Installation Introspective (November 23, 2007)

[Vinman]

Falcon 3.0

Oh GOD!! I was never able to get that game running with a joystick, sound card and mouse in memory at the same time. What a memory hog!

 

[Edfilho]

heh, I remember being 6 years old and struggling to set up proper boot disks for Falcon 3.0, Xwing and WC2. I had an old Zeos 486, pretty good for the time. All I wanted to do was play the game, and I just didn't understand why it was so much more difficult than fireing up SNES and Super Mario World...

I do remember being proud of the fact that I was into PC gaming at the time...most of my other friends sticked with the nintendos and segas....

When I look back on it though, those days forced me to gain a certain level of understanding with computers than perhaps I would have otherwise. Fast forward to summer 2003 when I worked as an intern in a law office. Someone had computer issues, and I remember resolving the problem through the command prompt simply because it was familiar to me. All these lawyers suddenly thought I was THE computer guy.

Honestly, I didn't really know what I was doing. I fixed the computer at the time, and always seemed to bumble my way to solutions for future requests (which then became frequent), but really, I just learned these tricks from gaming.

See? Gaming is good for you.

I guess.

 

[ChrisReid]

More like: I did take my time to do it properly ONCE. Any yes, that might have taken more then one afternoon to get there.

We're running under slightly different assumptions then. While each new WC game needed a bunch of configuration to get it going with its new requirements and new hardware, that didn't necessarily invalidate the older games. Most WC games worked with most new configurations I developed, but especially pre-internet, I just didn't have the drivers and such necessary to get games on the extreme ends of certain needs to work simultaneously.

Yeah, Doom was easy too run, and still is. But damn, Priv, wc2 and WC3 had wildly different hardware and mem config demands... WC3 needed lots of EMS or XMS, while Priv needed you to NOT have any of that turned on, thanks to that god damned mem manager.

This is what I'm talking about. One game wanted EMS, another didn't. One needed MSCDEX/CD-ROM drivers, and another needed them disabled to free up conventional memory.

By the way, I got the package today, thanks!

You're welcome!

 

[cff]

This is what I'm talking about. One needed MSCDEX/CD-ROM drivers, and another needed them disabled to free up conventional memory.

One word: QEMM.
CD drivers+sound drivers+network drivers and still 630 kb base memory free...

 

[ELTEE]

See? Gaming is good for you.

I guess.

No kidding...

Actually, I saw a report a little while back where some experts mentioned that console/pc gaming, in moderation, actually helps children develop superior hand/eye coordination and allows them to lower stress created from school etc.

Thought that was funny, as I remember growing up and always hearing that "video games will rot your mind!"