thaquoth

Some pointers on getting Win95 games to run: Ever tried PCem? It's basically an emulator for old computer systems, which enables you to emulate up to a Pentium MMX 233 with a Voodoo 2 card. Contrary to DOSBox it emulates actual concrete hardware and runs actual old OS. It works really well for games up to around late 1998/99, after which the emulated system just isn't enough any more. Except for games that were low tech for the time that is. The one caveat is of course, you pretty much have to set up a complete Windows 95 system, drivers and all. And yeah. That shit is fiddly as heck. (I'd actually recommend Win98, it's a lot less of a headache) But once it works, it's pretty great. I've been able to get most of my ole CD binder o' games working, including many of the games discussed here.

I feel like this has actually been sort of a recurring theme this season, kind of apparent whenever we are looking at the depressing white trash hellhole that Twin Peaks has apparently become. A hefty amount characters are "stuck" in some way or another, in some kind of limbo, unable to move on. Audrey in her nightmare home situation with Charlie, Big Ed and Norma still circling around each other, Shelly still throwing herself at horrible men, James still singing the same old terrible sappy love song.... heck, Sarah, Dougie... it goes on and on. I feel like it's only in the recent episodes that some of these knots are beginning to loose.

That's Sharon van Etten. I really liked her latest album, so seeing her as this weeks Roadhouse Gig (tm) was a pleasant surprise.

In response to Jake being a dick about Marathon: I've recently played a bunch of Marathon via Aleph One, which is sort of a Source Port (kind of like something like ZDoom for Doom) that makes it possible to play it on modern systems. Also it comes directly with all the files, since Bungie released all that stuff as freeware: https://alephone.lhowon.org/ Playing it however, it made me realise how much Doom really got the whole "game feel" thing right, which is easy to take for granted these days. Marathon feels super clunky and cumbersome in comparison, even with all the bells and whistles added in a modern source port. By comparison, everything in Doom feels "right", down to things like the amount of friction when you move. Also the levels in Marathon really aren't that great. Everything kind of blends together, things like progression-critical switches don't really read as important in the environment, and it's full of boring and claustrophobic player-width corridor mazes. It's really tough to play nowadays, whereas Doom feels as great as ever. Also shows that it's really not easy to get that stuff right, and how much lightning in a bottle early id Software really was. So yeah, Jake probably was super rude and kind of a dick to the poor Bungie guy, but he was also kind of right, retrospectively.

The celery-chomping was a nice touch too. I generally really enjoy post-breakdown Ben.

Rare's N64 stuff in general. I can't stomach the Banjo games. I don't like their style, I don't like combing uninteresting worlds for arbitrary collectibles, I don't like how the platforming feels... I think I'm just not into that genre at all. This extends to DK64 and Conker as well. The latter I kinda liked because of its inaneness, but only if I didn't have to play it. Goldeneye/Perfect Dark... I don't know. Maybe it was because I was playing PC shooters at the time and Goldeneye didn't come to me as the revelation as it did for others. Conceptually I like some stuff they do, like how the objectives tie in with the difficulty settings, but I just don't like _playing_ them. I actually like Rare's games before and after the N64. I like the DKC series, and I think the Viva Pinatas are the best games they ever did. I even like Nuts & Bolts, BECAUSE it's so unlike its predecessors. It's just weird that I cannot get into what is widely seen as their golden age.

Super glad to see that Mnemonic is coming along nicely after all. I'm pretty excited for all these prototypes at this point.

Apparently first thing that happens for everyone is that they get some good itemthings thrown at their feet. I basically completely reoutfitted my playerpersonguy in like 15 minutes. The way difficulty works now is also pretty cool. And removes the need to replay the story a billion times. Dunno. Seems pretty competent and all. I don't know if I will jump back in though, since my tolerance for carrot-dangling lootfests has kind of worn down in recent years.

Makes sense, since Bad Golf 2 kind of became a little meme-y thing. It's also super awesome. : D

The book is pretty alright, but there was one thing I didn't really like about it, namely that it stayed on the drag & drop level for far too long. The GML section at the end is really short and almost feels like an afterthought. Since GML is so much more useful I would have liked a greater focus on that. However, working through the book still gives you a pretty good understanding of the logic of game development. It also uses some more interesting examples than just your usual "first shooting game, then platformer" stuff. So that's nice.

And he is actually hamming it up like nothing! I always thought some kind of monotone computer voice would be way more effective (that is, creepy and unsettling) than the kind of over the top raving lunatic tone he goes for, but eh...

Hi thumbers! Like seemingly every other person, I have listened to the various podcasts on this site for quite a while. I don't usually participate in online community stuff very often, but I really like the kind of culture here. Good times. So yeah, hi there!