codexarcanum
joined 8 months ago
Preservation, while perhaps idealistic, is about keeping every version that we can. Doom is a great example. Because Carmac released the source code, source ports have proliferated. That means anyone can play the original Doom on just about any machine. Varying degrees of accuracy to the original DOS release exist thanks to ports like Chocolate Doom, GZDoom, Eternity Engine, et al. As do varying degrees of accuracy to Doom 95, the Windows 95 rerelease. Or to the version running on Xbox packed in with Doom 3.
Ports cover the engine, but we also have an archive of all the doom.wad files, the contents. We have demo and prototype versions. The dos release. Officially patched versions. The win95 release. The Xbox release.
But a preservationist also wants the original Bethesda Unity release, wad and engine. The Kex release with the new engine and new episodes. Neither of those Bethesda engines needs to exist but why not keep them too? They're a part of the Doom legacy, an ongoing chapter in the endless story of Doom.
Its good that in this community we've gotten to preserve so much. It keeps the history of one of the most important video games alive and relevant. It keeps the game itself relevant. Without the original source release, there's no GZDoom and there's probably no Bethesda rereleases. The impact that source release had on the gaming community, gaming as an industry, modding and indie gaming, is incalculable.
That Crysis--also a landmark game in its own time--deserves any less is laughable. The original release of the game should always be present and available: as an artifact of its time, as a fine game in its own right, and as a piece of living history that can be stood up against its remakes, sequels, and the games it inspired.
"Aid seekers" is a damn strange way to spell "starving children"
So if sunlight hurts vampires, but moonlight doesn't (but moonlight is reflected sunlight) then does that mean the moon absorbs all holy light, and only reflects unholy light? Sunlight, we must assume, is composed of a random mix of all wavelengths and divinities of light. Therefore, can a vampire's reflection be seen if the vampire is illuminated by moonlight? Only if using a non-silver mirror? What about office fluorescent light, the most evil light of all?
I'll just put this with all the other fire.
Giant butterflies that hypnotize people and suck out their souls are a major element of China Mieville's "Perdido Street Station." Highly reccomended if you like fantasy.
Nostalgia marketing operates on roughly 20 to 30 year cycles, so we're dead center of 90s nostalgia. As the current decade wears on, there should be a gradual shift to 2000s era nostalgia (and another revival of the 80s, the most marketable decade). I can't say that looming war in the middle east doesn't give me those warm Bush 2 era vibes, though we are a bit early for it.
I hate how 90% of tech blogs posted on YC (or just posted, full stop) are ads for the author's business. We don't share knowledge anymore, we just propagandize and try to trick each other into vedor lock-in.
There is no place for Fascists within the Open Source and Free Software communities or the society at large. You will never fester your poisonous roots here. Go back to the cave you crawled out from where no sunlight can reach.
NAZI! DEVS! FUCK! OFF! 💯
Not that it's a cast iron level of this issue, but I knew a guy who paid for college (this woud have been about 10 years ago now) by purchasing scavenged and derelict boats, then chopping\melting the lead ballast out of them to resell as raw metal. Never underestimate the value of scrap metal or people's willingness to gather it up for money.
The author taking Camus' other advice, and imagining Sisyphus happy, then going farther, into realms of the fantastical, and imagining Camus happy too.