SARA MENS of Architecture

Sunday, 26 May 2019

Berita Terkini Hari Ini, Kabar Akurat Terpercaya - Kompas.com

They're Back!

After their recent repulse, the rebels have regrouped, moved by the flank, and thrown a brigade over the river but Dominion forces are already on the scene.

I really need to work on the lighting in my room.

Taxes, yard work, household taxes, preparations for Huzzah, some local volunteer stuff, and....and....and suddenly I felt like I needed to play a simple, meaningless, solo game. Well I got it set up anyway. Might even be able to play on Wednesday before I get back to Huzzah preparations.

The Art Of Video Games: Metal Gear Solid

SPOILER ALERT: Plot details for Metal Gear Solid follow.

With the creation of the PlayStation, and the onset of three dimensional games, the question understandably arose if video games had the potential to be cinematic. Gaming, of course, is a visual medium, and further, a storytelling one. The only other comparable medium that gaming could turn into was film. Only movies carried While Nintendo certainly broke new ground in three-dimensional games with Super Mario 64, The Ocarina of Time, and Starfox, but they compared more with cartoons than with the stuff of movies. It is said that two games truly established the PlayStation, and proved, beyond any doubt, that this new medium of video games could adopt the aesthetic of a film. These were Final Fantasy VII and Metal Gear Solid. While Final Fantasy VII certainly represented a more realistic venture than the series had before witnessed, it couldn't compare to Metal Gear Solid, with its more human models, documentary footage, and an uncanny resemblance to action thrillers like Die Hard.

Metal Gear Solid is not the inaugural game in the series. Two previous Metal Gear games, adopted the tactics of stealth in armed compounds, with Solid Snake as the star, twice confronting the villain Big Boss. The games were innovators in the idea that you should win with strategy and sneak, not going in guns blazing. This carried over to the new game, but with power of 3D, hence the title: Solid. This, along with the technological power of the PlayStation, allowed for a complete overhaul of the series' platform, and with a wider audience to boot. For many gamers, Solid is their entry point into Kojima's monumental franchise.

MGS takes place on Shadow Moses Island where terrorists from the organization FOXHOUND have taken control of Metal Gear Rex, a mech that can launch nuclear missiles. You play Solid Snake a soldier who is tasked with infiltrating the base and keeping the terrorists from launching it, which could possibly spark nuclear war between the United States and Russia. Snake's original design was taken from Michael Biehn's Kyle Reese in The Terminator, though he later took inspiration from Kurt Russell's taciturn Snake Plissken in Escape From New York, adopting the beard and eyepatch in later entries. There's also something of John Rambo in him, a bandanna clad one-man-army. Yoji Shinkawa's rough and elemental character designs deserve credit here. Snake, though, comes into his own as of the great characters of video games. Like Eastwood's Man With No Name, he's a stoic warrior with a laconic sense of humor. Battle has almost consumed him body and soul, and he seems himself more as a weapon than human. Despite this, Snake isn't heartless. He treats his enemies honorably, and his friends, he learns to care for.

While inside, you meet allies from the eager young warrior Meryl to the otaku computer engineer Otacon. Meanwhile, your commlink keeps you in contact with the rest of your team, Colonel Campbell, who heads the operation, Master Miller, who trained you, Naomi Hunter, an agent who's wary of your morals, Nastasha, a weapons expert, and Mei Ling, who saves your game and annoys you with endless proverbs. Your commlink keeps the game from getting too lonely, adding fresh humanity to the gritty storyline. It is also important to the gameplay, as these individuals can give you advice when you're stuck with a boss or lost in an air vent.

