[geeks] Dos and similar games

[Micah R Ledbetter]

On Aug 13, 2006, at 12:12, Geoffrey S. Mendelson wrote:

> Thanks for your reply. The demo I had asked about was over and went  
> very
> well, since then, I've expanded it to one Windows game (Chicken  
> Invaders)
> Several flash presentations and an MP3 player.

Chicken Invaders - that was a fun game. :).

Can it run flash OK? I would have assumed that would bog it down  
(mainly because it bogs my machine down... ugh). If so, then the game  
N would be a good candidate.
...
http://www.harveycartel.org/metanet/downloads.html
oh, but it requires too much screen resolution - 1024x768.

> I am against providing a WiFi port for three reasons:
 > ...snip...
> 3. There will be a USB host port on the top for such things. If you  
> want
>    it, you buy your own and install the necessary support. Besides the
>    device driver, there is all sorts of netowrking (IP, IPV6, TCP,  
> UDP,
>    etc) support that takes up space and is not needed for single user
>    gaming.

That's good enough for me. USB .11b sticks are super cheap anyway.

>> If you found a way to make FPS games not *completely*suck* when using
>> a controller (fuck you, Halo), then I'd want one TODAY. :). In a
>> similar vein, games like Descent are frigging cool multiplayer.
>
> That technology is in the works. I can't say more except we have a
> patent pending on doing exactly that. It goes way beyond the simple
> prior art of maping buttons.

This sounds oh so cool... I can't wait to see it whenever you get it  
finished.

>> As far as game types go: I love racing games that give you weapons,
>> like Mario Kart and Rock 'n' Roll Racing (for the SNES, by Silicon
>> Synapse which later went on to become Blizzard Entertainment). Also,
>> games that are like Mario Kart's Battle Mode, and games that were
>> like Star Fox 64, are easier to learn, and rather like FPS games.
>> Unfortunately, I don't know of any Windows/Linux games like them...
>
> The problem with games like that are twofold. The first is that we
> need to have a legally saleable emulator for them. That puts Nintendo
> out of the picture, they won't sell us an emulator and will stomp on
> you if you try to. Anything we can license we will.

Yeah, sorry. I meant to say that those were examples of the types of  
games that I think do well. I just can't think of any for the PC  
because I've never seen any like that for the PC (they probably exist  
somewhere).

>> OH. ESCAPE VELOCITY. The only one that was for Windows was the most
>> recent one, EV: Nova; the other two were for Mac OS 68K. It's in that
>> space trader genre like... oh, I never played any of the other ones.
>> Ambrosiasw.com. Man, if it had this game, I would be in. love.
>
> MacOS is a problem because we don't have a license to sell Apple ROM
> images. Steve Jobs was offered the unit and turned it down. If he
> changes his mind, sells games via the iTunes store for our unit, or  
> buys
> in then things will change.

EV: Nova is Windows.

> I wonder if I can find a 1401 emulator and that copy of Hamurabi
> (the earliest version of Civ) I saw in 1968.
'
There's also freeciv, but that might be a little taxing.. the version  
I played used gtk2. Maybe it can be built without it. Also, it's GPL,  
so free to distribute.

>> I really enjoy side scrolling action games in general. Pretty much
>> the only thing that I looked at that the PSP had was MegaMan X (now
>> there's probably more cool stuff for it, I haven't checked in a  
>> while).
>
> Is there a PC port?

Another time when I meant to say that it was an example of game t...  
wait, actually, yes, there was! I didn't even do that on purpose.  
(MMX was first released for SNES way back when, and they ported it to  
the PC after that, and the PSP most recently).

>> If it has good multiplayer, and is cheap enough, I love it, because
>> then I can play it with my 2 brothers.
>
> It won't "have" multiplayer at all. The games that are available with
> multiplayer support will run in multiplayer mode if you have the
> hardware and load the apropriate kernel modules. I'm sure people will
> be writing their own games and installing what they have.

Yeah. I meant, if the *game* has good multiplayer, I'm interested in it.

> A friend of mine wants to put a keyboard on it. The kind that  
> projects the
> image of a keyboard on a table or in the air and you wiggle your  
> fingers.
> If you can buy one with a USB port, and Linux supports it, I can play
> Zork (the original one, before Infocom) and Adventure.

Ha. that sounds pretty awesome.

In conclusion, I should not make posts so early in the morning,  
because no one can understand what in the world I am saying.

  - Micah