AtariAge welcomes Philip Price, creator/coder of 'Alternate reality'

[axewater]

Philip Price hathest returneth !

 

First of all, thanks for a great game. I have so many memories playing this as a child. I actually remember very well when I first got a chance to try 'the internet' on someones dialup, the first search I did was Alternate Reality I have been on the alternate reality mailing list for as long as I can remember.

I would back anything AR related on kickstarter. Even if you just make a kickstarter to gather money to start a case against the iphone port guy (how rude!!).

 

I have tried to create an AR mod for Skyrim, but after making the first basic maps I ran into many problems trying to setup proper scripting .. followed all the guides etc but got stuck anyway. If there are any people here who would like to assist in such a mod, please PM or email me (wateraxe at gmail).

You can see what I have done so far on the steam workshop : http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=74437882

The video I posted in there is a little outdated, the city looks much more detailed in the actual mod for download now (much more clutter added).

 

Steal some items from the vendor on the street and see what the guard scripts are doing .. its all so messed up.

[Heaven/TQA]

Ultima 4 was great, true... but imho AR has a lot more "under the hood" in terms of small bits and pieces for an RPG. I love U4 Quest of an Avatar (Iolo et al) and discovering Ultima but AR stays ahead imho (The Dungeon was a quite more "standard RPG approach with quests etc).

[buzzsaw]

Just wanted to add yet another major compliment to Mr. Price, for creating AR, a game that inspired me to go into computer graphics and, ultimately, Web design and application development. In all my 20+ years studying and working in IT, AR definitely ranks either #1 or #2 in gameplay, atmosphere, storyline/premise, and character development (the other close competition imho is the Myst series, which of course didn't have to deal w/ all the 8-bit h/w limitations in memory, graphics, storage space, etc. that AR had). AR demonstrated in dramatic fashion that computer user interaction can be intimate and emotional.

 

Also, add me to the fan club for Philip's long scrolling text on the game's "side b," esp. the ending Wishing both of you (Philip and Gary) the best!

[Xebec's Demise]

Welcome Philip Price!

 

It's an honor to have you posting here, Philip. I apologize for wondering if you were the 'real Phil' in the AR City competition thread. It seemed more likely that someone simply created an account in honor of your name, rather than the actual author of the game himself showing up and reading our little AR City stories. What a wonderful surprise!

 

With no doubt, Alternate Reality The City, specifically for the Atari 8-bit, is my favorite and most appreciated game of all time. However, this appreciation for your game was only fully realized over the span of my lifetime. I played The City as kid, and it was one of my favorites back then, but kids don’t really care who the specific developers are or the technical details behind a game. Kids just want to play a cool game. Yet, even as a kid, I was disappointed when The Dungeon came out. Although the Dungeon attempted to contain more features and seemed more user friendly, The Dungeon lacked the same depth of mystery, ambience, and realism that The City had. Although quite good, it was more like other cookie-cutter corporate games, to play and be “completed.” Even for a kid, there was just some kind of intangible magic missing from the Dungeon, which only the City had. But, now I know the difference was the designers and programmers. The creative difference was you, Philip. You have an exceptional creative talent for programming and game design.

 

Obviously, you really poured your heart into creating The City and polishing every detail to a brilliant shine, something no amount of money can buy; it’s only the result of personal desire or drive for excellence. Of course, there are other developers that put their hearts into their games, but the difference is that you’re also a programming genius. Your creativity and programming combined are what made The City such an amazing game. You masterfully manipulated the given system, an Atari 800, into doing things above and beyond what it was officially even capable of and creatively designed groundbreaking features and graphics far ahead of the industry, on your own, just for your own game. This is quite the opposite of most sloppily created and inefficiently programmed corporate games of this age. This is why I can easily proclaim The City my favorite and most respected game of all time; the high level of creativity and originality in the game design and mastery of the system itself are unparalleled.

 

Yet, you also seem to be a very humble man. Where most developers would have widely boasted of things they achieved or features they innovated, you seem to have remained fairly quiet and reserved. As a result, even those deeply involved in the gaming industry are unaware of the innovations you created and often misattribute them to others, or other games. It’s fun to wake them up to Reality. I wonder though if it is actually your humility and introspection that helps you pay great attention to details and results in great creativity and coding?

