Posted 12/18/2008 at 10:44:30am

Nunc est bibendum!

I'd love to see Carmageddon redone.  That game kicked ass, but 320X240 8 bit graphics don't cut it. I've tried playing it on my laptopn(2.6 Ghz Athlon 64), but had to use Notebook Hardware Control to turn the processor down to 800 MHz before it would run right. I'd love to see the game done over again, with exactly the same gameplay and physics that the original had, but with better graphics.

Posted 12/12/2008 at 05:00:04pm

Nunc est bibendum!

 ;););););););)

Whoops, there goes the retirement fund...

Posted 12/10/2008 at 03:45:29pm

Nunc est bibendum!

Rather ironic that the Google thing is more up-to-date than the MPC PDF archives. Maybe MPC should hire the Google staff to keep their website up to date for them?

Kidding (with only a small hint of sincerity in my criticism) BTW. I do buy the magazine religiously - reading an electronic magazine on the internet is no replacement for reading a paper version on the crapper or in the bathtub, or any other time I don't feel like staring at a laptop screen. I do like the online version for being able to go back through old copies without actually finding those old copies. I have thousands of magazines here, including Maximum PC dating back to the Boot days and just about every car magazine printed since the mid 80's, so finding old articles can be a bit of a chore. I do wish other magazines would follow MPC's lead and put back issues online - it would make going back much easier. For instance it'd be easier to find the old late 90's Toyota ads touting the company's full range of SUV's (they actually called themselves "The full line SUV company") to show to people that think that the only car Toyota makes or has ever made is the Prius while $h1tt1ng on the domestics for forcing SUV's down everyone's throats...

Posted 09/04/2008 at 08:28:23pm

Nunc est bibendum!

I've always been of the opinion that a game should be fun above all else. That's why Carmageddon was and still is my all-time favourite game. The game had no real point except to kill as many people and fellow racers as you could, in the most creative ways you could think of doing it. Any racing game with a power up called "Pedestrian Electro Bastard Ray" has GOT to be fun. No impossible-to-achieve "Missions", no "follow the checkpoints or else". Just drive the car and kill people. It was almost impossible to die in the game (only if you ran out of time, but additional time was freely given). You could smash the holy bejeesus out of your car, put it in a lake, or whatever, and getting back on the road and damage free was a mere key stroke away. The fact that you could roam freely throughout the city was a big bonus (I hate playing Need For Speed, seeing something, and thinking "Gee, I'd like to hit that" only to be disappointed that I can't leave the track). I've played it so much I've opened every track and every car. Racing in the cop car is ridiculously easy - one smack and the other racers die. This opens up a whole new way of playing: Deliberately trying to avoid winning, so you could focus on killing pedestrians.  This meant avoiding the other racers, because even though you kill them with a mere touch they still hunt you down. I pray (in vain) for the day that somebody updates Carmageddon with modern grahics and physics but leaves the actual game play the hell alone. Carmageddon II and III sucked because they took the fun out of it. You could no longer kill with wanton abandon - you actually could be killed, and you actually had to do stuff like find checkpoints. No thanks.

 When I want to unwind by playing a game I don't want to be frustrated by it. I don't want to think about strategies. I don't want to race a clock. I don't want to memorize eleventy-two billion  shortcuts or key strokes. I don't want to think. Real life requires enough thinking, thankyouverymuch. I just want to kill things.

Posted 09/03/2008 at 03:01:51pm

Nunc est bibendum!

Funny, they complain of "market saturation", yet they ignore a potentially huge market just outside city limits as rural (and even some suburban) residents beg for a service nobody could be bothered offering them. Maybe now the "easy money" of urban high speed internet is gone they'll expand into other untapped markets...

Posted 08/28/2008 at 02:59:28pm

Nunc est bibendum!

I wonder how many minutes it'll be before the hackers overcome this latest stupidity, while in the meantime legitimate users encounter problems. Oh, wait, I'd bet they already have.

Anti-piracy measures do nothing to stop piracy, they just make it inconvenient for paying customers. Even though I've got legit Windows (OEM, came with the laptop) I've begun the switch to Ubuntu (running dual-boot, and going to the Windows side ever less frequently as I learn Ubuntu). Micro$haft will never get my money again.

Posted 08/19/2008 at 06:26:42pm

I live in rural Nova Scotia and until about 6 months ago I was suffering the internet on dialup because it was the only game in town (well, satellite was available, but after a brief trial period I decided it wasn't worth the $800 upfront cost plus $100/month for 1Mb/sec service that was actually more like 0.1Mb/sec). Now I've got fixed wireless. It's advertised at 2Mb/sec down and up, and speedtest.net consistently verifies it.

 Why do I mention this? Because even though it's expensive ($49.99/month) and not particularly reliable (but still 500X better than satellite), and even though it's only a mediocre speed, I'm happy to have it. 2Mb/sec seems like 100Mb/sec when you're used to a dialup connection that can only muster ~40kb/sec and ties up a phone line. I used to dread "patch Tuesday" because it'd almost be the next "patch Tuesday" before my dialup connection was finished downloading the updates. I do wish that cable would come through here, but given that it's 40 miles to the city that ain't likely to happen soon. My only hope is that wireless technology improves, something that is almost certain to happen...

 I do find it hard to believe that Canada would average better than the USA. You guys down there think the competition is bad, well in Canada it is pretty much non-existant. In each area there are but two choices: Phone company or cable company. I see the commercials on American TV all the time offering speeds we Canucks can only dream of for prices we can only drool over. FIOS? What's that? Not in Canada.

 It's even worse for cell phones. Bell, Telus or Rogers. That's about it. If you go with an alternative (such as Virgin) you're still riding the Big Three's towers.  Got a smart phone? Prepare to pay through the nose. An Apple iPhone ($299, Rogers) will require a data plan ($20/month for 6 GB data) on top of your normal cell plan (average for a typical person $35/month PLUS $8 system access fee PLUS $3 911 fee PLUS $5/month for caller ID). Because there is no competition all of the major carriers charge all of these extra fees. The minor carriers may not charge them, but offer reduced services (such as no roaming).

Posted 08/19/2008 at 06:03:59pm

I'll certainly be in the market for one when this Gateway monstrosity of a laptop I'm currently suffering finally craps out for good. I'm not a gamer, graphic artist or video editor, so I don't need horsepower. Gimme a screen of at least 1024 (and preferably 1200) pixels wide and a DVD player/burner, plus enough battery life to watch two DVD's, and I'll be happy. I made the "more is better" mistake when I bought this Gateway three years ago. I didn't stop to think that a 17" screen means a bulky, heavy brick, the AMD64 4000+ processor runs too hot and sucks too much juice, and the extra money I spent on the discreet ATI graphics was a complete waste. The most I ever ask in the way of gaming is old MAME arcade games. Somehow I don't think a game produced in 1982 would have much trouble running on any modern processor. 90% of my computing is surfing the web, 5% is word processing, 4% is making crude concept drawings using MS paint, and 1% is gaming, if you call Pac Man gaming.

 The screen in this thing is acting up (flickering whenever the machine is moved) and the battery life is getting dismal (45 minutes, tops). I could probably take it apart and fix the screen problem (likely a loose connection) and I'm sure I could get a new Chinese battery cheap enough on eBay, but doing so would strip me of a potential excuse to "downgrade" into something lighter and more suited to my needs (or lack thereof).