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Herbarius

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Posts posted by Herbarius

  2. Posted

    Okay, I've had some thoughts about this.

     

    Let's start with some basics: It's 1990 and we're designing a game system, as it is impossible to guess how you would have decided on these things in 1990, without knowledge of the future, let's say we somehow (e.g. through time-travel) are in 1990 with knowledge of (the un-altered timeline's) 2010.

    Having established that we quickly identify our first major problem: In 1991, the SNES will hit the US market, and the European market in 1992. So, whatever we will do, even if superior, the SNES will surely beat our product into the ground.

    So, let's think about our goals: Achieving the number one position will be impossible. So, our aim will be of getting in as a solid number two.

     

     

    So, I'll leave it at this for now. I've already some ideas for my system, but I'll need another day or two to think it out as much as I'd like.

  3. Posted · Edited by Herbarius

    To be more specific, it's a Total Conversion of "Wing Commander: Secret Ops", the free-to-download Prophecy spin-off (which used the same engine as Prophecy - hence I just called it WC5 engine). As I already said, they enhanced/overhauled the graphics engine...

     

    I don't know if the engine was made open source, I don't think so. Propably all done by reverse-engineering.

  4. Posted · Edited by Herbarius

    I've always been a huge Wing Commander fan and recently I finally got myself to download Wing Commander: Standoff, a fan-made Wing Commander game, based on an enhanced Wing Commander 5 engine. It is set chronologically after Wing Commander II, but before Wing Commander III.

     

    If you haven't seen it before, take a look:

    Wing Commander: Standoff

     

    Here some video footage from the game, taken from the first FlightSim mission.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRlNWh8oGKA

    In the video the game crashes at the end, however that recording was made with an earlier version of the game. It didn't crash on me yet.

     

    However, if you've got an older graphics card, you may need to disable the HDR feature and/or Enhanced Lighting in the Standoff options, which you can open from the Standoff Launcher (via the Button "Options"). That's what I had to do, unless I wanted to fight against invisible ships ;)

     

     

    Well if you know it, feel free to post your experiences with the game. I've already completed the first campaign mission and also played some rounds in the FlightSim, my first impression is, it's really excellent: There is a wide variety of ships in there, and they're all faithful 3D recreations of the old fighters. It appears the game is made with a lot of attention to detail, for example after the first mission, in which one of my Wingmen lost his ship, I got an e-mail from the technician, complaining about me not bringing the ships back ;)

    That's a good example for my second first impression: I must say I find it quite difficult. I just barely survived the first mission; reaction of the board technician to the state of my ship after return: "Whoa." ;) I made two attempts on the second mission, but was shot to pieces each time. However, this propably will get better when I get the feel for the game. After all, I'm playing on the default difficulty level of "Ace" (which is the middle one of 5 available levels) and am too proud to lower the difficulty ;)

  5. Posted · Edited by Herbarius

    Unless the high-bidder is in on it too. All he has to do is bid something insanely high, like 5 million, and that insures he wins and no one gets in trouble.

    Getting stuck with the Final Value Fees for a $5,000,000 auction would suck. :ponder:

     

    ..Al

     

    As far as I know, after an ebay auction has finished, buyer and seller may cancel the transaction on mutual agreement.

     

     

    Well, at first I thought it must be real, as it was there before April 1st, but I'm not that sure anymore, especially as it now is there as news on the front page, and nothing else for April 1st...

    However, the box really looks convincing.

     

    Well, tomorrow we should know.

  8. Posted · Edited by Herbarius

    So far no one does it, or at least no one wants to admit it. I would have thought there would be some people who do that... After all, some people name their cars or their waterbongs, so why not game consoles. ;)

     

    (Try to come up with a category which includes both of those, but doesn't include game consoles... Okay, let's rule out "something which emits smoke during normal operation", that's too easy ;) )

  9. Posted

    Well, at least it gives me a chance of having the C64 survive should the PSU fail, whereas you said "the first sign of trouble" would equal a fried C64, although it may also mean a fried PSU only.

     

     

    If you could give me hints on where or how to get one of those "regulated and servicable" replacement PSUs of yours it would change something :P ;)

     

    Currently I only have 2 options. Well three, but two of those aren't really different.

     

    a) Continue using my PSU and hoping for the best.

    b) Get another used PSU from ebay and use that - again hoping for the best.

    c) Don't use the C64 anymore.

