January 08, 2012
"Mike Parker" <aldacron@gmail.com> wrote in message news:jeatr8$tq0$1@digitalmars.com...
>
> I was a regular lurker for a while. Until around the time of the Hasbro suit. When I saw 'Abscissa' posting over at the DSource forums, and later connected it with Nick, I thought it likely to be the same Abscissa from the XtremeGames boards. That was a long time ago.

Yup, both of those "Abscissa"s are me. I'm also "Abscissa" on github and bitbucket (although on bitbucket I'm usually "Abscissa256" because I forgot that their existing "Abscissa" account was an old one of mine ;) )...Umm "Abscissa256" on linuxquestions.org...Sometimes I go by "Nitrode", like on Wikipedia, the GOLD (parser) Wiki, and the now-defunct XBox1-Live.

I have found some "Abscissa"s out there who are not me, though.


January 08, 2012
You went from an Apple IIc to a 486?  That's quite a leap.

I interviewed at Blizzard back in the day and that was enough to sour me on the game industry. This was before the era of cinematic games though.

Sent from my iPhone

On Jan 7, 2012, at 11:29 AM, "Nick Sabalausky" <a@a.a> wrote:

> "Paulo Pinto" <pjmlp@progtools.org> wrote in message news:je9e3t$1g3l$1@digitalmars.com...
>> Hi,
>> 
>> so you are also following Andre's attemps to revive the
>> old homebrew developer feeling. :)
>> 
> 
> Yea, I grew up on that sort of thing. And I'd been working with Andre' (LaMothe, of course) since well before he started doing hardware kits. His old DOS-based game dev books are what moved me from various forms of BASIC into finally really grokking things like C, pointers and low-level programming (which I had only "kind of" understood before). Then I just happened to end up in contact with him through a mutual aquaintence (via AOL 1.x ;) heh, yea, way back then). Andre' was starting up a budget-game publishing company and was looking for a breakout clone, which I happened to already be working on. So there was that, and then he started some gamedev forums that I was a regular on for years. Then Hasbro Interactive fucked everything up with unsubstantiated litigation and typical corporate "drown in legal fees" tactics, and then he got into doing hardware kits like he's doing now.
> 
> IMO, Indie gamedev is really the only way to go if you want to make games. All the way until college I was convinced I wanted to work for a major game company. Then I started learning more about the nature of the industry at the time (around 2000-2001), and that was also the point where the industry itself was starting its slow descent into becoming into the Hollywood-wannabe cesspool it mostly is today. ("Fuck actual gaming, we're gonna be cinematic storytellers!" Too many Pixar rejects in the industry now, I guess...Not to mention all the "packaged-goods" managers...)
> 
>> I also miss those days. I grew up with the ZX Spectrum,
>> doing some BASIC and Z80 stuff, then most of my friends
>> moved up to the Amiga 500 and I eventually got a PC,
>> since my dad was the opinion the PC would be the future.
>> 
> 
> For me, it was Apple IIc and ApplesoftBASIC (I'm normally critical of apple products, especially after having spent a year or so with OSX, but the Apple II line is the one major exception for me. I guess you could say Woz was the *real* Apple for me). Plus a small amount of Logo and machine code on the machine. Then I got a [Packard Bell, remember them?] 486DX2 and moved to QBASIC, had an enormous amount of fun with that. (IIRC, Amiga was pretty much out of the picture by then, and I hadn't even heard of it. Sometimes now I feel like I really missed out on it.)
> 
> Tinkered a bit with C/C++, but didn't quite "get it". Then did VB 3 (It came on a bunch of floppies and was for Win3 :) ). Then I found Andre's DOS books (this was still *just* before DirectX, or at least around the time of what was then called the "Game SDK"). Was into that for years, and somehow managed to get sucked into web dev, and these days all my free time goes to D-related projects (mostly things that will directly or indirectly make my webdev work slightly less painful).
> 
>> Anyway, I had lots of fun doing x86 assembly programming with some Turbo Pascal and eventually C. Then quite a few languages after that.
>> 
>> Nowadays I develop business software mostly in JVM and .NET languages, running in clustered environments. With development teams scattered around the globe.
>> 
>> Doing low level programming and graphics related stuff is now only a hobby, when real life permits to do so. Until the day I manage to change area.
>> 
>> Wow, now I am a bit nostaligic
>> 
> 
> 
January 08, 2012
On 7/01/12 7:29 PM, Nick Sabalausky wrote:
> IMO, Indie gamedev is really the only way to go if you want to make games.
> All the way until college I was convinced I wanted to work for a major game
> company. Then I started learning more about the nature of the industry at
> the time (around 2000-2001), and that was also the point where the industry
> itself was starting its slow descent into becoming into the
> Hollywood-wannabe cesspool it mostly is today. ("Fuck actual gaming, we're
> gonna be cinematic storytellers!" Too many Pixar rejects in the industry
> now, I guess...Not to mention all the "packaged-goods" managers...)

