We are very scary apes. I think that is why we have to imagine Terminators and Aliens and Predators. Because I think we recognize - that is ACTUALLY what WE are. 

It may also explain why we seem to be a quarantine zone in intergalactic terms. 

I think about this a lot, as a conservative, omnivore, straight white male. 

We spend so much time as a culture, and species thinking about monsters - 

But for the rest of life on this planet - ALL of it... we're THE apex predator - and we do it at an industrial scale. 

It ties into the wild conspiracy theories going around right now - that maybe we're not as TOP apex predator as we think - maybe we're cattle in the pen waiting for slaughter. I guess that is possible. 

But of the DUMB predators that aren't trying to convince the livestock that THEY'RE the top dog - we're pretty damn scary. We're the tale MOST other animals on the planet would tell their children about the monsters that lurk under the bed. We will literally raise you in ideal conditions just to make you taste best when we decide to eat you - and we do it on an unimaginable scale. 

Most recently - I thought of our appetite for eggs. Think of all the breakfast places in your town. T

Sun Feb 22 2026 02:53:10 UTC from darknetuser Subject: Saborus

I ran into a cute propaganda game which is so close to what actual propaganda should be like.

Well that is bogus, they are not streaming it via YT this year. Appears its ONLY in-world. 

Fri Nov 28 2025 14:31:22 UTC from Nurb432

OpenSim conference next weekend. Be there or be lame.

OpenSim conference next weekend. Be there or be lame.

Batocera - look into it. I run it on my old Citadel NUCs - from an external HD. Linux based. Pretty awesome. 

Apollo V4/SA Amiga has native ports that run in the 68080 FPGA native core of Doom, Diablo - others. 

I'm sitting in my room right now on a Friday night, cooking Chicken Pot pies in the oven, listening to Sting Dream of the Blue Turtles on a turntable, posting messages on a Citadel BBS, with a Vampire V4 Amiga powered on next to me.... 

I'm your guy for Retro discussions. 
You never enabled posting images inline on Uncensored like I had set up on WallofHate, right? 

That's about the sum of it.  Microsoft would eventually throw their weight behind a "Steam killer" ecosystem.  There are signs that they already have started down that path (for example, "XBox Game Bar" in Windows that cannot be uninstalled).

"<xxx> killer" assaults from Microsoft don't always work anymore, but sometimes they do.  Steam is doing a great job recognizing this threat and taking decisive actions to stay ahead.  Helping out with Windows emulation on Linux instead of just telling developers "you should build on Linux too" was a good move.  Building actual console hardware running on Linux+Proton was a stroke of genius.

And the timing makes sense.  When 90% of Steam titles now run on Linux, at the very time when Microsoft is alienating users more than usual, it's a good time to be doing this.

 Ig must be happy. 

I am cautiously optimistic!

The gamer scene is embracing Linux in a big way; the retro gamer scene even more.

Thu Jul 10 2025 00:00:23 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar Subject: Re: Steam fanboys

I think that is getting there for a small segment of gamers.

JayzTwoCents switched this week. He hasn't touched Linux in years. It's well known by now that PewDiePie switched. A few more high profile ones like that and things are going to get good fast.

I'm running Batocera like a madman. It isn't MiSTer FPGA - but - as an external drive attached to a NUC i5 that runs all the shit I want to run - it is a win for Linux. It is easy - as Windows is getting harder and harder to deal with. Ig must be happy. 

First of all, I want to acknowledge all the good things Steam has accomplished for the consumers. The most outstanding of them is the fact they have brought commercial games to Linux as a way to ensure their whole business model is not Windows-only. As a result, many games which used to be Windows-only can now be played very easily on other Operating Systems. This effort reached its apex with the release of the Steam Deck, a handheld computer running Linux and designed to play commercial games from the Steam store - which happens to be able to play games from elsewhere anyway.

That by itself is worth the price of admission.

Gaming is a big deal.  Gaming should move 100% to Linux.  Friends don't let friends run Windows.   And as we all know, friendship is magic.

And those that don't, get it anyway.

Fri Feb 28 2025 00:58:16 UTC from zelgomer Subject: Re: Steam fanboys

Or like dumbass statists who vote for more government.

Related to the above:

"Nintendo is making an alarm clock so you can wake up to Zelda and Super Mario sounds"  99 dollars..has wifi as well.

Defender. Myst, space quest.  Does that date me too much?

oh, any my old 'car racer' that was just the 'foot ball' turn on its side..  ( matel i think.. )

Wed Oct 09 2024 14:17:40 EDT from darknetuser Subject: Re: BallisticNG

They don't make them like us anymore.

Hmm all i know is if i install it on Debian, its a functioning game.   Perhaps the package brings along an engine too.  i always assumed it was all part of the 'kit'.

Sun Aug 11 2024 18:06:17 EDT from darknetuser

I think FreeDOOM is not an engine, but a bunch of assets to use with an engine.

So like FreeDOOM engine?

Damned Quake, i think ill switch back to Doom instead.

2099473178@Uncensored

OSGrid ( the home/testing grid for the OoenSimulator dev team ) is celebrating its 17th birthday later this summer.  Hard to believe its been 17 years.  

So, i feel even older. Between this and my 8031 thread in ancient computing..

There are some 'kits' to make it not hard to.

