨YSK: This recent war on adult content was mostly started by a single law in 2018, pushed by a few evangelical groups pretending to fight sexual exploitation⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I called it years ago when my wife first watched The Handmaid’s Tale: I said oh fuck, this is now what the conservatives are going to create. Ever since then I have periodically written online about this, and how we should start getting used to America as Gilead. It started to spread slowly, and I see people make this reference more and more, and I truly hope it’s not too late. Because that’s their goddamn wet dream; to make America into exactly as depicted in those book / shows.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨YSK about StopICE.net to send and receive alerts about ICE raids in your area⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Good luck suing the federal government. You know they need to give you permission to do so.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨YSK about StopICE.net to send and receive alerts about ICE raids in your area⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  There’s very few places in the world that can’t be forced to comply. It’s a question of how important is the issue, and what political figure has decided they want to press the issue. America can threaten pretty much anyone in the world and they will almost always comply.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨YSK that the tax data of Warren Buffet, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos was leaked⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  If people got one of these guys and lynched them as a warning, maybe something might possibly have an iota of a chance of changing. That’s what needs to be done.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What the Internet Was Like in 1998⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Way back in the early '90s I was using what passed for the internet. Email, Usenet, ftp sites and all text websites before they started embedding graphics. Browsers were very odd back then.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What are the games you played in your youth that you still play today?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Wow. Ok so regarding Feist I was only ever able to get through Magician Apprentice and Master. Reading issues, not important. But I didn’t know he was really not involved. Did be base Serpent War or Rift War saga on the game? Don’t remember what was what this many years later.

  I have been thinking of getting my ass in gear and setting up a retro system. I have several units just waiting to be configured it’s just other stuff always taking priority.

  So would a Pentium machine let’s say either with DOS/3.11 be good or maybe Win 95. I think maybe I’ll setup one of each since I have a few units available. This way I can play some things that need one and other stuff that is better with the other. I recall Crusader: No Remorse, and Crusader: No Regret won’t run on '95 but it will reboot into DOS mode for it lol. There are quite a few other games I’m eager to play again.

  Oddly I’ve found that some stuff is ok under emulation but for whatever reasons - speculatively I’d say access to hardware via real-mode drivers that the abstraction layer in NT and forward prohibits - even the best systems like VMWare and VirtualBox seem to not handle more sophisticated game engines, only the simpler stuff. I imagine maybe it can be made to work better with tweaking and supplementary tools but after all the work that requires to get it to cooperate I think just having a real system with older hardware is probably just easier and more reliable.

  I want to play the graphical Zork games again, Return to Zork, Zork: Nemesis and Zork: Grand Inquisitor. Those were so much fun. Nemesis was a huge departure from the Zorkverse it was probably a shelved project in need of an easily marketable title? I dunno but Activision et al did an awesome job with it. I tried it not long ago on my Linux laptop and even with tools like PlayOnLinux/WINE, the animation was far too fast and rendered it not controllable.

  There’s so much more stuff I would love to dive into again. Lands of Lore, some more of the Sierra titles like King’s Quest, Space Quest, Gabriel Knight, just all their stuff. Between Sierra, Apogee, Activision, Interplay and a few others, the landscape of 1990s gaming is an absolute treasure!

  Wow I have really rambled! If you made it all the way here thanks for patiently reading my verbosity.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What are the games you played in your youth that you still play today?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Yeeeeah! I haven’t played these in forever but Hero’s Quest was my first Sierra adventure and holy shit was it magic. And Krondor - Raymond freakin Feist writing games!!

  Both absolutely epic!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨caddyserver.com has those vintage browser buttons at the bottom of the page⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  My favorite that I had on my site for a while because I was coding purely manually in html, was a tile that said “Made with NOTEPAD.EXE!”

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨caddyserver.com has those vintage browser buttons at the bottom of the page⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  0000072 hit counter!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The fact that even 3D games are old now blows my mind on a regular basis.⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I had the first NES system with the original inclusion of Super Mario Brothers and Duck Hunt. Actually it was the first console of the line but I don’t think the very first version because I think the very first version did not have Duck Hunt or the gun. Correct me if I’m mistaken. I was a little late to the NES and by then I think they added that element to it.

  But also, I didn’t buy any console after that, because once I started gaming on PC I only ever gamed on PC. Although I regret not getting into Turbo Grafx 16 because years later I found troves of the games at a flea market and the guy dug up all of the ones he had and brought them over the following few weeks. By that time I was no longer really interested in them so I was just buying and reselling them. Massive score on that load. But I wish I had just collected the whole set and gotten a unit.

  Why did I start rambling? Oh yeah cuz it’s Reddit. Anyway, consoles were a nice idea but to me, once I could upgrade a graphics card and always still be able to not only play the games that I had already, but continue to be able to get newer ones… I dunno, the console concept seemed to me a money pit, because first of all, the moment it hit the shelves in stores, there were already better graphics chips being sold for PC, and also, eventually as I had predicted, it would become a console war, combined with cutting off older units whenever they pleased, as well as all the rest of the shit they’ve pulled over the years with DRM, and online requirement so they could fucking cut you off when they pleased. I opted to not even bother stepping into that racket. PC gaming for me. Especially retro PC gaming.

  Ok ramble over. Just wanted to share my experiences.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Savage - A bizarre DOS game that's a mashup of different genres, and an oddly lengthy story | ADG Episode 340⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m getting some Golden Axe / Altered Beast vibes.