@icecreamjonsey@mastodon.gamedev.place
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icecreamjonsey

@icecreamjonsey@mastodon.gamedev.place

Text Adventure author working on Cyberganked: a CRPG / text adventure fusion with a CGA palette. Previously made the text adventures Cryptozookeeper, Necrotic Drift, Fallacy of Dawn and co-created Jay Schilling's Edge of Chaos.

I also post about retro computers and maintain a home 80s arcade in my garage.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

vga256, (edited ) to norcal
@vga256@dialup.cafe avatar

today, some obscure sierra on-line & dynamix history that shouldn't be obscure yet is due to how gaming culture developed: Front Page Sports Baseball. this just came in the mail, and i'm so glad to finally have my own copy after playing a demo from a CD-ROM Today! magazine cover disc as a kid.

this dynamix-produced and sierra-published title is weird for a bunch of reasons.

first, it's one of the last few DOS-only games that came out in the mid-90s.

second, it runs in hi-res mode using what i suspect is a blend of software-rendered 3D and 2D sprites that were a holdover from dynamix's 3Space engine used in almost all of dynamix's titles. (pic 2) the animation is crisp, the sprites are beautifully rendered in a very compressed colour palette.

third, the Front Page Sports series were massive hits - outselling other sierra/dynamix titles of the time. but no one talks about it, because sports games often get irritated yawns from gamers.

fourth, this game is fun to play. it's not just an average EA sports-style title. the batting/pitching gameplay is addictive, and the simulation of the players and teams is deep.

and finally, there is - unbelievably - still an active FPS Baseball community still modding and developing rosters for the game. someone maintains a tool that generates websites that lets other people see the outcomes of your baseball games like a late-90s ESPN network site 🤣 https://www.silverbox.com/biorhythm/

icecreamjonsey,
@icecreamjonsey@mastodon.gamedev.place avatar

@vga256 Great write up! My brother and I played over 20 seasons of FPS Football 96, switching to 98 eventually. I think I have their baseball game but never tried it, definitely going to find the CD and try it out!

icecreamjonsey, to random
@icecreamjonsey@mastodon.gamedev.place avatar

I have fallen too far into the world of retro games to process whatever on earth this is.

icecreamjonsey,
@icecreamjonsey@mastodon.gamedev.place avatar

@objectinspace I've been thinking about micro transactions for the >get verb in a text game. I bet Hugo could update a text file that could be scanned to initiate a POST call to an sdk of a payment platform. I've never been so drunk with idea of a horrible power that would ruin everything. This must be what Robert Oppenheimer felt.

icecreamjonsey, to random
@icecreamjonsey@mastodon.gamedev.place avatar

Bought a motherboard to use with the sound card - a
QDI P5I430VX V3.0 Socket 7. I lived and loved the era of PC gaming where a motherboard like this would have been something I owned. I should have never gotten rid of anything. :)

Looks like it needs RAM, a hard drive and a power supply, but that is all doable, and the RAM might be somewhere in the house already. More info on the PicoGUS here! https://polpo.org/picogus/

jmac, to random
@jmac@masto.nyc avatar

With kindness and sincerity, this video made me feel great empathy towards my nation's food service workers, and also gave me a rising sense of anxiety edging into the threshold of an outright terror of a flavor I have never tasted before. "Easy.”
https://mastodon.social/@hotdogsladies/112254463591200744

icecreamjonsey,
@icecreamjonsey@mastodon.gamedev.place avatar

@jmac I had a teacher for Assembly at college that would introduce a concept and then smugly conclude with "easy stuff." I'm like dude, I'm taking your class for the fourth time. It ain't that easy.

(He would have been a great co-worker and I wasn't the best student but that momentary bubble of rage when someone tells you something is easy was something.)

icecreamjonsey, to random
@icecreamjonsey@mastodon.gamedev.place avatar

CRT monitors for arcade games started ceasing production over 10 years ago. Maybe closer to 15. One of the last models you could reliably get was by Happ, a 19" model for $140. I wish I had bought 50 of them.

It was called the VisionPro.

There's no way the designers at Apple that picked the name didn't know. I saw the government is suing Apple today. I don't know what for. I'll pretend it was for that.

icecreamjonsey, to random
@icecreamjonsey@mastodon.gamedev.place avatar

Vigilante for the TurboGrafx-16. It's terrible!

To start - Madonna has been captured by Skinheads. I waited 3 hours before continuing after the game depicted it (see screenshot) because my understanding is that making people wait 3 hours before going on stage is acceptable. Thanks, Madonna.

Afterwards, you get nunchucks which are GREAT, but overpowered. Two boss enemies can't move if you can hit the attack button fast enough. Oh and if you stop spamming the attack, they get you and you die.

A picture I took of the Vigilante our game is named after getting mugged on the street by four identical twin redheaded guys that are starting to bald. The enemies - with their very pale skin! - are wearing sleeveless white tank tops, so I hope for their sake they didn't kidnap Madonna during the summer.

objectinspace, (edited ) to random
@objectinspace@freeradical.zone avatar

So MK1 finally added crossplay. I set up a WB account and connected all my gamer accounts, thinking that this would let me see other people who have also connected their gamer accounts who I am friends with. But this functionality does not exist! All you can do is search for other WB accounts. Am I stupid, or are they stupid? pretty sure it is they who are stupid this time.

icecreamjonsey,
@icecreamjonsey@mastodon.gamedev.place avatar

@objectinspace Them calling it "Mortal Kombat 1" was certainly a choice.

icecreamjonsey, to random
@icecreamjonsey@mastodon.gamedev.place avatar

I bought a Sony PVM 8020 CRT monitor at an area swap meet this morning. Tomorrow I will buy the adapters that I believe will allow me to use it with something I own. The seller had it running Pac-Man. It's just an eight inch display, but what a beautiful picture.

