• Re: Well, that's unexpected (Speedball reboot)

    From JAB@21:1/5 to Spalls Hurgenson on Wed Oct 30 09:33:20 2024
    On 29/10/2024 16:16, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

    Remember "Speedball"? You probably don't.

    [Then again, this being Usenet and that most of us
    are old fogies, maybe you do]

    Speedball was a sci-fi action/sports game released in the late 80s
    developed by the Bitmap Brothers. Although it came to DOS computers,
    it was most popular on Amiga (it also saw ports to the 8-bit consoles
    of the time). It got a sequel a few years later, but after that the
    franchise languished. IIRC, there were a couple of HD remakes in the
    early 2000s but other than that? Nothing.

    It just got a brand new remake released to Steam today.

    It actually looks quite good, for what it is. The game itself is an
    odd futuristic mix of American football, basketball and soccer (e.g.
    real football ;-), and is more action-game than sports title. I'll
    admit, I don't actually _care_ for the game, but a part of me is
    intrigued by the release. Partly because of its history, partly
    because it seems a stealth release (by Rebellion Games, of all people)
    and partly because if I _were_ going to play a sports title, it
    probably would be this one.

    Anyway, if you're one of the oddballs who remembers the original,
    maybe take a look.


    That was one of my favourite games on the Atari ST and it really did
    have the feel of actually playing in the arcade. The Bitmap Brothers
    also did Xenon which I put down as one of the best top scrolling
    shooters and still entirely enjoyable now.

    I might pick up Speedball as it sounds great for getting a bit more use
    out of my Steam controller.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Zaghadka@21:1/5 to Spalls Hurgenson on Wed Oct 30 11:03:39 2024
    On Tue, 29 Oct 2024 12:16:41 -0400, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,
    Spalls Hurgenson wrote:


    Remember "Speedball"?

    YES!

    [snip]
    It just got a brand new remake released to Steam today.

    REALLY?!

    [snip]
    Anyway, if you're one of the oddballs who remembers the original,
    maybe take a look.

    Well, I am odd, but I'll stick to Rocket League thank you.*

    LOL

    --
    Zag

    No one ever said on their deathbed, 'Gee, I wish I had
    spent more time alone with my computer.' ~Dan(i) Bunten


    * Not really. I don't play Rocket League either.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Ant@21:1/5 to Spalls Hurgenson on Wed Oct 30 18:20:35 2024
    IIRC, I played it on my IBM PS/2 model 30 286 10 Mhz PC. It was cool. :)

    Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:

    Remember "Speedball"? You probably don't.

    [Then again, this being Usenet and that most of us
    are old fogies, maybe you do]

    Speedball was a sci-fi action/sports game released in the late 80s
    developed by the Bitmap Brothers. Although it came to DOS computers,
    it was most popular on Amiga (it also saw ports to the 8-bit consoles
    of the time). It got a sequel a few years later, but after that the
    franchise languished. IIRC, there were a couple of HD remakes in the
    early 2000s but other than that? Nothing.

    It just got a brand new remake released to Steam today.

    It actually looks quite good, for what it is. The game itself is an
    odd futuristic mix of American football, basketball and soccer (e.g.
    real football ;-), and is more action-game than sports title. I'll
    admit, I don't actually _care_ for the game, but a part of me is
    intrigued by the release. Partly because of its history, partly
    because it seems a stealth release (by Rebellion Games, of all people)
    and partly because if I _were_ going to play a sports title, it
    probably would be this one.

    Anyway, if you're one of the oddballs who remembers the original,
    maybe take a look.



    --
    "The righteous will never be uprooted, but the wicked will not remain in the land." --Proverbs 10:30. Doyers failed 2 sweep. Itchy humpy day. :(
    Note: A fixed width font (Courier, Monospace, etc.) is required to see this signature correctly.
    /\___/\ Ant(Dude) @ http://aqfl.net & http://antfarm.home.dhs.org.
    / /\ /\ \ Please nuke ANT if replying by e-mail.
    | |o o| |
    \ _ /
    ( )

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Xocyll@21:1/5 to All on Sat Nov 2 09:16:30 2024
    Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> looked up from reading the
    entrails of the porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs
    say:

    On 11/1/2024 4:41 AM, JAB wrote:
    On 31/10/2024 23:00, Geeknix wrote:
    On 2024-10-29, Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:

    Remember "Speedball"? You probably don't.

    áááá [Then again, this being Usenet and that most of us
    ááááá are old fogies, maybe you do]

    I remember Speedball, I loved it, probably because it was one of the few >>> games I had on Amiga. My parents were never happy buying games so most
    of what I had was demo disks.

    So of course I played it a lot. One day my father wanted to take it to
    work to swap with another Amiga owner. I warned him not to take the disc >>> on the pot lines, those massively magnetic pots would wipe the magnetic
    discs.

    Of course he didn't listen and the discs were useless. Spent the rest of >>> my Amiga owning life, playing demos.

    But now I can relive being 12 again!


    Where I used to work someone decided the best way to store the back-up
    tapes was to use their metal backs to 'stick' them to the back of the
    inside of the safe which was magnetic!

    A real world tech support call from the days of floppies and no hard
    drives. Manager reports that he is always losing each day's work, it >wouldn't be on the floppy when he put it in the computer the next day.
    IT tries for days to figure out what the problem is without success.
    Finally one of the techies literally spends an entire day watching the >manager work, trying to see what is causing the problem. He finally >discovers the cause when at the very end of the day the manager removes
    the floppy and sticks it to the side of his filing cabinet with a magnet.

    *rimshot*

    um yeah, I see you and raise you a manager who stuck the failing backup floppies to the side of the computer with a magnet

    You can't make this shit up.

