MetaFilter posts tagged with Games and computers

Is the Steam Box here?

Artw — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 07:19:18 -0800

Valve and Xi3 team up to bring the Piston to CES.

A real Myst book

Leucistic Cuttlefish — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 04:35:01 -0800

"This is a project I've been working on for six years - a replica linking book from the video game Myst." The linking book is "made out of a copy of the same book Cyan originally scanned as a texture reference. Inside the book is a full desktop computer, completely self-contained without any external wires or hardware. In the above photo, the embedded screen isn't just showing a still photo or a video: it's running a full copy of realMyst PC edition. Onboard is a copy of all the Myst games. It's fast enough it plays all of them smoothly (even End of Ages at ~30fps). You play the games by touching the touch-screen." "Also included are some additional props - a blank white page and a blank blue page. These were sourced from additional copies of the exact same book Cyan used as a texture reference, meaning they're as "proper" as you can get. With the book's red interior lining, this makes a complete set of the three page colours used in Myst. They are their original hues & have not been dyed, so the blue is slightly more turquoise & the red is slightly more brown than they appear in the game. You can't be too picky with original 135-year-old paper hues." Here's a video preview of the book and a presentation on the book with slides. Besides all the Myst games, the computer's software includes The Manhole Masterpiece and Crowthistle, with bonuses including a copy of the Book of Atrus e-book. "When you first turn on the book a video automatically plays featuring Atrus writing at his desk, then he looks up at you & mouths the words 'who the devil are you?'."

Steam’d penguins

Artw — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 08:20:50 -0800

Valve confirms Steam for Linux

Embrace the colour clash!

Artw — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 09:39:25 -0800

The ZX Spectrum's chief designers reunited 30 years on, discussing what became 80s Britain's most popular home computer and gaming platform, despite stiff competition from the technically superior Commodore 64.

Leisure Suit Larry

Trurl — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 18:43:03 -0800

Leisure Suit Larry is a series of adventure games written by Al Lowe and published by Sierra from 1987 to 2009. The main character, whose full name is Larry Laffer, is a balding, dorky, double entendre-speaking, leisure suit-wearing (but still somewhat lovable) "loser" in his 40s. The games follow him as he spends much of his life trying (usually unsuccessfully) to seduce attractive women. Watch someone else play Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards or play it yourself. (h/t spec80)

Duke Nukem Forever ship date announced

Joe Beese — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 19:00:00 -0800

2K Games and Gearbox Software have announced that Duke Nukem Forever will ship simultaneously for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Windows PCs on May 3. (previously)

Rabid Squirrel and Future Quirk.

lazaruslong — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 11:26:34 -0800

The evolution of Line Rider.

Computer defeats women's shogi champion

Joe Beese — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 12:21:59 -0800

Four different shogi-playing software programs combined forces to "aggressively pursue" and defeat female champion Ichiyo Shimizu in 86 moves. (previously)

Cow Clicker

Joe Beese — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 22:38:55 -0800

Cow Clicker is a Facebook game about Facebook games. It's partly a satire, and partly a playable theory of today's social games, and partly an earnest example of that genre. You get a cow. You can click on it. In six hours, you can click it again. Clicking earns you clicks. You can buy custom "premium" cows through micropayments (the Cow Clicker currency is called "mooney"), and you can buy your way out of the time delay by spending it. You can publish feed stories about clicking your cow, and you can click friends' cow clicks in their feed stories. Cow Clicker is Facebook games distilled to their essence.

Dwarf powered computing

empath — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 21:06:59 -0800

Computation doesn't require complicated electronic circuitry. It can be done with mechanical gears, fluids, marbles, tinkertoys and dominoes, even the human eye. Recently folks have been building computers inside of virtual realities. It's been done with Minesweeper, Little Big Planet, and perhaps most ambitiously, a complete 8-bit computer built within Dwarf Fortress.

Hail To The King

Artw — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 15:39:21 -0800

The Wired Vaporware Awards, an institution since 1999 has taken some heavy hits this year, and has had to resort to some pretty naked padding to make a list (products in late beta whose release date has merely slipped? come on) – however, if there is anything that remains constant in these uncertain times we live in it is that one game rules the list, debuting in the No 2. slot in 2000, it then latched on to the top spot, with only editorial edict able to to shift it. Ladies and gentlemen, Duke Nukem - FOREVER.

We've got games your 10 year old wouldn't be good at.

WolfDaddy — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 14:38:46 -0800

Wanna play the first two Fallout games for totally cheap? Good Old Games is now open to the public. Via Blue's News, some interesting discussion there about "DRM Free" claims and whether or not Freespace 2 is really "free."

