Games and emulators

[janestarz]

I've never been very good at moderating my game time. I guess that's the sole reason I've got RSI in my right arm. Of course the work at school and at my job didn't help, but if I had just quit the games, it would not have been this bad.

Luckily for some, Linux is not a very good game platform. There are a number of Linux games out there, and stuff like World of Goo actually does work, but most games refuse to run even under a Wine variety. The best games ever (which all depends on the programmer's point of view, of course) are remade for Linux, inspired people creating FreeDoom or PRboom (both a Doom 1 or 2 ripoff), Pioneers (Settlers), or the Bub Brothers (Bubble and Bobble).

I recently got Warcraft 2 to run under Wine, and now I've found the Wine App Database I could find tips on how to run games under Wine, which games worked and which didn't. Imagine my squee of glee when I figured out how to use Wine, mount an iso myself and managed to install something. I was on top of the world!
The Wine AppDB spoke of the Settlers 2 that it needed to run in a DosBox, since it was so old. Windoze 98 allowed this, but Windoze XP never made the Settlers 2 run for me. But lo and behold, we've got a DosEmulator, with the trippy catchphrase 'Dos in a Box', which tackles the Settlers 2 without a hitch.

So far, I've spent a gazillion hours on the game and I haven't been motivated to do anything else. This will stop soon. I could finish playing the campaign, but I'm only at the fifth level ("In the Wasteland") so that's not going to happen any time soon. I guess I'll just have to set a game night and pour all my game time into that one night. If we've got D&D on Tuesdays and I go to the gym on three nights, there's bound to be a night that will be game night!

On a comic note, I was in a game shop with Nathreee last Friday, and I really felt out of my league. Sure, I get a ten year old game to run in an emulator on a computer that's not supposed to be any fun, and here I was, thinking... what are all these bright things? Whats a dee-es-eye? And why are there three computers named PS?
I guess my parents seriously put a crimp in my education when they denied me the GameBoy and Nintendo 64 all those years ago. Let's hold that over their heads for a year or ten.

Now to get NoKey to agree we really need a wee. A Wii. Sorry.

Comments

[nathreee.livejournal.com]

My parents never got me a Nintendo either. (And by the way, the Nintendo 64 was not quite invented yet when you still lived with your parents.) It never stopped me from becoming a video-game-freak. But if you know you can't moderate your play time, it might be better to never start on games... They could really end up eating a lot of your time. And give you RSI all over again.

[manesni.livejournal.com]

you dont need a wii :P
mine's collecting dust unless I have friends over to play guitar hero with

[cabaray.livejournal.com]

What Manesni says,

first check out if there are games which you know you want to play. Because the experience of the Wii is very different from other games, because it asks a more intensive way of play. RSI on the other hand is less of a problem. It might even better your overall condition.

[janestarz.livejournal.com]

Between not having a tv and not reading up on mainstream gaming, I can't tell you even one game that's hot and current right now. For wii, or for any other platform.

But I do love the Settlers2.

[kainelslor.livejournal.com]

Settlers 2 !!hooray !!! that game is seriously bad for your real life. (still playing the modern 3d version of the game once in a while :p )

(btw..for most older game platforms you can find some pretty good emulators these days (Snes, NES, gameboy, sega meadrive, even the PS and gamecube)

ow and Wii is fun for a couple of hours, after that it is only good for collecting dust