Month: July 2016

just looking

I’ve been getting a little bit interested in games again. Not interested enough to spend any significant amount of time actually playing a game, but enough to spend some time thinking about them and looking at some interesting stuff.

I still haven’t finished Final Fantasy VIII, which I started playing in 2003. And I’m pretty sure the last time I made any progress with it was 2009. I jumped back in a couple of times recently, but I’m stuck at a boss fight that I can’t seem to get past, most likely because I haven’t played the game in so long I really don’t remember what I’m supposed to be doing. So I did some reading to refresh my memory, including finding a few various FAQs and walkthroughs that I had previously downloaded. So I think I have an idea of where I am now, and what I need to do to progress, but now I’ve kind of lost interest again.

Last night, I spent some time browsing through some of the stuff that’s marked down for Steam’s big sale this weekend. There are some good RPGs on sale cheap, including some good stuff that’s marked down to $1.50 or $3. But I’m pretty sure I’d buy something, then never get around to playing it, like I usually do. So I should really just not buy anything.

Over at GOG, I’ve noticed that they’ve added some more AD&D games since the last time I looked, including Dark Queen of Krynn, which is the one gold box game I never finished. And Neverwinter Nights, which I have a regular boxed copy of, for Mac OS, which I bought and never even installed, plus my brother’s old copy for PC (which he played all the way through, I think).

I’ve also been tempted to try out TIS-100, but I think I’m more interested in the idea than the execution on this one. If I want to learn a new programming language, I’m probably better off learning one that looks good on my resume, rather than one that’s really only useful as part of a game. Jeff Atwood has some interesting things to say about this game, and others like it.

Reading about TIS-100 has made me think more deeply about what I’ve been doing with my spare time lately, and what I want to do with it. I enjoy learning new programming languages, and reading (reasonably) high-brow stuff, but, at the end of a workday, I often don’t have the energy for anything other than TV and comic books. And my eyesight often fades at the end of a day, so doing more programming work is out of the question. Even reading can be a chore, depending on the material and typography. And playing a video game sometimes seems more stress-inducing than stress-relieving.

I wonder how somebody like Shawn Wildermuth can do so much work and travel and still spend 1300+ hours on Fallout 4. Lots of coffee, I guess. I can’t imagine spending that much time on a game, while still being a productive member of society. (Shawn, meanwhile, manages to blog, produce a podcast, create content for Pluralsight, and who knows what else. But I digress.)

I’ve been thinking that maybe learning a bit more about game programming might be a fun thing to do. Daniel Schuller’s book How to Make an RPG looks like it could be a good place to start. If nothing else, I’d learn Lua, since that’s the language he uses in this book. The book is almost 1000 pages long though, so that could be a pretty big commitment. (And I’m not sure if knowing how to write a game in Lua would be any more useful on the resume than knowing how to program the TIS-100.)

comics, new and old

I’m still reading my way through old Legion of Super-Heroes issues and having a lot of fun with it.

I even went on Comixology and bought the tie-in Action/Superman issues for the big Superboy story. I’ll admit that it was just about as disappointing as I’d expected it to be, though there were some fun bits in it. The plot was obviously tossed together to reconcile Legion continuity with the (then) new status quo with Superman, and doesn’t really make any logical sense. (Then again, a lot of stuff in superhero comics doesn’t make much logical sense.) But it’s good to have finally read it, after seeing it referenced so often over the years.

I’m continuing to enjoy the trip down memory lane provided by the house ads, letters columns, and “Meanwhile” columns in these comics. (You don’t get any of that in the Comixology versions, so that’s one reason why it’s still cool to read the dead-tree back issues.) I just passed the point where DC was pushing Millennium and its umpteen crossover issues. I didn’t read Millennium when it came out, and I’ve never been tempted to pick up the back issues, but now I’m kind of curious. It doesn’t seem to be available on Comixology, and the collected edition isn’t currently in print (but it’s available used on Amazon). It seems to be one of those series that had a lot of hype, but it fizzled out pretty quickly. Maybe if I see it in somebody’s dollar box at a con, I’ll pick it up.

Meanwhile, I just picked up the second printing of the Rebirth Special, unfortunately now $5.99 instead of the original $2.99. I already read the digital version, but wanted to pick up a hard copy. I have a few of the recent “Rebirth” issues, but haven’t read any of them yet. Reaction to Rebirth seems to be mixed:

So overall, where is DC standing?  In a fog trying to get the comics closer to the tone and feel of 10 years ago, but still clinging to recent continuity.  Can they have their cake and eat it, too?

— from A Fix-Up, Not a Reboot: One Month into DC’s Rebirth

That article also mentions what I’d consider a nightmare scenario, though I admit it’s not entirely unlikely at this point: a “Justice League Vs. Watchmen” series. (Seriously, just leave Watchmen alone, please! It’s a great book and it should stand alone.)

I’d say that DC continuity at this point is so confusing that I’m best off just cherry-picking the stuff that gets good critical reaction, after it’s been published, in trade form or on Comixology, when it’s on sale. That’s what I’ve been doing with the New 52 stuff. I’ve read some of Snyder’s Batman, and some other stuff, and enjoyed it, but I really never wanted to get too caught up in the overall continuity.

no NYCC for me

Well, I took a shot at getting NYCC tickets earlier this week, but I gave up on it after waiting about 90 minutes and seeing 4-day and 3-day passes sell out. I probably could have hung in there and gotten a one-day Sunday ticket, but it wasn’t worth the effort.

On the positive side, the debilitating pain in my foot that kept me home from work that day has almost completely gone away. And I’ve got an appointment with a podiatrist in a couple of weeks, so we can hopefully figure out what I can do to prevent this from happening again. I’ve already been a little proactive, spending $12 on a pair of off-brand gel inserts for my sneakers. Those actually seem to be helping a little bit.

I’d really like to go to at least one con this year, if I can, but SDCC and NYCC are both off the table now, and I’ve already missed WonderCon. It’s probably not too late to register for DragonCon, if I can talk myself into flying down to Atlanta.

no more Tekserve

I just heard the news that Tekserve is going to close soon. I got my MacBook fixed at Tekserve late last year, and they did a good job on it. There’s really no other place to take a broken Mac anymore, other than the Apple Store. And Apple is picky about what they’ll fix and what they won’t. (They wouldn’t have touched mine, since I have a 3rd party SSD in there.)

This is really disappointing, but I guess it was inevitable. Rents in NYC are going through the roof, so smaller independent stores of any kind have trouble staying in business. And there are multiple (official) Apple Stores in NYC, so fewer people are going to bother with (or even be aware of) an independent Apple retailer.

I guess if I need my MacBook fixed again, I’ll have to take a trip out to PowerMax in Oregon!