An ubergeek's manifesto

mattholomew — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 10:48:04 -0800

Ken Levine, creator of Bioshock, gives a funny and inspiring speech about growing up geek before the internet and the era of 'geek chic'. (SLGV, and annoying age check)

Spore in the wild

mattholomew — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 11:45:08 -0800

Will Wright's PC game Spore was released yesterday. The 'Sim Everything' game from the creator of Sim City and The Sims takes the player from cellular growth to space colonization with several stages in between. Reviews are in, and the consensus is that it's good but not as legendary as its scope (and multi-year development cycle) would suggest. The game's 'draconian' DRM has sparked controversy, causing Amazon users to bomb it with one-star reviews.

NRD of 19

Artw — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 10:41:53 -0800

Using OmniFocus to manage a 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons character sheet. Nerds. Dungeons and Dragons. Obsessive overuse of Mac software.

Degree 2.0 mash-ups not advisable for computer games careers

Artw — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 10:11:45 -0800

95% of degree courses in video gaming at British universities leave graduates unfit to work in the industry, according to Games Up?, an organisation set up to address the UKs video games skills shortage. Maths skills are a particular weakness.

640K ought to be enough for anybody

netbros — Fri, 09 May 2008 15:11:05 -0800

The History of Computing Project is a collaborative effort to record and publish the history of the computer and its roots. The site includes a chronological timeline, biographies of computing pioneers, a look at computing hardware through the years, as well as software and games. Having a 30-year career in the field, I am partial to mainframe computing. I started my career in 1973 working on this machine, and ended it on this one, with many in between. Other mainframe timelines: IBM mainframes Viking Waters Computer history: IBM 360/370/3090/390

Technology and Education

Brandon Blatcher — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 17:53:27 -0800

Three columns on technology and eduction by Robert Cringely: the clash between those who grew up with computers and those who didn't in War of the Worlds, Amish Paradise looks for learning models in unexpected places and Ozzy knows best talks about how important digital games, not video games, could be to education. If you're curious, Cringely is pseudonym

Matchbox Computing

Fuzzy Skinner — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 06:50:06 -0800

"Once you've constructed your Hexapawn opponent, it's time to start playing against it... If you play this game repeatedly ... you'll quickly notice that your matchbox opponent plays better and better until it is unbeatable!" Martin Gardner created a game called Hexapawn, and also devised an artificially intelligent opponent you can build yourself out of matchboxes and colored beads. Bonus link: An interview with Martin Gardner.

Worldbuilder

majcher — Mon, 22 Mar 2004 01:59:09 -0800

Worldbuilder (no relation to the old Mac adventure game toolkit) is an excellent way to start off the week by completely crippling productivity. I've played many games from these guys before, and they're always great. I envy the independent game designer that gets to work with Lego so often. Via GTA.

Rush Hour Game

andrew cooke — Mon, 07 Oct 2002 07:00:09 -0800

this childs game (java applet) is so complex you could use it to construct a computer. the original paper (postscript), is heavy going - if you're not a compter science student but would like to understand more try this wonderful book by one of the authors (example pictures).

lucien — Sun, 22 Sep 2002 02:16:17 -0800

Computer gaming ,which once seemed in danger of being entirely trounced by the popularity of console games, now seems healthier than ever, with new game engines taking advantage of speedier processors and the improved capacities of the new age 3D cards. A mere week after the launch of the demo, the PC game Unreal Tournament 2003 has gone gold. Also being launched in the US is "The Thing" which picks up on the story from the John Carpenter movie of the same name. Gamers are also eagerly anticipating "Thief 3," "Doom 3," "Unreal 2," and "Deus Ex 2"

Relive all your favorites from the demoscene.

WolfDaddy — Tue, 14 May 2002 17:19:57 -0800

Relive all your favorites from the demoscene. This project, headed up by nearly all of the team that maintained the old hornet.org demoscene archive, is committed to bringing those old classic demos ... to a DVD player near you. Now you no longer have to fret because you gave up your Gravis Ultrasound and DOS! Can I get a w00t from ya? I knew I could.

JakeEXTREME — Sun, 17 Mar 2002 13:35:32 -0800

Some of you may remember Gorilla for QBasic, well here's a modern refresher course, but with tanks. Only a tiny shareware game yet very addictive, I'm even tempted to buy the full version.

The giant list of classic computer programmers

moz — Fri, 06 Jul 2001 14:11:02 -0800

The giant list of classic computer programmers takes you back to a time when one person could realistically author a computer game and have it published. Of course most of the people on this list will have worked on small teams to produce games, but the diversity of the games on these people's resumes is awesome. In particular, I notice Michael Cranford (responsible for The Bard's Tale I and II, the Centauri Alliance, and ports of Donkey Kong and Super Zaxxon) and Robert Woodhead (Wizardry 1-5). As an interesting sidenote, Robert Woodhead went on to Animeigo, a japanese animation publishing company in the US. What memories of these old sk00l games do you have?