Actually, think in terms of Bits and Pieces of Mark's More Recent Interests and Experiences.
What a game! I've beaten it three times this summer, one orc fighter (sword), one orc assassin (unicorn), one human wizard (cup), in that order, all using blessed scrolls of familiar summoning on D50. It really is a nearly impossible game. Do I have any tips? The ADOM guidebook is a pretty good start. Oh, and get crowned ASAP (think gold). PV is very important in the first part of the game. Having more hitpoints and a DV over 100 is important in the endgame. Ball spells, burning hands, magic missile, and acid bolt and acid ball really kick (high willpower preferred). Oh, and don't play this like a real-time game - it's very important to know when to run (having a fast PC with blessed sevel league boots can extend your lifespan significantly). Favorite race/class combinations? I think I'm going to try a gnomish thieves and high elven assassins in the future. You can't ignore the chaos resistance of L50 paladins and farmers, nor the fast level advancement and generic quality of humans or the general overall superiority of high elves. Barbarians and wizards/priests are probably the easiest classes to play. I prefer to be neutral so I can be a member of the Thieves' Guild. What to wish for? Phase daggers are neat if not a must for less hardy PC's (with rings of slaying, mind you), girdles of giant strength are seriously awesome, but scrolls of chaos resistance are probably the best, unless of course you haven't come across that Sage we all have heard so much about...
In other video game news, I finally took the time to play and finish Photopia. Well worth the 20-30 minutes. Really though, I suspect Photopia is a literary work which will be studied (plot+technology) in years to come. Just plain brilliant.
I bought the movie in VHS format. It's really not that bad, at least from my point of view as a long-time Wing Commander fan. Of course I hated the ending as much as anybody else did. And the Pilgrim idea too I suppose, but not as much. I think Mr. Roberts created a very Wing Commander-like atmosphere but took away from that atmosphere with his choice of setting. What I mean is, he didn't have to start the movie with a rookie Blair and end with what is, at the very least, the turning point in the Kilrathi war and Blair as the hero of the Kilrathi war (and all in 2 days). Yes, a very rushed plot, doing very little justice to what made the Wing Commander games fun.
I reread the Lord of the Rings. Neat stuff. Highly recommended. Hobbits rule. I've also just read Zelazny's Amber series. Tolkien, Zelazny, and Douglas Adams for me. It's funny how Roguelike games make you want to read books...
I bought an Aureal Software Modem aka WinModem near the beginning of summer (~$20). It was far from trouble free to set up. Windows wouldn't detect it unless it was put in a specific PCI slot. Additionally the back plate on the card itself and the wall and phone connectors were not aligned properly making the modem a pain to work with physically. Of course I had to disable a com port on my motherboard so my software would even work with it (com5 anyone?). After a few hours of agitating trouble shooting it refused to connect to Juno Web, but it worked fine for e-mail. This was unacceptable. This was more than a month ago.
Today, after finding out about other free ISP's, I re-installed the modem and it works fine with the new ISP's (but still not Juno with any access number). I was initially impressed by Netzero with its multiple access numbers and POP e-mail access (as well as Windows NT support, the nice web site, etc.). But I found out you must click on the banners every so and so minutes. But I was at least mildly annoyed by how CPU intensive Netzero's banners were and would not consider Netzero viable for anything slower than PII class systems. FreeInternet.com is my favorite. It's not anywhere as intrusive as other Free ISP's, and there is a fast and reliable access number in my area. I've heard you can use Linux with your account as well. Altavista's, Lycos,' and Excite's free internet are exactly the same, and offer the most access numbers of the ISP's I've tried. The downloads are very small too, though there is some software required to connect (e.g. IE4, DUN).
FYI, I haven't noticed a performance difference (I don't do telephony or play games online) between my new WinModem and my hardware modems, except of course that my WinModem is a 56k modem. And though my connections have been reliable, I haven't been able to go faster than 49k... But if you want my advice, get DSL. External modems are best if DSL isn't available.
I mean the web browser Opera. It still rules. I wish it was stable. It's very fast and has features that just want to make you ask, why hasn't Netscape or M$ come up with that yet?
I've spent a bit of money on eBay this summer. Among the lot include many books, several fm radio cards, and a vortex2. I took advantage of low market demand at times and will be collecting the profits in the fall (part of which will go to paying for my digital piano).
Here is a nice guide to computer hardware. If you just want to buy a [unix] computer without worrying about the parts in it, I suggest going here.
I've been playing the piano off and on for a year now, and have pretty much exhausted the book I've been working with. My next projects are memorizing a nearly 7 minute long version of Pachelbel's Canon and then Chopin's Etude Op. 10 No. 3. Once I can find a copy of Chopin's Heroic Polonaise, I'll be done with half of my repetoire :). I have purchased a digital piano for practicing since Valpo doesn't maintain its dorm pianos.
Don't forget to check out The Free Sheet Music Guide.
I've finished my stats class. Adequate prof., good looking but not altogether intelligent women, annoying homework, all in all I didn't mind it much at all.
This is my home computer.
I've had this box for some time, and I've come to appreciate knowing the parts in it. I have the latest bioses for my mobo and video card. I have pretty much optimized my bios settings as much as I know how. The CPU is not exactly a modern one, but it has the integer performance of a PR266 and the floating point performance of a K6-2 300. Not bad at all I think. There isn't much to be said about my Matrox (other than what's already been said elsewhere). My Voodoo2 uses the reference drivers. Glide compatibility is something I consider necessary. The Vortex2 rules. I don't really make use of its 3D capabilities, but I do like its ability to deal with several sample set formats (SF2, DLS, ARL). Having a PCI sound card is pretty much a must. Too bad Aureal is dead, though its contributions to the PC hardware scene are permanent. I used to have a hardware, albeit slower, modem but now use the winmodem because free ISP's kill bandwidth with banner ads. I purchased my FM radio card to listen to a local radio talk show. If you have one of these cards, check out Radiator. I just recently realized that I had a digital joystick - it's basically a Thrustmaster slash CH compatible slash work-a-like, but I haven't gotten it to work in digital mode with my digital gameport. You can't say much more about my monitor other than it's a Trinitron. BTW, I run at 1024x768 32-bit true color at 85 Hz refresh in 2D (small fonts), 640x480 at 85 Hz refresh for my Voodoo2. My speakers are pretty much entry-level/OEM-like but are powerful and clear sounding enough.
Copyright © 1997 Mark Santos. All rights reserved.