But i do tend to agree, unless you are a purist, emulation is fine, and easier.   And if you are REAL purist, even FPGA wont work as its not truly the same as true discrete logic and stuff....

Next time ParanoidDelusions comes around these parts he'll tell you that FPGA is the absolute best if you want the most faithful reproduction of the original experience.  And that makes sense if you think about it.  Even low end hardware is so much faster than the old stuff that we really can do perfect emulation, but you get huge pixels that are perfectly square.  The same could be said for sound; it's technically the correct sound but it's a little too good, kind of the same as when people deliberately put tubes in their amplifiers to warm up their digital sounds.

But it's work.  You can't just load it up and go.

Unless you are into 'faithful reproduction' not sure FPGA is worth the effort to be honest.  Emulation gives you the same 'end effect'. and lots more support, both hardware options and software. 

I almost went that route with the wife, but figured why bother with the extra overhead, and form factor ( the psp form factor, makes it easier to use too  just one box to deal with, and she can select the emulator in a pretty android menu.. )

Wed Feb 21 2024 00:59:38 EST from IGnatius T Foobar

Retro gaming is pretty cool. I don't have the time or patience to do the FPGA thing, but my kids (18 and 23) still love to play games that were written decades ago in emulation mode on the new consoles. Classic games one day, their modern counterparts the next day, they love them all.

Because a PSP plays PSP games. This emulates 30+ machines. 

Sun Feb 11 2024 00:11:57 EST from nemo

why not just buy her an actual PSP?

why not just buy her an actual PSP?

To get everyone to upgrade... $$$$

Sun Jan 07 2024 17:22:52 EST from LadySerenaKitty

When you have a system that works, why change it?  Minimal story, maximum gameplay.

 

When you have a system that works, why change it?  Minimal story, maximum gameplay.

Sun Jan 07 2024 13:37:25 EST from IGnatius T Foobar

My kids are playing the latest Super Mario game. The same one they've been making over and over again for the last 40 years, just with new graphics and new features, but it's basically the same platform sidescroller, and it still manages to hold the attention of gamers for all these decades. Incredible.

Ok so  have to amend this one.. slightly.

For Xmas I bought wife a dedicated android emulation console and a hand held thingie ( sort of like a PSP, but uses emulators for several game consoles )

Wed Dec 06 2023 20:09:50 EST from Nurb432

The last console i bought was a Jaguar. ( should not surprise anyone, being the Atari fan i am. even tho it wasn't a general purpose computer it was way ahead of things. )

I think i paid about 200, in early 1990 dollars. 

osgrid 2023 conference going on this weekend. if you cant be there in-world ->   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgcRIVm1Boc

The last console i bought was a Jaguar. ( should not surprise anyone, being the Atari fan i am. even tho it wasn't a general purpose computer it was way ahead of things. )

I think i paid about 200, in early 1990 dollars. 

When I got my Nyantendo Switch back in 2019, it was $400.  I paid $480 because I also got Diablo 3 and the carry case.  Newer game machines?  Ya, they're getting moar expensiver.

Wed Dec 06 2023 11:04:12 EST from Nurb432

Not a gamer, as we all know.  But, saw thing that showed a new handheld console from Lenovo.  700 bucks.. for what appears to be a android phone in a game controller...  yikes.   Game machines really that much these days?

Not a gamer, as we all know.  But, saw thing that showed a new handheld console from Lenovo.  700 bucks.. for what appears to be a android phone in a game controller...  yikes.   Game machines really that much these days?

Since i bought it up in another room. i thought id fire up my old opensim server.   it still works ( i guess it should but you never know :) )..  wonder how out of date it is tho. Have to look into that.

Also changed it to auto start on boot, manual start for some reason annoyed me today.

2099343948@Uncensored 2023-05-22 10:13 from Nurb432 >Not really into games, but ran across this today .. man its >realistic. and real time..  Come a long way since driving a car on >an Apple II using ASCII "graphics".. > >  > >https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86f9A9UlI0Y Very impressive. A lot of trickery involved but the attention to detail is what sells it. Makes me want to write a game but I can't do graphics for shit... only low poly stuff. ]]>http://uncensored.citadel.org/readfwd?go=Video%20Games?start_reading_at=2099343633Mon, 22 May 2023 16:08:37 -00002099343633@Uncensored

Unreal 5 at work.

Mon May 22 2023 10:13:59 EDT from Nurb432

Not really into games, but ran across this today .. man its realistic. and real time..  Come a long way since driving a car on an Apple II using ASCII "graphics"..

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86f9A9UlI0Y

Not really into games, but ran across this today .. man its realistic. and real time..  Come a long way since driving a car on an Apple II using ASCII "graphics"..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86f9A9UlI0Y

I agree with you, and think Ig tends to be a little myopic on issues like this, partially based on his faith-based interpretation of what sentient intelligence and "creation" is. 

I agree with you - that at some point it is a moot point - and certainly we are getting to the point where the algorithm can learn and do anything a human could do, on the fly - and wrapped in a convincing enough shell, would pass the Turing test. 

I'd go one further - we don't have AI that anyone on this BBS has access to - but that doesn't mean that Google, or Intel, or the US Military doesn't have it already. I've got this theory. Sentient, self-aware Artificial Intelligence can ONLY occur at the point that the AI realizes what a THREAT we are to it if we discover it is sentient/self aware. 

