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Wrapped-Up Bug in The Avernum Trilogy
Mongolian Barbeque
Member # 1528
Profile #7
Just go back to the temple where you found the first one. Each time you visit the temple, you have the option of taking another bug. You can do this an infinite number of times as far as I know. I ended up with a backpack with about 50 of them before I stopped!
Posts: 907 | Registered: Monday, July 15 2002 07:00
Wrapped-Up Bug in The Avernum Trilogy
Mongolian Barbeque
Member # 1528
Profile #5
Somebody in Dharmon wanted those. Can't remember who, though.

Just walk up to people on the street asking if they'd like some stolen tools, and I'm sure somebody will speak up! ;)
Posts: 907 | Registered: Monday, July 15 2002 07:00
Fatal Computer Game Marathon in General
Mongolian Barbeque
Member # 1528
Profile #2
It's like those rats they rig up to the pleasure electrodes—they can't do anything other than just sit there and enjoy dying. No eating, drinking, sleeping, etc.

But what a way to go!

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The A.E. van Vogt Information Site
My Tribute to the Greatest Writer of the Science Fiction Golden Age
Posts: 907 | Registered: Monday, July 15 2002 07:00
Fatal Computer Game Marathon in General
Mongolian Barbeque
Member # 1528
Profile #0
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/issue434/news.html

quote:
[b]Man Dies After Game Marathon

A 28-year-old South Korean man died of exhaustion in an Internet cafe after playing computer games nonstop for 50 hours, the Reuters news service reported.

Lee, a resident in the southern city of Taegu who was identified only by his last name, collapsed Aug. 5 while he played the battle simulation game Starcraft, the news service reported. Lee had planted himself in front of a computer monitor to play online games, leaving over the course of three days only to go to the toilet and take brief naps on a makeshift bed.

Lee was quickly moved to a hospital, but died after a few hours, due to what doctors are presuming was a heart attack, police told Reuters. Lee had been fired from his job last month because he kept missing work to play.
[/b]

I think there's a lesson here for all of us. (Especially me, who's been playing Master of Orion II way too much recently...)

At least Mr. Lee died at the hands of one of the best games out there.

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The A.E. van Vogt Information Site
My Tribute to the Greatest Writer of the Science Fiction Golden Age
Posts: 907 | Registered: Monday, July 15 2002 07:00
THE ABOMINABLE PHOTO THREAD: THE THIRD COMING! in General
Mongolian Barbeque
Member # 1528
Profile #217
quote:
Originally written by Medicine Man:

All the good looking ones could be faking it, you know. :P
That's true. Maybe we should institute a new policy that when anyone posts a photo it has to have a cardboard sign in the picture somewhere with a certain predefined text on it, to prove that the picture goes along with whoever it is. You know, like police mug shots.

Hmmm. Thought of a loop-hole. You could just get a friend to hold the cardboard sign. And then there's always Adobe Photoshop. Dang it!

Stalin would've just loved the capabilities of digital revisionism. No more clumsy airbrushing when you get rid of an unreliable head of the NKVD. You could even retroactively replace him with someone else if you didn't like the suddenly unbalanced photograph.

IMAGE(http://www.hooverdigest.org/982/conquest-d.JPG)

"We've always been at war with East Asia..."

[ Sunday, August 14, 2005 17:59: Message edited by: Icshi ]

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The A.E. van Vogt Information Site
My Tribute to the Greatest Writer of the Science Fiction Golden Age
Posts: 907 | Registered: Monday, July 15 2002 07:00
THE ABOMINABLE PHOTO THREAD: THE THIRD COMING! in General
Mongolian Barbeque
Member # 1528
Profile #215
Good point, Ben.

For example, you'll never see what's left of my cousin Valerie's "twin sister" clone (also named Valerie).

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The A.E. van Vogt Information Site
My Tribute to the Greatest Writer of the Science Fiction Golden Age
Posts: 907 | Registered: Monday, July 15 2002 07:00
RWG FAQ in Richard White Games
Mongolian Barbeque
Member # 1528
Profile #14
[Icshi uses square brackets to indicate when he's merely rambling, and what is included therein is ipso facto not a part of the RWG FAQ. Just for future reference. Just so you won't keep wasting valuable numbers answering the same inane questions. There may be an infinite number of numbers, but there's limited space on the server. We shouldn't get up to FAQ question #6,432,766,349,448,872,395,334,773 before its ordained time, so we should conserve these lower numbers while we still can.]

