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Videogames

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Videogames

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Tasks

@Nathan Wailes: Write an article you can post to gamasutra proposing that gaming sites get revenue by being paid as consultants while the developers are making the game.
@Nathan Wailes: Write an article about how game reviews need to evolve. I think a Netflix-style recommendation system with Amazon-style reviews would probably be better. I think Steam already kind of does that. But I'm not sure how well it handles new releases.

Games I want to play through next

  • Background:

    • If you have limited gaming time, I think it’s maybe more fun to stick with a single game at a time so you maintain the muscle-memory of how to play. I also think it may be most-fun to just do one scenario per day.

    • I’m not sure how I want to handle games or series that have huge amounts of content. A common problem I have with games is knowing when I’ve basically seen everything and should move on.

  • List:

    1. Sims

      1. Land

        1. Tank

          1. iM1A2 (1997) - https://www.myabandonware.com/game/im1a2-abrams-dl4

          2. Steel Beasts Pro PE

      2. Naval

        1. Surface

          1. Destroyer Command (2002)

            1. https://www.myabandonware.com/game/destroyer-command-e7j

          2. Task Force 1942

        2. Submarine

          1. Aces of the Deep

      3. Air

        1. A-10 Tank Killer (1989, Amiga)

        2. Falcon 1 / MC / 3.0 / 4.0 / BMS

        3. ATC

          1. Air Command 3.0

    2. Tactical:

      1. Scourge of War (active)

      2. Jane’s Fleet Command (active)

      3. Radio Commander

      4. Radio General

      5. Full Spectrum Warrior

      6. Graviteam Tactics

      7. Combat Mission

      8. Ultimate General series (Gettysburg → Civil War → ?)

      9. Close Combat series

      10. Armored Brigade series

      11. Battle Group Commander

      12. Naval

        1. Red Storm Rising (1988)

      13. RTSes:

        1. Regiments - single-player only, apparently the most accessible of the three, units are represented as platoons vs single units

        2. WARNO - more complex than Regiments, has multiplayer, the spiritual successor to Wargame (it’s by the same devs)

        3. Steel Division 2 - less accessible than WARNO

        4. Wargame: Red Dragon - the least accessible(?)

    3. Operational:

      1. Unity of Command

      2. Command Ops 2

      3. John Tiller’s Panzer Campaigns

      4. Patriot (1993)

      5. WEGO World War II

      6. Gary Grigsby’s War in the East

    4. Strategic:

      1. Strategic Command: Civil War

      2. Crusader Kings Complete

      3. Victoria: Revolutions

      4. Total War series

        1. Shogun: Total War

        2. Medieval: Total War

      5. Grand Tactician: The Civil War

      6. AGEOD games

        1. Civil War 2

        2. Birth of America 2

    5. Other:

      1. Darklands

    6. Super-categories:

      1. Rally-The-Troops.com games

      2. John Tiller games

My thoughts on misc videogame-related topics

Why are so many videogames about war / shooting / fighting?

  • Most sorts of diversion in men, children, and other animals, are in imitation of fighting. - Jonathan Swift

  • I think it's an instinct in people and animals to enjoy games that are really just practice for fighting.

What I like and dislike about videogames (in general)

What I like

  • ...

What I dislike

  • Not being able to easily take the actions I want to take in the game.

    • I find this to be a big problem in games where I'm controlling lots of units, where I feel like I should be able to just "tell" the units what to do, but instead I need to navigate annoying menus.

      • Ex: OFP / Arma, Total War, Combat Mission

      • I suspect that this problem will go away once voice recognition / interpretation becomes really, really good.

    • This can also be a problem when trying to play an FPS with a controller rather than with a keyboard and mouse.

    • I found this to be a problem in Rocket League, where I couldn't do things that would be easy in real life (like "pass to that guy over there").

  • An unpleasant learning curve / progression (I guess another way of putting it is "the game is too hard").

    • Examples:

      • TIS-100 puzzles that feel too hard.

  • Boring gameplay (aka "the game is too easy"?)

  • A lack of feeling of reward when I achieve something.

    • I like the end-mission screens in Hotline Miami.

    • IIRC Knights doesn't have much special that happens when you solve a puzzle.

  • Bad and/or repetitive music

    • I suspect getting sick of a game's music may actually make me not want to play the game anymore, even if I don't consciously realize it's the music making me feel that way.  I'll just be considering what to play, think about the game in question, have a gross feeling in my stomach, and decide to play something else.  I suspect that gross feeling in my stomach may sometimes be caused solely by the game's bad, repetitive music.

