Linksception : Or how old golf computer games treated customers like human beings.

  For those not in the know, Links was a long running series of computer golf simulations from Access Software who sublet their work to Microsoft, got bought out, and ended on the X Box original.  Yes, the series of super important electronic golf games that started on 8 bit microcomputers as Leaderboard in the mid 80s ended about 20 years later.  While some of the Leaderboard games had console platform ports, Links itself went from 1990 to 2002 (with a 2003 year date in the game) as a PC series that was famous for the sheer volume of courses released and how amazing the graphics were.

  We are both going to see Links going through five iterations and how a course from the original Links (albeit the CDROM budget rerelease.  In 3 cases my boxed copies of these games were later versions with some bug fixes or CD/Special Edition versions.) is still legal and playable throughout every game I have!

(Click for bigger if you need to and the image permits.  I tried to screencap mostly from my Windows 7 rig but some were on the square monitor 98se machine or photographs.)

While as mentioned the Leaderboard/World Class Leaderboard series is where the Access golf games began, Links is where it got SUPER popular.  Here we are at the white tee at Firestone.  For 1990 this looked amazing.  And it ran on 286 machines with VGA graphics.  

Yes a Windows 98se machine that was originally an XP machine (thus pretty much capable of running all 9x software at top speed if not beyond thanks to its specs as an Athlon 3200 CPU with a decent ATI card for 2004 and the whole ever increasing system hog thing Windows doing not being as big a deal.) is running Dosbox.  I sort of need it to transfer files over thanks to issues in LS 1998 when we get there.

The CD case back showing what they have to say about the game.

The next installment in the franchise was 386 which later became Pro CD.  My version has some Windows 3.1/9x support to the original DOS program which is handy.  Plus golf and golf computer games tend to be things rich older guys care about so not requiring to drop to DOS on their fancy machines was a good feature.  But belying the age, the conversion of old courses required a different program on the disk plus entering text commands.  So you needed the manual to really do it.

And here we have the same course, now converted over and running around twice the resolution.  Cool!  It is still a pain to see the course layout while actively playing but given the technology and resolution size it is kind of understandable.  Kind of.

Yes the attentive will see the included courses are on the Course Libraries.  Meaning two of the volumes they advertise are really four courses.  I guess?  Hooray?

One of the funnier bits of old OSes on newer machines and older software is getting "System Information" screens showing something reliable.  In many cases they have no idea what the hell is even going on and give inaccurate information.    And each time you check you get something DIFFERENT.  Like this time I got the info above.  Next time I got lower, a different time higher.

LS 1998 was a bit nicer having a conversion program within the program itself instead of off on its' own.  It also has absurd resolutions for the time that I am unaware if my old flat CRT monitor can even handle.

Because of the age and era you could even leave courses and other content on the disks.  Now with modern machines and the like space is approaching infinite for old stuff.  (Provided you aren't a pirate or doing massive amounts of audiovisual work on your machine as well anyhow!)

In LS 1998's case, some courses were pre converted on one of the multiple CDs the game came on and merely required the disk to verify you bought the old content.  Or in a case or two it wasn't converted over and you had to go without.  

Firestone keeps getting a bit prettier though!  Sadly I had a bit of a derp moment with tee selection and was at Blue for 98 and 2001.  You get the idea though.  We have evolved to the interface taking up less of the screen.

The last of my "Big Box" era Links games.  This one has more propaganda in the front opening flap but let us just pretend you are a normal lazy person and just look at the back and that is it.  (The same situation will apply to the last two boxes.  I can't be arsed to scan six more images of ad copy.)  Also the front of the box has a foil sticker saying it really does 1800x1440 resolution.  In a game from 97/98.  Yeah.  

2001 is almost a beta version of 2003 so they tend to be very similar though 2001 uses older 2d video styled golfers and hasn't added in the Real Swing form yet though it does have a different analog styled swing mode.  So basically we now have actual course data being imported though we need to take the CRX files from the LS 97-99 days  and get them converted with this program to CRZ.

2001 isn't as good as 03 so I merely installed all 1.5 gigs of it to take a couple screenshots and had to patch and download a NO CD crack because of an issue Microsoft was aware of where the copy protection didn't work with all CDROM drives.

Now it looks more or less like 2003 does although not quite as good.  And finally a nice overhead view of the hole on screen as a default that you can aim on and leave up.  You don't see the maps on the earlier screenshots because it wasn't a default.  In some editions it could be a preset window cutting your view down, or a thing you brought up with a button to look at then closed.  Which is annoying.

