This is the standard 84-key keyboard layout. After using a 101-key standard keyboard on the job for two years, re-learning this layout was a snap. With the F keys on the left, only one hand is needed for any combination of Ctrl/Shift/Alt/F1-F10 while the right hand is free to run the mouse. The CapsLock doesn't get bumped accidently.
This layout is similar to the XT, minus the XT features that seemed radical relative to the IBM Selectric typewriter. This was a unique moment in computer history: a new version that actually had less useless crap than the previous version.
The original purpose of the 101-key layout was to make more room for the plastic cards fit over the F keys for MultiMate (the 'Microsoft Office' of the time). The extra key on the Win95 keyboard may eventually work like the apple key for ported Mac applications, if anyone still cares to do such things.
The mouse buttons are located around the trackball, one each side, both extending in theory to the far edges of the space bar. In truth, pushing farther than a few centimeters away from the trackball does not offer enough leverage to toggle the button state. But when you do use the approved area, the buttons are quite easy to click. Clicking and dragging can be another story. Since each button is on the other side of the trackball, clicking and dragging envelopes both thumbs. If you are dual handed, fine, but for me, moving the trackball with my left thumb is quit difficult. A better design would have placed both buttons (or even better, three buttons) on both sides of the space bar, so that you could always use the same hand to manipulate the buttons, and always the other to move the ball.
One small, but really nice feature is the grove along the back of the keyboard, where you can tuck in the keyboard cable so that instead of coming out in the middle of the back it can exit either from the far right or left. Of course, without some tape to secure the cable in place it will fall out within a few hours.
While on the subject of cables, I must say the keyboard cable feels too short, especially since I have a tower case, which sits a few feet away from my desk. The mouse cable exits from the keyboard cable at the keyboard plug and is only about a foot long, so you may need to purchase a mouse cable extender if you already use a keyboard cable extender.
When most people think of "clicky" keyboards, they think of the original IBM 87- and 101- key keyboards, because yes, they do make a louder noise than most keyboards. But most people make the mistake of dismissing keys that click as *cheap* -- when, if there's a great tactile response from the key, the click is incidental and just adds to it registering in your head. The faster it registers, the faster you can process the information -- and the faster you type. With my old keyboards, I was pressing too hard on the keys because they didn't make a click (and their "give" was too soft). As a result, my hands started to cramp about 10-15 minutes into a long session and I had to rest for a while. I NEVER have to rest with an IBM keyboard.
They are HEAVY, too! This is greatly appreciated when you want to sit at a distance from the screen with the keyboard in your lap. The heavier it is, the less it slips around in your lap while you type. Its weight also contributes to its durability -- I've never had an IBM keyboard go bad on me. This is evidenced by the fact that my brother is still using our IBM 87-key keyboard from 1985.
I really don't get it when people talk about "that old, clunky, heavy, 'clicky' IBM keyboard" because if they would just sit down with it, they'd see they're missing the point completely. The click on cheap keyboards comes from a little peizo speaker that chirps when the key hits completes the circuit. The click on a IBM keyboard is 100% mechanical. The keycaps even come off nicely for quick and easy cleaning!
Just so we've got this nailed down, the keyboard I'm using right now is the most recent one I bought from Best Buy (they no longer have them, sadly) called simply "IBM" (in the top left corner). It's got a long ENTER key, and an even longer left and right shift key. There are no "Windows 95" keys to get in the way. On the back, it says:
Manufactured for IBM by Lexmark Copyright Lexmark, 1984 (odd, I bought it in 1995) Part No. 92G7483 ID # 0001299 Date: 5/26/95
BTW, I just ordered one of these from Tiger Direct-- Part number D55-1014, for only $29!!
Since the Anykey is a programmable keyboard, it many extra keys to program, including a strange diagonal arrow key setup. You can use the programmability of the keyboard to make the arrow keys act more like those of a standard keyboard,
but it is still harder to find your place without looking than with a normal layout.
The programmability is a very nice feature. You can program something on the order of a total of 1200 keystrokes and each key can be set up to trigger a different macro (ie the F keys along the side can be programmed separately from the keys along the top). The only downside is that the keys are always played back at a fast typing speed, no faster or slower, so in today's slow windows environment you can not always depend on your keys being entered correctly. The trick is to toggle the scrollock button a few times in between steps that take a while for the computer to finish, which in effect is like adding a delay between the real keys (unless the program you are using makes use of scroll lock)!
If you want a programmable keyboard with a standard layout I strongly suggest this keyboard.The layout is pretty classic. Large backspace and enter with the corresponding smaller right enter key (but not near as abbreviated as with the Focus 7200). This keyboard has the two windows95 keys, and the W95 context key. They were, however, smart enough to not include these keys at the expense of the other function keys. Control, Alt, and shift remain easy 
While all that sounds reasonable, the actual use of the lifetime wireless leaves much to be desired, for many reasons.
One of the main reasons I was interested in the lifetime series was because of the version that offered an integrated track ball. While it has some very nice features, it also shares some of the problems of the Focus FK7200 design, and has a few that are unique to itself. First the good; having the trackball right there at thumb point is a joy. As a person who writes a lot, be it code, or prose, I find the mouse pointer to be an invaluable tool in editing text, but only so when I can reach it within seconds, and without the added fatigue of reaching for the mouse stored away in some far corner of my desk. For such situations, an integrated pointing device cannot be beat, no matter how mediocre its design.
On the other hand, other pointing tasks, from file management to Photoshop and even Quake are not well suited to integrated trackballs, at least in the designs I have seen. The Keytronic trackball is particularly bad. Its biggest problem is that the ball is just too small. Because it has such a small surface to touch, too much tension is required to move the ball. The result is sore hands, and lack of precise pointer control. Also a problem, altho much better than for the FK 7200, is using both the left and right mouse buttons, or even worse, both at the same time. These buttons are located around the bottom of the trackball assembly. Simply put, whether you are a lefty or rightly, you will have problems clicking or dragging with one of the buttons. And while on the subject of buttons, there are only two. Three (placed in a more sensible locations) would be ever so much better for those of us running X Windows.
