Year: 2008

I enjoy a good RPG as well, I am in the middle of playing Fable on Xbox a 2nd time around, exploring it a bit more. But it is tedious sometimes.

I am also a big Harry Turtledove fan, although I prefer his Fantasy stuff vs. the Alternate Reality stuff.

It’s CK’s birthday very soon, so a bunch of the Crazies hit Preview Bar & Grill for lunch before heading off to do some bowling. It’s the first Saturday of a school holiday time, so it was absolutely packed. The kind of packed where you’re keeping as much of an eye on small people as you are on the pins 😉

Being packed also means you’re not so likely to get the balls you need, in our case CK, Bionicdwarf and me all like to have size 10 balls with large holes … My hands aren’t that big but I can’t release a bowling ball properly unless the holes are right. I got my benchmark in both games by getting 116 in the first and 100 in the second. I use a size 10 ball because while I have the arm strength to use a 12, I’ll not have much hope of keeping that going over a couple of games.

I don’t bowl too often, so I’m usually relearning how to get the consistency going, so I’m quite happy with hitting my 100 benchmark this time. Even though in the second game, I needed a Spare and 9 to make the hundred … Good start in that game but I had a period in the middle where I only got 2 pins down in a couple of frames. The problem in my shoulder doesn’t affect 10 pin bowling, as the flaw there kicks in when my arm is pointing upwards. 10 pin bowling balls are a bit heavy for that and a cricket bowling action would get you evicted from a 10 pin alley due to scaring everyone with 100 yards 🙂

Results :
Bionicdwarf coming out in front with a bit of Smirnoff Ice powered consistency
CK being 3rd in the first game and 2nd in the second
Me hitting my benchmarks but struggling for consistency
CQ doing her best but struggling due to poorly arm

Bowling’s fun 🙂 And the waitress in Preview Bar & Grill was rather pretty too. However, I can see the time coming very soon where I need to hit the coffee again. There’s another one of those bugs going round at work again, I have a feeling it may be my turn. Strong, milky coffee is great, because I make it strong enough to make my hair stand on end and smooth enough to ease a sore throat 🙂

Ahhhh, civilization. I started with the Colonization game and then went on to the Civilization series. Awesome!.

Recently I have downloaded Colonization again and it had helped pass many hours on an airplane.

Here from Michele.

BK – Doom was very, very close to being on there 🙂 Trouble is, do you put in Doom, or Quake, or Dark Forces, or Far Cry or even the original Wolfenstein …

Utenzi – might be worth checking out Civ 4 🙂 Looks like Firaxis noticed their game getting a little unfriendly with Civ 3. I definitely did, Civ 3 drove me away from the Civ concept for a little while. Civ 4 is rather stripped back though, it’s back to the form of Civ 1.

Must fire it up again so I can indulge in a bit of world conquering 🙂

Michele sent me over, Sleepy Pete.

I loved Civilization when it first came out. By version 3 it got so bloated it could be annoying to play but the earlier versions were quite fun. You’re quite correct about the spear versus tank problem. The algorithms that were in the software were often a mite peculiar in execution.

No Doom??? This has always been my favourite game though I’m by no means someone who plays a lot of games. Once mt MBA is over though I am looking forward to playing a few games on my PS3. So far I’ve been good! I always seem to play more Spider Solitaire and Freecell when I should be studying!

The legs aren’t too bad 🙂 I still have pretty much full power out of them when I want it and if I’m noticing them then it means that the shoulder and back are having a good day 😉

I’ve had the heating off for a couple of days and even had to go jumper-less in work this afternoon ! Temperature gauge on a garage on the way home from work was reading 20 Centigrade 🙂

Back to what’s pretty much my roots again 🙂 Today is a chance to recalling some of the games I spent far too much time on in the past.