There is a joke about YOUR MOM'S BOX here but I can't think of a clever one...

My version of 2001 was a Championship Edition so what I spent 10 bucks shipped for got me lots of good content to bring forwards into 03.  (See I only owned Links, LS 1998, and 2003.  Some dumb idea made me get for 10 shipped and boxed 2001 CE, and PRO CD.  10 each is GOOD VALUE!)

Pre getting 2001 in the mail I had this many courses to play with.  Now including some free courses (and a couple patches from Linkscountryclub.com) I have THIRTY.  30 courses of golfy goodness!

All praise the REAL TIME SWING.  At least on one of the easier modes.  My mouse space isn't that large!  But said patch gives me lovely 1080p resolution.

Obviously courses designed from the ground up for later editions are going to look much better though.  More variations in terrain and all that.   Plus we see the Real Time Swing results.  I kinda hooked it here...

 My skills have gotten better though.  However in the easier mode I am in while swinging the ball isn't quite as sensitive as it is in harder difficulties the AI opponents in the various modes are also not as good either.  I kind of wish I could have slightly better opponents while also having a slightly more lenient swing.

 And the final box back before EA basically became the only real Golf game maker of note.  

Hopefully everyone enjoyed this little trip down Video Golf Memory Lane and can appreciate the fact much of the content from the original Links was able to be played in every game after that.  (Well that I own.  I don't have all the LS year games and I am honestly not sure I need them.  30 courses is a TON of content.)

A shame most game makers don't do things like this when possible.

[Retrocomputing: Why Bother?] Shadowcaster, DOSBox, and Making Old Games Play Better

  Back in the day games were young and controls weren't set in stone.  Many games just didn't have well thought out or even remotely ergonomic control schemes.  And now we have better control devices with more buttons while having gotten used to modern controls and control schemes.

(All praise Thresh for WASD mouse look.  PRAISE HIM!)

Which leads us to our game, Shadowcaster:

Shadowcaster is an early 90s hybrid of FPS, Adventure Game, and RPG.  Developed by Raven Software with some Id Software engine and coding help it was published by Origin Systems.  (My release is the CD version from the EA Classics line of budget rereleases.)

In this game you play a character who can transform into different creature forms, each of which with their own inventory, abilities, and experience levels.  Play is done with a mixture of mouse and keyboard controls which cannot be remapped in any way.  That is played in real time.

The automap you will be swapping into a lot if you are me.

If you want to follow along, you can see the controls here:  http://replacementdocs.com/download.php?view.802

Now some controls aren't quite explained in the manual but there are a number of keyboard keys as well.  But take a look!  See how the right hand side of your keyboard plus your mouse which for most of us is also right hand controlled.

It.. isn't exactly comfortable to control games like this.  Back in the day many games used the Numeric Keypad or the Arrow Keys for almost everything.  And while some titles could be mostly played with the mouse, in real time games this is nearly unplayable and makes these games much less fun to control, especially when you have spent nearly 20 years used to our modern default PC game control schemes.  And even turn based titles end up being slower, clunkier, and much less fun.

However as a modern gamer playing PC games in DOSBox or other titles in emulators for other platforms or even titles that run natively on our modern machines we have many many options to make our games play much better. 

It is time to show you fine folks what I did.

First we need to realize my keyboard, which has the bonus of being plugged into my PC with two USB cables because it is huge makes moving it for the simplest solution of moving the keyboard to the left so I can rest my left hand on the numeric keypad simply isn't happening, not even taking into account the limited desk space I have.  It is nearly 20 inches wide and 7 inches deep.  It takes up a heck of a lot of space!  So the laziest solution just isn't going to work.

Thankfully my mouse comes with built in software to remap keys.  As the game uses left and right mouse buttons already I leave them alone, thanking Cthulhu that Logitech's software lets me still use some buttons as default for a mouse.  I set the middle button to switching between normal for the age computer mode that shows a bit more of the game interface and info and the better looking large size window.  I am always needing to see the automap so it gets the button normally used for on the fly DPI (Dots Per Inch. Basically how sensitive the mouse is when moved.).  The two thumb buttons are used for the primary and secondary ability actions that would otherwise involve moving and clicking icons on the screen while trying to fight or move.  Now it is done with a single button press!  AWESOME.

I could also do things like messing with DOSbox' keymapper but it is clunky and not exactly useful in the long run.  I am lazy after all!

