OT: Any One Remember
 

Does any one remember the web browser based game called Planetarian or something like that?

It was one of those web based games that you joined and played 3 month rounds in. I gave up on it back in 2001 when I was told by one of the long standing players that the game was rigged and cheating was rampant. (Very discouraging.)

But recently I ran across an old friend on line, purely by accident, who used to play Planetarian and Earth 2025 with me. It brought back some interesting memories.

At lot has happened since 2001. I guess when you have no life, you have no life so the years just whiz buy. I find myself up at 3 am this morning because I cannot sleep and am a bit down about things. I miss many of the older games that I used to play. Every now and again I install one and play it for a while. Right now I am playing TRIBES again and for the most part having a good time of it.

I am thinking about installing UNREAL and playing co-op with my nephews. Too bad Jedi doesn't allow co-op games like the old Quake II series did.

When I think about the time that I have spent playing SE IV, I get a bit sick. I have been playing this game since August 2000 when the demo was released. Since that time many things have changed in my life, but the game, the game has remained. I often wonder if it is the game that I should blame for how my life has gone? I do wonder about it and many other things as I sit here posting my God only knows what number post in these forums.

I look back over the last decade and in that time I have seen the coming and going of so many things. From TV shows that I enjoyed watching weekly, now a DVD collection on my shelf, to the development and advancement of PC's and technology. Hell I remember my first PC, an ACER P75 with a whopping 850 meg hard drive and 4mg ram. That was way back in 1995. I can remember when 3dFx was the video card that dreams were made of and the names of great game companies that no longer exsist; Interplay, Dynamix, Microprose, and so many more.

Today I recieved a news letter from Shrapnel Games. At first I thought it is said FAG, but then I realized that I had misread it. Imagine my embarassament. As I read the news letter my sense of nastalga (sp) just grew. Perhaps I am being a bit more emotional because of my cold, the medication, or even lack of sleep. I simply don't know.

One thing is for certain, my fingers hurt from playing TRIBES, my mind continues to wonders about new and interesting ways to make SE IV and now SE V better, and about those kind of things that ones mind conjures up at 3am in the morning regarding what may or may not come with the future.

Simply put I am dog tired and just felt like typing for a bit as I ware myself down and try to fall asleep.

Any who, I will most likely read this tomorrow, blush red and delete it. So enjoy it while you can. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: OT: Any One Remember
 

Leave it posted. Just as random thoughts hit you, they come and go. The words on paper will always be there. So I say "Let It Stay" and let people know where you came from. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: OT: Any One Remember
 

I remember playing Starfleet Command I with a friend, and having a really good time. He was better at playing, but I was better at inventing tactics. We made a good team.

History is a valuable thing. Craigslist has become worthless as a forum due to censorship. Better to keep it all, as it has the elusive character of humanity. The good kind, that is so hard to find.

Hope that cold runs out soon.

Re: OT: Any One Remember
 

Your post made me remember my Stars! e-mail games... i never won a single game (i was that bad!) but i spent hundreds of hours playing it and having lots of fun....

I don´t consider it a waste of my time, since it helped me to develop strategy and planning, beyond exercizing (dos this word exists?) my mind...

My wife says i spend too much time at the computer, and i think thatm, in a way, she is right, but the computer (and literature) is my way of discharging my daily stresses and everyone knows me for a very calm and centered person, especially at court (i´m a lawyer), and i think my use of computer and my reading are the main things that allow me to reach my "inner peace" and to not become nervous in stressing situations...

So, while my wife is right that i spend too much time at the computer (and reading), i agree that, as a hobby, it consumes too much of my time, but that it´s not only a hobby, but a way of "centering" myself and, as such, is not excessive or a waste of time...

Just some rambles after a exaustive court session where i won (i think) because the other lawyer was too nervous to do a good defense (she was extremely nervous and upset, and forgot to point some issues that i would have pointed to the judge if i was in her place) and i showed to the judge all my clients proofs in a calm and patient manner...

Re: OT: Any One Remember
 

I remember my very first computer, it was a Vic-20 and it had a whole 3k of ram. Didn't take me very long to fill it up. My first IBM-clone was an 8088 PC-XT with a 20Meg HD and 1Meg of memory with a green monochrome monitor.