Visualizing abstract depictions of military units

  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmwIDC-VNac - This is a great visualization of what an Armored Brigade Combat Team actually looks like, both if you had it in a field but also when it’s moving through real terrain via roads.

  • TODO:

    • CMx1 squads

    • different NATO counters

    • different NATO force-size indicators

    • Civil War units (regiments, etc.)

Platforms

DOSBox

  • To launch a game, drag the game's EXE onto a DOSBox shortcut.

  • To create custom DOSBox settings for a game:

    1. Copy a shortcut to DOSBox into the game's folder.

    2. Create an empty dosbox.conf text file in the folder.

    3. add -conf "full-path\to\dosbox.conf" to the DOSBox shortcut.

    4. To launch the game, drag the game's EXE file onto the modified DOSBox shortcut.

  • Custom settings I used for ATAC:



    • [cpu] cycles = fixed 10000 # use this to get the framerate of the game higher [sdl] fullscreen=true # Sets the game to switch into fullscreen mode immediately. fullresolution=desktop # I don't understand what this does. #fulldouble=true output=overlay windowresolution=1440x1080 # Sets the resolution when the game is running in windowed mode [render] aspect=true scaler=none



  • Issues I'm having:

    • I can't get ATAC to have crisp graphics in fullscreen mode, even though it looks right in windowed mode at the same resolution.

Windows

  • One thing to keep in mind with PCs is upgradability: after a few years you may want to buy a new graphics card, more RAM, etc.  If you buy a laptop or a PC that's custom-built to be small, you may not be able to do any upgrades.

Windows 98 SE

PCem emulation

Key things to remember

  • Ctrl+Alt+PgDown to make it fullscreen or get out of fullscreen.

  • Ctrl+End to have your mouse no longer captured by the VM.

  • To move files to the VM you need to:

    1. shut down the VM

    2. mount the HDD.vhd file as a drive

      1. Open Disk management. In the search box on the taskbar, enter Computer Management, and select Disk Management.

      2. On the Action menu, select Attach VHD.

      3. After the Attach Virtual Hard Disk dialog box opens, select the Browse button, and find your .vhd file.

      4. Now that you've selected the .vhd file, you return to the Attach Virtual Hard Disk dialog box. Select OK.

    3. move the files to it

    4. eject it

    5. start the VM.

Desktops

Monitors

General info
What resolution to aim for
Screen tearing

  • Example

    • 2013.11.02 - YouTube - ViolentRumble - Battlefield 4 PC Gameplay Screen Tearing

      • In the comments:

        • @quadead freesync is just a variation of vsync, it does not have the same quality as gsync. freesync monitors can only prevent screen tearing in a limited fps range. gsync can prevent screen tearing at any frame rate

          so yea, he has an amd card, the best he can hope for is freesync, it wont solve the problem. the only 100% solution is an nvidia card + gsync

          @nogston a 244hz monitor does not prevent screen tearing unless it is gsync, because the problem is not the hz of the monitor, the problem is caused by the frame rates being out of sync with the monitor, which can happen at any hz of monitor

          vsync attempts to solve the problem by limiting the number of frames produced in an effort to minimize gpu stress. it doesnt always work, plus it limits your frame rates

          freesync attempts to solve the problem by locking your monitor at a lower than normal hz range while expecting you to vsync within that range, its a pretend solution that doesnt actually work any better than vsync does by itself since it only works within a limited range

          gsync (patent by nvidia) is exclusive in that its the only tech that allows your monitor to actually dynamically change hz to match current framerate output to always be in sync, thus gsync can fully prevent screen tearing at any frame rates

Comparison articles
Specific monitors
Monitor tests

Graphics cards

GeForce

Keyboards

Why use a mechanical keyboard?

  • My opinion

    • Things I don't like about mechanical keyboards

      • I don't like how high the keys are.

        • I like to rest my wrists on the keyboard or the desk to keep my arms from getting tired, and with mechanical keyboards that feels uncomfortable, like it's going to give me carpal tunnel syndrome.

      • I don't like how spaced out the keys are.

        • Your fingers need to travel further to type.

      • I don't like the gaps between the tops of the keys.

        • It makes it impossible to just run your fingers across the tops of the keys the way you can with a chiclet keyboard.

      • I don't like it when they make noise.

        • I find it distracting.

  • 2018.12.26 - Reddit - r/unpopularopinion - Mechanical keyboards are overrated

    • jmaman - For 99.9% of people they’re exactly the same as digital switch keyboards. The only time it matters is is if you’re playing a game which requires synchronization of movement and are at an elite enough level where milliseconds matter. A good example of this is high level CS:GO. Pros need the mechanical switches so their strafing is perfectly synced with their shooting for accuracy.

