"To hell with the handkerchief."
Computer
Steam Finally Broke Me
May 13th
I signed up for Steam.
I say that as if it’s a resignation, as if I’ve been trying to avoid it and just wasn’t strong enough to do so any longer.
That’s not really the case. I have no problem with Steam. In fact, I know very little about it, other than when I first looked into it, I knew two things:
1)It was intimidating as hell (I have no idea why, though, because it’s a very user-friendly site.)
2)I would damn myself to a life of poverty if I joined.
…
I hear they say you get used to eating cheap canned food for every meal…
And now, if you’re even remotely interested in games, I’m going to damn you, too, because it wasn’t just a lack of willpower that finally put my name in the Steam database – it was finding out that until May 24th, you can download Portal for free. (Click those words, it’s a link.)
Now some of you might be saying, WTF Dev, you don’t already have Portal? What kind of gamer are you claiming to be? Jesus.
I’m claiming to be the kind of gamer who doesn’t have or want an Xbox or Orange Box or, before now, a Steam account.
Rag on me More >
Dr. Jones!
Apr 13th
I love Indiana Jones. He is my hero. He has been since my dad put Raiders of the Lost Ark on for me when I was like, five. Shortly thereafter, I had watched the whole trilogy (as far as I’m concerned, the 4th one is simply a reunion movie), and then my dad got me the computer graphic adventure game Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
I only have images from the beginning of the game because I don’t have any save files throughout the game and I’ve got too many game reviews lined up to play this one through for a 100th time, so keep in mind that this looks like a First Impressions Review, but it is actually a Full Retro Review.
This graphic adventure was released in 1989 by LucasArts, then called LucasFilm Games. It was a companion to the release of the third movie of the series and it came out on a number of computer systems, all of which are now collecting dust on the shelf of some guy who’s collecting them – or trashed somewhere.
The game does a great job of closely following the movie without seeming redundant. The players get to involve themselves in Indy’s More >
Oh baby.
Dec 31st
What’s a flower without the sun? What’s a man without a purpose? What’s a Tablet PC without pressure sensitivity?
The answer is: not very much.
I’ve had no pressure sensitivity in any painting program since switching from Vista to Windows 7, and while I’ve believed this whole time that the switch was worth the sacrifice, I’ve always been a strong believer that technology should do exactly what I want it to exactly when I want.
And so I’ve been dissatisfied.
(AwkwardS can warn you not to get me started on my philosophy of dissatisfaction.)
Dissatisfied until now, anyway!
It’s a common problem and I finally just sat my butt down and said, okay internet, let’s do some research. I’ve tried to research it before, but I saw all the failed attempts and all the convoluted answers, and just quit.
But not this time. And here, internet surfers! I bring you the sacred scripture that has solved my problems.
Skim the first post to get the gist of things, but follow the second post – it’s cleaner and easier. I didn’t delete any drivers because Windows 7 was telling me I didn’t have any drivers to delete. So I just followed the steps after step 1 in the second post and More >
“The old man was trying to tell the future…”
Oct 25th
Beneath a Steel Sky is a great cyberpunk point-and-click adventure from 1994 by Revolution Software and Virgin Interactive Entertainment. It’s a British game that takes place in a future dystopian Australia starring Robert Foster who has an American English accent. Really, it’s pretty brilliant.
The game starts out with Foster sitting around a tribe fire with his community in The Gap, a kind of wasteland outside of civilization. The introduction was drawn by comic artist Dave Gibbons and it does a nice job of setting the atmosphere.
The old man that Foster looks up to as a father tries to warn of impending danger not two moments before a copter comes down and demands the tribe hand over the one “who doesn’t belong here,” which is Foster. One thing leads to the next, Foster’s in the copter, and before you know it, he’s an escapee in the city being hunted by security officers.
The city reaches so high that all you can see is a sky of steel, and it goes so deep that the goal of the game is actually to get to the bottom. At least, that’s the goal at first. As the story progresses, the objective changes from getting out More >
Whelp…
Oct 20th
I got my hp tablet back. All cleaned off. *Sigh* Now I just have to find my copy of Office 2007 to get my basic programs back. Like OneNote – my favorite image capturing program. *Siiiiiigh*
Oh yeah, and my Dell crashed last night. The hard drive is fine and intact but I can’t turn the thing on unless I shake it really hard, so I’ll be doing some surgery this week – the warranty for that computer has been out for like a year now.
On a lighter note, I now have 200 free gigs of space! Of course, I’m just going to fill it up with all the same garbage, but that’s what’s important to me, so shove it. :p
If it didn’t look ridiculous, all of these posts would be titled with a monster sound.