 

My second favorite game of all time is the original Ultima Online (before Electronic Arts got their hands all over it) by Richard Garriott. Ultima Online or UO was originally created in 1997 to be a virtual world, much like Alternate Reality, only on a massively multiplayer scale. The only thing better than a virtual world, or alternate reality, is one populated by other real players instead of AI. I consider UO to have made the next major innovation in gaming, becoming the first massively multiplayer game with over 100,000 subscribers and creating a virtual market on eBay. Virtual castles in the game were actually selling for over $3000 on eBay due to player demand. However, somewhat like your game, the virtual world was eventually dumbed down and simplified for the lowest common denominator by EA corporate executives and their hand-picked developers after Richard Garriott and team left. The grandfather of MMOs, UO, is now a ruinous disaster of corporate greed. What is interesting is that you were working on ARO at the exact same time as UO was being made. If circumstances had been different, ARO might have been the first MMO.

 

But it seems you and Garriott are opposites personality-wise. While he is flamboyant, calls himself a Lord, and eventually parlayed his success with Ultima, UO, and following games, into eventually and very publicly blasting off to orbit the Earth in space, you instead went behind the scenes with a secret clearance, programming in the dark on restricted government installations. But, overall, I think those differences in personality are what make you a superior creative talent and programmer compared to Richard Garriott. Based upon your work on The City, I would much rather have experienced ARO than UO. As The City demonstrated in its day, I’m sure ARO would have been even more innovative and incredible, at least if you maintained creative control.

 

Isn't it kind of ironic that you went from producing something so extremely creative and from the heart, to producing something so extremely destructive for pay? I think your true talent is in creative design, and I hope you express it in a game in the future.

 

P.S. Although, as others mentioned, I would happily pay at least $100 for a nice signed retro release of AR also with maybe a nice letter from you explaining the history. Even more awesome would be if you could possibly combine the Dungeon and City finally as originally planned, open the Closed by Order of the Palace establishments, create a basic Arena and Palace, and fix any basic bugs or include some improvements (I'm sure that is unlikely, but it's fun to think about). I think a Java emulation or version would worthwhile too, because that would greatly expand accessibility of the original game to cell phone and PC users as a digital download. Many don't want to bother figuring out how to manually run old Atari files. Or maybe a java version could be running for online play at a website where you sell a collector's edition.

 

Here is a copy of your game that just sold for over $125 on eBay: http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-53200-19255-0/1?ff3=4&pub=5574883395&toolid=10001&campid=5336500554&customid=&mpre=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fitm%2F310713996178

 

By the way, I guess I have at least a few questions from player to developer.

 

1. Were the “Closed by Order of the Palace” establishments ever even fully created, are they in the released game, only disabled?

 

2. One of the most complex or elaborte systems in The City is the clothing. Does clothing have any effect upon encounters, bartering, or other game aspects? It seems that such an elaborate system would affect more than simply appearance, or maybe it was planned to?

 

3. Is Acrinimiril some form of "A criminal?"

 

4. Can you provide any insight on these names and phrases and what they mean:

 

For a character name enter "fiat" while holding CTRL

 

"What is Reality?"

 

cela saute aux yeux - To be outside of time is to be unchangable.

sempiternal - The gift of life is thru love.

Master of Chronos - Hail all Master of Chronos! But power is fleeting.

unseen - That which is invisible is real

 

Anything else = "The laws are as they were."

[carmel_andrews]

It's nice to think that 2 of the ground breaking games from the early/mid 80'd (AR and M.U.L.E) both began life on the A8...Just goes to show what a decent machine we had back then

 

One question to Mr Price though, did you do any 'tweaks' in later revisions for the extra memory in the 130XE (or mem. upgraded XLs), since i recall that activision did that for some of lucasfilm's disk games

[Magic Knight]

Apart from emulation, Is disk/original version of either the City or dungeon game readily avialable these days? and if so where can i get a copy?

[Heaven/TQA]

I guess Dungeon uses XE ram if available? but could be Phantasie-RPG... Btw... Wizard's Crown was good RPG, too...

[WestofHouse]

Apart from emulation, Is disk/original version of either the City or dungeon game readily avialable these days? and if so where can i get a copy?

 

If you find a source please let me know. I've been looking for a copy of The City for a long time now with no luck. They are very rare.