    Xocyll

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Dimensional Traveler@21:1/5 to Xocyll on Sat Nov 2 18:05:57 2024
    On 11/2/2024 6:16 AM, Xocyll wrote:
    Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> looked up from reading the
    entrails of the porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs
    say:

    On 11/1/2024 4:41 AM, JAB wrote:
    On 31/10/2024 23:00, Geeknix wrote:
    On 2024-10-29, Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:

    Remember "Speedball"? You probably don't.

         [Then again, this being Usenet and that most of us
          are old fogies, maybe you do]

    I remember Speedball, I loved it, probably because it was one of the few >>>> games I had on Amiga. My parents were never happy buying games so most >>>> of what I had was demo disks.

    So of course I played it a lot. One day my father wanted to take it to >>>> work to swap with another Amiga owner. I warned him not to take the disc >>>> on the pot lines, those massively magnetic pots would wipe the magnetic >>>> discs.

    Of course he didn't listen and the discs were useless. Spent the rest of >>>> my Amiga owning life, playing demos.

    But now I can relive being 12 again!


    Where I used to work someone decided the best way to store the back-up
    tapes was to use their metal backs to 'stick' them to the back of the
    inside of the safe which was magnetic!

    A real world tech support call from the days of floppies and no hard
    drives. Manager reports that he is always losing each day's work, it
    wouldn't be on the floppy when he put it in the computer the next day.
    IT tries for days to figure out what the problem is without success.
    Finally one of the techies literally spends an entire day watching the
    manager work, trying to see what is causing the problem. He finally
    discovers the cause when at the very end of the day the manager removes
    the floppy and sticks it to the side of his filing cabinet with a magnet.

    *rimshot*

    um yeah, I see you and raise you a manager who stuck the failing backup floppies to the side of the computer with a magnet

    You can't make this shit up.

    Oooo. Okay. From my days programming and tech support for 911
    Dispatch Systems. Not a tech support call I had to handle but one
    passed on to new programmers. Client calls, reports their system is
    down. All the screens are blank, no response to anything they try to
    input. The person calling is the head of that city/county's IT
    department. On call tech tells them to go to the main server's terminal
    and tell him what it says. Caller says he's already there but can't see anything. Asked why. Caller says the room has no lights, they are in
    the middle of a power outage. Wants to know how to bring the system
    back up until the power comes back. :D


    --
    I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
    dirty old man.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Dimensional Traveler@21:1/5 to Spalls Hurgenson on Sun Nov 3 09:52:09 2024
    On 11/3/2024 7:39 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
    On Sat, 2 Nov 2024 18:05:57 -0700, Dimensional Traveler
    <dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:



    Oooo. Okay. From my days programming and tech support for 911
    Dispatch Systems. Not a tech support call I had to handle but one
    passed on to new programmers. Client calls, reports their system is
    down. All the screens are blank, no response to anything they try to
    input. The person calling is the head of that city/county's IT
    department. On call tech tells them to go to the main server's terminal
    and tell him what it says. Caller says he's already there but can't see
    anything. Asked why. Caller says the room has no lights, they are in
    the middle of a power outage. Wants to know how to bring the system
    back up until the power comes back. :D


    Why do I suddenly imagine the client hunched over a stationary
    bicycle, pedaling furiously to generate electricity while DT chants
    over the phone, "Faster! Faster!"?

    Well like I said it wasn't a call I fielded. But one would really
    expect that the head of a county or major city IT department would know
    that computers won't work in a power outage.

    One I did have to field was when a client (one of the half dozen largest
    cities on the US Pacific coast) called to report their system wasn't responding. Normally we dealt with the dispatch shift supervisor or a
    senior dispatcher but when I contacted the client the person who
    answered identified themselves as the chief of police. Who wanted to
    know why it was that as soon as one of HIS officers had been shot MY
    system had ground to a halt. I finished connecting to their system and
    quickly found that the volume of network traffic the incident was
    generating because everyone in the department who was awake or had been
    woken up for this (it was 2am on a Sunday morning) was following the
    incident "live" was more traffic than their network could handle. Since
    I couldn't install a WAN with higher capacity over the phone I gave him
    some suggestions to work around the problem and told him I would have
    our hardware people contact his department ASAP Monday morning.

    Found out on Monday during our weekly debriefs of afterhours tech
    support calls that this client had NOT upgraded their WAN to the specs
    we had informed them when we installed their system would be needed in
    the event of an incident like that.

    I never had such fun experiences. It was always the usual nonsense;
    program crashes with error (but never bother to read what the error
    message said), or problems caused by malware, or dead hardware.
    Usually the worst was when the user fucked himself (who needs c:\windows\system32 anyway?) but it was all pretty ordinary in its
    stupidity.

    Although I did get blamed for somehow not making it so the software
    would still run on computers could resist having hot coffee spilled
    all over them.


    --
    I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
    dirty old man.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Zaghadka@21:1/5 to Spalls Hurgenson on Sun Nov 3 16:33:32 2024
    On Sun, 03 Nov 2024 10:39:13 -0500, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,
    Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

    I never had such fun experiences. It was always the usual nonsense;
    program crashes with error (but never bother to read what the error
    message said), or problems caused by malware, or dead hardware.
    Usually the worst was when the user fucked himself (who needs >c:\windows\system32 anyway?) but it was all pretty ordinary in its
    stupidity.

    I think my most memorable support experience was a woman in accounting
    (or was it HR?) who was complaining that her column of numbers, from a
    database import, wasn't summing in Excel. I banged my head against the
    wall for 10-15 minutes trying the usual stuff until it occured to me to
    ask her to click the column header and check the "Format..." dialogue.
    Sure enough, the entire column was formatted as "text." (*facepalm*)

    YOU CAN'T SUM STRINGS.

    To this day, I don't know if it was the import software or PEBKAC.

    My boss said, "I never would have thought of that."

