The Digital Antiquarian discusses
ludic narrative
and has been filling in by bits and pieces an amazing history of
recreational computing and adventure gaming.
The Rise of Experiential Games traces the development of Wargames from H.G. Wells' (!) wargame for toy soldiers,
Little Wars, to Avalon Hill's Squad Leader; he discusses the development of
Dungeons and Dragons (part
2,
3) led to
the first CRPGs on
PLATO. He'll tell you things you didn't know about
Oregon Trail (part
2,
3,
4,
5,
postscript, the
1975 source code!),
Hunt the Wumpus (
part 2),
Colossal Cave Adventure (part
2,
3,
4,
5),
Eliza (part
2,
3),
Scott Adams' games (part
2,
3,
4,
5), the
TRS-80 (part
2,
3), the
2 adventuring cultures of university minicomputers and home PCs, and their
unlikely bridging. [more inside]
posted by Zed
on Sep 11, 2011 -
18 comments
Star Trek fans know that there was a second, unaired pilot episode of
Where No Man has Gone Before. That version
has been found by a collector in Germany, and is going to be released.
posted by pjern
on Nov 15, 2009 -
30 comments
"After his wife left him, Tony Alleyne set out to create the
ultimate bachelor pad, painstakingly turning his flat into a Star Trek set... The 500-square-foot apartment features voice-activated lighting, LED lighting, running lights, air-conditioning—but no bed... A few years ago Mr Alleyne suffered from sciatica and was advised by his GP to sleep on the floor. 'It cured the sciatica and gave me the opportunity to convert the bed area into the Transporter area,' he says. 'Bed space is overrated...' His wife—who owns the flat—put it up for sale, but it fell through.
posted by grouse
on May 8, 2009 -
109 comments
Reinier van der Ende, an x-ray technician at the largest hospital in the northern part of the Netherlands, decided to combine his work with one of his hobbies and proceeded to x-ray his collection of video game consoles, peripherals and game cartridges.
Here are the fruits of his labour.
[more inside]
posted by Effigy2000
on May 2, 2009 -
20 comments
Editor wars are some of the most divisive debates among programmers and writers. These days, the battles are between proponents of IDEs like
NetBeans,
Eclipse, and
the like as often as they are between proponents of
vi and
Emacs, the traditional battlegrounds. That fight hasn't ended, of course. The support of the vi camp has largely solidified behind
Vim, the largest and most feature rich (or bloated, if you like
nvi) variant, and
GNU Emacs has essentially vanquished its internecine
rival. Are you a traditionalist? You can find an
argument if you really want to.
Of course, a lot of people
now vote for third parties. There are candidates for the
ignorant, for the
masochistic, and the
insane. Some people are more comfortable
with familiar interfaces. Still
others are
obsessed. [
Previously]
posted by sonic meat machine
on Dec 22, 2007 -
98 comments
