Unsurprisingly I replaced the M220 with a Riva TNT2 at the earliest opportunity. Can’t remember what brand, though. Might have been a Diamond?
Gaming thoughts, bite-size chewables - new orange flavor!
- Thread starter pauli
- Start date
Wish I could find the box art for the Diamond Stealth II S220; that was my first discrete GPU, and also the first piece of hardware I've ever had that caught on fire inside the case 
Wish I could find the box art for the Diamond Stealth II S220; that was my first discrete GPU, and also the first piece of hardware I've ever had that caught on fire inside the case
Wait...the first piece? As in, you've had more than one?
When I was shopping last year, I realized that if you stick to 1440p the 4070 is insanely good. MSRP of $600 for a card that can run what can run at 144fps, and what can't run at 144 fps, the 4090/5090 isn't going to do either because of poor game optimization.
Yup!Wait...the first piece? As in, you've had more than one?
Had a PSU unit have a tiny little brief bout "whoops, no power, just heat" at one point
Nothing serious, just a minor piece that actually got snuffed out as quick as it started.
Heh. I worked as a work study at the community college here ages ago. Took care of the computer sin the drafting lab. Don't know what exactly happened, but something caught on fire and there where actual flames coming out of the back of the computer. Ripped the computer form the wall and then used the fire extinguisherWish I could find the box art for the Diamond Stealth II S220; that was my first discrete GPU, and also the first piece of hardware I've ever had that caught on fire inside the case
Back when they where fun. Nowadays it usually a black box with partial picture of the card along with a few splashes of solid color and the name of the card printed in bold white lettering.
I'm not even exaggerating here. Here's Amazon's list of graphic cards.
Also, on a side note, 32 megs of ram. That wouldn't even drive a modern 4k display as you would need about 35 megs to do the resolution and 32 bit color (and some of them are 48 bit color nowadays)
Last edited:
Hey, at least Gigabtye are still doing a generic CGI space marine dude on their boxes. Plus that link introduced me to wonders of the "Glorto Universal Graphics Card":
Hah, 32 Megs of Ram! My first discrete graphics card had 2 Mb, those were the days
The speed with which the industry developed though...still mindboggling to this day
Yahtzee has his Fully Ramblomatic for Doom TDA up. Yeah, corpse puppet is a good way of calling it.
I'll raise you the Kaer GT 730 4G
It's the High-end solo that's got
- High quality materiala
- Enhance the cooling performance
- Strong pf Proformance
Gigabyte and their eyes
Apparently orange is video cards and blue is motherboards.
My 4070 Ti Super from them had that exact image on the box (the one from that motherboard box).
I think the blue eye box art is the "Eagle" branding from that specific era. (Newer "Eagle" motherboards and cards just have a CG-rendered version of the word "EAGLE" in place of the eye.)
Woo, I had no idea this was close to release - a very pleasant surprise!
View: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2742830/Monster_Train_2/
Picked it up and played for a few hours last night. If you liked the first one, Monster Train 2 will be a very comfortable fit. A few new mechanics and a nice new roster of cards and abilities layered on top of familiar core mechanics, and at least so far I'm thoroughly enjoying it (although I kinda regret my late night now that the workday is starting).
View: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2742830/Monster_Train_2/
Picked it up and played for a few hours last night. If you liked the first one, Monster Train 2 will be a very comfortable fit. A few new mechanics and a nice new roster of cards and abilities layered on top of familiar core mechanics, and at least so far I'm thoroughly enjoying it (although I kinda regret my late night now that the workday is starting).
Well that’s a nice surprise! Now they just need to release an iPad OS version, as that’s the perfect platform for this kind of game (including the first Monster Train).
So. I have a trip coming up, and I bought Promise Mascot Agency as a fun way to kill a flight. Well. I finished it this week before the flight. Thank goodness for Monster Train 2.
Also, Promise Mascot Agency was quite fun. The gameplay itself isn't exactly challenging, but I enjoyed the world. And I enjoyed completing most of the side quests as well. Definitely one of those games where after the formal game had ended, I kinda wanted to kick around a little more. Wish it had some Animal Crossing-type stuff to do after the real story was over, actually.