 I think about maybe using JoyToKey to turn a joystick into a movement controller, or even taking a modern dual stick control pad and making it both mouse and keyboard, which is something this program can do.  But.. its a bit slow and annoying to set up for that much.

But an idea I had that was mentioned by some folks in IRC that made me realize it was one that had merit involved me buying a USB numeric keypad designed to be an add on to laptop computers or some of our more modern mini keyboards.

10 bucks at Best Buy got me one.    But if I rest it where my hand naturally wants to be I will practically have my arms stretched out to an absurd amount.  So long term that needs to be done lest I want to angle and move the number pad around or rest it on my leg.

 Sadly my 2005 iMac keyboard is only a tiny bit smaller.  Not remotely enough to move or unplug the main keyboard just to play some old games.

 But.. I have a Bluetooth keyboard for my Ipad Air.  And look at it!  It is cute and wee!  But I need to get a Bluetooth dongle because my machine doesn't have Bluetooth.

 Look at it!  PERFECT!    So now I need a 14 bucks online Bluetooth USB dongle and I will have the best and easiest solution to comfortable game playing for 100s if not 1000s of old games over many platforms!

 In emulation on a good modern PC various programs and all our modern devices can make games that were iffy back in the day to play and nearly unplayable today nearly sublime!

[Let's Play] Party Like its 1987! Let's Experience the Atari Computer! Part Something: Some Atari Books and Other Retro Goodness. (Also Retro Computing Why Bother Post!)

Every now and then I get new Atari 8 bit goodies and sometimes other goodies.  Let's show them, and have STORYTIME!

(As always click for bigger.  You know the drill!)

For around 20 bucks shipped I got these lovely retro games for PCs.  Mostly Windows 9x era or a DOS title in Thunderscape's case.  Heavy Gear goes into my Hobby Games Gone Electronic niche, and Quake Mission Pack 1 goes into my Id Games niche.  While I need a TON of HGGE, for Id I am getting closer and closer to having them all.  4 more Mission Packs for Quake 1-3, Quake 4, Quake Wars, Rage, Heretic, and Hexen 2 and I should be pretty much complete unless I want every Raven Software game made with Id engines.  (Though the Wolfenstein games fit this.  Wouldn't mind Blake Stone either.  Luckily I already have Shadowcaster which is also an Origin joint.)

Suprisingly enough Heavy Gear generally seems to RUN in Windows 7!!  I have Compatibility Mode on Windows 95 and it goes.  The in case manual is little more than key commands and installation instructions though.  And because I have a Glide Wrapper to handle 3DFX Voodoo 3D, I can run it in that mode.   Sadly the out of game menus are all graphically glitchy and nigh unviewable in some cases even when I switch to 16 bit color or try 256 color modes.  (I have Administrator to Run settings on but for Windows 7 you basically HAVE TO.  And some programs run best in the C: drive directory as a folder whilst others would be happiest in Program Files or Program Files (X86).  If your programs run oddly try putting it in one of these other locations!)

Also being a Win 95 era game the glory of WASD controls isn't there so you have to go through a VERY tedious remapping system in game.  Also there doesn't seem to be any other resolution modes but 640 by 480.  Oh well.  It can go chill on the Win 98 SE rig.  It doesn't care that I have a mouse wheel or two extra mouse buttons either which for this game would be VERY useful.  Might as well go back to the older rig for this one!

But it works so I am a happy *Camper* and it will do.  I would prefer having the full manual but it was super cheap and I already have the cluebook.

The Quake Mission Pack on the other hand works fine.  It installed nicely in Dosbox for Dos Quaking, and with a little bit of Shortcut modifiying:

(As seen at:  http://www.dosgamers.com/ .  I tend to make things like cheatsheets or quickie pages for things using Snipping Tool.  It is very useful.  Screencaptures made easy!  Reorganized maps for RPGs!  Things that won't let you copy a picture!  Easy peasy!)

I'm in the start of the second third of the game right now and overall I like this mission pack over the original Quake solo campaign.  It is a bit more challenging without being ridiculous, and adds in new monsters like this Gremlin dude who will nick your stuff or do things to dudes you already killed like this elite Knight.  Also a pair of energy weapons which are pretty fun and an alternate Grenade Launcher that shoots sticky bombs that explode after like 20 seconds or so unless an enemy gets close then BOOM.  Lots of fun level designs in this pack.  Sadly this trimester took away all my stuff as Quake is wont to do so I have to regain it all.

And even using a new item which summons a random monster to fight for me doesn't help against the big guys.  The summoned dog died quickly then I joined the poor murderpooch.