On the surface, a game that focuses on hiding and sneaking sounds limited in gameplay terms, however, MGS provides an ever expanding array of freedom and options. You start off on Shadow Moses virtually naked, picking up various weapons and tools along the way. A lot like the Zelda games, you slowly build a wide arsenal that can be utilized for various circumstances. Chaff grenades can briefly put security cameras on the fritz, while stun grenades can stop those chasing you. The navigation goggles are useful for dark areas, particularly, the wolf cave, while the cigarette smoke can reveal hidden laser beams or calm you as you fire the sniper rifle. The game rewards you for searching out every nook and cranny, with useful and rare items like the gas mask, the thermogoggles, the mine detector, and the body armour. The atmosphere of the game always has you on edge, with cold steel, scurrying rats, and the frigid Alaskan snows. Of course, given how easy it is die, sneaking around guards is always better than fighting them. One of the funnier ways to do so is by hiding in a cardboard box.

The boss fights of MGS are among the best of any video game. Each one requires you to utilize a different strategy or fight with different weapons. It's never a simple case of mowing them down with a machine gun. Psycho Mantis utilizes a variety of psychic attacks whose patterns need to read in order to win. The most memorable part of that fight was having to switch the controller port in order to prevent him from reading your mind. Sniper Wolf can only be defeated from a distance with a sniper rifle, or if the snowfield, by Nikita missiles. Cyborg Ninja can only be brought down using fists, but stunned with the chaff grenade. When Liquid Snake takes control of a Hind helicopter, you have to track his movements and him out of the sky with Stinger missiles. In order to defeat these enemies, you have to master their styles. The bosses also have distinct, memorable personalities. Revolver Ocelot has an affinity for cowboys and showing off. Sniper Wolf relishes in the hunt and has a kinder side towards her dogs. The finale bosses, however, are always something to enjoy in this series: a one-on-one fight with a mech, this time Rex, followed by hand-to-hand combat with the antagonist, this time Liquid.

The plot of the MGS series is notoriously convoluted and difficult, with political conspiracy, constant betrayals, and fictional scientific breakthroughs, it can be quite a lot to take in between saves. So I suppose it would do best to focus on the two major themes: war and genetics. Many of the characters, hero and villain, are affected by the demands of battle. Meryl wants to be a soldier like Snake, but killing the enemy terrifies her, and she's made victim by both Psycho Mantis and Sniper Wolf. It doesn't take her long to see that battle isn't glorious, and best avoided. Otacon initially went into engineering to build mecha like those in anime, but finds himself aiding terrorists on the nuclear warheads. He starts off cowardly, and emotional, falling for Sniper Wolf, but her death and Snake's leadership push him to be a better, and stronger person. Sniper Wolf was a Kurd who was born and raised through the endless nightmare of conflict. So when she joined FOXHOUND, she did so as a sniper, detached from war as an observer. We learn soon after that she spared Meryl, still uneasy from seeing women and children die in war. It was at this point that I realized why Snake is so respectful towards the enemies he defeats. He knows that, under similar circumstances, he could've turned out the same way. Indeed, MGS recognizes that nuclear weapons aren't the cause of war, but an extension of our own human vices. Yet the less temptation there is, the better. The game ends with a sobering coda on the amount of nukes that still exist in the world.

Psycho Mantis tells Snake that what he finds most disgusting in human beings is their desire to procreate and spread their DNA. He sees this as a cause for war. Psycho Mantis didn't want to be tied to his DNA, so he killed his father and burned his whole village. Liquid Snake, Solid Snake's twin brother, resents his genes. The twin snakes are super soldiers who were cloned from the legendary warrior Big Boss. Liquid believes that his brother inherited the dominant genes, while he inherited only the recessive ones. We later learn from Ocelot that the reverse is actually true, and Liquid's failure was his own. Snake tells Mantis that a great man doesn't need to see into the future, he makes his own. Poisoned with FoxDie, Snake doesn't know how much longer he has left to live, but he knows living well is better than living long.

