4 ms·

My interest in computing was fueled by the desire to automate games like Car Wars. Interestingly, now that hacking pretty much any of the data management and c

My interest in computing was fueled by the desire to automate games like Car Wars. Interestingly, now that hacking pretty much any of the data management and calculations is not a problem, the desire to sink into some complex game world is gone.

ourmandave 5y ago
For me it was to automate Ogre, which seems like a logical thing since it's supposed to be a machine. Of course, you can buy it today. https://store.steampowered.com/app/517780/Ogre/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/517780/Ogre/
- smitty1e 5y ago
  Neat. 25 years ago, on Civ II or III, I blew a gasket on an 18 hour game and haven't been able to play since. He said, proudly frittering away time on social media.
  - hkt 5y ago
    25 years ago would probably have been civ II. Source: I was playing it as a 7 year old and vividly remember learning that the UN was really a thing after building it in game.
    - mango7283 5y ago
      Civ II's wonder video for the UN still gives me chills today, it's the best, that soundtrack and imagery was just evocative. But I do wonder if they intended to be cynical with the ability, which is - ""peacekeeping" - allows a democracy to declare war 50% of the time" :). The game putting scare quotes around "peacekeeping" doesn't help, heh. (Normally a democracy in civ ii cannot declare/start a war, having the UN overrides that.)
      - hkt 5y ago
        Ha - as a kid I definitely didn't pick up on that. I just enjoyed collecting wonders and watching all the videos. The UN one was great. I loved the videos from Alpha Centauri too, another Sid Meier contribution. Wonderful games (pun very much intended).
        mango7283 5y ago
        Yeah it didn't concur to me either until I was rewatching them on YouTube a couple years back.:) Alpha Centauri was something special, they never did manage to recapture the magic with beyond earth.
gedy 5y ago
I did same, also using the C64 PETSCII graphics to draw the Car Wars vehicle sheets: https://i1.wp.com/geekdad.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Car-Wars-Vehicle-Sheet.jpg https://i1.wp.com/geekdad.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Car...
duxup 5y ago
I remember my friends playing D&D and I couldn’t get past the idea that “This is pretty much made for a computer…” I played to make them happy but I really just wanted to play it on a computer. When that started to materialize I was pleased.
- ecshafer 5y ago
  I will generalize D&D to all pen and paper role playing games. But you are right for a subset of them and wrong for a much larger subset of the games. There are people that play D&D more as a tactical wargame with a set story, and is basically just a game you would play on a computer (And those games exist!). But for many many other styles of games, the point is that you are using your imagination and flexibility to react to the story that no computer could do. Or alternatively there are many games that are more of a collaborative storytelling - improv game that may occasionally use dice. There is a very large spectrum of games.
  - Syonyk 5y ago
    > But for many many other styles of games, the point is that you are using your imagination and flexibility to react to the story that no computer could do. Or alternatively there are many games that are more of a collaborative storytelling - improv game that may occasionally use dice. There is a very large spectrum of games. Absolutely. The joy (occasionally frustration for the DMs, but a good DM will keep the guard rails working and keep the partly at least faintly on track) of a good campaign, especially more than a few sessions in, is that the characters start becoming more in depth, and you get the dynamics out of that you'd never see in a computer game. My barbarian is (still) upset with our rogue about the murder of a little halfling who was genuinely helping us out, and doesn't consider whatever excuses the rogue makes to be valid. And if you want to go completely off the rails, it's common enough to hear from the DM, "Well... OK. Roll for it." Usually nothing happens, sometimes something insane happens. There was a conflict between characters in a previous session about where a particular soul should be crammed, which was literally resolved by what amounted to a mage war. "I do this." "No you don't." "Yes. I do." "No." With a few other people contributing various bits and pieces. "Yes, I do!" "Nope, you have to reroll that die. I use my luck altering ring." etc. It can be far, far more than just combat rolls. I agree, if what you want out of D&D is pure combat, then a computer does it well, but... it still doesn't match the joy of doing it with other people. Having your piddling little gnome sorcerer who's a level or two behind make the final hit, with a 2hp roll. Again. And again. After everyone else has been dumping 20, 30hp attacks into this set of enemies. You can get the combat mechanics with a video game, but that has nothing on a group, around a table, with a couple beers, just having a ball. I've played D&D-type games with various levels of technology over the past few decades (ranging from heavily computer aided, with program based leveling and such, maps via projector, etc, down to pure paper, rulebook, and whiteboard-on-the table with rulers for movement). I honestly enjoy the lower tech ones more. The best blend I think I've played, which was largely due to the DM being excellent, was paper-based for the players ("You're responsible for leveling, here are the rules for it. You miss something, well, too bad. We'll see if we can work it in later."), with a TV set in a gaming table for maps. A bit of Gimp layer magic, and we had an absolutely amazing "fog of war" layer, where the DM could remove the black layer as we went around corners and such on the pre-made maps. It added some of the benefits of technology, while still keeping us bound to paper, pencils, and dice. On the other hand, we currently have an excellent DM who, as near as I can tell, loves being a DM substantially for the excuses to build bridges, towns, cities, and all sorts of other stuff in practical craftwork - think 2-3' square landscapes and such that something will play out on. We get brickwork carved into styrofoam, painted, detailed, etc. It's amazing, and it's physical in a way no computer game is. But I'm also a person who has spent his whole life in tech, and more and more hates what it's become. So there's that.
noir_lord 5y ago
That level of complexity still exists but in a different form, (modded) Arma3. That has a ridiculous level of depth and complexity that is hard to describe without playing it but hundreds of weapons, vehicles, equipment, a fully modded medical system (CPR, Airway Management), technically accurate radios with dozens of channels, ballistic system that accounts for wind/Coriolis effect). Insanely deep and yet still really good fun to play as a unit.

