NEWER POSTS

What’s Inside Skinner’s Box?

By Shamus Posted Tuesday Oct 29, 2019

Filed under: Column 87 comments
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So let’s say you’re a stone-age Homo sapiens and you’re having a really bad day. You’re separated from your tribe, you’re hungry, you’re thirsty, and you’re exhausted. Nobody’s invented McDonald’s yet, so you have to forage for your food. You don’t know what vitamin C is, but you do know that for days you’ve had a powerful craving for something tart.

Then you come across a plant you’ve never seen before. Fruit is growing on it. You don’t know if it’s safe to eat, but you don’t have much of a choice. You take a bite and Woooooooooooooah. It’s got water, it’s got calories, and it’s got vitamin C. That wave of euphoria you experienced when you ate the fruit was caused by the release of dopamine in your brain


Link (YouTube)

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “What’s Inside Skinner’s Box?”

 

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

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87 comments

 

Groundskeeper Dave

By Shamus Posted Monday Oct 28, 2019

Filed under: Personal 74 comments
The New ComputerPrevious Post
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There’s a gag from the early seasons of the Simpsons where Groundskeeper Willie – needing to enter the school vents for reasons that aren’t worth getting into – goes to the lunch lady, tears off his shirt, and orders her to, “Grease me up woman!”. Without his shirt we can see the cantankerous but otherwise unassuming groundskeeper is absolutely ripped.

This joke always reminded me of my stepfather Dave, and vice-versa. In 1985, I was distracted from my programming by a steady thumping sound coming from just outside. I looked out the window to see Dave, shirtless, axe in hand, vigorously slamming away at a low tree stump. He’d accidentally grazed it with the mower one too many times, and he’d decided to get rid of it. I’d known him since 1983, but it wasn’t until this moment that I realized how fit my stepdad was.

Dave died yesterday, in the early hours of Sunday morning, after a long battle with emphysema. He was 68.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Groundskeeper Dave”

 

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

The New ComputerPrevious Post
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74 comments

 

Achilles and The Grognard: Chateau Irenicus

By Bob Case Posted Saturday Oct 26, 2019

Filed under: Video Games 67 comments
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The Grognard: At long last, here we are. Chateau Irenicus. The dungeon so nice that one of the series’ most popular mods is the one that skips it.

Achilles: So this is the one? I’ve heard of Dungeon-B-Gone, but I didn’t realize this was the place people wanted gone. I’ve crawled through way worse dungeons, to be honest.

The Grognard: It’s the repetition moreso than the quality. The first couple times it’s fine. After you’ve started your eighth new character, it’s like pulling teeth.

'Ah, the child of Bhaal has awakened. It is time for more experiments.' 'Interesting. You have much untapped potential.' 'Do you even recognize your power?' 'Intruders have entered the complex, master.' 'They act sooner than we had anticipated. No matter, they will only prove a slight delay.' I've played this damn game too many times. Also, I know about the 'go to settings to activate Windows' thing. I can't turn it off. Thorn in my side. Take forever to explain.
'Ah, the child of Bhaal has awakened. It is time for more experiments.' 'Interesting. You have much untapped potential.' 'Do you even recognize your power?' 'Intruders have entered the complex, master.' 'They act sooner than we had anticipated. No matter, they will only prove a slight delay.' I've played this damn game too many times. Also, I know about the 'go to settings to activate Windows' thing. I can't turn it off. Thorn in my side. Take forever to explain.

Achilles: I’m thinking that if this is the thing there are mods to skip, this game shows promise. Almost everything I’ve seen so far is an upgrade. The art is even better – more vibrant, more unique assets. At one point there’s a druid’s grove, then there are lavishly appointed apartments, then more dungeon, and then we scootch over the elemental plane of air for a bit.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Achilles and The Grognard: Chateau Irenicus”

 

Bob Case MrBtongue is the Pele of complaining about videogames and will soon be the Garrincha of complaining about TV shows. You can find his Youtube channel at youtube.com/user/MrBtongue.

Achilles and the Grognard: Vanquishing SarevokPrevious Post
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67 comments

 

Programming Vexations Part 8: The Problem With Libraries

By Shamus Posted Thursday Oct 24, 2019

Filed under: Programming 77 comments
Programming Vexations Part 7: Where Does the Time Go?Previous Post
Next PostProgramming Vexations Part 9: The Problem With Engines

Whenever people get talking about the things you need in a game development language, we usually end up with a handful of features like manual memory management, pointers, low-level code, the lack of safety features like bounds-checking, and so on. One of the big items on this list is the ability to use external libraries.

Being able to use libraries is indeed a good thing. I certainly wouldn’t want to attempt to use C++ without access to a good set of libraries! At the same time, I think we often overlook the fact that importing and integrating external libraries is enormously expensive. A game developer will complain that they don’t want to have to roll their own sound library and someone will dismiss them saying, “Bah. There are lots of free sound libraries out there. Just pick one and start coding!”