[Philip Price]

Welcome Philip Price!

 

It's an honor to have you posting here, Philip. I apologize for wondering if you were the 'real Phil' in the AR City competition thread. It seemed more likely that someone simply created an account in honor of your name, rather than the actual author of the game himself showing up and reading our little AR City stories. What a wonderful surprise!

 

With no doubt, Alternate Reality The City, specifically for the Atari 8-bit, is my favorite and most appreciated game of all time. However, this appreciation for your game was only fully realized over the span of my lifetime. I played The City as kid, and it was one of my favorites back then, but kids don’t really care who the specific developers are or the technical details behind a game. Kids just want to play a cool game. Yet, even as a kid, I was disappointed when The Dungeon came out. Although the Dungeon attempted to contain more features and seemed more user friendly, The Dungeon lacked the same depth of mystery, ambience, and realism that The City had. Although quite good, it was more like other cookie-cutter corporate games, to play and be “completed.” Even for a kid, there was just some kind of intangible magic missing from the Dungeon, which only the City had. But, now I know the difference was the designers and programmers. The creative difference was you, Philip. You have an exceptional creative talent for programming and game design.

 

Obviously, you really poured your heart into creating The City and polishing every detail to a brilliant shine, something no amount of money can buy; it’s only the result of personal desire or drive for excellence. Of course, there are other developers that put their hearts into their games, but the difference is that you’re also a programming genius. Your creativity and programming combined are what made The City such an amazing game. You masterfully manipulated the given system, an Atari 800, into doing things above and beyond what it was officially even capable of and creatively designed groundbreaking features and graphics far ahead of the industry, on your own, just for your own game. This is quite the opposite of most sloppily created and inefficiently programmed corporate games of this age. This is why I can easily proclaim The City my favorite and most respected game of all time; the high level of creativity and originality in the game design and mastery of the system itself are unparalleled.

 

Yet, you also seem to be a very humble man. Where most developers would have widely boasted of things they achieved or features they innovated, you seem to have remained fairly quiet and reserved. As a result, even those deeply involved in the gaming industry are unaware of the innovations you created and often misattribute them to others, or other games. It’s fun to wake them up to Reality. I wonder though if it is actually your humility and introspection that helps you pay great attention to details and results in great creativity and coding?

 

My second favorite game of all time is the original Ultima Online (before Electronic Arts got their hands all over it) by Richard Garriott. Ultima Online or UO was originally created in 1997 to be a virtual world, much like Alternate Reality, only on a massively multiplayer scale. The only thing better than a virtual world, or alternate reality, is one populated by other real players instead of AI. I consider UO to have made the next major innovation in gaming, becoming the first massively multiplayer game with over 100,000 subscribers and creating a virtual market on eBay. Virtual castles in the game were actually selling for over $3000 on eBay due to player demand. However, somewhat like your game, the virtual world was eventually dumbed down and simplified for the lowest common denominator by EA corporate executives and their hand-picked developers after Richard Garriott and team left. The grandfather of MMOs, UO, is now a ruinous disaster of corporate greed. What is interesting is that you were working on ARO at the exact same time as UO was being made. If circumstances had been different, ARO might have been the first MMO.

 

But it seems you and Garriott are opposites personality-wise. While he is flamboyant, calls himself a Lord, and eventually parlayed his success with Ultima, UO, and following games, into eventually and very publicly blasting off to orbit the Earth in space, you instead went behind the scenes with a secret clearance, programming in the dark on restricted government installations. But, overall, I think those differences in personality are what make you a superior creative talent and programmer compared to Richard Garriott. Based upon your work on The City, I would much rather have experienced ARO than UO. As The City demonstrated in its day, I’m sure ARO would have been even more innovative and incredible, at least if you maintained creative control.

 

Isn't it kind of ironic that you went from producing something so extremely creative and from the heart, to producing something so extremely destructive for pay? I think your true talent is in creative design, and I hope you express it in a game in the future.

 

P.S. Although, as others mentioned, I would happily pay at least $100 for a nice signed retro release of AR also with maybe a nice letter from you explaining the history. Even more awesome would be if you could possibly combine the Dungeon and City finally as originally planned, open the Closed by Order of the Palace establishments, create a basic Arena and Palace, and fix any basic bugs or include some improvements (I'm sure that is unlikely, but it's fun to think about). I think a Java emulation or version would worthwhile too, because that would greatly expand accessibility of the original game to cell phone and PC users as a digital download. Many don't want to bother figuring out how to manually run old Atari files. Or maybe a java version could be running for online play at a website where you sell a collector's edition.