Cleaning the trackball is also painful. For some reason, Keytronic chose to make it very hard to unscrew the track ball retaining ring. You almost have to use a paper clip to get enough leverage. In all the track balls I have used, I have never seen a ring of such a design, purposely made almost impossible to remove. The worst part is you will be removing it often. To keep the trackball in its most useable state, I usually have to clean it after every few hours of use. At least with the focus trackball, the cleaning was only necessary daily.
Another universal problem with the trackball mechanism is shared with the Focus FK7200, that of wimpy rollers. Both of these keyboards are having problems with the pointer cursor getting stuck because one of the roller gets stuck. It's like the ball is really dirty, but this isn't the case. This is easily proven by taking the ball out, and trying to move the roller with a finger, and not getting it to budge in one direction. This is probably a manufacturing defect, your Lifetime Keyboard will probably not exhibit it.
The mechanical problems with the trackball in the Keytronic don't stop there, however. On my first Keytronic, the mouse buttons were literally hard to click. A very significant level of pressure was required to complete a mouse click. Happy, this problem is not evident on my second keytronic. Hopefully it was just bad luck on my part.
On a final note regarding hardware problems, after a few months of use my spacebar has started to squeak when I press it. It isn't too noisy, but it is annoying.
As you can see from the specs, a nice board, but it only works at the speed of the clock crystal soldered on to the PC board, in my case at 60 Mhz. Otherwise a real quality board, if dated (it uses the mercury chip set)!
| Length of add in slots are very important because some add in cards are so long that you can't fit them into your computer. All motherboard manufactures should include this information on their pages. Since they don't users like you and me will have to provide the values. These sizes are measured from the point that the back edge of the add in card fits into (AKA the metal slot cover), to the first obstruction on the board. BTW I define full length as a slot that is not obstructed by anything on the motherboard. Other obstructions in your case may limit the size of add in cards, severely if you don't have a tower. Some other facts: 16 bit ISA slots are 16.5 cm long. PCI slots are all 13 long. All cards of those lengths and shorter will fit in any motherboard that has an empty slot. Uncomfortable with centimeters? So am I, but I am working to change that. Just remember, there are 2.54 centimeters in an inch, if you need to convert these numbers. (You already knew that, right? :-) |
Everybody has seen one of these, it's the large "ergonomic" mouse made by MicroSoft. It has two flaws:
The card can play back 32 voices at time, but you wouldn't want to, since the sound quality goes way down, especially if you are starting with 44.1khz samples. Better to think of this card as having 16 voices (mixed and played back at 44.1 khz), with a few to spare, "just in case".
Since the card uses RAM the samples are user expandable, and many people have done just that. Surf the net and you will find many GF1 .PAT files, some of them of excellent quality. The only real problem is that most patches are so big that you can only fit a few in the on board GUS RAM. The GUS PnP card lets you use up to 8 megs of RAM, but it has not been as popular as the GUS MAX/Classic. Since both cards are now discontinued, it is quite a little game to find
either for sale.
In this day and age it is sad that I need mention Sound Blaster compatibility, but that is one sore point of the GUS line of sound cards - there is no OPL chipset on the GUS. Instead, it uses a software FM Synth, which, when it works, can sound better than the real thing, about the same, or much worse. Beyond the SB, the card also supports the Roland midi standard with a cool ass protected mode emulator that requires no conventional memory. Note that neither of these emulation programs work under anything but Doz95less DOS.
The card uses one or two DMA channels for recording and playback, and DMA 1 for SB compatibility, which is optional. Either one or two IRQs can be used, using one works most of the time, but two must be used in order for the SB emulation to work. Any ports from 210 to 260 may be used, altho I suggest that you do not use 260, since some software doesn't work with that port setting (personal experience talking). The GUS is getting fairly old, but it is still well supported in native mode in DOS, and LINUX support is. As you can see, I am very happy with mine.
BTW, this is one long ISA card, coming in at 27.5 cm. Many people will not have a slot free that is long enough for this card. According to Gravis, the GUS PnP is about 25 cm in length, so keep that in mind before you think about buying one of those, instead.An element is a type of matter which cannot be broken down into other elements. Once, they were thought to be the building blocks of all matter, and while this is true in a way, we now know that there are other "materials" which are the building blocks of elements.
Elements that we run into every day include Oxygen (gas), Carbon (solid), and Hydrogen (gas). In fact, we encounter many of the 112 known elements every day, altho hardly ever in a pure form. The closest thing to a pure element that you have seen is any one of the materials we call metals. Often the metal in use is a mixture of elements, but you will find relatively pure samples of Aluminum, Copper, and Nickel, among others. Much more frequently, you will encounter mixtures of elements, such as water (One Oxygen element, connected to two Hydrogen elements, plus any number of impurities dissolved in the sample).
Chemically, an element is an atom which has a fixed number of protons. Oxygen contains 8, Carbon has 6, an Hydrogen, the simplest atom, has only 1. Each of these elements will have varying numbers of electrons and neutrons, which will effect their property's to some extent, but the proton is what defines the element.
There is much more to elements than this simple overview, but to really cover it well this page would turn into an entire chemistry text.
Stunts is a driving game. Simply put, it RULES! Written by Distinctive Software, this program was distributed, as near as I can tell, by two different companies, under two different names, Stunts, and 4D Sports Driving. It was released sometime in 1991, to give you an idea of what we are talking about. Yes, it is fairly old.
Stunts is simple to pay. It runs on almost all machines. And most importantly, it has a most kick ass track editor. Well, not quite, the editor has many limitations, but I have yet to see a program that comes with as good a editor for its files.
Sadly, you can not buy this software in stores. On the happy side, you can warez a copy off the net, however, the easy to find copy will not run on my machine, so it may not run on yours either. Check out the Stunts web ring, you will find the download with out much trouble. Considering it is just over one meg in size, what do you have to loose? (Besides lots of free time playing the game!)
I play with the keyboard and joystick, having not decided which is better. On the other hand, I am sure that the manual mode is better if you wish a high score, but I still use the automatic mode since that mode is much easier. Perhaps this accounts for my fastest time of 1:13 on the default track, a full 6 seconds shorter than the best time on the net. You might be able to blame it on my version of stunts, but studys have shown (mine, actuly), that my version has the fastest cars. Or something like that.