I really hope it's not a big deal getting it to accept a video signal from an RCA jack.

icecreamjonsey, to random
@icecreamjonsey@mastodon.gamedev.place avatar

As an engineering manager, it can be difficult to communicate to developers that it's better to ask a specific, particular colleague for a code review instead of just a Slack channel in general. To make sure things get into stage at the end of the sprint. Sorry, the difficult part is illustrating this without invoking Kitty Genovese.

icecreamjonsey, to random
@icecreamjonsey@mastodon.gamedev.place avatar

We sold an old car to get a used but young Jeep and look at the lengths they are going to split up the warmth. 4 guys. I don't want to be any of them, I don't know why the last elusive feature for cars is getting warm air at your face, feet and windshield at the same time. We're going to invent that setting, friends, and it will be our ticket out of this dump.

cosmicvoid, to scifi
@cosmicvoid@mastodon.gamedev.place avatar

Blood Nova is 60% off during the Autumn sale! 🎉

Get Blood Nova, a space opera point and click adventure, now ❤️👇
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1810270/Blood_Nova/

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icecreamjonsey,
@icecreamjonsey@mastodon.gamedev.place avatar

@cosmicvoid Thanks for the reminder! Looks wonderful, bought. :)

glaskows, to random
@glaskows@mastodon.gamedev.place avatar

I just remembered a DOS game called Veil of Darkness and how I was never able to finish it. It might be time to correct that mistake.

icecreamjonsey,
@icecreamjonsey@mastodon.gamedev.place avatar

@glaskows It was recently put on Steam! I bought it when it was new 25 years ago but never finished. I've played it a couple hours recently and I think it holds up well. Have fun :)

icecreamjonsey, to random
@icecreamjonsey@mastodon.gamedev.place avatar

There will be a short delay in PCjr photographs as my monitor fell off the shelf I keep/kept it on and landed on the floor, glass down, and doesn't display an image any longer.

icecreamjonsey, to random
@icecreamjonsey@mastodon.gamedev.place avatar

I was interviewed for this upcoming book about horror-themed video games. I'm really excited to read about all the other entries!

"From Ants to Zombies: Six Decades of Video Game Horror"

Link: https://www.bitmapbooks.com/collections/all-books/products/from-ants-to-zombies-six-decades-of-video-game-horror

icecreamjonsey, to random
@icecreamjonsey@mastodon.gamedev.place avatar

There's going to be an online celebration of the IBM PCjr's 40th birthday on November 1st! It's setup by Brutman, over at his forum. More info here: https://brutman.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1276

objectinspace, to random
@objectinspace@freeradical.zone avatar

Should I get a discord?

icecreamjonsey,
@icecreamjonsey@mastodon.gamedev.place avatar

@objectinspace Yes. Make yours but also join Pinback's!

icecreamjonsey,
@icecreamjonsey@mastodon.gamedev.place avatar

@objectinspace It is right of you to join us.

https://discord.com/invite/uCCJX3VM

icecreamjonsey, to random
@icecreamjonsey@mastodon.gamedev.place avatar

Here's the map after I bought my ticket. I'm not locked up there with him, he's locked up in there with me. Happy Jigsawing, everybody.

textfiles, to random
@textfiles@mastodon.archive.org avatar

Accepting birthday flybys as I digitize on my 53rd birthday at: https://twitch.tv/textfiles

icecreamjonsey,
@icecreamjonsey@mastodon.gamedev.place avatar

@textfiles Happy birthday, bro.

dosnostalgic, to random
@dosnostalgic@mastodon.social avatar

A lost PC port of Firebird Software's Thrust has been discovered 35 years later:

https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2023/09/thrust/

icecreamjonsey,
@icecreamjonsey@mastodon.gamedev.place avatar

@dosnostalgic I can confirm that it works on a real PCjr! :)

jmac, to StarTrek
@jmac@masto.nyc avatar

Rolling my eyes at “Previously on Strange New Worlds: GORN GORN GORN. Haha, anyway let’s see what's happening on this idyllic planet with the captain’s gf on it.”

icecreamjonsey,
@icecreamjonsey@mastodon.gamedev.place avatar

@jmac Ha! Definitely got that X-COM vibe as well, glad I was not the only one. I liked it, but that town everyone was in was straight out of a daytime terror mission. :)

juliancday, to random
@juliancday@writing.exchange avatar

Bautista to sign 1-day contract, retire a Blue Jay .

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/jos%C3%A9-bautista-retire-blue-jay-1.6933601

icecreamjonsey,
@icecreamjonsey@mastodon.gamedev.place avatar

@juliancday I will never forget the ump putting his hands up to tell Sanchez he didn't need to run toward home and then counting the run. Or the errors or Dyson trying a (friendly) slap on the rear of Tulo and Tulo taking offense. And I'll never forget, of course, what Jose did. It is all still the craziest thing I've ever seen in sports and probably always will be.

icecreamjonsey, to steam
@icecreamjonsey@mastodon.gamedev.place avatar

The Steam Summer Sale is happening now! I make graphical text adventures and they are on sale now.

Check out Jay Schilling's Edge of Chaos, a detective noise comedy, for Windows, Linux and Macs over at Steam. 35% off.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1432020/Jay_Schillings_Edge_of_Chaos/

textfiles, to random
@textfiles@mastodon.archive.org avatar
icecreamjonsey,
@icecreamjonsey@mastodon.gamedev.place avatar

@textfiles All gave some, some gave all

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