 

Here is a copy of your game that just sold for over $125 on eBay: http://rover.ebay.co...tm/310713996178

 

By the way, I guess I have at least a few questions from player to developer.

 

 

 

 

1. Were the “Closed by Order of the Palace” establishments ever even fully created, are they in the released game, only disabled?

 

2. One of the most complex or elaborte systems in The City is the clothing. Does clothing have any effect upon encounters, bartering, or other game aspects? It seems that such an elaborate system would affect more than simply appearance, or maybe it was planned to?

 

3. Is Acrinimiril some form of "A criminal?"

 

4. Can you provide any insight on these names and phrases and what they mean:

 

Xebec's Demise,

 

Thank-you for the praise. Actually, I do think I have too much ego at times, can always strive to be more humble (while still striving to excel).

 

To answer the questions:

 

1. Closed by the palace were things I had plans for but were closed because I did not have time before release to finish. I think before I mentioned the House of Ill repute and how I would keep it G(or PG) rated, but still allow people to use free will.(The game has inns, it has diseases, The house would just be a place were you can select 'someone', sleep just like an inn[i.e. just a fade to black], wake up...but have a chance of disease [some with very long incubation stages and therefore only going to a doctor before it is in the later stages could you prevent permanent character damage if you are unlucky enough to get it]. Would be real easy to implement in AR, planned to, just didn't get to it.

 

2. Planned to via a future patch. I believe on the Atari ST version they did implement some effects.

 

3. Lol. No. But that is an interesting possibility. It was formed looking up a tolkian name generator, think it is part elvish and has to do with light. He was from a true other reality, something even the aliens didn't understand or know.

 

4. Hmmm. I could...but generally some have personal meaning, others have other significance.

 

 

"Isn't it kind of ironic that you went from producing something so extremely creative and from the heart, to producing something so extremely destructive for pay? I think your true talent is in creative design, and I hope you express it in a game in the future.

"

- Very. My passion and probable best talent is designing games. Perhaps when I retire and no longer enslaved to making a living I can create games again, but that is still far away. Defense though is important, for without it we would be enslaved under a much harsher mistress.

 

Best,

Phil

Edited August 8, 2013 by Philip Price

[Xebec's Demise]

Actually, to use all the letters, Acrinimiril would probably be "I AR Criminal." Those that oppose systems of control are indeed labeled criminals by the tyrants in charge.

 

I'm a retired Marine, who joined out of patriotism and eventually realized that the things I was being used for were not patriotic at all, it was all a charade, an alternate reality if you will. Of course, much greater military leaders before me recognized this, such as the most highly decorated Marine in history, Major General Smedely Butler, who wrote the book War is a Racket, and Supreme Allied Commander, and President Eisenhower who warned of the military industrial complex in his

. But alas, I did not hear the words of these greatest of military leaders. Instead, I was a victim of media propaganda, as so many still are, trapped in the powerful media matrix. Speaking from experience I'd say the keyword is "defense" is important - for many things are not as they seem. The recently mentioned "fiat" is actually a better word to describe what is going on.

 

Anyway, it was a real pleasure to hear from. I'm glad you're engaging the community and I look forward to anything else you share and what the future may hold. If you design games when you are retired then you should have complete control.

Edited August 9, 2013 by Xebec's Demise

[+Gemintronic]

I've never played a Philip Price game - just heard good things from my friends growing up. The really ironic thing is: some of things I imagined my games did Philip was actually DOING in his games! For instance: the Atari Jaguar game Club Drive seemed to alter some tracks over time. This was just sleep deprived confusion on my part. The Tail of Beta Lyrae actually DID change the levels over time.. I freakin' missed out hard. I'm just glad I can appreciate it as a hobbyist game developer now.

 

Thank you Mr. Price

[Xebec's Demise]

Phil,

 

How old were you when you began coding Alternate Reality?

 

Also, I would like to invite you to create a character and join us in the AR competition thread. It would fun to have you join us.