I haven't installed Thunderscape yet but its a party RPG SSI tried to get going as a franchise after they lost the D&D license.  It.. did not exactly light the world on fire.  The game looks cool though.  I could have gotten it off of GOG.com for about a third of the six whole US Dollars I paid for it, but I am a big boy who can manage to use Dosbox or an actual DOS rig.  And I like having real manuals and disks because I am stupid.

But now on to STORYTIME!

Meet the two most helpful members of the DINORINES!  They are Blades and Heatwave.  They each cost 4 dollars which is less than a proper Iced Latte.  I couldn't say no to them joining my collection of Dinorines!  

I got this faded but reasonably priced Compute!'s First Book of Atari Graphics for like MSRP shipped.  It is an old book but I do wish to learn how to program sometime and having another nicely priced book for my Atari 8 bit collection is always welcome.  (When I can afford it.)

The book is about 250 pages long and has helpful charts like this one showing the various graphics modes available to the Atari 8 bit line and what they do and how much RAM it eats.

Some practice and educational programs to type in to learn as you read which is a great way to make words in a book stick into your brain meats.  I generally read and forget a lot unless things reinforce it or refresh my memory.  If I don't, it falls out of my memories, much like poor Heatwave's head in this picture.

It also has an in depth section on the GTIA chip which is like the main graphics chip most of the Atari 8 bit line had outside of the earliest releases of the 400/800 machines.  Read some of the text in these pages if you would like and learn how the Atari owns the Apple IIs and even gives the mighty Commodore 64 a run for it's money!  (The original chip, the CTIA has a few less graphics modes and only 128 color choices.)

Heatwave is excited that we can see if my Atari 800 is a later revision with the GTIA chip.  So much so that his dino nose is hiding a GOTO statement.

Some of the many wonderful Compute! books you could buy back in the early 80s.  On this list I would like the First Book of Robots and Computers, Mapping the Atari, and Machine Language for Beginners.

Blades and Heatwave are happy to show my hardcopy Atari books and reference guides!  They are so happy they go to talk to the rest of the Dinorines about it so we can all learn Atari programming together and maybe make a list of books to pick up and to keep our eyes opened for!

(As opposed to just getting PDFs from Atarimania.  Again I am stupid and like owning physical copies.)

Sadly the bigger Dinorines just don't care.  Slug and Scorn are more interested in spending money on marijuana, hard liquor, and hookers.

(They are also awaiting their other teammates who aren't out in stores yet.  They are however sober enough to have read spoilers for the movie they barely feature in and know that would be an even worse waste of money than buying old computer games and books.  Or toy robots who turn into dinosaurs.

As to the other books I kind of am on the hunt for?

Atari 130XE Machine Language for the Absolute Beginner Atari for the Beginning Beginner Compute!'s Atari Collection - Volume 1 and Volume 2 Compute!'s Second Book of Atari Graphics Compute!'s First Book of Atari Games How to Program Your Atari in 6502 Machine Language Mapping the Atari - Revised Edition The Second Book of Machine Language Writing Strategy Games on Your Atari (Or pretty much most of the books here: http://www.atarimania.com/documents-atari-400-800-xl-xe-books_1_8.html )

Now these aren't all the books I would like plus of course I would love to have original manuals for all my games and devices but time, money, space, and availability are all major considerations.

But.. take the time with your old hardware and LEARN IT.  Don't just play games or continually tinker with the hardware because you have some odd idealized idea of how it should operate.  

Get to know your machine.  Don't hoard stuff for it.  Expand and ENJOY IT as much as possible.  Plus books are awesome and everyone should read more real books.

Game Collection: Dosvidanya! Or: The Last Days of DOS Part 2 (N-Z)

I wasn't going to finish this tonight but the BUG OF CREATION hit me.  When that little SOB says DOO EEEIT!! the best thing to do is to strike whilst the iron is hot.  Plus I am getting irritated having PC games covering my living room for the last few months in preparation for this project.

As always, click for bigger pictures.

Nomad is kind of like Lightspeed but I never got into it.  PCs After Hours (disk pic to come!) is a collection of stuff some business computer user might throw on their 92-94 era PCs to play around with.  Power Dolls is a Japanese turn based wargame with mechs.  All piloted by women.  PT 109 is sadly the CGA version and not the EGA I think I wanted it for.  Its a kick ass PT boat sim anyhow.  Played a ton of it on the Votech school's Mac SEs.  (About the only things they were good for!)  Quest for Glory is the VGA remake of the Sierra Adventure RPG hybrid and it owns.  Rise of the Dragon is a point and click adventure with some action elements.  Shadowcaster is a FPS adventure game where you can turn into cool monsters.  Shadowlands is a rad isometric RPG.  Sadly I don't have the Sci Fi sequel.

