The Delusion is Strong in this One

[Chromatix]

It's not just software. A frequently recurring thread on the Raspberry Pi forums is "plz ad ability to instal moar RAM". Basically, people see the 256MB it comes with and think that's never going to be enough, never mind that you're getting one heck of a lot of computer for $35 already.

Bear in mind that the existing RAM is soldered directly on top of the CPU chip itself - this is known as "package on package" - and that a standard DIMM would be wider than the entire computer, and that just the *socket* to accept the DIMM costs as much as the entire computer currently does. A larger PoP RAM chip was considered but rejected because the price goes up sharply after 256MB.

Personally I'm quite excited to see what happens when people have to actually think about fitting into a smallish machine again. Time was, you were lucky to get 64KB *including* the OS ROM, and you still had to make a game fun in order for it to sell. This little machine gives you several thousand times as much RAM and processing power as was available 30 years ago, so it should be capable of correspondingly more sophisticated things.

[Shalom]

It's not just software. A frequently recurring thread on the Raspberry Pi forums is "plz ad ability to instal moar RAM". Basically, people see the 256MB it comes with and think that's never going to be enough, never mind that you're getting one heck of a lot of computer for $35 already.

Never heard of this Raspberry Pi thingy.

<googlegoogle>

OH $DEITY I WANT ONE OF THOSE!!

I even know what I'm gonna do with it already: gut my old Franklin ACE1200 which hasn't worked in decades and shove it in the case. Wouldn't it freak people out to see Linux running on what looks like an old Apple-II+ clone... (only problem I can foresee with that is getting the Apple keyboard to talk USB. That's gonna be . . . interesting. The alternative is using an old Samsung laptop I picked up on a yard sale for $10: it's currently got a Pentium-75 processor and an 83-meg hard drive, so this little gimmick would be a huge improvement. Although I could probably get Slackware Linux running on it as is, come to think of it...)

[MoonCat]

Never heard of this Raspberry Pi thingy.

<googlegoogle>

OH $DEITY I WANT ONE OF THOSE!!

I even know what I'm gonna do with it already: gut my old Franklin ACE1200 which hasn't worked in decades and shove it in the case. Wouldn't it freak people out to see Linux running on what looks like an old Apple-II+ clone... (only problem I can foresee with that is getting the Apple keyboard to talk USB. That's gonna be . . . interesting. The alternative is using an old Samsung laptop I picked up on a yard sale for $10: it's currently got a Pentium-75 processor and an 83-meg hard drive, so this little gimmick would be a huge improvement. Although I could probably get Slackware Linux running on it as is, come to think of it...)

Wait.....that's a little computer that costs $35 and can actually run on 4 AA batteries?? I know squat about computers, but I can recognize "cool" when I see it.

[ArcticChicken]

Raspberry Pi

Dude! That thing is AWESOME!!

[morgana]

Oh, wow. I'm a complete doofus when it comes to computers (can use one; don't ask me to explain how it works), and even *I* think that's cool!

[Chromatix]

...what looks like an old Apple-II+ clone... (only problem I can foresee with that is getting the Apple keyboard to talk USB.)

Easiest solution is to add a microcontroller based keymatrix converter. There is at least one project out there to do this to an IBM Model M keyboard - you should be able to work up from there.

And yes, the R-Pi is pretty darn cool - even though I don't have mine yet. The first batch is being shipped roughly now, and the next (much bigger) batch is just going into manufacture.

[EricKei]

The closest thing to a game I ever made was one I did as a project in trade school/proggy school -- it was a simple "You're a swordsman. You are facing off against a bug-eyed monster who wants swordsman stew for dinner". In c++. Even so, it was complex enough to be done as a mid-term (we were studying Functions, so I used them to handle damage calculations).

It had 5 different monsters (ranging from easiest: Goblin to hardest: Dragon), heal potions, fireballs, randomized damage within specific limits, the ability to attack and defend (reduce damage for a turn and regenerate some HP/MP), and, of course, Sarcasm (tm)...in a text-based game. If anyone wants to play around with it, I probably still have the code or even a compiled executable around somewhere.

It ended up being one of the more ambitious projects, which kinda scared me. I tried to redo it and make it MUCH more complex in my VB6 class the next semester (which should give you an idea of how long ago this was) -- multiple difficulties per monster, a GUI, 2 dozen monsters, more spells, leveling up, progressive ability unlocks, etc etc...But I gave up when I wound up with an endless loop I just couldn't fix. Was just to see if I could pull it off anyway ^_^

[roxtar]

that raspberry thing looks cool... might have to snag one to play with

re: $200 budget...
let's take a programmer... maybe call him "Boxtar". if we ask "Boxtar"'s employer how long they could employ "Boxtar" for $200 (including salary, taxes, benefits, overhead, etc)... the answer would be between 2 and 3 hours. So in order for the company to make any profit, that $200 budget would account for at most 2 hours of "Boxtar"'s time for the entire project.

now, "Boxtar" might be a phenomenally efficient coder, artist, voice actor, quality tester, etc... but he's not that efficient.