Edited August 10, 2013 by Xebec's Demise

[Jim Norris]

Densonj,

 

Probably because Acrins did it from the heart, while the other people(i.e. the ones with an IOS version of the game now) are just trying to see how quickly they can suck people's money from retro games (and how many true copyright owners have the time, documents, and resources to stop him/them)

 

Phil

 

Seems a shame they should win, and that the kids won't get to see our favorite game the way we got to see it.

 

How hard would it be to make a version using the AR Wrapper that runs on the Atari800 emulator for IOS or Android? Non commercial of course.

 

Although, the Atari800 emulator people had some legal issues with the Android market because (I think... my memory is terrible)

a lawyer for Atari sent out letters to everyone using the word 'Atari' asking them to cease and desist.

So the Android people banned the Atari800 people until it was resolved.

I'm not sure how it all worked out.

 

I see that the Apple store takes a different approach. From Apple's web interface it appears Apple's lawyers hook you up with the infringer via email

and let you work it out amongst yourselves. In the meantime the app stays on the store.

 

Does this mean anyone could take just take any old game, put it in an emulator, and sell it on the app stores, with no consequences?

[Magic Knight]

Great! Got lucky and got Alternate Reality - the city for $30 from a uk retro dealer, In very good condition and all!

 

After extensitive searching, and little opportunity for availability it's not easy to acquire at most prices!

 

 

[SilverAR]

Phil, I would like to invite you to create a character and join us in the AR competition thread. It would fun to have you join us.

 

Where? What? How?

 

Any links please?

Edited August 11, 2013 by SilverAR

[Jim Norris]

Are you up for programming questions Mr. Price? If you are, I have a million.

 

What to label things is probably the hardest part of programming for me. I've read on here that you've used things like whatever is on HBO for your labels in the past. I'm tempted to try that but my memory isn't so good anymore. Do you still use this technique, and if so, how do you figure out what you did when you look at it later?

 

Do you use a specific process when programming? In my mind I'm picturing some super artist zen thing where you get in the zone but I know the military doesn't go so much for that stuff.

 

I came from the embedded world where you can't assume there is unlimited memory. When I learned C++ I found out there were serious issues with the memory model. Particularly if you don't get the memory during a constructor, or during an exception (if I remember correctly. I think at one job we had a rule to not allocate memory in C++ constructors.) It's been a long time since this time but I was wondering if the standards committee ever addressed these issues?

 

C and C++ also don't have an easy way to incorporate more complex types of compile time data in the language itself. Instead you have to load it from a file or use code to fill out structures and stuff. I don't know if the standard covers it, but the modern C++ compilers out there still don't have uniform ways of initializing things like arrays of structures at compile time. Do you know why?

 

I also remember pre-ordering the Dungeon and getting it in the mail with that flyer advertising for programmers. (At least I think it was with this game, been a long time.) I was so naive I didn't realize what that meant. For years I wanted to grow up and make games like you, and was very curious about your story. Then one day I found it online and it wasn't what I expected. I followed the news all along and when AR Online looked like it might happen I was very excited. But that fell through too. (I was also wondering how I would play it since it seemed to need some really advanced hardware... but anyways...) I was wondering how things worked out for you. Have you found anything you truly enjoy doing? Or another way of asking this, what would you do if you could do anything you wanted to do? Do you like the job you have now?

[Xebec's Demise]

Where? What? How?

 

Any links please?

 

Click the first link in my signature below. Can you see it?

Edited August 12, 2013 by Xebec's Demise

[WestofHouse]

Click the first link in my signature below. Can you see it?

 

Stupid question from an SIO2PC newb: Do those ROM files work with AspeQT?

Edited August 12, 2013 by WestofHouse

[SilverAR]

Philip, can I please ask how you envision Floating Gate? Aparently you intended it to be a gateway between an alien ship and Alternate Reality (a Matrix of sorts). To be honest I see Floating Gate as Stargate:

 

... ...

 

I've heard opinions that it's simply a door, but floating above ground, which I don't share. Others say a portal.

 

What was your original idea, if I may ask? I admit that this is for the AR remake project, as I cannot decide what shape to create in a 3D space. My problem is that a stargate wouldn't really fit in the middle of the city.

 

And yes, I mostly focus on the 3D model (for practical reasons) than the process (the process is to be coded in the future). If we take the Matrix approach, characters are wired into the system (AR in this case) and are virtually deployed in the City via such a gate. I take it that the aliens (Matrix agents) can also wire in via a gate (or gates). So the gate would represent a digital connection, but it still has to look like something.