Re: OT: Any One Remember
 

My first computer was a 286 with 20mb HD, 640kb Ram and a CGA (4 colors) monitor...

I still remember the long nights on GP1, Prince of Persia and Simcity...

Re: OT: Any One Remember
 

Atari 1200XL. 64MB RAM. Action games that are still better than most modern action games, if you don't count the graphics.

Re: OT: Any One Remember
 

My first was an Apple IIc. 1mb ram, floppy drive only and monochrome monitor.

The games for it were great though. War In Russia by Gary Grigsby being my favourite.

My first game for it was all text with a map and counters provided. I think it was called Waterloo. Strange game.

Re: OT: Any One Remember
 

I got started with home computers rather late, with a used Amiga 500 that was four years old when I got it. One of the games that came with it was Reach for the Stars (3rd ed. by SSG); I think that was my first 4X title.

Re: OT: Any One Remember
 

Vic-20. I still remember a game where you had to steal (Gold, I think) from a witches house and avoid her cats. Or one that was a collapsing mine-maze or a star wars trench run game...Games that came as basic programs in computer magazines...

Re: OT: Any One Remember
 

Hey, my first computer was a Tandy 1000 running at 8 mhz! Wow... and I bought a Sony V20 'clone' chip to make it go even faster. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif I think I still have that V20 chip, or a spare, around here somewhere. The T1000 is long gone, though.

Re: OT: Any One Remember
 

Heh, TI-99/4A was my first computer. It had a CASSETTE drive and a whole 16K of RAM. Boy, I was stylin' http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif My first real program was a silly little dungeon crawl on that TI using a primitive BASIC.

Heh, I guess I just dated myself, huh http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Ya know, I used to think I spent too much time on the computer, and especially playing games. I'm obsessed with games - always have been: computer games, board games, RPGs, you name it. Finally, I gave up trying to resist them and I got a job making games for a living. If you can't beat 'em... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

That said, I do see my productivity at work going down for a while as I get into SE V. Now, if only I could get a damn copy of the real game instead of the demo. *sigh*

Re: OT: Any One Remember
 

Man...you guys are old!! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

My first computer was actually my parents, bought in '97 when I was 10 years old. 500 MHz I think, with a 2 GB hard drive and 16 (I think) megs of RAM.

Re: OT: Any One Remember
 

Does any one remember the web browser based game called Planetarian or something like that?

Re: OT: Any One Remember
 

I remember a fun space-based trader game on BBS's. Can't remember what it's called now, though.

Re: OT: Any One Remember
 

Sorry AT, never heard of it.

Now who remembers *this* old beauty?

http://www.cinemaware.com/browser/dotc/final.asp

Re: OT: Any One Remember
 

Sorry, my browser won't install macroware software. It wants me to manually install it and well who the hell knows how to do that, certainly not me.

Re: OT: Any One Remember
 

Tradewars?

Re: OT: Any One Remember
 

Right click on the title and 'save target' on your computer. Then just create a shortcut to it and set the properties to run under 95 or whatever works on your computer.

Re: OT: Any One Remember
 

heheh. Just beat it, despite being massively outgunned by the AI. I'm sure the AI cheats. I won by using raids to gain cash/ deplete the enemy rather wasting troops than squabbling over territory. He had a maurauding army of over 700 troops (to my measly 100) but I just skipped right past them and took his home territory.

Ah, the memories though. You know I'd almost forgotten the steamy sex scenes in that game - I think they had a profound influence on my younger self.

Re: OT: Any One Remember
 

Tradewars! (And then 'Tradewars 2000')

You had to seek out planets and/or build bases, develop your economy, research new technologies, build warships, and fight your enemies. I'd say it was the grandparent of all 4X computer games.

Re: OT: Any One Remember
 

That was it, Tradewars! That was a great game. I've always thought it'd be really cool if there was a modern single-player version, no 3d though, 2d graphics at best, although I think it'd stll work with ASCII graphics.

Re: OT: Any One Remember
 

Tradewars effing rocked! Between it and Legend of the Red Dragon, my phone lines used to be busy from when I got home until dinner time. I can't describe how happy I was when my parents got me my own phone line for my birthday.

Almost as happy as when I realized that while the default speed for my modem was 900 baud, it'd go all the way up to 2700!

