T w e n t y S i d e d
One of the best music videos I’ve ever experienced came to me as a completely random YouTube find:
I’ve watched it several times, and I know there are many details I’m still missing. I wish there was a higher resolution version available.
The Golden Age of PC Gaming
In my earlier rant against the current-gen Frankenstein graphics cards, a couple of people were quick to point out that while modern-day system-specs are indeed impenetrable to most people, the good old days of PC gaming weren’t much better. In the early 90’s, we had to fiddle around with config.sys and autoexec.bat to get games to work, make special boot disks, and know what freaking port and IRQ thingjigger our soundcard was hooked into. It was appalling.
She's not a 10,000 polygon bump-mapped model, but Cate Archer of No One Lives Forever 2 manages to look pretty dang good. Okay, her outfit is over-the-top, but that's the fault of the 60's spy movie heroines she's sending up, not the graphics engine.
Those were the rough and tumble years before the new technology settled into place and was packaged and distilled for the average consumer. PC Gaming was a niche back then. And as much as I hate to say it, I think Windows was good for PC Gaming. It handled that stupid memory management / soundcard nonsense and gave developers a “stable” platform on which to build. Once you’ve paid the overhead in memory and performance, having an operating system there is actually pretty nice. It eventually made it possible for non-technical people to play some PC games.
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “The Golden Age of PC Gaming”
Stolen Pixels #18:Diving Bored
I didn’t really give Assassin’s Creed the attention it deserves the last time, so we’ve come back to it. Go ye therefore and read it.
An anthropological introduction to YouTube
I’ve been reposting YouTube in lieu of substantive writing for a while now, and I’m starting to wonder how long you’re going to let me get away with it.
Today’s lack of meaningful posts is entirely the fault Rustybadger, who left a comment yesterday with a link to the following:
It’s almost an hour long, but well worth the time. I found it to be deeply compelling. It’s a presentation by anthropologist Mike Wesch before the Library of Congress. (Mike Wesch is also the guy behind the now-famous Web 2.0 video, which is less about technology and more about how people use it.) It’s a discussion on both the culture of YouTube and YouTube’s effect on the culture.
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “An anthropological introduction to YouTube”
See Next Month’s Minimum Requirements
The dire fate I predicted here is coming to pass:
It’s a new graphics card from NVIDIA. Let’s see:
- It takes up the space of 2 internal expansion slots. So, you’ll need to use up a PCIe slot, and one beside it.
- It’s numbered all crazy. There’s little new technology or functionality. It’s actually an 8800 series chipset with some different tweaks to the production and clocking, but they renumbered it as 9800.
- It’s designed to be used in conjunction with additional cards, so you could put two of these things together. (Assuming you have room for a couple of these space heaters in your computer case.)
I can’t wait until game developers have to list this stuff on the side of the box. We already have stuff like this: Continue reading ⟩⟩ “See Next Month’s Minimum Requirements”
Don LaFontaine
In a world with no Don LaFontaine…
Don LaFontaine, who has done the voice-over for almost every movie in the last quarter-century, has died…
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Don LaFontaine”
Spore Leaked?
People have been messaging me since yesterday, letting me know Spore has been leaked and is now available to pirates.
It’s enough people that I do not doubt it, but I’d like to have some sort of proof to hold up. Would someone mind sending a screenshot of (say) the title menu or some other obvious aspect of the final game? (As opposed to the creature creator.) I need something that is obviously not a pre-release screenshot, and preferably something that wouldn’t appear in the Wii version. Perhaps an options menu or the dialog where you adjust the screen resolution.
shamus at shamusyoung dot com
If you don’t want to email the screenshot, put it up on photobucket or something and let me know where I can grab it. I’m going to write about this, but the first charge to get thrown into my face will be that it’s a lie.
Thanks.
From The Archives:
The Best of 2013
My picks for what was important, awesome, or worth talking about in 2013.
Batman: Arkham Origins
A breakdown of how this game faltered when the franchise was given to a different studio.
A Lack of Vision and Leadership
People fault EA for being greedy, but their real sin is just how terrible they are at it.
Video Compression Gone Wrong
How does image compression work, and why does it create those ugly spots all over some videos and not others?
Quakecon 2011 Keynote Annotated
An interesting but technically dense talk about gaming technology. I translate it for the non-coders.
The Best of 2016
My picks for what was important, awesome, or worth talking about in 2016.
Wolfenstein II
This is a massive step down in story, gameplay, and art design when compared to the 2014 soft reboot. Yet critics rated this one much higher. What's going on here?
Programming Language for Games
Game developer Jon Blow is making a programming language just for games. Why is he doing this, and what will it mean for game development?
Stop Asking Me to Play Dark Souls!
An unhinged rant where I maybe slightly over-reacted to the water torture of Souls evangelism.
Pixel City Dev Blog
An attempt to make a good looking cityscape with nothing but simple tricks and a few rectangles of light.