     

    You see, both options a and b don't really change anything, at least unless I find someone with an oscilloscope to maybe determine, how well my current PSU or the "new" one from ebay is holding up, and deciding on the one which appears to be the most reliable, if I have multiple ones.

     

     

    I've also talked to a friend of mine about the issue. He said, the 5V DC current is easy to get with a 10 Euro standard thingie, while the 9V AC is more difficult. What is that 9V AC used for anyway, just the tape drive? If yes, what would happen if you just ignore it, only use the 5V DC, would the computer function, except for the tape drive - that may be a reasonable alternative. Regardless, you'd have to somehow put the rather unusual plug on it.

    So what would I trust more, my poor soldering skills or a 25 year old PSU? ;)

  12. Posted · Edited by Herbarius

    It turned out that the wires inside the PSU are not insulated (MAJOR WTF-AGE) and that caused some of the wires to spark and burn out so we gave the wires a clean reflow the solder and it worked fine.

     

    If you don't mind my asking, how did you get the PSU open? Did you take a hammer and chisel? A saw? Was it difficult? I thought they were full of epoxy and not serviceable. Perhaps you have one of the earlier PSU units before they did this? Or am I wrong, C64 PSU are NOT full of epoxy? I may be confusing this with Atari-8. I have the C64 PSU that's black and ribbed like a condom.

     

    No epoxy just a few phillips head screws and my PSU is sort of a trapezoid kind of shape its really strange.

     

    -Darren-

    To me that sounds like its the older style PSU then and had been opened and serviced before, and then closed again with screws. However, that's speculation, especially without seeing pictures.

  13. Posted · Edited by Herbarius

    In the RPG "The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind" (on the PC) there are a couple of fictional drugs, most prominently something called "Skooma", which is a derivative of "Moon Sugar". There are also water pipes for use with Skooma. Drug addiction isn't a gameplay element, but I think there are mentions of it in some dialog. However, drug prohibition is kinda relevant, as you can't trade with the majority of merchants if you've got Skooma or Moon Sugar in your inventory (however just placing it on the table between you and the merchant, in plain sight, while you do the trading solves this issue. City guards don't react to it either.) If you take it yourself it just gives you some usual status buffs, no psychedelic "effects" of any kind.

     

    In the German RPG "Gothic" (on the PC as well) there is "Sumpfkraut" (swamp herb) which rather obviously alludes to Marijuana. You can even buy and smoke pre-rolled joints - with their characteristic conic shape - and if you do that you'll suffer a minor "Interface Screw" for a period of time. It's also integrated into the story, there is a cult that uses it in their quest for enlightement. However, drug addiction is again only alluded to in some dialog but doesn't play a major role, and there is no prohibition either.

    I think the sequels, Gothic II and III, had international success.

  14. Posted

    All this talk of bad power supplies makes me wonder if Commodore had that issue fixed by that point.

     

    I don't think it's an issue with the power supplies themselves, but it's because they're old now. And also because the Think about it: Most seem to still function now, like 25 years later, so they can't be that bad. ;)

     

    Actually, while googling for a replacment, I found that (at least on German C64 boards) there seems to be some controversy around the alleged "bad" power supplies - some say they're really crappy, other say that's all BS and they're actually quite good.

  15. Posted

    Best to get a higher-quality serviceable power supply before worse happens. Those non-servicable brick C= power supplies are crap. Both the brown (black) and white ones.

    Any hints on how/where to get those? I've looked online at the same shop I bought my S-Video and XM1541 cable but they don't have any power supplies. I googled and only found one guy who builds them on request only, so that'll be out of my price range.

  16. Posted

    I know a person who doesn't only name her game consoles, but her PC, TV, the couch... just about everything. Even her toilet!

     

    However, I don't name my stuff. It just doesn't seem fitting.

     

     

    Well, I remember that when I was a child I tried naming my computer, however I couldn't really come up with a good name, after I came up with some I couldn't decide which one to use and even when I finally decided it just didn't stick - maybe for a day or two.

  17. Posted

    It turned out that the wires inside the PSU are not insulated (MAJOR WTF-AGE) and that caused some of the wires to spark and burn out so we gave the wires a clean reflow the solder and it worked fine.

     

    If you don't mind my asking, how did you get the PSU open? Did you take a hammer and chisel? A saw? Was it difficult? I thought they were full of epoxy and not serviceable. Perhaps you have one of the earlier PSU units before they did this? Or am I wrong, C64 PSU are NOT full of epoxy? I may be confusing this with Atari-8. I have the C64 PSU that's black and ribbed like a condom.