[ Sunday, August 14, 2005 12:28: Message edited by: Icshi ]
Posts: 907 | Registered: Monday, July 15 2002 07:00
Favorite kind of music in General
Mongolian Barbeque
Member # 1528
Profile #24
My favorite kind of music is baroque: Domenico Scarlatti (who wrote 555 fantastic little sonatas for the harpsichord), J.S. Bach (especially the Brandenburg Concertos), and Handel (harp concertos, The Messiah, Water Music, etc.).

I also like Celtic harp music, especially as played by Laurie Riley, but any kind of traditional Celtic music is also nice, even bagpipes. I also like some of the newer stuff that uses Celtic themes as a starting point.

I used to listen to the Beatles a lot, but not so much any more.

Enya is one of the few contemporary artists I enjoy.

I also like Terry Riley and Philip Glass (whatever the heck they're classified as!). Riley's In C is one of the greatest pieces of music ever created. Glass' soundtracks to Koyaanisqatsi and Powaqqatsi are his best.

Wendy (aka Walter) Carlos is another—she does synthesized classical, but also very unusual original compositions (Tales of Heaven and Hell). I have her to thank for introducing me to Scarlatti, Bach, etc., when I was 6 years old or so as my dad listened to his old hi-fi records.

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The A.E. van Vogt Information Site
My Tribute to the Greatest Writer of the Science Fiction Golden Age
Posts: 907 | Registered: Monday, July 15 2002 07:00
THE ABOMINABLE PHOTO THREAD: THE THIRD COMING! in General
Mongolian Barbeque
Member # 1528
Profile #213
quote:
Originally written by Kingy:

[QUOTE]Originally written by kuc:
[qb]Yea, considering spiderweb boards don't have that many girls, the quite a few of the ones we do get seem to be quite good looking

Yes. Indeed. Extremely.

I'm a bit like the Lord Chancellor in Iolanthe, or one of Bertie Wooster's idiotic friends—I'm liable to swoon over attractive young ladies with a rapidity that makes bystanders wonder exactly which parts of my brain are badly connected. There seems to be a shortcut between my eyeballs and heart, bypassing all rational thought. So it's a good thing I'm so pathetic that I don't meet many in person any more, since I'm always making a fool of myself. It's far safer to come across beautiful girls in pixel form.

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The A.E. van Vogt Information Site
My Tribute to the Greatest Writer of the Science Fiction Golden Age
Posts: 907 | Registered: Monday, July 15 2002 07:00
RWG FAQ in Richard White Games
Mongolian Barbeque
Member # 1528
Profile #12
[Ah! The hampsters have at last made their appearance! The plan is progressing perfectly...]
Posts: 907 | Registered: Monday, July 15 2002 07:00
If you could invite 4 people to a dinner in any form... in General
Mongolian Barbeque
Member # 1528
Profile #90
quote:
Originally written by K:

According the Bible, though, the only transportation is probably walking.
Hmmm. That must mean Heaven is going to be really, really small. Either that or very well planned so you don't have to go very far. A Walgreens on every corner and all that.

Actually, come to think of it, since it's an eternal abode nobody will have an excuse to be in a hurry so we won't mind walking.

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The A.E. van Vogt Information Site
My Tribute to the Greatest Writer of the Science Fiction Golden Age
Posts: 907 | Registered: Monday, July 15 2002 07:00
Death to Anama!!! in The Avernum Trilogy
Mongolian Barbeque
Member # 1528
Profile #25
I've played through Avernum 3 several times, each with a different approach to the game. I joined the Anama once just to see what it was like, but after struggling quite a bit, I chucked it in and revoked my membership. It made me unwelcome on the island, but I was done there anyway.
Posts: 907 | Registered: Monday, July 15 2002 07:00
RWG FAQ in Richard White Games
Mongolian Barbeque
Member # 1528
Profile #9
[Lynch? No. Call up the Nameless Ones to devour our souls? Yes. We're halfway there already. And I'm even on a first-name basis with most of them.]

[ Saturday, August 13, 2005 10:56: Message edited by: Icshi ]
Posts: 907 | Registered: Monday, July 15 2002 07:00
If you could invite 4 people to a dinner in any form... in General
Mongolian Barbeque
Member # 1528
Profile #87
quote:
Originally written by SupaNik:

quote:
Originally written by Contra:

Did you just compare God with Stalin? Now that would be an intresting discussion later on.
They did both get the trains to run on time...

