eric_ruck

Actually for travel I use my Zaurus to play games, the batterly wil survive most of a flight from D.C. to L.A. And now I have Tower Toppler. Eric

Can anyone shed light on a problem I'm having with my Saturn and one particular game, In The Hunt? For some reason when the game starts, or when you end and start over, if there's a joystick plugged in the system hangs. Quite annoying...can anyone shed some light on this and/or a possible solution? Eric

Am I too late to opine? I like the Lynx for playing games around the house better, but I hardly lug it anywhere because it is huge and eats batteries, at least compared to the NGPC. I've been on the road a lot lately and therefore playing the NGPC more. I think the software for the NGPC is a problem -- I only have about 10 games for it, but the whole library consists overwhelmingly of fighters and RPG-type games. If you like those kind of games it's good, but I like the more arcade style games at which the Lynx accels. The only NGPC games I consistently come back to are Metal Slug and Dark Arms. Eric

Er, while we're on the subject, how do you fix slant/alignment problems? I've opened my slightly defective Vectrex up and twiddled the pots, but they don't seem to twiddle enough to fix the problem. Basically I get an extreme horizontal slant, and the shapes don't line up with each other. I'm hoping it's an easy fix because I'd really rather not pick up a soldering iron. Eric

Yeah, generally the people who don't follow through on trades get tarred and feathered pretty good, so anyone who has been around is probably safe to do business with. Welcome and enjoy. Eric

Hey, I like FrankenTari. Eric

I'll vouch for Project Gotham and Halo again. While I haven't played Arctic Thunder on the XBox, it stunk on ice (pun intended) on the PS2 so I wouldn't have too high hopes. Sega GT takes some getting used to, and at the end of the day I like Project Gotham better. Timesplitters 2 is fun, and Turok is nice to look at, of not the best to play. And the breakaway cables actually see action at my house, where a giant dog running in front of the system when someone drives by on the street is a semi common occurance. Eric

I think if you want geek cool you should go with a Zaurus Linux PDA. The Portfolio is inconveniently large, requires the use of the keyboard, has a sucky screen by today's standards, and you'd have to either keep your games in a text file or write your own DOS program. Eric

I fall in the sadly lot...I have the skills and a real devkit but not the time. I probably would use an emulator if possible over the devkit because programming on a single threaded TOS machine is a pain in the butt. Eric

Here we go... Copyright only protects the expression of the work, not the work itself. In computer software, this applies to the actual source code, but not the end result of the source code (i.e. the game). So if you wrote your own source code, and if challenged you could put your code side-by-side with the original code and demonstrate that it's not the same, you'd be fine. Copyright also covers the graphics and the music, so you'd have to change those. But the concept, layout of the page, progression of the game, etc. cannot be copyrighted. They can possibly, however, be patented, but they usually aren't, because patents are expensive to obtain and enforce. And in practice very few games have anything worth patenting, since they're generally based on earlier work. For instance, Atari patented side scrolling games because no one had thought to do it before (I believe that patent is long since expired). it was a novel concept at the time. But patenting, say, Doom, might be difficult because Battlezone long preceded it. Also, no one is really sure software patents should be legal...after going to all the expense the concept may get overturned. Names and such can be trademarked, hence the need to change the name. Interesting trademark tidbits: "Windows" is a common word, and its trademark is probably unenforceable. But would you want to go against Microsoft's lawyers? Intel, however, found it couldn't protect "486" with trademarks -- hence the Cyrix 486, etc. That's why the 586 was renamed to the made-up word "Pentium". All that said, if you're trying to create a version of a game from a company that happens to like lawsuits and spending money on lawyers, unless you're prepared to defend yourself in court, whose on the right side of the law is beside the point. As a hobbiest I would go ahead and make my own versions. If Sony or Sega or someone comes knocking threatening a lawsuit, you could always just apologize and stop distributing the software. Eric

Playstation Supercomputer (NY Times) Basically NCSA built a supercomputer out of Playstation2's for around $50,000. Eric