Oct 17th
I haven’t posted in a while. None of my circle has. Which is disappointing for all of us, I’m sure. I know I wish I had something to read while at work.*cough* Frozen and S.Awkward *cough*
I’ve got some old games to talk about once I get home and have the ability to post images. I have to admit, that’s been the biggest thing holding me back – I want to post, but I want pictures with what I post, but since losing my HP Tablet, I don’t have the best image capturing program now (I don’t really like printscreen), and I refuse to use just google images unless that’s the last thing I’m able to do (as was the case with Return to Zork), so then I end up just not posting.
Look at that beautiful run on sentence. That’s art, dear sirs and madams.
Cause, really, how boring are these posts without pictures? I think very.
Watching the kids the other night was a lot of fun. They did ask for my game and I did have an African tribe theme. I even made up a language with clicks of the tongue in it, so they had to meet a translator to More >
RAAAAH
Oct 12th
I am so jacked up on caffeine. The only thing I’ve consumed today is a watered down double shot of espresso loaded with sugar. I need to eat! I’m not hyperactive or anything from it, but I’ve got the jitters like woah and I’m really hungry.
So yesterday before work, I decided to have my computer run a system recovery program once more (I’d been trying for four days already) before I sent the little guy off to HP to get fixed. I get home, look down at my screen, and OH MY GOD MY FILES ARE ALL RIGHT THERE! I was so excited haha. I moved all my word documents over, came out to about 312 files, and opened one to find it was fine. I only have a trial version of the program I was using, which allows you to copy 4 directories over to a different hard drive, and really all I wanted were my documents, but I might try again tonight for my images/photos (which the program allows unlimited transfer of for free, regardless of the version).
In case you’re interested, the program is called ZAR, Zero Assumption Recovery. Full version is about $50, trial is free. I More >
This post does not get a title.
Oct 7th
You know what movie I really want to watch right now? An American Tail. That was a great movie. I think I’m going to watch it when I get home today and have to wait around for my dishwasher to be repaired. (I have good luck with electronics this week…)
Speaking of which, there’s slightly more hope in recovering data off my hard drive. Couldn’t get anything last night because Frozen thinks it’s my processor that’s fried. So while I can’t into anything, it’s all still there (hopefully). We actually saw all my files through dos last night. Just couldn’t do anything with them.
So today I’ll be running out, after An American Tail and dishwasher repair, to see if I can get an external hard drive case to fit my HP hard drive and hook it up to my Dell to read everything. I hope it works. I’ve felt so out of sorts ever since that blank black screen first appeared. Depressed, even, as if a friend is gone.
But anyway. You know what’s my absolute thing right now? Fullmetal Alchemist. I looove the show (the original, I haven’t seen Brotherhood yet. I want to finish the manga first), and the manga More >
It’s okay, HP Tablet. We’ll make it through this.
Oct 6th
(If you came here from google, go to this post here to see how I got my files back. I don’t know if my platters were warped or if it was the processor or what, but I got what I needed back and maybe this can help you. In short, look up ZAR: Zero Assumption Recovery. The free trial got me back all my documents and pictures, and if I had more time, I might have gotten more. Good luck!)
It’s gone. All gone. Bye bye.
Last night, right around midnight, my computer sputtered out and tried-oh-so-hard, but failed to start back up. After a three hour conversation with ridiculously incompetent HP customer care employees (one guy, after every single question I asked, even something as simple as “how do I start up in safe mode?” said, “Um, let me go ask…” And finally I just said to him, why don’t you just let me ask the guy you’re asking these questions), I was told my hard disk was gone for good. “No, even our recovery team can’t get the data back,” they told me.
I don’t know if I believe this, though. After a little bit of research, I found a number of people More >
openCanvas 1.1
Oct 2nd
I wish I could draw really well. I can do alright if I try hard enough, but I wish it came easy and that I could just sit down and sketch up some characters and they’d look fantastic. I see such good work online and I just keep thinking “Jesus, how’d you get that good?” And people will have in their comments section for an amazing piece: ‘oh, I doodled this up in about 20 mins.’
I want to be that good!
Anyway, while sitting here enviously admiring one piece, I saw that the artist said they used openCanvas to draw it. Now, I know it’s not the tools that make the artist, it’s the artist that makes use of whatever tools they have, but I looked the program up and found a freeware version, and it’s pretty neat. It’s not Photoshop, but it has it’s own benefits that Photoshop lacks. I particularly like the feel of the paintbrush and how naturally things seem to blend. Maybe I’m just a fool with Photoshop, but I never really got the same feel with their paintbrushes.
If you’re interested in trying it out yourself, I found it at this forum. Much thanks to KainNero for More >