 Siege and the expansion were RTS games.  About attacking or defending castles in the same universe as Magic Candle.  Shadow of Yserbius/Fates of Twinion were primarily early online Bard's Tale styled MMOs to be played over Sierra's network.  But they were offline as well.  Okish I guess.  Cabal/Sidearms/Street Fighter were CGA/EGA ports of the Capcom classic arcade titles.  And kind of pants.  Dunno where the disks went.  Sorcerian is a translation of the Japanese side scrolling action RPG.  It was popular in Japan and got a couple remakes and expansion packs.  We got.. bupkis.  Spellcasting 201 was a cheeky text adventure with point and click stuff plus pictures.  Stunt Island is one of the best flight games ever made.  Fly stuff!  Do cool stunts for movies!  Set up your own movies!

 Strife was a weird Doom engine game merged with an RPG.  Summoning was an action RPG and a sequel in spirit of Darkspire.  System Shock was the legendary FPS RPG follow up to Ultima Underworld.  Terminator was an early "Sandbox" game and mostly using 3d polygons.  About 10-15 years before the tech could handle it.  Terminator 2029 was more or less an FPS with step movement.  Kind of cool but hard.  The 2 Aegis disks are Trek games.  You know the classic computer wargame?  Yeah.  Ultrabots was a simple mech sim.  Kind of alright.  Ultimate Games is where Spectre VR came from.  I think every other disk I either traded or lost.  No big loss.

 Ultimate Wizardry Archives is Wizardry 1-7 (Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord through Crusaders of the Dark Savant and the Windows 9x "Gold" port as well.) with the cluebook next to it.  Veil of Darkness is an isometric action adventure involving vampires.  Vengeance of Excalibur is a real time wargame mixed with some RPG elements.  Wargame Construction Set 3: Age of Rifles is the third Wargame maker game from SSI, this time focused on the 1800s era of warfare.  Warcraft 2 is like the UR RTS alongside Command & Conquer.  I could swear I had Warcraft 1 as well but.. it was kind of butt, especially compared to 2.  (And C&C Red Alert basically perfected it all.)

 Warlords 2 and its scenario maker are the best turn based conquer the world wargame ever made.  Wing Commander 2 and Privateer continue that space flight sim series.  Wing Commander 3 was the last big leap for the franchise, to it's detriment in my opinion.  X Com Terror From the Deep is the turn based strategy game sequel to X Com.  Except it was bugged and is locked on IMPOSSIBLE mode.  Otherwise it adds some cool improvements but is otherwise merely a total conversion of the original.

 Roberta Williams Anthology is basically all of her adventure games pre Phantasmagoria in one collection.  I got it from some Columbia House like Computer Software Club thingie.  I still cannot grok to Adventure games even though I try.  Space Quest Companion is a big cluebook.  Because I was borrowing the original Space Quest and needed help to complete it.  We see a Lucasarts and SSG catalog, plus the Quick Reference version of DOS FOR DUMMIES.  Since my PC didn't come with any tutorials for DOS 5.0.  (And I screwed it up so many times trying to shave precious kilobytes off my 130 meg HD.  Ultima 7 and expansion wanted 25 megs of it!  Windows 3.1 5!  DOS another 2-3!)

 I got rid of this game but kept the box.  I wonder why?

Shareware disks!  Mostly purchased ones!  (And a couple other things like the PC After Hours pack in disk and a collection of useful tools from Dvorak and Interplay.)  See back in the pre Internet age the only real way most people could get shareware was from BBSes or if they didn't have any they could call up, they had to buy them.  Usually 2-5 bucks a disk.  Even if the game sucked it was worth the price of a McDonald's Extra Value Meal or an indie comic book just to try them out.  Some were fun for an hour or two at least.

And that is pretty much all of my DOS games from the DOS age.  

Now they are all nicely binned in some semblance of alphabetical order, with the disks back in their plastic disk holder slowly continuing to die (abandonware sites are wonderful for getting backups to store on a flash drive or burn to CD to use on the old machine.  Or to use on modern PCs with DOSBox), and the CDs back in the drawer in my bedroom.

So many great games here.  And so many I want to go back and play some more, or play for the first time.

Go through your own old games collection.  You might rekindle a lost love.  Or make a new one.