The Art Of Video Games

"The Art Of Video Games: Tetris."
http://sansuthecat.blogspot.com/2014/11/the-art-of-video-games-tetris-at-30.html

"The Art Of Video Games: Pac-Man."
http://sansuthecat.blogspot.com/2015/05/the-art-of-video-games-pac-man-at-35.html

"The Art Of Video Games: Super Mario Bros."
http://sansuthecat.blogspot.com/2015/06/the-art-of-video-games-super-mario-bros.html

"The Art Of Video Games: Super Smash Bros."
http://sansuthecat.blogspot.com/2015/06/the-art-of-video-games-super-smash-bros.html

"The Art Of Video Games: Final Fantasy VI."
http://sansuthecat.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-art-of-video-games-final-fantasy-vi.html

"The Art Of Video Games: Pokemon."
http://sansuthecat.blogspot.com/2016/05/the-art-of-video-games-pokemon.html

"The Art Of Video Games: The Legend Of Zelda."
http://sansuthecat.blogspot.com/2016/05/the-art-of-video-games-legend-of-zelda.html

"The Art Of Video Games: Final Fantasy IV."
http://sansuthecat.blogspot.com/2016/06/the-art-of-video-games-final-fantasy-iv.html

"The Art Of Video Games: Kingdom Hearts."
http://sansuthecat.blogspot.com/2016/06/the-art-of-video-games-kingdom-hearts.html

"The Art Of Video Games: Kingdom Hearts II."
http://sansuthecat.blogspot.com/2016/12/the-art-of-video-games-kingdom-hearts-ii.html

"The Art Of Video Games: The Last Of Us."
https://sansuthecat.blogspot.com/2017/06/the-art-of-video-games-last-of-us.html

"The Art Of Video Games: Persona 4."
https://sansuthecat.blogspot.com/2017/07/the-art-of-video-games-persona-4.html

"The Art Of Video Games: Danganronpa."
https://sansuthecat.blogspot.com/2017/07/the-art-of-video-games-danganronpa.html

"The Art Of Video Games: Final Fantasy VII."
https://sansuthecat.blogspot.com/2017/07/the-art-of-video-games-final-fantasy-vii.html

"The Art Of Video Games: Persona 3."
https://sansuthecat.blogspot.com/2017/08/the-art-of-video-games-persona-3.html

"The Art Of Video Games: Persona 5."
https://sansuthecat.blogspot.com/2017/12/the-art-of-video-games-persona-5.html
"The Art Of Video Games: Doki Doki Literature Club"
https://sansuthecat.blogspot.com/2018/05/the-art-of-video-games-doki-doki.html

Thursday, 23 May 2019

Apologies For Lapses In Posts - Resolutions! (Monday Musings 72)

It's been so very, very long since I last posted, so I want to apologize. This is a good time to review my New Year's Resolutions, and definitely one of them is to post weekly - which I was pretty consistent with last year.

The reasons are that I enjoy blogging, and it'll "force" me to think about pertinent topics to write about, which can also help with figuring out streaming topics.

Resolutions can be kept if we troubleshoot and remove foreseeable obstacles that can get in the way of resolutions.

The major obstacle with weekly postings, is not having a set schedule to sit down and write. As I'm not working on Mondays, it makes the most sense, after exercising, chores, and breakfast, to write my post on Mondays.

There's a possibility that I'll be working on Mondays, so the other free day I have is Friday, as the alternative option. I didn't know that Blogspot can automate the exact time to post, so Friday is a perfectly viable alternative.

My other resolution, I've been rather consistent, which is getting up as soon as the alarm clock rings, which I was never able to do since day 1, until recently.

I changed my alarm clock to an earlier time (from 7:00 AM to 6:30 AM) which will give me the time to exercise before work. I noticed my mind shuts down around 8 PM (I'm not a night owl), so why not go to bed earlier and get up earlier in the morning, during the hours where I truly enjoy activities?

Thanks to my Twitch buddy, who inspired me to pop out of bed as soon as the alarm clock rings, I've been more or less successful in doing so. He mentioned that he'd get up at 5:00 AM, exercise and do his chores, and has a couple of hours before he heads off to work to have fun. I was very motivated, because I would like to get everything out of the way as soon as possible, so the rest of the day, after work, I'll have free time until heading to bed!

I was surprised because last week, I actually exercised before work (the first time in decades), and today, despite not streaming, I also exercised!