    --
    Zag

    No one ever said on their deathbed, 'Gee, I wish I had
    spent more time alone with my computer.' ~Dan(i) Bunten

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Dimensional Traveler@21:1/5 to Zaghadka on Sun Nov 3 16:27:15 2024
    On 11/3/2024 2:33 PM, Zaghadka wrote:
    On Sun, 03 Nov 2024 10:39:13 -0500, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,
    Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

    I never had such fun experiences. It was always the usual nonsense;
    program crashes with error (but never bother to read what the error
    message said), or problems caused by malware, or dead hardware.
    Usually the worst was when the user fucked himself (who needs
    c:\windows\system32 anyway?) but it was all pretty ordinary in its
    stupidity.

    I think my most memorable support experience was a woman in accounting
    (or was it HR?) who was complaining that her column of numbers, from a database import, wasn't summing in Excel. I banged my head against the
    wall for 10-15 minutes trying the usual stuff until it occured to me to
    ask her to click the column header and check the "Format..." dialogue.
    Sure enough, the entire column was formatted as "text." (*facepalm*)

    YOU CAN'T SUM STRINGS.

    To this day, I don't know if it was the import software or PEBKAC.

    My boss said, "I never would have thought of that."

    When in doubt its PEBKAC. That said Excel can be very difficult to use sometimes. It simply has too _much_ functionality, it can do so many
    things that 99.9% of users would never even think of using let alone
    actually try. So sometimes it makes it difficult to use the simple
    everyday functions.

    --
    I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
    dirty old man.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From JAB@21:1/5 to Justisaur on Sun Nov 10 11:59:58 2024
    On 02/11/2024 05:13, Justisaur wrote:
    On 10/30/2024 2:33 AM, JAB wrote:
    On 29/10/2024 16:16, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

    Remember "Speedball"? You probably don't.

         [Then again, this being Usenet and that most of us
          are old fogies, maybe you do]

    Speedball was a sci-fi action/sports game released in the late 80s
    developed by the Bitmap Brothers. Although it came to DOS computers,
    it was most popular on Amiga (it also saw ports to the 8-bit consoles
    of the time). It got a sequel a few years later, but after that the
    franchise languished. IIRC, there were a couple of HD remakes in the
    early 2000s but other than that? Nothing.

    It just got a brand new remake released to Steam today.

    It actually looks quite good, for what it is. The game itself is an
    odd futuristic mix of American football, basketball and soccer (e.g.
    real football ;-), and is more action-game than sports title. I'll
    admit, I don't actually _care_ for the game, but a part of me is
    intrigued by the release. Partly because of its history, partly
    because it seems a stealth release (by Rebellion Games, of all people)
    and partly because if I _were_ going to play a sports title, it
    probably would be this one.

    Anyway, if you're one of the oddballs who remembers the original,
    maybe take a look.


    That was one of my favourite games on the Atari ST and it really did
    have the feel of actually playing in the arcade. The Bitmap Brothers
    also did Xenon which I put down as one of the best top scrolling
    shooters and still entirely enjoyable now.

    I might pick up Speedball as it sounds great for getting a bit more
    use out of my Steam controller.


    Oh yeah, I remember this game quite well! Just like you I played it in
    the arcade on occasion and had it on the ST as well.

    Added to my wishlist!


    I can't say I remember playing it in the arcades but by then my visits
    to them where in decline. I did play Xenon when I visited the computer
    museum in Cambridge though!

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Mike S.@21:1/5 to All on Mon Nov 4 09:27:07 2024
    On Sun, 03 Nov 2024 16:33:32 -0600, Zaghadka <zaghadka@hotmail.com>
    wrote:

    I think my most memorable support experience was a woman in accounting
    (or was it HR?) who was complaining that her column of numbers, from a >database import, wasn't summing in Excel. I banged my head against the
    wall for 10-15 minutes trying the usual stuff until it occured to me to
    ask her to click the column header and check the "Format..." dialogue.
    Sure enough, the entire column was formatted as "text." (*facepalm*)

    No joke Zag, I figured this one out while reading your post. Checking
    the formatting is the first thing I would look at if numbers aren't
    summing in Excel.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Mike S.@21:1/5 to spallshurgenson@gmail.com on Mon Nov 4 12:39:20 2024
    On Mon, 04 Nov 2024 10:34:44 -0500, Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:

    But if you really want to bitch about tech support, I just got one
    word for you. But be prepared: it's a very, very scary word.


    PRINTERS.

    I honestly can not think of a single type of computer related hardware
    I have ever used that has given me more trouble then ink jet printers.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Zaghadka@21:1/5 to Spalls Hurgenson on Mon Nov 4 11:46:15 2024
    On Mon, 04 Nov 2024 10:34:44 -0500, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,
    Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

    [snip]
    But if you really want to bitch about tech support, I just got one
    word for you. But be prepared: it's a very, very scary word.


    PRINTERS.

    My boss a few days ago: "You're a techie, right? Figure out how to run a cleaning cycle on that printer."

    Me: "Those white lines on the page aren't a cleaning problem, they're a
    fuser problem. You probably need to order a new printer because it's
    almost as expensive to replace a fuser. You know what a fuser is, right?"

    Boss: "Yes. I guess we're ordering a new printer."

    And that's someone who has a clue of what's going on.

    The biggest problem with printer support is the people who use them, most
    of whom can't even resolve a simple paper jam.

    --
    Zag

    No one ever said on their deathbed, 'Gee, I wish I had
    spent more time alone with my computer.' ~Dan(i) Bunten

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From vallor@21:1/5 to Spalls Hurgenson on Tue Nov 5 09:32:10 2024
    On Mon, 04 Nov 2024 10:34:44 -0500, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

    On Sun, 3 Nov 2024 16:27:15 -0800, Dimensional Traveler
    <dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:

    On 11/3/2024 2:33 PM, Zaghadka wrote:
    On Sun, 03 Nov 2024 10:39:13 -0500, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,
    Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

    I never had such fun experiences. It was always the usual nonsense;
    program crashes with error (but never bother to read what the error
    message said), or problems caused by malware, or dead hardware.
    Usually the worst was when the user fucked himself (who needs
    c:\windows\system32 anyway?) but it was all pretty ordinary in its
    stupidity.