ourmandave 5y ago

For me it was to automate Ogre, which seems like a logical thing since it's supposed to be a machine. Of course, you can buy it today. https://store.steampowered.com/app/517780/Ogre/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/517780/Ogre/

smitty1e 5y ago
Neat. 25 years ago, on Civ II or III, I blew a gasket on an 18 hour game and haven't been able to play since. He said, proudly frittering away time on social media.
- hkt 5y ago
  25 years ago would probably have been civ II. Source: I was playing it as a 7 year old and vividly remember learning that the UN was really a thing after building it in game.
  - mango7283 5y ago
    Civ II's wonder video for the UN still gives me chills today, it's the best, that soundtrack and imagery was just evocative. But I do wonder if they intended to be cynical with the ability, which is - ""peacekeeping" - allows a democracy to declare war 50% of the time" :). The game putting scare quotes around "peacekeeping" doesn't help, heh. (Normally a democracy in civ ii cannot declare/start a war, having the UN overrides that.)
    - hkt 5y ago
      Ha - as a kid I definitely didn't pick up on that. I just enjoyed collecting wonders and watching all the videos. The UN one was great. I loved the videos from Alpha Centauri too, another Sid Meier contribution. Wonderful games (pun very much intended).
      - mango7283 5y ago
        Yeah it didn't concur to me either until I was rewatching them on YouTube a couple years back.:) Alpha Centauri was something special, they never did manage to recapture the magic with beyond earth.

gedy 5y ago

I did same, also using the C64 PETSCII graphics to draw the Car Wars vehicle sheets: https://i1.wp.com/geekdad.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Car-Wars-Vehicle-Sheet.jpg https://i1.wp.com/geekdad.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Car...

duxup 5y ago

I remember my friends playing D&D and I couldn’t get past the idea that “This is pretty much made for a computer…” I played to make them happy but I really just wanted to play it on a computer. When that started to materialize I was pleased.

ecshafer 5y ago
I will generalize D&D to all pen and paper role playing games. But you are right for a subset of them and wrong for a much larger subset of the games. There are people that play D&D more as a tactical wargame with a set story, and is basically just a game you would play on a computer (And those games exist!). But for many many other styles of games, the point is that you are using your imagination and flexibility to react to the story that no computer could do. Or alternatively there are many games that are more of a collaborative storytelling - improv game that may occasionally use dice. There is a very large spectrum of games.
- Syonyk 5y ago
  > But for many many other styles of games, the point is that you are using your imagination and flexibility to react to the story that no computer could do. Or alternatively there are many games that are more of a collaborative storytelling - improv game that may occasionally use dice. There is a very large spectrum of games. Absolutely. The joy (occasionally frustration for the DMs, but a good DM will keep the guard rails working and keep the partly at least faintly on track) of a good campaign, especially more than a few sessions in, is that the characters start becoming more in depth, and you get the dynamics out of that you'd never see in a computer game. My barbarian is (still) upset with our rogue about the murder of a little halfling who was genuinely helping us out, and doesn't consider whatever excuses the rogue makes to be valid. And if you want to go completely off the rails, it's common enough to hear from the DM, "Well... OK. Roll for it." Usually nothing happens, sometimes something insane happens. There was a conflict between characters in a previous session about where a particular soul should be crammed, which was literally resolved by what amounted to a mage war. "I do this." "No you don't." "Yes. I do." "No." With a few other people contributing various bits and pieces. "Yes, I do!" "Nope, you have to reroll that die. I use my luck altering ring." etc. It can be far, far more than just combat rolls. I agree, if what you want out of D&D is pure combat, then a computer does it well, but... it still doesn't match the joy of doing it with other people. Having your piddling little gnome sorcerer who's a level or two behind make the final hit, with a 2hp roll. Again. And again. After everyone else has been dumping 20, 30hp attacks into this set of enemies. You can get the combat mechanics with a video game, but that has nothing on a group, around a table, with a couple beers, just having a ball. I've played D&D-type games with various levels of technology over the past few decades (ranging from heavily computer aided, with program based leveling and such, maps via projector, etc, down to pure paper, rulebook, and whiteboard-on-the table with rulers for movement). I honestly enjoy the lower tech ones more. The best blend I think I've played, which was largely due to the DM being excellent, was paper-based for the players ("You're responsible for leveling, here are the rules for it. You miss something, well, too bad. We'll see if we can work it in later."), with a TV set in a gaming table for maps. A bit of Gimp layer magic, and we had an absolutely amazing "fog of war" layer, where the DM could remove the black layer as we went around corners and such on the pre-made maps. It added some of the benefits of technology, while still keeping us bound to paper, pencils, and dice. On the other hand, we currently have an excellent DM who, as near as I can tell, loves being a DM substantially for the excuses to build bridges, towns, cities, and all sorts of other stuff in practical craftwork - think 2-3' square landscapes and such that something will play out on. We get brickwork carved into styrofoam, painted, detailed, etc. It's amazing, and it's physical in a way no computer game is. But I'm also a person who has spent his whole life in tech, and more and more hates what it's become. So there's that.

noir_lord 5y ago

That level of complexity still exists but in a different form, (modded) Arma3. That has a ridiculous level of depth and complexity that is hard to describe without playing it but hundreds of weapons, vehicles, equipment, a fully modded medical system (CPR, Airway Management), technically accurate radios with dozens of channels, ballistic system that accounts for wind/Coriolis effect). Insanely deep and yet still really good fun to play as a unit.