Scientific Studies show ...... That Stunts will soak up way to much of your free time! So you should at least be driving the finest version of the program while you are at it! Read the next post to find out which is best.
So this isn't the most exciting Stunts page on the net. You can find that here. Let me close out with a request: Mindscape & Broderbund, please release Stunts/4D for free, and with source, so that it can be improved.
Which driving program is better, Stunts 1.1 or 4D Driving 1.1? These are slightly different versions of the same program, and therefore driving times can be compared using the same cars and tracks. The driving speed of two cars on two different tracks using both Stunts and 4D Driving were compared in this study. Results where not completely conclusive, but the two programs are roughly equivalent, for most uses.
There are four version of the program in question, Stunts 1.1 and 1.0, and 4D Sports Driving 1.1 and 1.0. A question that has been raised, mostly in high score competitions is, "Are there any differences between the handling between the two programs"? Since access was only available to Stunts 1.1 and 4D Sports Driving 1.1, this study only concerns itself with those two programs. It is hoped that most people have upgraded to the latest version of there respect program, one way or another.
The speed issue is a complex question that would require many tests to truly determine for all cars and conditions. The goal of this study is not to do so, but instead to determine if such studies are needed.
Two tracks where created for use in this study.
Track one is a large (one track editing screen full) banked circle, with no stunts. This track was driven with the Porsche / March Indy car, at full speed for the entire track.
Track two is a small track, with 4 large size, unbanked turns, making a almost perfect circle. This track was driven with the Corvette ZR1, attempting to drive the car as fast as possible, without spinning off the track.
In both cases the games were run on a 60Mhz Zeos Pantera, using the keyboard as driving input, and SBOS providing Sound Blaster emulation for sound. No simulation engine bugs where exploited to attain higher speeds.
Average Diff: 0.167 |
Average Diff: 1.217 |
Track one results are faster for 4D Driving, but not by more than the experimental error. Track two results show Shunts ahead by a significant amount.
In the first test there was very little experimental error, because the car was made to drive as fast as it could, ie the accelerator was floored the entire time. While the experimental error is very small, the difference between the two speeds is just as small, suggesting that if there is any difference between the Indy top speed for the two programs, it is insignificant.
The second track implies fairly strongly that cars (or at least the Corvette ZR1) in Stunts 1.1 have higher top turning speeds then they do in 4D 1.1. However, due to the fact that these scores rely purely on the skill of the driver, and his luck, they have high experimental error. Even so they imply pretty strongly that Stunts cars are faster.
There does appear to be some difference between the two programs, at least for the Corvette ZR1. More cars, tracks, and stunts need to be tested before any definite conclusions can be drawn, but it looks like all 4D driving users should update to Stunts 1.1. In any case, competitions, while slightly less valid when competing between different versions, should not be a problem unless the driving time between first and second place is less than a few seconds.
What can I do here?You can satisfy those nostalgic longings for Doom. When I first started this site it focused exclusively on screen shots of the alpha and beta versions of Doom. Now Doom is an aged classic so I am also devoting some space to its current state. Either way, I hope this page reminds you of all the fun Doom was and perhaps gets you to join the remaining die had fans that still play it. |
Thanks to a few digital pack rats out there you can now do more than just look. I currently know of four pre-release versions of Doom which you can download and mess around with. Check out Lee's Killough's page for details.
You all know the story from here, Id Software released Doom much latter than planed, and crashed the ftp site that they put it on because of all the attempts to log on.
So, several years after Doom was posted I was looking around in an old ftp site, and found those screen shots that I had so hastily deleted. I looked at them, and wow, they were pretty neat. So here they are, for your viewing pleasure, along with whatever other pre-release info I could find.
Remember, all of the opinions I put forth here are mine, and could well be wrong. If anybody thinks that I have something wrong, please email me about it. Perhaps I will change my mind, and the annotation too!
Id Software
1515 N. Town East Blvd. #138-297, Mesquite, TX 75150
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Jay Wilbur
FAX: 1-214-686-9288
Email: jay@idsoftware.com (NeXTMail O.K.)
Anonymous FTP: ftp.uwp.edu (/pub/msdos/games/id)
CIS: 72600,1333
Id Software to Unleash DOOM on the PC
Revolutionary Programming and Advanced Design Make For Great
Gameplay
DALLAS, Texas, January 1, 1993-Heralding another technical
revolution in PC programming, Id Software's DOOM promises to
push back the boundaries of what was thought possible on a 386sx
or better computer. The company plans to release DOOM for the
PC in the third quarter of 1993, with versions planned for
Windows, Windows NT, and a version for the NeXTall to be
released later.
In DOOM, you play one of four off-duty soldiers suddenly thrown
into the middle of an interdimensional war! Stationed at a
scientific research facility, your days are filled with tedium
and paperwork. Today is a bit different. Wave after wave of
demonic creatures are spreading through the base, killing or
possessing everyone in sight. As you stand knee-deep in the
dead, your duty seems clear-you must eradicate the enemy and
find out where they're coming from. When you find out the
truth, your sense of reality may be shattered!
The first episode of DOOM will be shareware. When you register,
you'll receive the next two episodes, which feature a journey
into another dimension, filled to its hellish horizon with fire
and flesh. Wage war against the infernal onslaught with machine
guns, missile launchers, and mysterious supernatural weapons.
Decide the fate of two universes as you battle to survive!
Succeed and you will be humanity's heroes; fail and you will
spell its doom.
The game takes up to four players through a futuristic world,
where they may cooperate or compete to beat the invading
creatures. It boasts a much more active environment than Id's
previous effort, Wolfenstein 3-D, while retaining the
pulse-pounding action and excitement. DOOM features a fantastic
fully texture-mapped environment, a host of technical tour de
forces to surprise the eyes, multiple player option, and smooth
gameplay on any 386 or better.
John Carmack, Id's Technical Director, is very excited about
DOOM: Wolfenstein is primitive compared to DOOM. We're doing
DOOM the right way this time. I've had some very good insights
and optimizations that will make the DOOM engine perform at a
great frame rate. The game runs fine on a 386sx, and on a
486/33, we're talking 35 frames per second, fully texture-mapped
at normal detail, for a large area of the screen. That's the
fastest texture-mapping around-period.
