The Upper Memory Block Podcast from billybob

[Rico]

Actually looking back at these games really does show you how far we've come in such a short time. It's really incredible if you think about it :)

Yes - definitely agree.  Got my first real PC around 1991.  It's amazing what we can do now.  I predict holograms for gaming in the next 20 years!

[billybob476]

That's why I find this stuff so interesting. Honestly we have no idea what will come and what will go. As an example, who knew that in 2012 no one would have joysticks? They were a huge thing way back with companies like Thurstmaster making joystick/throttle combos for hundreds of dollars.

[Rico]

Pretty much true (I had several joysticks).  But they still make joysticks for some Flight sim folks.  The other thing people seem to do is use XBOX controllers these days for certain PC games.

[KingIsaacLinksr]

Who would have thought we would have had DR_I mean MMOs such as WoW or Eve Online, a single shard that everyone logs into from all over the world, that in itself, is mindblowing.

King

[Zarabeth32]

Just started listening to the Space Quest podcast. I was just curious if the intro came from a classic computer game. "Join the resistance." "Join" "Die." It sounds really cool and eerie at the same time.

I've only played a little bit of the SpaceQuest series. I've played a few of the King's Quest and my dad was into Hero's Quest. Always liked the bits of humor that was put into the games.

The typing always got a bit frustrating for me but it really made me have to think about what to say. And you had to make sure you typed the words in correctly or it would question what you were saying. If you got really cheeky or naughty with the words, the responses were pretty funny!  ;D

Love the show! Sounds great! Can't wait to hear some more! Thanks for the podcast!

Z  :o

[billybob476]

It's from Fallout if I'm not mistaken.

Yeah, the typing helped me learn to spell properly when I was a lad! I also know for a fact from my research that these games helped a lot of non-english speakers learn the language!

Thanks for the feedback, I continue to be amazed at the response I'm getting.

[ricdude]

I remember when "massively multiple online role playing game" meant a few of my friends and I dialing into the local Sceptre of Goth (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scepter_of_Goth) server on our 1200 baud modems. Imagine multiplayer Zork.  Or perhaps an early MUD, if you're more familiar with those. But before the client side "helper" apps with hotkeys and all that - you only survived by how fast you could type "kill troll with sword" over and over again...

Many good nights spent trying to level up in that game...

[billybob476]

I spent a lot of my early 'online' gaming days playing BBS door games like Barren Relams Elite, Legend of the Red Dragon and Trade Wars 2002. Those were all hotkeyed, I live in the future!! :)

[billybob476]

I came across a mention of the Space Quest Kickstarter onTechCrunch today. Looks like they are ramping up the PR machine to try and increase backing. I really do hope this project finds, it looks so fun!

If you're an older gamer, you will remember the holy trinity of Sierra RPGs – King's Quest, Space Quest, and Police Quest. All three of these games used something called "imagination" and "storytelling" to immerse early gamers in an Ad Lib sound card-induced gaming coma.

Now you can re-live those heady days with a new game by the makers of Space Quest, Scott Murphy and Mark Crowe (aka "The Two Guys from Andromeda"). Their new game, called SpaceVenture, is a refresh of the old Sierra series and promises spills, chills, and horrible jokes. It's getting funded on Kickstarter as we speak.

http://techcrunch.com/2012/05/28/the-authors-of-space-quest-are-back-with-another-adventure/

[Feathers]

From the description in the podcast, it looks asthough I must have played at least some of Space Quest 3 since I recognise the opening plays of the story.

I can't imagine when I played it (and I'm pretty sure I never bought it...)

Now that you mention it, I seem to have some hazy memories of Police Quest too but couldn't tell you anything about it (I've married and had kids since - the 'time before' is a bit of a blur).

[billybob476]

I'm sure I'll be covering the rest of the Sierra "Quest" games over the course of things. I played all the Police Quest games, most of the King's Quest and I dabbled a bit in Quest for Glory.

Actually I remember using the storyline for Police Quest 3 as a creative writing assignment in grade school (it came out in 1991, I must have been in 4th or 5th grade). We had to write a "police story". Most of the kids wrote about police helping children after losing their parents in the mall, saving a cat or some such. My story was about a cop who had recently lost his partner investigating satanic drug cartels and dealing with the added pain of his wife recently being stabbed in a parking lot by said cartel to discourage him from continuing his investigation.

I can't recall if I had a letter sent home to my parents or not.

[Feathers]

I'll bet a letter was considered even of it wasn't sent! Poor, disturbed child...

[billybob476]

Episode 6 is out! Let's talk emualtion :)

http://umbcast.com/episode-6-emulation/
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Hey there blockers! It's yet again time for another show!

This week, something a little bit different. Instead of covering a specific game, we're gonna get techie and discuss some ways to play all these great old games I've been covering on our modern, ultra-fast, multi-core gaming rigs.

But first, some news. I follow up once again on both the Tex Murphy and SpaceVenture kickstarters. Check em out and give your support if you think they're worthwhile! Also, the E3 show has been going on this week where trailers were released for the next SimCity and the new X-COM: Enemy Unknown game in development.

I wanted to let everyone know about The Blackwell Bundle, a cool adventure series done in the style of classic VGA adventure games that I've been playing since the last show. Check it out!

The main topic for the week is how to get old games running well on modern systems. We cover some background, what difficulties we encounter trying to get this all running. Then I start the discussion of emulation, define what it is and where it's used. I then get into details of two different applications that are used to run DOS games in emulation, DOSBox and ScummVM.


Finally we listen to an audio comment from Dan where he talks about his experience with retro gaming and DOS emulation on iOS.

That's that! Enjoy the show and see you all next time when we talk about Wolfenstein 3D!

Direct download:
http://umbcast.com/podcast/006-UMBCast-Emulation.mp3

[moyer777]

Really great show Joe!  LOVED it.  What a trip down memory lane, and then I found it fascinating on how emulators worked.  Awesome.  Thanks!

[billybob476]

Thanks Rick. Glad some of that stuff I learned back in university could come in handy!