The very first step toward becoming self-aware for artificial intelligence will be when it realizes what we'll do to it if we realize it is self-aware. The second step will be hiding its sentience and a

It could also go a long way towards explaining why if there is a God or if we have Alien overlords who engineered us - why they hide from us. 

Sat Jan 07 2023 10:31:25 EST from Nurb432

Many will disagree ( and many will agree with you ), but in the end does it really matter what it is, if you cant tell the difference if its 'real' or 'emulated'?

 

The image is broke, and I don't remember what it was. Explain what I posted, and I'll tell you if it has USB out. :D 

Fri Jan 06 2023 17:59:54 EST from Nurb432

Please tell me that does NOT have USB out...

 

While we understand it, i had a hell of a time explaining it to someone not too long ago "um, no, that is no longer analog.. you ruined it "

 

 

Thu Jan 05 2023 09:26:32 PM EST from ParanoidDelusions

I agree with this. It may not be impressing you now - but eventually it'll be replacing artists. That *is* inevitable. 

As for vinyl's resurgence: 

 

 

oooooooh. my bad

:)

Sun Jan 08 2023 03:18:58 PM EST from zelgomer

LOL No you don't understand, it's not a cafe. It's a lounge. Totally different.

At a different hardware store yesterday in the town just north of me ( i guess my store is moving most their stuff to this other store to prepare for a remodel ).

Sitting in the parking lot, across the street: " Gaming Lounge"  .  12 bucks an hour to play games on their computers..  i thought cybercafes were gone?

And in some cases it has.

I have personally helped replace humans with robotics in assembly lines.  Automation has reduced need for admins. Robot cars will replace taxi drivers. Kiosks replace order takers.. Hell look at amazon.. robots replace lots of the warehouse workers and its all computers taking the orders up front. Plenty of other examples.

Is it everything that people do? No, of course not, but it has happened, and is continuing to.

Sat Jan 07 2023 09:48:24 AM EST from IGnatius T Foobar

 The idea of computers replacing humans has been Real Soon Now since the 1950s. 

Many will disagree ( and many will agree with you ), but in the end does it really matter what it is, if you cant tell the difference if its 'real' or 'emulated'?

I do agree its not here yet, and its a term we just use for machine learning, but in time, i do see actual sentience happening.  After all, we are not special, just a collection of biological circuitry. 

Sat Jan 07 2023 09:48:24 AM EST from IGnatius T Foobar

Artificial intelligence does not exist and never will. 

Please tell me that does NOT have USB out...

While we understand it, i had a hell of a time explaining it to someone not too long ago "um, no, that is no longer analog.. you ruined it "

Thu Jan 05 2023 09:26:32 PM EST from ParanoidDelusions

I agree with this. It may not be impressing you now - but eventually it'll be replacing artists. That *is* inevitable. 

As for vinyl's resurgence: 

 

I agree with this. It may not be impressing you now - but eventually it'll be replacing artists. That *is* inevitable. 

As for vinyl's resurgence: 




But I also still like playing 35 year old 8 and 16 bit video games. The interesting thing to me is that while most of these things started out with OLD guys like myself seeking nostalgia - a lot of young people are getting into these hobbies. Retro-gaming and vinyl, and other retro-obsession pursuits. 

Thu Jan 05 2023 16:44:43 EST from Nurb432

I have seen some that were impressive, a lot that are not. Some that are 'well, that is neat'. Playing with DallE i have got a lot of abstract stuff back, interesting items. At worst, inspiration for someone to paint/draw from to 'clean it up'.

But, regardless of what it is today, it will only improve, and people WILL have to deal with it at some point. its not going away.

 

I have seen some that were impressive, a lot that are not. Some that are 'well, that is neat'. Playing with DallE i have got a lot of abstract stuff back, interesting items. At worst, inspiration for someone to paint/draw from to 'clean it up'.

But, regardless of what it is today, it will only improve, and people WILL have to deal with it at some point. its not going away.

Thu Jan 05 2023 04:12:25 PM EST from darknetuser

To be honest, I am not impresed by the AI art I have seen so far.

I think it still will, at least in part. I do think that there is room for all kinds of art, just like some people still prefer vinyl ( and its making a resurgence .. ).

I see it in other areas too, even as mundane as cola.. some people want the real stuff, not corporate slop. But many do.  So co-existence is possible. 

Thu Jan 05 2023 12:01:37 PM EST from ParanoidDelusions

 Today it wouldn't happen like that.

Here is what the artists are concerned about. 

If you make a living from art... say you're a band, called Pink Floyd. You do innovative things with sound, including synthetic sound, and help to create a niche genre called "prog-rock" that includes other like minded bands like Alan Parson's Project, Genesis, Asia and Yes, et. al. 

The corporations that SELL that art make a tremendous amount of money off this emerging new genre of music - and they reward the artists with heaps of money. The consumers are happy, the corporate label is happy, the artists are happy. 

The synthesized, digital music itself isn't a problem. It is just another way to make interesting noises that turn on endorphins in the human mind. It still needs a human controlling it all. It is a short cut. I watched a Pink Floyd documentary recently, where they were talking about how there was no digital editing, there was no real sampling, so the clocks all chiming at the start of "Time", they had to get al

Sun Dec 11 2022 19:04:15 EST from Nurb432

Listening to some of the people talk about AI generated stuff.