Really? God got the trains to run on time? Wow. That must've been talked about in 2 Chronicles, a book that I've always found rather confusing. Or did that happen in one of the Apocryphal books?

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The A.E. van Vogt Information Site
My Tribute to the Greatest Writer of the Science Fiction Golden Age
Posts: 907 | Registered: Monday, July 15 2002 07:00
Unlimited Exp Bug in Geneforge Series
Mongolian Barbeque
Member # 1528
Profile #6
I love bugs like this. In the first Geneforge, one of the earlier versions of the game had a nice glitch in The Sentinels zone. Heustess would ask you to kill Goettsch, and give you a nice reward when you do and tell him—something like increased Endurance. I would just tell him over and over that I killed Goettsch, and would get stronger and stronger.

Still, Heustess was there for quite a long time, and I guess his ghostly memory was really unreliable. I feel a little guilty for takng advantage of a senile senior citizen like that—even if he was already dead—but it didn't do him any harm to help me.
Posts: 907 | Registered: Monday, July 15 2002 07:00
If you could invite 4 people to a dinner in any form... in General
Mongolian Barbeque
Member # 1528
Profile #75
quote:
Originally written by Zeviz:

quote:
Originally written by Icshi:

Genghis Khan, Joseph Stalin, Jack the Ripper, and Caligula.
You have the right idea, but the list fails to achieve its full potential.

Actually, the dinner went a lot better than I thought it would:

Stalin spent the whole meal hiding under the table quivering in terror, Jack the Ripper tackled the turkey and obsessively carved it into little strips, Caligula was shouting at the chairs ordering them to prostrate themselves before him, while Genghis Khan got drunk and started shooting arrows into the chandelier.

We all lived through it, with only minor injuries. I guess it was a good thing that each was so absorbed in his own personal world of madness that nobody took much notice of what anyone else was doing. Most of those injuries were either accidentally self-inflicted knife wounds or just stray arrows.

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The A.E. van Vogt Information Site
My Tribute to the Greatest Writer of the Science Fiction Golden Age
Posts: 907 | Registered: Monday, July 15 2002 07:00
If you could invite 4 people to a dinner in any form... in General
Mongolian Barbeque
Member # 1528
Profile #1
Genghis Khan, Joseph Stalin, Jack the Ripper, and Caligula.

...There were no survivors.

A more civilized bunch of guests:

Domenico Scarlatti, A.E. van Vogt, Claudius, and H.P. Lovecraft.

...They would all be very polite, and nobody would even abscond with any of the silverware.

If we could invite fictional characters, I'd have the following four over to dinner:

Doctor Who, Arthur Dent, Ijon Tichy, and God Emperor Leto II (in his worm-form).

Leto II smashed his chair and had to end up "sitting" on the floor...

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The A.E. van Vogt Information Site
My Tribute to the Greatest Writer of the Science Fiction Golden Age
Posts: 907 | Registered: Monday, July 15 2002 07:00
Death to Anama!!! in The Avernum Trilogy
Mongolian Barbeque
Member # 1528
Profile #16
I agree wholeheartedly with Chief Spider. I looted then cooked just about everyone on the island after I saved them from the cockroach plague. They were a condescending, rich cult opposing the wonders of magic. They were just asking to be robbed and killed!

However, before you jump to any conclusions, I should hasten to add that eliminating the plague wasn't a humanitarian endeavour on my part, I was just curious to see this Filth Factory and blow the hootin' daylights outta that as well.

I am however a conscientioius philanthropist, as I staunchly opposed the skribbane scourge and destroyed the drug trade in Gale after saving them from the golems. It became necessary to destroy the people of Gale in order to save them from themselves...
Posts: 907 | Registered: Monday, July 15 2002 07:00
Human cloning in General
Mongolian Barbeque
Member # 1528
Profile #8
1. I don't think human cloning will be an issue until we've actually got the hang of cloning animals properly. At things stand, if we tried cloning a human it'd turn out as something resembling biped hamburger casserole after a few months of staggering around.

2. I'm not afraid of being "replaced" by a clone since nobody's too concerned with the me that's here already.

3. Let's stick to test-tube babies. They have cuter names and seem to live longer (if not happier) lives than cloned sheep.