Texture mapping, for those not following the game magazines, is
a technique that allows the program to place fully-drawn art on
the walls of a 3-D maze. Combined with other techniques,
texture mapping looked realistic enough in Wolfenstein 3-D that
people wrote Id complaining of motion sickness. In DOOM, the
environment is going to look even more realistic. Please make
the necessary preparations.
A Convenient DOOM Blurb
DOOM (Requires 386sx, VGA, 2 Meg) Id Software's DOOM is
real-time, three-dimensional, 256-color, fully texture-mapped,
multi-player battle from the safe shores of our universe into
the horrifying depths of the netherworld! Choose one of four
characters and you're off to war with hideous hellish hulks bent
on chaos and death! See your friends bite it! Cause your
friends to bite it! Bite it yourself! And if you won't bite
it, there are plenty of demonic denizens to bite it for you!
DOOM-where the sanest place is behind a trigger.
An Overview of DOOM Features:
Texture-Mapped Environment
DOOM offers the most realistic environment to date on the PC.
Texture-mapping, the process of rendering fully-drawn art and
scanned textures on the walls, floors, and ceilings of an
environment, makes the world much more real, thus bringing the
player more into the game experience. Others have attempted
this, but DOOM's texture mapping is fast, accurate, and
seamless. Texture-mapping the floors and ceilings is a big
improvement over Wolfenstein. With their new advanced graphic
development techniques, allowing game art to be generated five
times faster, Id brings new meaning to "state-of-the-art".
Non-Orthogonal Walls
Wolfenstein's walls were always at ninety degrees to each other,
and were always eight feet thick. DOOM's walls can be at any
angle, and be of any thickness. Walls can have see-through
areas, change shape, and animate. This allows more natural
construction of levels. If you can draw it on paper, you can
see it in the game.
Light Diminishing/Light Sourcing
Another touch adding realism is light diminishing. With
distance, your surroundings become enshrouded in darkness. This
makes areas seem huge and intensifies the experience. Light
sourcing allows lamps and lights to illuminate hallways,
explosions to light up areas, and strobe lights to briefly
reveal things near them. These two features will make the game
frighteningly real.
Variable Height Floors and Ceilings
Floors and ceilings can be of any height, allowing for stairs,
poles, altars, plus low hallways and high caves-allowing a great
variety for rooms and halls.
Environment Animation and Morphing
Walls can move and transform in DOOM, which provides an
active-and sometimes actively hostile-environment. Rooms can
close in on you, ceilings can plunge down to crush you, and so
on. Nothing is for certain in DOOM.
To this Id has added the ability to have animated messages on
the walls, information terminals, access stations, and more.
The environment can act on you, and you can act on the
environment. If you shoot the walls, they get damaged, and stay
damaged. Not only does this add realism, but provides a crude
method for marking your path, like violent bread crumbs.
Palette Translation
Each creature and wall has its own palette which is translated
to the game's palette. By changing palette colors, one can have
monsters of many colors, players with different weapons,
animating lights, infrared sensors that show monsters or hidden
exits, and many other effects, like indicating monster damage.
Multiple Players
Up to four players can play over a local network, or two players
can play by modem or serial link. You can see the other player
in the environment, and in certain situations you can switch to
their view. This feature, added to the 3-D realism, makes DOOM
a very powerful cooperative game and its release a landmark
event in the software industry.
This is the first game to really exploit the power of LANs and
modems to their full potential. In 1993, we fully expect to be
the number one cause of decreased productivity in businesses
around the world.
Smooth, Seamless Gameplay
The environment in DOOM is frightening, but the player can be at
ease when playing. Much effort has been spent on the
development end to provide the smoothest control on the user
end. And the frame rate (the rate at which the screen is
updated) is high, so you move smoothly from room to room,
turning and acting as you wish, unhampered by the slow jerky
motion of most 3-D games. On a 386sx, the game runs well, and
on a 486/33, the normal mode frame rate is faster than movies or
television. This allows for the most important and enjoyable
aspect of gameplay-immersion.
An Open Game
When our last hit, WOLFENSTEIN 3D was released the public
responded with an almost immediate deluge of home-brewed
utilities; map editors, sound editors, trainers, etc. All
without any help on file formats or game layout from Id
Software. DOOM will be release as an OPEN GAME. We will
provide file formats and technical notes for anyone who wants
them. People will be able to easily write and share anything
from their own map editors to communications and network
drivers.
DOOM will be available in the third quarter of 1993.
_______________________________________________________________
DOOM, Id, and Wolfenstein are trademarks of Id Software, Inc.
Or maybe the dates in the files just got messed up.
 Wow, cool. Lots of interesting ideas here, altho they waste lots of space. The map looks cool but it's clear that the map is not real. In fact, none of this is "live", I think it's just a static drawing. Lets se what else we can gather from this picture. Well, looking at the bar graph, it looks like originally there was going to be a Shield, Armor (or something else starting with "a"), and Health. I like the bar graph idea, I wish they had implemented it. Continuing on, we have a bunch of numbers, which I can not fathom. We have a "keyboard" that is what it looks like, anyway. And, we have 3 different names for the episodes. Finally, a list of ammo types: Pistol, Shotgun, MAC (I can just see little apples coming out of your gun), Missiles, CLA (CLAmor mines?), pro???, SPR (Solid Propelled Rocket ?), BFG (Big f'en gun), VNM (??? Nuclear Mine, ??? Nuclear Missile). |
 Note that all the status bars are exactly the same. This is true of every picture from this zip set. I don't remember this floor pattern, but it is a cool one. It will cause moray patterns, tho. |
 I don't think I have every seen any of these levels for this picture set.. Have you? |
I like this floor pattern, too.
Or maybe the dates in the files just got messed up.
This archive came with 9 files with LBM extensions, but they were not true LBMs. The only program that could read them was included with the archive. It was called SK.EXE, and in a moment I will show you the text it prints when you start it with no command line. The archive also came with a batch file that you were supposed to use to run SK.EXE. These screen shots were taken on 2-28-93 from 8:19PM to 8:26PM.
Show & Kill LBM v1.1 by Carmack & Romero (C) 1991 Id Software
Merely supply me with a filename and I'll be happy to help you!
You can include wildcard characters in your filename so I can blaze
through a bunch of files. Use the arrow keys to scroll screens.