Whether or not you'll enjoy the industry depends a lot on why you want to be in it in the first place. If you want to be in because you enjoy playing games and thinking up cool games to make then I think that's the wrong reason. If you enjoy the technical challenges of producing a finished, quality (software quality, not design quality) product then I think you'll enjoy the industry more.

Of course, you should care about the overall quality of the product, including its design, but as a programmer it shouldn't be your focus, and it shouldn't be the reason you want to be in the industry.

Going indie is great too. Lots of good stuff happening there. I would recommend that people work for a major studio first before going indie though, because you'll learn a lot in a very short amount of time about the reality of how games are made. It's a very instructive experience even if it's not where you want to be.

January 08, 2012
On Sat, Jan 7, 2012 at 6:47 PM, Nick Sabalausky <a@a.a> wrote:

> "Brad Anderson" <eco@gnuk.net> wrote in message news:mailman.185.1325982241.16222.digitalmars-d@puremagic.com...
> > On Sat, Jan 7, 2012 at 12:29 PM, Nick Sabalausky <a@a.a> wrote:
> >
> >> "Paulo Pinto" <pjmlp@progtools.org> wrote in message news:je9e3t$1g3l$1@digitalmars.com...
> >> > Hi,
> >> >
> >> > so you are also following Andre's attemps to revive the
> >> > old homebrew developer feeling. :)
> >> >
> >>
> >> Yea, I grew up on that sort of thing. And I'd been working with Andre'
> >> (LaMothe, of course) since well before he started doing hardware kits.
> >> His
> >> old DOS-based game dev books are what moved me from various forms of
> >> BASIC
> >> into finally really grokking things like C, pointers and low-level
> >> programming (which I had only "kind of" understood before). Then I just
> >> happened to end up in contact with him through a mutual aquaintence (via
> >> AOL
> >> 1.x ;) heh, yea, way back then). Andre' was starting up a budget-game
> >> publishing company and was looking for a breakout clone, which I
> happened
> >> to
> >> already be working on. So there was that, and then he started some
> >> gamedev
> >> forums that I was a regular on for years. Then Hasbro Interactive fucked
> >> everything up with unsubstantiated litigation and typical corporate
> >> "drown
> >> in legal fees" tactics, and then he got into doing hardware kits like
> >> he's
> >> doing now.
> >>
> >
> > I was a regular on there too.  Small world.
> >
>
> Heh, cool. I'm "Abscissa" over there (although I haven't posted or even
> lurked much in years). I was one of the two-digit user numbers :)
>
>
>
>
I remember you being a frequent poster.  I haven't been in years.  I was Catalyst.   It's interesting they are still going strong (and that there are still people I recognize posting regularly). I joined the forums back when they were Xtreme Games forums (which got moved over to XGameStation at some point).  I never really got into the XGameStation stuff but stayed around the forums after Andre's shift in attention.  I was around for the Hasbro drama.  I think I'd be nervous to go back and look at some of my old posts.  I was a young teenager when I frequented these forums so I no doubt made a lot of embarrassing posts.


January 08, 2012
"Brad Anderson" <eco@gnuk.net> wrote in message news:mailman.210.1326051013.16222.digitalmars-d@puremagic.com...
>
> I remember you being a frequent poster.  I haven't been in years.  I was Catalyst.

Oh, yea, I remember seeing you around there a lot.

> It's interesting they are still going strong (and that there
> are still people I recognize posting regularly). I joined the forums back
> when they were Xtreme Games forums (which got moved over to XGameStation
> at
> some point).  I never really got into the XGameStation stuff but stayed
> around the forums after Andre's shift in attention.  I was around for the
> Hasbro drama.  I think I'd be nervous to go back and look at some of my
> old
> posts.  I was a young teenager when I frequented these forums so I no
> doubt
> made a lot of embarrassing posts.
>

Same here, on all points :)  Although I think most of the old posts are gone now.

Did you happen to be at XGDC 2001? We may have actually met.


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