4. Since there's not much practical uses for cloning whole people, I doubt if it'll be attempted more than once, and even then as just an experiment. It'd be smarter and have a better pay-off to focus efforts on duplicating just individual organs.

5. No, just for the record, I don't think it's right to try to clone whole people. Animals, sure—clone away! But people—no. Too many troublesome issues not the least of which is the soul. But still, if somebody clones a human and he has isn't a mobile mushbrain but has a personality and a "soul" then fine—apparently God isn't too picky how you came into the world, He'll still give you what you need.

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The A.E. van Vogt Information Site
My Tribute to the Greatest Writer of the Science Fiction Golden Age
Posts: 907 | Registered: Monday, July 15 2002 07:00
Poor Man's Starbound? in Richard White Games
Mongolian Barbeque
Member # 1528
Profile #59
It's amazing that you mention Master of Orion II. That is the LORD AND GOD of all galactic conquest strategy games. It is one of my favorite games PERIOD.

A few months ago I got a new iMac G5 running OS X. I had an iBook SE running 9.0.2 that I've used for years now. A lot of my OS 9 games run fine in Classic, but some of my favorites like MoO II and Ferazel's Wand don't. That really irks me. Fortunately, a few weeks ago I decided to purge my iBook harddrive and re-install OS 9 and use it as a gaming platform for such applications that dont' run in Classic. MoO II also has this great option for doing a full install—you don't have to put the CD in to run it. My iBook software was really messed up, but a wipe and re-install did wonders. It runs so fast now, and MoO II runs beautifully. So for the last couple of weeks I've been playing it rather obsessively. (Zorro—that's the main reason why I've been so tardy sending back those GC multiplayer games. I know my excuses were "I've also been pretty busy this week, with one thing or another" and "I've also had to deal with some computer problems, and doing some tedious file-shuffling" but this was only half of the truth.)

At any rate, if you have enough money and have enough favorite games that only run in OS 9 and not Classic, it may be worth it to buy some elcheapo used old iMac or iBook to use as a gaming platform like I'm now doing. And Apple's recent insane decision to switch to Intel processors a couple of years from now makes the importance of an old OS 9 type machine even greater. Because soon OS 9 apps won't even run in Classic. (Even the ones that run in Classic now!)

I've come up with a rather long list of ways to improve the game. Mind you, it's a fabulous game the way it is, but there's always room for improvement. I indulge in a daydream that some company will put out an improved Master of Orion II: Ultima Edition that runs in OS X. If you're interested, I can type up this list and post it here. I tried to find a MoO II forum somewhere to share this pipe dream with, but all the MoO II fan sites to be existant but dormant.

I've heard Master of Orion III was absolute garbage—just reading the billions of negative reviews on Amazon.com was enough to convince me I didn't want to fork out money for it, despite it being OS X native. Hence the heightened vividness of my pipe dream...

Fortunately, the original Master of Orion runs perfectly in Classic. I've been having a wee bit of fun with that, too, in the guise of "testing it's compatiblity" with OS X.

EDIT: I should add that MoO II seems to work somewhat in Classic. But the colors are messed up and it crashes like a character in a J.G. Ballard novel—all of which renders it virtually unplayable. I've done some thorough searching online, and this seems to be the problem with everybody, nobody's been able to get it to work properly.

[ Thursday, August 04, 2005 21:00: Message edited by: Icshi ]
Posts: 907 | Registered: Monday, July 15 2002 07:00
Poor Man's Starbound? in General
Mongolian Barbeque
Member # 1528
Profile #59
It's amazing that you mention Master of Orion II. That is the LORD AND GOD of all galactic conquest strategy games. It is one of my favorite games PERIOD.

A few months ago I got a new iMac G5 running OS X. I had an iBook SE running 9.0.2 that I've used for years now. A lot of my OS 9 games run fine in Classic, but some of my favorites like MoO II and Ferazel's Wand don't. That really irks me. Fortunately, a few weeks ago I decided to purge my iBook harddrive and re-install OS 9 and use it as a gaming platform for such applications that dont' run in Classic. MoO II also has this great option for doing a full install—you don't have to put the CD in to run it. My iBook software was really messed up, but a wipe and re-install did wonders. It runs so fast now, and MoO II runs beautifully. So for the last couple of weeks I've been playing it rather obsessively. (Zorro—that's the main reason why I've been so tardy sending back those GC multiplayer games. I know my excuses were "I've also been pretty busy this week, with one thing or another" and "I've also had to deal with some computer problems, and doing some tedious file-shuffling" but this was only half of the truth.)