The ESC key will exit.
The -n will NOT print a message on the bottom of the screen!
@echo off
cls
echo DOOM Official Pre-Alpha Slide Show
echo by Id Software, Inc. Copyright (c) 1993
echo ---------------------------------------
echo Coming summer 1993.
echo Direct public inquiries to help@idsoftware.com
echo Direct press inquiries to jay@idsoftware.com
echo ---------------------------------------
echo Press a key between screens.
echo ---------------------------------------
pause
sk -n *.lbm
echo It plays even cooler than it looks!
echo ---------------------------------------
echo DOOM - coming soon. Don't miss it.
 Now this is a really cool status bar! It wastes no space, and confirms that there was going to be both Armor, and Shield. Of all the status bars I have seen in the beta pictures, this is by far the best. |
 This map I recognize! True story: I played 1.0 version of doom, which had a game saving bug, which trapped me on level 1.2 for a whole week, until I finally cheated to get to the next level. I still know this one like the back of my hand, and probably always will. The things you remember! Back to the picture, check out the cool cannon! Much better than the default gun. |
 This looks like 1.2 also. They got some of the status live finally (map, and gun display (upper left hand only, note that sho 15 is still highlighted below the map screen)). Note the new cool looking gun! On the ammo side, we now have RIF (riffle?) and CHR?. |
 Man, I really like that gun! The level looks cool, too. |
 Looks like 1.2 again. |
 Yet another picture of 1.2 The textures they finally chose are much better than the ones shown here. |
 Death match! But with only green guys? Any, cool variation on the gun. |
 Looks like the map does not rotate with the direction that the player faces. |
Level 2.2, right?
 Almost too dark to be interesting. id has always liked their levels too dark, IMHO. |
 From 2.7? |
 What a lame flame! |
 Level 2.2, |
 Yet another copy of 1.2, methinks. |
 No doubt, 1.2 again. |
 3.something, I think. One of my fav levels, why can't I remember its name? |
 From the same level. |
 |
 Deathmatch again, level 1.2 again, with green dudes only again. |
There is a lot of free music in the world that can be found with no effort. Some of it's pretty good, but finding that subset is often a bit harder. If you like new age music like Vangelis, Tangerine Dream, and David Arkenstone, you should try some of the people on this list:
Want to make your music downloadable, at no cost to you? MP3.COM used to be the place to do this, but they were bought out and changed focuses entirely.
http://www.soundclick.com seems to offer unlimited hosting, plus gives you some control over the text and the graphics associated with each song. Not clearly divided into different albumbs though.
http://www.iuma.com/ One of the oldest music sites on the net, if not the oldest. You can host at least 30 songs here, but it looks like there is at least some limit, and you don't get much control over the text or graphics associated with your music.
+---23am,Robert Miles
+---Anam,Clannad
+---Banba,Clannad
+---Batman Returns,Danny Elfman
+---Bjorn Lynne ~ set
¦ +---The Void,LYNNE
¦ +---Witchwood,Bjorn Lynne
¦ +---Wolves of the Gods,Bjorn Lynne
+---Carmen Suites 1 & 2 - L'Arlesienne Suite 1,Georges Bizet
+---Christopher Franke ~ Set
¦ +---Enchanting Nature (Remixes in Earthones),Christopher Franke
¦ +---Interludes and Examinations,Christopher Franke
¦ +---Klemania,Christopher Franke
¦ +---Pacific Coast Highway,Christopher Franke
¦ +---The London Concert,Christopher Franke
+---Classical Sampler,PILZ
+---Dare To Dream,Yanni
+---David Arkenstone ~ Set
¦ +---Caravan Of Light,David Arkenstone
¦ +---Citizen Of The World,David ARKENSTONE
¦ +---Sacred Road,David Lanz
¦ +---The Celtic Book of Days,David Arkenstone
+---David Lanz or D. L. & Paul Speer ~ Set
¦ +---Bridge Of Dreams,David Lanz & Paul Speer
¦ +---Desert Vision,David Lanz & Paul Speer
¦ +---Natural States,David Lanz & Paul Speer
¦ +---Sacred Road,David Lanz
¦ +---Songs From An English Garden,David Lanz
¦ +---The Spirit of Olympia,David Arkenstone, Kostia and David Lanz
+---Dawn Of A New Century,Secret Garden
+---Deep Forest,Deep Forest
+---Destiny,Giovani
+---Destiny,Jim Brickman
+---Dreamland,Robert Miles
+---Dune Soundtrack,Toto
+---Eolian Minstrel,Andreas Vollenweider
+---InMusic Select Tracks Vol. 1,Various
+---Innamorare _ Summer Flamenco,Ottmar Liebert
+---Kitaro ~ Set
¦ +---Dream,Kitaro
¦ +---Gaia - Onbashira,Kitaro
¦ +---Live in America,Kitaro
¦ +---Mandala,Kitaro
¦ +---Tenku,Kitaro
¦ +---The Light of the Spirit,Kitaro
¦ +---The World Of Kitaro,Kitaro
¦ +---Thinking of You,Kitaro
+---Kryptos,Andreas Vollenweider
+---Le Roi Est Mort, Vive Le Roi!,Enigma
+---Live at the Acropolis,Yanni
+---Lore,Clannad
+---Mask,Vangelis
+---MCMXC a.D,Enigma
+---Mike Oldfield ~ Set
¦ +---Crises,Mike Oldfield
¦ +---Discovery,Mike Oldfield
¦ +---Heaven & Earth,Kitaro
¦ +---Incantations,Mike Oldfield
¦ +---Islands,Mike Oldfield
¦ +---Ommadawn,Mike Oldfield