In other words, I've been streaming in part because it forced me to exercise, but now I have internal motivation to exercise thanks to my Twitch friend! I very much enjoy streaming, but I now have more freedom to chose to stream or not (in the past, the major reason to stream is because it forces me to exercise). If I get burned out from streaming (which can very well happen), I won't feel guilt that I'm not taking care of my health.

In this way, I can truly evaluate Twitch streaming as a hobby I want to keep or not, and if I no longer enjoy it, I can leave streaming behind without feeling remorse.

What are your resolutions, and have you kept them? If you have, I'd love to hear about your troubleshooting.

The How of Happiness Review

15 Best Highest Paying URL Shortener Sites to Make Money Online 2019

CPMlink: CPMlink is one of the most legit URL shortener sites.You can sign up for free.It works like other shortener sites.You just have to shorten your link and paste that link into the internet.When someone will click on your link.
You will get some amount of that click.It pays around $5 for every 1000 views.They offer 10% commission as the referral program.You can withdraw your amount when it reaches $5.The payment is then sent to your PayPal, Payza or Skrill account daily after requesting it.
- The payout for 1000 views-$5
- Minimum payout-$5
- Referral commission-10%
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- Payment time-daily
Bc.vc: Bc.vc is another great URL Shortener Site. It provides you an opportunity to earn $4 to $10 per 1000 visits on your Shortened URL. The minimum withdrawal is $10, and the payment method used PayPal or Payoneer.
Payments are made automatically on every seven days for earnings higher than $10.00. It also runs a referral system wherein the rate of referral earning is 10%.
- The payout for 1000 views-$10
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Short.pe: Short.pe is one of the most trusted sites from our top 30 highest paying URL shorteners.It pays on time.intrusting thing is that same visitor can click on your shorten link multiple times.You can earn by sign up and shorten your long URL.You just have to paste that URL to somewhere.
You can paste it into your website, blog, or social media networking sites.They offer $5 for every 1000 views.You can also earn 20% referral commission from this site.Their minimum payout amount is only $1.You can withdraw from Paypal, Payza, and Payoneer.
- The payout for 1000 views-$5
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BIT-URL: It is a new URL shortener website.Its CPM rate is good.You can sign up for free and shorten your URL and that shortener URL can be paste on your websites, blogs or social media networking sites.bit-url.com pays $8.10 for 1000 views.
You can withdraw your amount when it reaches $3.bit-url.com offers 20% commission for your referral link.Payment methods are PayPal, Payza, Payeer, and Flexy etc.
- The payout for 1000 views-$8.10
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Linkbucks: Linkbucks is another best and one of the most popular sites for shortening URLs and earning money. It boasts of high Google Page Rank as well as very high Alexa rankings. Linkbucks is paying $0.5 to $7 per 1000 views, and it depends on country to country.
The minimum payout is $10, and payment method is PayPal. It also provides the opportunity of referral earnings wherein you can earn 20% commission for a lifetime. Linkbucks runs advertising programs as well.
- The payout for 1000 views-$3-9
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Linkrex.net: Linkrex.net is one of the new URL shortener sites.You can trust it.It is paying and is a legit site.It offers high CPM rate.You can earn money by sing up to linkrex and shorten your URL link and paste it anywhere.You can paste it in your website or blog.You can paste it into social media networking sites like facebook, twitter or google plus etc.
You will be paid whenever anyone will click on that shorten a link.You can earn more than $15 for 1000 views.You can withdraw your amount when it reaches $5.Another way of earning from this site is to refer other people.You can earn 25% as a referral commission.
- The payout for 1000 views-$14
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Cut-win: Cut-win is a new URL shortener website.It is paying at the time and you can trust it.You just have to sign up for an account and then you can shorten your URL and put that URL anywhere.You can paste it into your site, blog or even social media networking sites.It pays high CPM rate.
You can earn $10 for 1000 views.You can earn 22% commission through the referral system.The most important thing is that you can withdraw your amount when it reaches $1.
- The payout for 1000 views-$10
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Oke.io: Oke.io provides you an opportunity to earn money online by shortening URLs. Oke.io is a very friendly URL Shortener Service as it enables you to earn money by shortening and sharing URLs easily.