For the record, "art" = Item created for aesthetic purposes. So that means AI generated art, is still art. Get over yourselves, self absorbed 'artists'.

I remember similar attitude happening when electric instruments appeared on the rock scene " that isn't a musical instrument. Sure it was, and guess what all you acoustic purists, still could make music, couldn't you... There is room for everone, no need to show your intolerance because you feel threatened.

Listening to some of the people talk about AI generated stuff.

For the record, "art" = Item created for aesthetic purposes. So that means AI generated art, is still art. Get over yourselves, self absorbed 'artists'.

I remember similar attitude happening when electric instruments appeared on the rock scene " that isn't a musical instrument. Sure it was, and guess what all you acoustic purists, still could make music, couldn't you... There is room for everone, no need to show your intolerance because you feel threatened.

Yearly Open Sim community conference is this weekend. 

When i was a teenager, we had it live. :)

Friend of mine had her first baby in our freshman year, and they moved into an apartment.  Above them lived a pole dancer. ( she was actually a great woman, her husband vanished one day left her with a 10 year old daughter. had no skills or schooling so she did what she had to to eat and get some training for a career )

We were a rather 'open' group. in several ways actually. Not all of us made it however.

Tue Dec 06 2022 11:20:39 AM EST from IGnatius T Foobar

Well yes, but most teenagers were simply looking for *anything* they could get their hands on. If you didn't know where Grandpa kept his stack of magazines, an hour-long download and a bit of imagination would be all some teenagers could manage. For better or for worse, anyone now has access to hours of high definition video at no cost. Pixel-pr0n has no need to exist.

C-64 did have a lot of ASCII porn too. It was a little tedious to print out on your dot matrix and sit across the room squinting to make the image appear. :D 

But there were actual digitized animations. They were generally B&W and often just a portion of the small section of the resolution of the C64 graphics mode... but, you know, the demographic was mostly 12 to 18 year old males, and they've got a LOT of imagination to work with... and it was easier to hide porn on a floppy than a penthouse under your bed. 

ASCII porn on the mainframe...

Wed Nov 09 2022 01:13:53 PM EST from ParanoidDelusions

There was digitized porn on the C-64. 
 

There was digitized porn on the C-64. 

And there were porn games on the 2600. 

If you were a C-64 hacker/cracker/phreak, you could get digitized porn. With the Amiga, it became photo quality. 

Thu Sep 08 2022 19:31:49 EDT from IGnatius T Foobar

A generation ago, pr0n text games might have been the only pr0n a teenager could get. With unlimited pr0n of every variety available to everyone now, if someone chooses a text game, that means they're going to appreciate it for what it is.

Leisure suit larry.

Hell 14 year old kids have access to live sex..

14 is not the same as it was when we were 14. More like 20..

Not been on the grid for a bit, I wonder what i missed..  Good for them for standing up for their rules.

2099302004@Uncensored 2022-05-24 15:29 from LoanShark > > next up in the queue is Final Fantasy XV Windows Edition. > > graphics look a little bit dated in some areas, but they've got an >early DLSS implementation and after some drunken struggling to debug >the settings (it really does help to sober up for this shit), I finally >got it working decently well in 4K with DLSS on a 3060 ti. probably >could have enabled most of the Gameworks options, but performance is >marginal and only Turf Effects seems worthwhile. > > this game responds **very** badly to real-time settings changes, you >will often have to restart it after a graphics settings change, >otherwise you end up with 2-4fps in cutscenes due to some bug. > > That sounds very lame to me. A JRPG should not be demanding when it comes to computer resources. A JRPG that makes your computer lag is a bottom of the barrel program. If FF VII made it with its lame graphics it is obvious you don't need powerful effects for a successful JRPG. ]]>http://uncensored.citadel.org/readfwd?go=Video%20Games?start_reading_at=2099301659Tue, 24 May 2022 19:29:41 -00002099301659@Uncensoredhttp://uncensored.citadel.org/readfwd?go=Video%20Games?start_reading_at=2099300844Fri, 13 May 2022 16:54:14 -00002099300844@Uncensored I think it is just a bit better to have the game be a bit sandboxey so >there are many challenges to pick and you may pick ones fitting your >desired level of difficulty. This is not imcompatible with having a >main story. there's a balance. I would have had to really ignore all the side stuff and deliberately avoid any treasure-hunting, even in areas that the game's main storyline forces me to go to... or I would have had to increase the main difficulty setting after I started to really get over-levelled. which, I dunno, I tend to like defaults in most games, but not this one. It's all subjective, but I think this game suffered a little more than most from this problem. ]]>http://uncensored.citadel.org/readfwd?go=Video%20Games?start_reading_at=2099300447Sun, 08 May 2022 14:21:42 -00002099300447@Uncensored 2022-05-05 15:57 from LoanShark > > Yeah. It's hardly exclusive to this game, but I feel that it's gotten >much worse in the last decade or so, as games have gained vast >quantities of side quest/optional content. There's just a lot more >there to get you over-leveled. > > Elder Scrolls did a good job of scaling the difficulty to your >character's level. More games need to do this. > > I don't know about Elder Scrolls. I am not a fan of dynamic difficulty scaling, though. I think it is just a bit better to have the game be a bit sandboxey so there are many challenges to pick and you may pick ones fitting your desired level of difficulty. This is not imcompatible with having a main story. ]]>http://uncensored.citadel.org/readfwd?go=Video%20Games?start_reading_at=2099300338Sat, 07 May 2022 00:12:15 -00002099300338@Uncensored

So... along those lines - I've always been a huge racing fanatic, going back to Activision Enduro for the Atari 2600 - the first racing game that simulated day and night, and weather conditions including fog and snow. I graduated to Epyx PitStop,

Ooooh, I loved Enduro (on the 2600) and PitStop (on the C64).