¦ +---Platinum,Mike Oldfield
¦ +---Tubular Bells 2,Mike Oldfield
¦ +---Tubular Bells,Mike Oldfield
+---Music Boulevard 20th Anniversary Collection,Various
+---Music for a Summers Evening,In Classical Mood
+---Mussorgsky_Pictures at an Exhibition,Maurice Ravel
+---Nothing Above My Shoulders but the Evening,Ray Lynch
+---Passion_ Music for The Last Temptation Of Christ,Peter Gabriel
+---Perfect Time,Máire Brennan
+---Port Of Mystery,Yanni
+---R.E.M. In The Attic - Essential Recordings 1985 - 1989,R.E.M
+---Reflections Of Passion,Yanni
+---Seven Waves,Suzanne Ciani
+---Shades Of Shadow,Quintana + Speeer
+---Shepherd Moons,Enya
+---Steal The Sky HBO Movie Soundtrack,Yanni
+---Tangerine Dream ~ Set
¦ +---220 Volt Live,Tangerine Dream
¦ +---Canyon Dreams,Tangerine Dream
¦ +---Exit,Tangerine Dream
¦ +---Force Majeure,Tangerine Dream
¦ +---Goblins' Club,Tangerine Dream
¦ +---Legend Soundtrack,Tangerine Dream
¦ +---Lily On The Beach,Tangerine Dream
¦ +---Rockoon,Tangerine Dream
¦ +---The Dream Mixes,Tangerine Dream
¦ +---Turn Of The Tides,Tangerine Dream
¦ +---Tyranny of Beauty,Tangerine Dream
+---The Celts,Enya
+---The CROSS Of Changes 2,Enigma
+---The Masterpeice Collection Vo. 6_ Mozart,Multi
+---The Memory of Trees,Enya
+---The Moody Blues ~ Set
¦ +---A Night At Red Rocks With The Colorado Symphony Orchestra,Moody Blues
¦ +---A Question Of Balance,The Moody Blues
¦ +---Caught Live +5,Moody Blues
¦ +---Days Of Future Passed,Moody Blues
¦ +---Every Good Boy Deserves Favour,Moody Blues
¦ +---Keys of The Kingdom,The Moody Blues
¦ +---Long Distance Voyager,Moody Blues
¦ +---Octave,Moody Blues
¦ +---Seventh Sojourn,The Moody Blues
¦ +---Sur la mer,Moody Blues
¦ +---The Other Side Of Life,The Moody Blues
¦ +---The Present,Moody Blues
¦ +---The Story Of The Moody Blues...Legend Of A Band,The Moody Blues
+---The Songs Of Distant Earth,Mike Oldfield
+---The Trilogy - Disc 1,Andreas Vollenweider
+---The Trilogy - Disc 2,Andreas Vollenweider
+---Torched,Michael Hedges
+---Trust,Patrick O'Hearn
+---Vangelis ~ Set
¦ +---1492 - Conquest Of Paradise,Vangelis
¦ +---Albedo 0.39,Vangelis
¦ +---Antarctica,Vangelis
¦ +---Chariots Of Fire,Vangelis
¦ +---China,Vangelis
¦ +---Direct,Vangelis
¦ +---El Greco,Vangelis
¦ +---Heaven And Hell,Vangelis
¦ +---Ignacio,Vangelis
¦ +---L'Apocalypse Des Animaux,Vangelis
¦ +---Oceanic,Vangelis
¦ +---Opera Sauvage,Vangelis
¦ +---Soil Festivities,Vangelis
¦ +---Spiral,Vangelis
¦ +---The City,Vangelis
¦ +---Voices,Vangelis
+---View From The Hill, The,Justin Hayward
+---Voyager,Mike Oldfield
+---Watermark,Enya
The web can be a wonderfully interactive place, putting the ever-passive TV to shame. But sometimes you just want to sit back and watch. Here's some websites that allow you to do just that.
HomeStarRunner - a collection of ironic flash cartoons with excellent animation, sound, and gags. Be sure to check out "Strong Bad Email".
OddTodd - Messy (but appropriately so) serial cartoon/doodle about an unemployed guy.
hulu.com - lots of old and not so old TV shows.
+---5 TO 1,TOM KIMMEL
+---9 1_2 Weeks Original Motion PIcture Soundtrack,Various Artists
+---A Worm's Life,Crash Test Dummies
+---Addictions - Volume 1,Robert Palmer
+---Affirmation,Savage Garden
+---All that Matters,Michael Bolton
+---Another Night,Real Mccoy
+---Back To Basics (The Essential Collection 1971-1992),Olivia Newton-John
+---Bad Animals,Heart
+---Bat Out Of Hell II_ Back Into Hell,Meat Loaf
+---Big Generator,Yes
+---Black Celebration,Depeche Mode
+---Bobby Z,Bobby Z
+---Brigade,Heart
+---Building The Perfect Beast,Don Henley
+---But Seriously,Phil Collins
+---Carmina Burana,Carl Orff
+---Cathy Dennis_ Into the Skyline,Cathy Dennis
+---College Music,no artist
+---Construction Time Again,Depeche Mode
+---Counterparts,Rush
+---Crash! Boom! Bang!,Roxette
+---Crash,Dave Matthews Band
+---cross that line,Howard Jones
+---Cruel Summer,Ace Of Base
+---Cure ~ Set
¦ +---Bloodflowers,Cure
¦ +---Disintegration,The Cure
¦ +---Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me,The Cure
+---Dance Into The Light,Collins, Phil
+---Digital Odyssey,Compilation
+---Distributed Shared Memory,_Various_
+---Dream Into Action,Howard Jones
+---EJ Waters,E.J. Waters
+---Elton John ~ Set
¦ +---Made in England,Elton John
¦ +---Reg Strikes Back,Elton John
¦ +---Sleeping With The Past,Elton John
¦ +---The Big Picture,Elton John
¦ +---The One,Elton John
+---Every Breath You Take,The Police
+---Expose,Expose
+---Faith,George Michael
+---falling through a cloud,Sonny Southon
+---Foreigner ~ Set
¦ +---The Very Best And Beyond,Foreigner
¦ +---Unusual Heat,Foreigner
+---Genesis ~ Set
¦ +---Calling All Stations,Genesis
¦ +---Genesis,Genesis
¦ +---Invisible Touch,Genesis
¦ +---We Can't Dance,Genesis
+---Gloryline,Dreams So Real
+---God Shuffled His Feet,Crash Test Dummies
+---Gorden Lightfoot ~ Set
¦ +---Best-The Wreck of the Edmond Fitgerald,Gorden Lightfoot
¦ +---The Best Of,Gordon Lightfoot
+---Greaest Hits 1985-1995,Michael Bolton
+---Greatest Hits,Air Supply
+---Greatest Hits,Linda Ronstadt
