__/ [ The Ghost In The Machine ] on Sunday 08 October 2006 08:00 \__
> I'm not sure Paul Mace will share in my amusement, but there's three
> different reactions in looking at this stuff. It's dated 1992,
> titled Screen Artists: Danger Hot Stuff! (A collection of PC Graphics)
>
> [1] Amusement. These are sorry-assed graphics by today's standards,
> if Joe Turner is any indication.
>
> [2] Amazement. These were state of the art in 1992?
>
> [3] Curiosity. I'll admit I wonder what his scripting language is;
> nowadays one would use Flash, although other alternatives can
> be used in a pinch (Tcl/Tk, for example).
>
> Another side note: the disk looks almost identical to Duke Nukem 3D,
> except that the latter is dated 1996 and has black spatters on it.
>
> The interesting part as far as this group is concerned: DOSBox can run
> it, although for some reason the sound is missing because of a config
> issue somewhere in ALSA. (It's having trouble opening port 65. I'd
> have to dig. Considering the graphics, there's probably not much point
> in actually listening to the sound, either.)
>
> The graphics start out with a dithered red background and
> a postcard from Tibet showing a monk in a light blue robe
> with gold trim, working slowly on a computer with a candle
> on top thereof. He gathers his junk mail...
>
> "The Intel Inboard 386/PC helps you work 10 times faster!"
>
> A spreadsheet demo comes up. Among the names, "Garfield
> the Cat". The first invocation is ...slow, with "Wait"
> changing size for emphasis. The second is...a lot faster.
> This stokes the monk. Some fine print is shown (rather
> quickly; this indicates a badly-programmed delay loop,
> apparently). Then the monk gets all worried as an
> hourglass drifts down a rope. He then contemplates
> (OMMMM) and a third eye appears on his forehead; the
> display then shifts to a display box and ends with a
> copyright statement.
>
> Ah, the wonders of EGA-era graphics back then. Or is this
> VGA? Back then, Clinton and Bush were going at it, and
> DOS was the dominant solution, or perhaps Windows 3.1 was.
>
> Again, absolutely amazing what has happened in 14 years.
>
> I've also got DeltaV to run. Apparently DOSBOX gives it more than
> enough memory to work properly. :-) Wheee...ancient stuff. Wonder how
> well XP handles DeltaV. (Smirk. It only requires 600K memory.
> *Conventional* memory.) Now off to figure out why sound is being
> brain-dead.
For old DOS games you can get reliable emulators that will also regulate the
speed. It's nice to have the same 'bridge' available for GNU/Linux in
non-binary form. And the same goes for gaming consoles and Palm applications
that you can no longer run on modern devices for whatever reason (backward
compatibility isn't perfect).
I still remember EGA. At the time, my perception said that there were two
classes (representative of prestige or value) to computers. There was CGA
(my first PC), EGA, and VGA. EGA had 8 colours IIRC while CGA had 4. And I
had a switch at the back of the monitor that allowed me to go into green
monochrome mode. Funky stuff, but it made the eyes hurt... *smile*
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