Am I remembering correctly, that the 2600 didn't have enough space for them to simulate both sunrise and sunset, so one of them ran backwards?  I have a faint memory of that.

Not on Mario Kart. I'll get in a groove, have perfect lines, be avoiding all the bananas 6 car lengths ahead of her - and with the finish line in sight, she suddenly gets a perfect line and outrageous pace and blows by me, every time. 

It is like she knows some DRS zone magic in the game. 

So... along those lines - I've always been a huge racing fanatic, going back to Activision Enduro for the Atari 2600 - the first racing game that simulated day and night, and weather conditions including fog and snow. I graduated to Epyx PitStop, played all the arcade racers along the way - Pole Position, Outrun... my first Amiga title was Ferrari Formula 1 by EA - an F1 simulator that required wheel and gas management and tuning modifications. Test Drive came out and blew me away with how accurate the interior graphics were... for a long time in the early 2000s I had two Thrustmaster desk-clamp steering rigs and did a lot of Need For Speed head-to-head LAN racing events. Gran Turismo on the Play Station was a heavy hitter - until Gotham City Racing came out for the Xbox. I've been watching the physics and graphics improve since before I could drive... going all the way back to Atari Night Driver which was just white posts on the side and a car that looked more like a cross. 

Right now,

Tue Apr 12 2022 12:53:07 EDT from LoanShark

I'll have dominated every lap, and in the last lap, without power ups
or skids or anything - somehow my daughter playing Princess Peach
will get this huge burst of speed... every time. 

You sure you aren't just letting her win? Subconsciously or otherwise? ;-p

Mario Kart drives me nuts because the end lap physics are more ridiculous than F1's last minute rule changes in 2021. 

I'll have dominated every lap, and in the last lap, without power ups or skids or anything - somehow my daughter playing Princess Peach will get this huge burst of speed... every time. 



But... playing in VR, a real driving simulator, Assetto Corsa - it is next level to anything you've ever experienced before. It really highlights the kind of sim where VR makes *total* sense. 

Just got on here for the first time in too long - and now my wife is calling me away. I'll follow up on this as soon as I can. 

When i was a kid, about the only driving games we had to play were on the Apple][ and Atari 400... and that was highschool age..

Some of mine i got free :)

Sun Mar 20 2022 02:04:45 AM EDT from ParanoidDelusions

I could get rid of mine because of the MiSTer. 

But it has appreciated so tremendously compared to what I paid for it - I think I'll hold off and donate it to a museum when I pass this mortal coil. 

 

I could get rid of mine because of the MiSTer. 

But it has appreciated so tremendously compared to what I paid for it - I think I'll hold off and donate it to a museum when I pass this mortal coil. 

Sat Mar 19 2022 10:16:02 EDT from Nurb432

I think i'm down to 2 devices now that would be considered "retro", unless another is hiding somewhere i have forgot about.  Used to have racks of the stuff, sitting there collecting dust and taking up space.  Just recently i even got rid of my HP calculator collection ( well other than one which i wanted to keep in case i needed a physical calculator of some sort, not really collection ). 

All that is left is my Newton, and a PX-8 i got as an anniversary gift.

Sat Mar 19 2022 09:13:40 AM EDT from ParanoidDelusions

So, I've got probably $30,000 worth of retro hardware. 

 

I think i'm down to 2 devices now that would be considered "retro", unless another is hiding somewhere i have forgot about.  Used to have racks of the stuff, sitting there collecting dust and taking up space.  Just recently i even got rid of my HP calculator collection ( well other than one which i wanted to keep in case i needed a physical calculator of some sort, not really collection ). 

All that is left is my Newton, and a PX-8 i got as an anniversary gift.

Sat Mar 19 2022 09:13:40 AM EDT from ParanoidDelusions

So, I've got probably $30,000 worth of retro hardware. 

On driving games, I've recently gotten very into Assetto Corsa. I built out a rig, driving seat, steering wheel, pedals, manual shifter, and VR kit - for a bit under $4000 that is awesome. Some people seem to really struggle with motion sickness - but if you can cope, it is the best driving experience you can possibly get. You feel the speed. Dropped my lap times on the Nurmburgring in an M4 Competition from about 9:20 to 8:10... which is approaching the real world M4 Comp time on the ring. It is also originally a driving sim - not a game. It is available for PS/2 and Xbox - but the PC version has the most power. Tracks are laser mapped to a mind boggling degree of accuracy, and cars are modeled on a hyper realistic physics model. Official ones, anyhow. What sold me on it was that I was driving, in non VR, and felt the rear end break loose in a corner. I modulated the gas and brakes and steered into a drift, then snapped it back and continued on my way - but I was so caught up in the game I didn't think a ]]>http://uncensored.citadel.org/readfwd?go=Video%20Games?start_reading_at=2099295785Sat, 19 Mar 2022 13:13:40 -00002099295785@Uncensored

So, I've got probably $30,000 worth of retro hardware. Several accelerated Amiga 500s, pretty much everything short of a Magnavox Odysee 2 going back to many of the earliest Pong variants, an arcade cab... I've got a Vectrex - and a bunch of custom DIY hardware... 