    I think my most memorable support experience was a woman in accounting
    (or was it HR?) who was complaining that her column of numbers, from a
    database import, wasn't summing in Excel. I banged my head against the
    wall for 10-15 minutes trying the usual stuff until it occured to me
    to ask her to click the column header and check the "Format..."
    dialogue. Sure enough, the entire column was formatted as "text."
    (*facepalm*)

    YOU CAN'T SUM STRINGS.

    To this day, I don't know if it was the import software or PEBKAC.

    My boss said, "I never would have thought of that."

    When in doubt its PEBKAC. That said Excel can be very difficult to use >>sometimes. It simply has too _much_ functionality, it can do so many >>things that 99.9% of users would never even think of using let alone >>actually try. So sometimes it makes it difficult to use the simple >>everyday functions.

    It's not just that it has so much functionality, it's that Microsoft
    made it so easy (comparatively) to use that even a high-school intern
    can create a script that (mostly) does what it needs to. And then those hacked-together scripts -after years of use- suddenly become essential business logic.

    [It's sort of the business equivalent of XKCD's dependency
    meme (https://xkcd.com/2347/) except nobody actually maintains the
    project or even has any idea its there. And there are a lot more of
    them than the one]

    Eventually, one of these scripts breaks and nobody has any idea how the
    data it output was created (because nobody remembers the script, or
    whose Excel spreadsheet runs it) and when you do find it, nobody knows exactly what it's doing or why.

    And that's even before you get into the fact that waaaaay too many
    business "databases" are just oversized lists in Excel...

    But if you really want to bitch about tech support, I just got one word
    for you. But be prepared: it's a very, very scary word.


    PRINTERS.

    Aaaah! Halloween is over! ;)

    Seriously, though -- that's mainly a Windows problem. Printing
    is fairly pain-free on Linux and Apple, thanks to CUPS. Just check
    the compatibility matrix, and make sure you have a printer that announces itself with Bonjour/Avahi/Zeroconf/Aloha/whatever it's called now.

    Scanners, now. That can be challenging. I bought a wifi scanner
    without first checking for SANE support, and discovered I can only
    scan from it with USB. (Not _that_ big a deal because it replaces
    another USB scanner, but I was hoping for the wifi.)

    --
    -Scott System76 Thelio Mega v1.1 x86_64 NVIDIA RTX 3090 Ti
    OS: Linux 6.11.6 Release: Mint 21.3 Mem: 258G
    "Clones are people two."

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Zaghadka@21:1/5 to Spalls Hurgenson on Tue Nov 5 12:25:53 2024
    On Tue, 05 Nov 2024 10:53:29 -0500, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,
    Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

    And all that before you get into the OEM shenanigins, like DRM on ink >cartridges, or forcing you to buy a whole new tray of cartridges if
    you're just out of black, or nonsense like HP's attempt at ink
    subscription plans.

    Buy a Brother. Anything. Problem solved.

    --
    Zag

    No one ever said on their deathbed, 'Gee, I wish I had
    spent more time alone with my computer.' ~Dan(i) Bunten

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Dimensional Traveler@21:1/5 to Spalls Hurgenson on Tue Nov 5 18:18:45 2024
    On 11/5/2024 7:53 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
    On Tue, 5 Nov 2024 09:32:10 -0000 (UTC), vallor <vallor@cultnix.org>
    wrote:

    On Mon, 04 Nov 2024 10:34:44 -0500, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

    On Sun, 3 Nov 2024 16:27:15 -0800, Dimensional Traveler
    <dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:

    On 11/3/2024 2:33 PM, Zaghadka wrote:
    On Sun, 03 Nov 2024 10:39:13 -0500, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action, >>>>> Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

    I never had such fun experiences. It was always the usual nonsense; >>>>>> program crashes with error (but never bother to read what the error >>>>>> message said), or problems caused by malware, or dead hardware.
    Usually the worst was when the user fucked himself (who needs
    c:\windows\system32 anyway?) but it was all pretty ordinary in its >>>>>> stupidity.

    I think my most memorable support experience was a woman in accounting >>>>> (or was it HR?) who was complaining that her column of numbers, from a >>>>> database import, wasn't summing in Excel. I banged my head against the >>>>> wall for 10-15 minutes trying the usual stuff until it occured to me >>>>> to ask her to click the column header and check the "Format..."
    dialogue. Sure enough, the entire column was formatted as "text."
    (*facepalm*)

    YOU CAN'T SUM STRINGS.

    To this day, I don't know if it was the import software or PEBKAC.

    My boss said, "I never would have thought of that."

    When in doubt its PEBKAC. That said Excel can be very difficult to use >>>> sometimes. It simply has too _much_ functionality, it can do so many
    things that 99.9% of users would never even think of using let alone
    actually try. So sometimes it makes it difficult to use the simple
    everyday functions.

    It's not just that it has so much functionality, it's that Microsoft
    made it so easy (comparatively) to use that even a high-school intern
    can create a script that (mostly) does what it needs to. And then those
    hacked-together scripts -after years of use- suddenly become essential
    business logic.

    [It's sort of the business equivalent of XKCD's dependency
    meme (https://xkcd.com/2347/) except nobody actually maintains the >>> project or even has any idea its there. And there are a lot more of >>> them than the one]

    Eventually, one of these scripts breaks and nobody has any idea how the
    data it output was created (because nobody remembers the script, or
    whose Excel spreadsheet runs it) and when you do find it, nobody knows
    exactly what it's doing or why.

    And that's even before you get into the fact that waaaaay too many
    business "databases" are just oversized lists in Excel...