Oke.io can pay you anywhere from $5 to $10 for your US, UK, and Canada visitors, whereas for the rest of the world the CPM will not be less than $2. You can sign up by using your email. The minimum payout is $5, and the payment is made via PayPal.
- The payout for 1000 views-$7
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Shrinkearn.com: Shrinkearn.com is one of the best and most trusted sites from our 30 highest paying URL shortener list.It is also one of the old URL shortener sites.You just have to sign up in the shrinkearn.com website. Then you can shorten your URL and can put that URL to your website, blog or any other social networking sites.
Whenever any visitor will click your shortener URL link you will get some amount for that click.The payout rates from Shrinkearn.com is very high.You can earn $20 for 1000 views.Visitor has to stay only for 5 seconds on the publisher site and then can click on skip button to go to the requesting site.
- The payout for 1000 views- up to $20
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- Payment date-10th day of every month
Adf.ly: Adf.ly is the oldest and one of the most trusted URL Shortener Service for making money by shrinking your links. Adf.ly provides you an opportunity to earn up to $5 per 1000 views. However, the earnings depend upon the demographics of users who go on to click the shortened link by Adf.ly.
It offers a very comprehensive reporting system for tracking the performance of your each shortened URL. The minimum payout is kept low, and it is $5. It pays on 10th of every month. You can receive your earnings via PayPal, Payza, or AlertPay. Adf.ly also runs a referral program wherein you can earn a flat 20% commission for each referral for a lifetime.
Wi.cr: Wi.cr is also one of the 30 highest paying URL sites.You can earn through shortening links.When someone will click on your link.You will be paid.They offer $7 for 1000 views.Minimum payout is $5.
You can earn through its referral program.When someone will open the account through your link you will get 10% commission.Payment option is PayPal.
- Payout for 1000 views-$7
- Minimum payout-$5
- Referral commission-10%
- Payout method-Paypal
- Payout time-daily
Clk.sh: Clk.sh is a newly launched trusted link shortener network, it is a sister site of shrinkearn.com. I like ClkSh because it accepts multiple views from same visitors. If any one searching for Top and best url shortener service then i recommend this url shortener to our users. Clk.sh accepts advertisers and publishers from all over the world. It offers an opportunity to all its publishers to earn money and advertisers will get their targeted audience for cheapest rate. While writing ClkSh was offering up to $8 per 1000 visits and its minimum cpm rate is $1.4. Like Shrinkearn, Shorte.st url shorteners Clk.sh also offers some best features to all its users, including Good customer support, multiple views counting, decent cpm rates, good referral rate, multiple tools, quick payments etc. ClkSh offers 30% referral commission to its publishers. It uses 6 payment methods to all its users.
- Payout for 1000 Views: Upto $8
- Minimum Withdrawal: $5
- Referral Commission: 30%
- Payment Methods: PayPal, Payza, Skrill etc.
- Payment Time: Daily
Short.am: Short.am provides a big opportunity for earning money by shortening links. It is a rapidly growing URL Shortening Service. You simply need to sign up and start shrinking links. You can share the shortened links across the web, on your webpage, Twitter, Facebook, and more. Short.am provides detailed statistics and easy-to-use API.
It even provides add-ons and plugins so that you can monetize your WordPress site. The minimum payout is $5 before you will be paid. It pays users via PayPal or Payoneer. It has the best market payout rates, offering unparalleled revenue. Short.am also run a referral program wherein you can earn 20% extra commission for life.
LINK.TL: LINK.TL is one of the best and highest URL shortener website.It pays up to $16 for every 1000 views.You just have to sign up for free.You can earn by shortening your long URL into short and you can paste that URL into your website, blogs or social media networking sites, like facebook, twitter, and google plus etc.
One of the best thing about this site is its referral system.They offer 10% referral commission.You can withdraw your amount when it reaches $5.
- Payout for 1000 views-$16
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- Payment time-daily basis
Ouo.io: Ouo.io is one of the fastest growing URL Shortener Service. Its pretty domain name is helpful in generating more clicks than other URL Shortener Services, and so you get a good opportunity for earning more money out of your shortened link. Ouo.io comes with several advanced features as well as customization options.
With Ouo.io you can earn up to $8 per 1000 views. It also counts multiple views from same IP or person. With Ouo.io is becomes easy to earn money using its URL Shortener Service. The minimum payout is $5. Your earnings are automatically credited to your PayPal or Payoneer account on 1st or 15th of the month.
- Payout for every 1000 views-$5
- Minimum payout-$5
- Referral commission-20%
- Payout time-1st and 15th date of the month
- Payout options-PayPal and Payza