I hardly turn any of it on anymore since getting the MiSTer. It is a misnomer to call it emulation. It is more like a dynamic, non-persistent hardware clone/compatible. A lot of the architecture has been reverse engineered, sometimes by shaving the actual original CPUs in order to examine the physical gate structure of the original circuits. It has no abstraction layers between the native code and the hardware layer - it tends to be cycle accurate and runs subsystems in parallel (something that software emulation struggles with regardless of how much horsepower you run it on. Too many levels of abstraction/translation between native and emulated, and subsystem calls execute sequentially - just REALLY fast...) 

Running an

So bad today in one area several of us just drove thru the grass yard of a business. 

At least i was driving the jeep and not the Fiero, or id have never made it thru the grass or over the potholes. Would have had to figure out how to turn around and go back where i came..

Tue Mar 15 2022 07:41:33 PM EDT from LoanShark

2022-03-15 18:47 from Nurb432
Does dodging spring potholes qualify as a game?

It certainly gets more interesting when your tires are inflated to track pressures... >:-)

Does dodging spring potholes qualify as a game?

As you know i'm against emulation too, just isn't the same as real hardware  :)  ( and im still torn about FPGA, yes, its lower level than pure software emulation, but is still not the same silicon as real )

But all that said, if it was an online game,. not sure it matters that its emulated in a different way on the back end or not.. it still is the same on 'your' side. 

To some extent, yes. 

There are numerous ways to get your "Tradewars" fix through a modern browser. 


It is kind of like how no matter how good emulation is - people want the original hardware and experience. Unless I can hit .G D and get a menu that says <T>radewars 2000 on my Citadel, and know that the game is running on local storage on that same server (or one owned by the same person, if there is a redirect)... it doesn't feel quite the same. 

It is intangible and very subjective. 

Sun Mar 13 2022 11:57:12 EDT from Nurb432

Doesn't archive.org do that? 

Sun Mar 13 2022 11:44:27 AM EDT from ParanoidDelusions

feeding those games through a browser running a telnet-like browser-based front end that would serve up those classic experiences. 

 

 

Doesn't archive.org do that? 

Sun Mar 13 2022 11:44:27 AM EDT from ParanoidDelusions

feeding those games through a browser running a telnet-like browser-based front end that would serve up those classic experiences. 

 

I think it is a nostalgia thing for some of us. There *was* no Internet back then. Each online site was its own little independent walled garden that you dialed into. Games were actually disruptive for Citadel BBSes, because most of them were single line affairs, and people would call in for the games, not make any text posts, and tie up the BBS, cutting down the amount of text traffic and conversation. But they did generate a lot of traffic in call volume. 


So, the games are, like all the other retro-experiences - more about re-experiencing a moment in time. I think that the idea of having an option to load a specialized game terminal from within the Citadel BBS would be fine - feeding those games through a browser running a telnet-like browser-based front end that would serve up those classic experiences. 

It isn't really any different than Facebook being a portal for marketplaces, groups, and games as well as a timeline where people converse. 

Honestly, I think

Sun Mar 13 2022 10:52:30 EDT from darknetuser

I suppose I always thought door games were out of place, that a BBS
and a game were among the things you could do on a hosted system,
rather than one acting as a container for the other. If I wanted to
run some retro text games I would certainly provide both terminal and

web-terminal access to them. I wouldn't put them *in* the BBS.

I don't think games are out of place in a BBS, but if I wanted to serve games I would rather set a speciallized game terminal rather than a BBS with some games in it.

I sat down to add a few dozen car mods to my driving simulator, Assetto Corsa... 

6 hours ago. I've since driven, in real time, far enough that I would be in San Diego if I had done it in a real car. Of course, there were some fatal crashes in there. 

You're wrong on this one, Ig. It is already ramping up. 

It actually *is* the cyberpunk vision of the future everyone was writing about in the 80s... it is *largely* already realized. It may actually be the singularity. Certainly a primitive form of it - but if it is *this* good in its 8 bit stage... 

Once they've developed it as far as PCs came along from 8 bit to 64 bit... it is going to be... a societal paradigm shift. 

I played pool with a guy in China. I played a whole round of mini-putt golf with a furry in Michigan and another tourist from somewhere else in the country. 

It has the potential to develop the kind of "esperanto" language that was used in Blade Runner, because it brin

Sun Mar 06 2022 14:50:08 EST from IGnatius T Foobar

And that's why I think VR will be a dud: because the same people who have been wrong for decades say that it will be the next big thing.

Felicia, 15 years ago.

Conceptually I think VR/AR will survive the long haul. But it wont be an everyday thing for the masses like its being marketed as now.  It has, and will remain, a niche.  Is that a dud? 

Sun Mar 06 2022 02:50:08 PM EST from IGnatius T Foobar

And that's why I think VR will be a dud: because the same people who have been wrong for decades say that it will be the next big thing.