    But if you really want to bitch about tech support, I just got one word
    for you. But be prepared: it's a very, very scary word.


    PRINTERS.

    Aaaah! Halloween is over! ;)

    Seriously, though -- that's mainly a Windows problem. Printing
    is fairly pain-free on Linux and Apple, thanks to CUPS. Just check
    the compatibility matrix, and make sure you have a printer that announces
    itself with Bonjour/Avahi/Zeroconf/Aloha/whatever it's called now.

    It's not just Windows. Modern printer hardware is absolute shit.
    They're cheaply made and all those thin-plastic bits can break just
    looking at it.

    But I think even blaming Windows isn't entirely fair. The default
    drivers that come with Windows are usually fine. It's when you install
    the bullshit OEM drivers (you know, the ones that now weigh in at
    gigabytes) that you really start seeing problems. Of course, these
    drivers are almost always Windows-only, so Windows gets the blame.

    And all that before you get into the OEM shenanigins, like DRM on ink cartridges, or forcing you to buy a whole new tray of cartridges if
    you're just out of black, or nonsense like HP's attempt at ink
    subscription plans.


    Scanners, now. That can be challenging. I bought a wifi scanner
    without first checking for SANE support, and discovered I can only
    scan from it with USB. (Not _that_ big a deal because it replaces
    another USB scanner, but I was hoping for the wifi.)

    Too many printers these days -especially to SOHO customers- are multi-function scanner/printer/fax machines, so often you'll have the
    fun of printers and scanner problems all in one machine!

    Oh, you do NOT want me to get into all the functions our office
    "copiers" have. Scanner/printer/fax is just the _start_.

    --
    I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
    dirty old man.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Ant@21:1/5 to Dimensional Traveler on Wed Nov 6 02:41:01 2024
    Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:
    On 11/5/2024 10:25 AM, Zaghadka wrote:
    On Tue, 05 Nov 2024 10:53:29 -0500, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,
    Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

    And all that before you get into the OEM shenanigins, like DRM on ink
    cartridges, or forcing you to buy a whole new tray of cartridges if
    you're just out of black, or nonsense like HP's attempt at ink
    subscription plans.

    Buy a Brother. Anything. Problem solved.

    Older brother or younger brother? :P

    Ink or laser brother? ;)
    --
    "The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor." --Matthew 11:5. Pls vote in https://antsqualityforagedlinks.blogspot.com/2024/10/its-time-to-vote-
    again.html 4 its USA's election. Crazy NFL game last nite with unstoppable Chiefs.
    Note: A fixed width font (Courier, Monospace, etc.) is required to see this signature correctly.
    /\___/\ Ant(Dude) @ http://aqfl.net & http://antfarm.home.dhs.org.
    / /\ /\ \ Please nuke ANT if replying by e-mail.
    | |o o| |
    \ _ /
    ( )

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Dimensional Traveler@21:1/5 to Zaghadka on Tue Nov 5 18:19:09 2024
    On 11/5/2024 10:25 AM, Zaghadka wrote:
    On Tue, 05 Nov 2024 10:53:29 -0500, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,
    Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

    And all that before you get into the OEM shenanigins, like DRM on ink
    cartridges, or forcing you to buy a whole new tray of cartridges if
    you're just out of black, or nonsense like HP's attempt at ink
    subscription plans.

    Buy a Brother. Anything. Problem solved.

    Older brother or younger brother? :P

    --
    I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
    dirty old man.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From JAB@21:1/5 to Justisaur on Wed Nov 6 10:35:31 2024
    On 06/11/2024 03:27, Justisaur wrote:
    On 11/5/2024 10:25 AM, Zaghadka wrote:
    On Tue, 05 Nov 2024 10:53:29 -0500, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,
    Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

    And all that before you get into the OEM shenanigins, like DRM on ink
    cartridges, or forcing you to buy a whole new tray of cartridges if
    you're just out of black, or nonsense like HP's attempt at ink
    subscription plans.

    Buy a Brother. Anything. Problem solved.


    Unfortunately I have a hell of a time getting my brother laser printer
    to work.  I've got an HP that works fine, but it wants to install a
    extra software to 'keep you safe from non-genuine cartridges' now.


    A friend had something similar when their HP printer (I think). It just wouldn't work and the issue was solved by creating an account and
    downloading the app.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Dimensional Traveler@21:1/5 to Ant on Wed Nov 6 07:22:10 2024
    On 11/5/2024 6:41 PM, Ant wrote:
    Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:
    On 11/5/2024 10:25 AM, Zaghadka wrote:
    On Tue, 05 Nov 2024 10:53:29 -0500, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,
    Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

    And all that before you get into the OEM shenanigins, like DRM on ink
    cartridges, or forcing you to buy a whole new tray of cartridges if
    you're just out of black, or nonsense like HP's attempt at ink
    subscription plans.

    Buy a Brother. Anything. Problem solved.

    Older brother or younger brother? :P

    Ink or laser brother? ;)

    Either one can blind you.

    --
    I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
    dirty old man.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Dimensional Traveler@21:1/5 to Ant on Wed Nov 6 07:25:17 2024
    On 11/5/2024 6:41 PM, Ant wrote:
    Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:
    On 11/5/2024 7:53 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
    On Tue, 5 Nov 2024 09:32:10 -0000 (UTC), vallor <vallor@cultnix.org>
    wrote:

    On Mon, 04 Nov 2024 10:34:44 -0500, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

    On Sun, 3 Nov 2024 16:27:15 -0800, Dimensional Traveler
    <dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:

    On 11/3/2024 2:33 PM, Zaghadka wrote:
    On Sun, 03 Nov 2024 10:39:13 -0500, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action, >>>>>>> Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

    I never had such fun experiences. It was always the usual nonsense; >>>>>>>> program crashes with error (but never bother to read what the error >>>>>>>> message said), or problems caused by malware, or dead hardware. >>>>>>>> Usually the worst was when the user fucked himself (who needs
    c:\windows\system32 anyway?) but it was all pretty ordinary in its >>>>>>>> stupidity.