Game 327: Darkwood (1992)

Darkwood

United States
Published as shareware in 1992 for the Macintosh
Date Started: 15 May 2019

Date Finished: 16 May 2019

Total Hours: 4
Difficulty: Easy (2/5)
Final Rating: (to come later)
Ranking at time of posting: (to come later)

You are an orphan named Derek who wants to join the elite city guard of Darkwood, the safest city in the kingdom. Anyone who defeats the toughest creature in the arena will become Captain of the Guard. You start at Level 1 with no experience, a dagger, and 10 gold pieces. In front of you lies a town with a weapon shop, an armor shop, a magic shop, an inn, and an arena.

Starting the game. You click on buildings to enter them.

Because it's all you can afford, you buy some leather armor for 5 gold pieces before heading into the arena. You are offered battles against 20 creatures, listed in order of difficulty from a giant rat to a red dragon. You choose the giant rat. You defeat him in a few rounds of combat and get 10 gold pieces and 75 experience points. You rest up at the inn, and with your newfound wealth, you upgrade your weapon to a short sword. Back you go to the arena to face the next monster.

Over the next several hours, you kill successively harder monsters, buy successively better equipment, and level up. You can save at any time, so death is not permanent. Eventually, you make your way to the arena wielding a Sword +5 Holy Avenger and wearing Full Plate +4, and you defeat the red dragon. Then the game is over.

Battering away at an enemy.

As tempting as it is to go immediately to GIMLET and make this the shortest entry of all time, there are a few more things to talk about. The first is that I've played this game before, when it was new. Someone had loaded it onto one of the lab computers at my university, and I copied it to floppy disk and brought it home. (This would have been around 1993, in my only Mac-owning period.) The entire time I played, I assumed I was playing a prologue, and once I was named Captain of the Guard, the game would open up and I'd perform a bunch of quests in my new role. I couldn't believe that it was over when it was over.

Dad would be so proud.

I mis-remembered a few things about the game. I thought I remembered that you could only fight each creature once, but not only would this make for a 10-minute game, it would be impossible. You need to grind relentlessly against low-level creatures to survive and build wealth. The game doesn't really encourage you to test your limits. Even with reloading, if a goblin gives you 25 gold pieces and 110 experience points, and you can kill him 100% of the time (which you can after Level 2), what is your incentive to move up to a bugbear, which offers 40 gold pieces and 250 experience points but a 50% chance of death? Just fight the goblin twice. It only takes a few seconds.

You have to be careful not to be lured by the ghoul (400 gold, 500 experience) or the wight (500 gold, 700 experience). They can drain levels, so their rewards aren't worth it. If you can get to the point that you can defeat the troll, he's a reliably rewarding enemy, offering 1500 gold and 1800 experience. He's the third-to-last enemy, so he should be a lot harder, but something isn't programmed properly. He almost never hits you.

Grind all those experience points again? Or just reload?

I bought the best weapon and armor in the game, as well as a ring of protection +3, before purchasing any healing potions (easier just to reload than chug a 1000-gold-piece potion) or tomes. The tomes cost 2,000 gold pieces each and allow you to increase your dexterity and constitution to 18 and your strength to 18/100. (I don't think intelligence, wisdom, or charisma do anything. They can't be improved.) After that, the only things to spend money on are wands and potions.

Using a tome.

