to demonstrate the difference between painted and scanned (and auto-dithered) art, versus digitally painted art using dpaint, here are two screenshots from Gateway
left: painted with traditional media, scanned in and retouched at 256 colours. note the completely uniform dithering
right: painted in deluxepaint in 256 colours. note the careful manual dithers around the edges of the lilypads
#retroGaming #dosgaming
another example of the achingly beautiful art of frederik pohl's Gateway
several different artists worked on the backgrounds for the game. some backgrounds, like this one, were painted directly in deluxe paint. others were painted using traditional media, and then scanned in and auto-dithered to 256 colours.
#retroGaming #dosGaming
sometimes you have no choice but to drive 300km to a boondocks antique store to rescue a bunch of abandoned dos games 😍
#dosgaming #bigboxgames #RetroGaming
@[email protected] agreed - the soundtrack even got a remaster a few years ago
https://dreamweb-remastered.bandcamp.com/album/dreamweb-the-soundtrack-remastered-side-a
Dreamweb is full of these ten second bespoke animations that breathe so much life into the world.
#dosgaming #adventuregames #retrogaming
20 years ago i stumbled upon a "top dog" entry on Home of the Underdogs in the adventure section
part point and click adventure, part american gothic themed thriller, and part horror story; i've never found a comfortable label for it.
all these years have passed, and i'm still mesmerized by how unique the game is. some of david dew's bespoke animations still reign among the best i've ever seen in a 2d game.
it's still hard to imagine this entire experience was crafted by only three people.
here are a couple of minutes of the intro and gameplay from creative reality's DreamWeb (1994)
#dosgaming #retroGaming
i can't believe this is a real thing, and this is the first time i've ever heard about it
Seal: Magic Eye is an adventure-RPG for MS-DOS
Soft-World, a korean RPG and adventure game publisher/developer, did an amazing job of cloning Ultima VII's style, interface, sprites and tiles
it's cloned down to the smallest detail: the "journer onward" on the title screen, the pixel palette rotation effect during the load screen, and even the wonky isometric-ish projection.
it plays more like the SNES/SFC port of Ultima VII: The Black Gate - interactivity is stripped away, and it's mostly point and click dialogue.
the fact that this exists at all is incredible. now, whenever someone asks, "is there a game like Ultima VII?" i finally can say, yes!
sadly, it has no mobygames entry. work for a fellow software archivist who can translate, some day.
credit to /u/petrifiedpigs for pointing this game out
source: https://www.reddit.com/r/Ultima/comments/1gdufp3/games_similar_to_to_the_black_gate/
#ultima #dosgaming #msdos #retroGaming
after lusting for a copy of andré lamothe's Black Art of 3d Game Programming for years, i finally found an affordable copy
it does not disappoint. one of the fatal flaws of 95% of 3d game programming books is that they jump straight into mathematical proofs, instead of explaining in human terms how concepts are relevant to making a game. lamothe's programming concepts are clear, easy to understand, and provide real-world examples before diving into code
to my delight, the book doesn't limit itself to just 3d. it covers every conceivable topic for building a game engine from scratch in MS-DOS - and includes some great chapters on FM and wavetable synthesis!
#programming #c #retroGaming
@[email protected] 😆 that's the one i was most excited about too. i've had a GH FFIX for ages that i've been dying to replace
i haven’t found good PS1 games in the wild in nearly 20 years
today i scored for $3 each!
#retrogaming #playstation #psx
time for some obscure game preservation history
back in the 80s, Distinctive Software was known for some of their heavy hitters like Hardball, the 4D Sports series, and Test Drive. (at the time, i had no idea they were a canadian studio based out of burnaby, BC.)
in 1990, DSI was bought by EA and became EA Canada, relegated to defecating EA Sports sequels for eternity.
last week, i noticed a weird EA sticker on a copy of Ultima VI that i'd never seen before. curiosity got the better of me, and i bought it just to find out the sticker was about.
as it turns out, this copy of Ultima VI sat in DSI's physical library for years. these libraries existed to let developers play their own company's (and often the competition's) games, use them as references, etc.
when EA bought DSI, EA suddenly owned all of their assets, and - interestingly - their company's internal software library. the DSI label got an EA library logo stickered over it. There's even a referencing number for whatever internal library referencing system EA/DSI used.
wish we had some photos of EA's library in the 90s. i bet it was pretty massive.
#gamePreservation #history #canada #ultima
i am in love with the cover art on al sweigart's python game programming book
it was switched out with some more corporate art a year later.
#programming
herb and the heart breakers
edit: how did i know
HOW did i know
"Herbert Schildt is an American computing author, programmer and musician... He was also a founding member of the progressive rock band Starcastle."
😎
#programming
two weeks ago i posed what i thought would be a rather straightforward historical research question, which went unanswered. i wondered: what did the people of the middle ages (peasants, villagers, blacksmiths, monks, abbots, knights, etc) think of technological change in their time? was it seen as a boon for replacing manual labour? a threat to everyday craftspeople and craftsmanship? a new evil at odds with moral duty to god?
just cobbling together a reading list to begin answering the question was itself a week's worth of work. finally, today i began finding direct answers to the question in Frances and Joseph Gies' "Cathedral, Forge and Waterwheel: Technology and Invention in the Middle Ages."
while everyday people like serfs and peasants beliefs are not covered due to a lack of historical records, its early chapters provide some insight from the medieval monastic orders. the answer? the various churches were openly ambivalent, but *not* openly opposed to technological change and invention.
Why did the churches not openly embrace technologies?
... for many years monastic orders like the Benedictines and Cistercians saw manual labour as critical for self-sufficiency and spiritual development. When technologies that allowed for reduced manual labour became available, monastic orders began questioning their potential value in relation to their relation to God.
Why did monastic theologians not openly reject technologies that would relieve them of physical burdens?
... because most of these orders retained an old Greek suspicion and distaste for what Aristotle called "banaustic arts" (or utilitarian arts like crafting and manual labour. These were seen as important for living, but a distraction from intellectual life. Technology's promise was that it could relieve a monk from the banaustic realities of carpentry and millwork and stonemasonry, and let them practice prayer and writing and intellectual pursuits without time/energy-consuming distractions.
A picture of the middle ages is beginning to emerge that is not unlike our own in modernity: technology was seen in relation to its potential for reducing labour. what is different between then and now is that a person's relationship with God was at stake in the middle ages. few today believe that manual labour "keeps us honest".
in other words: technology in the middle ages was understood as both spiritual and instrumental
in 25+ years of retro gaming and sierra, i've never once seen someone mention Hoyle's Book of Games
despite its small stature, it was one of the most financially lucrative sierra titles, and spawned an entire series of games.
what makes it special is that opponents are (for the most part) characters from sierra titles, each playing in a style expressive of the character's personality. graham and rosella are friendly and not overly competitive, larry is silly and aggressive with his cards.
the dog? the dog is a real shithead.
#sierraOnline #retroGaming
@[email protected] i somehow managed to mentally block out that it got a sequel until i saw the guy's pic of it this evening.
i took phantasmagoria instead. it's hard to imagine that being a lesser evil to anything, and yet, here we are
@[email protected] it’s freaky finding sealed games that are 30 years old