Also, Promise Mascot Agency was quite fun. The gameplay itself isn't exactly challenging, but I enjoyed the world. And I enjoyed completing most of the side quests as well. Definitely one of those games where after the formal game had ended, I kinda wanted to kick around a little more. Wish it had some Animal Crossing-type stuff to do after the real story was over, actually.
Monster Train 2 update after playing waaaaaay too much over the weekend (as the bags under my eyes can attest) I'm happy to say it's the same game but better in every way.
The new mechanics all work extremely well, things like Advance or Cycling keep unit-centric builds more engaging on a turn-to-turn basis and I feel like most factions have more flexible builds. In Monster Train 1, I would often find myself resetting after a couple of battles if the early draws didn't gel; but I've yet to do that in Monster Train 2 because I can usually find a way to make it work.
All in all, this is a fantastic sequel and I endorse this 100% for any Monster Train fans. It's more of the same in a very good way.
The new mechanics all work extremely well, things like Advance or Cycling keep unit-centric builds more engaging on a turn-to-turn basis and I feel like most factions have more flexible builds. In Monster Train 1, I would often find myself resetting after a couple of battles if the early draws didn't gel; but I've yet to do that in Monster Train 2 because I can usually find a way to make it work.
After a while (maybe 10 runs or so?) you'll unlock all the original Monster Train 1 factions too. Which is a pretty nice surprise, but it also highlights how the new factions feel more mechanically complex and interesting. It's still great to have more factions available, but I can't see myself playing the old ones very often.
All in all, this is a fantastic sequel and I endorse this 100% for any Monster Train fans. It's more of the same in a very good way.
So I got Black Mesa in the latest sale, not having played HL1 before (but having finished HL2 -> HL2:ep2). My first issue is the difficulty: Normal, Black Mesa, Hard. Which one am I supposed to choose? Normal as the default? Clearly not hard... (I'm no longer in my 20's...)
Whatever. I went with Normal. And things were "normal", and things were progressing OK... until I came to the surface for the first time ("we got hostiles"?) I may have used a lot of ammo to fend off the marines... and now I'm running seriously low. I've progressed quite a bit, to the point of lighting up the rocket, and I haven't found a single Glock magazine. I'm out of MP15 ammo, too. I'm only finding shotgun pellets, which is the only thing that keeps me going, other than my crowbar.
Is this normal? Is this how HL1 was, too? Will I need to "restart" once I enter the next chapter? I've read that BM essentially halved the total ammo you could keep, but maybe it's a balance thing.
Whatever. I went with Normal. And things were "normal", and things were progressing OK... until I came to the surface for the first time ("we got hostiles"?) I may have used a lot of ammo to fend off the marines... and now I'm running seriously low. I've progressed quite a bit, to the point of lighting up the rocket, and I haven't found a single Glock magazine. I'm out of MP15 ammo, too. I'm only finding shotgun pellets, which is the only thing that keeps me going, other than my crowbar.
Is this normal? Is this how HL1 was, too? Will I need to "restart" once I enter the next chapter? I've read that BM essentially halved the total ammo you could keep, but maybe it's a balance thing.
There's a new w40k boltgun "sequel" out. Boltgun: Word of Vengence
View: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3533730/Warhammer_40000_Boltgun__Words_of_Vengeance/
It's a grimdark typing game. Like typing of the dead, only with space Marines and the forces of chaos. It's also free
View: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3533730/Warhammer_40000_Boltgun__Words_of_Vengeance/
It's a grimdark typing game. Like typing of the dead, only with space Marines and the forces of chaos. It's also free
Rounding out a month already buried in factory automation updates (not to mention the Shapez 2 update next week), today's the 1.0 release for OddSparks and Automate It.
I played up to the trains update of OddSparks last year and enjoyed it, but found the formula wearing thin with the content they'd released at that point. It sounds like they've refined the build menu which was my biggest gripe with it.
Automate It seems more on the Infinifactory end of the spectrum with an emphasis on puzzle solving. I didn't give the demo much time, but it seemed pretty slick.