     

    Normally they are brown or white... From what I've read they're "only" like half-full of epoxy, and you can actually manage to open them, although they're not intended to be opened.

  18. Posted

    I'll never forget.

    First off, one of the two C64's my Dad bought when I was in Jr. High blew a couple of chips because of that crappy power supply Commodore made and he did the old quick swap for a new one at Toys R' Us :ponder: (after the second one blew I think he felt a little guilty and ended up buying another one without the 'return' :| ). He was really PO'ed at Commodore, wrote them a nasty letter, and then built a mega heavy-duty power supply that was probably worth more than the computer itself.

    On the software front, I remember buying a couple of games for the C64 at Toys R' Us and tried to copy them (one I remember was Pinball Construction Set), but the software manufacturers had started to adopt copy protection and I was unsuccessful - but kept them anyway because they were decent games. I also remember a few kids in the neighborhood who brought over dozens of floppies that included hundreds of games and utility programs including a bunch of disk copy programs which generally did the job ;).

    Yea, the retailers & manufacturers caught onto the 'defective swap' practice pretty fast, they must have really been caught off guard in the beginning. Can't blame Toys R' Us for manufacturers errors though.

    Those times were awesome though, growing up during the beginning of consumer home electronics :lust: I used to admire people who were old enough to work and were able to buy every game, game system, computer, and electronic game and gadget that came out every year when I had to BEG my parents to buy me a single game for my birthday!

     

    I don't get this story. Didn't they have warranty back then?

  20. Posted · Edited by Herbarius

    Remember: Any PC that still supports 3.5" floppy drives should also work with 5.25" drives. Of course, you'll have to have one of those and a cable with the corresponding plugs. Windows up to XP does support them, however I've heard in Vista they finally dropped it.

     

    If you can't get it to work check the options in the BIOS, maybe you've to change the floppy type manually there.

  21. Posted

    Are country miles longer than city miles because I think my car company is lying about my mileage.

    I don't know if this is a serious question, but if it is: Yes, you could, in this particular question, indeed say, country miles are "longer" than city miles. If your car company states, your car will run X miles on one tankfill, this always means "country miles". In city traffic your fuel consumption will be higher because of all the "stop&go".

  23. Posted · Edited by Herbarius

    Come to think, if I had a choice between playing the Atari 2600 Pacman and NES Pacman.....I'd totally choose the 2600 version. :thumbsup:

     

     

    The NES version sucks really bad. :ponder: It makes the 2600 one look closer to the arcade lol,and that's not saying much. I would agree however that the 5200 version is way superior.

     

     

    huh

     

     

    i thought nes pacman was good but the world changed and simple games like that were seen as antiquated with the super games like smb,metroid,zelda out there

     

    I too have no complaints about the NES version of Pac-Man. However I only play it emulated on the GBA SP.

  24. Posted · Edited by Herbarius

    It's funny how the stories of 2600 Pac-Man's creation circulate, with varying degrees of exaggeration. Afaik, all you can say for sure is it was 4KB, although the developer had wanted to work with 8KB, and the developement time was pretty short - while propably no exact numbers are known. However you read things like "developed in only 2 weeks" and "beta version/prototype" ;) with the former being outright impossible (except maybe the programmer had worked day/night), the latter being a false rumor that has bee debunked for quite a while (I think).

     

    Well it doesn't really strike me as such a bad game at all. I even play it every now and then on my 2600, the main reason being any more Arcade-faithful version of Pac-Man would take more time and/or effort to start up ;) First I always played it in black/white mode, as I liked that "color scheme" more than the normal one, but in time that b/w display started to become boring, so I switched to color and now didn't find the colors that ugly anymore.

     

    I also have presented the game to both my younger brother and a good friend of mine (seperately), both aren't very "into" retro-games, however they usually appreciate a fun game that I show them.

    Well, I basically plugged the cartrige in, powered it up and said "Well, this is how Pac-Man looks on the Atari 2600". As that failed to produce any reaction I added "it's very much disliked by a lot of people for being an awful version of Pac-Man" or something like that.

    Both of them didn't understand. Asked, "why is that? looks like Pac-Man to me." I then listed the differences, like the maze is completely different (with a reaction like "Yeah, big deal..."), the graphics are crappy ("well, it's an old console"), and so on. My brother even played it quite a lot for a couple of days.

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