 

For the sake of comparison, there it is, as you made it 30 years ago:

 

Edited August 12, 2013 by SilverAR

[Philip Price]

Phil,

 

How old were you when you began coding Alternate Reality?

 

Also, I would like to invite you to create a character and join us in the AR competition thread. It would fun to have you join us.

14 or 15 (1970s) when I wrote my first multiplayer game on an IBM 370

16 or 17 (!970s) when I wrote a multiplayer nuclear wargame on a Multics mainframe while attending Virginia Tech

17-20 Operated Nuclear Reactors in the USN

21-22 Wrote Tail of Beta Lyrae on an Atari 400 with cassata drive in a shack in Hawaii(with moldy bed on floor) with no running water and a jeep to power the 400

22-23 Wrote Alternate Reality (I think I was post shack by the start of it, since I met Gary at the end of my writing Beta Lyrae)

24-34 Designed(and later maintained'/updated) a distributed Architecture/update using a new language called C++ used to test the B-2 Stealth Bomber.

35 Did a little work for Creative Labs

36 Looked at reentering Game Industry with Monolith CEO contacted me (i.e. what was to be ARO)

37+ Various(As in financial industry[still find High Speed Trading and Quantitative Industry interesting, but I was more in core quote side of things), telephony, and defense)

Edited August 12, 2013 by Philip Price

[Philip Price]

(Note from Phil, I added numbers into Jim quotes to make my responses easier to follow, I hope Jim that is okay)

Are you up for programming questions Mr. Price? If you are, I have a million.

 

1. What to label things is probably the hardest part of programming for me. I've read on here that you've used things like whatever is on HBO for your labels in the past. I'm tempted to try that but my memory isn't so good anymore. Do you still use this technique, and if so, how do you figure out what you did when you look at it later?

 

2. Do you use a specific process when programming? In my mind I'm picturing some super artist zen thing where you get in the zone but I know the military doesn't go so much for that stuff.

 

3. I came from the embedded world where you can't assume there is unlimited memory. When I learned C++ I found out there were serious issues with the memory model. Particularly if you don't get the memory during a constructor, or during an exception (if I remember correctly. I think at one job we had a rule to not allocate memory in C++ constructors.) It's been a long time since this time but I was wondering if the standards committee ever addressed these issues?

 

4. C and C++ also don't have an easy way to incorporate more complex types of compile time data in the language itself. Instead you have to load it from a file or use code to fill out structures and stuff. I don't know if the standard covers it, but the modern C++ compilers out there still don't have uniform ways of initializing things like arrays of structures at compile time. Do you know why?

 

5. I also remember pre-ordering the Dungeon and getting it in the mail with that flyer advertising for programmers. (At least I think it was with this game, been a long time.) I was so naive I didn't realize what that meant. For years I wanted to grow up and make games like you, and was very curious about your story. Then one day I found it online and it wasn't what I expected. I followed the news all along and when AR Online looked like it might happen I was very excited. But that fell through too. (I was also wondering how I would play it since it seemed to need some really advanced hardware... but anyways...) I was wondering how things worked out for you. Have you found anything you truly enjoy doing? Or another way of asking this, what would you do if you could do anything you wanted to do? Do you like the job you have now?

Jim,

 

1. Most of my current work is non-programming (Though I really, really love programming)

Modern languages (Other than assembly) require a lot less labels, and I rarely need them. naming classes, functions, and variables I tend to try to be descriptive of the purpose and scope. So in modern programs I don't use the HBO technique.

 

2. I decompose the problem down. I try to look at minimizing entanglement, and minimize scope. I try to think more in a more meta way than brute force.

I have used almost every technique out over the ages which best fit the customers requirements, constraints, and problems. I naturally can find really nice solutions to most problems. If it is real hard, often I can literally sleep on it and the solution pops in my head in the morning...which is strange[but I don't depend on it, but I will sleep on a hard problem].