    I think my most memorable support experience was a woman in accounting >>>>>>> (or was it HR?) who was complaining that her column of numbers, from a >>>>>>> database import, wasn't summing in Excel. I banged my head against the >>>>>>> wall for 10-15 minutes trying the usual stuff until it occured to me >>>>>>> to ask her to click the column header and check the "Format..."
    dialogue. Sure enough, the entire column was formatted as "text." >>>>>>> (*facepalm*)

    YOU CAN'T SUM STRINGS.

    To this day, I don't know if it was the import software or PEBKAC. >>>>>>>
    My boss said, "I never would have thought of that."

    When in doubt its PEBKAC. That said Excel can be very difficult to use >>>>>> sometimes. It simply has too _much_ functionality, it can do so many >>>>>> things that 99.9% of users would never even think of using let alone >>>>>> actually try. So sometimes it makes it difficult to use the simple >>>>>> everyday functions.

    It's not just that it has so much functionality, it's that Microsoft >>>>> made it so easy (comparatively) to use that even a high-school intern >>>>> can create a script that (mostly) does what it needs to. And then those >>>>> hacked-together scripts -after years of use- suddenly become essential >>>>> business logic.

    [It's sort of the business equivalent of XKCD's dependency
    meme (https://xkcd.com/2347/) except nobody actually maintains the >>>>> project or even has any idea its there. And there are a lot more of
    them than the one]

    Eventually, one of these scripts breaks and nobody has any idea how the >>>>> data it output was created (because nobody remembers the script, or
    whose Excel spreadsheet runs it) and when you do find it, nobody knows >>>>> exactly what it's doing or why.

    And that's even before you get into the fact that waaaaay too many
    business "databases" are just oversized lists in Excel...

    But if you really want to bitch about tech support, I just got one word >>>>> for you. But be prepared: it's a very, very scary word.


    PRINTERS.

    Aaaah! Halloween is over! ;)

    Seriously, though -- that's mainly a Windows problem. Printing
    is fairly pain-free on Linux and Apple, thanks to CUPS. Just check
    the compatibility matrix, and make sure you have a printer that announces >>>> itself with Bonjour/Avahi/Zeroconf/Aloha/whatever it's called now.

    It's not just Windows. Modern printer hardware is absolute shit.
    They're cheaply made and all those thin-plastic bits can break just
    looking at it.

    But I think even blaming Windows isn't entirely fair. The default
    drivers that come with Windows are usually fine. It's when you install
    the bullshit OEM drivers (you know, the ones that now weigh in at
    gigabytes) that you really start seeing problems. Of course, these
    drivers are almost always Windows-only, so Windows gets the blame.

    And all that before you get into the OEM shenanigins, like DRM on ink
    cartridges, or forcing you to buy a whole new tray of cartridges if
    you're just out of black, or nonsense like HP's attempt at ink
    subscription plans.


    Scanners, now. That can be challenging. I bought a wifi scanner
    without first checking for SANE support, and discovered I can only
    scan from it with USB. (Not _that_ big a deal because it replaces
    another USB scanner, but I was hoping for the wifi.)

    Too many printers these days -especially to SOHO customers- are
    multi-function scanner/printer/fax machines, so often you'll have the
    fun of printers and scanner problems all in one machine!

    Oh, you do NOT want me to get into all the functions our office
    "copiers" have. Scanner/printer/fax is just the _start_.

    It's annoying to have multiple devices though! Yes, still need fax. :(

    Its annoying to have to go thru four layers of menus just to make a copy
    of a single 8.5x11" page.

    --
    I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
    dirty old man.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Zaghadka@21:1/5 to Justisaur on Wed Nov 6 18:50:59 2024
    On Tue, 5 Nov 2024 19:27:51 -0800, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,
    Justisaur wrote:

    On 11/5/2024 10:25 AM, Zaghadka wrote:
    On Tue, 05 Nov 2024 10:53:29 -0500, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,
    Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

    And all that before you get into the OEM shenanigins, like DRM on ink
    cartridges, or forcing you to buy a whole new tray of cartridges if
    you're just out of black, or nonsense like HP's attempt at ink
    subscription plans.

    Buy a Brother. Anything. Problem solved.


    Unfortunately I have a hell of a time getting my brother laser printer
    to work. I've got an HP that works fine, but it wants to install a
    extra software to 'keep you safe from non-genuine cartridges' now.

    Windows fucked up its Brother native drivers years ago. Try downloading
    legit Brother drivers. It fixed my problems immediately.

    --
    Zag

    No one ever said on their deathbed, 'Gee, I wish I had
    spent more time alone with my computer.' ~Dan(i) Bunten

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Zaghadka@21:1/5 to Dimensional Traveler on Wed Nov 6 18:53:41 2024
    On Wed, 6 Nov 2024 07:25:17 -0800, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,
    Dimensional Traveler wrote:

    On 11/5/2024 6:41 PM, Ant wrote:
    It's annoying to have multiple devices though! Yes, still need fax. :(

    It annoys me that we still use fax, let alone navigating a multi-function device that can do it.

    Its annoying to have to go thru four layers of menus just to make a copy
    of a single 8.5x11" page.

    I'm pretty sure I have to go through four layers of menus to do almost
    anything I want to now, since I'm a power user and that is being
    discouraged through UI obfuscation.

    --
    Zag

    No one ever said on their deathbed, 'Gee, I wish I had
    spent more time alone with my computer.' ~Dan(i) Bunten

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Ant@21:1/5 to Dimensional Traveler on Thu Nov 7 02:44:10 2024
    Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:
    On 11/5/2024 6:41 PM, Ant wrote:
    Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:
    On 11/5/2024 10:25 AM, Zaghadka wrote:
    On Tue, 05 Nov 2024 10:53:29 -0500, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,
    Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

    And all that before you get into the OEM shenanigins, like DRM on ink >>>> cartridges, or forcing you to buy a whole new tray of cartridges if
    you're just out of black, or nonsense like HP's attempt at ink
    subscription plans.