I actually have a 1400XL, complete with 384K of RAM and the updated Telelink version that's supposed to run the voicemail system (but I've never actually tried to get it to work). I think I've passed around pictures on occassion. The pictures aren't exciting, looks like a 1200XL with a giant PC power supply jury rigged to it. I've had it now since before 2000, and it was pretty expensive. If anyone wants me to put up some more pictures let me know. Eric

OK, so it's also a little easy but I thought it was pretty neat, and wanted to share: Batman: Evolution of Evil If you want, I have most of the level codes, although I think I forgot to record some of the earlier ones. elevator cargo pinpoint barrel abandoned lab rat malice Happy playing. Eric

I'd wager there's a big enough community to support the project but it needs, um, more forceful leadership. Perhaps rather than asking people to come to you, you should hand out small assignments. This would also help because we don't know what reviews you already have. (Of course if the reviews are short enough, maybe multiple reviews of the same game would be helpful.) I did a couple of reviews for Le Geek, you can ask him if you can use them. I'm also open to an assignment, anything that's not a sports game or A.P.B. (for some reason I could never get the hang of that game). I have pretty much everything at my disposal, including almost all of the protos and homebrews. Also perhaps you could ask the Al's for permission to use some of the material here. Finally, I'd probably not bother with the $0.50 - $4.00 rewards for writing, save the money to put into publishing. While I'm sure there are people here who could use a little money, it would probably better be spent on things other than labor. Eric

Not that a contest makes it any more or less likely that I will find time to finish my current effort, but would a game started mid-last year qualify? Eric

Sealed for your protection. Eric

I definitely play my XBox most. PS2 was last turned on probably Thanksgiving. Aside from being one of the teeming hords who picked up Turok cheap, I like playing Project Gotham 'cause I can sneak in a few races and then go back to whatever it was I was supposed to be doing. BTW for the longest time I was stuck on Project Gotham...got the Lotus and couldn't do anything with it. Then last weekend I played for an hour and driving the Lotus just kinda clicked. Now I'm breaking all sorts of new personal records and opening up new levels. Lotus good. Eric

Shrinkwrapped and play copies of every commercially released (i.e. non homebrew) games. Real protos of Marlboro Man, Loopz and the Factory Test cart. Most of the homebrew games. It's a disease but I think I'm finally over it. Eric

You people need to get out more. Now, my first time with a UV eraser, that was an experience. Eric

I'd vote for #3 first then #1, I don't like cutting things and I think the serial port would be handier than swapping memory cards around. Plus I already have a gazzillion other memory cards in different formats, and I'd rather not have any other types laying around. Eric

I'm satisfied that Atari is back. Right now (well, as of yesterday) it's just a concept, happy memories and nostalgia. I think Infogrames has been respectful with the name and the concept, and I have no problem letting them allow us to enjoy new Atari products. Heck, if you think this new Atari isn't real, then Atari probably hasn't been real since Warner bought it. And I hope they don't try to get into hardware, that just can't turn out well. Eric

When Atari published games for the Jaguar, they planned on selling more than a few hundred to the hobbiest community to be sure. When you build the games in large quantities you can mass produce them on ROMS relatively cheaply (more than a CD but a whole lot less than an EPROM or PROM). Also, they planned on selling lots of different carts which used the same case, which means they could produce the cases in even greater quantities, adding cost savings. Then of course, there's the development cost, much lower when you divide it among hundreds of thousands of copies of a game (ok, maybe tens of thousands) rather than a few hundred. It's all about economy of scale. Eric

I remember the 3D sound in Heretic...playing at 3am, dark and quiet, and I could swear I heard things behind me. That and the first time I encountered the Mutant Pilot in Behind Jaggi Lines I fell out of my chair. Eric

Could also do with how likely cash strapped hobbiest will be to shell out for a new Lynx cart. I've certainly cut back lately. And strangely the hobby game biz is like the real thing, you sell most of what you're going to sell in the first few weeks. So if they're slow, you could be in for a loss, even if your expenses are low (i.e. just manufacturing a small number of carts, or maybe buying the rights off somebody). Good luck, Chris. Maybe in my next life I'll be a big shot video game financier. Eric

Does Mr. Baer still do CGExpo? I was there in 2000 where he signed plenty of autographs, including a CGExpo 2000 t-shirt for me. Eric