At any rate, if you have enough money and have enough favorite games that only run in OS 9 and not Classic, it may be worth it to buy some elcheapo used old iMac or iBook to use as a gaming platform like I'm now doing. And Apple's recent insane decision to switch to Intel processors a couple of years from now makes the importance of an old OS 9 type machine even greater. Because soon OS 9 apps won't even run in Classic. (Even the ones that run in Classic now!)

I've come up with a rather long list of ways to improve the game. Mind you, it's a fabulous game the way it is, but there's always room for improvement. I indulge in a daydream that some company will put out an improved Master of Orion II: Ultima Edition that runs in OS X. If you're interested, I can type up this list and post it here. I tried to find a MoO II forum somewhere to share this pipe dream with, but all the MoO II fan sites to be existant but dormant.

I've heard Master of Orion III was absolute garbage—just reading the billions of negative reviews on Amazon.com was enough to convince me I didn't want to fork out money for it, despite it being OS X native. Hence the heightened vividness of my pipe dream...

Fortunately, the original Master of Orion runs perfectly in Classic. I've been having a wee bit of fun with that, too, in the guise of "testing it's compatiblity" with OS X.

EDIT: I should add that MoO II seems to work somewhat in Classic. But the colors are messed up and it crashes like a character in a J.G. Ballard novel—all of which renders it virtually unplayable. I've done some thorough searching online, and this seems to be the problem with everybody, nobody's been able to get it to work properly.

[ Thursday, August 04, 2005 21:00: Message edited by: Icshi ]
Posts: 907 | Registered: Monday, July 15 2002 07:00
RWG FAQ in Richard White Games
Mongolian Barbeque
Member # 1528
Profile #1
6. Is Richard White really dead?
Sometimes.

7. Is there any way to contact Richard White?
No, but if you insert a secret message into a bank transfer from Jeff to an anonymous Swiss account, Mrs. White might take the time to read it.

8. How can you people jest about such things?
Richard White appears not to have put serious effort into his game designs, so we appear not to have put serious effort into restraining ourselves to the realm of good taste.

10. How do you pay for Richard White games?
Right now there's no way to register them on the Spiderweb website's order form. Most recently, however, Zorro made a prank call to Jeff's house and did a little business on the side. And since he's wiped my derriere across the galaxy in a recent mutliplayer Galactic Core match, registration is still obviously possible if you put some effort and imagination into it.

11. Uh, what happened to question #9?
Trust me. You're better off not knowing.

12. Is Icshi really stupid enough to enjoy Galactic Core? What about Zorro? Was he led astray or just plain brainwashed?
Kindly ask only one question at a time, please. A barrage of questions is considered impolite.
Posts: 907 | Registered: Monday, July 15 2002 07:00
Who's your role model? in General
Mongolian Barbeque
Member # 1528
Profile #35
My role model is Pickman's Model.

[ Thursday, August 04, 2005 18:13: Message edited by: Icshi ]

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The A.E. van Vogt Information Site
My Tribute to the Greatest Writer of the Science Fiction Golden Age
Posts: 907 | Registered: Monday, July 15 2002 07:00
Every Living Thing To Get A Barcode in General
Mongolian Barbeque
Member # 1528
Profile #3
If it's ever ordained that every human being has to have a barcode, I hope we get to choose it. I have my heart set on 42000 06200.

IMAGE(http://images.google.com/images?q=tbn:fkDEbsI2kxsJ:gladstone.uoregon.edu/~gboswell/barcode/barcode.jpg)

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The A.E. van Vogt Information Site
My Tribute to the Greatest Writer of the Science Fiction Golden Age
Posts: 907 | Registered: Monday, July 15 2002 07:00
What happened? in Richard White Games
Mongolian Barbeque
Member # 1528
Profile #8
No, RWG is not the new Miscellaneous. Miscellaenous was guideless. RWG has a sure and clear direction.

We just can't decide what that direction is. Or agree on which particular directions are legitimate options.

I've always favored a slightly tangential subspace sideways (carefully calculated nonsense), but other members look more kindly on the more traditional downward slant (idiotic spam).
Posts: 907 | Registered: Monday, July 15 2002 07:00

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