    Buy a Brother. Anything. Problem solved.

    Older brother or younger brother? :P

    Ink or laser brother? ;)

    Either one can blind you.

    Blind?!
    --
    "And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him." --Hebrews 11:6. 4 yrs. again. :(
    Note: A fixed width font (Courier, Monospace, etc.) is required to see this signature correctly.
    /\___/\ Ant(Dude) @ http://aqfl.net & http://antfarm.home.dhs.org.
    / /\ /\ \ Please nuke ANT if replying by e-mail.
    | |o o| |
    \ _ /
    ( )

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Geeknix@21:1/5 to Spalls Hurgenson on Thu Oct 31 23:00:03 2024
    On 2024-10-29, Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:

    Remember "Speedball"? You probably don't.

    [Then again, this being Usenet and that most of us
    are old fogies, maybe you do]

    I remember Speedball, I loved it, probably because it was one of the few
    games I had on Amiga. My parents were never happy buying games so most
    of what I had was demo disks.

    So of course I played it a lot. One day my father wanted to take it to
    work to swap with another Amiga owner. I warned him not to take the disc
    on the pot lines, those massively magnetic pots would wipe the magnetic
    discs.

    Of course he didn't listen and the discs were useless. Spent the rest of
    my Amiga owning life, playing demos.

    But now I can relive being 12 again!

    --
    Don't be afraid of the deep...
    --[ bbs.bottomlessabyss.net | https | telnet=2023 ]--
    --[ /query geeknix on libera.chat | tilde.chat ]--

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From candycanearter07@21:1/5 to Ant on Fri Nov 8 00:00:04 2024
    Ant <ant@zimage.comANT> wrote at 02:44 this Thursday (GMT):
    Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:
    On 11/5/2024 6:41 PM, Ant wrote:
    Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:
    On 11/5/2024 10:25 AM, Zaghadka wrote:
    On Tue, 05 Nov 2024 10:53:29 -0500, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,
    Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

    And all that before you get into the OEM shenanigins, like DRM on ink >> >>>> cartridges, or forcing you to buy a whole new tray of cartridges if
    you're just out of black, or nonsense like HP's attempt at ink
    subscription plans.

    Buy a Brother. Anything. Problem solved.

    Older brother or younger brother? :P

    Ink or laser brother? ;)

    Either one can blind you.

    Blind?!


    Yeah, how are you using your printers if that's a concern??
    --
    user <candycane> is generated from /dev/urandom

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Geeknix@21:1/5 to Geeknix on Fri Nov 1 11:30:03 2024
    On 2024-10-31, Geeknix <usenet@apple.geeknix135.net> wrote:
    On 2024-10-29, Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:

    Remember "Speedball"? You probably don't.

    [Then again, this being Usenet and that most of us
    are old fogies, maybe you do]

    I remember Speedball, I loved it, probably because it was one of the few games I had on Amiga. My parents were never happy buying games so most
    of what I had was demo disks.

    So of course I played it a lot. One day my father wanted to take it to
    work to swap with another Amiga owner. I warned him not to take the disc
    on the pot lines, those massively magnetic pots would wipe the magnetic discs.

    I just re-read my message, pot lines is nothing to do with whacky bacci,
    he worked in an aluminium smelter plant with high mechanism.

    --
    Don't be afraid of the deep...
    --[ bbs.bottomlessabyss.net | https | telnet=2023 ]--
    --[ /query geeknix on libera.chat | tilde.chat ]--

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From =?UTF-8?B?U2FtdWVsIFPDtmRlcmJlcmc=?@21:1/5 to All on Fri Nov 1 11:36:43 2024
    On 29 Oct 2024 at 17:16:41 CET, "Spalls Hurgenson" <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:

    Remember "Speedball"? You probably don't.

    Yes! I played it on my Amiga!

    It always looked good, but they went for a full remake.

    Alright.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From JAB@21:1/5 to Geeknix on Fri Nov 1 11:41:02 2024
    On 31/10/2024 23:00, Geeknix wrote:
    On 2024-10-29, Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:

    Remember "Speedball"? You probably don't.

    [Then again, this being Usenet and that most of us
    are old fogies, maybe you do]

    I remember Speedball, I loved it, probably because it was one of the few games I had on Amiga. My parents were never happy buying games so most
    of what I had was demo disks.

    So of course I played it a lot. One day my father wanted to take it to
    work to swap with another Amiga owner. I warned him not to take the disc
    on the pot lines, those massively magnetic pots would wipe the magnetic discs.

    Of course he didn't listen and the discs were useless. Spent the rest of
    my Amiga owning life, playing demos.

    But now I can relive being 12 again!


    Where I used to work someone decided the best way to store the back-up
    tapes was to use their metal backs to 'stick' them to the back of the
    inside of the safe which was magnetic!

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From =?UTF-8?B?U2FtdWVsIFPDtmRlcmJlcmc=?@21:1/5 to All on Fri Nov 1 12:31:32 2024
    On 1 Nov 2024 at 12:36:43 CET, "Samuel Söderberg" <samuel@samuelsoderberg.se> wrote:

    On 29 Oct 2024 at 17:16:41 CET, "Spalls Hurgenson" <spallshurgenson@gmail.com>
    wrote:

    Remember "Speedball"? You probably don't.

    Yes! I played it on my Amiga!

    It always looked good, but they went for a full remake.

    Alright.

    PS.

    It is called a speedball if you mix cocaine and heroin.

    I always found that the cocaine overtook the heroin.

    I would rather have it be the other way around.

