Kravlor.com - Video Games

A Blast from the Past

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 18:40:13 -0600

Today, I ended up conquering an old DOS-based game that was among the first video games I ever played: Miner VGA.

There's nothing terribly special about it. By today's standards, it'd be awful. But on my cousin's shiny new 386 with 4 MB of RAM, it was one of the most fun things I had ever played, partially because it had a) color and b) sound. (The other 'landmark' game of this era for me? Wolfenstein 3D, of course!)

But, things have changed since 1989. (Ah, nostalgia!) The total awesomeness of this game, however, has not. Fortunately, one can use DosBox to emulate it perfectly. I would highly recommend anyone reading this to give it a shot!

This Can't Be a Good Thing (for my thumbs)

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 21:11:18 -0500

Capcom released Mega Man 9.

A stroll down memory lane -- via pure 8-bit Mega Man goodness. Jumpy blocks, cleverly placed pits -- and who can forget those pesky instant-death spikes?

WHO WILL SAVE DR. LIGHT FROM BEING FRAMED BY THE INFAMOUS DR. WILY? WHO??

This can't be good for my Ph.D. research. :)

The Realm of Thornwood is Safe Once Again...

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 21:37:50 -0500

... now that I have managed to vanquish Dark Sol in the upper lairs of the Labyrinth!

To the 99.5% of people who don't get that at first, my apologies. However, those who DO recognize the sheer awesomeness of the original Shining in the Darkness can appreciate the accomplishment.

It's too bad that the game came out seventeen years ago. It makes me feel old knowing that I was horrifically addicted to it back then, just as I was now. This time, though, I had more detailed maps -- if only because I made them myself. (It's too bad today's games don't make you do that. I thought it was always a fun challenge.)

Tinkering and NES Repair

Fri, 12 Aug 2005 09:47:00 -0500

My girlfriend's next-door neighbor was preparing to move out of his apartment and kindly offered Kristen a chance to scavenge stuff he was going to throw away before the rest of Madison did. I indirectly benefitted from this, as the fool was throwing away a NES!

Fortunately, Kristen just took the thing, along with games like Contra, and gave them to me!

Despite having the words "STILL WORKS!!" scrawled on it with a Sharpie, it does not in fact work -- the dreaded grey screen of death, or the blinking grey screens abound. I've experienced this phenomenon with my older NES system, and was able to have it corrected by some guys in the local used game store. This time, I'll do the repair myself, with help from The Nintendo Repair Shop. A $3.95 part, and I'm set to hack away! (Although still not as much as this guy did.)

Linux Gaming: Just Not There Yet

Sun, 26 Dec 2004 00:00:00 -0600

I'd like to think that I'm a relatively competent Linux geek. I can admit it by now. I even did my part to contribute and test out the forefront of Linux gaming, through a subscription to Transgaming, a company that specializes with a product that builds off the non-Windows-emulator WINE.

The verdict: we're not there yet. The final straw came for me when the much-advertised Half-Life 2 utterly failed to work out of the box as advertised. (Heck, they even came out with a special release of the software specifically for the game!

My opinion: emulation simply isn't going to work in the long run. We need games that run natively on Linux, period -- as sad as that makes me to write. I suppose my Windows partition can get dusted off to play the latest and greatest that I've gotten my hands on this season -- but from now on, my wallet is going to be voting for Linux-compatible games, such as Id's Doom 3.