While it’s true that there are free libraries all over the place, people are really bad at factoring in the cost of using them.
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Programming Vexations Part 8: The Problem With Libraries”

 

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

Programming Vexations Part 7: Where Does the Time Go?Previous Post
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77 comments

 

Minecraft Sky Odyssey: Comfort Food

By Shamus Posted Tuesday Oct 22, 2019

Filed under: Game Reviews 54 comments
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It had been a rough week. I’m not trying to get you to feel sorry for me. We all have a rough week sometimesAnd sometimes, more than a week. and you just have to roll with it. But when Saturday came around and it was time for my day offI take a day off no matter how busy I am. I’ve discovered this is ENORMOUSLY helpful in avoiding burnout., I realized I wasn’t in the mood for anything challenging. I didn’t want to have to fight with a game to make progress.

You might argue that this is kind of the point of video games, and that’s fair enough. But sometimes you just want to enjoy the sensation of progress without having to work for it. This is particularly true if the real world has been onerous lately.

Like I said on the podcast, I’ve been playing FTB Sky Odyssey, a modpack based around sky islands. These types of island worlds have been around in one form or another since the dawn of the game, but somehow I’ve never played one until now.
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Minecraft Sky Odyssey: Comfort Food”

 

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

Borderlands 3 First ImpressionsPrevious Post
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54 comments

 

Diecast #276: Apologies, Manifold Garden, Mailbag

By Shamus Posted Monday Oct 21, 2019

Filed under: Diecast 115 comments
Diecast #275: Back to School, Kerbal Space Problems, Wendy's GamePrevious Post
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Hosts: Paul, Shamus. Episode edited by Issac.
Diecast276

Show notes: Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Diecast #276: Apologies, Manifold Garden, Mailbag”

 

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

Diecast #275: Back to School, Kerbal Space Problems, Wendy's GamePrevious Post
Next PostDiecast #277: Halloween, Starbound, Manifold Garden

115 comments

 

Achilles and the Grognard: Vanquishing Sarevok

By Bob Case Posted Saturday Oct 19, 2019

Filed under: Video Games 48 comments
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Achilles: So Sarevok, like me, is one of the Bhaalspawn.

The Grognard: Correct.

Achilles: Bhaal, the God of overcomplicated schemes, sired human children to take over for him in the event of his death.

The Grognard: Murder. Bhaal is the Lord of Murder.

Achilles: Yeah, but overcomplicated schemes must be one of his sub-portfolios or something. I mean this Sarevok guy sabotaged several iron mines, had this “Iron Throne” group start another, secret iron mine, sponsored two different bandit groups to raid the roads, blamed all of the above on either Amn, Zhentil Keep, or both.

The Grognard: Not to mention the Shadow Thieves. He framed them as well, for the murder of one of the Dukes.

Sarevok tries to get himself named Duke. He was so confident in his plan that he didn't even bother to change out of his evil armor into something nicer.
Sarevok tries to get himself named Duke. He was so confident in his plan that he didn't even bother to change out of his evil armor into something nicer.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Achilles and the Grognard: Vanquishing Sarevok”

 

Bob Case MrBtongue is the Pele of complaining about videogames and will soon be the Garrincha of complaining about TV shows. You can find his Youtube channel at youtube.com/user/MrBtongue.

Achilles and the Grognard: Special Guest AppearancePrevious Post
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48 comments

 
OLDER POSTS
From The Archives:

Internet News is All Wrong

Why is internet news so bad, why do people prefer celebrity fluff, and how could it be made better?

 

Best. Plot Twist. Ever.

Few people remember BioWare's Jade Empire, but it had a unique setting and a really well-executed plot twist.

 

Dead or Alive 5 Last Round

I'm not surprised a fighting game has an absurd story. I just can't figure out why they bothered with the story at all.

 

Stolen Pixels

A screencap comic that poked fun at videogames and the industry. The comic has ended, but there's plenty of archives for you to binge on.

 

Fixing Match 3

For one of the most popular casual games in existence, Match 3 is actually really broken. Until one developer fixed it.

 

Programming Vexations

Here is a 13 part series where I talk about programming games, programming languages, and programming problems.

 

Project Frontier

A programming project where I set out to make a gigantic and complex world from simple data.

 

Black Desert Online

This Korean title would be the greatest MMO ever made if not for the horrendous monetization system. And the embarrassing translation. And the terrible progression. And the developer's general apathy towards its western audience.

 

Trekrospective

A look back at Star Trek, from the Original Series to the Abrams Reboot.

 

Linux vs. Windows

Finally, the age-old debate has been settled.