I made it to Level 8. It was taking too long to grind to Level 9. I found that the red dragon was unconquerable with melee weapons, even with a full stock of healing potions. But it was vulnerable to the lightning wand that you can buy in the magic shop. Four or five blasts and I was Captain of the Guard.

I don't want to accuse the author of anything, but our past experience with shareware titles makes me suspicious of the provenance of these graphics.

In a GIMLET, it earns:

2 points for the game world, featuring a basic backstory commensurate with the scope of the game.

1 point for character creation and development. There's no creation, and leveling doesn't seem to do much more than confer extra hit points.

0 points for no NPC interaction.

1 point for encounters and foes. The bestiary is Dungeons and Dragons standard, and the level-draining attacks of the undead are the only special attacks programmed in.

A few statistics help you determine what foe you'll want to defeat next.

1 point for magic and combat. Your options are only to attack, use an item, or surrender.

Using the Wand of Lightning in the final battle.

3 points for equipment. Only one weapon and armor slot, but the magic item selection is decent.

4 points for the economy. It lacks any complexity, but it remains relevant until the end.

2 points for a main quest.

2 points for graphics, sound, and interface. There are only a couple of sounds: hit, miss, and "you won!" Graphics are sparse enough that it might as well have been a text game. It's disappointing how all the monsters are represented by the same helmeted figure. I found the all-mouse interface annoying, as I do all all-mouse interfaces, but it was easy enough to determine what to click on.

2 points for gameplay. Too easy, too limited, and not replayable, it's at least short.

That gives us a final score of 18. It's about as minor as you can get and still qualify as an RPG at all. Author Robert Chancellor returned to the setting with Siege of Darkwood (1993), a light strategy game that he published through Pointware. Based in La Verne, California, Chancellor would later go on to work for Blizzard and Amazon Game Studios.

He sure got a lot of mileage out of that graphic.

What Darkwood does best is raise uncomfortable questions about what makes it a "lesser" RPG. Imagine that it is the menu town of something like a Gold Box game. Instead of leveling up and gaining wealth by fighting monsters in the arena in 30 seconds, you have to spend hours questing in dungeons, only to ultimately return to the city to spend your money and level up. What have all those extra hours gained you? Are they anything more than sound and fury? In stripping away the frills of typical, more elaborate RPGs, does Darkwood also strip illusions about the value of time spent playing those games? Can I honestly say that the endgame screen is less satisfying than a typical era title that takes 5 times as long but introduces no extra plot?

Those questions might be more worth thinking about if the combat in Darkwood were a bit more elaborate, a bit more tactical. I feel like if you're going to set your title entirely in the confines of an arena, combat needs to offer something more than clicking the icon of a sword until someone is dead. (Has any good RPG been set entirely in an arena? I'm open to the possibility.) Perhaps an action-oriented approach drawing upon the underlying attributes. Perhaps the ability to team up with other NPCs. As it is, Darkwood leaves me uncomfortable and unsatisfied. Perhaps I can pretend it's a prologue to Darklands.

****

I've removed Dragons Shard from the list after playing it for a while, then realizing that the shareware version caps character development at Level 5. This is my third half-hearted attempt to play a Bit Brothers game, all of which seem to feature the same engine. Until I can somehow obtain a full-featured copy of the game, I can't get far enough to bother writing about it.

Also gone is Mission: Thunderbolt, which it turns out is not really a 1992 game but a 1991 Macintosh release of a single mission of a mainframe game called Doomsday 2000 (1987). The game has been moved to re-consideration in its appropriate year.

An Ether Wargame

Today I "Hungout" at Rob's place 2,000 km away for a playtest of our Ambush scenario for Huzzah.

End Game. The ambushers will retire and the wagons will make it through.
Photo by Rob since I couldn't figure out how to do a screen capture on the new version of Google Hangouts.

We had a host of unrelated technical problems but we overcame them and managed a good play through and chat. We also tweaked the rules to help them run a little quicker and more decisively in aid of reaching a conclusion within out timeslot. The OB will also be tweaked a little.

One month to go!