+---Greatest Hits,Steve Perry
+---Harry Chapin Gold .mp3
¦ +---The Gold Medal Collection (Disc 1),Harry Chapin
¦ +---The Gold Medal Collection (Disc 2),Harry Chapin
+---Heart in Motion,Amy Grant
+---Heart of Stone,Cher
+---Heart, Soul, and a Voice,Jon Secada
+---Heartbreaker - SixteenClassic Performances,Pat Benatar
+---Hearts of Gold The Pop Collection,Various
+---Heavy Nova,Robert Palmer
+---Hello, I Must Be Going!,Phil Collins
+---Her Greatest Hits,Belinda Carlisle
+---High Adventure,Kenny Loggins
+---Hold Your Fire (The Rush Remasters),Rush
+---Home,Deep Blue Something
+---House Of Love,Amy Grant
+---Imagine It,One 2 One
+---In The Running,Howard Jones
+---Inside Information,Foreigner
+---Into The Light,Chris De Burgh
+---Joyride,Roxette
+---Kick,INXS
+---Kilo Class - Disc 1 of 14,Patrick Robinson
+---Knee deep in the hoopla,Starship
+---Live - The Way We Walk - Volume Two - The Longs,Genesis
+---Love Among The Cannibals,Starship
+---Madonna ~ Set
¦ +---Something To Remember,Madonna
¦ +---The Immaculate Collection,Madonna
+---Martika,Martika
+---Mecca,Age Of Chance
+---Michael Bolton,Michael Bolton
+---Michael Jackson ~ Set of 3
¦ +---Bad, Michael Jackson
¦ +---History - Past, M.J.~ Present and Future Book 1
¦ +---History - Past, Present And Future DISK 2
¦ +---HIStory - Past, Present and Future - Disk 1
+---Mike & Mechanics ~ Set
¦ +---Beggar On A Beach Of Gold,Mike & The Mechanics
¦ +---Living Years,Mike + The Mechanics
¦ +---Word Of Mouth,Mike & The Mechanics
+---Mirror Moves,The Psychedelic Furs
+---Moving Pictures (The Rush Remasters),Rush
+---Music Box,Mariah Carey
+---Music For The Masses,Depeche Mode
+---Music From Purple Rain,Prince and the Revolution
+---No Protection,Starship
+---One World,John Tesh
+---Paid Vacation,Richard Marx
+---Passion Crimes,Darling Cruel
+---Permanent Waves (The Rush Remasters),Rush
+---Peter Gabriel ~ Set
¦ +---Passion_ Music for The Last Temptation Of Christ,Peter Gabriel
¦ +---So,Peter Gabriel
+---Phil Collins ~ Set of 3
¦ +---Both Sides,Phil Collins
¦ +---Face Value,Phil Collins
¦ +---No Jacket Required,Phil Collins
+---R.E.M ~ Set
¦ +---Automatic For The People,R.E.M
¦ +---Out Of Time,R.E.M
+---Raised On Radio,Journey
+---Refugees Of The Heart,Steve Winwood
+---Repeat Offender,Richard Marx
+---Revenge,Eurythmics
+---Revereence,Faithless
+---Rio,Duran Duran
+---River Of Dreams,Billy Joel
+---Rod Stewart ~ Set
¦ +---Vagabond Heart,Rod Stewart
+---Roll With It,Steve Winwood
+---Rush Street, Richard MarX
+---Rusted Root ~ Set 2
¦ +---Cruel Sun,Rusted Root
¦ +---Remember,Rusted Root
+---Samantha Fox ~ Set
¦ +---Greatest Hits,Samantha Fox
¦ +---Just One Night,Samantha Fox
+---Savage Garden,Savage Garden
+---Seal,Seal
+---Self Titled,Richard Marx
+---Seven And The Ragged Tiger,Duran Duran
+---Shadows and Light,Wilson Phillips
+---Signals (The Rush Remasters),Rush
+---Simply the Best,Tina Turner
+---Some Great Reward,Depeche Mode
+---Songs From The Big Chair,Tears For Fears
+---Songs Of Faith And Devotion,Depeche Mode
+---Starfish,The Church
+---Steal The Sky HBO Movie Soundtrack,Yanni
+---Still Waters,Bee Gees
+---Storm Front,Billy Joel
+---Storyteller - Disc 2,Stewart, Rod
+---Storyteller - Disc 3,Stewart, Rod
+---Storyteller - Disc 4,Stewart, Rod
+---Taproot,Michael Hedges
+---Tear Down These Walls,Billy Ocean
+---Tell It To My Heart,Taylor Dayne
+---Test for Echo,Rush
+---The Artistry Of Michael Bolotin,Michael Bolotin
+---The Best of Branigan,Laura Branigan
+---The Bridge,Ace Of Base
+---The Bridge,Billy Joel
+---The Dance,Fleetwood Mac
+---The Different Story (World of Lust and Crime),Peter Schilling
+---The Division Bell,Pink Floyd
+---The End of The Innocence,Don Henley
+---The Hunger,Michael Bolton
+---The One Thing,Michael Bolton
+---The Sign,Ace Of Base
+---The Very Best Of (1977-86),Costello, Elvis and the Attractions
+---The Wall (Disc1),Pink Floyd
+---The Wall - Disc 2,Pink Floyd
+---The Wedding Album,Duran Duran
+---Time Flies... The Best of Huey Lewis & the News,Huey Lewis & the News
+---Time Love and Tenderness,Bolton, Michael
+---Timeless (The Classics),Michael Bolton
+---Tori Amos ~ Set
¦ +---Little Earthquakes,Tori Amos
¦ +---Under The Pink,Tori Amos
+---Tourism (Songs From Studios, Stages, Hotelrooms & Other Strange Places),Roxette
+---Toys - Soundtrack,Various Artists
+---Ultra,Depeche Mode
+---Very,Pet Shop Boys
+---Violator,Depeche Mode
+---Walk Right Back_ The Everly Brothers On Warner Bros. D2
+---Walk Right Back_ The Everly Brothers On Warner Bros. D1
+---Water To The Soul,Colourhaus
+---Waterfront,
+---Welcome To The Real World,Mr. Mister
+---When I Woke,Rusted Root
+---X,INXS
+---Yes ~ Set
+---90125,Yes
+---Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe,Yes
+---Close to the Edge,Yes
+---Fragile,Yes
+---Going For The One,Yes
+---Relayer,Yes
+---Union,Yes
Compared to other text adventures, that's a very thin plotline. Motivation does not come from advancing the plot, but purely for the intellectual challenge of solving puzzles. Luckily, there are lots of puzzles, and most of them are logical, if hard.
