After hours ramblings
So, the MacWorld came and went and we were treated with the likes of iTV (appleTv) and iPhone. I love both devices - and I am pretty sure you already have read elsewhere about the awesomeness and the revolutionary design + implementation of the iphone, specifically. I was rather let down by the fact that there was not a single thing to be said about Leopard, iLife 07 or iWork - you know, software - the 'Mac' stuff. According to the ones who know ( at least, the ones who could guess way better than I can ), it was done as to frame the focus on iphone - with separate events/announcements to follow that will deal with actual Mac news. I can't wait. Apple is giving everyone reasons to be afraid - be very afraid. As always competition drives evolution and all that. You can watch the keynote online.
My favorite games reviewer, Greg Kasavin ( along with Jeff Gerstmann ) is leaving gamespot to pursue his dreams as a game developer. I will miss his reviews.
What really happened on Mars? : for hard core geeks.
Wednesday, 10 January 2007 1:07 am
Interactive Fiction
I was discussing Interactive Fiction with my friend Steve and it brought back memories - the good kind of memories. I spent countless hours playing adventure games and even more writing other. Back in the day, text(or text-graphic) adventure games were the best thing in my non programming life. Playing Enchanter every minute I could spare for over 2 months in our room ( my and my bro's ) at our parents place was an amazing experience, never to be duplicated again, sadly - though somewhat matched when playing Bard's Tale I, Kick Off II, Captive and other Amiga games.
I used to build worlds, composed of many 'rooms', each described and populated by lots of objects - whereas NPCs would live their lives and the characters would be able to talk to them, interact with them - or even ask them to do stuff for the 'hero' of the game. Initially, I used Amiga Basic, then moved to AMOS, then to Bitz Basic II and then, of course, to C.
Thanks to abandonware sites, SCUMM, Z-Code, Level-9 and Magnetic Scrolls game interpreters and other related efforts, we can relive those moments anytime we wish. Which is in fact what I plan to do sooner or later.
Sunday, 7 January 2007 3:30 pm
Morning Links
- Efficient editing with vIM. Also, worthy of a ready The Birth of vi on slashdot
- Advanced DnD: Heroes of the Lance and Pool of Radiance are two RPGs that were reviewed in one of the first PIXEL magazines I read - at least those are two of the games that stuck with me.
- Speaking of rather obscure games that got stuck with me, Blade Warrior for the Amiga along with Maupity Island, Murder from U.S Gold and Final Battle: The Legend of the Sword continues would fit in this category nicely. Those were the days..
Saturday, 6 January 2007 3:35 pm