I played up to the trains update of OddSparks last year and enjoyed it, but found the formula wearing thin with the content they'd released at that point. It sounds like they've refined the build menu which was my biggest gripe with it.
Automate It seems more on the Infinifactory end of the spectrum with an emphasis on puzzle solving. I didn't give the demo much time, but it seemed pretty slick.
I don't know if Black Mesa still has the same dev console commands as the original, but I definitely at one point threw up my hands and spawned myself more ammo.
Same. I never played Half Life back when, and approaching it now just lead me to that stopping point of "I'm no longer having fun, so I can cheat or I can put it down." I also spawned more ammo.
I say cheat since it's just a single-player game and you won't be harming anyone.
I've gotten to the "end-game" of The Wandering Village and I was clearly not ready for it. I should've listened to the Elder. You definitely need a lot more resources than you think you do. I just wanted to get out of the biome I was in for the longest time because my water setup is not optimal. I'm going to have to fix it and try again.
Water is so incredibly important in this game.
Water is so incredibly important in this game.
OG HL required a measure of strategy and resource management throughout the game. Not saying you're worse off for breaking that to gain enjoyment from the experience, just that the intended method for recovery back then was reload a chapter or two prior knowing to prioritize conservation of different ammos.
And had I played it back then, I definitely would have done that. There was a time I would have thought cheating to be a personal failure. As I've aged and developed health issues, I have far less patience for not having fun while gaming.
People who can 100% complete Super Metroid in ~40 minutes are video game gods. In my 30+ years of playing it, I have only one time managed to beat it with the best ending (I honestly don't try to), but the techniques required for a sub-hour finish are beyond my aging hands.
That said, I feel very different about tool-assisted speedruns. I honestly don't see the point (not saying there isn't one). Someone feel free to tell me how wrong I am about that though. I really would like to understand the appeal.
That said, I feel very different about tool-assisted speedruns. I honestly don't see the point (not saying there isn't one). Someone feel free to tell me how wrong I am about that though. I really would like to understand the appeal.
I, personally, view them in a different category: More akin to hacking than to playing.
I find the things those who develop the TAS runs in 30, 40 year old games to be fascinating and really just blow my mind. I've also found TAS tools to be VERY cool playgrounds for AI projects and the like, trying out new ways to invent a move or teach a system to learn to play something and then see how transferable it is to something related.
In my mind, there is room for both to be cool.
At least IMO, the tool-assists are more about testing the limits of the game engine rather than human skill. For example, it's fun watching TAS playthroughs of 3rd Strike, where characters are pulling off combos that are "technically possible" in the engine but would require superhuman reflexes and an input buffer so small that most controllers simply couldn't handle it.
It's definitely not on the same level as watching people perform unassisted runs like at GDQ, but there's something mildly academic in using tools to see just what happens when you metaphorically hit 88mph.
Okay, that makes some sense to me. I hadn't considered it from an "academic" standpoint. So if you want to see some serious skill, GDQ. If you want to "see some serious shit," TAS.
The point where I started cheating was towards the end when they introduced a new enemy type that was a major bullet sponge. My memory, which may be inaccurate, was of expending all of my ammo, of every type, and then trying (and failing) to go at them with the crowbar. I recall wondering at the time how they expected anyone to fight those things with the resources at hand. Maybe I was supposed to run from them instead?
I wouldn't have known how to articulate the sentiment back then, but to me, it felt like what it now feels like to enable accessibility options in contemporary games. "This is too hard for me, so let's make it easier." I didn't think much of it. If you asked me today, I'd say that yes, there is something to be said for overcoming difficult challenges in games. But there is also something to be said for reserving that sort of tenacity for things that matter.
I appreciate speed running in much the same way as I appreciate art. Real-time speed runners are performance artists, having honed their performance through hundreds of hours of practice, in much the same way as a concert pianist hones the pieces they perform. TAS-makers are painters or sculptors or filmmakers, who spend dozens to hundreds of hours crafting a piece of art until it is as good as they can make it.
Both kinds of art have their place, and both require an immense amount of work and effort to do well.
speed runners are the modern day hacker/phreaker. They figure out the rules of the system and break them to their benefit.