| You are standing on a path next to an abandoned white house. The path leads north and south. In front of the house is a mailbox. >look at mailbox. The mailbox is closed. >open it Opened. >look inside There is a note inside the mailbox. >Take note and read it. (Taken) The note reads as follows: Welcome to Zork, blah, blah blah... |
Later on, more complex commands come into play like "cover treasure with pile of leaves", or "break glass with sledge hammer", and Zork responds in turn with sentences that are more than 5 words in length. Compared to other text adventures, however, Zork's language is always pretty terse and to the point.
More importantly, is it worth your time? Here is why you should download Zork:
On the other hand, good text adventures give you the chance to be the character, and interact with a story that you visually create in your head. Like reading a good book, this is not for everybody, since it is more work, but you get something for your work. No longer is the game about clicking randomly on oddly colored pixels, or watching hours of pre-rendered video. So my conclusion is that you should try a text adventure if you have not yet. But if your purpose includes fun as well as historical exploration, there are better games to try, such as Sorcerer, Planet Fall, The Lurking Horror, or The Leather Goddess of the Phobos.
DooM is cool because it runs on many different platforms, and most importantly, on UNIX. In fact, DooM was developed on machines running NeXTSTEP! Did Id do this so that the could tap the previously starved UNIX Game Player Market? NO! They did it because UNIX is cool, and makes an excellent development environment. Note that just about the last environment that DooM was ported to was the MAC. I think that has a lot to do with the fact that the MAC is the least like UNIX of the popular OSes (and because of that the MAC also happens to be the least cool OS). DooM is the most wildly ported game that has ever reached such a high level of popularity. The only other game that comes close as far as portability is ABUSE, which just happens to also have some ties to Id software (although none of the Id team wrote any of ABUSE's code).
DooM is also cool because of its .WAD file format. It holds all of the graphics and sound files for DooM. No compression is used, but it saves quite a lot of disk space because a .WAD file is much more effichent way to save many small files at once than the FAT format DOS uses. The biggest reason is that in DOS, files are alocated space on the hardrive in clusters. On most hard drives a cluster is 8K, so each and every file on a disk stored in the FAT format takes up at least 8K. If a file is 10 bytes long, it takes up 8K! if a file is 8.1K long it takes up 16K! And if your hard drive is really big, a cluster can take up 16k, or even 32k! The .WAD file beats this by storing all the files in one big file, so that the most space that can be wasted by the entire .WAD file is one byte less than the cluster size. The big problem with WAD files is that files stored within are harder to modifiy than files stored in FAT. But in a computer game this isn't a problem, you hardley ever want to change the data in the .WAD file. And if you do want to change some of the files in the main WAD file, Id has given you a method to load other WAD files to patch over the main .WAD file at run time. Any program released after DooM that doesn't store its files in a format that saves disk space like the .WAD file does is poorly writen, and in my apinoin, should not be purtchased. *plug*In my game, HAIL, data files are stored in a format that is even more compact(but even less flexible) than the .WAD format.*end plug*
Xmouse is a free program from Microsoft, and it make windows95 just that much better to use. It RULES!
That is for the person who wrote Xmouse. I have no idea who did it, but they are one wicked programmer. Such people make the world a better place.
Xmouse is shell extension for Windows95. I have heard that it doesn't work for WindowsNT, which is a shame for NT users. In short, it makes the mouse behave more like it does on any good Xwindows system. What ever app you point at with your cursor will become active. This may sound weird, and the first time I used a Xwindows system (A personal IRIX, BTW), it really sucked, as far as I was concerned. But hey, after a few days I fell in love.
After you load Xmouse, watch your cursor. Open two copys of notepad. Point at the first one, and push "1". Now without clicking, point at the 2nd one, and type "2". Wow, now you have two windows, with different numbers in them, and you didn't have to click one mouse button!
Heh, sure can, but not with that example! Look, if you are not a power user, then Xmouse will not help you one bit. Go back to your MAC wannabe and play, ok? Back to the question, the answer is, clicking takes time! Not much, but more than you might think. With Xmouse, windows makes it much easier to have two or more apps open, and share data between them, or make them do different things, which require small amounts of input, but often. Often, you know you want to do something with an app, that is why you are pointing at it, in the first place. Xmouse makes windows guess the obvious.
A big one, unfortunately. Moving the mouse cursor over a toolbar will not only bring focus to that app, but will also bring it to the top. A real Xwindows system doesn't bring the window to the front, unless you first click somewhere on its border first. This may be going to far, but the way Xmouse works right now is definitely broken.
Sure, both 4DWM and OpenView, for two. There are many other window managers that support mouse focus, but I don't remember their exact names. What, you don't run UNIX?
Sorry, but I don;t know of anything better than Xmouse for Window95 or NT. I would like to write one, but I don't have the skill to do that, yet. Right now I am still trying to understand MFC, and not even bothering with the Windows API.
But I like so many Windows95 applications! I wish I could get the same apps for Linux, if I could, I would do just that, and leave Windoze behind. But the apps just don't exist yet. Besides, Windows does have its good side, and with Xmouse installed it isn't that bad.
I was hoping you would say that! Click here to goto the powertoys download page.
Finally, I decided to store it on the wall, like a painting. It wasn't going to do me any good in some box, or in the trash. After having it up on the wall for a while I am really glad I put it there. When the light hits it right it looks really like a work of art. Even when it is dark in my room it is interesting to examine. The old motherboards are much more complex than the newer ones, so there are lots of parts to look at, and every now and then I stop for a minute or two and study some part that I haven't looked at before.
When my 386 motherboard was new it cost much more than any other piece of art on my wall. So now in a way it is the most expensive artwork I own. Yes, I think the motherboard has truly become a work of art. I want to buy another new motherboard now, mostly so I can put another one of my old (currently in use) motherboards on the wall.