    :)

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Dimensional Traveler@21:1/5 to JAB on Fri Nov 1 08:06:08 2024
    On 11/1/2024 4:41 AM, JAB wrote:
    On 31/10/2024 23:00, Geeknix wrote:
    On 2024-10-29, Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:

    Remember "Speedball"? You probably don't.

         [Then again, this being Usenet and that most of us
          are old fogies, maybe you do]

    I remember Speedball, I loved it, probably because it was one of the few
    games I had on Amiga. My parents were never happy buying games so most
    of what I had was demo disks.

    So of course I played it a lot. One day my father wanted to take it to
    work to swap with another Amiga owner. I warned him not to take the disc
    on the pot lines, those massively magnetic pots would wipe the magnetic
    discs.

    Of course he didn't listen and the discs were useless. Spent the rest of
    my Amiga owning life, playing demos.

    But now I can relive being 12 again!


    Where I used to work someone decided the best way to store the back-up
    tapes was to use their metal backs to 'stick' them to the back of the
    inside of the safe which was magnetic!

    A real world tech support call from the days of floppies and no hard
    drives. Manager reports that he is always losing each day's work, it
    wouldn't be on the floppy when he put it in the computer the next day.
    IT tries for days to figure out what the problem is without success.
    Finally one of the techies literally spends an entire day watching the
    manager work, trying to see what is causing the problem. He finally
    discovers the cause when at the very end of the day the manager removes
    the floppy and sticks it to the side of his filing cabinet with a magnet.

    *rimshot*


    --
    I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
    dirty old man.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Anssi Saari@21:1/5 to Spalls Hurgenson on Fri Nov 15 13:15:10 2024
    Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> writes:

    The Bitmap Brothers had a string of hits, mostly on the Amiga and
    Atari ST. They were more successful in Europe, where the 8-bits
    reigned supreme while IBM/PC compatibles, Apple and consoles were
    second fiddle. "Speedball" (1 and 2), "Gods", "Cadaver", "Xenon" (1 &
    2), "Chaos Engine" (a.k.a. Soldier of Fortune), "Steel Soldiers" and
    "Z" were all extremely well-reviewed games.

    Oh, I remember Z, fondly. Pretty simplistic for a 1996 RTS when C&C had
    come out the previous year. In the tougher maps of Z you figured out
    pretty quick what unfair advantage of the computer you needed to remove
    first and if you managed that, the rest was just mop-up. Pretty hectic
    mop-up but still. Also some minor innovation on the genre, perhaps, like
    a smarter vehicle driver actually driving smarter.

    Gameplay was a lot faster paced than C&C. In fact, I think C&C had
    similar level of hectic action in C&C 3 in 2007.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Ant@21:1/5 to Anssi Saari on Fri Nov 15 16:05:22 2024
    Anssi Saari <anssi.saari@usenet.mail.kapsi.fi> wrote:
    Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> writes:

    The Bitmap Brothers had a string of hits, mostly on the Amiga and
    Atari ST. They were more successful in Europe, where the 8-bits
    reigned supreme while IBM/PC compatibles, Apple and consoles were
    second fiddle. "Speedball" (1 and 2), "Gods", "Cadaver", "Xenon" (1 &
    2), "Chaos Engine" (a.k.a. Soldier of Fortune), "Steel Soldiers" and
    "Z" were all extremely well-reviewed games.

    Oh, I remember Z, fondly. Pretty simplistic for a 1996 RTS when C&C had
    come out the previous year. In the tougher maps of Z you figured out
    pretty quick what unfair advantage of the computer you needed to remove
    first and if you managed that, the rest was just mop-up. Pretty hectic
    mop-up but still. Also some minor innovation on the genre, perhaps, like
    a smarter vehicle driver actually driving smarter.

    Gameplay was a lot faster paced than C&C. In fact, I think C&C had
    similar level of hectic action in C&C 3 in 2007.

    Z was OK. I prefer C&C (not #4) over Z.
    --
    "And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light." --2 Corinthians 11:14. Go away Devil, sins, etc. "Winter is coming!". Not a good Th, tech nite. TGIF?
    Note: A fixed width font (Courier, Monospace, etc.) is required to see this signature correctly.
    /\___/\ Ant(Dude) @ http://aqfl.net & http://antfarm.home.dhs.org.
    / /\ /\ \ Please nuke ANT if replying by e-mail.
    | |o o| |
    \ _ /
    ( )

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Ant@21:1/5 to Justisaur on Fri Nov 15 16:04:56 2024
    Justisaur <justisaur@gmail.com> wrote:
    On 11/10/2024 7:21 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
    On Sun, 10 Nov 2024 11:59:58 +0000, JAB <noway@nochance.com> wrote:

    On 02/11/2024 05:13, Justisaur wrote:
    On 10/30/2024 2:33 AM, JAB wrote:
    On 29/10/2024 16:16, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

    Remember "Speedball"? You probably don't.


    I can't say I remember playing it in the arcades but by then my visits
    to them where in decline. I did play Xenon when I visited the computer
    museum in Cambridge though!

    The Bitmap Brothers had a string of hits, mostly on the Amiga and
    Atari ST. They were more successful in Europe, where the 8-bits
    reigned supreme while IBM/PC compatibles, Apple and consoles were
    second fiddle. "Speedball" (1 and 2), "Gods", "Cadaver", "Xenon" (1 &
    2), "Chaos Engine" (a.k.a. Soldier of Fortune), "Steel Soldiers" and
    "Z" were all extremely well-reviewed games.

    Gods was a favorite of mine on the ST. One of my favorite platformers,
    which few I even liked.

    It had a rad theme song!
    --
    "And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light." --2 Corinthians 11:14. Go away Devil, sins, etc. "Winter is coming!". Not a good Th, tech nite. TGIF?
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    /\___/\ Ant(Dude) @ http://aqfl.net & http://antfarm.home.dhs.org.
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