Thirteen Things about Classic Games 1…. First and Foremost – Elite ! The original computer space game. You’re on your own with a beat up ship. No weapons to speak of and minimal equipment. Your aim – to shoot your way to the top ratings and to trade your way into all-shiny bits for your ship. Elite’s gone through several versions and is about the only game I know to have a version for Every! computer platform and some consoles too. 2…. Pacman. Another really old classic. This one has the gift of being oh so simple to play and incredibly addictive. 3…. Civilisation. Simple in theory, epic in scale. However, it did get a little frustrating though when your tank army got held up by a spear toting savage. (One for the aliens in Harry Turtledove’s Worldwar books!) This one has sprouted 3 sequels so far, with a multitude of other games also using the same game concept. It’s always a sign of a top game when others copy it. 4…. Revs. Another BBC Micro game. This one wasn’t the first racing game to hit a computer screen but it was probably the first to really go for accuracy. If you’ve heard of Geoff Crammond’s Grand Prix series, then this is Geoff Crammond’s GP Version Zero. 5…. Badminton. Hey ! You thought I was going to put 13 pooter games in here 🙂 Quick, fast, energetic but there’s still a chance for the old git with a little bit of skill to put one over on the young ‘uns. I haven’t played enough of this game lately, I still love the game despite it being the reason why my right shoulder has pretty much disintegrated. 6…. Master of Orion 1 and 2. I’ve mentioned this one before and it got me the link to the Moo2 Blogspot site. Another pair of strategy games here, this time set in space. You start with just your homeworld and before the end you’ll have a Star Empire sending ships across the galaxy through immense stargates. You’ll have not just one Death Star but a fleet of them. You’ll turn asteroids into planets and dead planets into garden paradises. In between defeating all enemies and crushing all resistance of course. Moo3 was a bit of a let down. It was much bigger but kinda missed the thing that makes a game Great. 7…. Pen and Paper Role Play Games. Lots of people go down the pub to have a laugh with their mates. I’ve never really been into that, I enjoy it more having a cleric or a mage or a mad warrior going down the pub in some fantasy place. And then there’s the mysteries and the monster slaying too. 8…. World of Warcraft … Up to level 60/70 ! Making an important distinction there as this is a game that changes utterly when you get to the maximum level. Before, it is most certainly the best game I’ve played. Full of content, variation and before a recent patch, well paced. However, when you get to the maximum level you’re at the mercy of the other players around. It only takes a couple of people to turn a few hours play into severe hard work when it should be fun. 9…. Cricket. Another one where anyone can play it. The big skinny lanky bloke can bowl fast, the short chubby batsman makes the fielders run to the boundary. The whippet boy will terrorize from the close field. The youngster provides the energy and spirit that drives the rest on. Crafty guy will put the batsmen in a spin and the crotchety old git will be the rock that holds the batting together. 10.. UFO Enemy Unknown. Also known as X-Com. This one has you as the commander of an elite group charged with saving the world from alien incursions. It blended a real time portion where you had fighter aircraft to intercept UFOs with a take turns based portion where you sent in the boys (and girls) to give those aliens a jolly good kicking before stealing all their loot. This one spawned a clone of a sequel that I never played and an exceptional second sequel called X-Com Apocalypse. Apocalypse was a little different and a good evolution on the first. There was also X-Com Interceptor, same again but in space with light fighter craft and finally the ill-fated X-Com Enforcer. 11… Karting. I’ve had a chance to race in a few karting sessions and it’s always a thrill. A kart is pretty much just a frame with a seat bolted to it, a lawnmower engine, a little steering and four wheels at the corners. The driver is connected to it through the seat of their pants and they’ll feel every bump and every slip where the tyres are itching to go in a different question to the one you intended. Far more immediate than driving something with springs, plus it’s competition and competition always gets me interested 🙂 12… Mischief Running. Otherwise known as seeing whether you can get away with winding people up. Mischief because that’s the fun part. Running because that’s what you’ll end up doing if you push it too far 🙂 13… Microsoft’s Windows games ! Many a lunchtime has been spent chilling out to Freecell, Spider, Solitaire and Minesweeper.

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I love the longer evenings myself. Our light starts to fade at around 8pm here and so going out for a walk while it’s still light is a novel concept lol.

Sorry to hear about the problems with your legs though, that kinda sucks.

I’m finally mostly recovered from the vacation. It’s a weird feeling to say that I need a vacation to recover from the vacation lol.

After my week and a bit skive, I’ve been back at work for a couple of days now.

Yesterday was a bit of a bust, we could get email but we didn’t have access to the server that holds all of our data. And without data, there’s not much you can actually achieve. Unless you can get to other servers with more data on them 🙂 We got our shared area back midway through the afternoon, so most of us were back in business. That would be the people who had gone through the recent server migration unscathed.

Today was more like it, although it ended up being one of those days where you’re scurrying around doing lots of stuff except for what you intended to do 🙂 Which would be set up a heap of spreadsheets that will make my life easier over the next year as well as getting me the odd brownie point.

The week off seems to have done me some good 🙂 I was charging around yesterday with far more zip than I’ve had for months. Could have been something to do with the company I had on the way in from the car park. Miss L is always a wonderful person to talk to, although I tend to babble too much when I see her.

Hopefully the zip will last me for a while, as I’m already suffering the effects of the various injuries I live with. The most prominent is currently shinsplints. There’s two areas where the shins can suffer, the first being where the bone gets weak. I get around that by trying to drink around a pint of milk a day for the calcium. The second is more complex, it’s when the problem is in the lower leg muscles. I have rather over developed calf muscles, so the problem is probably due to the muscles that oppose the calves not being strong enough.

It’s ignorable 🙂 And I think my walking style where I try and walk fast but quiet should ease it a bit.

Last thought and this is one shared yesterday with Miss L – it’s really good to be in British Summer Time again. The light is just going here, at 7.30 in the evening. Dinner bell is going off, so I’m about to turn the room light on before settling down in front of Raiders of the Lost Ark with my dinner. And maybe some popcorn for the second half 🙂