 

When I was working in a the finance field, the company had a problem with infrequent loss of messages (not good for a trading platform), I looked at the code, saw the logic flaw (They did not properly handle all cases of a logical message straddling 2 to n messages), I rewrote the code (they originally had separate cases for each variation of the problem[but missed some variation) to a universal recursive solution that was only a page of code, worked for all conceivable cases and very very fast. Simple, deep in thought, fast. The head of development and the principal developer at the company called my in the next afternoon and told me they spent all morning looking at my solution for any bugs, found none and thought it was awesome. (I did think they spent more time analyzing it than it took me to conceive the solution and implement). To this day I have never found a unsolvable programming problem (But I know they exist, I know there are unsolved mathematical problems, etc.). I just never found something someone needed a computer to do, that with enough time or resources could not be done.

 

Now for games, there are still things left undone (Particularly in areas that social media only touched the surface on[and in that I may be saying too much). Less than in the 80s or 90s, but still a few areas not yet fully explored.

 

3. When I was in the ANSI C++ standards committee as a principal voting member the Swiss I think were keen on getting garbage collection into the language. It was voted down, not because the Swiss idea of garbage collection was a bad idea. But rather by not specifying a specific technique it allowed the freedom of ideas for best memory allocation / garbage collection to exist in the language as choices. It kept the language lightweight and more in the programmer control, but required more programming skill to avoid memory leaks (or they just had to adopt a third party memory manager).

That was the rational the majority had from my memory of twenty or so years ago.

 

4. Actually I used a technique to incorporate complex types at compile time when I architected the B-2 MCR software(Which had to remain backward compatible to the older software in certain areas that did make this a little uglier than I liked). One area I did specialize in C++ committee is Intertranslarion Unit Static Initialization. Only had three weekend to work on the problem, found what seemed as a solution, proposed it and our subcommittee looked at it and planned to propose it at the next X3J16 meeting. But between the meeting I proposed it, and the next, I spend another weekend and found an obscure corner case that my solution would not resolve. It took most of the next meeting for me to convince my fellow members that my earlier idea is flawed and we should not propose it. (So there is something I did not fix).

 

Oh Bjarne Stroustrup is a real nice guy who would listen and interact with all committee members, I respected that a lot. Also remember his favorite well known saying he would get put up on a slide in the meetings. ("The enemy of the good is the perfect").

 

5. No job is perfect, there are many good things and bad things as with all work. My ideal work? Having a nice home in the city my fiancée likes here in Florida fully paid, have the resources to work fulltime on a game for a few years, but with a small team with a low burn rate and the right resources to write some mind blowing games. Not have to worry while doing it about putting food on the table or affording simple pleasures. I would love doing things that bring a lot of happiness and thought into people's lives. But that is not life at this time.

Edited August 12, 2013 by Philip Price

[Xebec's Demise]

Stupid question from an SIO2PC newb: Do those ROM files work with AspeQT?

I'm not sure. Run the AR Wrapper and it will automate everything.

[Jim Norris]

1. Most of my current work is non-programming (Though I really, really love programming)

 

5. No job is perfect, there are many good things and bad things as with all work. My ideal work? Having a nice home in the city my fiancée likes here in Florida fully paid, have the resources to work fulltime on a game for a few years, but with a small team with a low burn rate and the right resources to write some mind blowing games. Not have to worry while doing it about putting food on the table or affording simple pleasures. I would love doing things that bring a lot of happiness and thought into people's lives. But that is not life at this time.

 

If you ever get really bored and have a free weekend, there's a game programming challenge called Ludum Dare. People spend a weekend trying to build a game from scratch using only publicly available tools. I think it happens in January. It would be interesting to see how your years of experience, and creative instincts stack up against the kids who are trained in the latest tools and techniques.

[Jim Norris]

If you ever get really bored and have a free weekend, there's a game programming challenge called Ludum Dare. People spend a weekend trying to build a game from scratch using only publicly available tools. I think it happens in January. It would be interesting to see how your years of experience, and creative instincts stack up against the kids who are trained in the latest tools and techniques.

 

I just checked their website and it looks like there is another Ludum Dare competition starting in a week. So it will be the weekend of August 23, 2013.

[Xebec's Demise]

Phil,

 

You've told how you programmed inebriation and disease incubation into The City, but do other drinks and foods, or a character's diet, have any effect on the health of a character or his stats? The taverns sell everything from expensive dragon cuisine to bagels. Does it matter what a character eats or drinks, or is a straight diet of food packets all that is needed for maximum growth?