Re: OT: Any One Remember
 

I found it.

http://www.planetarion.com/news.php?...mp;section=ann
A Wikipedia page about the game

Re: OT: Any One Remember
 

Planetarion's gone through a couple owners now, and since going pay to play, has shrunk drastically. You have to be hardcore, dedicating all your time to it, or you'll never get anywhere.

Same goes for most games like that.

Re: OT: Any One Remember
 

I just remember that back in the day it was a rigged game. On day one of a new round there would be players with huge scores so massive after just a few hours and turns that no one could challenge them. I was lucky enough to join a good Alliance and later discovered that one of the players of that alliance was also a Tribes player. He was a top 20 player of Planetarion and one night on a Tribes server he let the nasty cat out of the bag that most of the high ranking players started the game that way. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif I never played it after that but always wanted to run a game like that so that I could run it fair.

Re: OT: Any One Remember
 

Hehe, my first 'puter at home was an Apple IIc

I agree the old Trade Wars 2002 BBS game rocked. I ran the Possumhole BBS back in the day, and it was fun.

Today there is something remarkably similar over at Starport

Re: OT: Any One Remember
 

Same here. Four colors! It was maybe in 1989 that my wife and I bought our first computer. It cost us $1,500. Before that I had a Magnavox word processor, because I'm a writer and I thought I never would have any use for a home computer.

One of my first computer games was Sim City. I had a friend who thought sitting at a computer and playing games was the most idiotic thing a person could do.

Then he and his wife came by for dinner and he started playing Sim City and...he would not leave until midnight. It was a week night, a work night. And his wife was curled up on the floor half asleep saying "We need to get going," but he was utterly fascinated with his black-and-white cities. He would cause a nuclear meltdown and then sit there and laugh at the destruction.

Another of my early games was "Empire." God, that game gave me so many hours of fun.

Atrocities, I don't see any of my gaming time as a waste. In the 1980s I did the nightclub scene very heavily for several years. I had a great job and made lots of money, and spent lavishly. Me and my friend were living the Miami Vice lifestyle, except for the drugs. Well, except for the *quantity* of drugs.

Now I'm married to a great woman, and I'm content to stay home and do things like play computer games. I'm approaching middle age and I'm too tired to do the stuff I used to do. The streets are now filled with crackheads and violence, so I stay at home with my books and my sweet wife and my computer.

Lounging in my recliner, playing SEIV (and maybe SEV someday, when it gets patched, ha ha!), watching the late show with a bowl of popcorn and a six pack, talking to the wife and curling up with a good book are all a LOT cheaper and SAFER than the things I did 25 years ago.

Re: OT: Any One Remember
 

The first computer I used was a Commodore PET in my school classroom. It had a small, green monochrome monitor and a slow cassette tape drive. We thought it was really amazing and there was one guy in my class who knew how to write simple programs on it in BASIC, and I was totally impressed with his knowledge and skill. There were a few games for it that came on cassette tapes, and it included space invaders, a racing game and a maze game. The graphics were very blocky but I thought it was the greatest thing.

The second type of computer I ever used was a Commodore 64 which one of my friends had. We used to play games on it like Archon, Black Hawk, Temple of Apshai, Rambo, Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, etc. It had a big external 5.25" floppy drive, a color monitor, joystick and a modem (I don't know what speed).

The third type of computer I used was an Apple IIE in high school, on which I learned to program in BASIC in my very first computer science course. The BASIC back then had line numbers and we learned how to write messy spaghetti code that used a lot of GOTO commands. I used to stay late after school to learn and write little programs just for fun.

The fourth computer I used was a Macintosh 512E, which has 512K of RAM, also at school. I was so impressed with the Macintosh's graphical user interface and mouse! I learned to program in Turbo Pascal on those. This was back in 1988 or so.

When I finally had enough money to buy my own computer, I was attending university and my first computer was a Macintosh Powerbook 145. It had 4 MB of RAM, a 40 MB hard drive, and a Motorola 68030 processor running at 25 MHz. I loved that Powerbook and I used it for many years. I later got a Powerbook 170 as well, but both powerbooks were stolen one day when by house got broken into. My next computer was a Pentium 233 with 96 MB RAM and 2 GB hard drive. When I first started playing SEIII, it was on that computer. I was still using that computer when I got SEIV, and the turns processed so slowly.