$200 might get you a 45 minute conference call with a coder, an artist, and a project manager.

[Mystic]

Hi, I'd like to order a custom treasure hunting game. Members should be able to find treasure and have it add stuff to their account, like finding gems and stuff. Some voiceover work would be nice, to have various narrting going on. Maybe have some cool chcracters they can choose between, and have dangers and obstacles that they should avoid, that will take stuff from their account. maps need to be random, with stuff never in the same place, so people can't just memorize it.

Being a voice over artist myself on the side of my day job, all I can say is:

ROTFL $200 MIGHT cover the costs of what I would charge to do voice over work for something like this depending on how much dialogue there was. This person obviously thinks projects like these are done in a few minutes with a couple copy/paste codes from other projects and a guy with a webcam microphone.

I don't code games, but I know for something like this, even a one page script takes a couple hours of recording and post production.

You're right, delusional city.

[Kogarashi]

I probably would've written up a canned response for Annoying Guy and just replied to all of his e-mails with it. "My budget is $200 you can't go over!" "My quote is $10,000 I can't go under." Over and over again for my own amusement.

Personally I think that a house rule of ending the game on first bankrupcy could be a good idea, as I'm quite convinced that Monopoly normally goes on way too long. (You count up cash and proprty to determine winner at the end point)

This is why I like our copy of Lord of the Rings Monopoly. It has a built-in time limit in the form of the One Ring moving as a separate character. It goes one property space each time a special symbol comes up on one of the dice, and when it reaches Mt. Doom (Boardwalk), the game is over and everyone counts up their assets to see who won. Best variant rule ever.

[PepperElf]

What I'm wondering about:

Cash prize will be attach to each awards.

Where is that money going to come from if he can't even afford more than $200 to make the game? Is he assuming people are going to pay big bucks to play this?

Install knees

I haven't tried EQ2 but... I use to play EQ1 where you could sit. Not sure if mana / HP came back faster when sitting but that's what we always did.

Though the attitude you describe isn't unique to 2. There were plenty of whiners in 1 who use to scream silly if anything went wrong. Even saw thinly veiled death threats. (and one player who reported that SOE took him to court over a threat cos... o wait, they have your credit card information... )

Sounds like the SCs are still the same in the game.

[tropicsgoddess]

This bozo wants to pay $200 for a project that costs $3,000 at the least?!!! Get the fuck outta here!!! What a dumb ass!

[Ironclad Alibi]

I use to play EQ1 where you could sit.

In the old Commander Keen computer games if you took to long to move the charater, he would sit down and read a book.

In episodes 4, 5, and 6, if Keen is left idle for several seconds, he will look directly towards the screen with his hands on his waist, looking impatient, then shrug his shoulders. After a few more seconds he will grab a big red book out of his pocket, sit down, and start reading, flipping pages occasionally. He will continue to do this until an action key is pressed. In "Keen Dreams", Keen will fall asleep instead of reading a book.

[Chromatix]

A "long idle" animation of some sort has been quite common since the 1990s - see various SCUMM games for examples. Some are more amusing than others.

[Jetfire]

I haven't tried EQ2 but... I use to play EQ1 where you could sit. Not sure if mana / HP came back faster when sitting but that's what we always did.

Though the attitude you describe isn't unique to 2. There were plenty of whiners in 1 who use to scream silly if anything went wrong. Even saw thinly veiled death threats. (and one player who reported that SOE took him to court over a threat cos... o wait, they have your credit card information... )

Sounds like the SCs are still the same in the game.

In EQ, you can sit down on the ground. In order to "Fast Regen" mana, health and endurance, you have to be in Out of Combat mode and sitting. Of course, sitting also attracts mobs to you, but usually its safe enoguh to do so.

EQ2's fast regen kicks in automatically I believe, with no need to sit since they have no way to sit. I may be wrong though; it's been a few months since I was in EQ2.

The games themselves seem relatively stable lately (all things considered), but there is an overall cloud storming overhead due to the attempts to separate the Euro playerbase from the rest of the playerbase. We're still waiting for all the results from that, but it's been an issue that has been universally panned by the players. Multiple thousand+ post threads and not a single post said it was good or might be good.