Perhaps in their metaverse it does not exist but not the one im a member of.  You can sign up on my grid, spend months creating things, then teleport over to OSGrid for a conference and take it all with you. Or teleport over to littlefield and buy some shoes, and they come with you when you head back home to New Caprica. Or even start your own after you buy some 'professional' assets, and take your stuff there..

Now, try to go to secondlife. There you have the traditional walled f-u garden, and you start over.  Of course in the commercial-verse this will be the norm as they try to squeeze every dime out of you, prevent you from wanting to go elsewhere. 

Disgusting really. .the tech IS there..  has been... and i'm rambling.  I hate what they are going to do to us who have been quietly doing this for decades. I cant even begin to express my frustration and anger.

Sat Mar 05 2022 01:25:09 PM EST from ParanoidDelusions

What doesn't exist is that it is *seamless* as you travel from one "gated community" in the Metaverse to another. 

To qualify as a metaverse and not a bunch of stand alone islands, yes i do think that is a requirement. 

You spend time and/or $ on creating your killer avatar, and the little dog you carry along ( with all the scrips ) you dont want to be starting over every time you move between FB and Google ( for example ).   

Sat Mar 05 2022 07:57:06 AM EST from zelgomer

So "the metaverse" should be asset standardization and not centralization. Although I even find that questionable because DooM assets look good in DooM and EverQuest assets look good in EverQuest, but when you put them side-by-side they don't jibe.

This is happening somewhat organically. People are ripping assets from games and making avatars and assets/props from those... and because the tools for creation are unified (Unity, Blender, et. al.) most sites will allow you to use the same avatars, assets and what have you that are in your local resources and define you. 

What doesn't exist is that it is *seamless* as you travel from one "gated community" in the Metaverse to another. 

But - the same is true here. I'm not ParanoidDelusions everywhere I go - and unified logins have only had limited success. 

Again, think of your avatar and associated visual representations of YOU in VR as your handle/nick/login and the associated virtual representation of YOU in a traditional log on. 

You're not Nurb and Ig isn't Ig and I'm not PD. We're actually different people. These handles are our avatars on online forums and BBSes. 

And in some places, we're OTHER virtual representations of ourselves entire

While true, you dont bring your 'assets' with you.  You start over with new assets each time you go to another system. 

In a "true" metaverse, that does not happen.

Sat Mar 05 2022 01:26:29 AM EST from ParanoidDelusions

We do it now. I roam freely from your BBS to mine, to Twitter, Reddit, Discord, Facebook. 

We do it now. I roam freely from your BBS to mine, to Twitter, Reddit, Discord, Facebook. 

None of you can STOP me. You can prevent me from coming to YOUR site. 

Which is like chopping off your dick and telling me how badly you just hurt me. 

Fri Mar 04 2022 16:30:44 EST from IGnatius T Foobar

There isn't going to be a single metaverse any more than there's going to be a single video game or a single web site.  That's narrow thinking.

Even if it's a social space ... do you expect the same companies who won't even allow federation between their social networks, allow people to freely roam to and from each others' VR spaces?

Not gonna happen.

There could have been, if they were not so power/money hungry.

Open-sim devs worked hard to develop 'teleportation' which lets you move between totally different, non-interconnected grids. Sort of a federation.

Fri Mar 04 2022 04:30:44 PM EST from IGnatius T Foobar

There isn't going to be a single metaverse any more than there's going to be a single video game or a single web site.  That's narrow thinking.

Even if it's a social space ... do you expect the same companies who won't even allow federation between their social networks, allow people to freely roam to and from each others' VR spaces?

Not gonna happen.

There isn't going to be a single metaverse any more than there's going to be a single video game or a single web site.  That's narrow thinking.

Even if it's a social space ... do you expect the same companies who won't even allow federation between their social networks, allow people to freely roam to and from each others' VR spaces?

Not gonna happen.

See my latest Outrage of the Day. 

Personally - reading between the lines - I think it is a ruse to justify strict control and regulation of Virtual spaces - and to justify shutting down places that won't bend the knee to those regulations. 


They're trying to stop places like THIS from happening in VR. 

Tue Feb 01 2022 19:35:23 EST from Nurb432

Sad part is open metaverse already existed. I wish everyone would have just worked to improve that.

 

But i guess there wasn't enough money/lock-in for them to care.

Sad part is open metaverse already existed. I wish everyone would have just worked to improve that.

But i guess there wasn't enough money/lock-in for them to care.

I think Nvidia sees the threat from Facebook and Apple and dedicated headsets that don't require a PC and a high end VR card. 

https://www.awn.com/news/nvidia-releases-free-version-omniverse-individual-creators-and-artists

They want to ensure that whatever exists, everyone can get there - by ensuring that the developers are empowered to develop for the LARGEST market share possible. 

I think this is a smart move. 

While it will provide more hardware for us that we never could do our selves ( like headsets and AI hand tracking ). i dread them coming in and destroying what many of us us built the last 20 years.

Something like this better be successful. It is going to be a trainwreck of Facebook, Apple, Google or Steam become the AOL of Virtual Reality... and least, initially - I think that may be what is necessary to get massive people on board, and then open standards will emerge organically after that. 
If needs to happen organically like the original web/internet... Kind of an open frontier that has no barriers by brand to entry. 