      • I don't know enough to say if he's correct or not, but it at least sounds plausible that professional twitch gamers could benefit from their keys having hair triggers.

Misc links

  • 2016.12.21 - YouTube - Leutin09 - 60FPS+ ARMA 3 Zeus PC - Build Overview

    • He got the parts for free, it would cost over $3000 (as of 2016.12) if he were to actually pay for it.

    • 2:49 - He says Arma 3 performance is most often hindered by the CPU rather than the GPU, and that Arma 3 is single-threaded, so you want to prioritize choosing a powerful single-threaded CPU.

Laptops

macOS

  • A timeline of different macOS releases.

  • How I'm getting MacOS 8.1 running on Windows so I can play old MacOS games like Hellcats Over the Pacific:

  • Dealing with sound issues in older games in Basilisk:

    • Information about the problem: 

      • https://www.emaculation.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5038

        • An explanation of the issue: Some games under Mac OS 8.x and up don't sound at all, because they use the Sound Driver in System 7.x or lower. In Mac OS 8.x and newer there's the Sound Manager, which is not 100% compatible with the old Sound Driver and the result is no sound in most older games.

          I read that this applies to Mac OS 8.x and up (I've seen several times topics like "no sound in game xxx under OS 8.x"), and that they only sound under system 7.x or lower depending on the game. If you try to play Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade without Drigo's patch under OS 8.x you won't hear any music (you'll hear the sounds, though). Games such as Vette!, Larry 1 (original version), 4D Boxing and Bill Elliot don't sound at all, though they are enabled on the game configuration.

        • A dev responds: There are no separate sound driver files in System 7.x or 8.x. Maybe different QuickTime versions make a difference? Else you may need to try downgrading your system to 7.5.5 or 7.6.1. Of the two, 7.6.1 is the more stable one, especially on PCI PowerMacs.

      • https://www.emaculation.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5641

        • I'm trying to get the game Chex Quest to work in BasiliskII. It works very well except in one area: sound.

          Its not working very well and in some cases, not at all. I saw two pieces of software in the README. They are Quicktime 2.0 and Sound Manager 3.1 (though they suggest getting 3.2 as soon as its available).

          I've been looking, and I dont see either of these softwares. Does anyone have them or links to them?

        • A dev responds: 

          QuickTime 2.1 is part of System 7.5.3, so any system 7.5.3 or later will have QuickTime 2.1 or later. (See in Extensions folder)

          Sound Manager is not always present as a separate extension. In 7.5.3 and later Sound Manager 3.2 is incorporated in System. Sound Manager 3.2.1 is incorporated in System in MacOS 8 (or 7.6?) and later. Sound Manager 3.2.1 may be installed in pre-OS 8 systems as a separate extension with QuickTime 2.5 if a previous separate extension Sound Manager happens to be present.

          Sound Manager 3.3 is installed with QuickTime 3, but isn't that version of Sound Manager PPC native?

      • https://www.emaculation.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5282&start=175

        • A dev: A "Sound" extension does not exist. Maybe adespoton refers to the "Sound Manager" extension. It was available in early System 7.5 versions and was removed in System 7.5.3. A later "Sound Manager" extension was again installed with QuickTime installations.

          Someone else replies: Yup; I believe that's the one needed for 7.1 sound in BII. From viewtopic.php?t=7890 installing Quicktime 2.5 in System 7.1 appears to install the correct extension. The installer is available from Macintosh Garden's quicktime-2 page.

    • Stuff I tried:

      • I installed Quicktime 2.5 on macOS 8.1.  It didn't seem to have any effect (sound still wasn't working in Hellcats).

PlayStation

Xbox

Nintendo

Troubleshooting

How to find good games

Individuals who are good at finding underappreciated gems

Reviewers

YouTubers

Lists of YouTuber reviewers

Let's Players showing initial impressions

Games

Advanced Tactics Gold

How to learn

Tutorial

Tutorial 1

  1. You win via Victory Points, which are assigned to cities.

  2. Troops are made by production centers and supplied by headquarter units.

  3. A town in your territory will have a black background if it has not been assigned to a HQ yet.

  4. Assign the town to your HQ by selecting the town, then select the button with a factory and “HQ” on it (fourth from the left on the line of buttons), then select your HQ unit.

  5. Next we need to produce troops by selecting the town and clicking the ‘production’ button. Set the production of this town to 20% supply and 80% ‘Rifle’ (infantry).

  6. End your turn.

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