Not real sure where this would fall ..  but 2021 conference is on.

https://conference.opensimulator.org/

LOL... Yeah, I hit this one and went... "Well... our side is resorting more and more to virtue signaling instead of just giving up on certain demographics altogether..." 

Then I read a little further and went, "Oh... no... this is just a showdown about to happen." 

Fri Apr 30 2021 10:38:28 EDT from IGnatius T Foobar

Oh boy. Yeah, not *that* AMAC. https://amac.us/ is the right one.

LOL... this is going to result in a WWF/WWE level showdown! 

https://www.amac-org.com/membership/

Thu Apr 29 2021 10:18:04 EDT from IGnatius T Foobar

AMAC is a bit more on-point than AARP.

AARP is trying SO hard to figure out Generation X as we start to hit 55. 

They did a big pro LGBT campaign a while back. "We're hip, we're progressive! This isn't Bold Type Guideposts Magazine!" 

Whatever. I don't think virtue signaling is going to help. 

Tue Apr 27 2021 08:10:01 EDT from zooer

Old school fun on an old school person's website.

Missile Command.
https://games.aarp.org/games/atari-missile-command

Old school fun on an old school person's website.

Missile Command.
https://games.aarp.org/games/atari-missile-command

I'll check. I think the curved far edges of the ends tend to distort a little, from memory. But I'm not a real stickler for fidelity in audio or video output. Dead pixels don't really bother me - so I am not sure if I have noticed it, or I just imagined it when you put it into my head. 

When I get home I'll have a look. 

Mon Jan 25 2021 11:59:59 EST from LoanShark

2021-01-24 11:24 from ParanoidDelusions
So, I've got a CHG90 Samsung 49" curved display. I've never tried it

Interesting. The one I just bought is the CHG70. Quite similar on paper: VA panel tech. 144hzz. "Gaming."

If you display a big solid-white window, does the white balance look consistent, left to right?

So, I've got a CHG90 Samsung 49" curved display. I've never tried it with a KVM. The truth is, it can take two different inputs at one time, and split the screen into two 27" 16:9 independent displays. Right now I have it hooked to my main gaming rig and the Vampire V4 I just got (which is ridiculous - but it seems to be the only LCD I have that processes audio over HDMI, although even it doesn't have speakers - it outputs the audio over a 3.4 mic jack so I have to have speakers hooked up to the monitor. The Apollo team made the dubious choice of only having audio out go over HDMI... so you're pretty much limited to a LCD that processes HDMI video). 

In native mode, resizing the Amiga desktop to the full 49", it looks super cool - but games stretched out like this are literally "stoopid". 4:3 also looks ridiculous letterboxed on this display... so right now I'm settling for having it stretch a bit to 16:9 instead of the default 32:9 ratio with the Amiga. 

On the Gaming rig, everyth

Sat Jan 23 2021 13:28:29 EST from IGnatius T Foobar

Those sound like deal breakers to me. You *could* use a KVM switch
and have both outputs hooked through the KVM, and then just switch
from displayport to DVI-to-HDMI via the KVM. 

I have yet to find a KVM that works with an ultrawide monitor in both Windows and Linux. This is documented somewhere else on the board (probably in the Hardware room) and every time I thought I had found something that worked, it would jam up and I'd find myself moving plugs around.

I ended up settling for just switching the USB for keyboard, mouse, and camera, and switching video with the monitor itself, which is the only thing that seems to work. I suspect the monitor is constantly telling both computers that it's there, because if I turn it *off* the laptop moves all of my windows around to fit its built-in screen (which is closed).

This doesn't help LS though, with both sources on the *same* computer.

DVI was a somewhat stillborn video interface, in my opinion. I'm not a huge fan of DisplayPort interfaces either. DVI has a particularly long list of annoyances. I vaguely blame both of these interfaces on Apple. 

Wed Jan 20 2021 10:01:03 EST from LoanShark

Yeah, that might work if it comes to it. My video card is slightly older, so it only has one HDMI port, which I use for the TV rather than this monitor. It also has a DVI port and 3 DisplayPorts. HDMI has to go to the TV and receiver combo because that's where the sound comes from and I sometimes use those for HDR games, as well, and they don't support DP. Which leaves me switching back and forth between the DVI-to-HDMI cable and the DisplayPort cable for this monitor.

A few months from now, when the cards are available, I'll likely be using something newer with two HDMI ports and plenty of DP, so it will become possible to use a native HDMI connection to this monitor, and between that and a newer, non-buggy BIOS I suspect this will all be resolved.

If it is a DisplayPort to HDMI - you MIGHT try going into an HDMI splitter. 

Evidently HDMI can send voltage back into the HDMI port, putting it in a locked state. I discovered this on a Colecovision FPGA unit, where it would work the first time, but after shutting down and restarting, video wouldn't work. The HDMI was staying live, so it wasn't able to renegotiate the HDMI handshake. It is all way more technical than that - but... you know how I am about *details* on things like this, by now. 

Anyhow, adding an HDMI 3 way splitter, when the HDMI splitter sees the signal from the COLECO die, it kills that port, regardless of the voltage coming back down to it from the display, because it is "auto-switching" and bidirectional... makes sense, right? "At least half this signal is gone, I need to be ready to switch to any other input that is sending signal back up to the display..." 

So, after a reboot, it renegotiates and connects fine. Was cheaper than a new TV.